“One of the Greatest Video Games Ever Made” is almost a 50/50 with yours truly. Lucky for both Half-Life 2 and me, I do agree with it being on such lists. The game usually takes a dozen hours to see through yet I put almost 52 hours into its Steam version alone. That’s not counting the time I spent with Orange Box on Xbox 360 and listening to fan commentary in 2015’s Update mod. Valve was very ambitious with their first game for this century and to “old people” such as yours truly it still holds up 2 decade later.
Bummer on the one hand, fun on the other
After Gordon Freeman killed the leader of those aliens invaded Black Mesa and got put into stasis by a weirdo in blue suit, an even worse extradimensional lot called Combine came and fouled up planet Earth beyond any recognition. No human baby can be born since the day they came. Freeman gets out of stasis 2 decades after in City 17, where survivors of Black Mesa were preparing an uprising against the Combine. Now with the butcher of Black Mesa among their fighters, the uprising just might have a chance to success.
As a narrative sequel, Half-Life 2 probably says “Fuck you, you did not save shit!” the loudest among many. The player killed one bullet sponge by the end of the first game only to learn that something much worse happened to their home world in the sequel. As a standout title though, this is just a decent enough tale of alien oppression and efforts to overthrow it. Camp and seriousness are well-balanced here. But do be aware of Marc Laidlaw’s habit of dropping last minute cliffhanger. Or maybe “getting pulled out of reality by a weirdo in blue suit” is Laidlaw’s idea of a pat on the player's back, the man did wear an Ultraman (Almost all installments in this series end with a heroic alien giant being told "Get your ass off Earth." by some peer.) shirt to the taping of that Half-Life documentary . Not to mention, said blue suit wearing weirdo does share voice actor with one of Freeman’s brothers in arms after all.
Typical of game in the mid aughts when increasing polygon count alone could create strangers, returning voice actors could welcome players to sequels more warmly. Even with a silent player character, Half-Life 2 is no exception. Gordon Freeman is a total stranger to City 17 then several minutes in friendlies voiced by Micheal Shapiro and Harry S. Robins, both of who voiced beat player NPCs in the 1998 original, appear to welcome “old players” home.
Similar to the 1998 original, the first hour or so of Half-Life 2 does not allow player to have weapons. Marc Laidlaw and many artists worked their asses off to build this world, pal. So, you just got to walk through part of it in peace. Unlike the 1998 original, in which one got to create a save file to skip the talking bit, though, the sequel gives you chapter selection if jumping right into shooting baddies is the purpose of your revisiting the game.
Powered by Valve’s own Source Engine, Half-Life 2 is a far cry from 1998 original’s Quake mod vibe. For one thing the firefights can be enjoyed more leisurely, as there would be only 2 enemies shooting at the player at any one time. The game is still a corridor shooter but the corridors here are much wider, so player would not be cornered for the most part. Another departure from id design would be no ammo sharing between weapons, with the grenade launching sub machine gun here modeled after MP7 of its own bullets rather than 9 mil pistol rounds. And of course, invading alien bastards do have their own sci-fi bullshit when it comes to assault rifle. The rest of the guns are old friends from Half-Life plus the good old crowbar, minus the Black Mesa made energy weapons. No, I have not forgotten about the Bug Bait, I just consider it as a level gimmick rather than part of Freeman’s arsenal.
Human made sci-fi bullshit is not absent from this game either. Ladies, gents and the rest, I present to you all, the gravity gun. You might want to skip directly to the game’s sixth chapter for it though. Left trigger or right mouse button to pick things up, pull or click again to put down. Right trigger or left mouse button to launch things out. While the game allow player to pick some lighter things up and throw them with Freeman’s bare hands, the gravity gun expanded such interaction to heavier things. Of course, gravity gun throws things farther and harder so it can be seen as a weapon. And you just got to lament the fact that such interaction decreased rather than increased in the 2 decades between Half-Life 2’s launch and the time of writing… Where is your counterpart to "picking up items without exposing myself to enemy attack allowed by the Gravity Gun", Breath of the Wild? Yet, Bioshock had it one whole decade before that one.
Half-Life 2 has 2 extended vehicle segments. First there is the chapter called Water Hazard with an air boat, there are mandatory arenas to open paths. Then there are chapters Highway 17 and Sand Trap with a dune buggy. The car on the ground does get struck in places more frequent, so one has to get off and move it onto drivable road with the gravity gun. Those bits do feel more free foaming than even Gears 5’s so-called open world, as player would just pass houses loaded with supplies by when they don’t need the said supplies. And I got to say the Deck default of Gyro on for vehicles is bullshit. I am not someone get motion sickness, but driving the air boat with Gyro on did make a unpleasant knot in my digest system. Gee, why did the setting force people to turn off Gyro “on foot” and then “in vehicle”?
Aftermath in mirror image with a pal
Since Valve updated the Steam version of Half-Life 2 to include the 2 Episodes, it would be irresponsible of me to not write about them. Especially, since about 8 hours in those 52 were spent on the episodes. First, onto Episode One. The short of it, I would not recommend anyone to buy it as a separate product. It’s only about 3 hours long for starter. I, of course first played it as part of Orange Box on Xbox 360, that package also has the real shit titled Half-Life 2 and original Portal in it.
In many ways this is a rehash of the last chapters of Half-Life 2 now with Alyx Vance as a constant companion. The first half of this episode takes place in a crumping Citadel and Freeman’s only weapon is the super-charged Gravity Gun as he does in the victory lappy endgame of Half-Life 2. The puzzles here are more considered, since the developers at Valve did have more time to design them while the endgame of Half-Life 2 had to be rushed. Guess this is more of a second draft than continuation. The second half is street warfare out of City 17, and it’s just servable. By the end of the day, this whole thing kind of is a just moving the story forward copout Gabe Newell described. Guess Episode Three was only canceled because they could not bring themselves to generate enough assets…
Half-Life 2 Episode Two does give the impression of “Now that’s more like it” compared to Episode One. While Episode Three was not yet canceled when this was being made, the references to original Half-Life do lend this an air of “finale to the Gordon Freeman saga”.
The first new enemy one fights against is acid antlion, sure bring back memories of dodging acid in Black Mesa. And the endgame is about launch a satellite just like the mid point of the first game. Then some reference is bit far-fetching, like “Megginson’s ruined lunch back in Black Mesa”. It might be the writing, as the man talking bit too many big words made me think the reference is for something the player did not experience but Gordon Freeman did. Then a commentary node told me that it is referencing the interactive microwave fiasco before shit really hit the fan in that first game. Oh well, if you say so.
The level design here is as greatest hits as it can be. First act being in a mine and ant’s liar, the second being car ride with tighter arena placement. And the third act is so climatic (Big map, Strider squad and stick bomb launchable only through the Gravity Gun) that no wonder the people behind this game burnt out on Half-Life 2. This 4 hours long ride is definitely an improvement over the first episode.
The curse of Borealis
Back in October, 2009, in my college dorm room, the only freshman there and I were both excepting Half-Life 2 Episode Three to drop before either of us graduates. I did hope that after Valve went all hands on deck for Left 4 Dead, they would return to Episode Three. Then Left 4 Dead 2 came, which I did not play, and then Portal 2 came, which I did play and enjoy. Yet Half-Life series remained in hiatus.
Watching the 20th anniversary documentary did make one think if icebreaker Borealis is just cursed to never materialize into actual game level. The ship was envisioned early in development then got cut. All the Episode Three teases pointing to this ship as the game’s main stage, and that game got canceled.
Hearing Gabe Newell calling himself an operating system and spreadsheet guy does make one think “Yes of course he and the people he leads would stop when they do feel like it”. And updating the 2004 game into “Half-Life 2: the Complete Edition” does feel like they are closing the book on it. With even writer for those games Marc Laidlaw saying “Story was never the boss of anything”, I guess I am letting the eager for conclusion go as well.
Good bye, and thanks for all the fun, Half-Life series. Though I would not mind the series returning as a launch title for the next Steam Deck either. I just would not go down the VR hole if that’s where the series is going.