HALF-LIFE 2

PN Review by Maral   May 2005 The original Half-Life was released in 1998, quickly captured the imagination of gamers & reviewers - and essentially turned into an instant classic. On the strength of all the nice things I read about Half-Life on-line, I bought it in early 2000 and intermittently played through it in the course of that year. I could see what everyone was going on about, but also experienced several things while playing that dampened my enthusiasm. I ended up having more satisfying player experiences with the earlier Quake and Doom games than with Half-Life... It was clearly a good game, but had issues that left me feeling somewhat reserved toward the overall experience, especially after playing through the last sections (all the way up to the frustrating final boss). A Combine guard "welcomes" you to City 17. Obviously, gripes like mine had absolutely no effect on developer Valve, who were at that point already busy with work on what would eventually become Half-Life 2. I have to admit that I totally missed out on the waves that Half-Life made with its follow-up expansions, user mods and multiplayer derivatives such as Counter-Strike. For me, both Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are isolated single-player experiences and this is what my assessment will mostly be based on. However, the hype surrounding both games cannot be ignored and so I will be concentrating on that aspect as well. Rather than being a stand-alone review, the main aim of this piece is to investigate the whole Half-Life 2 phenomenon and whether all the accolades the game is receiving are really warranted. First, some more "historical" context: While Half-Life 2 was taking shape around the turn of the century, the first-person shooter genre wasn't standing still. Important PC games that were released in this period included System Shock 2, Quake 3, the Medal of Honor series and later Call of Duty. As 2004 approached, the term "next-generation FPS" was used to describe a bevy of impressive single-player titles whose release was imminent, implying that gamers were entering a revolutionary era of technical excellence and gaming innovation. The 3 biggies at the forefront of this development - Far Cry, Doom 3 and of course Half-Life 2 - were each lauded as great games in their own right but also as trendsetters, pointing the way to new possibilities in PC games and interactive entertainment overall. Personally, I don't now think that any one of these titles has actually made the jump to the next level (whatever that might eventually be) but are just particularly good examples of how high production values applied to older FPS conventions can produce extremely entertaining end-results. Each of these games ended up with some very strong points and some let-downs, particularly with regard to their degree of innovation - meaning that none of them is a perfect gaming experience and also that not one gives a clear picture of where games should be going from here. Each of these 3 has a different take on essentially similar gaming principles - and just what approach is the better one is largely a matter of personal preference and taste, rather than objective assessments. Some more technical aspects can, however, be compared directly and I'll point these out where appropriate in discussing Half-Life 2 specifically. These vicious ant lions later become your buddies. As it turned out, Half-Life 2 was the last of this anticipated trio of FPS heavyweights to be released in 2004. After more than 5 years of development, mishaps and stolen game code, the final game eventually appeared this last November - more than a year after its planned release date of September 2003. I read quite a bit about it before actually playing the game, but intentionally not as much as I'd read up on Doom 3 beforehand - this was to preserve for myself as many of the surprises and plot points intact, hopefully making for a more objective player experience. However, I couldn't avoid being aware of the fact that Half-Life 2 had somehow made a clean sweep of all the game rankings towards the end of 2004 - hailed not just as "Best FPS of the Year" but even the "Best Game Ever"! Doom 3 had had a more mixed reception with its launch and was seemingly already falling into general disfavour (judging by some mainstream gaming magazines and websites), while Far Cry was fading from memory after making a good impression earlier in the year. Having enjoyed both of these games very much, I was ready to be blown away by an amazing game which seemingly surpassed everything that had come before. In the end, I have to wonder if we actually all played the same version of Half-Life 2... Next Page >

PN Game Reviews: Half-Life 2 > 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

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