Great game, everyone should play it!
You spend a good portion of your time trying to find a way through things rather than killing things. And this time is not boring, but I thought very amusing. I loved trying to get to the next area by placing boxes to jump over a fence or looking for a path. I was glad there was no set path that you had to walk across, but your approach through the level could be different.
The greatest add on that they added to this game was the car and boat (with equipped weapons). I loved driving in the boat through the levels running over my enemy combine! The adrenaline, the thrill, the shots coming from above, evereything was awesome! And once they itroduce the car to you, you get to have fun yet again running over ant lions as they pop out of the ground. Going on highways and off jumps while avoiding the zombies and ant lions was so much fun.
The tutorial that they gave when you finally got the greatest weapon was very well layed out and fit with the story really well. And it introduces you to the greatest character in the game, Dog. Dog is a mechanized robot that Alyx has been working on since she was a little girl. So, when you get the gravity gun, Alyx has you play catch with dog. As you toss things to eachother and you progress through the tutorial, it of course has to end in disaster.
As you get seperated with both Alyx and Dog, you must fight you way through ravenholm, possibly the hardest level in the game. WIth so many zombies trying to kill you and things jumping out of you, I was afraid to turn the next corner! Then you meet up with this monk who has traps for the zombies that you can use at your disposal which I found very amusing. Cars tied to the roof and being able to drop that on the zombies was fun for a while, and as soon as it started to get boring there was a new trap that had been conveniently placed.
In the end of the game, the last two levels are my absolute favorite! You venture into Dr. Breen's building and you have to kill Breen. You travel through these holders that hold you in place and take you along the building. One takes you to the security area and upon doing so, takes away all of your weapons except for one. The gravity gun is the only one that the machine could not take, but instead made it much more powerful. So with the new gravity gun, you could pick up things you never could before (large items and people).
I recommend this game to everyone! Since its on the PC, you should all play it. I dont think there was anything bad about this game, everything was great. The reason it did not get a perfect was because once you finish there isnt much want to go back and play it. But with the extra stuff you get with Half Life 2 (Counter Strike Source, The various mods on it, etc) it is well worth your money. There is a very long list (Message me if you would like the link) of mods that completely change the game and some that dont.