Forget 'HALF Life' this is full of 'Life' ! Brilliant (Half-Life 2 (PC))

Member Name: geddes-i

Product:	Half-Life 2 (PC)
Date:	28/10/08 (389 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant Story, gameplay, sound. Gorgeous visuals and stunning details in game

Disadvantages: It redefined the FPS genre, whats there to moan about ?

Half Life 2 - Beauty In Its Own Aspect
 
Intro
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Half Life 2 is a game that completely redefines the FPS genre for me. Half Life, Half Life 2, Deus Ex and Far Cry are the games that really make full use of the FPS genre and as a result are completely brilliant for me. Half Life 2 is a brilliant sequel to the original masterpiece for all the right reasons. Brilliant gameplay, great story, Gorgeous visuals, undefined sound etc.. It has to be played by yourself to experience the true perfection of it all. It runs so smoothly together and plays so well. It really is one of my favourite First Person Shooters.
 
Gameplay
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Half Life 2's gameplay is brilliant. It is fluid, dynamic, unique and most of all unmatched. It plays great and the controls are great. Its very immersive and the whole environment in the game is approachable in the aspect that you can pick up many things and throw them. This really comes into use when you get your hands on the much loved 'Gravity Gun' as this gun allows you to pick up anything in the environment and toss it around as if it's status was unimportant. As well as the gravity gun you get a whole load of brilliant weapons from the original pistol to the classic Crowbar, the single weapon that defines Gordon Freeman himself. The weapons are great fun to use and come in very handy when a host of aliens are chasing after you in the streets of ravenholm or wherever you happen to be.
 
The vehicles in the game are great fun to drive, the speed and sound of the buggy makes it pure bliss. Not just the buggy but also the aliens in the game as well as the many troops and forces are both challenging, clever and perceptive. They judge your movements and actually come after you to hunt you down instead of just standing around like idiots would do. So the A.I is seen to be a big improvement from the last game in many respects and as a result is very enjoyable to go hunting down all the enemies in the game. Ok maybe it can get annoying if you are constantly dying but if that's the case then obviously you just need to change and adapt to new tactics in order to pass your enemies.

The locations within the game are great and highly enjoyable to play through. It takes place in an urban like city called "city 17" but within this city are many shut down complex facilities, wastelands and info structures that all play a pretty important part in Half Life's 2 overall gameplay.

Graphics
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Wow. That is the single word needed to describe the graphics in Half Life 2. There pretty damn impressive all right especially if you are able to play at Full graphic capability settings. However even if you are only able to play on medium settings they are still visually fantastic. I was able to play on high settings on resolution of 1280x1024 and the game looked brilliant and that's without anti alaising enabled at all.

The set pieces such as streets, buildings, vehicles and the environment is very realistic looking and really makes you feel part of the gaming experience. Also the weapons have amazingly high details on them just as the enemies, including troops do especially their faces. Even when you are speeding through the deserted wastelands in the sand buggy the graphics are able to hold a steady foundation. Now if your thinking, damn I wont be able to play that on my computer then possibly think again. I played this on high using just a Radeon 9600 SE, 1 gig of ram and was able to play on resolutions of 1280x1024 as I already stated. So maybe you will be able to play it even if you doubted that you would. So the graphics are amazingly high up there with me and must be seen to be believed.

Sound
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The sound in Half Life 2 as you might have guessed is brilliant, just like everything else. The guns are punchy, accurate and sharp. The speech is excellently put together and very audible and clear to the player and the music used in the game manages to retain that special quality the original Half Life had which is the sense of originality.

The tracks used in the game were all composed by Kelly Bailey who has done an excellent job. The music gives you that sense of action and pace when you are playing the game as well as the extra bit of hype factor. There was also a CD containing all the music from the game that came with Half Life 2 if you purchased the gold package of the game however it can also be bought separate from the Valve store.

As for the sound effects used in this game ranging from the whirring of the gravity gun to the squirms, screech's and grunts from all the aliens added along with the brilliant, addictive gameplay and you have one hell of a greatly playable game. The sounds are a big part of this game and can be played using Dolby Digital sound 5.1 but if you do this you will need a pretty good sound card. Never worry though as the sounds are great with your standard 2 stereo speaker set up.

System Requirements
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Here is the specifications required to be able to play the game:

Processor: 1.2 GHz Processor
OS: Windows, 2000/XP/Me/98
Graphic card: DirectX 7 level graphics card
Hard Drive: 4.5 GB
Memory: 256 MB RAM
Other: Internet Connection, DVD-ROM Drive

As you can see this game will play on the very modest of PC's meaning that if you can play it you have no reason not to.

My Personal Thoughts
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For me Half Life 2 is a game that really does redefine FPS for ever just like the original masterpiece did. Its full of everything you could want from a FPS and considering there my favourite type of games you can begin to understand how much I love this game along with all the others in the series. Its got great graphics, brilliant gameplay and a very enjoyable story to play through making it FPS heaven for me.

Overall
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This game won over 35 game of the year awards for 2004 ! That's some achievement. And this didn't happened for no reason. Its evident to see when you play this game why it won so many and why it has and still is praised so much by gamers and critics all over. As of July 14, 2006, the Half Life franchise as a whole has sold 16 million units. Considering its now 2008 you can imagine how much those figures have increased by. It scored 10/10 from many companies and got ratings such as 98%, 100% etc... You may think its over rated but I think its bang on.

This game can be bought new for around £5.00 from ebay, however I highly recommend you buy it along with the orange box deal allowing you to get half life 2, episode 1 and 2, portal and team fortress all for around £30.00 new. Never have I seen a deal like this for games in my life. Its well worth buying plus it can be played on Xbox 360 and PS3 as well as PC. I prefer it in PC personally but if your PC aint good enough play it on the console versions.

Summary: A Brilliant Game ! Highly capable of changing your views on FPS gaming ! Buy It