"Let's Put This Into Perspective..."

Before you all go for my throat like a pack of rabid wolves; please think back on the game you so passionately protect. Was it really the best game of all time? Was anything truly innovative? Was there even actually a story? Not really. Having played the original Half-Life in 1998 and having waited for a sequel, I am rather disappointed by the final turnout of the game.

(Please remember that the 1-10 scale is based on 1 being terrible, and 10 being amazing. 5. Is. Average!)

Controls
Well, the tried-and-true FPS controls are here. A simple W-A-S-D with Mouse look configuration, with left as Primary fire and right as Secondary fire. Nothing new at all, this is pretty much exactly what we saw in the original Half-Life, or any other First Person Shooter in the last 8 years for goodness sake. I believe that there is always room for some kind of innovation, and Valve did not try for it here.
Overall Score: 5/10

Graphics/Visuals
I could go on and on talking about how amazing this game looks, it is honestly the most beautiful game I've ever played. The water effects are god-like, the facial animation and expressions are totally realistic; this is obviously the most technologically advanced game of today. The light blaring into your eyes at the end of a dark tunnel; an alien-zombie lurching out of the darkness; a saw blade slicing an enemy in half; everything looks TOTALLY amazing. I can NOT reiterate enough, it's obvious that a majority of the five years this game took to develop was placed in the graphical engine. I could list great things from the engine for hours, but my favorite item from the whole game were the energy orbs you could pull from power generators, they looked stunning. The graphics are THE best part of the game. Period.
Overall Score: 10/10

Sound
If lack of audio can somehow bother you, this is probably going to be a negative aspect of the game. There are only six or seven situations where music appears in the game. Most of the time it's only in to foreshadow a large conflict on the rise, and nearly always dies off within 30 seconds. Albeit that this is a negative, the music IS well done, and when it appears it sounds great. As for the effects: the weapons all sound unique and memorable. The army-issue suppression rifle has an interesting zap to it, and the gravity gun's constant consoling hum to it is effectively average. The negative aspect is that quite a few sounds are lifted straight from Half-Life. Which, in this day and age, means that they're going to be of considerably low quality. Everything from the annoying 'crunch' of walking across the sand to the ancient blast of the Colt (6-shooter) has been inherited, and even though it sounded fine in 1998, 2006 is a different issue.
Overall Score: 7/10

Gameplay
This is where the game begins to falter. When I consider "Half-Life" I think back to the challenging puzzles. Getting stuck and wandering around not knowing what to actually do. Facing brilliant enemies and being placed in perilous situations. Half-Life² pretty much lacks this totally. Sure, there are 'puzzles', but the most complex puzzle involved pressing an easily-found switch, or finding a door required to advance (hardly a real puzzle at all). The game is tedious and repetitive; little to no thinking involved at all in most of the puzzles. Hell, I beat 95% of the game by just blindly running forward and shooting. Which is another problem. Even though I played the game on Hard the enemies were laughably easy. One can defeat just about every enemy in the game by strafing, shooting, getting cover, and repeating. The AI for both teammates and enemies seems to have almost not evolved at all. The toughest battle in the game can be easily exploited by just hiding in a corner. Your allies seem to spawn indefinitely, making them a much more expendable (and less strategic) asset. Another game play issue is the constant appearance of health devices. There was only ONE location in the entire game where my health was extremely low. Any of the dark ambiance attempted in zombie-infested Ravenholm was lost, after one figures out that he has a weapon with unlimited ammo and one hit kills at his disposal. One constantly finds medpacs and energy recharging posts. It's almost rare for health to be below the max at any given point. Overall the game play seems to have deteriorated to an ironically complex "run-and-gun" game, where you just have to follow your nose (or gun scope) to continue to the next stage of the game.
Overall Score: A disappointing 4/10

Story
Terrible. Maybe I should leave this section blank. It'd be a perfect metaphor for the game's story. I'll tell it to you straight: the storyline for this game is downright abysmal. I've heard a ton of excuses like "it makes the gamer think!" and "there is huge plot development," but truth be told there isn't a real story. You get some conflict, some rising action, some more rising action, a lot of rising action... and the Climax is basically the ending. There's no explanation for what's happening, no real furthering of the story except that the world is under control of "The Combine" and the world is in a 1984-esque setting. One would hope that after all your running, and all the enemies you destroy there would be something significant. Something more than 4 sentences from the G-Man. Maybe a conclusive ending. But no. NOTHING!
Just a gimmick to make you buy Half-Life³, which will probably have as terrible a release as this game. Overall I (and a lot of others) are highly disappointed in retrospect by the game's story.
Overall Score: 1/10

Overall
Maybe you'll want to buy this game for the graphical engine alone, or the modding tools, or the multiplayer (which just suffered a lacking release; I've only heard bad things about it so far), or even for the sake of just playing the game, but I don't think anyone should look forward to a good story, and when your predecessor is Half-Life, a good story is a crucial quality.

Scream and threaten as you want, but this game gets a 6/10 for lack of what could have made the game brilliant.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/04