Half-Life 2 Review

Half Life 2 Release Date: 16th November 2004

17th November 2004
Reviewed By Boxie


HalfLife 2 was released yesterday, so I sat down last night for a few hours and gave it a go.

Well actually I raced home from work and fired up Steam (Valves gaming system) and waited impatiently as my copy of Half Life 2 was checked and unlocked.

The Half Life 2 Speech Engine

The game starts with the "G Man" telling you to wake up. While normally this isn't such a big deal Valve has taken things to a new level. HalfLife 2 uses a text to speech system that is quite amazing. Each word spoken is lip sync'd with the characters face animations, so when the "G Man" says 'Wake up Mr. Freeman' it actually looks like he is saying it. This applies to all the characters in the game too, so all the characters look like they are talking to you!

The Half Life 2 Physics Engine

The physics engine in the game is also quite amazing, everything acts like it should. You jump on box from a couple of metres and the box breaks under your weight. Jump on a piece of wood that is floating in the water, and it will sink with you and then resurface when you get off it.

There are a myriad of cardboard boxes around, and they behave exactly like a cardboard box should, walk on them and they collapse, smack them with your crowbar and they unfold. If the cardboard box is dusty, then when you hit it the dust flies off into the air.

Shoot a pane of glass and it shatters like safety glass does. Take out your crowbar and clean out the rest of the pane, it acts exactly right.

The Enemies of HalfLife 2

Things are a bit slow to start, which is good because at first you don't have any weapons. You meet some of the influential characters in the game (and a pet head crab!) and the story line is laid down in front of you. After a teleportation misshap you start your journey through the undergroud of City 17. Armed with your trusty crowbar you face your first set of enemies.

Your enemies are smart, they will move and hide behind things and then pop out and shoot at you, they will throw exploding barrels and roll them into your path. Of course you get to do the same things back!

Half-Life 2 Models and Textures

Half Life 2 has eye candy and lots of it. The character models are really high detail (even on medium detail mode) and everything looks really nice. The grass, the buildings and the water. The Source engine (powering the game) has some of the best water effects that I have seen, they even rival Farcry's water effects. The water has the right "murky" effect to make it look right, light dissapates nicely - so the deeper you are the less light you have.

Half-Life 2 Gameplay

Back in 1998 when valve released Half Life they pioneered a new way of gaming, it was the most interactive first person shooter ever. They have not disappointed with Half Life 2. The mix of story telling and action is combined so well that you don't even notice the distinction, the story is told in the game. Unlike the original Half Life, Half Life 2 now has the ability for you to drive vehicles around, this allows for the story telling and game play to take many more twists and turns than the orginal.

Conclusion

Valve has done it again. Half Life 2 is a damn good game!

The game is highly polished. Everything works as it should and there is nothing going on that would make you regret buying the game. In my opinion HalfLife 2 it is better than Halo 2. This is a must have game!

The wait for Half Life 2, while now over 18 months now since it was announced, has been well worth it!