Still holds up
I got Half-Life 2 around when it came out, after having played a lot of the original Half-Life. I also played through it again recently since Valve added Steam achievements to it. I’ll relay what I remember of my initial impressions of Half-Life 2 as well as how it holds up today. The original Half-Life had certainly grabbed my interest in the series, and Half-Life 2 brought it up significantly, such that I am now one of many painfully waiting for Half-Life 2: Episode Three to finally come out.
I expected Half-Life 2 to still feature Gordon Freeman and for his melee weapon to be a crowbar, and for headcrabs to be on the loose. I got all that and more! In a time when a physics engine wasn’t automatically a part of pretty much every game, Half-Life 2 had its own, and sometimes put it right in your face. At the time that was pretty awesome: I particularly remember coming across a large board atop a concrete pipe section, with a number of cinder blocks scattered about. While this wasn’t a difficult physics puzzle, it was cool to see the weight of each additional cinder block tilt the board a little more until the other end was high enough to jump to the next platform from. Then later on you’re given the gravity gun, which works pretty much the way you’d expect (though not usually on living things) and easily replaced the crowbar in my mind as the iconic Half-Life weapon.
Instead of being mostly contained in the Black Mesa facility, Half-Life 2 has a more open setting of city streets, beaches, rivers, and mountainsides. It does take you indoors frequently enough, but the large open outdoor areas were pushing the envelope at the time, especially considering the level of detail. There’s also new enemy varieties. Headcrabs and zombies still like to ambush you, but now there are 2 new types of headcrabs who of course make 2 new types of zombies. Beyond that there’s now antlions and the combine biomechanical creatures. Eventually you gain control over the antlions and turn them from enemies into allies, which is a lot of fun.
The story gets much stronger in Half-Life 2, helped by the other characters being less generic. Granted there are still generic characters, but they’re no longer all generic like in Half-Life 1. Barney and Dr Kleiner have familiar voices as every security guard and every scientist from Half-Life 1, but they’re now specific characters and friends of yours. The game does a good job of getting you emotionally connected to the fate of even the generic characters, but especially that of your former colleague Eli and his daughter Alyx.
I remember being amazed at how Half-Life 2 just kept on going. That’s not to sound like it was just dragging on or anything because I enjoyed almost every second of it — I just didn’t expect it to be quite that long. There are even two vehicle sequences (an airboat and then later a dune buggy) to give you variety in addition to switching between long- and close-range combat. You encounter some resistance fighters who are more that happy to follow you into combat, usually getting themselves killed. I actually felt bad enough for them that I’d tell them to wait where it was safe while I took out the snipers.
The technology in Half-Life 2 doesn’t necessarily stand out anymore, but it still stacks up well against more recent games. This is especially true when you consider that Valve updates it regularly and it’s bargain priced at $9.99 on Steam. There are some great-looking scenes, especially now that I have a system that can max out the graphics settings, and while occasionally the gameplay is a little heavy on the “look, it’s physics!” it’s still a lot of fun! If you don’t already have this game I’d say buy it even for $10, and if you do have it you might want to play it again, especially if you have achievements to get. The achievements are all pretty reasonable but some of them are things you’re unlikely to do if you’re not trying for the achievement.
