- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Half-Life 2... Well, I beat it yesterday and it is one HELL OF A GAME. Lots of new and innovative gameplay as well as graphical touches, but at heart it still feels like Half-Life. You can even bunnyhop (rapidly jumping, crouching, then jumping again to move really, really fast) just like in the first one. The graphics were also better than Halo 2's, though that's just because the Xbox is old.
I was running Half-Life 2 at 1600x1200@85 4xAA 8xAF with all settings maxed and getting a constant smooth 60fps, whereas Halo 2 aims for 30. Damn consoles. Anyways, the characters in Half-Life 2 are more realistic than I've ever seen, thanks to the excellent art direction at VALVe and the Source engine's advanced facial animation system. I've heard that you can get realistic mouth movements for speech by using a utility in the SDK that converts .wav files of voice into the actual game for use in cutscenes and the like. Even though HL2's engine is not as pretty as it once was thanks to the delays (and certain games such as Far Cry and Doom 3), the game has a very realistic feel - more realistic than any other game, ever - thanks to some great art direction and level design.
This realism really helps pull you into the game and adds more immersiveness than I thought possible without a driving story. Half-Life 2's story was almost non-existent, but if you listen carefully throughout the game you'll get enough scraps to put it together yourself. Overall I'd say this game is more based on its characters than its story, but once again Gordon is mute. None of this really matters, though, because Half-Life 2 doesn't need a fancy story to be awesome - you'd be having too much fun killing Combine soldiers alongside some Ant Lions and hurling saw blades at zombies with the insanely fun Gravity Gun to notice any story. One last thing about the atmosphere - the chapter "We don't go to Ravenholm" is amazing. It's easily scarier than a Resident Evil game. If you play through it, you'll know what I mean.
My only criticism for Half-Life 2 is about the AI. Sure, it's fun to play with, but Halo 2's hostile Elite AI (particularly that of the "Elite Ultras" as Cortana calls them) is better than HL2's Combine AI. This was a bit of a disappointment to me, as the first Half-Life had downright revolutionary AI when it first came out that wouldn't be toppled until Halo 1 came out. I guess that's one of the harder things to perfect when you're making a game.
Anyways, I strongly recommend Half-Life 2 for anyone who has a computer, even if it's a crappy one, as the engine can be set low enough for almost anyone. The gameplay is awesome and there's little holding this game down from being Game of the Year even amongst other blockbuster titles - I'm sure you guys have noticed 2004 is probably the best year for gamers ever... Have fun fraggin' whether it's Covies, Combine, Flood, or Headcrabs.