Since Half-Life 2 was officially released on November 16th 2004, all other FPS games have become a blur. The original Half-Life grossed eight million sales and collected over 50 “game of the year” titles. The simple combination of story telling and action was highly addictive and set a new benchmark for all FPS titles that followed. Due to strong support amongst the online community, the tactical shooter ‘Counter Strike’ was born as a half-life modification. Counter Strike was, at one time, the most played online game. Other ‘mods’ also spawned from the Half-Life engine, further proving how versatile the engine could be.

Those are some incredibly high standards to live up to. After five long years in development Half-Life 2 really had to be something special. Thankfully, it manages to live up to all expectations.

After returning back to Black Mesa in Half-Life 2, you will notice that a lot has changed. If the difference between the original and the sequel had only been a few graphical updates to keep this new title on par with games like Farcry & Doom 3, then, in my opinion, this game would still score very highly. The improvements to the game go much further than just better graphics though.

The website www.gameoftheyear.com illustrates the four key ingredients to this game’s recipe of success. Characters, Physics, Graphics and AI are the physical components now powered by “source”. What is source? Source is the game engine that provides the Half-Life 2 world with realistic life.

Half-Life 2 opens up an immersive world. New users to the series might feel like they opened a book halfway through. But, even if you are a new comer to the series, this doesn’t have a negative impact. It just means you’ll probably find yourself exploring the world of city 17 even closer.

The basic story line unfolds as you are dumped into ‘city17’. You impact the pace of the storyline as it unfolds around you. A simple room commands great detail, Characters sometimes are used as props, others to guide you though the maze like surrounds. I love the use of puzzles that need to be solved in order to advance to the next section. Some are simple, which have you scanning the room for clues, while others demand an understanding of the enemies you face in order to survive.

Graphically, you won’t need to invest big money into your computer’s hardware to enjoy the epic. Why? Because this game is something of a hybrid. Traces of DirectX 7 & DirectX9 provide you computer with the best of both worlds. A medium spec computer can handle the 3D load, where the power needed lies in the rendering of the water. Luckily, HL2 gives you the option of falling back onto the ‘cheap’ (DirectX 7) like water, over the ‘experience’ (DirectX 9) kind. You need to experience it once, water that looks like water; I couldn’t understand the hype at first, but I guess that’s the point. Characters talk and use real facial expressions. They also fall like a rag-doll to your weapon’s piecing commands. Ambient sound’s set a realistic level of suspense, which reinforces the atmosphere. There’s no doubting that this is a very solid title graphically.

There’s a great sense of being in a real place while playing Half-Life 2. You can pick up, drop & throw tables, cars, oil drums onto unaware victims, by the use of the ‘gravity gun’. There is also an organic version of the same gun that enables you to do the same with life-forms, but I will let you discover that fun by yourselves. One of the highlights - give an alien hell, and it looks like it hurts!

Half-Life 2 isn’t a b-grade cowboy film, where you fire at anything that moves. It is more of a tactical, survival shooter of a ‘Farcry’ nature.

Half-Life 2 seems like the perfect game right? Well, it has certainly raised the level of realism in video games. I hope in the future to see more software houses challenging this ‘Game of the Year’ title.

If this review has already convinced you to make a purchase, there are still a few things that you need to be mindful of. Half-Life 2 comes to us Australian’s in two flavours and in two different methods. The choices are: silver or gold, then retail box or on-line. Personality, I’m a poor man on a dial-up plan, so it was cheaper to run down to the shops and buy the disc version. Should you go for the silver or gold version? Umm, both copies come with both Half-Life 2 and the new Counter Strike: Source, so I just picked the cheaper option. The only real difference I saw in the Gold edition was a free t-shirt and free copies of Value’s back catalogue with added source.

After installing the five cd’s I needed to unlock the program on-line. I should have read the fine print on the box first. Oh well, no drama. The two games are controlled by ‘steam’ the master program, which serves as a primary auto-update tool. At first I saw this as only a software protection tool, but using the help of Australian content servers, it has worked as a clever idea. Since purchasing the product, steam has updated their catalogue. I’ve since installed Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, the software development kit, and also both custom maps packs for HL2 DM & Counter Strike: Source and remember that I bought the cheaper version! I did have the choice to download and install HL1: Source and all the other Value titles with added source, but Value have already given me enough toys to play with.

Steam’ won my confidence in hosting all its content on a local Internode ISP server. Internode are currently the highest rating broadband ISP according to www.broadbandchoice.com.au What this means for the common ASDL user is that you don’t have to wait longer than half an hour for a program to install.

These new elements keep this package fresh. After all, what do you do after finishing Half-Life 2 in 20 hours? Download a video of a user finishing it in 2 hours 14 mins? here

Or play Half-Life 2 Deathmatch on-line? Unlike straightforward team based shooters, HL:DM gave me the chance to experience throwing metal tables, cans, computers at the other team. There’s plenty of fun to be had on-line. Even though this game isn’t as widely supported as Counter-Strike: Source, and doesn’t involve too much skill to master, it’s surely a fantastic game for a quick frag or two. Counter Strike: Source, has mainly only one major difference; it is running the new source engine. You may notice that a select number of the original maps make the grade, but that can be easily changed after a download of community created maps.

It feels and smells like the original, and that’s good news for us geeks. Half-Life 2 is still as addictive as ever. At first I was playing cowboy and Indians, running as fast as I could to complete the maps objective. Then I discovered it was only a matter of time before ‘they’ were coming for me. I noticed (after playing a healthy 20 hours of this game on-line), that no-one storm’s into a room alone!? I found teams grouping together, running side by side and always letting “that other guy” run in first. Weak I say.

There is so much to enjoy with this game. I like how you have to shoot the enemy more than once to have him fall to the floor. I enjoy seeing glass break like glass breaks. I loved hiding under a desk, when everything around me was getting shot. I was amazed when a computer broke at my feet and I discovered a motherboard, monitor and chair flying towards my direction! It’s fun. Really fun.

The software Development Kit is ready to be downloaded on-line and is really only for advanced gamers. The purpose of this tool is the same as any standard SDK: to create mod’s. The package has had some time invested into it, as a way of encouraging players to remember, “if you will build it, they will come”. I am sure Valve will throw money at any fresh ideas that come along. Trust me; take a look at the amount of games this company is offering with the source treatment. There have been a lot of new ideas on the table already.

The map creation tool - or sorry, I meant “Hammer” - interface is friendly to people planning to spend hours in front of their computer re-creating their neighbour for a deathmatch game. The tool doesn’t offer the same automatic features to speed the process up that I remember using while creating a Farcry map, but neither was Rome built in a day.

The other tools include a character and separate facial modeling tool, if you see the need in not selecting a pre-fab kit.

Overall this game as a package has a great deal to offer, as it should after spending five years in development. I look forward to seeing what more comes from this series, but for now I’ll happily enjoy the almost prefect experience Half Life 2 has provided to the gaming universe. You needn’t think twice about buying this one, it is an awesome game. On a closing note; I’ll be returning to the battlefield, in Battlefield 2 & playing Doom 3’s competition Unreal 3 shortly.

by: Andrew Berry

Lives up to the hype

Overall: 9.9