Half-Life 2

The Good
- Gameplay and environment shifts from chapter to chapter while remaining true to overall direction. - Lots of interesting gameplay situations with physics, AI, vehicles and environmental puzzles. - Fast and good looking engine with great modding capabilities. - Good characters writing, elevated by the voice acting. - Unique audio and art direction.

The Bad
- Story is pretty bare bones and most of the exposition chapters (1,2,5) feels dragged and not very interesting. - Same could be said about AI and the gunplay, so most of the chapters where you fight human enemies exclusively (9-11) at times are annoyingly dragged and not very interesting.

The Bottom Line
With all the flaws, it's still one of the best video games so far.