"Gordon Freeman ALWAYS wins"

“Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine. Not that I wish to imply you have been sleeping on the job. No one is more deserving of a rest and all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until... well, let's just say your hour has come again.... ... The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.... So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes."

And so begins the sequel to one of the most famous and most influential first person shooters of all time- Half-Life 2.

For those of you who for some strange reason never heard of the original, it put you in the shoes of Gordon Freeman- a lab assistant in the secret government research facility Black Mesa, who must fend for himself after an experiment goes horribly wrong, being hunted down by aliens, the military and tailed by a peculiar man in a black suit- the enigmatic G-Man, responsible for the quote above. One of the strange things about Half Life was that there were no real cutscenes- all the time you were looking through Gordon Freeman's eyes, and in a sense you were Gordon Freeman- he never spoke, leaving his entire personality up to your imagination, and let you immerse yourself in the game.

The game was fairly popular in of itself, and popularised FPSs with actual story, if not inventing the idea (y halo thar System Shock). Its multiplayer was modified into different games entirely, ranging from the real time strategy/first person shooter hybrid that is Natural Selection, to the most famous multiplayer game of all time- Counter Strike.

7 years on, and Valve (After a legal dispute with Vivendi Universal, but let's not get into that) have produced a sequel- but was it worth the wait?

Graphically, the game is stunning- but creates the problem that you must have a fairly decent computer to run the game. Preferably, you must have at least 512 RAM, a 2 GHz processor and a fairly new graphics card to run it fairly well- and to get the most out of it, you need a very new (and very expensive) computer.

However, it is still nowhere near as system-draining as the other PC first person shooter hit of 2004, Farcry, was. Also, the game- whether you bought it from a store or downloaded it off Valve's Steam program- needs to be verified overt he internet- so If you don't have a good connection, prepare to wait a long time.

With the textures and the “special effects” if you will, you'll see why it needed a fast computer. Buildings and mountains and bridges look astonishing, explosions and fire look real and water actually reflects everything. The design of the characters and aliens look great, from flying buzz saws to wall climbing zombies to the War of the World-like Striders. The character models in the game are incredibly realistic- the faces move and animate almost like a real person's, creating allies that you can easily empathise with, and enemies that move and attack like the real things.

Or at least would if it wasn't for their lacklustre AI.

You see, although the enemies are far more intelligent then there Half-Life 1 predecessors, they no where near match Halo 2's or Farcry's. Even if you up the difficulty, the AI doesn't really get noticeably more intelligent- it's just that they do more damage. In fact, Half-Life 2 is easy in all areas- it doesn't help that you can save ANYWHERE.

Back to the good new- the sound shows Valve's attention to detail- the zombies moan inhumanly (Created by recorded someone crying out and then playing it in reverse, which is quite effective), the guns sound like you'd think they would from machine gun fire to futuristic weapon that fires bouncing balls of energy, the enemy soldier's radio transmissions and the alien's chirps and grunts. Admittedly the music- where there is some- tends to be lacklustre, and doesn't really strengthen the atmosphere very much- but when you suddenly hear the moans of a zombie right behind you, who needs music to add to the tension?

Which leads us onto the story. Okay, it doesn't, but I'm going onto the story whether you like it or not. At the end of Half Life, Gordon Freeman was stuck in stasis by the G Man whose employers had been very impressed with our hero's performance- especially for a scientist who hadn't been in a combat situation before. But, ten years later, the G-Man places you on a train in a place known as City 17.

Humans appear to be slaves of a group of aliens called the Combine, kept in line by the so called Civil Protection group- a secret police like organisation. Talking from TVs everywhere is the face of Gordon's former boss at Black Mesa, telling everyone to support the oppressors- what happened in the last ten years? Why did the G man place Gordon here? And more importantly, when does he get to blow things up?

Like the original, there are no cutscenes- the game never leaves your viewpoint. You ARE Gordon Freeman- and everything that happens, happens to you or near you. The story is hardly ever shoved in your face- so if you don't care what's happening so long as you get to shoot things, that's fine. But if you look around and listen, a lot more of the story opens up to you. Evey NPC seems real- will quite a bit of help with the graphics- and have their own personality, and there are plenty of easter eggs and tidbits to keep you interested even half way through a level.

Unfortunately, the game does sometimes feel a little slow paced- there tends to be several bits where there are no puzzles or enemies to keep your occupied. Basically, all you can do while moving is admire the scenery- and great looking though it is, it's not what you paid for. But on the plus side, when you are attacked the enemy holds nothing back.

Thankfully, a large collection of weapons are available to cut a swathe through aliens and humans alike, along with support from fellow resistance members and crazy Russian priests. Unfortunately, there much the same as they were from the original Half-Life- but a weapon called the Bug Bait results in one of greatest sequences in video game history as you- ah, but I shouldn't spoil it.
And so I won't. Find out for yourself.

One of the best new weapons is the gravity gun- taking advantage of the incredible life-like physics of the Source game engine, the gravity gun lifts up objects to use as weapons- pick up a saw and hurl it at someone, or chuck back a grenade that someone has dared throw at you. Pick up gun turrets that have been knocked over, beat someone senseless with a wooden plank, blast away a leaping headcrab, pick up a mine and plant it in front of the opposing force- the gravity gun is one of the most innovative and fun ideas for a long time in the FPS genre.

In fact, there is an entire level to get used to it- Ravenholm. Without spoiling it too much, there's plenty of blades and barrels (mainly of the exploding variety) to help you save ammo, along with traps set by a less then stable priest. It is easily one of the best levels ever designed, and manages to be scary a hell of a lot more then Resident Evil or even the Silent Hill series.

The gravity gun is where the game picks up gameplay wise- before, you were merely playing a graphically enhanced Half-Life 1- no bad thing, but not what you've waited 7 years for. Afterwards, you're smashing up antlions in a buggy, invading a prison and rising up against the invaders, picking saws and throwing at zombie-like creatures and hurling grenades at all who dare oppose the Freeman- and that's not even mentioning the astonishing sequence leading to the end…

But the ending itself is not exactly the greatest example of an enthralling end of an enthralling game. While I won't spoil it, suffice to say that it leaves quite a few loose ends to tie up, and leaves you feeling slightly cheated.

The multiplayer wasn't as great an experience however- till recently. Half Life Deathmatch, though fun, felt like a last minute add on- there wasn't really enough different maps and multiplayer only weapons. And the new physics engine doesn't really affect Counter Strike- it's the same it's always been. But now that deathmatch has a lot more weapons and maps not seen in the first player game, the multiplayer has improved tremendously. And the strength of the multiplayer of Half Life was its mods- and many for Half-Life 2 are in development, or in the planning stages, including a ground up remake of the original adventure in the Black Mesa Complex, as well as quite a few multiplayer ones. Time will tell if there is one to take the Counter Strike throne.

Overall, Half Life 2 is a great game- but not perfect. The lack of a challenge, an average ending and an AI that's embarrassing when compared to Farcry's results in a score of 9/10. But it's still one of the best first person shooters to come out for a number of years, beating out Farcry and Halo 2 for, in my opinion, FPS of 2004. And probably 2005 as well.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/05