Gordon Freeman is back! Powered by Valve’s outstanding Source physics engine this game totally outclasses others!
Having escaped from the incident at the Black Mesa complex in the first instalment Gordon must now battle his way through City 17 sometime in the near future against an array of new and old enemies and lots of puzzles. Along with an assortment of new weapons and vehicles to choose from!
For experienced Half-Life players the games controls will come naturally, although new players will pick them up very quickly as they are now quite generic across the First Person Shooter genre.
What better place than to start the game play on a train, just like the first instalment! The adventure begins with Gordon having to escape the clutches of the Combine who control everyone and everything in City 17. This is a great opportunity to check out the unbelievable Source physics engine, which is a heavily modified version of the Havok engine. Pushing a swing in a playground and watching how it acts so realistically or smashing a crate with the standard issue crowbar and watching how pieces of wood fly around reacting with other items in the environment.
As the game progresses Gordon acquires a wide arsenal of weapons, which includes some carried over from Half-Life including the trademark crowbar, the conventional firearms of the SPAS-12 shotgun, .357 Magnum revolver, crossbow, and rocket propelled grenade. But also several new weapons that include possibly the best in game weapon ever! The "Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator" or "gravity gun". Hours of fun can be had just messing around with it. It allows the player to pick up objects in the surrounding environment and hurl them around or more boringly just carry them. It is essential for many of the puzzles found later in the game but most enjoyment comes from using it simply as a weapon as it allows you to use pretty much anything around as a high velocity projectile! From steel oil drums to a circular saw blade!
Although Gordon battles through much of Half-Life2 alone, he is at times assisted by friendly allies. Especially by a young lady called Alyx and everybody’s favourite security guard Barney Calhoun, who meet up with you on many occasions throughout the game. The artificial intelligence for these characters is excellent, providing such things as covering fire when it is most needed.
For the first time in the series vehicles are featured which Gordon can use to achieve his objectives, from a crazy hovercraft to a dune buggy with a front mounted Gauss Gun!
Overall this game is an absolute masterpiece, thankfully upholding Valve’s reputation they earned with the first game. The game simply has everything a First Person Shooter should have. Addictive, challenging and beautiful game play.
Half-Life2 sets the bar extremely high and it will most probably be a long wait until someone can match this stunning game. Ross