Screenshots :.
Half Life 2
Xbox
Matt
25-04-2007
"Storm Troopers and War of the Worlds an influence?"
"Marines love playing with physics"
"Set yo' ass on fire!"
Fantastic. Utterly, utterly fantastic. Does that answer your question? Having played through Half Life 2 twice in rapid succession merely due to having enjoyed it so much the first time through, summing this one up won’t just be easy, it’ll be fun.
Resuming the role of everybody’s favourite mute scientist Gordon Freeman, Half Life 2 sees you returning to life some 15 years after the events of the first game. The world is a very different place to the one which Gordon last set foot in, and is now inhabited by a race of aliens known as ‘The Combine’. After a quick introduction and an appearance from a familiar face, control switches to your hands as Gordon steps off the train at City 17 station.
From the very moment you set off, two things become immediately clear. The first is that the new world you’re in is fantastically beautiful, whilst the second is that with that beauty comes a large degree of interactivity. Early sections give Gordon a chance to pick up various items such as crates and place or throw them around, whilst a manipulative guard instructs Gordon to pick up an empty soda can and deposit it in the nearest bin. Experimentation is possible, and chucking said can at the guard will result in a hefty dose of brutality headed your way. Don’t worry though: their uppance will most certainly come.
A short time later, an objective requires you to stack boxes on top of each other in order to reach a high window. This demonstrates just how advanced the Source physics engine really is beautifully, with incorrectly stacked boxes tumbling around in all directions. All of the above could quite easily absorb you for chunks of time alone, yet all they serve as are small introductory tasks to get you used to the way the game world can be used to your advantage. Having climbed your makeshift tower of boxes, you escape the train station and proceed on foot to your next destination.
Thus, you’re off on your way. A vast landscape stretches before you, offering countless different locations, enemies and weaponry for you to experience, engage and enjoy. Twisting and turning throughout is a game mechanic which constantly changes and introduces new ideas to a genre which desperately needed freshness.
One moment, for example, you’ll find yourself bombing across a misty, boggy swamp in a lightening-quick hovercraft. Huge open portions of lakes and connecting rivers welcome you and entice you into squeezing your throttle button that little bit extra before throwing some well-placed enemy ambushes your way and ending it with an grand finale against a particularly aggressive helicopter.
The next moment, you’ll find yourself creeping along a narrow alleyway in a dark, evil town populated by some of the most horrific enemies ever to be set against you in a video game. Suddenly the game world will seem claustrophobic and tense, with every turn of a corner forcing you to grip your mouse that little bit harder and focus your eyes that little bit more on what’s on your screen.
It’s that variety that keeps Half Life 2 fresh. Each location has been crafted carefully to perfectly suit the exact nature of gameplay that Valve want you to use at that particular moment in time. Yes, the game is still a first-person shooter and the majority of the game will see you running about shooting at enemies, but the various different parts which connect those ‘normal’ FPS moments add a lot of spice and mean that returning to the more standard play is welcomed, rather than uninvited.
In keeping with the first title in the series, storytelling is kept to a bare minimum and all the action you will see is entirely through Gordon’s eyes. Some quarters argue that this limits Valve in what they can do as far as painting a vivid back story to the characters and game world, but on the flipside the player is now very much in the shoes of Gordon and can feel a certain attachment to him. Everything Gordon has experienced across the two full Half Life games has been seen from his viewpoint, leaving the player knowing what Gordon knows and what Gordon knows only.
Until now I’ve avoided going into too much detail about the arsenal available to Gordon throughout, mainly due to the fact that I could go on about the much-vaunted Gravity Gun for ages. Acting as a powerful magnet for any loose object scattered around, the weapon helps you solve some of the game’s puzzles and allows the player to turn the scenery into missiles against the enemy. Handily, some sections of Half Life 2 see you coming across various sharp implements such as circular saw blades, which instantly rip monsters in your way in half.
Given the ferocity of the monsters in question and the enemies in general across the whole game, this is immensely satisfying. The Combine forces present themselves as something closely resembling human forms wearing army gear and gas masks, employing surprisingly good AI to dodge, hide and attack at appropriate moments. Elsewhere, horrific zombies and head crabs lurch around in a manner that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. These particular enemies are the ones you dread facing the most – not due to there being anything monotonous or tasking in dealing with them, but because you are genuinely terrified of coming across them.
Visually, Half Life 2 is astounding. From the lapping of water against a dock to the glow that fires exude and the splattering of tissue and blood when an enemy is cut in two by a spinning saw blade, everything is satisfyingly authentic and helps submerge the player even further into the illusion of reality. Each location along your path is modelled carefully and uniquely, with the sunny expanses of the coastal run being in direct comparison with the abandoned, tattered prison you come across later in the game. Everything radiates character in one way or another.
Half Life 2 is without doubt a landmark in gaming history. Never before have the boundaries of a genre been pushed to this level, something which you only begin to appreciate when you have to go back and try other games within the same bracket. The use of physics as an actual gameplay tactic rather than merely eye candy is also revolutionary for this type of game, and you have to hope that more and more games follow the lead and build upon the foundations this game has laid. If you’ll excuse me, though, I am off once more to help Doctor Freeman battle some particularly nasty monsters. Being a gamer never felt this good.
Resuming the role of everybody’s favourite mute scientist Gordon Freeman, Half Life 2 sees you returning to life some 15 years after the events of the first game. The world is a very different place to the one which Gordon last set foot in, and is now inhabited by a race of aliens known as ‘The Combine’. After a quick introduction and an appearance from a familiar face, control switches to your hands as Gordon steps off the train at City 17 station.
From the very moment you set off, two things become immediately clear. The first is that the new world you’re in is fantastically beautiful, whilst the second is that with that beauty comes a large degree of interactivity. Early sections give Gordon a chance to pick up various items such as crates and place or throw them around, whilst a manipulative guard instructs Gordon to pick up an empty soda can and deposit it in the nearest bin. Experimentation is possible, and chucking said can at the guard will result in a hefty dose of brutality headed your way. Don’t worry though: their uppance will most certainly come.
A short time later, an objective requires you to stack boxes on top of each other in order to reach a high window. This demonstrates just how advanced the Source physics engine really is beautifully, with incorrectly stacked boxes tumbling around in all directions. All of the above could quite easily absorb you for chunks of time alone, yet all they serve as are small introductory tasks to get you used to the way the game world can be used to your advantage. Having climbed your makeshift tower of boxes, you escape the train station and proceed on foot to your next destination.
Thus, you’re off on your way. A vast landscape stretches before you, offering countless different locations, enemies and weaponry for you to experience, engage and enjoy. Twisting and turning throughout is a game mechanic which constantly changes and introduces new ideas to a genre which desperately needed freshness.
One moment, for example, you’ll find yourself bombing across a misty, boggy swamp in a lightening-quick hovercraft. Huge open portions of lakes and connecting rivers welcome you and entice you into squeezing your throttle button that little bit extra before throwing some well-placed enemy ambushes your way and ending it with an grand finale against a particularly aggressive helicopter.
The next moment, you’ll find yourself creeping along a narrow alleyway in a dark, evil town populated by some of the most horrific enemies ever to be set against you in a video game. Suddenly the game world will seem claustrophobic and tense, with every turn of a corner forcing you to grip your mouse that little bit harder and focus your eyes that little bit more on what’s on your screen.
It’s that variety that keeps Half Life 2 fresh. Each location has been crafted carefully to perfectly suit the exact nature of gameplay that Valve want you to use at that particular moment in time. Yes, the game is still a first-person shooter and the majority of the game will see you running about shooting at enemies, but the various different parts which connect those ‘normal’ FPS moments add a lot of spice and mean that returning to the more standard play is welcomed, rather than uninvited.
In keeping with the first title in the series, storytelling is kept to a bare minimum and all the action you will see is entirely through Gordon’s eyes. Some quarters argue that this limits Valve in what they can do as far as painting a vivid back story to the characters and game world, but on the flipside the player is now very much in the shoes of Gordon and can feel a certain attachment to him. Everything Gordon has experienced across the two full Half Life games has been seen from his viewpoint, leaving the player knowing what Gordon knows and what Gordon knows only.
Until now I’ve avoided going into too much detail about the arsenal available to Gordon throughout, mainly due to the fact that I could go on about the much-vaunted Gravity Gun for ages. Acting as a powerful magnet for any loose object scattered around, the weapon helps you solve some of the game’s puzzles and allows the player to turn the scenery into missiles against the enemy. Handily, some sections of Half Life 2 see you coming across various sharp implements such as circular saw blades, which instantly rip monsters in your way in half.
Given the ferocity of the monsters in question and the enemies in general across the whole game, this is immensely satisfying. The Combine forces present themselves as something closely resembling human forms wearing army gear and gas masks, employing surprisingly good AI to dodge, hide and attack at appropriate moments. Elsewhere, horrific zombies and head crabs lurch around in a manner that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. These particular enemies are the ones you dread facing the most – not due to there being anything monotonous or tasking in dealing with them, but because you are genuinely terrified of coming across them.
Visually, Half Life 2 is astounding. From the lapping of water against a dock to the glow that fires exude and the splattering of tissue and blood when an enemy is cut in two by a spinning saw blade, everything is satisfyingly authentic and helps submerge the player even further into the illusion of reality. Each location along your path is modelled carefully and uniquely, with the sunny expanses of the coastal run being in direct comparison with the abandoned, tattered prison you come across later in the game. Everything radiates character in one way or another.
Half Life 2 is without doubt a landmark in gaming history. Never before have the boundaries of a genre been pushed to this level, something which you only begin to appreciate when you have to go back and try other games within the same bracket. The use of physics as an actual gameplay tactic rather than merely eye candy is also revolutionary for this type of game, and you have to hope that more and more games follow the lead and build upon the foundations this game has laid. If you’ll excuse me, though, I am off once more to help Doctor Freeman battle some particularly nasty monsters. Being a gamer never felt this good.
9/10
