Half-Life 2
Xbox
Yes, this was my first time playing through Half-Life 2. I know, I know - I'm late to the party. I came into this game well aware of its reputation. Greatest first person shooter ever, greatest game of all time, etc. My expectations coming in were understandably high.
I recently played through the original Half-Life a couple of months ago, and I loved it. You can find a link to that review down towards the bottom of this post. I gave the game an A+ and said that it was quite possibly the best first person shooter I had ever played. This, coupled with the game's vaunted reputation, really had me stoked to dive into Half-Life 2.
Would the game live up to the hype, or would I come away disappointed? Read on for the full scoop.
(Fun fact: this game has been in my possession for a LONG time now. When I opened up the case to retrieve the disc, I found an autographed receipt from former Brewers player Prince Fielder and a different autographed receipt from former Bucks player Joe Alexander, both dated from late 2009 - when I worked at a gas station. These autographs have been sitting here in this game case for 13 years, completely forgotten about by me. Why it took me 13 years to get around to playing this game, given its reputation, I have no idea. Anyway, I am putting these autographed receipts back in the game box, so in another 13 years it can surprise someone else. Thus ends today's fun fact.)
Story:
When I first started playing this game, I was very confused by what was happening. Nothing is explained in the manual, and little is explained in-game. As I progressed, I was able to gather that yes I was playing as Gordon Freeman from the original Half-Life. Apparently many years had passed since the end of the first game. Alien creatures from another world (possibly related to the events of the original game) have taken over, and are using human soldiers to keep the population under lock and key. Remember the fenced-in neighborhoods and how oppressive the soldiers are towards Joel at the beginning of the original Last of Us game? That's how things are here. The Cylon occupation from Battlestar Galactica is another scenario that comes to mind.
Gordon is dropped off onto a train by the G-Man, who you should recognize if you played the original Half-Life. Gordon becomes a pawn of the underground resistance, being passed from one location to the next. You're constantly under attack by aliens and their human cohorts. You're constantly getting split up from your team, being forced to go ahead alone. As much as I wanted this game to have some kind of deep storyline, it really doesn't. The whole game seems to move from one set piece to one set piece, the action constantly propelling you forward. The game excels in its atmosphere and its world building - but the actual storyline itself I found somewhat weak. Half-Life 2 seems more about the experience than anything else.
Spoiler alert, but at the end of the game you end up destroying the alien Citadel. Time freezes for Gordon as the G-Man comes to collect him. His mission is done, and is time to move his services onto the next highest bidder. So Gordon is some kind of superhuman killing machine that rich and powerful people are looking to hire? I have always wondered what makes Gordon so special. Is he some kind of genetic soldier? Is he a creation of the G-Man? What did he do before Black Mesa? I'm probably overthinking things.
It's a shame that this game has been out for so long now and we still have not gotten a Half-Life 3.
Gameplay:
At its core, Half-Life 2 shares a ton of similarities with the original game. The controls and the way you move Gordon are very familiar, as are the shooting mechanics. The only notable thing missing from the first game is the lack of lock-on ability, but I quickly learned to adapt without it.
The first Half-Life was a linear game that gave the illusion of a more open world, and Half-Life 2 follows in those footsteps - but this time around things are taken to a bigger extreme. The outside areas in this game are huge. You are often given things like boats and land vehicles to take you from place to place. You can explore everything and collect all there is to collect, or you can just go straight to your objective. I, for one, liked to check out everything.
While Half-Life 2 does give the illusion of a more open world than the original, it is all smoke and mirrors. This is a linear game. You can't tackle things in any order you want. There really isn't any significant backtracking. It's an open world game in the sense that Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is an open world game. Yes, there are some stages where you can explore and veer off the beaten path, but for the most part the game does its best to move you along on a linear path.
I hate to be "that guy", because I do like this game, but in my opinion Half-Life 2 was never able to truly capture the magic of the original Half-Life. The scope is bigger. The stakes are bigger. There are more enemies. There is more to explore. You have vehicles you can use. There's a cool gravity gun that lets you pick things up and fling them around. I mean, I can definitely see why people love this game so much. But bigger isn't always necessarily better. There were times when I was playing through this that I got bored. And that NEVER happened when I was playing through the original game.
Sometimes when I would stop playing, it would take me days to muster up the energy to turn this game on again. When I was playing through the first Half-Life, I couldn't get enough of it. I obsessively played it nonstop until I beat it. This one? Not so much.
I can't really put my finger on what rubbed me the wrong way with this game. Like I said, it handles a lot like the original Half-Life. Combat is a lot of fun. The controls are silky smooth. It's just missing that magical "it" factor that the first game had.
I like this game, yes. But is it as incredible as everyone says it is? I really don't think so. Makes me wonder, since this game is so highly praised, if this is more of a "me" problem than anything else. I can see that it is a good game, but something about it just wasn't doing it for me the way the first Half-Life was.
Graphics:
Even though this game is 18 years old at the time of this review, it's still pretty good looking. The environments are nice and detailed. They really nailed the feel of this grungy, post-apocalyptic world. I like seeing some of the big open areas too. It's much nicer than looking at hallways and laboratories all the time. The character and enemy models are much improved from the original game as well.
This game's atmosphere really carries it. If you have a way to play this in the dark with headphones on, do it. The story of this game may not bee too horribly engrossing, but its world building sure is.
If I had to offer one complaint, it is that there is often massive amounts of slowdown when there is a lot happening onscreen. I'm not usually one to complain, or even notice such things - but it is quite bad here, to the point where certain areas of the game started to border on unplayable. I was worried my Xbox was going to freeze on more than one occasion. That's not good. And it happens a lot.
Sound:
Nothing to complain about here. The voice acting is MUCH improved from the first game. I'm so glad they fixed it, as that was one of my biggest (and only) complaints about that game. The music is good and unobtrusive. Things tend to be quiet a lot in this game, which is good because it matches the desolate atmosphere of the game's world. As I said before, if you can find a way to play this in the dark with headphones on, that's probably the optimal way to experience this game.
Overall:
I know it seems like all I've been doing is whining about this game and saying how it isn't as good as the original Half-Life. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, however. It handles well, the action is fast paced, and the set pieces are impressive - as is the world building of the game.
Although this isn't an open world game, I like how they started to take things in that direction. Some of the large, explorable areas were pretty fun to check out. The addition of vehicles was a wise choice as well. And if I wasn't feeling the whole exploration thing? I'd just head right to where I was supposed to go.
I don't think this is as good as the first Half-Life, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. A lot of games aren't as good as the original Half-Life, and I still enjoy them just fine. This game falls into that category. This is a very good first person shooter, maybe even a great one. Don't come at me, but I also feel that it might be a tad overrated. Would Half-Life 2 be on my list of top ten games of all time? Not even close. I don't even know if it would make the top 100.
In the end, I can say that I am very glad I played this game and that I had fun with it. If I could only play one Half-Life game for the rest of my life, however, it is going to be the first one.
THE GRADE:
B+
40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:
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Half-Life 2 (the review you're reading)
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Up next we're moving along with my review of
Gunstar Super Heroes for the Game Boy Advance!
And since I want to get the ball rolling on Mop Up Duty and get it completed before the end of the year, I am going to cut the amount of games that I play down to just one per calendar year. Hopefully that gets things sped up!
For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click
>HERE<
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