Half-Life 2. Considered one of the best games of all time due to its highly detailed and realistic facial movements, strong vocal cast and fun gameplay, it has also made a mark on me. Along with the Portal and Left 4 Dead series, Valve is a company known for quality entertainment and this game does not disappoint.
Opening up with a small intro with a strange man known as the G-Man, you find yourself traveling on a train with two other passengers. Walking up to them and pressing the interaction key will greet you with dialogue before the train halts and you step onto the platform. Once there, you'll be met by a giant screen welcoming you to your destination. Though he seems friendly, you will see this place is far from happy. Turning a corner will put you face to face with a "cop" shoving a citizen trying to collect his bag.
Cans litter the floor and picking up one will introduce you to the game's physics engine, capable of some pretty impressive things. From flinging a can at the officer to seeing a whole pillar of items rain down on you, the physics are as real and impressive as they come.
Soon after this, you'll exit into the city after meeting an old friend, which begins the plot and gets you back into the loop of the world. You begin without knowing a thing, but quickly can see things are quite poor. You're in the future, on Earth, where an alien force has taken over due to something you caused in the original title. Humans are dwindling and so is the Earth's resources, but there is still hope in a small resistance group.
You'll quickly meet up with other major characters, but before you can be teleported to the resistance base, an accident occurs and you are caught on the run. Making your way through a train yard and an old canal system, you'll find yourself at the base only to be forced to leave soon after. This is where the game shifts from one gameplay style to a new one, and so on.
You begin simply trying to run away from the pursuing enemy in the train yard, then are treated to vehicle gameplay as you travel through the canals of the outlying area of the city. Once you are forced out of the resistance base, you suddenly enter a survival-horror game, chased by zombies and followed by a strange priest. Once free from there, you're back into a vehicle, traveling the beaches on the coast while fleeing from helicopters, helping out the resistance and fighting giant bugs. You then enter a prison facility with the help of friendly aliens and minor real time strategy elements and are treated to the giant bugs and alien police forces hell-bent on murdering you. Then it's back to the city where the resistance has began an assault to take it back and you are able to have a small band of them help and follow you, while sabotaging the enemies and their machines. Finally, you are treated to a small boss fight before the game ends with a big cliffhanger before fading to black as the credits roll.
These different gameplay styles keep things feeling fresh and going from small areas to wide open battlefields from one load screen to another is a unique way to keep the game from getting stale at its 21 hour playtime. Not only do the characters keep you interested, but the constantly changing style of play does too. With a plethora of guns and other weapons, you'll find yourself blasting enemies out of the way with satisfying effect.
Though the characters, plot and gameplay are all superb, there are several issues with the game. There are hundreds of loading screens, whether it be walking the streets of the city and entering a building, to getting on the roof of another, there are just a ridiculous amount of loading screens. Though they are fast, the constant pausing can become an annoyance. The only other gripe I have with the game is that the AI is kind of dumb. Your resistance group will run into walls or completely ignore what's going on. When you need them to run full-force into the bullets while you reload or heal, they may only watch with interest as you are murdered. But despite these problems, the enemy AI and major plot characters are well-done and never feel sloppy or dumb.
With an enormous amount of character building, gameplay variations, and good fun, it's no wonder the Half-Life series has emerged as one of the best around. With the addition of two expansions and a possible third, Half-Life 2 is a giant adventure waiting to be played.
This game is
strongly recommended to fans of first-person shooters, great storylines, and unique gameplay or even to anyone willing to test out a different kind of game.
