I can definitely see why people love this game so much.
I played a lot of modern shooters these days which are mightily loved, but still have that shoot-and-kill feature throughout the whole time which is so dumb in my opinion. Feel free to get your expectations high for Half Life 2 because it has many great points. WARNING: If you are in high school (like me), you will find it difficult to do school work as long as this game is installed on your computer, but I suppose that justifies its brilliance. I shall now point out the games points for you.
GRAPHICS 10/10: They are just so beautiful. Not only are they amazing for their time (2004), but the other incredible thing is the low system requirements for it. I couldn't believe my eyes when I discovered that the recomended requirements are a DirectX7 and 1.2 GHz. There is just a lot of detail and the water looks so real with its reflection and animation. Character animation and emotion is absolutely perfect and makes you feel for them. The lighting is just right, giving you a feel of the real world. All of that and all you require is a DirectX7?! PC gamers can consider themselves most lucky if they cannot run Crysis, because this is the game to turn to. The Xbox 360 visuals are great and have more detail, but they lack the same feeling due to it sometimes being slightly overdone and the frame-rate being inferior to PC version's.
GAMEPLAY 10/10: Gameplay may not appeal to people that are used to open world and RPG features like in other great FPS games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, but you have to admit that even now, it is loads of fun and worthy of a 10/10. It is an amazing improvement over Half Life 1 that I wouldn't be surprised if it was called Half Life 3 instead on the basis gameplay improvement. Level design is simply perfect, with excellent puzzles, interesting situations and well-hidden Valve Caches to discover. The physics are also what amazes me due to the low system requirements. I think these are the best physics ever in a video game, no exaggeration. Not by how much things you can destroy, but more by how much detail there is to the destruction of the object. You can break pieces of wood into more pieces then break these pieces into more pieces. The puzzle-solving is fun, and while it is not always simple, it is always easy enough. The combat feeling gets me so engrossed that I sometimes forget that I am playing a computer game. The gravity gun was such a clever idea as well and I often enjoyed picking *sharp* objects and shooting them at the zombies. Among the sequel's new features is the use of certain action/environmental strategies like car traps or fire traps in missions like Ravenholm. As you progress there is always either something new or something different in each level. The gameplay overall, is prefect for an FPS, especially for a 2004 game, and millions of miles away from being too repetitive.
STORY 8/10: I have not played through the whole game, but the story does appear to be really good. Incidentally I have not played completely through even the first Half Life, but fortunately the story in this sequel is still easy enough to understand. Don't listen to what Gamespot says about the story. It is not the best and not the most intelligent or complex, but it is still really good and gets you interested and has amazing dialogue and characters. There are no Dr Kleiner or Barney or Eli clones as now there is only one of each (and sorry if you loved the first, but you cannot choose to kill them). The beginning was quite dramatic and I really enjoyed city 17, probably because the buildings and homes were designed to look Eastern European, where my own origins lie. I also liked the part where you play 'fetch' with 'DOG' with the gravity gun so all I can say is that it is pretty good experience with emotional as well as atmospheric moments.
SOUND 10/10: The gunshots and environmental sounds give you a great realistic feel to the gameplay. When I was smashing up a crate with the crowbar, I could have sworn that it felt like I was smashing a real crate. Voice-acting is simply perfect and Alyx Vance sounded like the best character in the story, other than the dodgy G-man. The soundtrack is also pretty good. Some songs can be melancholy and beautiful (especially ones with piano sounds), some are entertaining and adrenaline pumping, and others are pretty spooky and apocalyptic. While majority of the new tunes in this sequel (it does repeat some from the original) are honestly a bit mediocre, there are great ones are like 'Apprehension and Evasion' (name found in soundtrack list). The VALVE song is cool as always and fits its part in the first level quite well. The music is nothing groundbreaking, but it gets the job done.
This game has a lot of linear moments, but this is not a typical FPS where you just run and kill. It is not as open-ended as the first game, but you get to use some strategy in this game so you get some moments of decision making like using car-traps or fire-traps on the zombies, plus you might want to search for secret areas so the replay value is there. All in all, this game is close to perfection and one game that critics are right about. Even in this year 2009, the game is well worth the money so if it is, you should get it as soon as you can.