One of the all time best FPS'. Combat is immersive, with a great story line, its good to see a decent shooter out there.
The story of the game is somewhat different to your common FPS, for starters, it actually has a story. Though the story itself I'll admit is secondary to the action, which I must say, is grand. When you first load up HL2, it will take some time before you get your first gun and you go toe to toe with your pursueing foe. You must plow through some story first, but you are indeed rewarded, for the first mission is rich with action, gun fights, and blood blood blood.
The weapons work well, and of course, the most appealing of these is the gravity gun, which can allow you to pick up almost anything you can find and throw it around. This feature alone allows for hours of fun, however your first time through you will be consumed with the action and plot of the game. However at points your inner child will get the better of you and you will find time to mess around with the games amazing physics.
As for the enemies themselves, for the most part, they are quite smart. You wont see them doing anything groundbreaking, but in combat they know what their doing, which makes for more of a challenge than most FPS. The chatter of their intercom will let you know when some are just around the corner, which will make you take note and your trigger finger will then beocme itchy as you delve into combat.
Throughout the game, you will beforgiven for thinking that thegame gets harder and harder. This is true, as you slowly avoid small groups of your enemies near the beginning, and by the end, you are fighting off small armies of enemies as you try to rally through the streets fighting a small war of your own.
Sound is somewhat secondary in the game, or as I found. It helped at certain times to create the amtoshpere of a moment, but these are few and far between.
Overall, Half Life 2 is something everyone who owns a Xbox must play, no question about it. Out of all the horrible FPS's out there, this game gives the hope that in the furture we will be seeing much more decent games from the genre.