May 2015 – Half-Life 2

Title: Half-Life 2
Platforms: PC, XBox, XBox 360, PS3
Release Date: November 16th, 2004
Developer: Valve Corporation
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment
Genre: First-person shooter

Members Completed: 8
Average Rating: 77.8/100
Member Progress Rating Review and/or Comments
Apple Completed 05/13
Difficulty: Normal		 88/100
Choas Completed 05/31
Difficulty: Normal		 44/100 I feel I should preface this review with two points: 1. I don’t like first-person shooters; and 2. I rate in a vacuum. If I were to rate Half-Life 2 in relation to all other FPSes I’ve played, the final score would be significantly higher. Unfortunately, since it is, in fact, an FPS, the ceiling for my score is in the tank.
There’s a lot to like here. Despite the game’s age, the visuals are very impressive and hold up well against even more modern games. Gordon’s arsenal is varied and useful; for the most part, obtaining a new gun doesn’t obsolete any others. The Gravity Gun in particular was a lot of fun, and there was nothing more satisfying than launching saw blades at the facefucked zombies in Ravenholm. Unfortunately, it still suffers from the same monotonous and repetitive gameplay that all FPSes do, and some of the chapters dragged on far too long (I was not sad to see the air boat go away forever). While the non-stop pace of the game is commendable, the lack of chapter breaks made the early part of the game feel like one excessively long sequence. This, coupled with the odd story progression – it felt like Gordon was only eternally reacting to circumstance, and never actually accomplishing what he may have initially set out to do (up until “Anticitizen One”, anyway) – made for a somewhat unfulfulling experience with regards to the story. Clear Screen
gamma Completed 05/29
Difficulty: Normal		 81/100 Much better than I thought it would be, but I still think it gets more praise than it deserves. I actually played a few years ago and quit at Water Hazard because the game felt boring and tedious, so if not for Game of the Month, I wouldn’t have seen the rest. My rating here is mostly influenced by the enjoyable gameplay, the various weapons that were surprisingly useful, and by my consideration of other FPS titles. Basically, I only liked the gameplay in Half-Life 2. The story was uninteresting and generic, especially due to the dystopian themes that I rarely like; I hear people talk about the great atmosphere, but I only experienced that in the “Our Benefactors” chapter–most of the game seemed empty and drawn-out. Despite these complaints, the action-filled moments came together nicely as I looked back on them.
Kuro Completed 05/03
Difficulty: Normal		 84/100 Clear Screen
ladyjuice Completed 05/16
Difficulty: Normal		 80/100
sfc Completed 05/10
Difficulty: Normal		 90/100
texanfanatic99 Completed 05/14
Difficulty: Normal		 87/100 half life 2 was a good game. i like the part when you shoot bad guys. Clear Screen
Yoshi Completed 05/29
Difficulty: Normal		 68/100 This was one of the best FPS games I’ve ever played, though I’m not at all a fan of the genre. I played Half-Life 1 before this and I gotta say what these games did were incredibly revolutionary for their time. I thought some Chapters went on a little too long, but was very fun nonetheless and I can’t think of any parts that I just hated. The story is very, very weak honestly and I feel like they could do SO much more with it. It was good enough though to the point where I will be one of the first to play Half-Life 3 when it eventually comes out. The boat & the buggy were very welcome additions to break up the walking around, and along with Ravenholm were probably my favorite parts. The aspect of this game that truly struck me as the most amazing was that you really had to conserve your ammo to get through it; this gave the game a much more realistic feel and was a nice break from the usual “shoot everything endlessly forever” problem that plagues the entire FPS genre. Half-Life 2 will forever hold (deservedly so) an important place in gaming history. Final Achievement. Game Time: 14h55m. Game Log.
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