Half-Life 2
We’ve waited six long years for the sequel to the best first person shooter that has ever come out on PC. We were afraid that after so long a time most of us would not be interested anymore – setting our sights on something greater – but it has proven to be something worth having.
Half-Life 2 begins with the sight of the ominous G-Man, waking you from an ethereal slumber. “Rise and shine,” he tells you. “Wake up and smell the ashes.” Ashes, indeed. The world of Half-Life 2 is nothing like the one you left six years ago in Black Mesa. You may have won that battle, but Earth appears to have lost the war.
As the video of Breen unconvincingly reassures newcomers that “it’s safer here,” you learn the grim details: you’ve arrived in one of Earth’s few remaining cities, and the world is under control of a group described no further than “our benefactors.” The picture only gets darker as you learn more, hammered home by paranoid citizens wandering around the station. Perhaps the biggest sign that things are out of whack, however, is when you notice one of the alien Vortigaunts acting as a janitor in the station. Things have most definitely changed.
Unfortunately, Half-Life 2 often fails to provide the explanations you’re looking for. The story, penned by Half-Life scribe Marc Laidlaw, continually raises more questions than it answers. What happened after Black Mesa? Where has Freeman been since then? Like an X-Files plot on overdrive, the game continually teases you with tidbits and clues as to what’s happened, but never really connects the dots. The disappointment probably won’t set in until after you finish the game, but I suspect it could be the fans’ main gripe with Half-Life 2.
As in Half-Life, the entire game is played out through Freeman’s eyes, with no cutscenes to speak of, and the entire story relayed through interactions with other characters and other scripted events. There are many characters to meet, some familiar, and some new, like Alyx Vance, the daughter of one of the scientists from Black Mesa.
One of the marvels of Half-Life 2 is the way you’re eased into its new world. You start off exploring and learning how to interact with the environment, all while taking in the story. Once the shooting starts, the combat in Half-Life 2 succeeds on just about every level. The arsenal mimics that of Half-Life: crowbar, pistol, machinegun, shotgun, RPG launcher, crossbow, etc. For each new weapon that’s introduced, you’re put in situations that encourage you to use it for a while, so you quickly become familiar with each gun and the best time to use it, building a vocabulary of tactics for each weapon, so to speak.
The architecture and level design throughout the game is staggeringly good. From the opening train station to the coastal sections of Highway 17 to the Nova Prospekt prison, every area has a lived-in feel to it that makes you feel like it really exists somewhere. Hi-resolution textures give the world a crisp feel, and character models are particularly impressive, with evocative facial expressions and animations that look far more natural than what you see in most games. Even the lip-synching is great, which helps sell the illusion that these are real people you’re fighting for.
The game no longer looks behind the curve – it looks like a modern game, with nice water effects and some basic physics like bouncing barrels and ragdoll physics. More importantly, the game feels tight as a drum – there’s been no lag to speak of and everything from the sounds and the weapons to the interface all feel like a game with five years of polish behind it.