It's not the successor to Half-Life, but it's still probably the best single-player PC game of 2004.
User Rating: 9.4 | Half-Life 2 PC
The first Half-Life pegged the bar for this series at an unbelievably high level. Its immersive storyline, expansive gameplay and excellent design changed the way the industry looked at FPS games. In an industry that pumps out thousands of games a year, Half-Life's longevity and continued influence is an undenyable testament to its quality. Now, 6 years in the making, Half-Life 2 has finally arrived. The hubbub around the game's development and status has been deafening for months. Hundreds (thousands? millions? nah, probably just thousands) of steam subscribers waited with baited breath for midnight on 15th to get their already installed copy verified and running. Which brings up the eternal question: Was it all worth it? And, unfortunately, the answer is what it always is: of course not. Half-Life 2 is an excellent game, but it is definitely not the equal of its predecessor. Graphically, of course, there is no comparison. In the 6 years between the games, the visual standard of games has risen exponentially, and Half-Life 2 takes full advantage of this. All of the snazzy new tech your card can handle is in there in spades. HL2 trumps its competitors (much as HL1 did) by ALSO having an amazing sense of style to go along with all the hardware goodies. The characters look and move like the real thing. The facial animation and nuance of HL2 are absolutely unmatched. It's amazing how much the NPCs can say without even opening their mouths. The environments are incredibly detailed and well designed. When you begin the game, it really feels like you're immersed in a living, breath world. But what world would be complete without sound? Again, HL2 nails it. The voice acting is stellar, the environmental audio is bang on with where you are and what you're doing, and everything sounds beautiful. 'Nuff said. Unfortunately, that's where the game peaks. It looks and sounds beautiful, but the acutal content of the game is not nearly up to par (remember, par is HL1, so par's really stinkin' high). No spoilers here, but the storyline is extremely predictable and basic. Most players should be able to figure out the majority of it in the first 30 mins or less. It starts out very strange, but doesn't follow up on it's introduction, which is a little disappointing. It's still an interesting story, and it suits the game well, so it's not nearly as disappointing as it sounds. It's not HL1, but what is? The real problem with HL2 is actually something that was touted as one of its biggest strengths, and can be pointed out in 3 little words: The physics engine. Okay, i said it. You can stop yelling at me. Nothing is WRONG with the physics engine. In fact, it's probably the best implementation ever seen in a game up to this point. All of the puzzles, the way enemies react to being shot and the interactivity of the environment are absolutely great. The problem pops up when you start to realize that the gameplay has been hijacked by the physics engine and now revolves almost solely around that one factor. The major offender is, of course, the gravity gun. Definitely an interesting addition to the gameplay, but as a weapon it's clunky and unwieldy, and HL2 makes you use it as such far too often. Which is really a pity, because the other guns (especially the plasma rifle and rocket launcher) are such great weapons. All of the "real" weapons in HL2 are amazingly well balanced and have a really solid feel to them. This makes it even more painful when you run out of ammo for EVERYTHING have are forced to switch to the gravity gun. And that's about it. Half-life 2 is a great game. It's definitely worth playing and the added bonus of Counter-strike: Source, Day Of Defeat: Source, etc. makes it a great value. It's unfortunate that it isn't a successor to Half-Life (more of a sibling), and that occasionally it forgets it's a First Person Shooter and turns into a First Person Thrower (with the gravity gun), but even with these failings, it's still probably the best game of this year. Pick it up, you won't regret it. 
