I was at E3 with my pyscho gaming buddy cleaning the Pizza flavored drool off his chin when we got a preview of HL2. Like most, I counted the days, cursed Valve and Sierra for delay after delay, put all my faith and hope into Doom 3, was underwhelmed, went back to playing Desert Combat...basically went insane with anticipation.
In the brief moments before firing up HL2 for the first time, I was hopeful, but expecting to be dissapointed.
And I was.
Really, no multi-player! I'm one of those that have an absolute allergy to single-player games. Small beads of angry sweat began to form on my back...
But I soldiered on, and in:
10 minutes I was impressed,
at 30 minutes I was completely immersed,
at 1 hour chills were running up and down my spine, and occasional girlish yelps of horror began emanating from my pitch dark office...
...by the third hour I came to the conclusion that HL2 was/is the most impressive game software I've ever had the privilege of living in. Some highlights:
1. The engine is truly revolutionary. Doom 3 has a darn good engine, HL2 in my opinion is vastly better. Indoor AND outdoor environments are near photo-realistic (I have a 3.2GHZ w/ 1GB RAM), the physics are jaw-dropping AND deeply integrated into the play of the game, texture and lighting, faces, water, you name it, this engine is now The Standard.
2. Vehicles. Well, not only do they have them, they're really fun to operate (or be chased by as the case may be).
3. The Gravity Gun. This weapon comes later in the game, and in my humble opinion, is easily the most fun weapon I've ever used. Picking up and throwing items, using it to activate latent elements of the environment (often as weapons) is unbelievably fun. Which brings me to:
4. Humor. This game has some really funny moments. I almost busted a gut when I ran out of heavy/sharp things to fire at zombified creatures that were teaming up on me in close quarters. I desperately pulled over a large can of paint, fired, and splattered huge gobs of white paint all over their (now more upset) faces. I died, but I died laughing. And finally:
5. Immersion. The screams were obvious signs of immersion, but beyond that, I noticed myself making facial expressions of anger, empathy, anticipation...all throughout the game I found myself genuinely caring. That's a first for me.
I really could go on and on, but I can't, literally, I fear that dawn isn't far from my window and I'd like to pretend that I myself won't be a zombie tomorrow.
Enjoy,
Christian Hunter
Santa Barbara, California
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
As one of the 3 people in the universe who didn't much care for the original Half-Life, I was hardly awaiting with baited breath the release of this sequel. The things I didn't like about the original, namely the clunky and flawed controls, dated graphics even for 1998, outweighed the undeniable genius of the game as a story. I wasn't ruling out Half Life 2, but I was much more interested and looking forward to Doom 3.Fast forward to the present. Having just built myself a top-notch gaming PC capable of running both games with ease, I took the plunge, but decided to install and play Doom 3 first. My initial reaction to that game --awe at the graphics and production value, creepy atmosphere-was quickly replaced with tedium and boredom as the game played out like a 21st century scavenger hunt (find the key card! Get lost in the dark!). When I played Half-Life 2, however, I was BLOWN AWAY. The graphics are as good as Doom 3, but the big difference is that you can actually see them, because the entire game is not in dark tunnels, but rather takes place over a variety of terrains, ranging from beautiful coastline to wonderfully post-apocalyptic cityscapes. This game is truly deserving of all of the "Game of the Year" awards, and here is why:
GRAPHICS: Simply stellar. The textures are terrific, and the water effects are super, second only to Far Cry. The character models are very nicely done, and the way their eyes follow you around the room is both creepy and amazing.
SOUND: Very, very good. The sounds and music are very well done, and complement the game's moods quite ably.
GAMEPLAY: A gift from heaven. The game engine is ruled by physics so real, you're going to try picking up every object just to see what happens. A brick feels and reacts different that a doll, a tire swing responds realistically to a push, and bodies fall convincingly when shot or falling. The control is simple, smooth and effective, and the weapons are generally balanced. I wish there had been a better sniping weapon than the crossbow, but hey, that's what mods are for!
STORY: Again, stellar. It's so noticeable when a story grabs you, and when a story is just filler, a pretext for the setting of the game. In Doom 3, I couldn't care less why I was there. I certainly wasn't about to read the myriad boring PDA's you find on corpses, and the story is really trite. Half-Life 2, much like Knights of the Old Republic, makes YOU the star of the game, and gives you little chunks of info, but never overwhelms you with random names that mean nothing to you. As a result, you internalize the info, and actually come to care about the other characters. The scripted scenes are always logical and never forced, and they are just plain funny at times. I can't say enough about the great immersive world of this game.
NEGATIVES: Much like everyone, I dislike the "Steam" program which basically means that each time you play half life, you need an active internet connection. It's the company's way of authenticating your software, and while it's logical to be paranoid, (after all, this game's code was famously stolen by a hacker last year) it's a bit much. That said, most people have internet, so this is somewhat moot.
OVERALL: I personally don't care for online games; I find that people often act like children or jerks, and that the few games that are fun to play in multiplayer are shooters like Unreal Tournament of the Battlefield series. I can't express enthusiastically enough how happy I am to see that a game developer still cares about putting out a polished and amazing single player game.
Best Deals for Half-Life 2 - PC
I followed this game from about a year after it was announced and I had the privilige of sitting through all of the releace date set-backs and I can tell you, it was worth it.I will now list the games pros and cons as to catagory
Grafics:
This game looked exellent and near-photo realistic. The grafics were also very stable and I had no problem running them on my mid-range PC. Lip-synching was dead on and all of the emotional ranges the charicters could go through was amazing. All of the enviromental effects were superb as well, the water was amazing and reflected EVERYTHING, enemies, geografic features and even explosions. All of the items were extemely well off and all of them were photo-realistic in quality. Metalic objects had a sheen to them, and textures even up close looked very beleveable.
Sound:
The sound design was incredible, halfway through the game, my ear was trained to hear the individual, distinctive sounds of any number of the multiple creatures that could be just around the corner. Nothing is more freaky than hearing a poison headcrab and tring to find it just by tring to listen for it. The dialog was exellent, and the music, while rather artificial, fit the mood of the game.
Level design:
The levels were well spaced out and very well planned. The only issue I have with this part of the game is that the level take FOREVER to load on a 2.1 GHZ prosessor, which is above average (It takes about 1.5 minautes to load a new area, just count those seconds out without anything to do, its a very long time)
Gameplay:
With an extremely impressive physics system and a way to impress your will upon that system, the average gameplay is addictive and you can play in any form you want to. Imagne running through a hallway, and there is a zombie at the other end! so you pick up a 2X4 with the gravity gun and hurl it at the zombie! The zombie hunches over and slides down against the wall. You pick up a radiator to block the bullets from a man with a machine gun across the hall, then you throw it at him! It beans him in the head and his entire upper body flips around and he flies over a railing to crash down on the floor below! That is the standard in half life 2 if you play with the gravity gun.
Overall:
This game is worth a 10 out of 10 for all of the great things that are in this game. And this game has almost infinate replay value. This one is for the ages.
Honest reviews on Half-Life 2 - PC
I don't know about other gamers, but I've been getting frustrated with games recently. They look better than ever, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. Game play, also, is in desperate need of betterment. So without further ado, allow me to make Half-Life 2 the "poster boy" of recent PC games. I like this game a lot, but I just feel that it reflects some of the contempt that the gaming industry is showing toward its customers.I won't say too much about Steam because other people have been very vocal about the troubles it's causing. I needed to wait about an hour to install the five CDs and then sign up with Steam. It was an unpleasant experience, but not that bad.
As for the graphics, they're better than anything else I've seen including Doom 3, but they're not perfect either. Outdoor levels have low resolution, and as a result the trees often look fuzzy. Nevertheless, buildings look good with vivid colors and lots of detail. This graphical sophistication comes at a price, and my system really strained under the weight. I'd recommend a 3 Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM, and a 256 MB graphics card if you want to run the game smoothly.
Sound is very good although it often stuttered. Evidently my hardware is a little slow for this game, and I believe the demanding graphics slows your system which can adversely affect the sound.
Considering the game play, it's very similar to the first game. The crowbar is back along with the head crabs. You can really get engaged in the game play, but in some parts of the game it fell flat. I found myself fending off tough enemies while having little idea of how to either escape or destroy them. It could be as much fun as swatting at a cloud of pesky gnats! Finally, after several tries, I would find the place to get away or the weapon to kill the thing attacking me. Do yourself a favor and get a good strategy guide for this game. It will save you a lot of frustration.
In closing, I find myself wishing that game developers and publishers would take better care to see that the customer is getting a good product. Half-Life 2 delivers some fantastic experiences, but these achievements are marred by frustrating and annoying game play on some of the levels, the demanding system requirements, and a bug or two that disallows continuation of the game. And I must really protest the requirement to set up that annoying account with Steam. Personally, I'm fed up with all this, and as a result, I have no plans to buy anymore computer games for the foreseeable future. So developers and publishers, you just lost a customer.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Half-Life 2 - PC
Well, after having shelled out what, after all, is a lot of money, I haven't been able to play this game yet. They've got got this little anti-piracy software called Steam (Completely understandible, after how much the developers went through prior to launch) on there that you have to register with before so much as running the application. Too bad that this has been an unpleasent surprise and a heretofore insurmountable obstacle! So we understand how often this is mentioned:On the website: 1 time (a link to the Steam site.)
On the box: 0 times.
In the documentation: 1 time (mentioning that an account with Steam is required.)
Well, now as I've got it and have gotten mired in it, I find that it takes forever to register, and that you can more or less kiss any hope of it working goodbye if you do not have complete control over your network settings (i.e. if you are on a college campus). One day I will get this to work, but I will not purchase another game that has something like this. Assuming that I even get notice of it. I have no doubt in my mind that Half Life 2 is as revolutionary as the original, but I suggest everybody make sure they know what they're getting into.
For those who want to see the volumes of things that impede Steam working, check out the support section of their website:
No comments:
Post a Comment