Half-Life 2

"Was all the hype worth it?"

I myself think that Half-Life is quite possible the greatest game ever. So when I heard a sequel was in the works I was quite ecstatic. Unfortunately I did not have a computer that could even think of running it. Luckily for me it was ported to the XBOX. Here is my very honest review.

Graphics: 8
Exactly what I would expect from a next gen title. The facial expressions are well animated and the body movements are fluid. Unfortunately, the main graphical awesomeness comes from something you can't see but are constantly effected by, the physics engine. Everything in the game is interactable and abides by the laws of gravity. At first this is really a cool feature, untill you realize that opjects tend to get in the way and create huge hassles. That's where the funness(my word!) called the gravity gun comes into play. Pick up any item and hurtle it through the air and anyone/things head.

Gameplay: 10
These controls are some of the tightest and most responsive I have ever seen. They even surpass that of Halo's. The difficulty is steady and the puzzles are thought provoking.

Sound: 10
This is another very high point for me. The soundrack was not much to listen to and the guns sounded like every other first person shooter. What really caught my attention was their attention to the voice acting. I actually felt like I wanted to help these people.

Story: 5
Very boring. I found myself wondering why it should take the entire game to rescue one person. Kind of disheartening for a guy who loves RPGs.

Replayablility: 3
This was an amazing experience of a game, but I don't want to do it again. It's not one of those games like Halo where you can go through the story mode several times and not get bored. Another thing that lowered this score is the lack of a multiplayer of any type. I was looking forward to bringing Gordon online and kicking some pectoral lard! Big letdown.

Overal:
Not a bad game but I wish I would have rented it instead of bought it. Definately something every gamer should experience once tho.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/05