"Rise and shine,Mr. Freeman,rise and shine"- G-man
Half-Life 2 is the sequel to Half-Life,the game by Valve that pretty much wrote the rules for FPSs way back in 1998.
I haven't played very much of this game myself,but I can guarantee that anyone who plays it will end up loving this game,even those that didn't play HL1 before playing this game(like me).

Gordon Freeman is brought out of stasis by the G-Man,who inserts him in a train arriving at the fictitous City 17,which was taken over by Combine forces. He eludes the Combine forces and meets Alyx and Barney,and joins the Lambda Resistance. He gets to Dr. Kleiner's lab and assists them in attempting to get a teleporter to teleport him and Alyx to Dr. Eli Vance's lab. The teleportation fails,and he goes through City 17 on foot to get to Eli's lab. He arrives at Black Mesa East and meets up with Eli, where he is captured and taken to a combine prison,Nova Prospekt. Gordon goes through a zombie infested town named Ravenholm and is given a Dune Buggy,which he uses to travel to Nova Prospekt. Eli,Alyx,and Gordon escape,the combine teleporter they used exploding in the process. Gordon and Alyx learn they were in a "slow teleport"during which a week has passed. In their absence,the Resistance mobilized against the combine, turning City 17 into a battleground. Alyx is captured by the Combine and taken to the Citadel,with Gordon,aided by Barney and D0g,goes to the Citadel. He gets caught in a Combine"confiscation chamber",which destroys all of his weapons except for the Gravity Gun,the energy enhancing it's capabilities and turning it into a superior weapon. He is captured riding in a Combine transport pod and is taken to Dr. Breen's office,where he is holding Eli and Alyx captive. Breen explains his plans for further conquest of the humans by the Combine. Breen tries to escape through a portal,but Gordon destroys the portal reactor with the super-charged Gravity Gun. Breen is annihilated in the resulting explosion,but just before Gordon and Alyx get killed,time is frozen,and the G-Man appears,praising Gordon for his actions in City 17 and the Citadel,and puts Gordon back into stasis.

The characters are pretty cool,even if some of the characters can tend to be annoying*looks at Barney*

The music is pretty cool,tho the game mostly relies on ambiance.

The weapons are pretty good,just really your standard FPS weapons,except the Gravity Gun is added,which lets you move almost any object at will. Heck,you get a crowbar also x) :)

This is an amazing game overall,it seriously deserves the critical acclaim that it's gotten,and I HIGHLY recommend this game,even to those that haven't played Half-Life before,it's def worth the 10 bucks

10/10 from me :)
Sweep

Where is Half-Life 3?

By taking the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original, and adding startling new realism and responsiveness, Half-Life 2 opens the door to a world where the player's presence affects everything around him, from the physical environment to the behaviors -- even the emotions -- of both friends and enemies. The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people -- people he cares about -- are counting on him.

Pros (+)
+ Good Fun
+ Variety in Missions
+ Takes about 10-12 hours to complete
+ Nice Array of Weapons

Cons (-)
- Can get repetative
- Some parts are incredibly Difficult without searching online
- Save System is Flawed

Throughout 12 years, the game still a legend. I rememver, what for the first time I launched it in 2005 (A year later after release), and it's still remains a real good game, which I enjoyed one more time. Out of simplicity, I would say:

• Graphics are good
  
• Sountracks are good
  
• Gameplay is great
  
• Simple story

I can't say everything about this game, because I am late for a review, and people already described everything in a details. But the only thing, what I want to say - it's worth it. If you still think about "Get this game or not?", I would definitely say to you - get it. That's all.

Sometimes people go back and play old games because of various reasons other than the actual game such as nostalgia or for sheer appreciation on how revolutionary or extraordinary the game was at the time of its release. This is not one of those games, this game is just straight out f*cking awesome.

PS: Press E to disembark ladders. You're welcome :)

Half-Life 2, the game that like it's predecessor is seen as a classic. It's time for me to find out if the game still holds up.

The story takes place some years after the events of the original Half-Life. Gordon Freeman is woken up by G-Man to find out that the world had been taken by the alien Combine. Gordon is then joined by resistance fighters to find a way to free humanity.

The gameplay itself is a mixture of shooting, puzzle solving and exploration much like the first Half-Life game. However, all of this is differently executed in Half-Life 2. In Half-Life 2 everything is even more dynamic, because of objects being destructible and having physics, which can result in some memorable chain reactions.

The world felt to me like a real open world game, while it is still a pretty linear game. This has to do with the fact that you are mostly outside and you can explore the different areas and interact with npcs. The world you play in is around the same city area, which means that this time you aren't going to other alien dimensions.

When you think about it there aren't actually that many new things in Half-Life 2. But the things that are new still deliver new gameplay. For instance, the gravity gun that you get can grab and shoot objects which is great for murdering and puzzle solving. The gravity gun really adds a playfulness to the game. The other real new weapon is the bug bait which is a ball that you can throw on enemies or destinations, which will result in a group of your own aliens going to it and attacking the enemies. The only problem I had with this is that you can only use this weapon in a certain section.

The other new gameplay feature is that you can now drive a buggy at certain parts. I read people saying that it was the worst part of Half-Life 2. In my opinion even though the buggy feels clunky I loved that part the most. It really gives that open world explorer feeling, because of you have to get out of the vehicle to look around.

The sounddesign in this game was also done by the same team as the one that worked on the original Half-Life. I can say that I liked this soundtrack even more than the previous one, because of it having more of its’ own style. The epic music sometimes felt a little off though, but they are still fun to listen to. The sound effects add a quirky feeling, and the voice acting is also professionaly executed.

The storytelling of the game was mostly well executed, with also including storytelling through gameplay. Sadly, unlike in its’ predecessor, you are forced at certain parts to listen to conversations. This can be pretty annoying if you have to listen to it again, without the option to skip it.

I have to say that overall the world, story and gameplay doesn't feel as flawlesly connected as it was in the previous Half-Life. That probably has to do with the fact that the game also wanted to show everything impressive that the engine could do.

The game took me 12 hours to complete so it was shorter than the original Half-Life, but I guess that also has to do with the fact that at the beginning I unknowingly played on the easiest difficulty. Later I found out I could actually change it in the options menu.

Even with the complaints I have with Half-Life 2 compared to Half-Life 1, I can still recommend it. The game like its’ predecessor was greatly ahead of its’ time, and at some parts maybe still is. While playing I realized that every futuristic game that I played that came out after Half-Life 2 all had big 'inspiration' from the game. Half-Life 2 is still adventurous enough that it still holds up.

Reviews of the other Half-Life games:
Half-Life
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Blue Shift

It's good.

This game is everything that the original game is not. Indeed, Half-Life 2 is the franchise grown up, and proving that it still has legitimacy in todays gaming world.

The story of Half-Life 2 is a bit of a roller coaster in that there are great moments of narrative flow and others where you are left scratching your head a bit thinking "why did they put that in there?". But saying that, there are plenty of ups to the few downs. The story is overall strong and immersive with a few deviations that help create a vibrant lore.

The game mechanics are obviously much smoother, and well structured. By todays standards, they stand up. There are some nice features with the engine that work well. The feel of the game when using certain weapons and the ability to manipulate some aspects of the environment help the gameplay support the story. There are still a few things that don't seem right, such as no hands on steering wheels, being able to climb a ladder whilst simulatenously reloading or firing a heavy weapon, getting caught on obstacles, and the clumsy and altogether painful squads that do 2 things - 1) Die over and over, and 2) Get in your way when you need to do a run and gun (or often a grenade lob and duck). The squad could definitely have used some more commands other than point and press C to have them run uselessly a couple feet before returning to interfere.

The weapons pretty much were a joy to use, especially the Pulse Rifle and the SMG. No alien weapons to use in this game, other than the Antlion Pheropods, and this was the clumsiest weapon. A few odd decisions were made with some of the weapons though, especially the .357 Magnum revolver. Having a total ammo store of 18 rounds resulted in this being an often unused weapon. Surely, Gordon could carry more than 18 bullets for this gun, considering the number he could carry for some of the others like the 9mm with a total ammo store of 168. I'm sure it was for a balance purpose, but only being able to carry 18 rounds felt silly and frivolous. The magnum went from being a mainstay weapon of the original series to a bit of a joke weapon in my mind.

Of the gameplay, I'm so happy that they decided to move away from the platform styled approach. Moving across impossible terrain features and engineering in the original games made it feel like a caricature of a game. Those titles didn't know if they were a shooter, narrative or platformer, often falling more towards the latter. This game for the most part does away with that completely. There are still a few gameplay components that aren't well thought out, mainly by being overly long and taking something novel and at first fun, and making it tedius - namely riding the airboat, and crossing the sand without touching it. Both were fun at first, but quickly devolved into just hoping that it would soon be over, but nope - there was more and more of it. Still, those didn't detract too much from the game as a whole.

The passage of time in the game, like in the first one though, still seems odd. The immersion of that point is lost easily with the change from night to day as you are constantly on the move, never seeming to rest.... Jack Bauer, eat your heart out.

Overall, Half-Life 2 was and still is a great game, and my concerns with the game are more exagerated nitpicks than hangups.

4.5/5

I am thinking of a game... with Zombies and future! What game you may ask? Is it Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 Zombies? Nope
It's Half Life 2! The only game you have been waiting for a sequel and you would buy no matter the price

3/3 - Still waiting for a sequel... even thought I just completed the game