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Read a book instead

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As far as enjoying this game, I have to give it a one star as I find it not very fun. Overall though, I will give it two stars because the graphics are okay and because it has a very unique and neat weapon called the anti gravity gun and I enjoy the magnum and shotgun but wish there was more ammo available for these. I like to hunt in these games. I like to kill everything (with a shotgun as much as possible). I like to roam about doing this as well.

When I play a game, I really like an interactive adventure and a challenge. I find neither of those in this game. The game is soooooo linear its insulting. I have no ability to feel as a working part of the game though I am obviously the main focus and character. All I can do is shoot the mobs, walk along the given plank, wire or long hallway and on to the next set of mobs. I can't choose this door over that one or explore left instead of right etc. Its only what is exactly preplanned for me that I can choose to do.

Where are the real secrets and puzzles? What is offered is so forward that they might as well not even be there because you have to do them and they are no challenge to find and figure out. They are just there and in going through the motions there is no sense of accomplishment, no feeling of achieving something extra.

I know many FPS games are like this but not all and this one leads me to turning the game off and finding something to read for my evening enjoyment. After a few days I give it another try for a few hours and shut it down for the week again. The atmosphere is practically colorless. The characters are boring. I also hate the fact that there is a human in front of me, I have a gun yet I can't shoot it, no matter what consequence the game can give me if it actually allowed me to explore this enviroment. Give me a death or a game over but dammit, let me shoot the guy whose trying to help me if I want. I love to interact in unpredictable ways with my enviroment to see what can and will happen. If I have to follow along a purely predestined path of someone else's story then make it a good intriguing story such as Silent Hill or I might as well just read a book because the story line in Half Life 2 is boring and totally sucks. I know I didn't buy the game for the story but for the adventure and its like an old style arcade game as far as the prescripted scenes, mobs and AI that have to all be encountered in a precise, defined order and manner. There is no adventure that you can feel as if you are taking a part within.

I started the game picking up things and throwing them in peoples' faces and I'd get a couple of boring replies but nothing more. Beat me to death or something. Heck, even the guards wouldn't hurt me let alone beat me to death for screwing with them. It just wasn't fun and on I go to find another game that will capture my attention and allow me to screw around with my fictitious world.

Like I said, just read a book instead.

(oh and btw, I had no trouble with Steam and I also had no problems with the game's performance even though I have an avg system at best. I thought I'd add that bit seeing that alot of reviews focuses on performance and problems with Steam. I am not real fond of having to play a single player online and through Steam though.)

Great engine, lousy levels. Feel like puppy on a leash...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Great graphics engine, but it was poorly put to use. Levels are about as linear as in any game we have played in the last 5 years. Instead of being inventive, you need to guess what the level designer wanted you to do. Basically go straight ahead, picking off the enemies 1 at a time is a predictable manner. When you need to use the gravity you will know, as there is an obvious object put right in front of you.

Graphics and monsters look really great. Keyboard controls are great.

So much potential, so much wasted. Had to play only one session a week as it becomes extremely boring. Inside levels look a lot alike. You will get tired of running down the corridor, finding the one door of 12 that opens, shoot the predictable monster, open the next door, loop around above where you were, and finally out a door near where you started. Even the outdoor scenes have boulders and cliffs placed right along the path that the level designer dictated you should go. No attacking from a cliff, no kamikaze jumps into the enemy, no fun.

Uneventful ending. The whole last 1/3 of the game is a waste of great graphics and playability is poor (1 star).

Steam updates nearly every time you start the game, delaying your session by a minute or two even if you aren't playing online. The game doesn't even start loading for 15-30 seconds even if there isn't an update. Just dumb.

Great game engine, terrible game implementation.

Half Life 2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: September 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Great Game
Get the regular edition the collectors edition doesn't have anything to justify the cost.

One of the best out there

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First and foremost, I'm sick of people writing about how powerful their computers are and they are having the hardest of time trying to play the game. Listen, I have a GeForce FX/MX graphics card, very ancient yes, all I did to play Half-Life 2 is download a updated driver for my graphics card, I have a lousy 20G hard drive, and yes, I deleted Freelancer and MS Money to make some room for it. My motherboard, a MSI KM4M-V Via Socket A ATX Motherboard and AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Processor
,didnt even sound intimidating right? I have a 512mb memory, a dull 1.2 ghz and guess what? I turned every visual to minimum detail, turned sounds to the lowest detail and wala! The game works great. As far as Steam, I only use it to play CS 1.6 online, I dont play the Source part. I have no problems with installation, or needing to have internet connection to play single-player. This game is awesome, I'm not saying its perfect but the story line is good, gameplay is great, graphics even when everthing turned to the lowest is wonderful. I do get a occational 1 second freeze but it doesnt happen all the time and not during intense fire fight. I was intimidated to buy Half-Life 2 because almost everyone reviewing the game is complaining about their computer specs, well, believe it or not, my specs are 2 year old technology. Plus, I got the game for only 10 bucks in a military base. I recommend this to anyone who is into, FPS or Sci-Fi or just a good long game to kill time.

700th review: Half-Life 2 is the best game ever!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is the most amazing game I've ever played in my life! Great storytelling (note no cutscenes), fun puzzle solving (you can get really creative), humour (when you throw a paint can, the paint inside splatters...or when an enemy is right behind a car and you roll the car over with your gravity gun, the enemy dies pushed flat), awesome level design with (sometimes) scary tactical enemy AI, and so on....Also, this game has great graphics which perform greatly even on old computers. (think about Doom 3 which has a hard time running smoothly even on the best computers on the market nowdays)

Conclusion? BUY THIS GAME AND YOU WILL NOT REGRET.

p.s. there's lots of pissies about Steam's decryption process. It's just a way for Valve to check if the game's legit. So, don't get too angry with that. Hey, if you got an illegal copy, the game won't run anyway.

Awsome!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: May 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I loved this game. I have owned it since it came out and have been hooked. One thing though is get Garry's mod for it! It is eisily the best thing ever. I have played it for atleast 200 hours!

Setting the Bar High, maybe too high

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: June 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It started with Half Life. A superb game, which set the bar high for every first person shooter to follow. though there have been many which looked far superior, there were very few which passed it in gameplay and atmostphere. Then comes Half Life 2. although there were many setbacks, and many curses, it finally came out. Unlike many people out there, i like steam. though it is annoying, i think it is where the industry is heading simply because i believe the demand is there. but i digress. as the game opens, i suddenly realize that the graphics are even better than i had expected, and i had extremely high expectations. The atmosphere is immediately set, and i loved every moment of it from there on out. the gameplay is truly amazing. it is a simplistic game but offers such a variety of things to do inside of the relatively linear aspects of the game. this sets the bar for gameplay extremely high. and the intricacies of the game are amazing. the facial animations are second to none. the weapons lineup is fairly standard, but does show much though and innovation on many weapons (the gravity gun being one of those). plus, all this without the price of upgrading. my system specs are: 64 bit intel 3.6ghz 2mb cache, 1024 megs of ram, and 2 geforce 6800 ultras. needless to say, it runs amazingly with everything. i love it to death. this is one requirement for every gamer, regardless. that said, i fear that the bar may be set too high for those that follow Half Life 2, but maybe thats a good thing.

Welcome to the matrix...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

By saying that, this game does not remind me of "The Matrix" that much. But playing it is like plugging into the matrix. It is that real. Yes steam is kind of a pain if you have slow internet, but I can promise it's worth the long installation wait. I have never been so sucked into a game before. There are parts that are so intense, I found myself jumping and getting and adrenaline rush... from a game!!!! In short, it's worth every penny, blows away any other game, and everyone should own it. Period.

this is what we have been waiting for,

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There aren't words to describe just how good Half-Life 2 is.
From it's amazing physics engine, astounding character detail, great plot, eye sizzling graphics or its immersive intensity it just raises the bar in every way. There is just something about that no game has done before and probably won't be done again until Gordan's third adventure. This is what we have been waiting for and it's everything and so much more than we could have expected 10 out of 5,

Dan,

Fantastic game with just a few flaws

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

For the first half of this game, I was ready to anoint it the best action game ever made. Everything just works so well. The gameplay is perfectly balanced, the mystery in the story builds, and everything seems perfectly tested so that it works just right. All of the additions that the game makes to the genre are ingenious. Then, about 2/3 of the way through, the game loses some steam. The level design takes a step backwards to 1998 in some areas. Other times, gameplay elements don't work very well. Finally, the story ends without answering anything, making you wonder whether there is going to be any resolution for what seems like a bunch of senseless plot twists.

Half-Life 2 is the most incredible looking game ever made. It blows away Doom 3, and is still easily better looking than Far Cry. Everything in the game looks amazing. The characters look, move, and act so life-like. The water almost makes you thirsty looking at it, and each of the game's enemies are loaded with detail. The new alien enemies that you meet about halfway through the game are particularly impressive, and the gigantic striders are simply unbelievable. City 17 is a strange mix of beauty and despair. I have never played a game that so perfectly captures an atmosphere like this. Imagine what a rundown Eastern European city would look like in a futuristic totalitarian state ravaged by mayhem, and you have it in this game. Towards the end of the game, when you are fighting through bombed-out, war-torn and flaming buildings, you have to occasionally stop to marvel at the carnage. Valve really hit a home run when it comes to atmosphere.

Half-Life 2 adds a lot to the original game. There are a couple of long vehicular sequences, some squad-based combat, a handful of new and interesting enemies, but most of all, physics. No PC game has integrated physics this well into the gameplay. The gravity gun is certain to be imitated by lots of other games. With it, you can pick up all sorts of objects in the environment and use them as shields or weapons. After playing through the game almost twice now, I can tell you that ripping a radiator off the wall and flattening an enemy with it never gets old. Neither does launching an exploding barrel at a group of enemies and watching them fly across the screen. The game also has some physics-based puzzles, which aren't that much of a highlight.

With the exception of one significant stuttering bug, the audio for Half-Life 2 is unforgettable. Everything in the game sounds so - cool. Every sound will implant itself firmly in your memory. The radio chatter and AI barks of the combine, the whirling of the manhack blades, the horrible moan of the headcrab zombies, the sounds of the gunship machine guns, the hum of the gravity gun, the resounding crack of the 357 magnum, the screeches of the ant lions, and the "thump-thump" that the striders make as they plow through the city. Half-Life 2 also has some great voice work to go with its wonderful sound effects.

Level design, for the first 2/3 of the game, is brilliant. The game is pretty tightly scripted and doesn't deviate too far from the formulas of lots of other first-person shooters. Health and shield power-ups are places just enough to make the game forgiving without making it too easy. The game throws a variety of exciting challenges at you and doesn't get too frustrating or annoying. In particular, the hover boat level is a nonstop thrill ride, and the Ravenholm chapter is like a survival horror game on crack.

But after that, you start to run into some areas that become either annoying or just aggravating. It starts with the dune buggy level, which features horrendous controls. You will spend more time upside-down in the buggy than you will spend driving it. Then there are some annoying physics puzzles. Three times, the game throws a puzzle at you that requires you to build some sort of bridge over a hazardous terrain using objects in the environment. These sequences all interrupt the action, they are too long, and they aren't fun. There are also some "avoid setting off the turret" puzzles near the end that are outdated and shouldn't have been in this game.

A couple of defensive missions require you to set up automated turrets, which are easily knocked over and seemingly impossible to get standing back up again. These sequences are indescribably aggravating, as you helplessly try to get your turrets upright while your enemies blast away at you. The squad-based portions of the game are unsatisfying. The squad is either fodder or just gets in your way in the game's tight corridors. If you have a squad, a single strider will cut it down in about five seconds, so it's pointless to try to keep them alive. The game still has encounters that require you use the knowledge that you gain by quick saving to get through them. If you ask me, games like Far Cry and Halo have made this type of encounter obsolete.

Half-Life 2 is somewhat longer than your average action game. It took me over 15 hours to complete it the first time, and it has so much to see and do that you can go back and replay it immediately. I loved Half-Life 2, but some of the parts at the end left too much of a lukewarm taste in my mouth to call it Game of the Year.

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