"Great game, a few flaws, but very enjoyable nonetheless"

Well, where to begin? This is a great game. It is (arguably) the most awaited video game ever. Most people would say that the game lived up to it's hype(which, in my opinion, Valve tried to DOWNplay closer to the release date), and I would be incline to agree. That said, there were a lot of things that i thought were done right, and a lot of things that I was some what disappointed with, be they added, or left out of the game (mostly plot stuff).

So, before we start, here is the deal: I expected 9/10 quality from this game (I expected a lot, and I compare it directly to the original; it is a sequel). So if I give something a 10/10, it really wowed me (beyond my expectations). if it gets less than a 9/10, you will get an explanation (didn't quite meet my expectations). Fair enough?

Graphics- 10/10

Absolutely AMAZING. I have never played Doom 3, because I hated the first two, and from what I hear, I only missed the graphics. Well, these graphics are spectacular, and it's a good game aside from that, so what else is there to say?

Sound Effects- 8/10

Also very good. They reused a lot of sounds from the previous game, but being a sequel, that is allowed and expected. Sounds are very realistic, and properly with distance. The one exception that I found (and the reason I gave it a 9/10) has to do with the physics engine. When the body of an enemy soldier falls from a height of 100 ft or so, it hits the ground and makes a very realistic sounding thud. Very cool. However, if a headcrab falls from a height of 4 feet, it makes the same noise. So you end up having a 180 lbs body falling for 100 ft, making the same sound as a 10 lbs headcrab falling 4 ft... not very realistic. Try dropping a pumpkin off the top of your house some time. Then hold an apple over your head and drop it. If they make the same noise, email me, and I will rescind my statement.

Music- 5/10

I am sure a lot of people liked the music, but I personally don't care too much for electronic music, much less when you only hear it 4 times in 15 hrs of gameplay. What little music there was was decent, I guess, but far less often, and far less engaging than in the first Half Life. That said, I don't particularly care about music one way or the other in my video games, as long as it isn't horrible or annoying, so it didn't factor at all into my overall score. If I want to listen to music, I own over 250 cds, all of which I enjoy. If I want to play a good video game, I will play Half Life 2.

Controls- 9/10

Pretty standard controls for an FPS these days. Nothing special, but nothing wrong with them, so no reason to mark off.

Atmosphere- 8/10

This isn't a normal grading point for video games, but this isn't a normal video game. This is Half Life 2 : ) You get to see some pretty cool places in this game, and for the most part it is done very well. The reason I gave this an 8 is because I just did not quite feel as engaged, or in the moment, as I did in the original. For instance, in the original, you run across a scientist who says "You have to go shut down the missile silo!", so you spend the next 2 hrs fighting your way to the missile silo, and taking it down. These little tasks became MISSIONS in and of themselves. And after pursuing three or four different ideas and having them all fail, or backfire, or fall apart, you start to actually feel as if you have been slugging it out with zombies for a day and a half. This had a similar feel, but not quite what I was expecting. Some one will say "Let's take out the generator" so you round a corner and... there is the generator. Oh, there are 6 enemy soldiers between me and the generator... ok. There was no buildup or suspense. There are of course points at where this is implemented well, such as with the snipers (one of the few enemies in the game that can actually hurt you), and lo and behold, the sniper sections are among my favorite parts in the game. Two points down because I was disappointed in the implementation of the settings and situations, one point up because I liked the settings for what they were.

Difficulty- 5/10

Quite disappointing really. In the original game, there were parts where I looked up and said "I have 56 health, 0 armor, 14 bullets, and 1 grenade, good Lord, help me". There were quite literally parts where I had to take out enemies with my crow bar because I didn't have enough ammo to take them down. You had to plan, you had to time, and regardless of what or how you did certain parts, it was very difficult. And it certainly took me more than 3 days to beat (and I was putting in more gametime then than I am now). There were only two points in Half Life 2 that I was worried at all, simply because I didn't know what to do, and the enemies kept spawning indefinitely. In fact, there were only 3 times in the whole game that my health dropped below 60 (aside from times I died, of course). There is a health pack every 15 feet, and aside from the first hour of the game, the closest thing you have to do to "ammo conservation" is to switch guns. Surprisingly (and thankfully) I did not feel the guns were very overpowered... maybe a little, but this is offset by the fact that the "standard" weapons both have horrible aim, so that from me to the wall, the enemies drop like sacks of rice (or REALLY heavy headcrabs), but from a distance, you get some pretty good fire fights.

There were only 2 enemies in the game that really pose any threat at all: snipers and striders. snipers are hard to see, each bullet can take off upwards of 15 health, and I THINK can only be killed with grenades... and that is tough to do. striders can only effectively be killed with rockets (some people will say the exploding pinball things, but, true to form, they generally just bounce off), and they can do MASSIVE amounts of damage in short amounts of time. In fact, I noticed that the striders bullets don't actually have to hit you in order to hurt you... but who's counting? I won't spoil it, but there is a type of enemy in the game that immediately reduces your health to 1, which WOULD be tough, but you immediately get it all back, so it is just more of a scare than anything. So I thought the game was way too easy, but like the music, I didn't let that ruin the game for me. Besides, there are harder difficulty levels, and people will be making mods.

Weaponry- 9/10

The "standard" weapons (the submachine gun and the... other... thing), as I mentioned earlier, might be a little overpowered, but they do have horrible aim, allowing for some fantastically fun fire fights (<-- alliteration). In many games, you have one gun, that puts bullets exactly where you want them, and the badguys may get off 5 rounds before you take them out. Not so here. from a distance of 75 ft, you can empty a clip of 45 bullets at some one, and they won't go down. It's annoying at first, but it does mean that position plays a role in the fire fights more so than pure reflexes with your mouse. Also, you really can't carry much ammo for the weapons. you can carry a total of 6 clips for the SMG (including the one in the gun), and 3 clips (including the one in the gun) for the... other... thing. The point is that you can't lay on the trigger and expect to walk out of a fire fight. That said, there is always more than enough ammo BETWEEN fire fights, and if they gave you anymore grenades, you build yourself a little fort out of them.

I almost gave this an 8, because it doesn't have a sniper rifle, but you get the crossbow, which is almost as good, it's just hard to hit anything... ever (the bolts fly VERY slowly). I also remember there being more weapons in HL, but I don't really remember what they were, so I obviously don't miss them that much. Besides, the gravity gun is about the coolest thing ever. Especially at the end of the game : )

So, why is it that I absolutely loved almost everything about this game, and still gave it only 8/10? Because of the plot.

Plot- 4/10

Now, let me preface this by saying that I am a big RPG nerd, so plot is a big deal to me. After you finish throwing your rotten tomatoes, hear (read?) me out. Basic, very brief synopsis of HL plot: you have a boring job, something blows up, you try to escape through hordes of aliens, the military starts popping caps in your friends, you run, you hide, you jump, you bleed, you shoot, and all the while, people are pointing you in vague directions (the "missions" I talked about earlier). now we get to HL2: you are... on a train? and there are... badguys... and you start working for a resistance, because all of your friends are doing it, so what do you do? The natural thing: you head for the lighthouse. Lighthouse? Lighthouse. So you free your friend (who isn't at the lighthouse, by the way), and you sneak into HQ, and the puppet man for the man badguy starts to get away and... it's over. Time stops, and things get REALLY weird. Did some one drop acid in my sprite? Is my roommate smoking opium again? I don't get it. Just when the first HL seems like it might makes some semblance of sense, and that maybe the world of HL DOES actually follow some odd set of physical laws (what with the teleportation and all), time stops, and the G-man tells me I am a galactic prostitute of doom... I need a beer.

I honestly expected them to start playing a Doors song (I would have bumped up my music score if they had : ) It was sort of like the Matrix movies: the first was great, and you think you understand, and can follow anything they can throw at you in the world they have created, and then comes Reloaded and... why can the French guy fly through walls, and why isn't Neo cool anymore? Then the worst parts of the third movie were making up for the crap in the second. Similar deal. So the plot was a bit weak, which is the primary reason I gave the game an 8/10.

Overall- 8/10

Despite my ranting and raving, it is still a great game, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Major pros: the graphics, the environments, the physics engine (which is something I didn't mention much, but it truly is spectacular), and the fact that it is Half Life 2. Major cons: the settings and situations are not nearly as engaging and enveloping as I would have expected (as they were in the original), and the total and utter lack of a plot.

So, that's my review, I hope it helps, it's been fun, buy the game, I will shoot you online if I ever get around to it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/04