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In a perfect world..........

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: January 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is amazing if you can ever get it to play. I played for the first three days that I have had it. Since then I cannot get it to play. You always have to have an internet connection. Always. You can't even open the icon without one. The steam engine is a real pain in the butt and I only wish they could revamp the entire thing. I will never buy another product that requires the steam engine again.

Half-Life. Half-Good.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: October 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game is not bad in itself, it has great graphics for one, the storyline is also kind of entertaining. However there are two big problems with HL2:
-The game has to be registered and activated online with Steam *before you can even begin to play*. No internet, no HL2. A very long process. After you have done that, the game expects you to play online (even though it is a single-player game). There is an option to play offline, but it is somewhat difficult to activate and even then the game regularly tries to connect.
-The game has a bug generally called "stuttering". Very frequently the game hangs for a few seconds, while the audio goes like "It's Freeman/Freeman/Freeman/Freeman/Freeman". The problem is not related to performance, even powerhorse PC's have it, and no solution is in sight (Valve does not seem very interested in fixing it).

buyer beware

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: August 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

All the reviews bitching and moaning about Steam? They're spot-on. Steam simply ruined this game for me. It was HOURS from the time I unwrapped the box to the time when I could actually PLAY it. And the trouble never stopped. For weeks I stubbornly kept playing, in spite of system freezes, interminable delays between maps, and frustration with one of the damn dune buggies, which was terribly difficult to drive because the graphics kept jumping and stuttering (in spite of my pretty decent system, well above minimum requirements). And all this for the single-player game?!?!

I would say that I was playing the game maybe 50% of the time I spent trying to play it. The other 50% was spent waiting for a map to load, waiting for Steam to authenticate me, and rebooting my damn PC every damn time the game brought it to a screeching, frozen halt.

And then one day, I had an epiphany. The game play was pretty good. The puzzles were pretty good. I really liked that gravity gun. But it just wasn't worth the hassle. And it certainly wasn't worth relinquishing control of my system to that invasive Steam app. So I stopped playing. I uninstalled it. And I never looked back. I've not even been tempted this year to reinstall it and see if maybe some of the early bugs have been worked out.

I'd give the game away or sell it, but I wouldn't wish it on anyone with whom I'm on speaking terms -- or even an unwitting stranger. And I will NEVER, EVER buy another game that uses Steam or its ilk. I was shocked when I installed the game to see what kind of control I had to hand over to Steam in order to run the single-player game. I crossed my fingers, ignored my instincts, and let it run anyway. Dumb, dumb, dumb. What a terrible precedent to set in the PC software world. I won't succumb again.

Insanely Great.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I had to add my rating after I saw this game was getting something less than five stars (at this time). Ignore the idiots who reviewed the game before they played it, or rated it based on their opinions of VALVe. I just finished this game, and it's the best FPS I've ever played, period. Doom 3 doesn't even come close. The physics engine alone is worth the money, not to mention the Level design.

Nothing else feels like this game. You don't just play H-L 2 as live in it for 16 hours. There are titanic battles that felt so real I had to take a break and get un-shellshocked. VALVe deserves to have this game judged on it's own merrits, not the BS drama surrounding it's release. If this isn't a five-star game--you might as well just scrap the whole rating system.

NICE GAME BAD INSTALLER

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

STEAM IS A PAIN IN THE NECK, I HATE THE INSTALLER, AND UNLESS YOU HAVE A SUPERFAST INTERNET CONNECTION YOU WILL BE INSTALLING FOR 24 HOURS DUE TO STAEM AND THE DECRYPTION AND THE REGISTRATION AS WELL AS THE UPDATES. VERY ANNOYING. GREAT GAME PLAY!

Steam is horrible and the game gives me a headache

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: December 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As many people have stated already, Steam is the worst idea for a video game ever. It creates utter frustration for probably 90% of the players out there. One example of something that's frustrating people: when they first got the game everything worked great, but then Steam did the 'automatic patch download' thing, and now they can't even boot HL2 up. I'm in the opposite boat though. I bought HL2 and can't play it because Valve won't release a patch to fix the huge "stutter bug" that's effecting so many people. I have a system way above minimum spec for this game, and yet the game still stutters. Many many other people are having the same problem since day one of the release, and Valve STILL hasn't fixed the problem.

I try to ignore the stutters, but the game for some reason gives me a huge motion sickness headache. This is the only FPS to ever give me a headache like this, so the makers must have done something really wrong. I'm not the only one who gets motion sickness from this game either... I've read on other message boards several people with the same problem.

My recommendation: don't buy this game. That will show these companies that we refuse to pay money for these types of unfinished games with crappy software included (Steam).

Don't review til you've seen it, baby... and I have.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 19
Date: October 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have the beta copy of this game. It is more fun to play the incomplete beta than it was to play Doom 3. The Half-life 2 beta I have is over a year old, yet its graphics are on par with Doom 3. I can also run it on my Radeon 9000 Pro with high settings... Doom 3 needed low settings and 640x480x16 (I play my beta at 1024x768x32) to run playably.

This game is Half-life 2, the sequel to what is referred to by the general PC gaming community as the Best Game of All Time. It will own, if for nothing but the unprecedented graphics that I have seen it render on my own machine. I know it will own, however, because of the depth of plot that is already hinted at in the beta, as well as the massive open-endedness of the original.

I'm saving up for the full Gold edition now.

As Good As It Gets

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Half-Life 2 is a game that made me believe in first-person shooters again. I have to admit, it's not my favorite genre of gameplay (run, jump, shoot everything, repeat). This game goes above and beyond what this genre can be.

Half-Life 2 comes across as a living breathing world, a world where extra-dimensional aliens have taken the Earth, and the remaining humans are living in internment camp/cities or joining the resistance. The character designs and voice-acting are top-notch, the controls are fluid and easy, and the Havok engine means you get to interact with almost every random object on the screen. I loved using the 'gravity gun' to hurl a can of paint at a head-hugger zombie, and having the paint make a nice splatter that remained on its torso while it pursued me, for example. Little real world details abound, from birds overhead, combine officers chatting off-camera, civilians muttering about their plights, trains in the distance, combine propaganda posters covered with graffiti, etc.

Don't expect enemies that expose themselves and just stand there, either. These enemies DO use cover, and WILL attempt to flank you.

Valve's Steam server is also a great addition if you're an avid gamer, BTW. They own a lot of great older titles (Deus Ex, The Longest Journey, Pirates!, to name a few) that you can download, and the server usually does a PC scan to optimize your graphics settings for the best gameplay. Plus you can delete them for space and re-download them anytime.

I used to use a NVidia 7300 LE graphics card, which is pretty basic, and this game still ran great.

Great game although steam is F****** Bull S***

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First of all I had not played hl1. I was very impresed with eveything the physics, graphics, gameplay, npc's, story. I thought the campaign was kinda short butt maybe that is because i played it for endless hours, when I was so sucked in that I forgot time existed. However the steam system was completely pointless, what does it do that is good. It is just a way to try to advertise some crappy company. It doesn't make the game any more un-pirateable. I know of working pirated versions, so what does steam do but take up bandwidth, make you use useless crappy updates that literally take hours. Also steam only provides hl2 downloads, that's all. Who the f*** would use it if it weren't for this game, why was it made. come on Valve you've created a monster, you've hurt me deep. If I did not enjoy the game this much I would never buy another product of yours.

This game is revolutionary

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was skeptic to how good this game was really going to be, after sooo much hype, and much delay. And i must say, it really delivered, a phenomenal game i must say. After installing the game, it took me a full hour to get to playing it. even on DSL, the whole, Stream Activation, and file decrypting... lame, I hate steam, with a passion. But that's beside the point, the game its self is great. Looks great, Plays great, wonderful variety of environment, and puzzles, and its just great, and totally not a normal shooter, much much better than doom 3. The physics are wonderful, the interactivity with the world. The world is just so convincing and its just great. Haven't noticed any truly wonderful AI though... Im already half way threw the game, and I've had it for about a day... sadly it maybe short, especially when you play it for hours and hours constant because your having so much fun driving around taking down gunships with your RPG. Its just sooo cool.. nothing i can say can describe how much i truly like this game.. Well worth the 50 bucks i paid.

3 Complaints, and they are minor

One. *The big one!* I HATE STEAM!!! you have to run steam to play the game, always, its like, steam runs the game for you... i just dont like it.. i like being able to clickt he hl2.exe and playing but no.. you must steam and steam is like a steaming pile of poo... yes poo...

Two. You cant kill any civilians, which i always loved about the first.

Three. And you cant shoot when zoomed... whats with that?

Over all.... AMAZING GAME!!!!

Having trouble.. helpfull hint! THINK PHYSICAL!!!! its great!

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