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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?

Half-Life, FULL game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 32 / 35
Date: December 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The only way to give the XBOX version of this game less than five stars is to have played the PC version of the game. I've read reviews (Gamespot specifically) that talk about near abysmal framerate/slowdown drops... to the point of freezing the system. that's cold, man. and, umm, dead wrong. I have a feeling someone over there reviewed an unfinished product. The game is not flawless. It does have load times every so often (7-10 seconds) but not as bad as Gamespot says (20-40 second load times). I question the validity of what they were reviewing. I've never played FPS on PC and I don't doubt it's better. But I understand to play Half Life 2 on a PC fluidly requires thousands in upgrades, etc. It's just not worth it to me. That's a lot of beer I could be drinking, money to be gambling.

Anyway, Half Life 2 is just SUCH a playable game. The environments are really stunning. It starts in a train station where you soon learn that this world is throat under boot, a completely fascist regime with civilians walking thoughtlessly like escape psyche ward patients. You'll soon learn that Gordon Freeman, YOU, has a head on his shoulders and is respected among an underground resistance group. This game oozes similarities to dystopian society of Oceania in Orwell's 1984. The enemy in the game, similar to 1984, is a faceless totalitarian one. You'll see resistance posters on crumbling walls. You'll feel the burdens of this decadent society. Moreso, You'll feel respected when people recognize you as Gordon Freeman, the hero.

I can't say enough for the enviroments. They are so well rendered, such a great world create, to experience it slowly.. EXPLORING is not a chore... Taking your time is what you'll want to do, to enjoy the visuals that have been so well-crafted.
A big part of this has to do with the putty-like "structure" of the levels, IE the ability to interact with 99% of object on the screen. Breeaking windows and smashing tables never gets old. It's fun to throw garbage everywhere, stack a bunch of crap. And many times you'll need to.

The acting and sound in this game is extremely well done. It's a relief to come across safe havens with friends excited to see you. Gets you away from the intense action for a little bit, sometimes giving you better weapons.

The controls of the game are very good, right up there with Halo, Halo 2, Doom 3 on the Xbox. Weapon switching is done via directional pad... It's just real easy to get a feel for.

To wrap it up, the Xbox version of Half Life 2 deserves five stars. It's not gonna be a best seller and it's going to suck to geeks with PCs. It will appeal to drinkers/stoners alike who take their vices too seriously to spend that much money on a good PC. Yet these creatures of myth also respect the opinions of PC gamers. I respect a PC gamers opinion. Why? Because they do spend all that much money on their hardware. If they rave girlishly about something, I listen. But I don't have a great PC like them. I have an Xbox. You know where my money goes otherwise.

best. game. EVER.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

if ever there was a reason to own an xbox, half-life 2 is that reason. let me begin by throwing you some details-
half life 2 is a port of the pc hit of the same name that blew pc gamers and critics away last year. ports of pc games are usually edited in some way to fit on consoles due to memory, framerate, graphics, etc.... half life 2 is ported to xbox in its ENTIRETY! the fact that valve (hl2's creators) were able to do this is reason for applause not only because of making this happen from a tech perspective, but because people without high-end computers can now experience this awesome, immersive and frightening world!
half-life 2 takes place some time after the events of the original, throwing main character Gordon Freeman into an almost Orwellian world where human beings are herded from one place to another like cattle to benefit an unknown means. Gordon is instantly recognized by an underground resistance- and hours of interactive story, brilliant graphics, awesome characters, and visceral action unfold.
half-life 2 is unbelievably immersive for four very important reasons:

#1. Physics. shooting a window, breaks a window. placing a crate on the edge of a table will cause gravity to take over and make the box fall to the floor. shooting a spike through an enemy close enough to a wall will cause him to stick to that wall indefinitely. Valve then goes the extra distance by giving you the GRAVITY GUN! to put into words what this gun can do will never do it justice- suffice it to say, that after using the gravity gun, a can of paint can become a lethal weapon.

#2. Real Digital Actors. Valve has done the greatest job of emulating real human emotions, by using real actors. Nothing is forced yet nothing is static. Most games have cut-scenes. Cut-scenes are basically movie snippets that help to tell the story and give meaning to the objectives present in the game. Although graphically appealing, cut-scenes are not in-game, meaning that you have absolutely no interactivity once the cut-scene starts until it ends. half-life 2 has absolutely NO cut-scenes and relies solely on it's digital actors to move the story along.

#3. Gordon Freeman Does Not Speak. You, the player, becomes this character. Gordon is entirely a blank slate for you to obsess. Gordon is placed in a situation where he/you must react on instinct to other characters, environments, and situations. Throughout half-life 2 Gordon Freeman will have no crappy one-liners unless you, the player, shouts them out while being immersed in the game.

#4. Incredible A.I. there is never a point in half-life 2 where the enemy A.I. (artificial intelligence) just stands in one place waiting for you to shoot it. enemy's dodge, find cover, and even throw grenades at you. the enemy will flank, assess situations, and do whatever it can to take you out.

i could go on and on about other aspects of half-life 2 that set it apart from the crop of other shooters out there, but if the aforementioned facts don't sell you, nothing will. Half-Life 2 is a must have title for any hardcore gamers.

onto the negatives.
no game will ever be perfect, and in my many years of gaming have come to the conclusion that it all comes down to what you will tolerate. as far as i'm concerned, Half-life 2 is as close to perfection as gaming gets, yet here are some flaws that might be of nuisance to "other" gamers:

1. slight hiccups in framerate.
2. team a.i. towards the later levels tends to get in the way.
3. high-end computer owners have absolutely no reason to purchase this game, same goes for xbox live addicts- there is no added features, no multiplayer, and no xbox live gameplay in half-life 2. plus pc gamers tend to think that playing games with a mouse and keyboard is better than with a controller.
4. half-life 2 has constant, yet short, load times throughout the game.
5. finally, anyone uptight with violence, mild language, or the first person perspective (can you believe people like this exist?!?!?!?!) should steer clear.

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!

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.

One of the greatest games ever made

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Called "the greatest game ever made" by some publications. It certainly is up there isn't it...

PROS
- Very very long
- excellent story, you care about the characters, excellent use of 1984-style theme (you are an "anti-citizen" under totalitarian-style government tyranny. so you have a wonderfully intelligent mix of political and sci-fi (and sometimes horror) themes.
- parts are solitary, lonely, solemn and the game captures the mood perfectly. Other parts you have a partner, other parts you are the leader of a band of rebels.
- excellent items, weapons, vehicles, environments. Including the much celebrated Gravity Gun.
- expert use of SOUND. perfectly mixed, flawless and unique. This game has effects you do not hear in other games. Also, the lack of sound in certain parts is similarly employed with expert care.
- graphics/physics: wonderful. HL2 uses its own unique IP system.
- excellent variety of enemies and AI. fast, slow, stationary, smart, dumb, powerful, sci-fi, alien, horror, ships, creatures, and humans.

CONS
- zip

Such a truly wonderful game. There is a camp of crazy elitists out there that think HL2 deserves to be king of the xbox hill, even over Halo. I'm not one of them. It comes close, but Halo clearly beats it out with obvious multiplayer versus and co-op. multiplayer extends Halo's playability and re-playability hundreds and hundreds of hours whereas HL2 doesn't have any (not that it really needed it).

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!

The Best FPS on Xbox!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have played every FPS that comes out on Xbox. Of course I like Halo, Doom 3, but love playing anything Conflict makes i.e Desert Storm I and II, Vietnam, and Global Terror and the Rainbow 6 series, since I'm in the Army. Half-Life 2 is by far the best game I have played. I thought I wouldn't like it because it had no map option or hints for objectives, but all you have to do is have time and an imagination and you will be spending hours on end playing this game. I bought it for $15.00 at Game Stop, but if I had of spent $49.99 I would not have been disappointed one bit. I have not beat this game but have put over 512 (over 8 hours) minutes into it. This is definitely worth buying used or new, if you have time you will get your $$ worth out of this game!

C-Murder

Sheer perfection, GOTY of the year 2004.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: April 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

My best friend is a Halo lover. When I learned of this game I was not that interested until I read some reviews and saw videos of what you could do in the game, not to mention the graphics.

For quite a while my best friend and I got into a crazy dispute inbetween which game is better. I enjoy Halo but Half-Life 2 just overpowers it so much. On the P.C. I think the only thing that could beat it is Half-Life 3 once it comes out, and that is what my friend says about Halo 2 (the only thing that will beat it is Halo 3). Now, Half-Life 2 on the P.C. doesn't take an entirely high tech computer, in fact you can have a graphic card with Direct X7 for this game on the P.C.

If you own the P.C. version I'm sure you have been told before there is no reason to buy it on Xbox, which is true. The game is a port of the P.C. version and you will probably find nothing new in the Xbox version caompared to the P.C. version. If you have an incredibly high P.C. don't waste your money on the Xbox version because a P.C. with at least an ATI Radeon X800 video card, 2.4ghz processor, 512mb ram, I'm pretty sure can run the game at max, I'm not sure I don't own the P.C. versoin.

Okay, now for the game itself. This game does NOT have a multiplayer componant, so if you are only in the game for the multiplayer side of things YOU WON'T find any. If you are complaining you will understand why this game has no multiplayer componant by the end of this review. Half-Life the original game was released by Valve, a game company, in the year of 1999 and went on to be the computer game of that year. Six years later, SIX years Valve worked on a sequel, and released it in 2004. The game is my favorite game of all time for now. The game won nine GOTY (Game of the Year) awards in 2004, which included Game of the Year (it beat Halo 2), P.C. game of the year, Outstanding innovation in Computer Gaming, Outstanding Achievemant in Animation, Outstanding Achievmant in Art Direction, Outstanding Character Performance - Male, Outstanding Achievmant in Game Play Engineering, Outstanding Achievmant in Visual Engineering, and First Person Action Game of the Year. So it won nine GOTY awards, but it nominated in eleven.

Since Half-Life 2 is such a story driven game I will begin at the storyline. If you have not played Half-Life 1 the storyline may not make much sense, which makes the game even better because you get to puzzle your past storyline with the world you are currently in. Not even I have yet understood everything about what happened in the first Half-Life game and I probably never will. But to give you some sense of what is happening is that you play as a character named Gordan Freeman who, several years ago was transfered over to a science research facility called Black Mesa. From what I know Gordan accidentally unleashed alien races upon the earth. I will not say anymore to ruin the storyline because the less you know the better it is, I ruined quite a bit of the storyline for myself becuase I found out too much about the game.

Now for characters. Characters in the game are incredibly realistic. I have been told before that Valve created into the characters faces what they called "muscles". In the game the characters obviously do not have real muscles but if you look at the movement of the characters jaws, they actually move, escpecially during the opening scene. Besides the complexity of the characters realistic looking "muscles" the characters have excellant voices that could not have anyone else doing their voices better. The characters will actually be more immeresed into the game rather than your average F.P.S. In areas where there is only dialoge, which are enjoyable, you might notice that if someone is talking to you they will be looking directly at you. If you go behind them while they are talking to you, they will turn around instead of just stand there talking to thin air. If there is something passing by a character like a friend, their eyes will actually follow the person walking by, which always amazes me.

Gameplay- Probably every review of this game you find will most likely have it's largest section on the gameplay of Half-Life 2, and for good reason. There is a single element that truly makes writing about the gameplay worthwhile: Physics. Most games that you play will have something known as Ragdoll Physics, this is where if you are to find a dead enemy nearby they will move around according to their enviroment. For example, if you were to walk over a dead body in a game with Ragdoll Physics the body will most likely start rolling. These are physics found in games like Republic Commando, and Far Cry. Half-Life 2 is built in with a unique physics engine made by Valve called Havok Physics. Havok Pysics is one of the best versions of the physic engines abailable on the gaming market. Every object in the game has different weights, and when you strike, shoot, move, or whack those objects they actually feel real and look real. The explosions made with this physics engine are so amazing and when you shoot explosive barrels you can see red shattered pieces fly in different directions looking like the explosion came from the inside, which it did. You will find most of the physics interactible through one of the best weapons in first person shooters today: The Gravity Gun. This weapon has the Law of Physics built right into it, pretty much everyting is your weapon, and I think you could figure it out from there. More of the gameplay would be including your fameous hazard suit which can provide you with shielding if you charge it. The suit will also allow you to breath underwater for a time being, it comes equipped with a rechargeable flashlight, and a cool sprint feature which recharges too. Gamespy said in the P.C. review of Half-Life 2 that throughout the game you are introduced with new weapons one by one, and whenever you get a new weapon you are put in situations that you will need that weapon so you can learn which enemies you should shoot with which weapons, where to use the weapons, and how to use them tactically which is a very good way to show you how to use the weapons of this game. There are eleven weapons in this game which may seem small but with the Gravity Gun you do not need any more. And I do not think that you could come up with any more weapons that you would want.

A.I.- Half-Life has pretty tough A.I. and they really know how to flank and throw grenades. The grenades will draw you into areas that you will be shot up and killed or the grenades will kill you, so the combat is pretty intense. You can hear the Combine (enemies) talking to each other through radios in their helmets as they plan to attack you. Overall the combine are the largest example of A.I. in Half-Life 2, other enemies aren't as smart because they are more animalistic rather than human.

Sound- For every weapon, every voice, every explosion, every splash of water, every alarm, every organic noise you hear in this game WILL be good. Water sounds are what you will find in most games just because they are all pretty much the same. When you hear strange creatures getting shot and their legs break or blood splatters from them it sounds like it should. Gun shots could not be wanted in any other way, I already mentioned voices. Ign's video review of the P.C. version of this game says that you cannot really say anything bad about this game, that goes for the sound too.

Where next, oh music- The game has great music, it has this strange feeling to it, but it fits that is all I can really say.

Some reviews say that this game has bad framerate (Gamespot), but I will say that it only occurs when there is large amounts of physics taking place and if you say that so and so has better framerate than Half-Life 2 I simply ask you, "Does that game have the Havok Physics Engine?" And if it does, okay, Half-Life 2 is still better.

I said earlier that you will find out why there is no multiplayer componant of Half-Life 2 available, which is true it is because it is hard enough to get such a great game as Half-Life 2 on the Xbox alone with it's complex physics engine. If you want Half-Life 2 in a multiplayer apect, I would not blame you, with the gravity gun, that has to be fun. But there is a game made from Valve on the Xbox made specifically for multiplayer called Counter-Strike, it is modern warfare from what I know with M-16s and alike, but from what I have heard it is incredibly fun, go ahead and buy that one if you want it is from the same company but just to know it will not look as good becuase Counter-Strike is a pretty old game I think. The game is supposed to be filled with crazy multiplayer combat, but I have not played it so I will leave it at that.

I saved one of the largest parts of the game for last: Graphics. Valve has created a masterpiece when it comes to the graphics of this game. Six years really allowed them to go as far as they could when it comes to their graphics, this IS the best looking Xbox game out there. Compared to the P.C. graphics with a ATI Radeon X800 video card it will not look that good, and on the xbox there is some minor details that could not be brought up to what they should look like, but they are details that you will not be paying that much attention to. If you played a game where the graphics are impressive but still not that great, walked up to a wall you can see the flaws and the fakeness of the graphics. When you walk out a good twenty feet the wall will then look realistic. In Half-Life 2, the flaws are still there but you only need to be about ten feet away instead of twenty.

I wish I could keep on going, and I probably can but I have spent at LEAST an hour typing this review to just say that this game is one of the best games out there and is most likely the best first person shooter on the xbox and probably always will be. If you see a game with the words Valve on the front in a box outlined in white lines, expect perfection, unless it is counter strike, those games are more based on the multiplayer side of things rater than all the aspects of a normal game.

My closing statement is that Half-Life 2 is a game of sheer perfection, it is the best xbox single player game available: BUY THIS GAME! It is worth it.

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!!!!!

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