I started playing this game at 6.30pm when I got in from work. Its now 2am and I'm eating pasta that I overcooked three hours ago as I wait for the next level to load. Since I got my copy three days ago Half Life 2 has totally taken over my life.
Following the events at Black Mesa, Half-Life 2 finds Gordon Freeman drugged and dumped on a train to City 9 where he meets up with some of his old Mesa buddies. They are still messing about with teleporting (you would have thought that they would learn! and undermining Dr Brain, who can be seen and heard via speakers and TVs all over the game as he dispenses his propaganda.
Following another teleporting accident you (as Gordon) descend into the addictive storyline. Initially armed with just a trusty crowbar and an improved hazardous environment suit, you have to rescue friends and save the day once more. The graphics and attention to detail within the game are truly amazing. The environment actually obeys the laws of physics, things float, sink, roll and bounce realistically. Some boxes are difficult to lift, others are not. You can rip TVs off the wall and hurl them out of windows, stack boxes, and balance see-saws with breeze blocks. There are many different types of enemy, each with its own type of personality, the civil protection officers are a walk- over whilst the face masked Combine display SAS style tactics, dropping from the roof on ropes, hiding and crouching behind the scenery to pop up and provide covering fire for their advancing colleagues.
In addition to the face-hugging Head-Crabs that were are feature of the first instalment there are poisonous ones and super fast ones that leap out of the shadows when you least expect it. The shuffling head crab infected zombies are joined by fast moving decaying corpses that leap from the rooftops and seem to come in packs. There are Ant Lions, that you are told are in mating season and crawl out of the sands on the floor, or fly down from the sky like giant beetles.
Helping out are a host of other characters, members of the resistance that approach you in awe. Old friends like Barney, who initially rescues you from the train station and pops up thoughout the game to fight at your side, appear. Vogons, one eyed aliens that its best not to shoot, help out with handy suit charges, whilst dispensing sage-like advice.
Introductions to new weaponry are handled well, from playing Anti Gravity catch with a robotic dog, to lessons from the Vogons in bug bait use all add to the realistic effects of the game. For me the highlight was escaping from a corridor-dominated shoot em up to be able to drive about in an airboat or a beach buggy where you could run over enemies and creatures alike.
The puzzles are ingenious and really force you to think, making you come back for more, or discuss them with mates. The best example of this for me was in the coastal section where you can actually get into a crane with a magnetic lifter on a chain to pick up your buggy and move it to the other side of the port.
It also allows you to pick up huge metal crates to swing into or drop on marauding Combine forces, it's an awesome display of the realism of the game. The audio options allow you to select speakers or even headphones, although this option is incredibly realistic and scary, and I don't advise it after11pm.
You need a powerful computer to run this, at times my laptop, which is only a year old, struggled. The game requires a massive 4.5 gigs of free space, and its best to have at least another Gig of clear memory. Its anti piracy features are very annoying, you need an internet connection and time to update and register. An MSN-style program known as Source integrates itself into the running of the computer, attempting to start you playing online as soon as you log in.
Despite the memory issues, I found the game to be amazing, by far the best first-person shooter I have played on the PC recently. I think that once I have finished it on the medium level I will go back and try it on the hardest level, which will really test even the most dedicated of gamers.
The storyline is excellent, the attention to detail bordering on obsessive, game play and audio at times so good that it's disturbingly scary. Its yet another hit for Valve that will no doubt have the same staying power of the original. I am off to finish that level that's now loaded.
