Shortly after Half-Life 2 was released through Steam on 16 Nov, IGNIQ members began posting their opinions.
Those opinions, along with the results of our official poll, make up this review:
Greatest game ever? Most Cinematic game ever? Most hyped game ever!!
Probably all of the above. I honestly think that this is the one game that has met and surpassed all my expectations. There is not much that you can say about the gfx. The sound fx and voice acting are second to none. The atmosphere this game generates is beyond anything else. Yes it is very linear , but that just helps the story along.It's like exciting scripted event after exciiting scripted event.
Basically it's like being in a movie. An exciting , scary , funny movie. Oh and Alyx Vance is hot!! :p
Reality is False
Steam has to be taken into account of any review. While I would say this is possibly the best game I have ever played (I will wait to see how multiplayer and modifications pan out before I crown it the definite best EVER.) it definitelly has the worst launcher ever. No other game I have played takes this long to get into (then again I have never played MMOG's. It does seem that Valve is the Mohammed Ali of game developers at the moment. They are the best right now, and they know it and take advantage of it.
Anyway, onto the game. The first time I played through it was great, I played through on normal so I didn't have to reload too much though. The way your capabilities were gradually upgrade through what weaponry you had kept each section fairly different, for example once you got the gravity gun or the bug bait the gameplay style changed completely.
When I finished it did seem like a pretty bad ending. So I went onto the forums and saw all sorts of outrage and bizarre theories. I started playing it through again on hard and realised that there were lots of small things I missed that give you clues that help to fill in the holes, but I am still very much in the dark about it all. But I am not really bothered not knowing, speculation is fun.
Anyway, playing through on hard the second time, some of the sections did seem to last a bit too long. But that is probably because I quicksaved/loaded much too much.
So over all, I would agree with 97% or so, at least given the technology available. For the single player that is though.
Greg
This gets a solid 4 stars from me; excellent fun all told, quick paced so it doesn't get boring, some really nice creative touches and an intriguing story.
The minor flaws that prevent a top rating for me are:
* Like Greg said, the extremely long start up times, even on a decent PC.
* The vehicle levels - they were ok I suppose, but for me they took away from the authentic atmosphere that built up (took you out of the convincing setting of the City 17 and reminded you you were playing a game),went on for far too long, and it seemed to me you were just repeating the same action every stop you make (climb off the boat/buggy, fight through some enemies, disable a shield, climb back on your vehicle and onto the next one).
* The Ravenholm level - I thought this level was a serious drag in the game; tedious, unappealing visually, claustrophobic, glitchy (the head-crab victims continually respawn from one place indefinitely), and it was like a girder dropped into the fast path of the story.
* The parts where you have others (AntLions, Squads) aiding you are cool, but it seems an unfinished and severely glitchy aspect - they get in your way frequently, which is irritating, and you are very limited in how you can control them.
* There doesn't seem to be much in the way of re-playability, if you don't count changing the difficulty or going back through it to piece together the scant info you're given about the story.
* It's way too short - forgivable though since HL2 is more like a cinematic action experience than a game, and it looks to me to be just a midpoint before the grand finale, HL3, where the story is finally explained. It makes sense to me that Valve would announce part three soon, to maintain the interest everyone will have in the story after finishing HL2.
Aside from these though I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a few days of slick gaming fun with a creative, unique story - or anyone who likes Hollywood action movies, because that's what it reminded me of more than anything else.
robj
Graphically the game isn't anything special, especially indoors. Outside was the only time I felt like it was really awesome. The rest, the textures seemed pretty flat, often blurry close-up. The lighting and shadowing, well on a techinal note it doesn't match that of Doom 3. And I'd even go so far as to say that...as a whole, I thought Far Cry looked better.
Half-Life 2 DOES look pretty good, but it's not the amazing graphical advancement it was made out to be.
[...]
i would really give the game a 4, becuase it DOES have some flaws that bring it down. For example the first half of the game with the vehicles (as Rob mentioned) get pretty boring, repetitive, and somewhat annoying. They just don't feel like Half-Life.
And I'll also have to agree with Rob about Ravenholm because I couldn't stand that place. It was because the zombies respawned indefinately that kept me wandering around the same alleyway for 2 hours before I found another passageway to go. This really aggrivated me because I always had something following me trying to kill me---things that weren't even hard just annoying things that got in my way when trying to find the real way out.
Also the game as a whole is very pathed. There's never a place where you can wander around and explore something, all other doors are locked, and you can only go one direction the entire time. (With the exception of one small backalley of Ravenholm that I've deducted only exists for the items and annoying zombies it contains, other than that it's pointless.) I absolutely loved Far Cry for the simple fact that you could go explore things when you wanted to. To be completely honest with you I had more trouble finding my way through the halls of Doom 3 than I did with this game, which is almost sad in itself. Doom 3 had more puzzles to get through, more doors and keys to be opened, more ways to go to try and get to one place, eventually you had to go through a certain door but you could go many ways to get there, and you needed to go many places to find your way to that place. Half-Life 2 I encountered none of this, if I walked into a room with lasers and thought "Crud...I need to go around this and shut off the switch", turns out there's no other door, that answers that. Next hallway. All doors but one are PAINTED onto the wall, with the game on highest graphical settings, which leaves you only the door not painted on the wall to open up.
The second half of the game really picked up the pace, it was City 17 that made the game. Ravenholm, Highway 17, the waterway at the beginning of the game. Those didn't do a damn thing for me, in fact they make up the majority of the game...and they're boring because it's nothing but antlions and vehicles.
Now I'm trashing the first half of the game quite a bit, but I feel that the vehicles could've been completely left out of the game and I would've been just as happy with it. The last half of the game though is such a rush, really gives you a feeling like you're in an action movie or something---but you're not just watching it, you're helping to create it. Whilst fighting through City 17 and the Citadel, there's where the star of the game is. These places override the first half even though it's much shorter than the first half, I just had so much fun with it.
TheBlacksmith
Well Im not gonna beat around the bush on this one, HL2 is the best FPS ever made, it is definitely the 2004 game of the year, and will well be in everybody that plays it's top 3 games of all time (at least)
I simply cant get over the level of detail put into it, it dwarfs all else, leaving far cry and doom 3 looking like jokes(very pretty jokes).
any company that is mid production of a mediocre FPS might well just throw in the hat now, I for one will not entertain poor FPS's anymore, the likes of the awful kreed, your game is up.
Richie
Solid 5 from yours truly. I kinda knew from all that i had seen from the videos and getting a glimpse at the beta that this was going to be something special right from the start. My feelings toward Half Life 2 here will have nothing to do with the whole "Authentication" process and the load times. If it did then the game itself would probably get an all around 3. It's the great story, alluring character details, amazing graphics, believable physics and the fact that it never gets boring or unfresh througout the entire game.
It really has raised the bar for first person shooters in every way.
Gary
Brilliant game, Its what i envisioned it to be and more, although the flat textures of buildings is a bit poor but can be forgivan simply for scope and play ability.
moonshine
