"This game goes beyond the incredible looks"

Many of you probably heard of this phenomenal game, mostly due to its incredible average review score. Valve brings about the newest installation of the Half Life series with Half Life 2.

To start the review, I'll divide it up into these sections, which will then be given a number out of ten stating its quality in this individual section, which will be taken into consideration with a final score.

Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Multiplayer, Story.

Graphics- 10/10, hands down

Surely this must be a large part of what attracted you to this game. And for good reason. I had to amp up my system to be a good 2-3 times as powerful as it was originally just to be able to handle this beast. So be sure beforehand that you're going to have to either have a stellar system to play this at a reasonable quality and resolution, or dish out a moderate to high amount of cash to upgrade it. You may have seen some videos....wow, this game really delivers. Zoom in and take a look at each individual face. There are creases where they wrinkle, phenomenal realism and texture. Everything looks like a movie.

If you have a good system, the framerate stays at a reasonably high rate as well, but take note that there may be a few drops here and there as the pace gets really hectic, or as some big cinematic explosion takes place. Which, I will also add, comes into play a lot. Survey the environment around you for some serious realism, an excellently crafted, thriving environment. Really topnotch. Everything reacts well, as well. Toss a glass bottle and it will shatter, mess around with stuff and crack most things open. The game's environment plays ridiculously well, although unfortunately you can get caught on the environment or objects, though usually you can get around without a problem. Beautiful, shows every bit of work you can assume was poured into it.

Sound- 9/10

Really, I didn't have a problem with the lack of music throughout a good 3/4 of the game. Everything had a nice ambience, the sounds of all the guns, voices, noises from combine soldiers all worked well and everything seemed to sound ok. Without a doubt it's very refined, and it's pleasant to see it come together.

The voice acting is sort of limited in that it seems there were only around 4 voice actors for each of the resistance soldiers, 2 male and 2 female, 1 alien...as well as the fact that all of the combine soldiers sound the same. But every main player in the story sounds good, and every character is voiced very well. With the exception of the G-man, who(most likely intentionally) sounds a little slow in the head. But that's good anyway.

Gameplay- 10/10

Really, nothing generic out of here. You'll be driving in interesting vehicles driven by the excellent physics system, solving puzzles based on an incredible system in the game that detects weight of various objects, commandeering a troup of resistance soldiers or even antlions. The variance of environments is stunning, and the places you'll go, things you'll see, and circumstances you'll go under will baffle you. It doesn't hurt that it all looks so beautiful, either.

The physics puzzles are kind of a silly in that you'll be encountering them often, but they're sparsely located and really something to behold. You really learn to appreciate a game, much less an FPS, in which you can pick up an object and drop it somewhere, and seeing a difference in a cinder block and a washing machine. Really, if this is what's coming in games to come, you're into a treat, because this almost seems to simulate reality.

Something that almost comes along with these physics based puzzles is the now famed gravity gun. You'll be zapping and flinging saws, barrels of flammable materials, and firing desks at people as an innovative method to kill, maim, and furthermore erase from existence your enemies. It works like a trophy of Valve's accomplishment in gaming physics. In fact, just wait till you get the interesting upgrade to the gravity gun, when you can actually pick up PEOPLE and fling them around like playthings. It was a sick pleasure of mine to fling them over railing and watch them tumble down in frighteningly realistic fashion to flop on the ground far below. I love this stuff. A good amount of the fun you'll have in this game comes from fooling around with the environment so masterfully crafted.

The shooting! The shooting, I suppose, is a bit above average, nothing so special. But really, it's the circumstances that spice everything up a bit. And the pulse rifle has an incredibly cool secondary fire. Basically a side show to everything else this game has to toss into your face.

Basically, this game offers a lot of incredibly cool settings and locales that will make everything really nice to look back upon. The single player game is, in absolute, an adventure. FUN.

Story- 9/10

Now this game doesn't offer a real abundance of dialogue, probably rooted in the fact that your character, the famed Gordon Freeman, does not speak very much. Man of few words. Eh.

But I suppose it was intentional. You sort of feel like the famous doctor from the Black Mesa incident yourself, running around with people pooling around you. Basically, the point of this whole thing is that after Black Mesa, the G Man offers you a pretty obvious choice. Die or sit around until he wants you again. So you hang around and then you find yourself ready for him to drag you into hell once again, being the right man at the wrong moment. So you're in this odd enviroment in which the leader of society is apparently in concert with aliens, to make everyone infertile and immortal.

Fertility or immortality...hmm...

So everyone prefers fertility, and decides to whine to you until you go about, and due to your numerous exploits against the big man in charge, start a revolution. Theres very limited story development at a lot of points in the game, but the concept is really interesting once it gets into play.

Multiplayer- 8/10

I suppose how much enjoyment you get out of this comes from however much you can stand the children on the internet that are so rampantly abundant. This game so graciously provides us with CounterStrike: Source, which by the way looks just as fantastic as the rest of the goodness this game offers us in Half Life 2. CounterStrike, I'm sure, must have been so much more fun before everyone became so good at it. Walk outside and you have about a 3 second lifespan on a good day. Work hard enough at it and you might hope to be competent. Really, it's a good game, it's more the atrocious environment of people who have been literally playing this for years that spoils it. Ew.

But stay! Valve has given us a blessing from the sun! Deathmatch!

At the last minute, they poked this in there. It's basically just a DM version of HL2 with all of the weapons, physics, and graphics in tact. Running around with the gravity gun, tossing toilets at people's heads could have never been better. The internet version of HL2 is interesting, enough to satiate your appetites after you're done running through the single player mode. At least it's better than CounterStrike. Blech. And the fact that they had the grace to give it to us after so many complaints surely gives them some extra credit.

Overall- 10/10 I decided to give it a 10/10 because it's the most rewarding damned experience you will ever have in a game. It's innovative, fun, and so pretty you won't care to have any qualms with any minor imperfections. Go buy it. You won't regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/05