1 person found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 10.9 hrs on record (1.7 hrs at review time)
Posted: 16 Dec, 2021 @ 3:30pm

In Half-Life 2, it has been a while since the Black Mesa incident and the world becomes freakier with aliens and bizarre creatures living on earth. You resume the role of Gordon Freeman from the first game and arrive in a larger world outside of Black Mesa – City 17. The game uses some fantastic environmental storytelling sessions like the open sequence to introduce the world, and they do a brilliant job to show the suppressed vibe of City 17. I enjoy the narrative a lot, but the story is nothing to write home about as it is basically just a blockbuster story with some mysteries unexplained. What is important about it (especially the first game) is it changed the common belief in the game industry at that time, when people thought a story in a shooter is as important as a story in porn. Anyway, because of how they left things in a cliffhanger in Half-Life 2 Episode 2, now I really need Half-Life 3.

Despite being almost two decades old, the graphics look good. Given how other games at that period all used brown color tone making them not age well, you got to appreciate the advanced graphics design they went for, which makes the game look timeless. As for the sound design, there are some good but brief music pieces in different sessions of the game. The sound of SMG is too loud and there is no way to adjust it, but the sound of reloading shotgun is like ASMR and very pleasant to the ears.

In terms of level design, it is fine, yet not as impressive as the first game, in spite of it getting rid of annoying levels like the platforming sessions in Xen. In the first game, combat usually happens in large and open levels, while this game has larger and more open maps, combat, however, tends to follow a linear structure (not all levels of course) - you don’t need to traverse back and forth within a level, just follow the path and mow down everyone on your way, which probably why I feel the level design is less memorable and more generic. It has less enemy variety and the difficulty is not as challenging, which may also contribute to it. Half-Life Episode 2 has pretty good level design though, as each level has distinct features of its own. Also, puzzle design blends in the levels naturally, usually in the way that you need to find hidden paths to process (can be tricky sometimes). But as someone who got spoiled by the navigation in modern games, I do wish the game had waypoints as I was often confused not knowing where to go or what to do and it took a while until I figured it out.

Due to the old technology, the game will freeze for a while in each save point, which doesn’t feel good. The game also has the same control issue as the first game – even you stop, the character will slip for a short distance. Fortunately, the game has much less platforming so it is not as a pain in the butt as in the first game. What is a new issue though is the AI teammates keep getting in your way in narrow places. These things are tiny but can be annoying at times.

I personally like the first game better because the level design is more fun, despite the platforming in that game can be totally infuriating. But Half-Life 2 is more fluid and less frustrating by comparison and a very solid experience overall as a big step up from the first game in almost every aspect. You should try both games if you have the mood and time.
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