22 out of 22 people found this review helpful.
Dust off your Crowbar, the world needs you again...
Date of Review: Dec 21, 2004
The Bottom Line: It's the whole package to what a perfect game should be. Everything.
It has been several long years before I could step into Gordon's HEV suit and don his glasses again; several long years before I could beat the living hell out of aliens with my crowbar; several long years...
No need for introductions for the Half-Life series which gained many accolades for atmosphere and versatility. Creating a sequel which has all the charm and brains of the first is a fault that many developers fail at accomplishing. Hype is usually the executioner. However, Valve has succeeded.
The Beginning
I've purchased Half-Life 2 through steam, it was a process easy enough. (However, during the release date there were many who felt the wrath of a down server. I was lucky.) I watched on as steam unlocked my copy of Half-Life 2. To be honest, I was very anxious. Anxious at the fact that "The Game" will be on my hard drive, ready to be run.
Steam
It's a blessing. And a curse. Preloading and purchasing Half-Life 2 over the internet was, for me, smooth. No need to drive to a store and wait in potential lines, no need for CDs and DVDs be to be cared for, no need to insert a CD every time you want to play; just unlock and play. Simple as that. I'm not going to go into the details of steam and it's faults and perfections. Head on over to http://www.steampowered.com/forums to get a hold of what the buzz is about, mainly before you purchase Half-Life 2.
New Game
Loading up the game, I am welcomed to with a full 3d background. They were beautiful and showed me what was to come. The problem was that it took a while for it to load. I clicked New Game and I'm off to a strange world.
The game, simple enough, starts off much like the first. You are immersed into a world where you have no knowledge about. You have no weapons but you can interact with the locals, letting you soak in the scenery. After a pulse-pounding chase and re-acquaintances with old friends, the fun begins. But I'm not going to spoil that aspect for you. That is just for you.
The Source
Valve has crafted a very fine engine. It has the capability to create worlds so real, you can get motion sickness. From the levels to character models, the graphics are beautiful. For the techies out there, Source engine has all it needs to make a game beautiful, provided that you have the correct DX capable video card. Speaking of hardware requirements, the game can easily be scaled down without losing its appeal and gain performance. Most other graphic-intensive games, ala Doom 3, don't provide this amount of lee-way.
The levels are crafted with the utmost amount of care. Each level area reflects the tone and atmosphere for specific parts of each story. Walking around City 17 will hold a different mood than that of walking around Ravenholm, which is basically the haunted/fun house level. Most games tend to stay within a set environment, which I believe, can make a game monotonous really fast if not done right. While playing Half-Life 2, you will travel across cities, beaches, prisons, a haunted town, and the main base of all the troubles in the world. Each accompanied with their own flavor and fun.
Havok Physics
Everything that is not bolted down or held in place is affected by physics. That means, you can pick them up and throw them for the fun of it.
Physics are incorporated into the game to not only be a graphical gimmick, but integral to the gameplay of the game. With the inclusion of the gravity gun, you can use odd items such as foldable chairs, toilets, computer monitors as lethal flying objects. Items can also be used to create shields or barricades to protect yourself or stop the enemy from approaching your position. You can create bridges or stairs to reach unreachable heights. I'm sure your imagination will think of more uses for the gravity gun.
Virtual Actors
Seeing characters for the first time interacting with each other and the environment, in the game, is a privilege to behold. Each character is laden with many facial expressions which help bring their dialogue across to the fullest effect. Of course many other games out there have realistic character models with moving eyes and photorealistic skin tones; however they lack the animation to bring them to life. Often they are tied with basic animation cycles which make more robotic then life-like. Take Soldier of Fortune 2 for an example, I drooled when I saw the character s faces that are about to be placed in the game, but when I started playing and saw the characters move and talk, the magic went away.
Alas, now here is a game which actually answers this problem. Faces will smile and laugh lines will appear. Faces will cringe when angered. Eyes will roll. Friendly taps on the shoulders will be administered. Watching characters perform all these actions often reminded me of CG movies like Toy Story and Final Fantasy.
There is a tiny problem which I had with the characters involved in the game. The anonymous NPC characters have lower resolution facial textures which makes them grimier lookin compared to the main characters. Also, you ll often run across the same NPC character model over and over again as you journey across the game. At least, however, it s not as bad as the first game.
Fun
Most of the games I played force me to play out of the necessity of beating it. Often that kind of approach leaves me bored and untouched with the game s environment. I never had so much fun playing a game for a long time. The thrill of fighting against combine soldiers, zombies, gunships and herding a small squad of antlions is overwhelming.
I loved the pacing of the game, there is usually never a dull moment where you feel like you don t want to play no more. There is a balance between times where you are slowly taking your time to you being chased by a group of combines and shot at by a helicopter.
Another thing that makes the game fun is the clever physics puzzles. When I first encountered one, I had no clue what to do, but when I finally found out how to solve the puzzle, I was like d oh. Common sense is the answer to all the puzzles.
Online Gems
Half-Life 2 shipped with the new Counter-Strike: Source as its only multiplayer component. It is basically a graphical remake of the original Counter-Strike 1.6 and some minor changes. The game was fun, still had the charm and addictiveness of the original. However I found it strange that the gun names were different now such as the AK-47 is now the CV-47.
No matter how fun CS: Source may be, there is always someone who will ruin your fun. I m pointing at you cheaters out there. At the moment, none of the servers are secured by Valve s own cheat detector (VAC). This means, it s free range for most of the new cheats that are coming out. I m sure new updates will hamper this movement and 3rd party cheat detectors, like the ubiquitous Cheating-Death, will protect all servers.
Some people have complained that Half-Life 2 didn t come with a simple deathmatch mode that was featured in the first game. Valve heard their calling and released a deathmatch game for Half-Life 2, with everyone having the gravity gun as their default weapon. Imagine the carnage. Nothing beats blocking incoming enemy fire with a barrel and flinging it at the guy killing him instantly. Flying toilets and sinks also have a lethality of a 5000-pound MACK truck hitting you. At the moment there are only 2 official maps to play deathmatch, but there are many user-made ones that are releasing.
Making your own game
Valve decided to continue the tradition of the Half-Life series being the number one mod game. Valve released a SDK which features all the tools which they used during the creation of the game. It includes a level editor, model viewer, face poser (facial animation tool), and other items. Creating 3d models? No sweat. Valve teamed up with SoftImage and created a version solely for Half-Life 2 modding purposes. It includes all the features that are featured in the retail version but has a polygon restriction of 4000. But hey, it s free.
With such easy tools catering to the mod community, be ready for many mods to come out.
Conclusion
Even though Steam may turn some people off, the game is a pure adrenaline-filled fun game. No gamer should be without this game, no matter what. With each level having their own charm and attractiveness; weapons which are cleverly introduced at the right time; and truly remarkable and memorable scenes will entrap you and make you want to play again and again. Mods that will soon come out will also make want to play again and again.
