Half-Life 2 (PC)

Review of Half Life 2

The majority of those who played the first Half Life will agree that it was perhaps the most ground breaking first person shooter of the late 90's. Realism, carnage and plot were combined with brilliant effect, to create a game not only enjoyable, but engrossing and intriguing. There were no cut scenes, so to say; everything was from our protagonist's perspective, from the chilling train-ride introduction onwards. ...
...boot camp style training session (Full Metal Jacket anyone?) and numerous film references throughout. People, for once seemed real; there was Barney, the security guard, and numerous Einsteins dotted throughout, musing and pondering over their machines. Counterstrike was the perfect bonus (am I correct in saying it is the most played online FPS ever?), and add-on Opposing Force deepened everything one step further, providing the player with control ... more

Review of Half Life 2

The majority of those who played the first Half Life will agree that it was perhaps the most ground breaking first person shooter of the late 90's. Realism, carnage and plot were combined with brilliant effect, to create a game not only enjoyable, but engrossing and intriguing. There were no cut scenes, so to say; everything was from our protagonist's perspective, from the chilling train-ride introduction onwards. You WERE Gordon Freeman. Lovely touches included the boot camp style training session (Full Metal Jacket anyone?) and numerous film references throughout. People, for once seemed real; there was Barney, the security guard, and numerous Einsteins dotted throughout, musing and pondering over their machines. Counterstrike was the perfect bonus (am I correct in saying it is the most played online FPS ever?), and add-on Opposing Force deepened everything one step further, providing the player with control of the very soldiers hell bent on killing Gordon Freeman in the original. Gone forever were the days of Doom; mindless destruction now had a purpose beyond kicking-the-ass of some alien scum. (Admittedly kicking-the-ass of alien scum is still a big part!)

It's not at all crucial to understand the plot of the first game: simply put it goes something like this: unsuspecting research scientist creates porthole between worlds at secret army base; Earth is flooded by zombie-like aliens intent on wiping out/enslaving humanity; research scientist (our Gordon) takes up arms, puts on a hazard suit and slugs a few of the buggers; and the whole time layer upon layer of government conspiracy is built up, and at the top of it all is a mysterious stranger in a black suit with a briefcase. I really cannot remember the ending; suffice to say, Gordon lives, but there is enough intrigue left to leave us salivating for more. You don't really need to know this; it's nice for the hardcores who will talk for hours about it on MSN, but HL2 can stand nicely alone for any layman to enjoy.

A hard act to follow? Well, yes. Bloody impossible actually. That's what we all thought, and although we had faith in a successful second outing for Mr Freeman, secretly we were all afraid that it all might come crashing down. What exactly can you do to improve on a game with just about every accolade in the computing industry under its belt?

You could start by introducing something that can rival the innovativeness of HL1, something to make people once again sit up and take notice. That something is called real-life physics, and it is, perhaps, the crowning glory of HL2. It does what it says on the tin: everything, from trash bins to cars, from human remains to flammable barrels behaves - when nudged, blown up, pushed, shot - as it would in real life. In effect, the engine has been built to bind every object in the game to the basic rules of gravity, friction and buoyancy. Shoot a bin and it will fly up in the air, spraying the contents exactly as in real life. A cardboard box, after some battering, will flap apart. Fences splinter and hang; a fridge launched into the ocean will dip below, and then bob to the surface; plant a rocket in the side of a car and it will skid and roll until friction stops it. Remember the days when men had about a dozen "death patterns"? The guys in Perfect Dark would clutch there throats and writhe to the ground, or stumble backwards before sinking down. The bodies would always die flat, so if you killed a goon on the stairs, he'd be half lying in midair. In HL2, real life physics stop this from happening; bodies pivot at all the places they would in real life, and so when shot into a wall they will plop against it rather than lie through it. Overall, real life physics make for two important main effects. Firstly, the game is made terrifyingly realistic. I have walked around my local town convinced that at any point a head crab will jump from the bushes! With everything behaving so naturally, you can have fun just popping of bullets at things to see what will happen. Secondly, the physics make the game far more random. Explosions will send things anywhere, so the same point in a game played through twice will yield different outcomes. This makes the replay value so much better, and is a feast for the eyes.

Graphically we are talking jaw-dropping. City 17 is the living image of some Eastern European hellhole, is exactly as the London of Orwell's 1984 would have looked. Everything is dirty and worn, buildings crumbling (totally in some cases), grass and trees decaying, the metal of a children's' playground rusting and pealing. The textures that have been created here are not shiny and brazen (like Farcry or Doom 3), but dying and bitter; as with the game's physics, there is a real-life tangibility to everything; you really are in this place. I've not seen water done so well before; reflections are superb even on the lower graphic settings, and breathtaking on a more powerful machine. Lighting is wonderful, the sun piercing and refracting in astonishing brightness, lamps and shades casting shadows eerily and truthfully. You'll want to touch everything, to see how it behaves, to see how it FEELS. Half Life 2's makers have been thoughtful enough to include a range of graphics settings; you won't need a monster of a machine to experience it, but equally if you are lucky enough to own one, visuals are superb. Character models are amazing; I've mentioned how they behave as in real life - well they look great to! Remember Lara Croft's ham fists in the original Tomb Raiders? Every finger in HL2 is rendered with finesse; look at your companions faces and you will see differences in facial structure, colour, in ears, in noses. Most impressively, eyeballs move in their sockets, and characters can smile or frown. All of this adds to the feeling of reality, immersing you in the game.

City 17 is a real dive. Storm troopers police the streets with batons and automatic weapons, and when you start the game with nothing, not even the trusty crow bar, you certainly feel under threat. The people are glum, all wearing the same blue boiler suits, all moping around, apparently out of work, at the mercy of the "police". The atmosphere of oppression is sickening, the threat that lurks in the air terrifying. Early on you find yourself desperately running from the law, moving from apartment to apartment as they're raided and broken. It is a desperate frantic business, and I guarantee you'll die on the harder settings without ever even finding a weapon.

We begin the game proper with a similar mechanical disaster to the last title: Gordon, attempting to teleport to a rebel safe house, lands smack-bang in the middle of Overwatch territory. Hence the style of the first half of the game is established: make your way to the position you're supposed to be in, struggling against various alien and human assailants. Unfortunately, you've landed miles off, and it's going to be one hell of a battle. There are so many gorgeous sets in this half, but I'll mark out the important ones. There is the excitement of cruising through canals and rivers on a grumbling hovercraft, chased by helicopter gun ships and rocket-toting armoured cars. There is the thrill of fighting several close quarter fights in abandoned city locations, ducking for cover beneath overturned trains, guards leaping, rolling and sneaking. Truly impressive is watching the hulking trains lumber along the tracks, or the collapse of a gigantic factory chimney on the riverside. Gameplay is fast and addictive; it seems that in every new situation you must be decisive and daring. Combat is similar; there is no time to be faint hearted (something mirrored by the upgraded Counterstrike: Source), but you can be tactical, using the highly manovourable scenery to your advantage. Any puzzles tend to base themselves around the games physics: use these blocks to create a see-saw, or adjust that pulley to flip this ramp.

Here I'll go into a minor quibble. On the easy setting, the game feels very linear. This is no Deus Ex; there is usually only one way to get out of a situation, and I did feel a certain degree of "tunnelment", stuck on one track, where any deviation is usually unnecessary and unsafe. Play on hard and you'll instantly forget this; combat is so intense that you don't have time to care about where you're going, only about how in God's name you can take down three Striders with 12 HP. It is a problem though; I like a game to progress in all aspects, and I felt that HL2 could have given the user more control over different paths to take.

My goodness are there an assortment of baddies to choice from. The famous headcrabs are back (now in three flavours, normal, poisonous and fast) along with the slow moving zombies, who can now throw objects with ferocious pace. There are some horrifically speedy aliens that clamber over roofs, up drainpipes and smash through windows to leap upon you. Best of all are the Striders, lumbering tripods (think War of the Worlds) that impale victims on their arms and carry a hugely destructive weapon. All these critters make dreadful, ear-piercing heart-wrenching squeals, howls and roars, and look about as gruesome as can be.

The second half of HL2 is fantastic; you're now a part of the resistance, the good guys who are fighting against alien domination. You patrol cities and prisons with up to four men/women in your team, whom you can position to tactical advantage. Much of this section is spent with Alex, the feisty side woman whom I GUARENTEE will be the main character in the inevitable add-on. The intensity of urban combat is amazing; you'll spend many an hour pinned beneath wheelie bins under the ceaseless fire of Striders. The best part comes in a parking lot, where an entire floor collapses, plunging you into the most stressful combat you'll ever experience in a game.

Weapons, weapons, weapons. The pistols are fun to use, but the Phera-pods, which call an army of insect like allies to fight on your side, are even better. All the classics are here: shotgun, semi automatic, rocket launcher, grenades. All look and sound great, and most have some form of secondary fire. Then there's the gravity gun, the most useful and enjoyable item in the game. It is used to manipulate practically any inorganic material you set eyes upon, and later on, once upgraded, to use on the living as well.

I'm frustrated with the end of this game. Without going into details, you are left craving for the add-on, but without sufficient clarity to have fully satisfied battling across rivers, abandoned mines, cities and alien mother ships to get there. In a way it's a bit of a sell-out, asking us to buy the add-on without making the original reach a climax. What have we been fighting for? The last area is a let down as well, compared to the rest of the game. And it won't spoil it for you to mention that there is no big boss man waiting at the end. So mildly disappointing, in this respect, but overall, an absolute ball. Do yourself a favour and play through it on normal or hard; it's far more exciting, and the combat is all the better for it.

Hell, when you've finished it, you can start on Counterstrike: Source. I won't go into details here; suffice to say, most of my mates brought HL2 just to play on it. And it really is that good. Anyway, a great, innovative game, (I cannot understate the power of the physics engine, it's just incredible!) if a little lacking in gameplay and a finale. Bring on the sequel.
 

...less