Since today marks the 15th anniversary of Half-Life 2, now feels like the right time to write my review for this, even if it's been in my library since the first month of the game's release...


2004, I was only six years old when the game released back in November 16th. My father had been prepared for this (hardware-wise) since the early year for other titles like DOOM 3 and Far Cry, which blew us away visually, but not in the same way that Half-Life 2 did by the end of the year. The AI was almost human, the physics moved naturally, and the visuals looked like reality peeking through an ancient 4:3 LCD monitor. It was amazing...

Flash forward to 2009. The world had been in shock because of Episode 2's cliffhanger ending and were still anxiously waiting for and Episode 3. I had forgotten about the game till Garry's Mod videos had become a trend among YouTube; ICTON, DasBoSchitt, and kitty076 brought me back to Half-Life 2 to actually play it for myself, and boy... I was hooked from there on out with the franchise.


Half-Life 2 takes place a decade or so after the Resonance Cascade of Black Mesa and Gordon Freeman's triumph over the Nihilanth that earned him a place in the mysterious G-Man's ranks. The world had fell on hard times as portal storms raged in the wake of Black Mesa; bringing the creatures of Xen to wreck havoc across the world. Such activity attracted a much greater threat toward the planet: the universal union known as the Combine empire. With their arrival to Earth, they began their siege for control as countries fought back; only to fail in seven hours of the short-lived war. With the fall of Earth's most powerful military forces and a newly pointing Earth administrator, former Black Mesa administrator Wallace Breen, towering citadels rose from the earth and the Combine established their control. Humans could no longer reproduce with the established suppression field and were forced into a life of labor and harsh living. Only a small group had still held hope against the Combine; two former scientists known as Eli Vance and Issac Kleiner, Eli's daughter Alyx, and former security guard Barney Calhoun established their bases of operation within the shadows of Earth's ruins to build up a resistance. The G-Man's interest is sparked and he awakens Gordon Freeman from stasis to assist the effort; fitting him into a train to City 17 and citizen attire. The rest is up to you to play and find out...

The lore that Valve had established here is pretty sane compared to what they had originally planned for 2001-2003 with rather dark, gothic elements and plenty of dying characters, but still all so detailed and engaging. Characters are given enough depth and manner to actually be likable compared to most modern titles that give you blank-slate characters that are better off being your bullet sponges. The world feels almost believable in its decaying and defiled state under the Combine rule; at least for 2004 in its visual state, but that's where the next topic comes into play.


Even for an engine that was showcased and expected for modding and release around about 2002-2003, this engine still shines late for 2004 that competes with DOOM 3's heavy use of normal/bump/specular maps and unified stencil shadow lighting on the idTech4 engine. The texture works is superb in the majority. Some don't look is great on models that end up looking a tad blurred, but the map textures are rescued with the inclusion of detail textures when viewing them at a close range; which was originally used in Epic Games' Unreal Engine back in 1998. The game's physics engine; Havok, has seen better days in this engine like how some stacked objects barely even function in community maps though still holds for Valve's titles. The audio for the game heavily improves upon Half-Life 1's with how booming the Combine war machine can sound, the crispness of gunfire, and the expert voice talents (Rest in peace, Robert Culp and Robert Guillaume; respective voices of Dr. Breen and Eli Vance). All this enhanced with Valve's Digital Signal Processing effects that bring depth to Half-Life 2's levels without the need for Creative sound cards or EAX along with 3D spatial audio whether you're wearing a stereo headset or a 7.1 surround sound setup. Speaking of voice talent, I have to touch on the lip sync tech. It aged pretty well when comparing it to most modern titles that use puppet-like mouth movement to save time on development. Valve went all out and made the lip sync almost like it belongs in a Pixar movie. It basically generates lip-syncing animations from the voice audio file with some pre-defined animations to enhance the engagement of a character's statements. The AI is the one low point of the engine, with how Combine soldiers will simply rush your position or stand in sight of your gunfire. They will not take enough cover or flee or regroup with squad members. They're very aggressive and suicidal in their tactics, though completely dumb in certain cases like not being able to see you behind props. (Check out Joe Wintergreen's video for what I mean.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsDM7GKb0xU


In general, this game is still pretty incredible. Even if the engine has started to show it's age for 2019, it still stands the test of time in video game technology that encouraged some other developers to push their engines to the limit like what we got with Crytek's Crysis with its advanced DirectX 10-based graphical features or Monolith's F.E.A.R.'s GOAP [alumni.media.mit.edu] AI. It feels engaging enough that you're willing to commit time to fighting for the resistance against the transhuman division of the Combine that control City 17 and its inhabitants.

I highly suggest getting this game along with its episodes. You don't even need to have played Half-Life 1 to understand much of the story as most of it is explained by its assumed former characters.

For a better experience without the lore-unfriendly and apparent NSFW likes of Cinematic Mod 2013, get the free mod by Filip Victor called
https://store.steampowered.com/app/290930/
which improves upon some graphical and lighting features, new and improved particle/fog effects, and fixes bugs that Valve never fixed after the SteamPipe update. I also recommend MMod which adds modular settings for the mod's new visuals, particles, HUD, AI, sounds, and remade weapons that open up new gunplay potentials.

By the words of Charlie (Commonly known as Cr1tikal), "This game is a load of ạṡṡhole."