Half-Life 2 Video Game Review (About In Description)
0Could Valve's labor of love possibly live up to the hype?
I wanted to make this review short and sweet, but it's hard to stop writing, even when excluding facts that could potentially contaminate an exceptionally well thought-out gaming experience. There's just so much to say. Half-Life 2 is, simply put, the best single-player shooter ever released for the PC. It does so many things right in so many ways that it might be possible to write a thesis on the topic of Half-Life 2 compared to other single player shooters. What Valve has created is simply a masterpiece -- a work of art in the genre. Not only does it engage the mind with mysterious happenings, vagaries, and mostly intelligent dialogue, but also captures the senses with a superb visual style made possible by brilliant technology. And once the initial shock of it all wears off and it becomes possible to peel back the polished layers of sight and sound, there is an excellent shooter here. Half-Life 2 doesn't do anything particularly new; it doesn't really innovate in many ways. But what it does is set a new height for all other designers of first-person shooters to reach. It still isn't exactly perfect, but it's about as close as I've seen in my tenure here.
Before I really get into the review, you should know the background of how this game was reviewed. Valve did not want to send out copies of their game (for fairly obvious reasons) before it was released to the public. In order to play the game, I, and several of my colleagues throughout the industry, took a trip up to Seattle to visit Valve in order to have some private time with the title. I was given a little room to myself where I could close the door, turn off the lights, click my little red slippers, and pretend that I was sitting at home. It worked for the most part, largely because I was so engrossed with the game that when I came out of my trance I often had to take a moment to get my bearings. Obviously, Valve was happy to bring me into a controlled environment for ideal playing conditions.
The system that I played the game on had these specs:
ASUS P4C800-E dlx motherboard
Intel P4 3.2GHz CPU
2.0GB DDR400 dual-channel RAM
Radeon 9800PRO 128MB video
Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound
Western Digital 160GB SATA HD
Obviously, since we were only allowed to play the game at Valve, this is the only system that we've had the chance to play with. That said, at 1280 resolution, the game ran flawlessly, even in the most extreme environments with tons of geometry and lots of objects moving around, both with and without AI. The Source engine is an impressive piece of software from the outside looking in. There's a large chance my brain would melt like Velveeta in a microwave should someone try to explain its inner workings.
What's particularly impressive about the game running so well is that it does so without compromising any part of gameplay or design. Environments are complex, colorful, and highly detailed; AI is certainly impressive in that NPCs work as teams, flank, react to sound and movement, and then engage with lifelike aggression. But like I said, we're going to have to wait and see what the game runs like on a more standard system after it's released. Therefore, you can look for an additional supplement to this review about how the game runs on lower-end systems after we've had the chance to check.
The other problem with reviewing the game up at Valve is the simple fact that we couldn't test out Steam and how well the product registration system necessary to playing Half-Life 2works. I'm not exceedingly happy about the forced registration even if it is understandable in today's climate of highly pirated games, though I can't say I believe this will stop ultra-determined hackers from cracking the game regardless.
Still, no matter what you think of Valve's business policies, Half-Life 2 is a "must buy" game. If you're a fan of the series, that was already obvious. Heck, if you're a PC gamer chances are you're going to get it at some point anyway. But if you're new or skeptical of the genre and want to see a prime example of the power and excitement of a first-person shooter, this is it. And it begins with the continuation of a story.
Wake Up and Smell the Ashes...
Last time we left Gordon Freeman, the unlikely scientist-hero from the first Half-Life, he was traveling. Yes, just traveling. The mystery was where he was traveling to and why all of the incidents at Black Mesa had happened (not to mention why the game was rife with so many horrific jumping puzzles towards the end). Half-Life 2 begins with Gordon arriving via train with the G-Man teasing his mind with sickly whispers of warning. The last stop of the arriving train is City 17, a bastion of the alien Combine forces, yet another mystery themselves.
For the rest of the story, you'll have to play the game yourself. I'm absolutely dedicated to getting through this review with your chance at an untarnished gaming experience intact.