One of the signs of a good story, is how it makes you wonder and long for what happened to all the characters. Dream...
The story starts off with alot of talking, but as an adventure-game-fan, I find no problem with this at all. For me, it's immersive, and I'm sure all the other adventure-game-fans feel this way too. You start off missing an appointment to the gym, so you hurry over and get on with it. Then one of your close friends, Reza, asks you to help him with an errand. Naturally you help him out, and from here the game picks up (I don't want to spoil more for you).
Every second of the game is just as breathtaking and jawdropping as the other! The screenplay and especially the voiceacting is top notch! The music score is un-matchable by any game when it comes to how immersive it is! Alot of the background music really reminds you of the old days, especially for those of you who are a FF7 fan, when the games gave you a special feeling. So this is of course a plus!
You get to control three protagonists, Zoë the new female chick, April the female protagonist of the last game and Kian, a mysterious male assasin. And you'll meet up with some old faces too, which makes the nostalgia feeling ever so more present (a good thing!)! Along with introducing alot of new characters that plays a way in the game that makes you REALLY care for them. A really genuine caring... and that's a great feat!
Almost all the puzzles are very logical, making it therefore very easy and thus you always know what you can do. It is in a way satisfying how you can come up with the solution to the puzzle while Zoë mumbles to herself what she should do next. But on the other hand, those of us who are a real adventure-game puzzlesolver will get disappointed that they didn't make any headache-puzzles (those that makes you stuck for several hourse).
All in all, the game delievered IMO. And I think that almost all the adventure-game-enthusiasts will appreciate this game. So run and buy it!!
Also, alot of people tends to get hung up on the ending. And I don't see why. Alot of good movies (and some games) won't tell you everything you would've liked to know at the ending. It makes you want more, get a longing feeling of how the people you cared for ends up, and it makes you think. I don't know about other people, but I like that feeling. It's a feeling that enables me to dream and think about the fantasy world (the same feeling you would get if you read a good book)! And besides, this is a trilogy, the 3rd chapter will undoubtely sum everything up!
Half-Life 2 raised more questions than it answered.. did that make it's story and conclusion bad? Or did it make the game bad? Not at all, it sets up to another episode and makes you want more!