Half Life 2 Can I Have A Review?

[dvdfreak]

Can i have a review on half life 2 ? ^_^ TY

[Dogss]

It's an amazing, spectacular, super-dee-duper, barney approved, Game!
_________________
Mohawks are beautiful sculptures

[_matt_]

it's great if you have a good computer, but the campaign will hardly suffice. the enemy ai isn't terribly smart, even on the normal and hard difficulties. essentially they just stand there and shoot at you without seeking cover most of the times. not to mention some of the enemies just scoot towards you until they whack you; which is sufficient enough time to pull out a shotgun and blow their pasty white ass away. oddly enough it's essentially a prettier hl1 with a different story.

there's some pretty nasty enemies in this one, like bunches of explosive head crabs and wierd skinned demon things. the weapons are all essentially the same, but now you've got a physics gun which is actually a useful weapon instead of a gimick for the enhanced physics of source. you can pick pretty much anything up you could ever possibly think of picking up (like boxes, shelves, tables, house hold appliances, corpses, dishwashers and more!). this comes in handy when dealing with just about every enemy of the game seeing as you can easily bunch up a pile of crap and block a doorway or hallway to prevent zombies from slinking over and eating your brains. when all is said and done, the physics are really, really cool.

one thing worth mentioning about the campaign is that it's very short. well, at least if you know what the hell you're doing or you have a gamer's guide or something. the game lacks telling the player where to go and in most cases what to do. there's no compas, on screen map or clear objectives screen that tell you where to go. essentially this transforms the game into more emphasis on adventure and exploration than is needed in a fps. there's also repetitive puzzles that litter the campaign that include jumping, switch flipping and alternate path finding. it distracts greatly from the overall experience and becomes frustrating after traversing around for minutes at a time without finding a damn thing. what would be appropriate to say about hl2 is "when it's good it's good, when it's not it's not."

one last thing about the campaign is that the chapters (levels) are very linear. despite having giant, wide open maps and enviornments, hl2 hardly has a free-roaming or open-ended experience. sure you can go look at all the pretty surroundings, but that'll get you nowhere and after a while, you'll be back looking for a way to push forward.

luckily, hl2 comes equiped with counter strike source packed and ready to go. the popular cs game/mod is given a makeover from hl2's source code, adding physics to the gameplay. i enjoyed the frantic pacing of hl's multiplayer component a whole lot more than the campaign itself. sure the narriative was pretty nifty especially the fights against the striders, but it failed to deliver that consistently frantic competitive force that is counterstrike. i thought cs source was worth the price of admission in itself.

the decision is up to you now, to buy or not to buy. although the campaign is short (or tediously lengthy), dummed down ai and linear, it provides a aesthetically inspiring enviornment and top notch narriative. but along with this long awaited fps, you also get the long awaited multiplayer component free.