Mouseover to zoom or click to enlarge
Half-Life 2
- ESRB Descriptor: Blood and Gore Intense Violence
- ESRB Rating: M - (Mature)
- Publisher: Vivendi Universal
- Genre: Shooter / FPS
- Game Series: Half Life
- Overview
-
Reviews
- Compare Prices
User ReviewRead All Reviews »
531
Half Life 2 - easily the best 3d shooter of the 2004.
Pros
awesome graphics engine, solid plot, gameplay varies, huge environments
Cons
high system specs, a few areas where the character will get "stuck"
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
3d shooter of 2004.
Half Life 2 received solid reviews from all the major gaming sites on the web, including a 97% from IGN and a 92% from Gamespot, accounting for a disgustingly high 96% overall among 61 media outlets on the web. I wholeheartedly agree. Half Life 2 is without a doubt one of the best 3d shooters, and if Doom 3 was ever considered a contender for game of the year, it already lost the battle the very moment Half Life 2 hit the markets.
I generally like to point out flaws that most game review sites miss. Unfortunately with Half Life 2 I actually am going the opposite way. Review sites like Gamespot complained slightly of plot inconsistencies and load times, but I say they are rather trivial. HL2 is sheer brilliance and probably one of the most satisfying 3d shooters I have ever played.
Half Life 2 had a lot to live up to
The first point I'd like to hit is that this game had a ridiculous amount of hype to live up to. Doom 3 already having failed to live up to it's hyped up form of producing a new scarier, more intense 3d-shooter experience, Half Life 2, having been delayed in production for years and years on end, was already getting a lot of grumbles from the gaming community. When pushed past a Christmas release last year, deep into a late 2004 release, people were starting to get grumble yet again. Would Valve, a company that has effectively produced only one game, be able to pull it off? The answer is yes. Despite people having ridiculous expectations for the game (including myself), Half Life 2 manages to deliver. It boasts a full-time physics engine, highly interactive environments (compared to the invincible mirrors in Doom 3), lots of squad based action sequences and overall a great 3d-shooter experience. Let's face it; few games have managed to live up to hype, and it is note-worthy that Half Life 2 did.
Better Graphics than any 3d Shooter including Doom 3
The Half Life 2 graphics engine is better than anything I've seen out there. Facial features are noticeable on every character, and they can contort to make emotive expressions, adding a new level of movie realism to the game. The levels are not bump-mapped or shiny as Doom 3, but that's a good thing. Realism comes from sharp accurate textures, very interactive environments, and reflective, realistic water. The high polygon count and just the attention to detail with large scale environments that include running through apartment complexes, driving down rivers in a raft, and so on, give Half Life 2 a serious edge over the cramped Doom 3 environment. Doom 3 does do a great job in terms of sheer detail in a compact area, but Half Life 2 does a better job in presentation overall and putting out an environment of decent scale, something that Doom 3 did a horrible job with.
Storyline
This is a part where some game sites had a few remarks about inconsistencies and lack of closure and whatever. In general, I am a very gameplay focused gamer and the storyline hold least expectations of from a game. Half Life 2 has a plot that is as good as the last Matrix movie. It's not brilliant and won't win any academy awards, but it's entertaining and brings the plot to where it needs to be, weaving together the action sequences seamlessly. The ending is a bit abrupt and entirely open ended, which is somewhat dissatisfying but leaves plenty of room for a Half Life 3 (which is perfectly acceptable to me).
Long enough for a few movies worth of entertainment.
Half Life 2 is not nearly as short as Doom 3, which took me less than 10 hrs to beat while getting nearly everything in the game. I charged through that game with ease. Half Life 2 though is timed carefully so that it takes a fair amount of time to get through the first run. Sure though there has been a 2:14 hour speed run of the game, but in all honesty, no gamer is going to be able to pull that off on the first round, unless they are really trying to.
Half Life 2 I would estimate took me about 12-15 hours over a course of three weeks, given that I died a few times and had to redo a few sections.
Interactive Environments
I cannot stress this enough, Doom 3 drove me crazy with its invincible furniture. Sure you could push stuff around but the point of that was what? Absolutely none. It boasted real-time physics without ever using them. In Half Life 2, real time physics are extremely useful and important from getting around in the game to fighting bad guys by chucking barrels at them. Plus, unlike the invincible monitors, vending machines and mirrors in Doom 3, nearly everything in Half Life 2 can be picked up, chucked around, broken or shot at. Far Cry did pull off what Half Life 2 did in a sense, but Half Life 2 so far is the first game to have tables you can crowbar into planks of wood, which you can then proceed to pick up the bits and pieces and chuck them randomly about. It sure has no real useful purpose either, but the fact it is there is admirable and shows the potential of coming games that may choose to use the Half Life 2 engine.
Load times
The first Half Life emphasized seamless gameplay, in the sense that they felt the load time should at most consist of a brief pause from one section to another, in order to prevent stopping the flow of the game with a long dull load screen. Half Life 2 sort of succeeds on this, but maybe they should have just used a load screen because the "Loading…" text can still be fairly long unless you have ridiculous specs. Depending on your system specs, it can be somewhat annoying to be running from one intense paced moment to the next to be stopped midway by "Loading…" text on the screen. Nonetheless it's a very minor gripe.
Gameplay
This game does not just use the 3d shooter mold of cramped corridors and linear pathways. While the game is entirely linear in the sense A to B progression is still preserved, it possesses large enough environments that this is not quite as evident. The environments direct the user toward a direction without forcing them to walk through a certain corridor to get from point A to B. At times it is entirely linear, but at other times it has the illusion that you can take a number of routes to get to point B.
The use of the sandbuggy, and the hoverboat help demonstrate just how big the environments can be. Nothing beats charging through long stretches of ocean and dirt, killing enemies and dodging missiles, all the while making pit stops to gear up on armor and ammunition. The speed that can be attained from driving around is amazing, given just how much detail is on the screen.
For the most part all the guns are preserved as well as their shooting power. Guns like the shotgun have a lot of oomph to them, unlike the weak sissy one in Doom 3. The gravity gun allows for some interesting ideas when it comes to manipulating stuff and also throwing barrels or saw blades at enemies. In addition, gravity jumps are also possible, giving an extra level of maneuverability (although this is more of a exploit than an actual gameplay element).
HL2 varies up your standard corridor run and gun type of gameplay. Some larger scale environments allow for some fast and furious run and gun boss battles with large spider-mechs. Other defense missions involve some squad based, "protect the base" style fighting. All in all, the game emphasizes size and numbers. Enemies will easily appear in groups of 6-7+ from all directions. There is not as much squad control, in the sense your fellow AI-controlled allies just kind of follow and attacks dumbly with little guidance. Still, their presence is not so important that their dying will jeopardize your ability to get through the game, making it tolerable. The wide variety of mission types, from driving, to blowing up certain key elements, to defending checkpoints, gives HL2 a lot of depth as opposed to the find datapad and open door gameplay that Doom 3 stuck to.
Final Score: 9.7
There are almost no flaws to this game. Sure it took a long time to come out with, and there are a few reported bugs in the game, but hopefully Valve will patch that out soon. The sheer complexity, the variety of missions, the preservation of high-paced fast action run and gun, combined with gorgeous innovative graphics engine, easily make this the best 3d shooter of the year. HL2 plays like a 15 hour long interactive action movie, and is probably one of the leading examples of the kind of entertainment future video games will be able to offer us. A must buy for the casual gamer.
I generally like to point out flaws that most game review sites miss. Unfortunately with Half Life 2 I actually am going the opposite way. Review sites like Gamespot complained slightly of plot inconsistencies and load times, but I say they are rather trivial. HL2 is sheer brilliance and probably one of the most satisfying 3d shooters I have ever played.
Half Life 2 had a lot to live up to
The first point I'd like to hit is that this game had a ridiculous amount of hype to live up to. Doom 3 already having failed to live up to it's hyped up form of producing a new scarier, more intense 3d-shooter experience, Half Life 2, having been delayed in production for years and years on end, was already getting a lot of grumbles from the gaming community. When pushed past a Christmas release last year, deep into a late 2004 release, people were starting to get grumble yet again. Would Valve, a company that has effectively produced only one game, be able to pull it off? The answer is yes. Despite people having ridiculous expectations for the game (including myself), Half Life 2 manages to deliver. It boasts a full-time physics engine, highly interactive environments (compared to the invincible mirrors in Doom 3), lots of squad based action sequences and overall a great 3d-shooter experience. Let's face it; few games have managed to live up to hype, and it is note-worthy that Half Life 2 did.
Better Graphics than any 3d Shooter including Doom 3
The Half Life 2 graphics engine is better than anything I've seen out there. Facial features are noticeable on every character, and they can contort to make emotive expressions, adding a new level of movie realism to the game. The levels are not bump-mapped or shiny as Doom 3, but that's a good thing. Realism comes from sharp accurate textures, very interactive environments, and reflective, realistic water. The high polygon count and just the attention to detail with large scale environments that include running through apartment complexes, driving down rivers in a raft, and so on, give Half Life 2 a serious edge over the cramped Doom 3 environment. Doom 3 does do a great job in terms of sheer detail in a compact area, but Half Life 2 does a better job in presentation overall and putting out an environment of decent scale, something that Doom 3 did a horrible job with.
Storyline
This is a part where some game sites had a few remarks about inconsistencies and lack of closure and whatever. In general, I am a very gameplay focused gamer and the storyline hold least expectations of from a game. Half Life 2 has a plot that is as good as the last Matrix movie. It's not brilliant and won't win any academy awards, but it's entertaining and brings the plot to where it needs to be, weaving together the action sequences seamlessly. The ending is a bit abrupt and entirely open ended, which is somewhat dissatisfying but leaves plenty of room for a Half Life 3 (which is perfectly acceptable to me).
Long enough for a few movies worth of entertainment.
Half Life 2 is not nearly as short as Doom 3, which took me less than 10 hrs to beat while getting nearly everything in the game. I charged through that game with ease. Half Life 2 though is timed carefully so that it takes a fair amount of time to get through the first run. Sure though there has been a 2:14 hour speed run of the game, but in all honesty, no gamer is going to be able to pull that off on the first round, unless they are really trying to.
Half Life 2 I would estimate took me about 12-15 hours over a course of three weeks, given that I died a few times and had to redo a few sections.
Interactive Environments
I cannot stress this enough, Doom 3 drove me crazy with its invincible furniture. Sure you could push stuff around but the point of that was what? Absolutely none. It boasted real-time physics without ever using them. In Half Life 2, real time physics are extremely useful and important from getting around in the game to fighting bad guys by chucking barrels at them. Plus, unlike the invincible monitors, vending machines and mirrors in Doom 3, nearly everything in Half Life 2 can be picked up, chucked around, broken or shot at. Far Cry did pull off what Half Life 2 did in a sense, but Half Life 2 so far is the first game to have tables you can crowbar into planks of wood, which you can then proceed to pick up the bits and pieces and chuck them randomly about. It sure has no real useful purpose either, but the fact it is there is admirable and shows the potential of coming games that may choose to use the Half Life 2 engine.
Load times
The first Half Life emphasized seamless gameplay, in the sense that they felt the load time should at most consist of a brief pause from one section to another, in order to prevent stopping the flow of the game with a long dull load screen. Half Life 2 sort of succeeds on this, but maybe they should have just used a load screen because the "Loading…" text can still be fairly long unless you have ridiculous specs. Depending on your system specs, it can be somewhat annoying to be running from one intense paced moment to the next to be stopped midway by "Loading…" text on the screen. Nonetheless it's a very minor gripe.
Gameplay
This game does not just use the 3d shooter mold of cramped corridors and linear pathways. While the game is entirely linear in the sense A to B progression is still preserved, it possesses large enough environments that this is not quite as evident. The environments direct the user toward a direction without forcing them to walk through a certain corridor to get from point A to B. At times it is entirely linear, but at other times it has the illusion that you can take a number of routes to get to point B.
The use of the sandbuggy, and the hoverboat help demonstrate just how big the environments can be. Nothing beats charging through long stretches of ocean and dirt, killing enemies and dodging missiles, all the while making pit stops to gear up on armor and ammunition. The speed that can be attained from driving around is amazing, given just how much detail is on the screen.
For the most part all the guns are preserved as well as their shooting power. Guns like the shotgun have a lot of oomph to them, unlike the weak sissy one in Doom 3. The gravity gun allows for some interesting ideas when it comes to manipulating stuff and also throwing barrels or saw blades at enemies. In addition, gravity jumps are also possible, giving an extra level of maneuverability (although this is more of a exploit than an actual gameplay element).
HL2 varies up your standard corridor run and gun type of gameplay. Some larger scale environments allow for some fast and furious run and gun boss battles with large spider-mechs. Other defense missions involve some squad based, "protect the base" style fighting. All in all, the game emphasizes size and numbers. Enemies will easily appear in groups of 6-7+ from all directions. There is not as much squad control, in the sense your fellow AI-controlled allies just kind of follow and attacks dumbly with little guidance. Still, their presence is not so important that their dying will jeopardize your ability to get through the game, making it tolerable. The wide variety of mission types, from driving, to blowing up certain key elements, to defending checkpoints, gives HL2 a lot of depth as opposed to the find datapad and open door gameplay that Doom 3 stuck to.
Final Score: 9.7
There are almost no flaws to this game. Sure it took a long time to come out with, and there are a few reported bugs in the game, but hopefully Valve will patch that out soon. The sheer complexity, the variety of missions, the preservation of high-paced fast action run and gun, combined with gorgeous innovative graphics engine, easily make this the best 3d shooter of the year. HL2 plays like a 15 hour long interactive action movie, and is probably one of the leading examples of the kind of entertainment future video games will be able to offer us. A must buy for the casual gamer.
