*Note, Episode 1 and 2 not included*
Half-Life 2 is really a marmite game; you either love it or you hate it, and sometimes you just can't choose. I personally can't choose whether I love Half-Life 2 or I don't.
The return of Gordon Freeman, our silent scientific hero of the hour returns as the right man in the wrong place. With Gman's cryptic words you arrive on a train and suddenly for those of you who've played the original Half-Life deja vu time. Only this time you're heading for a place called City 17 and there two other guys on the train with you, looking depressed in blue suits and it looks rather like 1984 in game format.
Getting off of the train I'm disordered and confused; everything's fairly linear but there's all these spooky police in gas masks beating people up, bullying them and acting like the SS, and seeing a holographic image of some evil scientist looking bloke whose saying that he likes City 17 and how he hopes you'll like it. You go through some doors, minor processing and then get shunted off to the side rather than straight through like everyone else, a sign saying Nova Prospekt. Sounds spooky, and a camera takes pictures of you before another policeman guy thing tells you to come with you. You go with him into an interrogation room where you meet your old friend Barney from Black Mesa before the incident who reintroduces you to Kleiner, an old friend of yours. He fills you in a bit and lets you on your way, being told to find a girl called Alyx to take you to Kleiner's lab.
You go through more train station, you see more bullying, and finally you leave into the outside ghost town of a world where you wander aimlessly, see a three-legged walker called a Strider, enter a build, climb some stairs enter a corridor and then start having to run for your very life from the police guys, the Combine... or Civil Protection depending if they're human or not. You run through buildings, over roof tops and then finally get caught by three Combine and get knocked unconscious. Before they can drag you off the girl, Alyx, beats the crap out of them and takes you to Kleiner's lab.
That first part of the game is brilliant, just brilliant because it keeps you on edge and motivates you to play through the rest of the game. Luckily.
Unfortunately I don't think the rest of the game is all that great. Once you get a gun you start mowing through these Aliens who supposedly took over the world in seven hours, yet can't get a single man just because he's silent and has a beard and a pair of glasses.
There were some bits that were good, such as Nova Prospekt and some token spooky place called Ravenholm, but unfortunately these parts were too little. A bit of good marmite inbetween the bad, if you will, and they were enough to make me interested enough in it to complete it.
Like all shooters you run into enemies, you shoot enemies down, you pick up more ammo and move onto the next batch of enemies.
There's some interesting puzzlesolving here and there, but I felt that the puzzles weakened it especially as they were usually too easy or too obvious (oddly enough, I never thought them easy and obvious both at once). There's also a few platforming aspects, but again these I felt weakened the game. It didn't prevent it from being a game that I'd like to love, but it lowered my love for it.
The Havok physics engine, however, is fantastic. There was the Pulse Rifle, and with the Pulse Rifle came little glowing energy orbs that instantly killed Combine, although that said I didn't really like the Pulse Rifle and prefered to use other guns. There was the crossbow that pinned the enemies to walls with red hot rods, the revolver that killed things with one shot and the shotgun that would send your enemies sprawling across the floor dead, and a guided missile launcher for those occasions where you want to see things fly. That said, I didn't like the Assault Rifle, Pistol or Grenades. Once I got the other weapons and ammo I didn't go back to using these guns because I didn't see the point in using weapons I didn't enjoy. To an extent, the same went for the Pulse Rifle.
The face crabs have come back as well, only with some different ones that make it a little more interesting, and again the zombies... again with some different ones that make it a little more interesting.
There's vehicles which, through these driving scenes I got bored. They were honestly mind numbing because I didn't see the point in having parts of the game that you were forced into your little boat/car just to do. These parts were honestly the worst parts of the game because it seemed to me that Valve were shoving as much into the game as possible. It didn't put me off completely, but it did make me dislike the game in general.
The big thing about Half-Life 2 is the Gravity Gun which picks things up from a distance or hurls them across the room/field/corridor/whatever to either kill people with razor sharp/heavy objects or to send explosives back at the enemy. It was fun, a good idea and made the game a bit more varied than your standard shooters. If you really wanted you could go through the whole game with just the Gravity Gun once you got it since it didn't need ammo or charge, and would certainly make the game more interesting, and apart from parts where you need to use the Missile Launcher it's an adaptable weapon. Crate; weapon. Glass bottle; weapon. Propane cannister; weapon. Tyre; weapon... well you get the idea.
I'll also be honest; it wasn't until I recently played it through again until I realised what I liked about Half-Life 2 and what I didn't like. Before I just saw Half-Life 2 as a game that I didn't like reasons x, y and z, and I still don't like it. I did, however, enjoy it. There were enough elements in the game play that made the good shine through the bad, as the good was really good, and the bad wasn't all that bad, I just felt that maybe a bit more work on it and it would have been better.
However, I don't like Half-Life 2 all that much. It's a game I've only played twice, and I didn't spend much time talking to my friends about it like I have other games, and I would much rather play Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 because I have more fun. Half-Life 2 is just something I will probably never play ever again, which is a shame because despite the problems I thought it had, I felt that it was still a good game, just overhyped.
Regardless of my feelings of Half-Life 2, I would recommend it to anyone, and I'm not just saying that because this is a Valve loving website, I'm saying it because while I may enjoy playing Counter-Strike: Source or any other games I'm currently playing right now, Half-Life 2 is a game that you can play and complete in around ten hours at the topside and be satisfied with the experience of play.
It's also worth it to hear the Gman talking to you, but that's just a bonus.
Half-Life 2 is really a marmite game; you either love it or you hate it, and sometimes you just can't choose. I personally can't choose whether I love Half-Life 2 or I don't.
The return of Gordon Freeman, our silent scientific hero of the hour returns as the right man in the wrong place. With Gman's cryptic words you arrive on a train and suddenly for those of you who've played the original Half-Life deja vu time. Only this time you're heading for a place called City 17 and there two other guys on the train with you, looking depressed in blue suits and it looks rather like 1984 in game format.
Getting off of the train I'm disordered and confused; everything's fairly linear but there's all these spooky police in gas masks beating people up, bullying them and acting like the SS, and seeing a holographic image of some evil scientist looking bloke whose saying that he likes City 17 and how he hopes you'll like it. You go through some doors, minor processing and then get shunted off to the side rather than straight through like everyone else, a sign saying Nova Prospekt. Sounds spooky, and a camera takes pictures of you before another policeman guy thing tells you to come with you. You go with him into an interrogation room where you meet your old friend Barney from Black Mesa before the incident who reintroduces you to Kleiner, an old friend of yours. He fills you in a bit and lets you on your way, being told to find a girl called Alyx to take you to Kleiner's lab.
You go through more train station, you see more bullying, and finally you leave into the outside ghost town of a world where you wander aimlessly, see a three-legged walker called a Strider, enter a build, climb some stairs enter a corridor and then start having to run for your very life from the police guys, the Combine... or Civil Protection depending if they're human or not. You run through buildings, over roof tops and then finally get caught by three Combine and get knocked unconscious. Before they can drag you off the girl, Alyx, beats the crap out of them and takes you to Kleiner's lab.
That first part of the game is brilliant, just brilliant because it keeps you on edge and motivates you to play through the rest of the game. Luckily.
Unfortunately I don't think the rest of the game is all that great. Once you get a gun you start mowing through these Aliens who supposedly took over the world in seven hours, yet can't get a single man just because he's silent and has a beard and a pair of glasses.
There were some bits that were good, such as Nova Prospekt and some token spooky place called Ravenholm, but unfortunately these parts were too little. A bit of good marmite inbetween the bad, if you will, and they were enough to make me interested enough in it to complete it.
Like all shooters you run into enemies, you shoot enemies down, you pick up more ammo and move onto the next batch of enemies.
There's some interesting puzzlesolving here and there, but I felt that the puzzles weakened it especially as they were usually too easy or too obvious (oddly enough, I never thought them easy and obvious both at once). There's also a few platforming aspects, but again these I felt weakened the game. It didn't prevent it from being a game that I'd like to love, but it lowered my love for it.
The Havok physics engine, however, is fantastic. There was the Pulse Rifle, and with the Pulse Rifle came little glowing energy orbs that instantly killed Combine, although that said I didn't really like the Pulse Rifle and prefered to use other guns. There was the crossbow that pinned the enemies to walls with red hot rods, the revolver that killed things with one shot and the shotgun that would send your enemies sprawling across the floor dead, and a guided missile launcher for those occasions where you want to see things fly. That said, I didn't like the Assault Rifle, Pistol or Grenades. Once I got the other weapons and ammo I didn't go back to using these guns because I didn't see the point in using weapons I didn't enjoy. To an extent, the same went for the Pulse Rifle.
The face crabs have come back as well, only with some different ones that make it a little more interesting, and again the zombies... again with some different ones that make it a little more interesting.
There's vehicles which, through these driving scenes I got bored. They were honestly mind numbing because I didn't see the point in having parts of the game that you were forced into your little boat/car just to do. These parts were honestly the worst parts of the game because it seemed to me that Valve were shoving as much into the game as possible. It didn't put me off completely, but it did make me dislike the game in general.
The big thing about Half-Life 2 is the Gravity Gun which picks things up from a distance or hurls them across the room/field/corridor/whatever to either kill people with razor sharp/heavy objects or to send explosives back at the enemy. It was fun, a good idea and made the game a bit more varied than your standard shooters. If you really wanted you could go through the whole game with just the Gravity Gun once you got it since it didn't need ammo or charge, and would certainly make the game more interesting, and apart from parts where you need to use the Missile Launcher it's an adaptable weapon. Crate; weapon. Glass bottle; weapon. Propane cannister; weapon. Tyre; weapon... well you get the idea.
I'll also be honest; it wasn't until I recently played it through again until I realised what I liked about Half-Life 2 and what I didn't like. Before I just saw Half-Life 2 as a game that I didn't like reasons x, y and z, and I still don't like it. I did, however, enjoy it. There were enough elements in the game play that made the good shine through the bad, as the good was really good, and the bad wasn't all that bad, I just felt that maybe a bit more work on it and it would have been better.
However, I don't like Half-Life 2 all that much. It's a game I've only played twice, and I didn't spend much time talking to my friends about it like I have other games, and I would much rather play Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 because I have more fun. Half-Life 2 is just something I will probably never play ever again, which is a shame because despite the problems I thought it had, I felt that it was still a good game, just overhyped.
Regardless of my feelings of Half-Life 2, I would recommend it to anyone, and I'm not just saying that because this is a Valve loving website, I'm saying it because while I may enjoy playing Counter-Strike: Source or any other games I'm currently playing right now, Half-Life 2 is a game that you can play and complete in around ten hours at the topside and be satisfied with the experience of play.
It's also worth it to hear the Gman talking to you, but that's just a bonus.
