Ah... Half-Life 2, one of my favorite games ever. I played it first in 2012 or something, and I'd argue it still holds up very well. It has great pacing, always mixing hard action with more quiet moments for building up tension and giving you time to breathe in between, which again makes the set-pieces stand out even more. The arsenal progression was well though out as well, having you start out with only a crowbar to fight with, then getting better and better weapons until you could fight an army singlehandedly. My favorite part though, is how subtle it is with the story. They never tell you more than you need to be told, they always reveal just enough for you to care, while at the same time not spelling out how the world works, and their motivations, etc, like they often do in RPG conversations. I also like how it is a story that seems very simple on the surface. At face value, it's about starting an uprising among an oppressed people and becoming a savior. Or that's at least what someone wants you to believe. If you dig a little deeper, you'll come to understand that there is something much larger and intricate going on that you're being kept in the shadows of. I just love that. The downside is that it leads to the game asking more questions than it answers, questions that were supposed to be answered in later installments. Sadly, we haven't been so lucky, even with the two episodes that later came.
