"Standard first-person shooter with a golden shell."

Half-life 2 is perhaps the most anticipated game of the new millennium. Valve promised us the same great gameplay of Half-life, but with the most fully realized physics engine in a mainstream game, a complex story, amazing character animations, realistic AI, and the best graphics yet seen in the interactive medium. Clearly, this is a colossus of a game, over six years in the making. Every serious PC gamer will have this right at the top of their must-buy list. The question however, is whether or not Half-life 2 actually delivers on all fronts. While I can certainly say that it does many things right, I can also say it does an equal number of things wrong. Half-life 2 is not the mind-bending, genre re-defining powerhouse we have expected. It is instead merely a good game that is shades below becoming great.

I'll begin with my personal gaming credentials. I have been gaming for almost fifteen years, and a large amount of that has been spent playing first-person shooters on one ancient PC or another. I currently play consoles and my PC about equally, and cannot decide on a favourite between them. I merely point this out to discredit the inevitable flames of “console fanboy” that I can guarantee I will get for posting anything but a perfect review of the so-called “Best Game Ever.”

Story – Little has changed since Black Mesa. Gordon Freeman returns as… well… you. Not a single time in this game will you find yourself outside the first-person perspective, and never does that become a problem. Story elements are integrated seamlessly into the gameplay through the company's calling-card scripted sequences, which are still some of the best in the industry. The content is where the problem begins to arise. Half-life 2's story, from beginning to end, is bland. It is presented well, but presentation alone can't save this anemic storyline. It begins nicely, with one of the most immersive opening sequences I've seen in some time. However, once you get past that and into the meat of the gameplay, you'll find yourself merely looking for the linear path to the next area, because the motivation itself provides little direction or reason to continue. This is not helped by the pacing: You'll often go several hours between story elements, and the lack of direction will very quickly yank you out of the experience. In the end, the plot seems like something they added at the end to loosely justify the many encounters you'll have to overcome to get to the overall unimpressive and unfulfilling conclusion. (5/10)

Graphics – Half-life's graphics were nothing special at the time of its release; but that is definitely not the case here. Half-life 2 is arguably the best looking game ever (on any platform). Merely a peek at the character models shows off some of the most detailed looking NPCs in gaming history. Watching Alyx Vance and her father Eli having a conversation just looks… real. Textures are packed with detail, and look great even at low resolutions. The only problem graphically is related to the framerate and some stuttering issues certain gamers have been having. As a reference, I run the game on an AMD Athlon 2800+ (2.1GHz), with 512 MB of PC3200 RAM, a Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB and a Creative Soundblaster Live! 5.1 sound card, and the majority of the game ran without a hitch at a resolution of 1280x960 with detail on high and no AA/AF. However, once I reached the level “Follow Freeman,” which takes place in the streets with dozens of enemies and allies on the screen at once, the framerate takes a very rapid dive towards unplayable. In fact, to eliminate a complete drop to zero in framerate that would occur about every three seconds (complete with sound skipping), I had to drop my resolution to 800x600, and my detail to Medium. Even after this major reduction, I had many problems with sudden framerate drops, and it drastically affected the gameplay. I would expect a slight drop in framerate in a larger level, sure, but not that massive a drop. A patch is expected to perhaps minimize this problem, and fortunately the problem can be overcome through some patience. Overall, despite one fairly major issue, Half-life 2's graphics deliver on all promises, and will be the game to beat graphically for years to come. (9/10)

Sound – The sounds that reverberate off of the European architecture of City 17 are incredible indeed. From explosions to voices, the sound effects are perfect. Big-name talent makes every character believable and worth listening to, and the effects of weaponry and explosives really draws you into this war-torn universe. Weapons are suitably loud, as are the explosions that often follow them. Some of the best weapon effects in general really. There's a stinker here and there (SMG and Crossbow in particular), but overall the effects are pretty much perfect. On the other hand, the game's music does not stand up to its near-perfect sound effects. Simply put, the music is awful. Jarring you from a perfect experience, this poorly synthesized techno will likely put a bad taste in your mouth. Compared to some of the excellent soundtracks that we've been lucky to receive over these past six years, Half-life 2's music is some of the worst. I imagine some people will enjoy this “muzak,” but I would have preferred absolute silence. As I recall, Half-life had a god-awful soundtrack as well… Guess it's time for Valve to review its hiring practices. Still, when you remove the music, Half-life 2's sound stands up on its own to deliver an incredible experience. Not perfect, but they definitely got it at least half right. (7/10)

Gameplay – Well here it is; the main attraction. The best graphics, sound and story cannot save a game that plays like something developed in ten minutes by a bored college student. Fortunately, Half-life 2 plays quite well for the most part, but has enough problems to ensure that this is not the greatest game ever made. We'll begin with the basics: You run, you shoot, you pick up health, you find ammo, you continue along. Still following? Good. Half-life 2's gameplay really doesn't differ much from its predecessor in that you fight with many of the same weapons, and fight many of the same foes. You'll spend much of the game battling a handful of basic foes, unloading shell after shell into their well-modeled faces. Unfortunately, the AI in Half-life 2 is shockingly simple. Combine soldiers run towards you single-file, occasionally using cover if they happen to be near a box or some debris. Zombies are as brainless as ever, fittingly, although some of them have gotten a lot faster. Headcrabs are suitably ravenous, turning much faster than in the first game, making them a more dangerous and downright annoying foe. Enemy vehicles actually do hunt you fairly effectively, although the Striders seem to follow pre-scripted patrol paths and literally never deviate (and yes, I do consider the Strider a vehicle. Sue me). Your teammates are equally foolish, although they seem more intent on seeking cover. Instead of simply running towards the enemy, they have a different AI quirk. They tend to get stuck in doorways, making it difficult to move through narrow passages in combat situations, which is where they will invariably get in your way. It really is maddening to accidentally shoot your allies in the back because they don't duck, or move laterally to give you a clear field of fire. They will also sometimes have clear shots at enemies, but will not fire or avoid enemy fire. I watched a trio of rocket launcher toting troops stand completely still while a Strider tore them to shreds with machine-gun fire. Not a single trooper fired back, despite all three of them having clear shots.

Despite these problems with AI, the game remains fun by giving you many ways to dispatch your enemy. Many weapons have returned from the first game, including the two pistols, shotgun, submachine gun, rocket launcher and crossbow, and they function in almost the exact same way. The launcher has undergone some minor upgrades (you now have much greater control over your rocket's trajectory. All the better to dispatch the many Combine gunships that are sent your way), and the crossbow is considerably less useful (the projectile is now much slower than before, making hitting a moving target something of an impossibility at long range), but overall, there have been few changes. In addition to the old standards, you'll find several new gadgets to play with. The only one really worth mentioning with any sort of reverence is the gravity gun, and this is where the game is most different from the rest of the genre.

The implementation of physics, and the ability to manipulate them with the gravity gun could have saved Half-life 2 from mediocrity. If you want to pick up a barrel and throw it at a Combine soldier, you certainly can. It actually hurts with the gravity gun, which will propel it at high speeds. If barrels aren't your style, pick up a saw blade and slice enemies in half brutally. You can even pick up exploding barrels, throw them behind a group of soldiers, and then detonate it with some well-placed pistol shots. Sounds amazing in theory, but really isn't that much more fun than using a normal weapon after repeated uses, and in fact can become quite tedious. While most items picked up with the gravity gun will kill instantly, you're constantly forced to either look for the object you just threw, or find a new one. This constant search for ammo is often quite annoying, and carrying objects with the gravity gun for extended periods (while looking for the next encounter) could have been implemented better. Things get better later in the game, when the gravity gun is actually fairly fun to use, but for the most part its really only useful for puzzles.

The puzzles in Half-life 2 range between tedious and ingenious. While jumping puzzles do make an appearance, the majority involve a fair bit of thinking, and never degrade into key-hunts. Many times you'll find yourself stumped, only to have that sudden “Aha!” moment, instantly solving your problem and moving you along. The puzzles aren't perfect, but most are very good.

The final element to Half-life 2's gameplay is the addition of vehicles. You'll get to play with the Airboat (a hovercraft) and the buggy. The Airboat sequence involves a very large number of scripted encounters, and provides a certain visceral satisfaction. Unfortunately, this satisfaction is anything but constant, and you will likely become bored with this sequence within the first ten minutes. This means at least another fifty minutes of racing through pipes and reservoirs to avoid gunfire, mines and predictable traps. Needless to say, this lengthy sequence goes on around ten times longer than it should have. The later sequence involving the buggy is no better. Not only is it longer, the buggy has a tendency to roll off almost any jump. Not a big deal in a game where you have a consistent way to flip your vehicle back over. Not so in this game: You have to use the gravity gun to flip it back. To compound the problem, if you happen to flip in the sand (at least in the first half of this sequence), you will have to fend off swarms of respawning antlions while trying to flip your jeep with the inconsistent gravity gun. You also have to get over numerous jumps, which require more of a trial-and-error approach than anything else. All things considered, Half-life 2's inclusion of vehicles is poor at best, as very little of it is any fun at all.

The final major problem is with the level design. Many times you'll find yourself lost and confused while on foot. With no real storyline cues, what you need to do next can become somewhat of a mystery. A much more disruptive problem arises midway through the game, which is when the levels become rather repetitive. It almost seems like Valve was attempting to pad the game out to reach that (apparently) important 20-hour mark. The vehicular sequences are just as bad, since it is very easy to accidentally back-track when you are attempting to find a way forward. It isn't all bad, but it definitely isn't all good either.

There is one more thing worth mentioning, and that is the last couple of levels. While the first twelve are quite ordinary for any shooter, the final two are exponentially better than the rest. The game is worth playing through just for this finale. You'll understand when you get there. Despite Half-life 2's many problems, there's still a lot of fun to be had here. You just can't expect it to be consistent fun.(7/10)

Final Thoughts – At between 15-20 hours long, Half-life 2 will certainly last a while. I personally felt this was far too long, especially considering how quick and shallow the story is, but you may disagree. As far as replaying goes, you'll likely boot it up at least once more to play with the gravity gun, but there is little reason outside that to do so. The built-in multiplayer is merely a graphically updated Counterstrike, which many of us have been playing for five years. Its definitely a fitting upgrade to the most popular mod ever. If you're not tired of Counterstrike's simple-yet-complicated gameplay yet, you'll definitely enjoy it.

Half-life 2 is a game with as many problems as solutions. For every great gameplay sequence or scripted event, there's a bad one. For every intriguing storyline element, there's a three-hour section without any story direction. For every great sound effect there's a mediocre techno song played over it. Yet ultimately, you will more than likely have a good deal of fun with this product. It isn't the best game ever by any stretch of the imagination (in my eyes at least). Whether that is worth your $50 is entirely up to you. I cautiously recommend it. See you again for Half-life 3.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/04