Review: Half-Life 2

The original Half-Life is regarded widely as a defining moment in the first person shooter genre. The game's use of story and in-game scripted elements changed the expectations of game players and spawned a bevy of imitators. The sequel, Half-Life 2, has been in the works for almost six years and is one of the most hyped and anticipated games of 2004. It was launched last week after delays, a code theft, and lawsuits frustrated the anxious fans waiting for a chance to play. Post-launch the game has received wide praise and, thanks to the unique distribution and authentication system called Steam, many complaints as well. Read on for my impressions of Valve's Half-Life 2.

• Title: Half-Life 2
• Developer: Valve
• Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games
• Reviewer: Zonk
• Score: 9/10

The first component of Half-Life 2 that a player is likely to encounter is the massive hype that has surrounded the game for over a year. Advertising, articles, and player expectations have elevated Valve's second game to a level that ensures a certain level of disappointment. Regardless of the actual merits of the game, there are some players who have been waiting for this game since late last century. The game is not a defining moment in civilization. The lame will not be made whole by playing Half-Life 2.

As we've reporting in the past week, many players have experienced difficulties in getting the game running after installation. The initial load on the Steam servers caused by the large number of people attempting to play the game at once caused massive slowdowns in authentication and file downloads. For the most part these problems seem to primarily be reported by individuals who purchased the game in a retail store in a box. I purchased the game via Steam and downloaded it in the space of about three hours. I have experienced no problems in playing the game.

With all those caveats out of the way, Half-Life 2 is an incredibly impressive experience. In playing the game you step again into the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist who originally worked at the Black Mesa facility. The first chapter of the game finds you arriving via train in the dystopian atmosphere of City 17, a ramshackle series of buildings raised from the remains of a now mostly destroyed civilization. A mysterious organization known as the Combine exerts control through police forces and alien troops. Via televised transmissions the citizenry is controlled mentally, spiritually, and even reproductively. From the first moment you enter the game Valve does an excellent job of imposing a sense of despair and barely contained anger rippling within the populace of City 17. What we are not imparted with is a sense of what has happened to Freeman since the events of the previous game. While clues are unearthed during the course of the game as to what has occurred, there are no firm answers to the many questions players are likely to have. With confirmation already in the news that Valve has begun work on Half-Life 3, the impression that you're left with is that this only part of a larger story. The story stands well on its own, but don't expect to come away from the game with all your questions resolved.

The new graphics engine that Valve created for their second game, Source, is an incredible achievement. The level of detail in the game is nothing short of breathtaking. From the reflectivity of water and tile flooring to the incredible facial animations, the game engine places Gordon Freeman directly into the world and makes exploration a joy. One of the best moments of the early game comes in a lobby. You emerge from the depths of the train station and face one last room before the freedom of open air. It is dusty and decrepit, filled with lost souls looking for nourishment rations handed out by inhuman robotic servants. Light pours into the room from windows set high in the external wall, and these amazing shafts of light fill the room. Motes float inside the light beams, lending an almost reverential air to what is essentially a ruin.

The physics of the game are wonderful to behold as well. The tech demo at E3 last year was quite an eye opener, and Valve allows you several opportunities to enjoy the physicality of the Half-Life world. At two points in the game you take control of vehicles. The wildness of the bouncing white knuckle ride you get with the airboat and dune buggy make for memorable gaming moments. The airboat in particular makes for excellent visuals as you speed across the water in a series of canals, ripples and waves speeding away from your craft and beautiful splashes marking where you hit the water after a jump. The gravity gun displayed in the tech demo is indeed as much fun to use as it is to watch. The weapon allows you to snatch objects from distances and launch them as projectiles. While the uses of the gun are usually more practical than some of the opportunities shown in the tech demo (the number of saw blades lying around in Ravenholme is kind of disturbing), there are a number of creative opportunities scattered periodically throughout the game. Beyond the vehicles and the gravity gun, there are constant reminders of the physics underpinning the game, as enemies push objects aside rushing at you and heavy objects swing like deadly pendulums through obstacles and crush opponents.

Once you step outside the door of the train station, your moments to stop and enjoy the beauty of your surroundings are few and far between. Almost immediately you as Gordon are connected up with the Underground Railroad, populated with peoples not willing to submit peacefully to the Combine. You reconnect with old friends from the previous game and after an experiment accident, you find yourself on the run from Combine forces. The instant the crowbar returns to your hands is truly a sweet moment. From there you move through the urban landscape of City 17, hop an airboat to duke it out with Combine troops in flooded waterways, and explore the Lovecraftian ruins of a small town inhabited by alien hunters and a mad priest. The game keeps you engaged with a constantly changing backdrop of locations and a series of pretty memorable characters. I was particularly impressed by the voice actors, all of whom do an excellent job of getting across what their characters are about. Each of the non-player characters has a nice moment to talk to you and make an impression. Dr. Vance's daughter Alyx is actually the one who introduces you to the gravity gun, and the quirky time spent with her may be the funniest, best written part of the game.

The visuals in the game are astounding, but the auditory experience is fairly impressive as well. The musical moments in the game are few and far between, and are used to accentuate tense or impressive moments. The music tends towards electronic stings and they raise your heart rate by a good deal when they're used. The sound effects range from pretty standard clinks and clunks to the viscerally gripping howls of stalking predators. The atmosphere in the town of Ravenholme, where the predators live, is phenomenally creepy all around, and is conjured by the pervasive sound environment. The weapon sound effects are all very competently executed, with the satisfying blast of the revolver being a personal favorite.

Overall, the game is an incredible accomplishment. Valve has done an excellent job living up to the expectations their first title has prompted in the gaming community. The lack of closure in the game's story is the only real flaw in the plot, which otherwise provides excellent motivation to keep moving and find out what will happen next. Gameplay elements stay true to the previous game, providing action and some simple puzzle solving moments. The visuals and physics of the Source engine make for a beautiful and interactive world to move through. The deep audio environment keeps the player rooted in the moment, while the excellent voice acting makes the non-player characters come to life. The collaboration of individuals who created Half-Life 2 has proven again why video games are a unique art form. I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys first person shooters, horror and suspense, or engaging storylines.

Comments

Re:I want to, but should I?

[FiReaNGeL]

Half-life 1 is included with Half-life 2. They even upgraded it to the Source Engine (which means better graphics, prettier effects). Its a great game, you should play it before the second, just for the experience. The story is kind of confusing anyway, and the link between the two even more so, so I think you`ll be as lost as everyone else :)

Re:I want to, but should I?

[fobsen]

Just FYI: Half-Life Source (aka Half-Life 1 using the new engine) is not automatically included in every version of Half-Life 2. You need to get at least the "Silver" Edition from steampowered.com to get HL-Source. It is not included in the boxed version. See http://www.steampowered.com/

Steam-like online distrubtion is inevitable

[onethumb]

I wrote a short entry on Steam and why online distribution (or a worse alternative) is inevitable for PC games (console too, eventually). I'd love to hear some commentary on it from fellow /.ers.

Also, I've heard many complaints about Steam's bandwidth and whatnot. The solution is simple, and Valve went so far as to hire Bram Cohen, of BitTorrent fame, at one point to work on Steam. (Note the timestamp on this article before complaining I'm outta date :) No clue why it doesn't intelligently swarm yet...

Don

Praise Indeed

[CleverNickedName]

It must also be said that valve did an excellent job on making the game accessable to lower end machines. It runs fine on my 2.7 GHz, 512 Meg laptop with no graphics card to speak of.

Not great, but "fine"... :)

Re:I want to, but should I?

[smiley2billion]

I do have a question though. As someone whom has *gasp* never played Half-Life, would I be lost trying to pick it up in it's second incarnation?

The story isn't too hard to follow, you're a scientist with a crowbar. You unleashed hell back at the Black Mesa (old working place). Defeated an army of headcrabs and other such monsters and also a gov. task force sent in to clean up. HL2 picks up *kind of* right after. Some time has passed and the earth is a little changed. You being the hero figure in HL2, must free the people from the "Combine" (not farming equipment). Go get the game, it should be enjoyable even to people who have never played HL1.

Re:My Thoughts, 3.5/5

[fireduck]

In terms of the game itself, I haven't played Half Life (1), so I really don't understand what is going on, or why.

basic storyline of half-life: you, as gordan freeman, work in a top secret underground laboratory, Black Mesa, doing god knows what with equipment not meant to be doing what it's doing. Game opens with you showing up to work in the test lab (in probably the absolutely best intro sequence in a game ever, simply because of the awe you have when you realize it is interactive). Something goes horribly wrong with the sample you are analyzing, the whole of Black Mesa basically blows up, and a bunch of aliens start warping in. Your job is to stay alive and get to the surface, whereupon you realize that the government is cleaning up the mess by eliminating everyone, including you. Throughout the story is the mysterious G-man, the guy in the suit, who pops up in the oddest of places to give you consternation by closing doors you just want to go through. At the end of Half-life, he gives you a choice to work with him. hence the intro to HL2.

As for other tie-ins (and i'm only at the airboat section). The guard you meet, Barney, was the nickname for the lovable loaf from the original HL. The barney's basically run around to get killed in the original, and because fans loved them so much, they got a semi-expansion at one point (blue-shift?). In the original HL, there were 3 scientist models, 2 of them re-appear as characters here (at least thus far in my game); although Robert Guiamme wasn't a voice in the original game.

In an HL expansion (opposing force), we learn that some of the aliens don't get along, with some xeno slavery being practiced.

As for the loading issues and telling Valve to talk to Bungie: the original HL was much better in this respect. while there were loading periods, they were much much shorter than HL2. So Valve obviously knows how to do a semi-seamless transition, just perhaps that hasn't been optimized yet (which is frustrating).

Actually, the Source update is iffy

[Nomihn0]

Yes, Half Life 1 was updated with an integration of the Source engine. However, the geometry was not updated. You'll get the same old blocky Gordon man-hands as in the first iteration of the game. Because of this half-complete update, the HAVOK physics engine fails to chagen the game whatoever. It has almost no affect on the environemnt. For example, a barrel in Half Life 1 might be a static object in game, essentially fixed to the ground. The engine does not change any class definitions, obviously, so the game could seem a bit imbalanced to the player. It's like playing Tenebrae Quake. The graphics simply don't fit the game. They are superfluous and actually serve to break the suspension of disbelief (note that Tenebrae is working on that).

The Source Engine Half Life 1 update was done as a test of mod compliancy by Valve. It was just a convenient result that it proved releasable with a minimal investment by Valve. . . an extremely lucrative midnight project.

Re:No no no no pro-problem!

[mansa]

Here's an update from Valve on that issue, looks like it should be fixed today or tomorrow:

http://www.blep.net/hl2stutter/

Re:Doom3 Engine Comparisons?

[Repugnant_Shit]

Physics:
In D3 the physics, to me, didn't seem like a big deal, or a large part of the action. HL2's physics are threaded through the entire game - it just wouldn't be the same without them.

Shadows:
D3 had wonderful technology. If three light sources were shining on an enemy, it would have three shadows. HL2's shadows seem to be a one-shadow-per-model deal. And they sometimes seem to be cropped when they land on walls.

Graphics:
D3 has good graphics. The interactive, high-quality computer textures were amazing. The way light fell on enemies was well-done, and really added to the atmosphere. However, HL2's graphics were much more varied and colorful. The attention paid to detail was unbelievable.

Also, because of the more varied level and model design, features such as bump-mapping and are used to better affect in HL2, although D3 is quite stunning.

AI:
D3 is an iD game - there's not much AI to speak of. HL2's AI is an improvement over that of HL1, but with 6 years to get it right it should be. The enemies work together as a team, and your friends do what they should.

Maps:
D3 featured mostly small, cramped maps. While beautiful, I felt that the reason there weren't many large open areas was because of performance. Outdoor areas never seemed to have as much detail. HL2 does have its share of cramped hallways but also an equal share of outside fun. A beach, a city square, etc. add variety and run as smoothly as the indoor scenes.

Performance:
I have 2.4Ghz P4, 1GB of RAM, and a GeForce 6800. D3 performance was nothing special, dipping as low as 15 FPS. HL2's benchmark gave me 85 FPS, and the actual game was silky smoooooth, with anti-aliasing and 8x anisotropic filtering.

On the whole, they both have good engines, but I enjoyed HL2 much more, and think they did a much better job of showcasing what a modern engine should do. The Doom 3 engine is probably more advanced, but also almost too resource intensive (note the quality setting for video cards that don't exist yet).

Wow that was long. Hope this helps somewhat. Couldn't tell you about audio because Windows doesn't believe I have a 5.1 setup, so I can only do stereo.

Where are the negative reviews?

[Lord Bitman]

Some tips to get you started:
- It was much too easy, primarily due to horribly layed-out maps (Hmmm, we need to make a corner here so that not to much is rendered at a time. I guess we better fill the corner with enough ammo and health that nobody ever feels excited or like they're taking a risk). Setting the difficulty to "hard" makes enemies take more hits to kill, but still substantially fewer than the piles and piles of ammunition laying absolutely everywhere.

- The premise of the game seems to be "Hey look, you can pick things up". Yes, it's fun, it looks cool, and it's completely and totally pointless. At no point in the game are you rewarded for doing something interesting with the physics or with picking things up. Whenever that might have been the case, it is ruined by being the only option available.

- Infinite Rocket crates. The most simple thing anyone could come up with to suck all the excitement out of what otherwise might have been a really fun battle, is in just about every major battle. Two of the most fun moments in the game were when you fought along side other soldiers, and did not have an infinite supply of ammunition. Firing off your rockets and watching those around you working together to take down the same enemy, somehow that seems more fun than crouching next to a box.

- You inexplicably can't fling corpses around. This is completely inexcusable. Then, at the end of the game, you suddenly /can/ fling corpses around. This is ruined by then requiring that you fling corpses around (all other weapons are taken away, and the magical corpse-flinging ability also makes all weapons disintegrate). What could have been turned into a nice treat at the end of the game was made stupid by having it shoved down your throat. They even take away your fucking crowbar. There's no excuse for that. It's done, btw, because otherwise you'd be able to take out the last goal in one second using a machine gun. At least, I assume that's why.

- "interactive" means "lots of unskippable cutscenes in which you can't do anything". Even the smallest level of interactivity- like bumping in to the computer monitor as seen in the E3 video, has been removed. The long ride in the last chapter makes what probably would have been the most frequently returned-to chapter just not worth playing. I have an expensive graphics card, so it looked really cool. Once. After that, I just wanted to fling some corpses around for a while. The ability to look a little to the right or left does not make this pointless waste of time "interactive". In general, if you're designing a game and stick somewhere not in the very begining a scene where you need to climb into a steel coffin and wait for twenty minutes as you look at inexplicable gimp zombies (are they supposed to be Strogg or something?), you should probably re-think your pacing.

- On a note related to pacing, the game does not follow any natural progression whatsoever. In Half Life 1, each scene blended into the next and almost every chapter was good enough that sitting down for a quick game could easily turn into a night of "I can't believe I just re-played through the whole game". Here, you've got three unrelated games smashed awkwardly together. You've got urban combat, stupid vehicle levels which I assume were added so that the claim could be made "With two new driveable vehicles!" in advertisements. They add a small amount of fun in exchange for removing replay value from the game as a whole. And then you've got the stupid survival-horror "OMG ZOMBIES" levels. having such vastly different segments with no transition between them makes for an awkward and poor experience. You have the ability to select any chapter you want to start a new game from. I'm sure that at some point I'll start a new game on each and every chapter. But the poor or nonexistant transitions ensure that I'll never actually play through the whole game again.

- No friendly fire. This is just annoying. An option to turn it on would be nice. I know they

Re:My Thoughts, 3.5/5

[Karhgath]

Here's my anecdotal rebutal =)

For all its praise I'm not too happy with steam. The essence of which boiled down to this for me; pay $50 for a game, then download it at 30-50K/s (on a line capable of 200K/s).

First, I bought HL2 on steam before it's release, so I already had the whole game on my PC when the game was released, so I only went thru a ~10 minutes 'unlocking' phase. Then I went right in the game. That was a 4 am EST, 1 hour after the game was released(midnight PST).

My friend bought it this weekend from Steam. He downloaded the game at 600-800KB/s, which is pretty much the max he can get. At first he was a 50KB/s, but after opening the correct Steam ports on his router, he was flying.

To add insult to injury, I have to go through Steam every time I try to play the game, which wastes a few seconds 'Preparing' for an unknown reason (I have heard that it actually connects to the server every time I play... which seems rather redundant)

You can play in offline mode, BUT you either have to disconnect yourself from the net or do some non-obvious tweaking. A big 'play offline' button would be nice, I agree. You still need to be connected to the net to authentify the game if you bought it in store.

On the other hand, I think it's a MUCH better piracy protection that having it on the CD (which results in slow load times, incompatibility problems, etc.) The problem is that Vivendi Universal included a CD-check on the boxed version, which defeats the purpose IMHO, but that's not Valve's fault. I'd rather have no cd-checks but authenticate the game once via the net, than to have a cd-check over and over and having to download 'untrusted' cd fix to bypass it(if you're so inclined).

In terms of the game itself, I haven't played Half Life (1), so I really don't understand what is going on, or why. Vague references from the in game charecters hint at what is going on, but I really think I would have needed to play the first game to understand

Well, playing HL1 won't help much. The 'basics' of HL1 and HL2 is this: you are at the wrong place at the wrong time and all hell break lose. The only driving force is survival, but along the way you encounter people that help you or that you help out to survive. It's a 'fugitive' feel in HL2 while you're trapped and need to get out in HL1. I believe no story is needed for those kinds of games, as they suck you right in. Some people might not like that kind of narrative tho, so I can understand you.

Valve needs to walk over to Bungie with a presents one day, and beg them for education on how this load/save/death thing should work. Pausing for 3-20seconds in the middle of an action sequence while the game loads the next zone doesn't make any sense and just works to break up the game play. Death also requires a reload of the previous checkpoint. This is all stuff that Bungie figgured out for Halo 2, if only Valve could watch and learn.

Hmmm... You ever loaded in the middle of action? I finished it this weekend and NEVER loaded in middle of action. Might depends on play style, but I rarely pussy-out of combat and run back.

For the other part, well, you die then load your last save game. I never played Halo 2 but I can't see how different it is. You know you can quicksave with the F6 key, right?

The physics is fun, I really enjoy the ocasional puzzle with ropes and weights, It adds a little something, especially when most of them are optional for extra ammo or health. You feel like you've accomplished a little something when it's done. There have been a few places in a game where I was requird to load a previous save in order to continue (dune buggy was under water, and couldn't be moved,

Tried the gravity gun to get it out of water? You shouldn't be stuck often, and in this case it needed creative thinking =) And yeah, physics really adds to this game, it's not just eye candy, which I love.

I was surrounded by radioactive slime, an

More than meets the eye

[SamSim]

While you are essentially correct, there's a little more to the story of HL1 than meets the eye. Spoilers ahoy for people who haven't played the original Half-Life:

At the time of the original accident that Gordon Freeman is present for, Black Mesa has had working teleporters for at least a few months and has been able to go to and from Xen for at least a week. They've captured and domesticated a good few indigenous life-forms - witness the Barnacle weapon and the ecosphere set up for some houndeyes in the Opposing Force expansion. Gradually they've captured more and more fauna until they "start getting collected themselves..." They get as far as Nihilanth's lair and manage to retrieve a mysterious orange crystal.

Yup. The crystal at the start of the game is the same as the three powering the final boss. Look and you will see a hole in the wall where the fourth crystal was stolen from. No wonder there was resonance cascade. The original accident causes a lot of random teleportations to and from Xen and brings over a whole lot of dangerous animals, but it's only about 12 hours of game time after the original experiment that stronger enemies - the green slaves, and the huge alien grunts - begin appearing spontaneously. This is no longer accidental: this is enemy action by Nihilanth, who is moving to attack Earth... which is something the Administrator, who observes pretty much the whole course of events, has been expecting, indeed, preparing for. Read Alan Shepherd's diary and you know this was actually expected to happen.

Realising what has gone wrong the grunts are sent in, find it's too difficult a task to take on, are pulled out and replaced with black ops who attempt to nuke the place as a last resort. Shepherd stops the nuke and between them, he and Gordon Freeman block the alien invasion and kill Nihilanth, thus solving the problem in a different manner from what the G-man expected, but successfully.

The bigger picture - who is the Administrator? Did the G-man trigger the cascade just so he could single out Gordon Freeman for future employment? - is still sketchy at this point, but when I figured all this out I was mightily impressed with Valve's storytelling abilities. The inattentive player would have missed a whole lot. I have high hopes for the story of HL2, which my PC is currently too underpowered to play...