Half-Life 2 is one of the most successful Survival FPS games ever, if not the most successful. It has won over 35 Game of the Year awards, and countless others. It was, as it’s predecessor was, revolutionary. It had better graphics, a better engine, and a better story than any other game there was.
In the original Half-Life, you play as Gordon Freeman. Freeman is a theoretical physicist who worked in the Black Mesa research facility. One day an experiment Freeman works on goes wrong, and an interdimensional portal is opened, releasing hostile aliens into the facility. You spend the game fighting those monsters with fellow employees and a military Special Ops unit. At the end of the game, you are put into stasis by the G-Man, a strange man who appears throughout the series.
In Half-life 2, you’re pulled out of that stasis, and find yourself in a train, decades after the Black Mesa incident. The world is taken over by a military alien force known as the Combine. You have to fight your way through them to get to a safe haven.
Half-Life 2 is an FPS game. It’s divided into chapters, each one being a level in a different area. Examples are a network of sewers, a town taken over by zombies, a highway next to a beach, and a huge metal tower. During those levels, there’s a nice amount of back story. A notable thing is that there are no cutscenes, the entire game is composed of one long route, and bits of storyline are still in first person mode. In between are only a few points where the game has to load, which are quick and not too boring.
There’s a nice amount of weapons, from a small pistol to a rocket launcher, with things as a shotgun and crossbow in between. And, of course, the Gravity Gun! There are a lot of different enemies you will encounter, ranging from Combine Soldiers and Antlions to massive biological gunships, tripods and even zombies!
But it’s not only a brainless shooter, there are also a lot of fun puzzles to be solved, some of which are a real pain to complete.
All that makes it a truly incredible experience to play, and with the 2 sequels that are already released makes for a great series with a great replay value.
Personal rating:
Graphics – 10. Everything looks great, and anyone but the biggest graphic whores will agree with this rating.
Audio – 10. Great voice acting for the numerous characters there are. There’s some awesome music at some points, too.
Gameplay – 9. Great, but slow at some points.
Overall – 9.6.
Go buy this game!
More reading:
HL2 Wiki
Valve’s Website
Pictures:
Antlions
Helicopter
Striders
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Thanks to Blackwings for letting me join. I hope I’ll be able to contribute something good to the site!
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[...] He was looking for writers at his site GameZig. I checked out his site and I liked it. I wrote a Game Review for Half-Life 2. BlackWings replied really quickly saying he liked what I wrote, and I was added to his team! [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 10:54 am
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