User Reviews (1 - 11 of 51)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Finally An Xbox FPS That ROCKS! (Excluding Halo2)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: November 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is AWESOME. Graphics and gameplay are top notch. If you played the PC version try the Xbox version for sure, More hands on and makes it 3 times tighter. Doesnt Look As Good As Say A SUPER PC Would run it, But Looks Great on the xbox by far the BEST looking game ever on the system and with xbox360 around the corner probally the last good looking one. No Multiplayer or Co-op but makes a killer single player game. Don't Sleep On This One!

Wake up and smell the ashes. . .

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference."

For nearly every PC gamer in the world, Half-Life is one of the most recognizable and acclaimed names in the market, and easily in the top tier of first-person shooters. This was further solidified in late 2004 when, after much anticipation and demonstration, Half-Life 2 was finally released on the PC. It was embraced by gamers and critics alike, and recieved several awards for Game of the Year.

And now, finally, console gamers can see what all the fuss is about with Half-Life 2's full transition to the XBOX.

Picking up an indeterminate number of years after the otherworldly events at the facility at Black Mesa, players once again don the battered crowbar and HazMat suit of sceintist-turned-savior Gordon Freeman. If you've never played any of first game, not to worry. The narrative of HL2 is very much its own beast, and you'll recieve all the info you need about the previous game from various NPCs you meet in and around City 17.

Arriving (somehow, you're not quite sure) on a train, you'll immediately notice a sense of dystopian depression in all the people around you. Apparently, an unknown power called the Combine has taken control of the affairs of planet Earth. People are transferred from city to city with no explanation as to why, reproduction is severely prohibited, and "Civil Defense" task forces are everywhere, masked, armored, and spoiling for a fight. In fact, they'll soon be coming after you, and it's only with the help of a small but determined resistance movement that you'll be able to survive.

From there, the game introduces you to some old friends and some new ones, a story of struggle, survival, free will, and good old-fashioned heroism. The story is done entirely in-game; no cut-scenes, no cinemas, no breaks in the gameplay at all. The entire story is told while you are physically controlling Gordon, never taking the player out of the world. And during the course of this story as you traverse the world, you'll experience some truly incrediblt things. You'll engage in fierce firefights with squads of Combine troops (who have incredible AI), you'll battle it out with heavily armed vehicles, be hunted by nightmarish creatures, and lead rebels against seemingly-invincible war machines. You'll grow attatched to some characters, and grow to hate others, and all the while you'll constantly be using the world.

Which is where the game really excels. The immersion of this game is practically perfect, and it does this in two very important ways. First, video game characters have never been more convincing; Alyx in particular is an incredible achievement, and you'll find yourself accepting that these characters geniunely exist rather than being AI programs and polygons. Secondly, the physics in Half-Life 2 have to seen to be believed. There is literally no other game on the market, first-person or otherwise, that gives the player as much control over their environment. Using the Havok physics engine, HL2 allows the player to do everything from pile bricks on a see-saw and push a swing in a playground to cause bridges to collapse and drop cargo containers on enemies. This makes both the shooting and the puzzles in the game much more fun, much more realistic, and much more rewarding when you use your brain and get creative.

For example, in one part of the game you're running through the canals of City 17 being chased by Combine troops, and pass near a bridge where enemies are firing down at you. At this point, all you have is a pistol and a crowbar, and instead of using up valuable ammo trying to take down each Combine soldier individually, you could just hit one of the conveniently placed flammable barrels to bring the whole bridge crashing down.

The entire game is full of situations like this that reward creative thinking, and when you pull it off, it looks absolutely beautiful. Not just because the physics are astoundingly convincing, but because the game is just darn good graphically speaking. HL2 is easily one of the best-looking titles on the PC, and while the XBOX version features a couple downgrades on the texture and resolution side of things, it features the same solid frame rate, gorgeous animation, and brilliant art of its PC cousin, and easily stands as one of the best-looking console games of the year.

Additionally, while HL2 lost the mouse-keyboard control scheme in the transition to consoles, Valve did a marvelous job of mapping the controls to the XBOX pad. Gordon Freeman isn't as heavy or cumbersome as, say, the Master Chief, and so the controls feel a little light and quick after Halo and Halo 2. However, they feel RIGHT for the game, for the character, and the world, making even the platforming feel fairly polished, and the shooting feel positively divine.

And while HL2 for the XBOX is a single-player-only affair, it's deffinitely a world you're going to have an incredible time in. From the rooftops of the city to the dank parlors of Ravenholm, it's also a world you'll probably want to visit over and over again. If you're a fan of first-person shooters, you simply must experience this game.

halflife 2 how did they do it ????

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

this game is first of all the greatest thing to hit the x-box since the original halo and valve doesn't need me kissing there ass anymore the average gamer but thank you from all the gamers out there because this is a game that needs to be played by everone it not the standard boom boom bang bang game, well there is that but underneath is much more it is a rare gem ....the level of eviroments is shocking because the xbox is running it at 60 fpr and shooting and picking up objects feel like the objects have weight to them .... when i shot an enemy he would fall of the bridge or object and the body would fall like a body would in real life,,,,,i could go on and on about the game but i say that it worth 50 dollars and it plays great on the 360 the frame rate is smooth and the graphics are smoother...5stars isn't enough to mark this game and it deserves a ten great replay value////

A great game, but. . .

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: November 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Half Life 2, for x-box, is probably the best looking game x-box will ever put out. The physics engine is incredible, allowing the player to pick up almost anything and manipulate it.

There are only two gripes I have with this game. First of all, the intro is really . . . really . . . really. . . long. It was a good twenty minutes or so before I was shooting stuff.

That is a minor gripe compared to gripe #2: no multiplayer. No splitscreen no x-box live, no nuthin'. Nothing extends the life of a great game like a solid multiplayer experience (e.g. halo and halo 2).

Overall, HL2 is a beautiful game with great graphics, gameplay, and intuitive control. If you've already bought HL2 for PC, there's no reason to buy it for x-box. But if you haven't, and you're a fan of FPS's, then I think you'll be very please with this title.

Excellent translation from the PC to XBox but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 62 / 67
Date: November 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off, I won't go into the story. That has already been established via the PC game. What I want to review here is, how well did this make it's translation from PC to Xbox and is it worth if for those who have already played it on PC.

Well, everything you knew and loved in the PC is here, except for on-line multi-player mode. THAT is the one reason this game is rated 4. So, if you've already played the PC version, there is NO reason to pick up this version. However, if you're like me who has a PC that met the bare minimum requirements to play Half-Life 2 on, and you own an Xbox, you can be rest assured you will experience pretty much the same joy as the PC people, except for multiplayer. If you've never played Half-Life 2 before, you are missing out on the experience of a lifetime.

As far as other games converted to XBox from PC are concerned, this is hands-down the BEST conversion yet. Doom 3 from the PC was an awesome translation. The graphics and the atmosphere were excellent. Yet, as beautiful looking and sounding Doom 3 was, it still had a weak point - the story line. It just didn't grab you in and make you feel like you were part of the action. And, although you could interact with the environment, it felt more like it was "just there" rather than serving a purpose.

Enter Half-Life 2 on the PC. The game had a story; intrigue, action, suspense, awesome graphics, stupendous sound and an interactive environment that pulled you into the role of a one Gordan Freeman and made you feel like you were part of the action, not just a spectator. The interactive environment served a purpose rather than just some add-on that didn't really give anything back.

The physics engine, which made objects react to forces outside their control, made the game so believable. Bodies would land differently and behave as real dead bodies would. Swings would actually sway side to side rather than just forwards and backwards if you hit them the right way. The objects weren't just there for you to look at and play around with. Many held a purpose to help you further your advancement into the game. For example, in one section of the game, you have a large wall ahead of you and there's just no way to get your airboat over it because there's no ramp in place. But then, you discover that there's a steel grate floating in the water connect to a cage. You start putting floating barrels and canisters underneath the cage and all of a sudden, the steel grate begins to rise into a ramp!

Valve has worked hard on creating an engine for the Xbox that presents the entire PC Half-Life 2 environment on the Xbox with decreased load times! Valve has pulled off what would have appeared to be an impossible feat. Although a high-end PC will cream the Xbox version on looks alone, take into consideration that it would take a PC costing more than $1000 to give you what the Xbox version can do and that alone should tell you that this game is no slouch in looks, sound nor playability. This game is definitely in contention for the Xbox Game of the Year award. The streaming engine they wrote has really improved the game over its PC cousin in that respect.

The controls have mapped nicely to the console. Valve has taken what was a mouse-based game and converted it to the Xbox controller with amazing results. I daresay I think I can play the game BETTER on the Xbox than on the PC.

The D-pad is how you select weapons, just like Doom 3. However, Valve has gone a step further from what the Doom 3 game did. They have stacked the weapons so that you have access to ALL your weapons from the D-pad, not just 4 like in Doom 3. For example, press down once on the D-pad to access the crow bar. If you have the anti-gravity gun, press down again on the D-pad to select it. Press down again, and it cycles back to the crowbar. This works for all the weapons.

The left trigger is your secondary fire while the right trigger is the primary fire. Clicking down on the left analog stick makes you crouch, which clicking down on the right analog stick goes into zoom mode. Click again to get out of zoom. Now, this has caused me some grief in the middle of some intense battles, and believe me, there are some REALLY intense ones in this game. I've inadvertently clicked down on the right stick while trying to look around and fire when I've all of a sudden gone into zoom mode. You can't fire all of your weapons on that mode, so I've been opened to some attacks because of this until I've clicked out of zoom mode, but it's nothing major to cause me to not play the game. But, you can choose from different controller configurations, so you're not limited to the default layout.

You have up to 30 save-game slots to save the game at any time, which is nice compared to some other games that have "save points" (ahem, Halo 1 or 2 anyone?) Many say that it's the limits of the console that cause this, but Halo first came on the Xbox which already had a hard drive. So why didn't Bungy do it that way to begin with? Thank you Valve (and iD) for not copping out on the save game and giving us the option to save at anytime. BTW, I love Halo, so don't think I'm trying to bash it in anyway.

Sound wise, the 5.1 surround sound just immerses you SO deeply into the game, you forget you are in your living room/bedroom and instead find yourself drawn into the action. During the "We Don't Go To Ravenholm" chapter, which is homage to scary movies, I was so drawn into the game I didn't hear my dog come up behind me. When he bumped into me, I screamed and dropped the controller. That is how immersed I was into the game. This would NOT be possible without excellent sound, music, atmosphere, etc. The ambient sound effects really set the tone for each level.

Valve rewrote the engine to help stream between levels better and they have been able to decrease the loading times between levels to less than 10 seconds. This, along with everything else, attests to the quality work Valve has put into ensuring that this release of Half-Life 2 would allow those who don't have computers to experience what many have already had the pleasure of playing over a year ago. Graphically, you can't complain. This is the BEST looking Xbox game to date. The outside environments are awesome, while indoors can feel SO claustrophobic, you want to scream because you feel so closed in. Again, you ARE Gordan Freeman, not just a spectator.

It's a shame they couldn't give us an on-line mode and downloadable content. Since there is a new HL2 level out for the PC, it's a shame we won't get to see it on Xbox, unless they decide to release a NEW version (groan!) later on.

All in all, if you haven't played HL2 and/or don't have the PC power to play it, get this game. Otherwise, if you already have it or have a PC with enough oomph to run it, get the PC version.

In any case, this is a game to add to your collection.

Now, where did I put that crowbar?

Hard to believe it is a game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: November 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There was nothing new much in the Half-Life game engine which was essentially just a modern hack of the Quake game engine, so how could a game that based itself on software that others developed succeed in becoming the biggest selling game of all time? When Half-Life first came out it did a couple of things right that most other first person shooters failed to do... (1)Story,(2)Story and (3)Story. Valve created Half-Life in a period of our lives when Area 51 was a hot topic among UFO buffs and the X-Files was to become mainstream family television viewing. Alien based entertainment media was a craze in the mid and late 1990's, unprecedented since the 1950s. Smack in the middle of what could be considered the most influential era for UFO enthusiasts came HALF-LIFE where YOU get to play as Gordon Freeman, a physics researcher who witnesses a freak accident in an Area 51 type facility. All hell breaks loose and YOU have to survive. No cut scenes. No initial story. No explanation. You where just there and you had to escape. Cue interactive characters that could follow you around and say a few things, maps rich in objects that you could break eventually leading up to rapid action shootouts with monsters and marines.
The GOOD NEWS is that Half-Life 2 is another world beyond HL1 and is like nothing you have ever played before! This IS the first person shooter 'Game of games', hands down, period. As a stand alone game, HL2 is 100% pure adrenaline, no holds barred, from start to finish. If you own an Xbox then own HL2 because your world will never be the same again. Half-Life 2 WILL destroy lives, educations and marriages and......IT IS NOT A GAME! ... or at least that is the net result. This thing is real. Forget "Doom 3", "FarCry" or any of the best pixel pushers out there - HL2 just mashes `em into the ground and then sets off an amazing fireworks display to welcome you back. How many games within the first two levels have you literally calling friends, family and neighbours to have a look at it? You must LIVE this game.
Nowhere else will you see anything as amazing as City 17. The game starts right where the previous one left off, as you are dumped into this futuristic eastern European city like something out of Orwell's 1984 following a brief meeting with the GMAN, learning that citizens are slowly going missing from City 17 you must meet up with old friends - scientists from the first game including security guard Barney. As soon as your teleporter goes wonky you are landed right in on the action with soldiers storming apartments looking for you. On the run you manage to land a hovercraft and go on to tear through flood channels ramping over obstacles while seeing full scale battlecrafts flying overhead... and when you hit them, bits break off and explode... slowly... so you give `em more heat... and more bits break off... and then they crash and burn with a roaaaaarrr! The gem of the game though is when you play with DOG and learn a neat trick with a new weapon called the Gravity gun. Not to spoil the fun but let a few disc saws whirl and watch what happens to the bad guys or even throw a petrol canister into a group of zombies and hear them scream. The animation is hyper-realistic and your fps will match your heartbeat. This is THE REAL DEAL.
The characters all have their own unique personality and walk, talk and act differently. The cut scenes all look great and are done in 1st person as you walk around the event. Like its predecessor, each level is designed with plenty of tasks to do, puzzles to solve and bad guys to mow down. There is also team play in this one like in HL1 but is more organized with much more firepower. Join the resistance in City 17 and win the war! If you have a thing for 1984, conspiracy theory or the New World Order, then HL2 has it all! HL2 also borrows HUGELY from other games and films you have seen, but that just makes it all the better because it seems somewhat familiar, yet ABSOLUTELY NEW.
The bottom line is that it is, hands down, the best 1st person shooter you can find.

Pros:

- It does not feel like a game. It feels real.
- Totally immersion in a film-like environment.
- Truly massive maps with PLENTY to do.
- Action, action, action, non-stop.
- Lots and lots of variation in the gameplay.
- GRAVITY GUN!
- A real interesting futuristic story
- The best 1st person shooter (maybe game) ever.

Cons:
- Single Player Only, No Multiplayer!

Best Xbox Game Of 2005

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: November 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There are so awesome Xbox games this year but this one is the best so far this year as soon you get that crowbar this game will become awesome and you always have to take a look at the beautiful graphics and physics engine. This game is pure perfection I would play this game forever if I could This is definetly the best Xbox game of this year

So Close To Perfection!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 14
Date: November 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Damn this game was almost perfect. I mean it was teetering on perfection. The first twenty minutes of gameplay I spent weeping at its brilliance.

One major hang-up. LOAD TIMES. I usually don't bitch about load times. Hell, I played "Morrowind" ritually, and God knows they've mastered the art of allowing you to cook a four-course meal between loading screens.

But in Half-Life 2 the load times will actually devastate the pace of the game. At first I overlooked them, after all it's an immaculate game with graphics that surpass anything seen on the XBOX.

Then you get to the airboat, which easily rivals driving the warthog in Halo (die, Halo 2! Die!). The action is intense and you really honestly feel like you're right there, driving that damn thing.

Loading...

You're back---you're soaring through the water channel being chased by a helicopter. You leap a wall of scrap metal and escape the chopper's gunfire into a sewer tunn---

Loading...

You fly out of the tunnel into the open again, but here comes the helicop---

Loading...

And it goes on and on and on, until I literally just turned the damn thing off. I'd already played the level for forty-minutes easily, and every four minutes of gameplay was interrupted by forty-seconds of loading.

Loading killed this beautiful, well-imagined game.

Damn...

Worth The Wait

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Im sure the lack of multi player (as said) will bother some but i for one think this may be the best game xbox or any other puts out for sometime to come. As a big fan of the original i was wondering if the feel of the game would be the same and yes folks it is. Gordon Freeman is back along with some old and new friends. All of the intensity is there as well as some new enemies. I know everyone has heard how great the graphics are but i must say it....they are the best. Instead of lamenting the fact that there is no multi player, just pick up your crowbar and go on. As i said, its well worth the wait. Just finished it and the way it ends i would say there will be a HalfLife 3......we can hope.

Dusted off my XBox for this one!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was literally using my Xbox to watch DVD's lately, totally bored by the offerings of the last couple years. My interest was renewed with the XBox versoin of Doom 3, but waned halfway thru the game. Then came this game. I remember the utter joy I had playing the first PC version of the original back in '99 on my 'state of the art' Pentium 3-banger. When Half-life-2 came out last year for the PC, I found my early 4-stroke Pentium would need a major overhaul. Then came the XBox version, and I was first in line at Fry's. I am totally impressed!!! Yes, I have talked to my friends who have the latest and greatest PC's and their take that the PC version is superior (by how much, who knows??) but frankly, this is the best XBox game I have ever played. I hooked it up to our 56" high-definition and am completely blow away!!! You WILL NOT be disappointed!!!!!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next 

Actions