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Protection scheme makes it unplayable

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 20
Date: July 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

You MUST have an Internet connection to play. If anybody got hold of your CD key number before you, you will never be able to play the game, and Valve will NOT help you if you bought the game on eBay. I never thought I'd say this, but Valve is worse than Microsoft.

Steam is buggy and awful

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 24
Date: June 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

To play this game, you have to logon to Steam, valve's online download system. Its buggy, difficult to configure, and crashes. If you can't get it to work, you don't get to play, which is where I am. I really wish I hadn't bought this game. So far, its money completely wasted. Do not buy this game, unless you enjoy configuring your router, firewall, etc.

WARNING!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is AWESOME, however if you have a dial up ISP you should either switch to something faster, or not buy it at all. I tried it with dial up and it said Estimated time: 743 minutes until game is ready. Now I had no intention of stay up that long to finish it, but with DSL it took 5 minutes. It is outrageous that you have to go online to play a single player game off line. But the wait was worth whil. Half Life 2 is awesome! If you have a good video card and processor and ram, it will work fine. It is the best game I have ever played!!! Awesome dude!

JUST WOW

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is simply amazing, everything from this game seems to have been perfected in such a good way. Right from the sound, the storyline, to the impressive visuals.

Let me just note that I'm running this game on a ATI All in Wonder 9800 pro, AMD Athlon 2400 2ghz cpu, 896 mb of ram, an altec lansing 2.1 sound system (doesn't affect game performance) and a Soyo Dragon KT4000 lite motherboard. Also I'm running on a 19inch viewsonic 3ms LCD monitor. Now I know what you're thinking, that this isn't the best high end specs available, but surprisingly this game still runs very well, with everything high except no HDR lighting and occasionly on medium model detail. I'm getting around 50fps which is really good since this game looks like looking into a portal into a different universe lol.
You don't need the best computer to power this game unlike F.E.A.R. which is simply outragious since it looks almost like this game (maybe since it has a better A.I. engine hmm).

Now onto the game, everything about this game is amazing, and makes you want to play this game over and over. I like how this game has been divided into chapters because if i want to have a basic non challenging cop shooting fun i go to chapter 2 or if i want to destroy zombies i go to chapter 7 i think. This game has been divided really well.

The creatures in this game look so good, from the Striders to the antlions, right to the zombies. The zombies add some fun horror into this game.
The sound in this game is remarkable, where you could hear every last detail in your surroundings. I would recommend using headphones if you don't have a surround system.

This game was a lot of fun and it gets more fun when you play it in the dark with the lites off and speakers on full blast, its like watching a movie.

I won't get into details about the story since you could just go play it yourself or read someone elses article on Amazon.

The A.I. is under the new steam engine which uses ragdoll technology which makes the people react the way they would in real life counting the fact that they have bones inside them which make them move, now you might not understand what I just said but picture shooting a Combine soldier off a building and he lands onto the edge of a fence, he would bend and his arms and legs would be wagging as they would in real life. Also the A.I. is really smart, such as the combines could be having a discussion and if they notice you one of them might hide for cover while the other would be shooting at you, and what's best is if you throw a grenade at them they really run for cover!

What is by far the most impressive part of the game is the freakishly large view distance. I was on top of a building fighting of a helicopter in almost the ending of the game and i look past the fence and on the bottom is a the resistant force fighting off a strider and combines. So I thought that it must just be a motion clip added to the game and that I can't interact with it but when i took out my crossbow and shot a combine officer he acturly died! I was amazed at how this game was perfected, even in the distance.

Well that is my review of a great game that also comes with counter-strike force and deathmatch. I don't need to review counter-strike cause everyone knows how good that is.

By the way im over 13.

Far and Away - the best FPS Game period. Even Jack Bauer would love this game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I tend to get tired of fawning reviews of many FPS titles. Many go on about the graphics, the intelligent AI, the world physics etc. and the reason I get bored of this is that most of these titles, while good....maybe adequate, they don't really stand out from the pack. HL2 does and it does so dramatically.

The tired gamers' term, "immersiveness" is finally fully realized. And it's accomplished not by the cheap "creatures jumping out of a dark shadow" tricks but by oftentimes doing things in the scenery that are so surprising that on occasion I found myself lingering in certain areas just to play around with the game environment.

All FPS titles employ a certain amount of puzzle solving/jumping problem situations and in many titles the solution feels arbitrary. In HL2 every single one is perfectly based in real world solutions and each is absolutely logical. I won't give any away but suffice it to say that they all simply require you to be human living on planet earth to solve. That is, the solutions are exactly what you would have to do if you came upon the situation in a real life environ.

I also don't really usually care too much for the story of the game...one reason that I loved Painkiller since it had virtually no story and was just straight ahead inspired running and gunning...but HL2 has an interesting story that makes you really feel that you are a player in a motion picture.

And of course, as they use to say on Second City TV..."things get blowed up real good!" The action is exciting ala "Call of Duty" and the weaponry ranges from the basics to the inspired...you have to love that gravity gun.

My only gripe - fairly long load times between scenes. When I played this on my home system, which is decent but not the equal of the newest gaming rigs I assumed it was my machine's relative lack of horsepower that was the reason. Not so. I ventured to a local gaming cafe and played a few levels on a fully tricked out Athalon 64 system complete with NVIDIA's best PCI Express video card and the load times were still annoying.

So - they lose a point for that. Otherwise, this is a brilliant bit of work that like the addictive TV show "24" just makes you want to get the next bit as soon as possible. Come to think of it...I think Jack Bauer would enjoy this game.

Well... doesn't 5 stars say it all?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Absolutely stunning, jaw-dropping game. Its graphics are fantastic even with a low-end machine. (Mines a amd4000+, bfg 7800 oc, 1gb ram, maxtor diamond max10). So dont worry cause my gfx before was a 9800 128mb pro. Anyway, this game will really get your heart pounding, and a funny thing is, you will hear yourself making strange little noises you never knew you could make, just from the sheer fear and excitment from being chased by the Combine. I am not a spoiler, but the door is OPEN. IM WAITING! And by the way... Steam is not that bad guys. Verification can be a bit -raunchy- but you can also test free demos, and dl new games without messing with all the disks and what-not. Do yourselves a favor, and go out and buy this masterpiece. If you havent already, see if you can find MaxPc's review of the game (dec. 2005 issue I believe). MIND-BLOWING. In my opinion, F.E.A.R. has got nothing on HL2.

Best game EVER!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing video games for, hm, 15 years? This is the best experience I've had so far. It helps to have a fast PC with a good video card (GeForce 6800 GT) but not neccessary. Very strong story line, amazing visuals, excellent physics and A.I... I also love how the gameplay varies between slow paced puzzles to heartpounding first person shooter, to crazy vehicle scenes. This game has everything, I can hardly wait for the next one!

Amazing game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Half Life 1 used to be the best game, now Half Life 2 definetely is. Its got a great storyline, provides the gamer with excellent graphics and the audio is amazing.

Graphics: Like i said, the graphics are superb. Next to Doom 3, Half Life 2 probobly has the best graphics. The background animation is definetely one to brag about, the character models are very well made and the cutscenes provide the gamer with sharp/crisp detail.

Gameplay: The gameplay is Half Life 2 is also extremely good. The controls take a little while to get used to, but once you do get used to it, you will have a blast. Its one of those games where your either fighting many enemies at one time, or trying to figure out a challenging puzzle/where to go next.

Audio: The audio in Half Life 2 is probobly the best out of all the computer games, once again, besides Doom 3. Doom 3 takes features to a whole new level...Half Life 2, however does sound extremely realistic with the voices, and the footsteps. Also, the sounds of bullets are amazing as well.

If you want to play online, you have to get Half Life Deathmatch at a shop or over www.steampowered.com.

This is a great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I don't play too many games anymore as I don't find the time nor do many keep my interest for more than 1 or 2 gaming sessions. This is one of those exceptional games that keeps me coming back. Even after my busy schedule kept me from playing for a couple months I was able to jump right back in and have a blast. The only other game that I can say that about is Diablo II.
It's a blast having these alien invaders attacking you from all sides and throwing flaming barrels at you while you're trying to swim/shoot/run. The physics engine is fun as well, I'm always looking for another barrel to blow up just to see what havoc it will cause.
The divisions in the story also aid in the excitement and keep the game fresh as you get to try out new vehicles in new terrains and have to develop slightly different techniques.
Then there are even fun puzzles and I'm not much of a puzzle person (or at least not in video games).
If you enjoy any of the following I think you'll love this game: deep plotted stories, first person shooters, or racing games.

Advancement in physical effects

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There are so many different subjects to praise Half Life 2 on but I thought I'd focus on one, the physics in the game. The game I played immediately before HL2 was the latest Splinter Cell. The difference in the two games is stark as Chaos Theory operates with a completely static environment. Chairs, tables, boxes are all completely immovable as if the entire world were cast from a single block of steel. Half Life 2, on the other hand has an incredibly malleable environment. Cinder blocks can be picked up and placed down with actually physical weight. Plastic barrels bob around in water. Wooden platforms collapse when supports are taken out. If the bottom box of a stacking is removed the rest of the boxes collapse realistically. Manipulating the environment is nothing new but Half Life's physics are probably as close to reality as has ever been done in a game.

One of the biggest problems since the advent of 3D environments has been the clipping problem. How many times has a guy collapsed to the ground only to have his head pass right through a nearby wall or his gun float eerily in the air? HL2 seems to have somewhat solved the clipping problem and that alone makes it groundbreaking. Rather than phase into a wall people collapse and lean against them. The only other game I ever saw with this good of a treatment of physical barriers was Eternal Darkness on the GameCube. It's still not perfect as bodies can still merge with boxes but it's a definite improvement on most 3D games.

The other physical effect I loved was the treatment of water. If you have a system that can handle full water reflection it... looks... AMAZING. The water really does look like water. In some games water tends to look more like it has the consistency of silver Mercury but HL2 nails it. Looking up from within water has an amazing distorting effect that I haven't seen since Mario Sunshine.

As good as it is there is still room for improvement. You don't really pick up items so much as have them hover before you. Also, you can't seem to turn or tilt items. If you pick up a barrel that's lying on its side you don't seem to be able to tilt it and lay it on its end. You can kind of smack it around until it might randomly pop onto its end but it's not quite the way things work in reality. There was one time in the game when a door seemed to get caught on a collapsed body. There seemed to be no way to close the door and it was blocking my path so I ended up having to go back to a previous save. Still, these are complaints aimed at a game with the best physical effects I've ever seen. NL2 will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the all time great games and a definite advancement in the field of physical simulations.

Half Life 2 requires a hefty system. I got an excellent frame rate and maxed out all visual stats except for a few effects like anti-aliasing. Here's what I had.
P4 3.0 GHz
1 Gig of memory
ATI RADEON X600

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