HALF-LIFE 2

PN Review continued... Actually, the answer to that question is "probably not quite". Using piracy concerns as a convenient excuse, Valve did not send out any review copies of its precious game shortly before its launch. Instead, journalists and game reviewers were invited to try out the final version at Valve's own offices - in a pretty much ideal gaming environment, one would assume. With millions of dollars invested in Half-Life 2's development, reception of rival Doom 3 being mixed and Half-Life fans' anticipation at fever pitch, it just makes sense that these first review opportunities would have been a crucial PR & marketing exercise for the company, even if its execution would have come across as subtle to those who made the pilgrimage. Amongst the attendees were also several journos from mainstream newspapers and non-gaming magazines - people who were not likely to be entirely up-to-date with the detailed history of FPS games, were thus likely to assess the game in more generalized terms, but would nonetheless have an important impact on the gaming public's perception of the first reviews to reach the outside world. Let's imagine a bit how these reviews might have been conducted: References to the first game pop up at times. Joe Reviewer would have rocked up early on his appointed day, spending a little time meeting some of the head honchos, programmers and design team while touring the Valve facilities - before having his hands-on turn to finally see what all the fuss was about. He would have played at breakneck speed to get as much out of the game as possible in the allotted time, maybe skipping selected sections for a better overall impression of the story and gameplay. His review rig would have been a high-end system with everything pre-installed and tested to perform to perfection. Sitting in front of a high-definition screen pumping out spectacular scenes while surround speakers provided aural pleasures (the noisy cooling fans of the PC having been muted or isolated in another room altogether), our Joe would probably have been enjoying himself before even getting to Half-Life 2's title screen. He wouldn't have needed to do any of the following: download the game through Valve's Steam service or go to a shop to buy a boxed copy, open the box to find it contains only disks and no manual (except for a concise reference card), install everything from scratch before going on-line to unlock, verify and update the game files through Steam to be able to begin play. Not playing on a mid- or low-end rig, Joe wouldn't have noticed some rather low-res textures and less-then-realistic graphic effects. He wouldn't have encountered the "audio stutter" bug that many real-world gamers had to deal with. He wouldn't have struggled for hours before his version of the game was finally playable. He WOULD have been able to dive straight in and start enjoying the game as his hosts would have wanted him to. Many hours of practically non-stop gaming later he would have been kindly informed that his time was up - and as he staggered outside to his car in the darkness would have started to mentally compose words to describe the fantastic experience that was still flashing before his mind's eye. Repeat several dozen times over the course of several days - and a few weeks later the reviews start hitting Web pages and magazine stands, creating a positive feedback loop as one reviewer tries to outdo the previous one with his praise. No one dares to even think about throwing cold water on this feeding frenzy of runaway adulation. Half-Life 2 features a lot of frantic shooting. Does the above scenario come across as far-fetched - or plausible? This is honestly what I believe to be part of the reason for the almost unprecedented approval with which Half-Life 2 has been met by almost all reviewers, particularly the early birds who got the chance to write the first reviews. These guys weren't just saying the game is good, they were seemingly oblivious to the possibility of finding ANY shortcomings whatsoever in the game. There are other contributing factors, of course. The general reverence for the original Half-Life is certainly also of significance, causing Half-Life 2 to bask in a considerable amount of reflected glory. Many reviewers of Half-Life 2 would indeed have replayed the original in preparation for evaluating its sequel, obviously noting along the way how much better the follow-up looks and sounds. These same reviewers would probably NOT have played Far Cry and Doom 3 again, since they'd experienced those only a few months earlier. Had they actually bothered to refresh their memories about Half-Life 2's two direct rivals, they might in fact have been somewhat less enthusiastic about the audio-visual presentation of Valve's offering. Ultimately, though, the biggest reason why I think Far Cry and Doom 3 may have lost out to Half-Life 2 in garnering the universal favour of almost everyone is this: 2004 was to be the monumental year of the next-generation FPS, and with Far Cry and Doom 3 both being less revolutionary than the gaming community had expected, all hopes were pinned on Half-Life 2. Its "late" arrival may have been a blessing in disguise. Gamers and reviewers still wanted to crown their ultimate FPS king - and Valve's candidate would have been their last chance to do so, for a while at least (until a truly revolutionary game arrives). So, with everything riding on the last major entry for the year, Half-Life 2 was declared the overall winner. Crown it they did - with a vengeance. Not because it was indeed the ultimate game everyone had been waiting for, but because options had run out. The alternative would have been for everybody to grudgingly admit that years of hype had won out and that not one of 2004's Big Three was actually going to change the face of gaming in a major way. People will probably only realize their folly when the truly Next Big Thing arrives to put all the pretenders to the throne - including Half-Life 2 - in the proper perspective. Next Page >

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

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