3.5/5 ★ – Pixelguy9's review of Half-Life 2.

Not going to lie, I think I might be the one person on the planet to walk away from this game thinking it was just ok. Did I have a fun time? Yes. Is it something I’ll be revisiting often. Certainly not. This review contains my thoughts on the base game of Half-Life 2 and the two episodes that followed. Base Game and Episode One: Half-Life 2 is an interesting game, as it largely has no connections to the first. A somewhat strange decision, but one I think did actually pay off. Story-wise, I think Half-Life 2 is a very solid game, doubling down on the idea of keeping the play in control at all times. The characters are all likeable, well voiced, and feel very real for a game this old. However, when it comes to Half-Life 2, it’s not all perfect. One of the biggest disappointments for me when it came to this game was the combat; namely how simple it feels, and not always in the satisfying way the original and Black Mesa perfected. There’s barely any strategy when it comes to using the right weapons for the right enemies, and while this pretty much makes all the weapons viable in most encounters, it also means that none get the chance to shine. Combine this with a shocking lack of accuracy across the board, and you have a combat experience that is at best less entertaining then the first game, and at worst; boring. Unfortunately, my problems with the game don’t end here, as I feel like the enemy variety in the game is very poor. The Combine are an interesting faction, but without the world-building the first game achieved with species such as those belonging to Xen, they feel empty, like they don’t serve a purpose. They are saved by their designs though, which involve a very unique mix of biology and technology with the likes of the dropships and Striders. The headcrabs from the first game make their return, with a couple of new variants, which never excites me at all across my play though and only annoyed me whenever the faster or more tanker ones showed up. Finally we have the antlions, which I can safely say are the most boring enemy faction of any game I’ve ever played. They’re just bugs, nothing more to it; no interesting gameplay, no interesting variants, and nothing unique brought to the table outside of their attraction to vibrations. Also, one more smaller nitpick, I don’t know why the decision was made, but I really miss the over the top violence of the original game here. The shotgun feels five times less powerful in Half-Life 2 because it’s victims don’t fly into hundreds of little pieces when you use it. While on the topic of antlions, one of the worst parts about Half-Life 2 takes place during a mission predominately featuring this enemy class. While the airboat was a fun addition to the game and provided some interesting set pieces, driving the scout car was by far one of most unpleasant experience I’ve ever had in an FPS game. Terrible controls, out of whack physics, and a borderline nauseous effect resulted in me ditching the ride altogether later in the level and walking the rest of the way on foot. Finally, Half-Life 2, while boasting extremely original designs and concepts, suffers from an extremely bland colour palette. Half-Life originally boasted an art style of contrasts; with the most notable example being the sterile halls of the Black Mesa Facility, and the desert plateaus of the surrounding landscape. However, Half-Life 2 instead opts for a different approach, consisting of mainly greys, dark greens, and browns. A selection of very uninteresting choices. In terms of the content from Episode One, I found it to be pretty underwhelming, and can’t remember much that stood out to me, let alone enough to change my opinion of the game too much. I apologise for this review’s overly negative spin. Half-Life 2 is a game I enjoyed, but unfortunately, could not live up to my expectations of the game. There are many things about the game I loved; the aforementioned characters, the physics-based puzzles, the unique designs, and much more. But unfortunately, the things Half-Life 2 fails to achieve stand out to me more for some reason. But this is still a good game, no doubt. Episode Two: As soon as I beat this episode, I felt the years of missing content come crashing down on me all at once! Seriously though, what an ending to this chapter of the Half-Life story! This episode continued the trend of perfectly written characters, unique designs, and great puzzles. This episode even fixes some of my problems with the base game and the first episode, namely the bland colour palettes and enemy variety. The lush greens of White Forest really differentiate this episode from the grey and brown environments of the rest of Half-Life 2, and overall makes this experience more exciting to play through. Although not many are introduced, the new additions to the enemy roster are much appreciated. Although simple, it was refreshing to see new ideas take form, like the Hunters, and to even see old ideas return, like the acid antlions taking the place of the Bullsquids from the first Half-Life and adding some much needed variety to the antlions faction. My least favourite part of Half-Life 2’s main story was the section in the scout car, but funnily enough, the parts in episode two’s car were some of my favourites. I don’t know if the physics were different, or if the controls were refined, but all I know is that I wasn’t constantly spinning out of control whenever I boosted, which lead to an enjoyable experience. Travelling through White Forest with Alyx was definitely one of the highlights of this whole game, and stopping off for supplies or to explore abandoned buildings was fun and helped build the world in ways that I really appreciated. Overall, while many of my complaints from the base game still carry over, I think some of Half-Life 2’s best content can be found in this episode, I throughly enjoyed my time. Now I just need to join the waiting line for episode three… I might be here a while…