Overall 9 Graphics 8.5 Sound 9.5 Addictive 6.5 Story 7.5 Depth 5 Difficulty 6.5
9.5
Full-Life 1? (Half-Life 2 Review) darthyoda
Follow Freeman through the world of Half-Life 2. Use a wide variety of interesting weapons, gadgets, and even animals to kill off your enemies! As Theoretical Physicist Gordon Freeman you are tasked with one simple task save the world from the Combine. Use your allies to help you progress through this amazing adventure!
Graphics: The game has really good graphics. The animations look realistic, the mouth of the person (people) talking is realistic. The guns also react right as well. I have no complaints about the graphics. The "zombies" are pretty good too. If you use a saw-blade to cut through one, and hit it's waist, it will cut it in half, and continue to crawl towards you. Maybe that was a little gross, but the graphics for it are amazing. It is the original game from which the highly acclaimed Portal games come from. This game really set the bar high for most games. (Not to mention that it is part of the revolution of shooters/ FPS.)
I loved the graphics, and give it a 9/10.
Sound: The game has great sounds. The guns all have unique sounds, the head-crab infested people make sounds that are cool, over all this is great. I didn't care much for the music, but it can be shut off. I didn't shut it off, because it only comes up sometimes. Plus it gives it a nice feel when you are going into a spot, and the music starts playing. The crowbar makes a cool sound, and even the sounds change depending on what you hit. I am really impressed at Valve's creative sounds here. The best sound is really the Gravity Gun, which I will talk about later. I really loved the sounds, that's it!
I was really impressed at the sounds, the changing sounds, when you hit different types of glass etc. I give it a 10/10. Addictiveness: I almost shouldn't have started Half-Life 2. It is hard to stop playing. I feel like booting up my PC and just playing this one game. It really has many things to do, but I am getting ahead of myself. The best part of it, is that there are no real cut-scenes! That sounds odd, but really the story progresses without them. The only thing which makes it not as fun, is that you can't play with friends.
The game is really addictive! I was only playing this game for about a week! I give it a 9/10. Story: The game has a great story. It assumes you played Half-Life 1, which I haven't. But even so, it has great story aspects! It could stand a little more character development, but I don't know how it is in the first. I still found it easy to follow, interesting, and not overused. Many games go with the same type of betrayal stuff, and its all fine, but come on. This game doesn't head in that direction, which makes it fresh, and fun. You are tasked to take down the Combine. Save the world. Sounds Simple, and it should be with the large arsenal you have!
The game really has a great story, but I couldn't give it a full 10/10, I had to give it an 8/10. Depth: The game has much to do. You have 5 slots filled with two guns. And one fruit-like thing, that helps get some animals that you can control. You have achievements, and hidden caves. (One has a thing singing, which I haven't found yet.) You also can find the lambda marks, and if you find the supplies, you get a little closer to finishing that achievement. You can find several ways to get the stuff done, there are so many ways to do the same thing. Choose your gun, or crowbar, or the fruit thing; and with these you can defeat every enemy you have. This is truly great! I was amazed how much they put into the game.
The game has much to do, but sometimes it gets confusing (Where do I go?) and other times it feels a little linear. (I know that seems like an Oxymoron.) I give it an 8/10. I am adding a category here, which I only do for games that I don't play on steam. Read this, or skip it, but either way THIS WON'T BE ADDED TO THE ACTUAL SCORE.
Gameplay/ Controls: The games handles quite well. You have a variety of controls which are conveniently placed. All of them are planned out with care. They really couldn't have improved it at all. The flashlight, which you should use often, is easy to use, because it is right next to the "w/ s/ a/ d keys" and this makes it easy to keep there. You have limited battery life, which makes it challenging. This makes it more fun to play actually!
Because the game handles like a dream, I give it a 9/10. Difficulty: The game is hard sometimes, but really I didn't find it too hard. It wasn't too easy either, but really I didn't die too often. I only died 5-10 times, which is pretty good for me. I am not that good at games, but this game was fun, because they didn't make it too hard. They also made it more realistic, because you don't have regenerating health, which is commonly done in FPS games. This made it harder, but still kept it in the challenging, not impossible category. Sometimes it can get frustrating, because you don't understand what happened, but if you look around, and be observant, it makes the game much easier. It has aspects of a puzzle game, and if you keep this in mind, it's actually easy.
The game was hard at times, but never too hard. I found it really fun because it was challenging, but not too hard. I give this a 7/10. Overall the game is brilliant. You should be able to tell that I LOVED the game. I didn't give any category a rating lower than a 7. This should show that I was greatly impressed by Valve. As Always, the total score is just an estimate, based off of the scores and what I think it should get.
The games gets a 9.5/10! This is really a great game, go out and buy it NOW!
Graphics 9 Sound 10 Addictive 9 Story 8 Depth 8 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 11-07-14
Review Replies: 3
7.5
Two Half-Lives Make a Whole Uzar
Half-Life was a pretty unique game, no doubt about that. It was a FPS that actually made you think as well as blow the heads off various baddies. So when you think about a sequel to a game which mainly consists of running down steel corridors, and fighting aliens with a crowbar, do you think "Dystopiaian post-apocalyptic world where the oceans are being drained, aliens have conquered earth, and what is left of humanity being in jeopardy"? Well, if you do, step on down because you've won today's round of "Do You Think Like Gabe Newell?"!
Graphics: 8/10
This game's graphics are amazing at times, even to this day! But at other times it can be obvious that this game is pretty old. It still looks decent, even by today's standards! But certain areas, and a few enemies make you remember that this was made long ago. The people, and environments especially look great. But then there are things like the headcrabs, zombies, and Vortigaunts stand out like a sore thumb in terms of graphics. It feels like those cheesy CGI special effects you'd see in a older movie. There is a good amount of detail put into every aspect of the game's levels and characters when it comes to graphics. It's pleasantly surprising really.
Sound: 9/10
The sound is almost perfect...Almost. The voice acting if great, and they really fir their respective characters as well. The only real complaint I have voice-wise is the Combine Overwatch. Because, even with captions turned on, it rarely shows what its saying. But when it actually does the dialogue stays on the screen for a good two seconds. In general, it's really hard to process the blaring voice you hear through about half the game. It was something that really bugged me more than it should.
There isn't really any music in the game. But like it's predecessor it has a handful of times where music DOES come on. When the music decides to show up it's awesome! Although it's like...probably four times in the entire game. The sound effects and voices however, save this department from a bad rating though. :P
Addictiveness: 4/10
This game is the least addicting of the series. There were periods where I straight up lost interest in playing and left for other games. It's not that it's bad, it's really more that it got bland after awhile. It got fun, then incredibly really boring, then fun again. You finish the game with little incentive to play it again really. I replayed Episodes 1 and 2, along with the original more than I did this game. I ocasionally replayed this for the sake of achievements. But that accounted for going through the game one and a half times.
Story: 7/10
Continuing after the very end of Half-Life. G-man has put you in stasis right? Well, he appears at the very beginning, telling you to "Rise and shine", and that his services are required once again. And then you're placed inside a train heading to City 17, home of "Humanity's Representative" Dr. Wallace Breen. Now what that really means is he's the dictator of humanity, and answers to The Combine. An empire of aliens who used the events of Half-Life as a window to invade earth also. They overthrew all of the armies in the world, and started draining the ocean. But Breen convinced them to make him the leader of humanity. Oh yeah, he was also your boss at Black Mesa, which you learn was twenty years ago. Barney, a former security guard at Black Mesa, now is an undercover member of a resistance fighting the Combine. He tells you where their hideout is. Alyx Vance, the daughter of one of the original Black Mesa scientists. Eventually you make it to the hideout in City 17. There, you meet some former Black Mesa scientists, and...Vortigaunts? Hey, those guys look vaguely familiar!
A cool story with quite a few...awfully convenient meetings. It's definitely one of the better FPS stories. But...I wouldn't say the best.
Difficulty: 6/10
The game is fun, and interesting. But...The gameplay gets really repetitive. Mainly the vehicle chapters. They take up a good third of the game. And, well, it's only fun in reasonable doses. The gameplay got stale pretty fast in my opinion.
The controls are very basic. Same old WASD to move, E to interact with things, or pick things up. Left click to fire, right click for the secondary function of some of the weapons Picking things up with the Gravity Gun, zooming in with the crossbow, launching a grenade from the sub-machine gun, or the energy pellet from the Pulse Rifle. It's your standard FPS controls. And if you've played TF2 or Gmod they have the same setup. Simple to learn, nothing to master, but you'll need luck on your side if you're not careful!
Depth: 2/10
This game isn't deep. At all. There are a few hidden rooms with weapons, batteries, and health. But in a game with lots of tight corridors, and a pretty clear path on where to go, I don't know how secret the areas actually are. It's more "slightly out of the way" rather than secret. While it fits one of the overarching themes of Half-Life, it is still a bit disappointing that there's nothing actually hidden.
The game lasts a decent amount of time at least. It's about as long as the original Half-Life. So if we're going by modern game standards, it's pretty short. If we're going by 90's or Early PC gaming standards it's about right though.
Overall: 7.5/10
This game is pretty fun. It's definitely best if you played the first though. Just to understand most of the story. It's interesting, and fun. Although it gets kind of repetitive. The game gets fun at times, and slow at other times. And as awesome as the vehicle segments are, after you get off of the rides you'll never see them again. (Unless you happen to have Garry's Mod as well.) Overall, it's a good game...But you'd be happier with it if you bought it during a sale.
Graphics 8 Sound 9 Addictive 4 Story 7 Depth 2 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 10-07-15
Review Replies: 7
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