However, the downside of this is that, since the story is incredibly linear (almost too linear at times) the player doesn’t actually speak, with possible dialogue choices compromising Gordon’s character. Playing in the first-person makes the game incredibly immersive for the player as opposed to having the player relate to Gordon Freeman as a person, they play as Gordon Freeman, and become that character. The only issue with Half-Life 2’s story is its first-person nature, although that really acts as a double-edged sword in this case. Not to mention that it creates the possibility for incredibly fun gameplay mechanics. Concepts like oppression, revolution, resistance are all familiar to most gamers, and the inclusion of the advanced sci-fi concepts Half-Life 2 brings in add a unique twist that make the story different to other incarnations of Orwellian dystopia. More than anything, Half-Life 2’s world is both mysterious enough to be enjoyable in exploring, and familiar enough for it not to cause any hurdles to new players trying to get their bearing. In a way, Half-Life 2 plays very much like a traditional police state story, with the protagonist Gordon Freeman acting as a key resistance fighter working to undermine the mysterious Combine that rules the world with an iron fist, but as the player travels the world and uncovers more of the story, they slowly start to discover stranger and stranger details, like the possibility of interdimensional travel and the idea that the Combine are actually from another world. When I played Half-Life 2, my first assumptions were somewhere along the lines of an Orwellian police state and a classic resistance plotline, but I quickly discovered that wasn’t the case amidst the hints of futuristic technology, alien creatures, and even zombie-like monsters overrunning both the human public and the oppressive Combine ruling over them. The player is given zero context before they’re plunged into the game, so they have to think on their feet quite often to determine the exact state of affairs. Just as a note for readers here, I try to avoid major spoilers in this review, but some content will be revealed that would definitely be more satisfying if players discover it on their own, so I highly recommend that future players play the game before reading this review, lest they ruin some of Half-Life 2’s incredible reveals accidentally.Īt its core, Half-Life 2 is a story-oriented game, with strong gameplay aspects, but the key feature for consideration in Half-Life 2 is actually its richly detailed and immersive world-building. It currently enjoys an “overwhelmingly positive” average review on Steam, and a 96/100 according to Metacritic for the PC version. Half-Life 2 is an action-adventure puzzle game, but it is also a first-person shooter, in a relatively rare combination. Half-Life 2 was originally released in 2004 by Valve as a sequel to the 1998 game, Half-Life. Having finished it though, I can openly say that Half-Life 2 is well deserving of all the praise it receives. I’d played around with it a bit, but a few issues I had with it, which I’ll get to eventually, stopped me from pushing through until recently. I’d heard of Half-Life 2 since I’d entered the PC gaming arena and acquired it a few years back during a package deal during a Steam sale, but I never really got around to finishing it until a few days ago. Part of this is due to the immense controversy regarding Valve’s failure to produce a the oft demanded Half-Life 3, but Half-Life 2 remains an incredibly strong game under it’s own power. Not even Half-Life although the original was just as exceptional as its successor. If there’s one name in the PC gaming industry that is known to most, if not all, gaming aficionados, it’s Half-Life 2.
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