Game Review: Half Life 2
Half Life 1 was released in 1998 ( A
year of note for the sheer number of fantastic games that came out .)
Developed by Valve and published by Sierra, it was a smash hit. It
pioneered scripted in-game events that helped move the story around. It
also spawned a large modding community, from which games like Counter
Strike and Day of Defeat were born. Half life 2 was in the making for a
long time, mostly because Valve wanted to wait for some huge innovative
thing that they could do with the game. That thing, ended up being
physics. A link to some history about Half Life 2's development will be
provided at the bottom of the page.
Let's start with a bit on the story. You are Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who
saved the world from the Xen in the original Half Life. Now the world
has been taken over by the Combine, an alien race with immense power.
Blah blah blah and then you are helping the human rebels destroy the
Combine. You're character is the very definition of 'Tabula Rasa', as
in blank slate. He says nothing during the entire game, which Gordon
sometimes gets comments for. But really what it is intended to do is to
suck you into the game and make the player feel like YOU are Gordon
Freeman, which it does splendidly.
The story is great, the world you are in has lots of detail and little things about it that can really immerse you.
The
graphics were top of the line when it came out, and fare very well even
in this day and age. Physics are simply superb, with things acting
realistically, and the physics itself actually plays a roll in the
gameplay at numerous occasions. Obviously the graphics aren't as good
as the games made on the optimized and upgraded version of the Source
engine such as Team Fortress 2, but that's made up for in it's gamplay
depth and personality.
The game is a first person shooter, like
every other game I've reviewed so far. The HUD, as in Heads Up Display
which shows you your armor status and ammunition, is in my opinion the
best of any game out there. The reason why I think this is that it is
just so simple. Why don't other games think of that? It is very very
stripped down and simplistic, but at the same time has sort of a slick
style to it. 10/10 for the HUD, which is a similar style to that used
in Counter Strike.
The weapons feel good. You have your staples
here, such as the pistol, sub-machine gun, assault rifle,shotgun and a
crowbar (Not so standard.) And you also have some other odd weapons to
accompany them. The difficulty is adjustable, which affects the
strength of your guns as well as the enemy power. And as an aside, I
have to say this games shotgun is my all time favorite of any shooting
game, just because it is so cool looking.
The AI is also great.
At least when like, walking around and stuff. Fighting enemy AI isn't
something you will notice much, it's good, but this isn't like F.E.A.R
with the enemy squads acting all...well...squad like and ganging up on
you and such. It's not so much the AI but the detail that they put into
the environments that makes the enemies so great.
And that
brings us to the enemies. The things you are fighting all fit into the
story and are very interesting. Some common ones are varieties of the
Combine forces, who all look awesome. There are also Antlions which you
encounter later in the game, and of course, headcrabs.
The
atmosphere in the game is perhaps it's best aspect, and that is saying
a lot. You start out in the train station for City 17, the place you
will be spending a lot of your time in. You see people pacing about,
and if you try to talk to them they indicate that they know who you
are, and that others do too. The voice acting in the game is very
believable, especially from the Character Alyx Vance.
And there
is one weapon I didn't mention before because I wanted to dedicate a
paragraph to it, the Zero-point gravity gun. It is basically the
apotheosis of all physics that had ever been incorporated into games
before Half Life 2. Using this gun you can levitate objects in front of
you, and then shoot it away. Or if it is too heavy you can sort of push
it. This thing is just a joy to use. You can use it as a deadly weapon
as well by picking up sharp objects with it and shooting them at
enemies.
The sound in the game is captivating. From the
fantastic voice acting from all the characters, to the shrill scream of
the zombies, to the sound of exploding grenades this game delivers on
all fronts when it comes to sound.
Overall, the graphics, the
sound, the atmosphere, the gameplay, everything is fantastic. The game
is standard length for a shooting game but it has replay value just
because of how good it is. If you haven't already played Half Life 2, I
suggest you pick up the Orange Box so you can play this and the entire
Half Life 2 series, you won't be disappointed
And I think just for the fun of it I'm going to start applying scores to the things I review.
5/5
