"I Never Give Perfect Scores..."

Six years ago, Valve delivered what was quite possibly the greatest game, or at least the greatest first-person-shooter ever. This game set a new tone without cut scenes or even dialogue for the main character, but with a then revolutionary action called scripting, offering a greater sense of immersion as everything that developed actually happened to you or around you as you played. You were Gordon Freeman. Now, Valve has done it again.

Controls and Gameplay (10/10)
This isn't anything new by any means, the way Half Life 2 excels is that it sticks to the old pattern of Half Life and does those things incredibly well. Controls are all fully remap-able and customizable with your typical PC FPS controls as the default. Gameplay itself is incredible. Weapons are all very typical with pistols, machine guns, rocket launchers, and so fourth. The greatest weapon you'll come across within the fourth chapter is the gravity gun.

This is a pretty nice segue into the physics and game organization. Once again, you're Gordon Freeman, and rather than going through levels, you pretty much go through chapters, which basically means that you walk around the entire world. There are no parts in between chapters where you don't get there yourself. You will drive buggies, air-boats, and run across a massive, living world that loads every once and a while.

The crowning joy, perhaps, is probably the new physics engine. Coupled with the gravity gun, which can lift and hurl objects as weapons, there are very few limitations to what can be picked up and what cannot. Notable are various physics-involved balancing puzzles, where a board will be on top of a concrete tube, and you need to place concrete blocks on one side so you can cross to a higher point. Explosions will use a great deal of physics. In fact, the physics will be obvious almost constantly. Corpses will realistically fall down stairs or slide off ledges if they land the right way. Sometimes, they'll land in such a way that you'd swear they were taking yoga before they died, but other times, it's realistic and totally engulfing. Physics in this game successfully creates a sense of realism that few, if any games before it have managed to pull off.

There are only a handful of “narrative” chapters, in which you will simply walk around and characters will talk to you. Aside from those few moments, the vast majority of your time will be engulfed by fast-paced action.

Story (9/10)
No doubt about it, this game, when finished, will leave you with more questions than answers. The story it does deliver, however, is incredibly well done. It's a story of a man in the midst of a struggle he doesn't understand. It's the story of a scientist and his daughter trying to make a difference in their struggle against the Combine, an alien invader who dominates the world. It's the story of an angry security guard trying to fight from the inside. I'm trying not to steal anything from the “immersion” part of this thing, but delivery is crucial to the story's success.

Graphics (10/10)
Drop-dead gorgeous. Even if you turn the options down (which you probably will to compensate for lag) the game runs incredibly beautifully. I can't even describe in words how beautiful it is. So just skip the middleman and go look at game movies and screen shots for yourself. Everything you see in the movies pretty much can actually happen during the game.

Sound and Music (9/10)
Many sound effects are back, straight out of Half Life. Headcrabs make the same noises, little sounds your suit makes are the same, power-ups and certain weapons still make the same buzzing or clicking noises. Music adds tone to the levels, when it plays. You'll usually hear it in the midst of some important plot sequence or a really tough fight. Sometimes, you'll just walk into a new chapter and you'll hear the music telling you, this level is going to be creepy…

Nothing new, but what's there is implemented very well.

Immersion (20/10)
I already talked about the physics engine. Until you've experienced it, you can't begin to understand how deep it goes. Even boxes will continue to fracture into smaller pieces. Objects break and even float accordingly. The immersion is total, partially because the world you're being pulled into seems so real. Many people have complained of motion sickness during the boat-rides because of the constant bumps and jumps you hit. That's how real it seems.

Valve has also implemented a new system for facial animations, something like forty facial muscles that create realistic expressions. You'll see it too, and it helps so much to make you care about the characters. You'll laugh with them as they harass each other, feel their anger towards other characters, and when bad things happen, you'll actually care about what happens to them, not because your objectives are now screwed, but because you actually care for their well-being!

You're going to be drawn in powerfully. No doubts about it. This game has successfully reached a level of immersion that I thought was impossible.

Difficulty (8/10)
The enemy AI is very well done. They'll throw grenades to flush you out, flank you, all sorts of things. There are times, however, when you'll just get used to dispatching Combine soldiers with ease. There are some very creative challenges in the game, but for the most part, the game seems pretty straightforward. You may get lost, and probably very confused, but that's pretty typical for FPS's that came after Jedi Knight.

Replay (9/10)
The game will take you somewhere around twenty hours. You'll probably want to go back and look for the G-man every once and a while, as well as just experience the story again. The game is so great, you'll probably want to go back a lot.

I might as well cover the multiplayer here too. Basically, rather than shelling out maps for HL2 and being able to use the gravity gun in multiplayer, Valve decided to revamp the wildly-successful Counter-Strike with the Half Life 2 Source Engine. I don't think I need to explain the premise for CS, and I'm lazy so I won't. All of the physics are there, as well as all of the same guns and maps of the original Counter-Strike. If you loved CS, you'll love CS: Source even more. Little things have been tweaked, like the special grenades are a bit more potent, flashbangs are now decidedly more dangerous. All in all, the “Multiplayer” for HL2 is great, and you'll probably be on this tactical shooter for a while.

Cons
Load times can be an issue sometimes. On my computer, which is pretty powerful, main menu-loading takes about a minute, loading levels takes about a half a minute. This includes loading at the various checkpoints. Mildly annoying, but you'll get over it. Believe me, you're probably going to need that short reprieve.

It's hard to make a review about just the game itself, content-wise. But I can't sit here and not warn you about Steam. I ordered the game off of Steam and I was very pleased with the system. You set up an account, download the entire game, buy it online, and it unlocked with no problems. You need to be online to get the game off steam, but you can run it on offline mode and play the single-player game without any problems or internet connection. But I encountered a few glitches that were easily fixed by deleting the local game content and reinstalling it, which didn't take long at all.

I guess the retail guys had problems too, but since it doesn't come with any special things (not even a manual), and you need to register it with Steam for anti-pirating reasons anyway, you're probably better off getting it off Steam if you have the chance. Just don't do it if you've got dial-up…

In the end, this is just about delivery, and these things have no real bearing on the game itself. It's incredibly hard to find faults with the game itself.

Conclusion (10/10)
If it wasn't obvious from the title, I never give perfect scores. But to be honest, Half Life 2 is the greatest FPS I have ever played. It may even be the greatest game I have ever played in my life. No doubt. BUY IT.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/04