Yeah, so if you're reading this, you probably already know that Half-Life 2 is not your typical singleplayer game with a lame story, average gameplay, bad textures for it's time and terrible soundtrack. Well, it scored good with whopping 9 game awards and 95/100+ ratings. But if you are one of the few people that didn't play the game or don't even know what it's about, well, I can definitely say that this game is worth the money, although I didn't buy it at first since I was a poor-ass kid. You can be asking, why should I buy it? Now let me tell you.
I'll try to not spoil the plot but i'm gonna be mentioning some key parts of the story, so this review isn't gonna be 100% spoiler free but i'll be only talking about parts that i think should be in the review. Firstly, if you didn't play the original game, I would highly suggest you to play it first since it sets the plot for the world of Half-Life. And also i would suggest you to NOT play the Half-Life: Source release of the game since it has lot of bugs which can sometimes even break the main story interactions. So just stick with the original release and you should be good to go.
Half-Life 2 scores with it's amazing Source physics engine and it's use in the game. The game is from 2004 and still only a few games have done the same or a better job with physics as HL2 did. How does it interact with the gameplay, you may ask. Well, Puzzles, enviroment interactions and of course, the Gravity gun. Seriously, if you haven't heard about the Gravity gun you must've been living under a rock until now. If you did, Gravity gun it's somehow exactly what it's called. You can use it to grab and throw most of the objects in the game that aren't the size of a building. There is a whole chapter dedicated to making you learn how it works and you can pass through the whole chapter without using any other weapons easily.
Speaking of weapons, there are about 10 weapons in the game. Some more special than the others. Every weapon in the game has a special use, but if you want to, you can go through the whole game only using Shotgun and SMG. For example, Revolver for one shotting enemies from afar, but it only has a capacity of 18 ammo shells. Grenade for bringing soldiers out of cover, Crossbow, which is practically a sniper rifle, Pistol for when you want to save ammo on weaker enemies and so on. They are all well balanced and I reccomend you to use them all.
Now, about the enemies. We can split them into 2 categories, that being the Combine, and Xen creatures. Combine Overwatch can sometimes be a real pain in the ass since their AI is astounding and you can clearly see that they are elite soldiers. Not counting Metrocops since they act like normal cops and don't make such a threat. Now about Xen, you're gonna encounter a lot of Xen craetures in the game, mostly being Headcrabs, Zombies and their varients. They are Barnacles of course but one Shotgun or a few Pistol shots are gonna kill it right away. These monsters don't really have some kind of varients of attacks and they'll just rush to you and try to hit you which you can easily evade by 1 or 2 shots from a Shotgun.
Of course, cannot forget the enviroment. You pass through many places in HL2 and every single one of them sets its tone amazingly. The disturbing and gloomy atmosphere of City 17, creepy and dark town of Ravenholm and so on. Map is made beautifully with great level design and enemy placement. Most of the game is accompanied by ambient music that really sets the tone. I highly suggest to turn on the volume of the game and never turn down the music volume.
When there isn't ambient music though, you can expect some kickass music that really hypes you up. That makes these moments way more special and better for the player since you don't hear the music that much.
The music has been composed by Kelly Bailey who worked on other Half-Life or Valve projects and also did a stunning job. He made a great mix between Rock and Synths that when cobined made an amazing sounds that are now synonymous with the franchise
Throughout the whole game you never leave the view of Gordon Freeman and are always in first-person mode. There are few cutscenes in the game but neither of them make you leave first-person view. This form of gameplay is now embranded with Half-Life games. It gives the player the feeling of always being in control and that he is the protagonist of the story, pushing forward the fact, that you can do almost anything with the enviroment in HL2.
In conclusion, great story, amazing work and use of the physics engine, good use of weapons, really good AI (specially the Combine), astonishing abient and soundtrack music and well-thought gameplay. Without a doubt, I can say this is, and will be, one of the best games ever made. Another astounding work by Valve, easily 10/10. A true masterpiece.
Hi, thanks for making it down here and reading all of this. This was my first serious review and I would appreciate some feedback. Also sorry for my English. I'm from central Europe and English isn't my main language.
Have a nice day! ;)
