Half Life 2 is remarkable in all ways. I believe that it is the greatest game of all time.
So, when Half Life 2 was announced, I, along with many others, was understandably very excited. I saw a few previews for the game and gaped at the incredibly realistic graphics, the interesting locales, the amazing physics, and of course the Gravity Gun. I saw some familiar faces (headcrabs and zombies) and some new ones (the Combine) and I felt that I could not wait for this game to be released. But, unfortunately, because of some stupid hacker, I was forced to wait for years. As time went on, games began to get more and more advanced. By the time the game was only a month or two away, the graphics still seemed remarkable, but the gameplay seemed familiar and I worried that HL2 would not be as good as its predecessor...
Thank God my fears didn't become reality.
Half Life 2 is not a familiar run-of-the-mill shooter that will soon be forgotten. I feel that Half Life 2 more than lives up to its predecessor's name - in fact, it surpasses it. I feel that Half Life 2 is the greatest game of all time. Forget Gamespot's 9.2, IGN's 9.7, even PC Gamer's 9.8. I think that this game fully deserves nothing short of a 10.0. Half Life 2 is perfect - I can find in it no flaw anywhere and I don't think you will either.
First things first -- the graphics. Lots of games gain or lose hype because of this very aspect. Half Life 2 got a lot of attention because of the graphics. This is because Half Life 2 looks amazing. Everything from the character models to the ground Gordon Freeman walks on looks almost like the real thing. Even before graphical improvements (e.g. FakeFactory's mods, which I highly recommend), this game surpasses all previous achievements in the graphical department. One of the most impressive things about the graphics is the advanced facial features you'll see in the game. For the first time in a game, a character's personality and emotions can be seen just by looking at his or her face.
Physics go hand in hand with graphics and Half Life 2's graphics are a perfect match for the Source engine - Valve's amazing physics engine. The source engine adds depth to this game that could never have been seen before. Characters fall to their deaths realistically, objects float in water, boards can be broken into tiny bits...it's all nothing short of incredible. With the power of Half Life 2's visuals and its graphics, this game makes a strong showcase for what we can do in the next generation of gaming.
Also critical to a game's success is the audio. Even if some gamer's don't recognize its importance, audio can make or break a game. In HL2's case, it might not make it, but it certainly doesn't break it. The sound effects in this game are amazing and sound pretty much like real. The guns all pack a considerable punch and explosions echo into the distance. The cries of dying enemy soldiers mixed with the screech of burrowing aliens is certainly entertaining. The voice acting also impresses. Since Half Life and Half Life 2 are very focused on the storyline, great voice acting is crucial. Luckily, Valve has found an extremely talented team of voice actors and actresses who give the story feeling.
And speaking of story, Half Life 2 has a great one. But before I go into any detail about HL2's storyline, I should probably tell you about Half Life's story. I'll keep if brief. For a very in-depth description of Half Life, check out Wikipedia.
In Half Life, you play as a theoretical physicist in his mid-twenties named Gordon Freeman. Gordon works at a huge underground laboratory in New Mexico called the Black Mesa Research Facility. At the beginning of the game, Gordon takes part in an experiment which goes horribly wrong and ends up sending aliens to the facility. Throughout the game, you're trying to get out of the facility.
At the end of the game, after defeating the alien mastermind, Gordon is greeted by a man known only as the G-Man who says that he's been watching Gordon for some time. He then offers Gordon a job (what this job entails remains a mystery). You are given the 'choice' to accept or decline, but it turns out that Gordon has no choice in the matter at all.
At the start of Half Life 2, Gordon is once again greeted by the G-Man, this time in a strange hallucination. This suggests that Gordon is now working for the G-Man. When Gordon wakes up, he finds himself on a train headed for 'City 17'. When you get off the train, you slowly realize that the world is now under the control of an alien race known as the Combine. The Combine has chosen Dr. Breen (Black Mesa's administrator) to be their ambassador who keeps the humans under control. The world Gordon is put in is reminiscent of Orwell's 1984.
Soon, Gordon finds a friend who used to work as a security guard at Black Mesa named Barney Calhoun. Calhoun puts Gordon in touch with an ex-Black Mesa scientists named Dr. Kleiner. At this point, Gordon's objective is to meet up with Dr. Kleiner. When he does, he meets Alyx Vance, a woman in her twenties who is the daughter of one of the Black Mesa survivors named Eli Vance. At this point, Gordon has basically joined an underground resistance trying to stop the Combine.
Eventually, Gordon's objective becomes to take down Dr. Breen and loosen the Combine's grasp on humanity. There's much more to the story (plenty of mysteries that will hopefully be explained in further expansions and sequels), but I don't want to give anything away.
Now I can finally talk about the gameplay. The shooter portion of Half Life 2 is better than Halo. Gordon is never pitted against very many enemies at a time, but he is pretty vulnerable and so you're often tense and on-edge. You're usually pitted against Combine soldiers who wield pistols, sub-machine guns, shotguns, and more. These enemies are very smart and will take cover, call for help, and occasionally retreat if wounded or outnumbered. In addition, at times Gordon will have to take on huge Combine machines such as gunships and bio-mechanical creatures known as Striders. There are also plenty of aliens that provide quite a challenge. The selection of weapons in HL2 keeps the shooting interesting and fun.
But one of the great things about HL2 is that there is also an aspect of puzzle-solving. Throughout the game, Gordon will encounter several obstacles that require a bit of brainpower to overcome. This effectively breaks up the action while keeping the game interesting.
The game lasts for a while (10-15 hours) and is pretty difficult, but even after you finish the game there is still plenty to do. For one thing, mod-makers have gone crazy with this game and created all sorts of modifications (I recommend Substance and Garry's Mod) that will keep the game fresh. The game also comes with Counter Strike: Source and Half Life: Deathmatch. HL: Deathmatch is exactly what it says it is - a pure chaotic free-for-all. Counter Strike: Source is even better. Counter Strike is basically a Team Deathmatch, but with a twist. It pits terrorists against counter-terrorists and at the start of each round, players can buy weapons and other items. If you survive a round and kill lots of people, you earn more money. Counter Strike: Source alone will eat up plenty of your weekends. Combined with Half Life 2, Half Life: Deathmatch, and all of the available mods, this is a game you will not soon get tired of.
Half Life was a revolutionary game and Half Life 2 is even better, not because it revolutionizes the genre, but because it takes everything good about it and improves it. Half Life 2 has a great story, great graphics, great audio, and gameplay that no gamer should miss. It is an amazing achievement that will go down in history as one of the greatest games of all time.