Half Life 2 Review

[neilencio]

semi OT: http://www.hlcomic.com/

The jokes depend upon prior knowledge of HL, otherwise it won't make much sense. The end is kind of sad and a bit jarring (considering the whole series was supposed to be humorous).

[Curlypaul]

Thats a great review and really sums up the game well. I like your point about the drab locations contrasted with the alien tech, never thought about that before. I wonder if thats what High Voltage were aiming at with The Conduit? It does seem to have that kind of feel, aesthetically at least as they didnt manage to create places that are as interesting to fight as in HL2.

I'm only just playing thru it as well, I'm a few battles into Highway 17 and I'm loving it.

[fvgazi]

Nice review. It brings back memories of staying up until 3:30am to play my pre-loaded copy on steam and then skip classes all day. I think I played for close to 10 hours that day.

I still revisit the game and episodes at least once a year.

[Xeogred]

Sheesh, did any of us play HL2 back when it was new? I guess we're just those people who are always late to the party.

I did.

Also, us retro gamers aren't late to the party, we're just the afterparty!

I did as well. All of you that were impressed by it (not to wager my experience was "superior"), but just imagine playing it back then. Back then it was one of the first games that launched the Havok engine, so it was like one of the first major games that had awesome physics, hence some of the silly physics puzzles like putting cylinder blocks on some ramp to get up on some ledge, etc. lol, also the game came out around the same time Doom 3 did which was also visually impressive as well and all, but it's easy to see which one broke new grounds and stands the test of time better (HL2 especially has way better enemy AI than Doom 3, although I still think the Marines from HL1 beat the crap out of the Combine!). Back then though it gave even the best computers insane loading times, haha.

[Hatta]

I still haven't played HL2. I skipped it back in the day because I was uncomfortable with steam, and I haven't bothered to go back yet. Steam's DRM isn't quite a deal breaker, but it does bump the priority down a few notches.

[Anayo]

I still haven't played HL2. I skipped it back in the day because I was uncomfortable with steam, and I haven't bothered to go back yet. Steam's DRM isn't quite a deal breaker, but it does bump the priority down a few notches.

I felt the same way. Only two things changed my mind:

1) Sometimes there are steam sales where they basically give games away. I'm talking Left 4 Dead 2 for $5, Fallout 3 GOTY $10, Bioshock for $5, Batman Arkham Asylum for $7.50... Some of those like Batman and Bioshock are good for one run through but don't have much replay value, so I can chalk it up as a less than $10 rental. I'd say Half Life 2 falls under that category, since it's so linear I've never replayed it.

2) Valve's games rock. The graphics never fail to impress. The gameplay's solid at worst, awesome at best. Plus Valve's games have a sense of humor... I cracked up a lot while playing Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal just from the characters' dialog. I dunno, I just feel their standards are higher than a lot of other developers, so I can personally put up with the DRM if it means paying them for their work.

[AmericanMuffin]

Played this last year, and it blew me away then, the Source engine is so good. Too bad it's a little limited for Game developers.

[gtmtnbiker]

I'm playing this on the PS3 via the Orange Box collection and so far, I'm liking it a lot. The sound is pretty good. I do like the fact that the game is linear and not open-ended. It's a good FPS to get me back into it considering I really haven't played one since the days of Doom/Duke Nukem.

[Erik_Twice]

Played this last year, and it blew me away then, the Source engine is so good. Too bad it's a little limited for Game developers.

I would say it's one of the most open-ended engines out there. It's main hurdle is that the coding is a mess and everytime someone outside of Valve tries to make it work, they end up with a lot of bugs and with other good engines out there...

Not that I'm an expert but that seems to be the concensus.

[Curlypaul]

So I was wondering how people are getting on with this game? there was a flurry of topics about it a while ago and there were a few people playing it for the first time. Where you at?

I've still not finished - don't get much game time, and I'd got 5 or 6 games that I was currently playing. I'm up to 'Follow Freeman' - in the museum. Good god this game is loooong, or maybe its just because I'm used to games that are too short lately