INTRO
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'The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.'

Half-Life 2 is a single-player first person shooter released for the PC in 2004.

The game was developed by Valve Software as a direct sequel to the original Half-Life, released for the PC in 1998.

To this day it is commonly referred to as the 'best first person shooter', and to some extent one of the greatest games of all time.

In this review I'm going to be discussing why this is the case, and my own opinion on the matter. There will be full story spoilers for Half-Life 2 and to some extent Half-Life 1.

So without further ado, let's begin.

CITY 17
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After the main menu, the game immediately opens up with a cutscene of the enigmatic character G-Man talking to Freeman and the player in conjunction, almost as if he's preparing the player for the adventure ahead. The scenes depicted in the background also give a sense of foreboding, with the alien design of the Citadel being used to great effect.

The original Half-Life ended with Freeman getting put in stasis by G-Man, so players of the first game would understand this and connect the dots when it came to the sequel. However new players won't understand the context of the introduction as it doesn't touch upon anything from the first game, which might have been what they were going for.

It's a fresh start for Freeman, which means a fresh start for the player as well.

The intro also serves as a way for Valve to show off all the capabilities of the Source Engine, including advanced facial animation, high resolution textures and polygon count, various material and overlay effects, and models with a high polygon count.

Keep in mind that Half-Life 2 was released in 2004; the advance in graphics that year was extremely impressive, with titles such as Metal Gear Solid 3 and GTA: San Andreas pushing the boundaries for their respective platforms. But Half-Life 2 was a PC exclusive until the following year, so even more boundaries could be pushed with the ever-growing hardware of the PC, creating visuals that still hold up to this day, thanks to continuous updates to the Source Engine.

After G-Man's monologue, the player assumes control of Gordon Freeman, the main protagonist. I'll dwell on Gordon's character and his relation to the player in a little while.

As soon as the player steps out of the train carriage, they are presented with some of the most excellent world building ever seen in a video game, in my opinion. Once outside, they are immediately blinded by a surveillance drone, and then shown a big television screen of the game's main antagonist, Dr. Breen. This combined with the violent nature of the police towards the player make it very engaging.

It seems very obvious that Valve have been directly influenced by the novel 1984 by George Orwell; the similarities being a dystopian future ruled by individuals that brainwash the lower social groups with propaganda. For example, Dr. Breen parallels with 'Big Brother'; the leader of a totalitarian society wielding complete power over its citizens.

Dr. Breen's constant exposure to the player while being presented with the brutality of the Combine police makes for a great introduction to the main enemy. The player may even develop a hatred towards them, which is probably what the designers were going for.

Not long after stepping off the train, the player is introduced, or re-introduced to Barney, depending on if they played Half-Life 1. This may be somewhat jarring to old players, if you take into consideration that every single guard in Half-Life 1 was supposed to be Barney. There they all looked identical, multiple Barneys could appear on-screen, and he could often die, depending on the player's actions.

However, I'm willing to let that slide because of the technological limitations of Half-Life 1, and the existence of Half-Life: Blue Shift, which tied up some loose ends.

Barney is a much more charismatic character this time around, even referencing one of his lines from Black Mesa. He may even fool the player at first with his Combine disguise. The use of expressive body language and facial animation make the characters seem like real people, and the great voice acting also drives this home.

After telling Freeman to head to Kleiner's lab, the player is presented with a choice when a Combine officer drops a can on the floor and commands them to pick it up like a slave. At first, I never really thought about why the developers put this here other than to further drive home the 'Combine are bad' point. My guess is that this is supposed to represent two different types of players; submissive and defiant. Here the player is given two options - put the can back in the bin, or throw it at the officer to cause a distraction. A careful, submissive player will put the can back in the bin and the officer will laugh at him, whereas the defiant player will chuck the can at the cop's head and run past him while being chased.

In my opinion I think this choice is a good representation of the main themes of freedom versus enslavement, or free will and choice. After all, we are playing as Gordon FREEman. It sounds extremely far fetched, but it wouldn't be a proper review if I didn't touch on it. Anyway, I think I've droned on about this topic enough now, so let's move on.

Before the player reaches Kleiner's lab they meet Alyx, the deuteragonist of the story. It's worth noting that Alyx saves Gordon from being captured shortly before meeting by taking down a bunch of cops in hand to hand combat, which shows her as a strong female character. If Freeman would have been captured right there and then, the story would be over in an instant, making her important to the plot.

The scene in Dr. Kleiner's lab is a fairly exposition-heavy part of the game which goes over Freeman's role in the story. Shortly before reaching the lab, Alyx says this: "Man of few words, aren't you?" This is a obvious jab at the fact Freeman is a silent protagonist; a stand-in for the player. As a character, Freeman is quite a blank slate - an intentional design choice as it allows the player to think for themselves rather than have the protagonist spew out unnecessary dialogue.

In any other game this would be strange, but Half-Life is perfect for this, since a lot of the storytelling is shown visually rather than audibly.

Kleiner's lab tends to drag on for quite a while, and can become very tedious on subsequent playthroughs. This is somewhat alleviated because these scenes happen in game in real time and include various physics objects around the place for the player to play around with. I can easily see someone getting bored, chucking books and boxes around the place and not understanding the context of the situation because they didn't listen.

Upon being teleported out of Kleiner's lab, the player is finally granted Freeman's signature crowbar. From this point on the 'real' game begins as the player can now fight. The melee combat is as shallow as it gets; one button to swing. It could've been improved upon, but overall it doesn't make a difference, since the player is able to use firearms for the rest of the game.

The arsenal of Half-Life 2 is quite varied, and each weapon fulfils a specific purpose. You've got the basic melee weapon, a pistol, an SMG, a shotgun and then you have unique weapons such as the pulse rifle and crossbow. Each of these weapons feel like they have a great deal of punch due to the great sound design; all the guns have distinct noises.

A personal complaint of mine is the SMG, as the sound it produces can become very grating to the ears, especially during sustained fire.

CANALS
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Soon after the slaughter the player will meet a rebel, giving Freeman an airboat to traverse the canals with. This is the first of two chapters where the player is granted a vehicle to use because of the wide open level design.

The airboat is a great amount of fun to control as it is nimble and floaty. Since it is a hovercraft, it can be used on land and water, making it the perfect vehicle for the design of the chapter. The canals chapter is more or less a big set piece, mostly made up of chases and running away from the Combine.

One such set piece is a point where a chimney explodes while the player approaches it in the airboat. Here, the player can choose whether or not to play it safe and jump over it with a ramp, or go as fast as possible and attempt to squeeze under the chimney before it falls, risking a crash and potential death.

This creates an interesting dilemma for the player, no matter how small the choice may seem, as it makes the setpiece more involved with the gameplay. In my opinion this is a great example of how a well-done set piece should be, even if it is quite insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

One of Half-Life's greatest strengths is how engrossing it can be. The sound design, atmopshere and various set pieces really pull you in, and it can be a very captivating experience since the player has play through most of it without any AI partners.

Eventually things slow down again when the player reaches Eli's lab, another quiet, exposition-heavy chapter. These quiet moments are used to great effect, as it allows the player to better appreciate action-packed moments that come after. Without these pacing contrasts, the action will become fatiguing for the player and quickly becomes boring.

Music is rarely used, usually only during bombastic action sequences which heightens the drama and pulls the player in. Musicless quiet time can ramp up the tension, however - as players won't know when the action is going to kick in.

I have to commend Valve for their choice of not including cutscenes that break the flow of the gameplay. As soon as the player steps into Freeman's shoes, the flow of the gameplay is never broken as the player is always able to control him. The load times between levels are about the only thing disrupting the flow - although short, usually taking 2 or 3 seconds, they are very frequent, especially at the start.

Quite a lot of the game's time is devoted to gimmicky physics-based puzzles which are part of these quiet time sections I've talked about. At the time, these puzzles were unheard of in an FPS game, and made for a very interesting experience.

Upon hindsight, it seems like a way for Valve to show off the physics capabilities of the Source Engine, as these puzzles aren't really thought-provoking or even challenging - they're just impressive to look at.

The next section reinforces this point as the player is handed the Gravity Gun - the most interesting tool at the player's disposal. Since the game was filled with physics-based objects, it only made sense to include a weapon that utilises this as a gameplay mechanic.

With the Gravity Gun, the player can grab any kind of small physics object and shoot it with immense force, creating a host of new strategies and ways for the player to fight back; for example, using a barrel as a shield to block bullets. This adds another layer of complexity in the combat, as the player can now use physics as a tool or weapon.

The player could finish the rest of the game without firing a single bullet if they wanted, and the game accomodates this by including a range of explosives and objects to use. There's even an achievement for this in Episode One.

After giving the player ample time to test the physics engine, Eli's lab comes under attack. I don't see why the characters should be surprised, though; Freeman was chased through the canals by squads of combine soldiers, so it was only a matter of time before they chased him to Eli's lab.

The suspension of disbelief is broken further when the player and Alyx are separated by a pile of rubble. Rather than to easily climb through it, Alyx tells the player to go to Ravenholm, even though the dialogue earlier connotes it as being a dangerous place.

I'm all for varying up the locale of the game, but only when it makes sense to do so. By arbitrarily forcing the player to take a detour, this increases the game time by another hour or two, making it seem like padding.

RAVENHOLM
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The Ravenholm section is one of, if not the most memorable part of Half-Life 2 for many reasons. First off, the atmosphere in the level is some of the best in the game. The sound design here is on point, and the visuals give off a very creepy vibe.

Second, this is the only section of the game where the player is expected to fight zombies for the entire chapter. The level immediately accomodates for the Gravity Gun as well, by placing saw blades, propane tanks and other such items to use against the zombies.

Different types of zombies are also introduced here, since the player is going to be spending quite a lot of time in Ravenholm. You've got your basic walking zombies, a fast zombie, and a poison zombie which throws headcrabs. They're spread out evenly among the level, with many contraptions that the player can make use of to kill them.

At some point the player meets Father Grigori, a priest seemingly gone mad, spouting bible quotes while shooting zombies in the head - and it's quite entertaining to hear him ramble on in different situations. He gives the player a shotgun aswell, and while the shotgun is a very effective and satisfying weapon to use against the undead, I can't help but notice  a glaring oversight.

It appears that the developers at Valve did not know how a pump-action shotgun works, as the player is given the option to fire both barrels. The problem here is that a pump-action shotgun only has one barrel, with a magazine tube underneath which stores the shells. The team must have thought that the magazine tube was an extra barrel.

I could forgive this if the shotgun had some kind of abstract design that would have made sense for this, but the in-game model is based on the Franchi SPAS-12, a real life firearm. Either the team was clueless as to how a shotgun worked, or they sacrificed authenticity for the sake of the gameplay. Not exactly immersion-breaking, but it does loosen the suspension of disbelief a bit.

Before the player leaves Ravenholm, Father Grigori says goodbye to Freeman while he rambles on about Salvation and gets swarmed with zombies. This is quite a somber moment, as the player has no idea if Grigori lives or dies.

THE COAST
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The next chapter sees the player crossing the wasteland in a dune buggy, the second vehicle of the game. Upon setting off, the buggy is flipped upside down, subtly teaching the player to use the gravity gun to flip it back up.

There are several sections ahead where the player is supposed to leave the buggy to complete an objective, such as clearing a roadblock. They offer various different challenges, the most memorable being the climb across the underside of a bridge.

It's not long until the player has to abandon the buggy for good though, as the next chapter imposes an interesting platforming challenge. In this chapter, antlions are only alerted when the player steps on sand, which the game tells you in the form of two rebels.

This is a fun little challenge in and of itself, as there is a definite risk and reward - the platforming is optional, so it will be much quicker to sprint across the sand, although the player will be met with a swarm of enemies, potentially killing them or wasting ammunition. However by taking your time and using objects to get across the player can find many different ammo caches and supplies, while also being able to drink in the ambience.

I think this also relates to what I said near the beginning of this review about submissive and defiant players, and the different kind of strategies they may have when faced with a situation.

After a short boss battle, the player is given another tool at their disposal; the bugbait. The antlions that the player was faced with can now be converted to allies and used as weapons against the combine. This becomes especially apparent in Nova Prospekt where the player is expected to fight off dozens of soldiers at once.

You would think that giving the player access to this many weapons makes them overpowered, but the difficulty is surprisingly balanced despite this, and the player can even ramp up the difficulty if they wish. In my opinion, the game is best played on higher difficulties, as it encourages slower gameplay and the need for exploration and scavenging is more prevalent.

NOVA PROSPEKT
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The next chapter takes place in Nova Prospekt, the Combine prison. Like Ravenholm, the atmosphere for this chapter is very gloomy with disturbing imagery thrown in there. The player breaks into the prison by entering the tunnels underneath and getting inside the walls, which makes it feel like a sort of espionage film.

This part of the game is fairly action-heavy - for the most part the player will be taking part in mostly corridoor shooting and a boss fight, with little quiet moments sprinkled throughout.

During this section, the player meets up with Alyx and even fights alongside her - this is the first part of the game with a human companion, and it's still apparent that Alyx can handle herself.