Half Life 2's release has been long awaited. During development it ran into a few problems. Most notably a source code and alpha (or is it beta?) was leaked. This has been blamed for delays in the games release. For gamers who are bored of Doom 3 and Far Cry -- Half Life 2 is right on time.

 

This year has been quite a ride for both PC and console gaming. Doom 3, The Sims 2, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Halo 2, and of course Half Life 2 -- all highly anticipated sequels games with revolutionary originals which spawned cult-like followings were released. The only person who is missing on this list is Duke Nukem. (Rumor has it that a "doomed space marine" went on a fishing trip the weekend Duke was last seen alive -- CounterFrag exclusive)

 

Lets get straight to the point -- Half Life 2 <insert obscene expletive of choice> rocks. The constant action along with a believable physics engine wrapped together with beautiful 3D graphics make you feel like an action movie star. There is a heavy emphasis on vehicles here. Expect to hop in a few of them and tear through wasted landscapes as enemy aircraft strafe you with bullets and a seemingly endless supply of flaming barrels. Plan on loading a few saved games around this point.

The facial animations are quite convincing. The people you meet in the game don't look like robots who mechanically move their mouths. Instead you see a full range of facial expressions just like a real human would make. This contributes little to the actual gameplay elements of Half Life 2 -- but it does make the game universe much more believable. This facial animation technology is very promising for future games using the Source engine which, of course, adds another point to the list of reasons why developers have good reason to choose Source over another engine such as Doom 3 or Unreal. To further elaborate on the facial expressions, each character has his or her own set of facial features. For example, lets say the character is surprised. The eyebrows on the model will be raised, there will be creases in his or her forehead and the mouth will be formed exactly as it would be as if someone where shocked or surprised.

 

The advanced facial animation turns Half Life 2 into a movie

In stark contrast to Doom 3, Half Life 2 has wide open environments -- which can be quite helpful when traveling in a vehicle at 80 miles per hour. I suspect this will make Half Life 2's engine considerably more attractive than Doom 3's for some time. iD is known to push technology to its limits. Because of this it is doubtful that the Doom 3 engine will be able to run large outdoor scenes on average computers for quite some time. I suspect this limitation played a large role with gamers felt Doom 3 was "nothing new." Sometimes it just isn't worth sacrificing performance in exchange for those subtlties. Half Life 2 isn't a technology demo -- it is a solid single player first person shooter -- something which we haven't been getting enough of lately.

 

The water is portrayed practically perfectly. Bullets pierce into the water leaving trails of bubbles in the water, lifeless bodies bob up and down, and the world reflections are spectacular. Never before has the water in any game looked this good. It's jaw dropping gorgeous.

 

This wouldn't be a fair review without mention of Half Life 2's downsides. Some parts of the game feel excessively drawn out. The vehicles are fun to ride on but some of the tasks required to complete these missions quickly become dull. You will be very happy when helicopters stop following you. Its seems like a huge portion of the game is dedicated to getting from point A to point B -- a few twists and turns in between would be welcome. It almost seems that Half Life 2 turned out to be too short so Valve went back and streteched out the vehicle levels. For some people this isn't a negative. I guerentee that you aren't going to be feeling claustrophobic during these parts of the game.

Another downside (or not -- depending on your perspective) is Half Life 2's difficulty. This is not an easy game. Even if you have razor sharp relfexes from play Counter Strike for the last 5 years you will still struggle in certain parts. There was a lot of that just-killed-one-more-guy-gotta-save stuff going on. Thats something we haven't done since Heavy Metal F.A.K.K 2. Can we really complain about this? At least none of Half Life 2's puzzles were too hard. Then again -- maybe this is a downside for you.

With gore this excessive the US homicide rate should drop another 50% in the next 10 years

There was no question about Doom 3's dark subject matter. Crucified bodies and satanic symbols have tended to be a staple of iD's games (which has convinced many parents and preachers that John Carmack was head of the Church of Satan.) Suprisingly Half Life 2 is far from being a lighter game -- as our detailed screenshots prove. The brutally realistic physics engine means a lot more than corpses bobbing in the water.

We happen to love the gore in Soldier of Fortune and Soldier of Fortune 2. Half Life 2 doesn't quite take the gore to this level, but it gets close. I can't remember any other game thats let you shoot saw blades at enemies and cut them in half (a creative bonus of the gravity gun.) Between that and all the dismembered and impaled zombie corpses things get pretty gruesome in Half Life 2. Just how we like it. We are going through two bottles of Heinz ketchup this week.

The Soul Cube from Doom 3 was by far the most creative weapon we've seen in a FPS to date. Its rare that we see truely creative weapons in first person shooters. Duke Nukem 3D had a few such as the shrinking gun and the freeze gun. Half-Life 2 introduces us to what is perhaps the wickedest gun ever seen: the gravity gun. Besides showing off Half Life 2's amazing physics engine and brutally killing enemies the gravity gun holds an essential role in gameplay. The gravity gun allows you to pick up objects and throw them tremendous distances with great ease. Any object that can be pushed, pulled, dragged, or carried is able to be grabbed by the gravity gun. This gun is also extremely helpful in solving many of the puzzles throughout the game. If we had the extra cash we would patent this device.

Did we mention the gore?

 

As for the gameplay in Half-Life 2, it's reletivly the same as in the original. One of the more major differences though, would have to be the teamplay aspect. As you journey through the levels of Half-Life 2, you'll encounter many situations where other people from the resistance will actually join along side with you. At times, it can be a bit tedious controlling your teammates or telling them where to go, but at the same time, you don't need to tell them were to go as they'll just follow you anyway.

The teamplay aspect is not the only innovative gameplay addition to Half-Life 2. The use of vehicles also plays a key role in progressing through the game. For example, say you're being chased by a hoard of ant lions. Running from them is not a question. You'll be overwhelmed in seconds if you take the journey on foot. On the other hand, if you choose to jump into the buggy, mowning down ant lions will turn into a great past-time and escaping them is no longer a problem.

A few of the vehicles you'll encounter in Half Life 2

 

The Half Life 2 soundtrack manages to contribute to the game environment rather than detract from it. When you start to hear the music -- you know something is about to happen. The industrial music fits in well with most of the setting of Half Life 2 -- a abandoned urban wasteland which looks like a bombed out Soviet city. An infiltration junkie's wet dream. Peeling paint, radioactive waste, and a lot of other nasty stuff. If you think this is weird and creepy just wait until you get inside the citadel. It is a sight to make H.R. Giger and George Lucas proud (or really piss them off.)

 

Several months ago we reviewed the CounterStrike Source beta. One of the first things everyone noticed was the new Source physics engine. Tires rolled down inclines, cans flew half-way across the map when shot, and the bomb explosions created quite a mess. And, of course, we had ragdoll physics for the player models. For CS: Source, all this was eye candy. In Half Life 2 the physics actually plays a role in solving puzzles. For example, you have to weigh down one end of a board with bricks to balance it out so you can jump to a ledge from the other end. Its a nice break from searching for key cards to unlock doors. I think that this is the tip of the ice burg when it comes to seeing the full potential of what this new physics engine can do for games. For years we have seen a heavy emphasis on graphics. Many gamers feel that this emphasis on eye candy had a detrimental effect on gameplay. There is hope, the tide may be turning.

Without giving too much away we can say that the end of Half Life 2 is quite intriguing. Without a question it leaves the gates wide open for Half Life 3 (start registering your investment domain names now -- sorry, halflife3.com is already take.) We will reveal this much about the ending of Half Life 2 to you: you'll be getting to know that mysterious Half Life G-Man a little better this time. Want to know more? Beat Half Life 2 on your own.

 

The original Half Life had an extraordinary longevity unmatched by any other game we can think of. This of course is thanks to a mod created by someone who wanted to make a game that he liked. That mod of course was Counter-Strike. Its importance to gaming can not be underemphasised. Counter-Strike's ability to keep Half Life's sales strong has led many game developers to recognize the importance of making their games modder friendly. If the same proves true for Half Life 2 we may still be playing this game (specifically its mods) well into the next decade.

Graphics......... Excellent
Sound.............. Excellent
Gameplay....... Excellent
Overall Rating...... 98%