One more +ve review from a Gamer who is impressed from this Game like everyone else.
Akshay’s Review
We’re back playing with the MIT trained scientist who is voiceless and faceless throughout the whole game. After the mysterious happenings in Half Life 1, Gordon Freeman finds himself waking up in a train station in City 17. It seems that the "Combine," an advanced alien race with deadly vehicles and weapons at their disposal, now controls earth. Representing the human race is the former administrator of the Black Mesa facility, Dr. Wallace Breen, whose message of subservience and appeasement blares over loudspeakers and televisions everywhere. The game starts of with you being let off in City 17 without any identity, but soon you meet your old Friend Barney from Black Mesa. He helps you meet your old friend from Black Mesa Dr.Kliener and also his ever-so lovely daughter! The game starts off just like Half Life 1. You are left off to explore the surroundings. You see how the physics system in this game works. It is almost like real life. You can drop a bottle from air and it will break but if you drop it close to surface it won't break. You can pick anything up and that is in your power. Once you start off with the game you will be immersed in it for long hours since the game goes in a long sequence with no cut scenes, you come to know what happened on Earth from people you meet during the game.
The level design is very good and the buildings look like the ones in the European cities. There are levels like Ravenholm which is the creepiest level in the game where sounds scare you more then the zombies. Then there is the vast boat level and the buggy level that shows how beautiful large levels look. The Citadel is also very interesting and you see in this level how the combined army works. Half life 2 also has a variety of guns with its own unique capabilities. In the beginning you are given the trusty old crowbar which you use to get out of certain obstacles. Later in the game you get hold of the pistol, Machine gun with a grenade launcher, a shotgun, cross bow and my favorite weapon of the game the gravity gun. We can probably say gravity gun is the weapon that defines this game; this extraordinary gun clearly shows what the physics engine of Half life 2 is capable of. I had great deal of fun using this gun in the game since most of the time I was picking objects and throwing them at enemies, the gun also helps to clear a lot of obstacles that required the use of physics. I wished that game allowed us to use the gun to pick up bodies and throw them early in the game but unfortunately we only get this pleasure in the final stage of the game. To tell you the truth, “gravity gun” is the most innovative thing I have ever seen in a game.
The game's AI is well scripted and with the combination of smart AI and dynamic surroundings (where everything responds so realistically) that it looks as if a battlefield has come alive. The game has a lot of gunning and running, the game also throws at you some nice puzzles that require you to use the physics engine of the game. During the course of the game you get to drive two vehicles, a type of hovercraft and a buggy. These two parts which require you to use these vehicles forms a huge part of the game. Some of the gamers "might" be disappointed with the boat sequence since it was stretched too long as you were required to stop in many places to open a certain door in order to pass through the level. But both these vehicle levels "boasted" the visual power of the source engine on which the game is made. Once you see the water for the first time, you can't admire it enough on how real it looks. It is true the water in "Farcry" was good but the water in Half Life 2 looks so real with proper reflections and refractions, but (un)fortunately you cannot see your own face!
Apart from the water, the game looks absolutely astounding. In addition to its detailed textures and water, the expression of emotions on the faces of the characters looks totally real. Their faces are detailed at an unbelievable level and when they speak the lip sync is perfect. These small things make for a very rich gaming experience. But this game does have some of its negative points in the story as the game finishes like Half Life 1 with a cliff hanger ending. Not to mention the tedious installation process. The game requires you to have an Internet connection to unlock it from Steam. It took me around 1 hour to unlock and update the game and I have heard that it has taken people longer. But the process is still worth it.
The cliff hanger ending might leave you thinking that all that effort in completing the game did not give you a proper result. The fate of your team mates is also unknown. Sure they have set up the game for Half Life 3 but keeping you so much in the dark is not a great idea. Half Life 2 has been designed to be very mod friendly so you can expect numerous mods to keep you interested for a long, long time. The game is shipped without a multiplayer feature but it gives a different game to Counter Strike: Source which is a remake of the No.1 Multiplayer game played on earth with the source features. There is a new update that gives you Half life 2: Deathmatch multiplayer.
The game has been in production for more than 6 years, but in the end it was "all" worth it. Let's hope the next game doesn't take so much long. Adios...