Featured review by Jeff "Finger" Buckland, contributing editor from Telefragged
This is the game that has been hailed as the killer of all first person shooters since it was first announced over a year ago, and most who have said that hadn't even played it yet - that's how confident people are that this game is just that good. Valve Software has gone through a nightmare developing the sequel to what many consider the best FPS ever made, and while Half-Life 2's release comes over a year later than originally planned, the effect that it will have on the game industry will not be diminished in any way. Valve is so far ahead of the rest of their peers, that even with a year's delay this game blows away just about anything else out there.
Sure, there are plenty of high-profile titles out right now, many of which will likely sell more copies than HL2. GTA San Andreas, Halo 2, and even DOOM 3 have all had their fair share of hype and millions of games sold, but HL2 takes science fiction and tight gameplay in such a new direction that it's hard to even compare it. Throw on the inclusion of Counter-Strike Source and the many mods that are sure to be released over the years, and Half-Life 2 becomes the must have FPS of this year.
The first thing I noticed about Half-Life 2 is that it pays so much homage to its predecessor that you almost get a full-on flashback of the events in the first game right off the bat. You'll start off again on a train, but this time you're entering City 17 - a depressing place where humans are almost prisoners and aren't even allowed to "breed". Yes, the world feels like a fully fleshed out version of 1984 at the start, but you'll also be visiting the horror and full-on action movie genres as well. Your main enemies in HL2 are the Combine, an alien race who have invaded Earth and have taken over almost completely.
The HL2 experience is an almost-no-expense-spared trip though a very dark world, and while the unique aspects of HL1 return in an enhanced form, so many things are so incredibly different that it boggles the mind. At the same time, gamers will feel right at home getting behind the crowbar of scientist-gone-soldier Gordon Freeman. The story is totally new, but Freeman's plight is very familiar to FPS players. The engine provides very smooth gameplay and intensely unique and engaging visuals. And when the game's over, there is still Counter-Strike: Source and the other mods that are already in the works. More on that later.
There are so many technical advancements in Half-Life 2 that even this year's major engine breakthroughs - DOOM 3 and Far Cry, to name two, have been completely trumped. And sure, we've seen physics thrown into many action games, but rarely does it have an actual effect on how you play the game - HL2 takes care of that handily. Characters in Half-Life 2 look so great and are animated in such a life-like way that you'll scoff at how NPCs look in other games. Sure, you'll need a fairly powerful video card to see this stuff, but if you have the hardware, it's worth it. The special effects in this game lend themselves directly to creating a more believable, breathing atmosphere, and aren't just there in order to beef up a bulleted feature list. All this was put in for a specific objective and Valve has succeeded in that goal: the atmosphere is so good, you'll wonder how games in the past ever managed to immerse you.
The number of special effects alone in this game destroys just about anything else out there. Every surface is layered and beautifully textured, many with subtle reflections and refractions. Water looks beautiful, and it doesn't all look the same; that murky canal water looks very different than the shoreline areas you'll find later in the game. There's a subtle effect called High Dynamic Range lighting that over-brightens some areas depending on what's going on, and when you add all this together with the brilliant art and immaculate character models, it easily becomes the best-looking game I've ever seen.
Performance is something I'd like to mention as well - even though HL2 promises a whole ton of relatively new special effects, Valve understands that compatibility with older computers is also very important. To this end, they've made the game compatible with DirectX 7-capable video cards, which means this game will run on just about any video card made in the last four years or so. And as long as the rest of your computer roughly matches the minimum system requirements, you can expect pretty decent performance as well. I tried the game on a system that barely exceeded the minimum requirements - with the exception of the CPU which was actually too slow at 1 GHz - and I was able to make it mostly playable with some tweaking.
Half-Life was famous for its very quick load times. Essentially, the game was broken up into much smaller levels than most games, and when it was released, a fairly fast computer would load up new areas in under five seconds most of the time. Half-Life 2 doesn't quite take it to this degree, as levels are generally fairly large, and on my computer load times were between five and fifteen seconds most of the time. Quicksaves are available at any time, along with a fairly decent checkpoint system (although it doesn't save near as often as the Halo games), and saving was pretty much instant for me.
As you take control of Gordon, you'll notice that many things from the original Half-Life haven't changed. The basic arsenal of weapons you'll wield are mostly similar to what was available in the first game, and aside from a few (very) interesting new weapons, it's pretty much the standard range of guns: pistol, submachine gun, shotgun, rocket launcher, and some others. Your hazard suit will still complain in a robotic female voice when you get hit or take falling damage, and quite a few signature Half-Life interface sounds are still intact. At first, you'll wonder why so much stuff is the same as the first game, but things start to change pretty quickly.
There are plenty of new additions to this game, and they're basically all incredible. The gravity gun, which has been seen in some of the videos showing off HL2, makes you appreciate how the physics in this game works. If you're low on ammo and need some immediate stopping power, use the gravity gun to "pick up" a nearby heavy object, and fire it right into the face of your foe. Get something big and heavy enough to hold in front of you, and it can actually block incoming gunfire. Did an enemy throw a grenade at you? Pick it up with the gravity gun and send it right back at him. The possibilities aren't totally endless here, but it really does highlight the fact that realistic physics systems are here to stay in action games, and they can be used for gameplay as well as for eye candy.
UGO Rating
Presentation: A+
Gameplay: A+
Overall Grade: A+
Game Info
Game: Half-Life 2
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Sierra/Valve
Platform: PC
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Players: 1 player
ESRB Rating: Mature
