I did a replay of Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 a while ago right before the release of Episode 2, but didn't get around to finish writing this review until just now. Better late than never...
The story of Half-Life 2 is set several years after the "Black Mesa Incident" and now Gordon Freeman suddenly finds himself back on Earth. He has been returned by the mysterious "G-Man" that put him into a stasis after he stopped the alien Vortigaunts from invading Earth. He has been put into City 17, which is the last city remaining after Earth was invaded by the alien Combine forces. They enslaved the human race and instated Gordon's former boss at the Black Mesa Facility, Dr. Breen, as it's puppet ruler. As soon as he and the Combine learn of Gordon's return they start hunting him down with all they've got.
Luckily, Gordon soon runs into some of his old friends and colleagues from Black Mesa. Dr. Kleiner, Dr. Vance, his daughter Alyx and former Security Guard Barney are leading the human resistance in the fight against the Combine and they could sure need some help from the legendary Gordon Freeman.
The original Half-Life is widely recognized as the all-time best FPS (First Person Shooter) game, so this sequel had a lot to live up to. It didn't get off to a very good start either as just after the surprise announcement of its existence it was delayed for almost a year. When it finally arrived however it was easy to see that Valve had spent their time well and had made a game that could really rival the original.
Half-Life 2 keeps all the good things from HL1 and the game basics are pretty much unchanged, but there's a completely new story and location. The mostly closed in corridors of Black Mesa have been replaced by the beautiful and scenic City 17. Locations range from city streets to large military complexes to huge outdoor areas along the sea. All round the whole game world is much bigger in scope than it was in Half-Life.
The new story is also very interesting. Valve puts you right into City 17 without any knowledge about what happened after the Black Mesa Incident in the original. It's revealed bit by bit as you explore this new world and run into several old friends, some new ones and a lot of enemies like the Combine and the Half-Life trademark headcrabs and accompanying zombies. All through it Gordon Freeman doesn't say a word, which may seem weird considering that many other characters talk to you a lot, but still really works since you're put into the character yourself. YOU are Gordon Freeman and it's YOUR adventure, which gives you a much bigger personal investment in the story.
I don't want to spoil too much of what happens since that is a big part of the fun in the game, but there are so many really great moments in it. The "Highway" level in the beginning for instance where you're driving a boat down the river with helicopters chasing is really fun. I really recommend that you stop and explore some of the housing along the riverbank too, watch out for headcrabs and zombies though. You will never forget your first run in with the towering Strider enemies either and there's also a long, but amazingly fun trip through the zombie infested town of Ravenholm, which is really dark and creepy compared to the rest of the game. All through things are mixed up and locations vary so there is never time to go bored. Just have fun and remember to look out for the mysterious appearances of the G-Man and all the small pieces of information pertaining to what happened to the world in Gordon's absence.
You can choose to just run through the game with guns blazing too, but you'd miss a lot of the backstory of City 17 and the characters that lies beneath the surface.
The gameplay is mostly the same as in Half-Life. You follow a pretty linear line through the events and shoot all the enemies that come after you with weapons like small pistols, crossbow, machine guns or bazookas. Every now and then you run into a puzzle you have to solve to be able to continue. This time these puzzles are mostly solved by using the games great physics engine and the revolutionary new tool called the Gravity Gun. With it you can lift, push and throw around stuff ranging from bottles to small cars and you can use it as a weapon too by shooting fuel cans, saw blades and similar at the enemies. It really mixes up things and frees the game from becoming a too standard shooter. Overall the gameplay is relatively simple in its basics, but it often becomes challenging and is always really, really fun.
Graphics wise this game still looks great despite it being released way back in 2004, an eternity in game graphic terms, and the best part is that it has a very low threshold compared to new games today like Crysis, but it can still wow you with beautifully clear and detailed graphics if you turn everything up to the max setting. One of the best things in the Source game engine is the great effort put into the character models. They have a huge range of emotions and very good acting skills and it makes them some of the most realistic characters I've ever seen in a game, but not entirely photorealistic looking of course.
The only thing I was a bit disappointed by after playing through Half-Life 2 was its pretty abrupt ending. That was soon explained however as Valve had decided to continue the Half-Life story in so-called episodes. So far they've released two of them with the final third one on the way. They continue the story directly and also introduce some new enemies like the Zombie-Combines and smaller strider-like Hunters, as well as some improved graphics. They are however just around a third of the length of HL2 each and have been plagued a bit by delays so the wait has been a bit longer than expected.
Half-Life: Episode 1 was a bit too similar to HL2 as it was still set mostly inside City 17, but it had a lot of fun new levels and felt more compressed and hectic. There was a lot of action, a really great sequence in a hospital filled with headcrab-zombies especially, and you also got to play alongside Alyx for most of the time which was fun. Episode 2 changed the formula a bit by putting you in the forest area outside of the city. The change in scenery and all the big new areas is refreshing. It also advanced the story much more and heightened the action to even higher levels of greatness. I can't wait for the (allegedly) final chapter in Episode 3.
So to sum up, Half-Life 2 on its own was very good and came very close to the greatness of the original game. It didn't surpass it story wise in my opinion, but its gameplay was much improved and graphically it looked amazing. It ended a bit abruptly, though, but that is being rectified by the great new episodic releases which turns HL2 into just the introduction of the City 17 story. All together they form a really fantastic game that takes the best parts of the original and improves on it. It doesn't revolutionize the gameplay much except for the gravity gun addition and it's a bit too linear compared to some other FPS games, but it's a solid and fantastically fun game from start to finish. Hopefully Valve can provide an explosive finale in Episode 3 that lives up to the hype this game now has and from what I've seen so far I have no reason to doubt them.
9 / 10
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