Half-life 2

"We've been rather busy in your absence, Mr. Freeman."

Those words were uttered by the mysterious G-man in the first E3 demo of Half-life 2. How we gasped when we saw those purty graphics. How we swooned when we saw those amazing physics. How we groaned when the game was delayed. But Valve was equally busy all that time, and now that the game is finally here, those groans are very enthusiastic cheers.

With tasty graphics and gameplay that is sheer madness, Half-life 2 is sweeter than a chocolate-and-honey lollipop coated with sugar, and it provides twice the rush. It gives you a convincing and huge oppressed world full of fascist troops and alien monsters, which you liberate with an awesome arsenal of weapons. And as you exchange shots with your foes, the levels crumble and explode around you with so much activity you hardly know where to look. Walls topple, giant monsters appear, debris flies everywhere... Yeehaw, praise the Lord and pass the ammo.

Again you are Gordon Freeman, MIT-scientist turned inter-dimensional warrior. You're returning several years after the Black Mesa incident to find Earth under the rule of the evil Combine. Wallace Breen, former administrator at Black Mesa, has become their collaborator and puppet dictator. These alien invaders are so oppressive that they've even put up some kind of dampening field that prevents people from mating. Yeah, I'd lead an armed revolt too.

The levels are on a much grander scale this time. Many take place outdoors, on burnt out city streets that look like East Germany shortly after the Wall went up. Like the levels of the first game, Half-life 2's levels are full of activity, and little mini-dramas. Sometimes there are civilians or members of the Resistance up to something devious. Sometimes Combine troops are kicking in doors and cracking skulls. Often there are hostile critters that want to shoot you or eat you. There's lots of room to explore, and perhaps find something useful... or nasty.

All levels are superbly detailed, and they're full of objects to smash, throw, and play with. There are two extended vehicles sequences, one in a boat and the other in a car, which really gives you the sensation of traveling from one place to another, with flying alien Hunter-Killers looking for you. No, you're not on rails when you're driving, you're in control.

You can spend lots of time just fooling around with the physics of the game, as game objects react like you'd expect them to in real life. A barrel tipped on its side will roll. A wooden crate will break apart if struck repeatedly. Glass is fun to play with too, as a single bullet will not shatter a window entirely, only break it in places. Enterprising gamers with lots of ammo may find that they can destroy a foe's cover with sustained gunfire.

Most of the old favourite weapons are back, or you have ones that are quite similar. Shotgun, handguns, the rocket launcher with laser guidance... New weapons include an alien gland that you can use control a vicious breed of bugs called Antlions. Toss it at your foes, and the Antlions will take that as a command to chew 'em up. Heh heh heh. Kill them my pretties!

Even more fun than this is the gravity gun. The gravity gun can be used to pick up and hurl objects at foes, and it's through this that you can best see Half-life 2's amazing physics. One level allows you to pick up and launch saw blades with spectacular and satisfying results. You can stack objects on top of each other so that you can reach high places, or even barricade doors so that foes can't get inside. I did this once and congratulated myself on my cleverness, then looked up and realized with horror that the room had a skylight...

The only thing not really improved in Half-life 2 is the story, which like the first game, doesn't resolve much. In fact, the over-arcing story of the game is pretty vague, though you can fill in the details if you pay careful attention and explore. Half-life 3 better provide some solid answers, though.

The game's AI isn't noticeably better in the long run. Don't get me wrong, it's actually pretty good, but I got a better impression from the original game. The Combine soldiers don't seem to be as on the ball as the Black Ops from Half-life 1, which tended to swarm and surround you if you weren't careful. However, they still take reasonably effective cover and toss grenades. And I must give props to zombies who hurl junk at you if they happen to find some in their path.

At launch, Half-life 2 did not have its own multiplayer. Instead, they included a remake of Counter-Strike using the new engine, Source. That's pretty sweet, since you get two fully rounded games for the price of one, even if you have played Counter-Strike before. Since launch, they have created a multiplayer mode that can be downloaded through Steam, Valve's streaming download/authentication service.

Half-life 2 Deathmatch is a pretty basic, with two maps, 20 skins to choose from, and a choice of free for all or team deathmatch with the basic 32 MB download. It's very entertaining; the best part being using the gravity gun to pick up debris and hurling at your enemies. It's pretty humbling to be killed by a flying radiator, let me tell you. It's also cool to see bodies flying around, thanks to Havok. I once got nailed by an exploding barrel and tossed into a corner, and the body I left behind looked like it was trying to do Yoga with the spine moving in the wrong direction.

As fun as this is, I think more can be done, and in fact probably will be done. Hopefully more multiplayer goodies are coming from both Valve and the mod community. User-created maps are already online, and amateur designers out there are bound to make more mods and maps for Half-life 2. They too can be downloaded via Steam.

A word about Steam. It's not perfect, and with long waits due to high traffic, it can be pretty aggravating to download something from it. And you must use it: even the offline mode requires you to connect to Steam for authentication. Valve needs to work on it so that it can handle higher volumes of traffic, otherwise we face long waits every time something new and cool gets offered through it.

Also, it needs to be a little more user-friendly. The menus and windows are pretty spartan, and often don't move much during load times, so Joe Casual Gamer who bought Half-life 2 at Wal-Mart is bound to wonder if it's doing anything at all. But get used to Steam, because it's the future. Other companies are bound to make their own Steam-like services, since it reduces the chances of games being pirated or leaked, a huge money-consuming problem for the industry.

There's lots of goodness in Half-life 2 in all the ways you'd expect--graphics, action, level design... There's one area where the game doesn't get a lot of praise and I think it should--voice overs. There's some pretty good acting going on in that game. Robert Culp (I Spy) does a great job as Wallace Breen, completely despicable and yet always sounding reasonable. Robert Guillaume (Benson, "Rafiki" in The Lion King) is equally good as Eli Vance. You also hear from Michelle Forbes ("Ensign Ro" in Star Trek: TNG) as Dr. Mossman, and Louis Gossett Jr. as the voice of the Vortigaunts.

So it's been a long wait, but Valve has come up with a really exciting and gleefully fun shooter. What other game will let you get into a crane, pick up a giant train-sized metal crate, and hurl it at soldiers who are trying to pick you off? Where else can you pick up a sink and use it to brain your attackers? Where else can you fight giant war machines that look like they've stepped out of the pages of War of the Worlds?

Half-life 2 baby. Get it.

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