Johnny G reviews Half Life 2 in 300 words or less, then hurries back to playing the Great Game.
John Gillooly, Atomic
I've been playing Half-Life 2 in small 3 hour blocks, supping at the goodness chalice and relishing the experience rather than leaping in and gorging myself. But, being a game reviewer I have a couple of other games that need to get played extensively in the next few days. Then I can get back to it.
I'm starting to think I should have waited to play HL2 though. Last night I was reviewing another soon to be released first person game for issue 48 (for the sake of argument I'll call the game V). It wasn't long into the game that a funny thing happened. I was thinking something that I hadn't really thought since Half-Life first nestled into my frontal lobe and made itself at home six long years ago now.
It happened when I first ran into an apartment. It was a very nice looking room, thanks to game V using a very similar graphics engine as HL2. Not AS pretty mind you, but close. There in the room was a desk, covered with an assortment of crap, just like a real desk. I 'accidentally' bumped the desk and it sat there, unyielding.
Then came a sense dread. I actually felt ripped off that it didn't shift to compensate for my weight; that the objects didn't bump around, maybe roll off the desk. Thanks to Half-Life 2 the world felt static and lifeless.
Remember when the enemy AI that came in games post Half-Life never seemed quite as good as Valve's version? or that no matter how complex the storyline was it didn't deliver that compulsion that propelled you forward through the black mesa facility? Well Half-Life 2 integrates the Havoc physics engine in a way that feels complete, that makes the world you inhabit that little more real. It is an amazing achievement, and quite unlike any token efforts in the past.
You've heard about the gravity gun, and it's cool, but from the first moments of the game you keep finding yourself prodding, pushing and tossing parts of the scenery around. Purely out of curiousity. When you pass an abandoned playground ten or so minutes into the game you stop and push the roundabout, maybe try and launch some breeze blocks from the see-saw. You have this horrible want to mess with the world around you.
Forget Steam, forget the stupid legal shenanigans, forget all that crap. Valve software have raised the bar for interactivity and created a real life resonance cascade that will kick gaming to a new level. That is so damn cool.
10/10
Issue: 133 | February, 2012