As you may have heard, the source code for Halflife 2 was stolen sometime last year. Its developer, Valve, has been mired in a lawsuit with Vivendi Universal (once known as Sierra On-Line). The game’s release was delayed for over a year beyond its supposedly firm release date. Usually this sort of story ends with a crushing review of a much anticipated game that should have never been released by moral human beings at all (Daikatana, Superman 64, etc.).
Thankfully in this case, just the opposite is true. I completed Halflife 2 on Sunday night, November 28. I’m happy to report that the game is not only great, but it is so great that it makes Halflife 1 look like somebody’s high school class project.
I mean that in no way as an insult to the original. At the time, Halflife (which I initially thought was going to be Sierra’s lame attempt at cashing in on the Quake craze) handily blew away everything else. I even bought a new video card (Voodoo 2) just so it would look good.
Lately I’ve noticed that a good test of a game is to let my 3 year old son mess around with it. Sid has had a lot of fun picking up items and making them interact with each other in the HL2 world. Drop a cinder block on a box full of bottles and the bottles will break. Pick up shipping crates with an industrial magnet crane and swing them around, strewing their contents onto the beach. Throw a baby doll at a swing and it will realistically react. Heck, the baby doll might land on the see-saw and adjust its balance. The physics are that detailed.
All of the original Halflife fun is here: Lots of semi-intelligent goons to kill, headcrabs to club, and plenty of creepy, claustrophobic environments to explore all by your lonesome. But Halflife 2 adds to that dynamic with a boat and a car to drive (complete with mounted weaponry), “Tremors” style sequences where you have to build pathways across the desert to keep from disturbing the ant lions lying just below the surface, later leading ant lions as you ambush a facility and watch them rip apart your enemies, and of course the clever “gravity gun”. With this tool you can pick up items and fire them at enemies, or even zap wrecked cars to clear the road.
The graphics/physics engine is flawless. The gameplay is completely immersive and never annoying. But hey, it’s me. I can still manage to find a few things to complain about.
The game seems a bit short. Maybe it’s just because I’ve played 6 years worth of Halflife clones since HL1 came out, but I remember the Black Mesa research facility seeming huge compared to the areas I traversed in HL2.
Later in the game, you come into command of people you run across. While they can follow simple directions (“go to where I’m pointing” or “come here”) and don’t often run in front of you while you’re shooting or shoot through you towards the enemy, they generally just follow you around like a puppy, stand too close, and hem you in on stairwells so you can’t easily get around them.
There were aspects of the game in pre-release videos that seem to be non-existent in the final game. For example, I remember seeing screenshots and video of a translucent blue tentacle skewering a guy and dragging him underwater. I never saw a creature like that. Also, combat with the giant, lumbering Striders does take place in the game, but not quite in the way it was demonstrated at E3. I’m sure a lot of that was just proof of concept, though.
While I won’t spoil the ending, I will say that the game asks more questions than it answers (if it answers any at all) and leaves you begging for a quick sequel. Hopefully a full sequel will be the first add-on pack, as I really don’t see how this game would lend itself to the “different viewpoint of the same event” concept that every add-on to the original HL utilized.
So the game is great, and is a fine way to test your relatively new video card in ways it has never been tested before. If you loved the original, it might even be worth buying a new computer/video card that will let you experience Halflife 2 to its fullest.
How's the map-editor?
Posted by: Patrick | December 15, 2004 at 04:22 AM
My only reason for not playing this is that you require internet access to play. Unfortunetly I don't have a cable modem, DSL, or even cruddy dial-up. Although when I came home today there was a note that says cable modems are finally available for our complex, so I may soon well be back in the land of the living.
Waterman gave this game a rave review as well and I for one can't wait to play it. My computer bogged down and actually crashed a handfull of times while playing Doom 3, even on the lowest settings. I think that may have been a driver issue though. Ever since my reconfig of my harddrive, I've had all kinds of trouble with video drivers. Maybe I might need to do the upgrade like David suggested. Surely couldn't hurt. I mean, it's a whole two years old! It's ancient!!
Posted by: Jay | December 16, 2004 at 01:35 AM
I flat-out refuse to upgrade any computer for the sole purpose of playing a game.
Posted by: Patrick | December 16, 2004 at 03:23 AM
Yeah, I feel silly doing it too, but there are lots of games that are on the horizon that I won't get to play either, so I look at it as a not so bad reason. If they would just make a mouse and keyboard that worked great for the PS2, maybe I wouldn't be having these problems. Heck, I might even get an X-Box and play the much-ballyhooed Halo if I could play sans controller/non-sans mouse.
Posted by: Jay | December 18, 2004 at 02:26 AM
Well, I flat out refuse to buy a car that costs more than 10,000 dollars. I guess we've all got our hang ups.
About the editor: I downloaded the Source SDK and loaded up my old working file for Crusade into it. The lights, doors, ladders, elevators, everything is obsolete, and the geometry is pure white with no textures. I'm still thinking about revamping it as a HL2 Deathmatch map (with only one church and a big courtyard), but it will take some time.
Jay, I agree. The WASD/Mouse combo is by far the most natural way to play first person games. Have you tried Morrowind or Ghost Recon on Xbox? Ugh. I can't handle it.
Posted by: SuperPope | December 18, 2004 at 10:13 AM
You know, I took these four screenshots. I didn't really get any "action" shots, did I? Sorry about that.
Posted by: SuperPope | December 18, 2004 at 10:14 AM
Spending less than $10,000 is just good sense. Now, if you're like me, I refuse to spend more than $25 on a pair of shoes. And I won't spend more than $20 on a shirt. And only then it has to be a really good shirt.
If Michael West had to get dressed on my budget, he would implode. :-)
Posted by: Jay | December 19, 2004 at 11:00 AM