Lazy Update
My Half-Life 2 newspaper article, unedited of course.
Half Life 2 Review
“Time, Mr. Freeman?”
Time, indeed. Six long years after the first one has ransacked Wal-Mart shelves, Half-Life 2 finally makes its way into gamers’ hands. Is everyone happy? Probably not. Can one game live up to the unimaginable hype that has hit games like Halo 2 and Half-Life 2? Nope. But, is Half-Life 2 a damn good game? You know it. This is, hands down, my pick for best single player first person shooter…ever. It’s also the best game of this past holiday season, I think, beating out Halo 2. Not possible you scream. Read on.
First lets get to the basics of what makes this game great. The Source engine, or the graphics engine that the game runs on. “But, its just pretty stuff, unless it’s Doom 3, it can’t be that great right?” Wrong. Half-Life 2’s engine takes the graphics engine in a completely different direction than that of Doom 3’s engine. Physics is the big sell here. The way cars bounce, the way barrels fall when you throw them, and how objects break, and all matter in this game. It also adds up to the coolest weapon in gaming history so far. More on that to come later. Objects have buoyancy, so little splinters of wood, can actually be seen floating around in water. I don’t know what it is, but I really like the water in this game. It looks real, scarily real. I don’t know why that gets to me, but its cool. The environment the game is set in, City 17, feels so incredibly alive, and dead at the same time. Which is actually perfect for what the games story is set up to do.
The story. What makes a good single player FPS? A good story, a good environment for the story, and good A.I. to fight against the entire course of the game. Thankfully, Half-Life 2 shines in all aspects.
Without spoiling the story, which I wont try to do, let me tell you that this will be the most intriguing story that you have followed in a long time. You’ll follow the world’s best non-hero, Gordon Freeman, through a series of stages, with the first three stages being the best sequence of stages I’ve ever played in a game. You’ll be driving a boat. Through three stages. Sounds boring right? Wrong. You wont even notice that you’ve gone through three levels until you finally have to get off the boat and start roaming around on foot, and by that time, you’ll be hooked. Don’t worry, though, when you get off the boat, you get the coolest weapon. Ever. A little gem called the Gravity Gun. What this gun does is allow you to pick up objects in the world around you, and let you hurl them at enemies. Don’t like the way that guy looked at you? Pick up a toilet and fling it at him. Running low on life? No problem pick up and hold onto that table, using it as a shield, and then fling it at someone. Of course Valve threw in some puzzles that force you to use the Gravity Gun, but nothing too taxing. What’s better, is toward the end of the game, the Gravity Gun gets a “power-up”, that allows you to grab enemies, and fling them at their old buddies. And yes, you can use grabbed enemies and bullet-shields as well. But I guess I should say something on the ending. Yes, it does leave it wide open for another one, but what game these days doesn’t? I think the ending, while some people may hate it, was absolutely perfect. The ending seems to bring everything in Half-Life 2 full circle, which again works nicely. Although it was a kind of quick cut off, you almost felt the game should end there, and it didn’t feel weird to end where it did, unlike Halo 2.
The small European town you’re planted into known only as “City 17” feels exactly like it should. Alive, but dead. It’s hard to explain without actually playing the game, but I’ll try. The combine, who are brutal oppressor evil-type bad guys of the game, are everywhere. You’ll see plenty of scripted cut scenes of where the combine are walking around simply beating people up. In the beginning of the game, you’ll recognize a friend from Black Mesa, from the first Half-Life, who somehow ends up as a combine soldier, he comments on being “behind on his monthly beatings.” This is what makes the city feel so dead. No one walks around, except for combine patrols. And if you walk up to them, they tell you to move along. If you don’t, you get beat up. Simple.
And, those are some smart combine soldiers. They’ll shoot you from behind, and then they’ll run and hide. You’ll run out, get shot again, and then turn around and see nothing. You will repeat this process until you run back to the spot where the shots are coming from and finally finish off the guy. And this is on easy. Don’t expect the combine to usually be by themselves either. When you fight off one combine peon, expect there to be another waiting to take his place. It’s a never-ending process, and this comes highly into play about the middle of the game. Essentially, you’re in a prison. Stuck between to rows of cells, and you have to fend off a constant flow of combine soldiers coming at you for about five minutes. Dying, even on easy difficulty happened a few times. Its tough, but man is it fun.
What about the multiplayer you ask? Well, Valve will un-doubtedly leave the modding work up to the community, as it still is very much alive since Half-Life 1, but they have included Counter-Strike: Source, a mostly asthetic update to the original Counter-Strike. It still is the same old Counter-Strike that we all know and love, but new people to the Half-Life world will have some serious trouble trying to pick up a game that some people have been playing for the better part of six years now. Which is where my complaint with Half-Life 2 begins.
Seriously, would have it been so much trouble to just include the recently released Half-Life 2 Deathmatch with the game? Probably not. But in an effort to get the game out the door, (granted it had been delayed for over a year, and wasn’t really Valve’s fault) they didn’t add this in. Its there now, which is good, but it still should’ve been there to start with. It’s also kinda laggy online. I’ve played a few times here at Texas State, and even on the campus connection, I still kinda lagged around. Half-Life was known for its brilliant Net Code, and the ability that even dial-up users could play all right, so this should be a shining point of Half-Life 2.
I also have to complain about Valve’s choices about how they released Half-Life 2, and the registering online as well. Half-Life 2 was released primarily over Steam, Valve’s own “gaming network”, so to speak. That means you could pay for it online, and then download the game as soon as it went on sale. Well, this is fine as long as the box copy equals it. The problem is that the box copy doesn’t equal it. 50 bucks spent (normally, but you have to love Christmas) and all I get is some paper cases to hold my cds’ in? For that much, you could at least stick the cd’s in a nice case or something.
All in all, though, my complaints aren’t really with Half-Life 2’s shining point, its single player game. I loved the single player game, and, I guess since I still do play some Counter-Strike, the multiplayer isn’t bad. The HL2 Deathmatch is a lot of fun, even if it’s mildly laggy. Game of the year for 2004? You got that right. Lets just hope we don’t have to wait until 2010 to see the next one.
Half Life 2 Review
“Time, Mr. Freeman?”
Time, indeed. Six long years after the first one has ransacked Wal-Mart shelves, Half-Life 2 finally makes its way into gamers’ hands. Is everyone happy? Probably not. Can one game live up to the unimaginable hype that has hit games like Halo 2 and Half-Life 2? Nope. But, is Half-Life 2 a damn good game? You know it. This is, hands down, my pick for best single player first person shooter…ever. It’s also the best game of this past holiday season, I think, beating out Halo 2. Not possible you scream. Read on.
First lets get to the basics of what makes this game great. The Source engine, or the graphics engine that the game runs on. “But, its just pretty stuff, unless it’s Doom 3, it can’t be that great right?” Wrong. Half-Life 2’s engine takes the graphics engine in a completely different direction than that of Doom 3’s engine. Physics is the big sell here. The way cars bounce, the way barrels fall when you throw them, and how objects break, and all matter in this game. It also adds up to the coolest weapon in gaming history so far. More on that to come later. Objects have buoyancy, so little splinters of wood, can actually be seen floating around in water. I don’t know what it is, but I really like the water in this game. It looks real, scarily real. I don’t know why that gets to me, but its cool. The environment the game is set in, City 17, feels so incredibly alive, and dead at the same time. Which is actually perfect for what the games story is set up to do.
The story. What makes a good single player FPS? A good story, a good environment for the story, and good A.I. to fight against the entire course of the game. Thankfully, Half-Life 2 shines in all aspects.
Without spoiling the story, which I wont try to do, let me tell you that this will be the most intriguing story that you have followed in a long time. You’ll follow the world’s best non-hero, Gordon Freeman, through a series of stages, with the first three stages being the best sequence of stages I’ve ever played in a game. You’ll be driving a boat. Through three stages. Sounds boring right? Wrong. You wont even notice that you’ve gone through three levels until you finally have to get off the boat and start roaming around on foot, and by that time, you’ll be hooked. Don’t worry, though, when you get off the boat, you get the coolest weapon. Ever. A little gem called the Gravity Gun. What this gun does is allow you to pick up objects in the world around you, and let you hurl them at enemies. Don’t like the way that guy looked at you? Pick up a toilet and fling it at him. Running low on life? No problem pick up and hold onto that table, using it as a shield, and then fling it at someone. Of course Valve threw in some puzzles that force you to use the Gravity Gun, but nothing too taxing. What’s better, is toward the end of the game, the Gravity Gun gets a “power-up”, that allows you to grab enemies, and fling them at their old buddies. And yes, you can use grabbed enemies and bullet-shields as well. But I guess I should say something on the ending. Yes, it does leave it wide open for another one, but what game these days doesn’t? I think the ending, while some people may hate it, was absolutely perfect. The ending seems to bring everything in Half-Life 2 full circle, which again works nicely. Although it was a kind of quick cut off, you almost felt the game should end there, and it didn’t feel weird to end where it did, unlike Halo 2.
The small European town you’re planted into known only as “City 17” feels exactly like it should. Alive, but dead. It’s hard to explain without actually playing the game, but I’ll try. The combine, who are brutal oppressor evil-type bad guys of the game, are everywhere. You’ll see plenty of scripted cut scenes of where the combine are walking around simply beating people up. In the beginning of the game, you’ll recognize a friend from Black Mesa, from the first Half-Life, who somehow ends up as a combine soldier, he comments on being “behind on his monthly beatings.” This is what makes the city feel so dead. No one walks around, except for combine patrols. And if you walk up to them, they tell you to move along. If you don’t, you get beat up. Simple.
And, those are some smart combine soldiers. They’ll shoot you from behind, and then they’ll run and hide. You’ll run out, get shot again, and then turn around and see nothing. You will repeat this process until you run back to the spot where the shots are coming from and finally finish off the guy. And this is on easy. Don’t expect the combine to usually be by themselves either. When you fight off one combine peon, expect there to be another waiting to take his place. It’s a never-ending process, and this comes highly into play about the middle of the game. Essentially, you’re in a prison. Stuck between to rows of cells, and you have to fend off a constant flow of combine soldiers coming at you for about five minutes. Dying, even on easy difficulty happened a few times. Its tough, but man is it fun.
What about the multiplayer you ask? Well, Valve will un-doubtedly leave the modding work up to the community, as it still is very much alive since Half-Life 1, but they have included Counter-Strike: Source, a mostly asthetic update to the original Counter-Strike. It still is the same old Counter-Strike that we all know and love, but new people to the Half-Life world will have some serious trouble trying to pick up a game that some people have been playing for the better part of six years now. Which is where my complaint with Half-Life 2 begins.
Seriously, would have it been so much trouble to just include the recently released Half-Life 2 Deathmatch with the game? Probably not. But in an effort to get the game out the door, (granted it had been delayed for over a year, and wasn’t really Valve’s fault) they didn’t add this in. Its there now, which is good, but it still should’ve been there to start with. It’s also kinda laggy online. I’ve played a few times here at Texas State, and even on the campus connection, I still kinda lagged around. Half-Life was known for its brilliant Net Code, and the ability that even dial-up users could play all right, so this should be a shining point of Half-Life 2.
I also have to complain about Valve’s choices about how they released Half-Life 2, and the registering online as well. Half-Life 2 was released primarily over Steam, Valve’s own “gaming network”, so to speak. That means you could pay for it online, and then download the game as soon as it went on sale. Well, this is fine as long as the box copy equals it. The problem is that the box copy doesn’t equal it. 50 bucks spent (normally, but you have to love Christmas) and all I get is some paper cases to hold my cds’ in? For that much, you could at least stick the cd’s in a nice case or something.
All in all, though, my complaints aren’t really with Half-Life 2’s shining point, its single player game. I loved the single player game, and, I guess since I still do play some Counter-Strike, the multiplayer isn’t bad. The HL2 Deathmatch is a lot of fun, even if it’s mildly laggy. Game of the year for 2004? You got that right. Lets just hope we don’t have to wait until 2010 to see the next one.
posted by TheGipper at 11:07 PM
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