Half-Life 2

"The Best FPS ever made, and contender for the best game of all time too."

Half-Life 2 is the best game ever made, most probably. Its great. The graphics, music, gameplay are all nearly perfect. NEARLY perfect, as you cant have a perfect game. Lets go into these catagories in much more detail, as my review has to be 1500 words minimum.

Graphics - 10/10

When I review a game, I base the graphics on when it came out. The graphics are still amazing today, but some games like F.E.A.R. and Oblivion have better graphics. But these graphics are still great. For 2004, they were awesome, like Far Crys. Half-Life 2 is set in a city, so the graphics are set on a city like place. Its pretty believeable, apart from the other sci-fi type buildings and such. There are parks, abandoned buildings, and everything you would expect there to be inside the city. The detail is nice too. There are cracks in the floor, paint peeling off walls, shading, lighting effects and nice other special effects too. The animations are pretty realistic, the enemies animations look good too. Its not like some other games where all the attention goes to the main characters, and the enemies you fight most of are just made. All of the graphics are good in this game. Detail is on everything. All of the character models have equal attention, facial emotions and expressions, and all characters look real. You can see alot more detail, like the furniture looks real. Every thing is graphically brilliant. Good for the Source engine. Other Source engine games also have similar graphics, but some have better/worse then Half-Life 2.

Sound - 9/10

The music is pretty good. You mainly have music when its suitable, not when some one is talking. The music makes the atmosphere brilliantly, it suits the mood, whats happening, the emotion in the characters, and is great to listen too. The time you have the most music is in the BIG battles of the game. You will run across alot of enemies, so some battle style music will play with the battle. Its great, nice music. The sound effects are good too. They sound like they should, although some are the same as the original Half-Life, most probably just have a better quality to them. The voice acting is also great, sounds good, suits the characters, and isn't too loud, but not too quite. Great music help this game be better.

Gameplay - 10/10

The gameplay is great. More or less, you travel around City 17 fighting the forces of the Combine, and some of the Xen aliens, mainly head crabs and zombies. But the game does it so well. The A.I. is brilliant, and clever. The enemies know how to get at you, what to do to stay alive, their accuracy is good, and they dont generally stand around taking alot of shots to let you kill them. You mainly go around killing these enemies, on 14 different levels (techinically 15 because there are 2 levels to Chapter 10) but each level is different, and made so good, it doesnt get boring at all. Once you get the gravity gun, the real fun begins. You can pick up absolutely anything, well, nearly, you need to upgrade it later on in the game to be able to pick bodies up. You can use crates for cover, move objects, kill enemies with a matress (honest) and have fun with building things. It also helps you alot in completing the game, like theres a blocked door, so you have to go into the next room and use the gravity gun to remove a piece of wood blocking the door way through the window (which has a metal covering over it). All levels are amazing too, Ravenholm, the zombie infested town being my current faveorite. But with so many different things going on in the levels, one minute your using gun turrets to help you, the next your building a safe way across sand with crates to avoid Antilions, then your using bug bait to make the Antilions go against the enemies. Its great fun. The difficulty isn't too hard either, crank the difficulty up to Hard, you will finish it eventually. Its great fun too, especially with the gravity gun. Brilliant. But towards the end, it gets better. The last couple of levels are so great, go see them for yourself.

Story - 8/10

Its not the best thing ever, but its forgiving to people that haven't played Half-Life, although it would help. You play as scientist Gordon Freeman, and you work at Black Mesa. You went into an experiement, which failed, and now alien enemies are attacking from everywhere. Thats Half-Life, in Half-Life 2, Gordon is now working for the G-Man, whom you see at many places in the original, watching your progress. There are many characters from Half-Life you will see, and some new ones. Your sent into City 17, to save it from the Combine, who go around the galaxy taking over planets. Earth surrenders to their power, and you must try to stop them, along with many other rebels. Its nice to see Gordon is still alive as well. The game ends with a cliff hanger, and the only just released Half-Life 2 Episode 1 will continue the story. Episode 2 and 3 are close to follow, before possibly, although im not sure if, Half-Life 3. Although no one knows the ending to Episode 3 yet.

Extras - 9/10

So what do I mean by extras? Well, when you buy the game, it comes with Counter Strike Source, which is Counter Strike, remade in Source. Its not an expansion to Half-Life 2, its more or less a standalone game, but it comes FREE with Half-Life 2, and its free to play online. Also, once your Half-Life 2 serial number has been entered (as long as you have the retail version) you can download Lost Coast tech demo, free, Half-Life 2 deathmatch for free, and like mentioned above, you get ace online shooter Counter Strike Source. What about the mod commuinty though? Well, currently the best mod for Half-Life 2 is most probably Garrys Mod, which lets you choose any map from Half-Life 2, Counter Strike Source, or Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, and lets you play around with anything in the game. You can spawn any object in the game, move its ragdoll arms about, so anything you want to do with Half-Life 2 physics, and the gravity gun. Top stuff.

Overall - 10/10

Almost perfect, although the game cant be perfect can it? The graphics are great, the music is great, the game play is awesome, and the story is a great addition to the game. Also, ill just give a quick explanation to Steam. If you buy the retail version of the game (its the same as the steam version, just on a disc) then you will install it, and make a steam account. You will have to enter your serial number (dont ever give it to anyone, at all, its illegal, as steam say) then your ready to play the game. What steam does, is automatically update your games, quickly, fast, without one huge patch coming out. If your internet is slow, after installing, it takes about 15 or so minutes before you can play, then set it so it doesnt automatically update the game, disable your internet connection then play it offline. The website, www.steampowered.com offers more information. Because of the copy protection, once you buy a copy, its yours for life. If your looking for this game, I brought mine from ebay, brand new. Make sure its new. This game is great, if your an FPS fan, im not sure why you haven't already played this, thats if you haven't. To other people that aren't FPS fans, play it anyways, and haters of the genre, play this too, because its simply great. The best game in the world? Possibly, with only Far Cry (awesome game too) the only contender (when they came out). Hope you decide to buy this game, you won't be dissapointed.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/06