One of the greatest gaming experiences ever, If gaming could not be called art before, this will change everyones mind!
User Rating: 9 | Half-Life 2 PC
Fifteen so years of gaming, a lot of gaming. One experiences much in those fifteen years of gaming, from being a plumber who has a grudge against turtles, to a Ninja who can run up walls, to a scientist who opens an unlikely rift in time and creates hell for he and his coworkers. Though a lot of great gaming moments have been logged by me, I cannot possibly remember a better gaming experience than playing Half-Life 2. It is quite simply the greatest action game ever made, arguably the greatest game ever made and it will ultimately change the way we look at games. As I am writing this, there are probably four or five developers of first person shooters and action games, or hell any game, that have just got done playing through Half-Life 2 and realized they need to go back and rethink everything in there games. I am utterly exhausted, exhilarated, and ultimately left with more answers than questions with HL2, but it doesn't matter, those 18 or so hours in the eyes of Gordon Freeman, the “Free man” will never be forgotten, not one second, not one millisecond. Imagine playing the lead in your favorite action movie for 18 hours, this is what playing this game is like, never a dull moment, near perfect pacing, and action that is so fun that you'll forget you're playing a game. In fact it's the first game in awhile where I didn't feel like I was playing a game, rather I was in that world. And what a world, the graphics in HL2 and the environment that are rendered are as close to real as any game has ever come, from the pseudo European buildings of City 17 to the absolutely stunning water, water that looks so good it's almost scary, if you're afraid of water I think this game is going to be the first bit of virtual water that may also scare you. The game presents a graphical presentation that has surpassed every single game, including the amazing graphics of Doom 3. And then the animation of the NPC's puts the game over the top, it's the first game where the characters convey emotion through facial animation, exactly like human beings. We've had great voice acting, and cinematic in games for years, but never have any of these games had more than a stiff character flapping his mouth up and down to the voice acting, in HL2 they talk, and they look like there talking, not an actor behind an avatar talking, and thats what sets HL2 apart from the rest of gaming world. When Barney sarcastically tells Gordon at the start of the game, that he sees how his MIT education has paid off, after Gordon was told to simply flip and switch and then congratulated by Dr. Kliener, you see the sarcasm in Barney's expression, something no other game has ever properly conveyed. There is emotion in Half-Life 2, and this emotion isn't conveyed through a million dollar FMV like every other game. During the middle portion of the game, there is a small town you stop at on your trip with the dune buggy, there you must hold the Combine off with the help of 4 NPC's, you eventually run up to a light house to grab some RPG ammo to shoot down an aircraft attacking the town, after the 10 minute battle, and your in the clear, you'll go back down to the town and the rebels fighting with you are obviously worn out, there leaning on buildings and you can see there distress. This is the attention to detail that HL2 has, it's such a small thing but such a huge thing at the same time, it hits you, it hits you that these people really are struggling for there lives, and they look up to you. The sound the voice acting, and the music in the game are all done extremely well, though I sometimes think some of the tunes don't fit the action. Usually a electronic track will hit during an exciting point during the action, and more often than not it fits the scene, but I wonder if a more orchestral score would have done even more to lift the emotion in this game. That said, the music is overall very good, and the sound effects, and ambiance are flawless, this game really has just about the best sound effects of any game out there. The voice acting is perfect, though you'll realize that pretty much one guy plays the voice of all the minor male npc's in the game. Two male actors would have probably been a bit better, but it's only an extremely minor annoyance. All of the main parts however, are excellent, really great work, and a benchmark for anyone doing voice over work in gaming. Through the 14 chapters you'll escape the Combine forces through train tracks and underground railroads, fight through a zombie invested town thats scarier than all of Doom 3, race across a canal with a hover boat, decapitate zombies with saw blades, jump a bridge with a dune buggy, gain control over fierce bug like aliens that will do your bidding, fight 20 story towering mechanical oppressors called striders who's only job is to kill anything that moves, and fight your way through the towering citadel thats a reminder to all of the citizens of City 17 who there benefactors are, the ones that want them to throw away there human instincts. If there is a flaw in HL2, is simply that it's not perfect, and we all know that nothing is perfect. But HL2 is about as flawless as a game can get, and that's enough for me to recommend this game to anyone, even those with modest PC's should be able to enjoy this game as it scales very well to even systems filled with three year old parts. And all this, 18 hours of pure bliss, pure gaming, pure enjoyment, and though the ending may not be to everyones liking, it is the G mans liking, and ultimately the G man is Gordon's Benefactor and Gordon his pawn. And all this, one of the greatest gaming experiences ever, If gaming could not be called art before, this will change everyones mind, Half-Life 2 is art, and nearly flawless art at that. 
