One of the best PC titles to date. Highly immersive, physics-based, true to life puzzling, adrenaline-fuelled game.
One thing i have to say out of other first person shooters is how well it looks and plays even on an outdated machine. I played this on my 3 year old laptop (native resolution - laptop is still going strong at 64bit ) and it ran extremely well despite sluggish load times due to the hard drive. Load times are quite numerous and it did detract a little from the pacing of the game on my machine - this may not be the same on other peoples' faster PCs though. You'll notice i don't have any screenshots in this writeup, and this is actually quite the compliment- the game had me engrossed so much that i did not want to take the time to do other stuff other than play the game, all the way to the finish.
This game still looks amazing today given its 2004 debut. I actually played the original Half Life many years ago and did not feel all that compelled to go further and finish it; this game has convinced me that i must go back once again. Characters have full voice acting except for yourself, Gordon Freeman. Expressions were way ahead of it's time in 2004; mouths lip synched perfectly, eyebrows and eyes are expressive and does give off a good sense of the situations. Great looking waters are complimented by open areas and sunlight, but is really given life when in combat on your hoverboat with these helicopters giving chase. This is also when you appreciate how audio really affects your gaming experience - bullets whizz past with screeching clarity and the thudder of the copter blades imposes a menacing bass.
Killing the guards causes a pinging noise (from the radio?) which is a little confusing, but nevertheless becomes satisfying. You can hear the radio speak coming from the guards which can become useful if you pay attention. A big difference between this and many fps including 2007-2008 fps games is the lack of any cutscenes - by this i mean, the lack of fixed-camera cutscenes in which you are forced to watch at the director's discretion. In HL2, people speak, situations unfold, but YOU are still in control, YOU control your character. The decision to do this actually makes the game more immersive, i don't remember any point in the game in which i see myself in the third person. If you've played Metal Gear Solid and got to the final scenes - the experience is similar to when you were looking up at the metal gear. There are also times in which you're on-rails but you can freely look around like in the transformation scenes of Quake 4. Design choices which makes this game feel years ahead of many first person shooter games on the market.
One of the most important aspects of a fps imo is the way your character moves, after playing CSS for a while i grew accustomed to the HL2 feel almost immediately, but there is the added right-click zoom-view system that is becoming more and more mainstream these days. Looking at the crysis videos these days, you realise how much that game has borrowed heavily from HL2 - not that that is a bad thing. The story is well structured and actually feels quite unbelievable of what just one man has done, nevertheless it's all fun and good. The weapons are well-varied from normal pistol, magnum, rocket launchers, shotgun, some automatic 'rifles', an alien manipulating 'device' and the well-observed gravity gun. The gravity gun- it could have been just a weapon to show off the physics of the source engine - but it works so well. It's often useful for puzzle elements of the game, but is equally good in combat. Right click an object to 'hold' it in front of you and then press shoot to let it fly - cutting blades are the ideal objects - and there you have an ammo saving weapon. There will be times when you must make your own path with these sort of objects, which honestly, can be annoying. Later on in the game, you'll feel like a Jedi knight Although there are many weapons, i personally felt it a little cumbersome in changing weapons, this is mostly due to the number of weapons available. Fortunately, pressing the 'G' key will switch to the gravity gun and back quickly. Most of this 'niggle' comes when you want to use different weapons for different situations, like the rocket launcher or the alien weapon. OK, the alien weapon is this 'scent' object which you gain from this boss alien. By throwing this ball-like scent object many 'minion' aliens will rush to that destination - perfect for clearing out guard posts without endangering yourself. There is so much put into this game such as vehicles (by water and land), operating a crane, that i was a little surprised i didn't eventually get to drive a helicopter myself!
The enemies are nicely varied from your standard guards (who all look the same because of the gear), these head-huggers, these 'zombies' with headhuggers on their - well - heads, 'licker-like' monsters, some sand bugs, guards with snipers, guards with machine guns, guards with shotguns, guards coming down on ropes, flying cameras with spinning blades, sentry guns (which you can also use for yourselves), helicopters, explosive balls which follow you , huge machines with long legs etc etc. Your weapons are naturally better at certain enemies, thus forcing you into a weapon switching frenzy at times - and that is when having many different weapons can have its drawbacks.
OK, i've been praising this game a lot, but i feel it deserves it. While they are very little niggles, the positives outweigh the negatives by a huge margin. If you're looking for a very compelling, heart-pumping shooter, get this game. If you want some good variety out of the countless number of shooters out there, get this game. If you also like multiplayer deathmatches (Half Life 2 Deathmatch) or online cooperative tactical shooting experiences (Counter Strike: Source), then get this game. If you're any kind of gamer who only likes some mild action, get this game. Basically, if you're a gamer at all, just get this game.