Half-Life 2 (DVD ROM)

Eventually Half Life 2 arrived and it's as big a step as expected. Far Cry was inovative in its 'open gameplay' approach (a bit overstated in my opinion; amazing how any attempt to stray too far from the prescribed route hit really high cliffs or nasty creatures) while DOOM 3 had its dynamic lighting (which looked great, but meant the majority of the levels were in deep gloom, as performance constraints limited the number of lights there could be). It was notable though that both games really hammered systems, needing good specs to run even at basic levels.

Half Life 2, while not having the route freedom of Far Cry, does at least let you use ordinary items to help you during the game (including using desks, filing cabinets and cuboards to build barricades in some target rich environments). HL2 doesn't have the dynamic lighting of DOOM 3, but at least you can see what you're doing and the static lighting is superb. I've played the game on 2 systems, one an XP3000+ with 128 Mb graphics, the other an FX55 with 256Mb graphics. The game played superbly on both, while leveraging the FX55s additional abilities to use quite superb textures. Friends have played on lower spec machines and say the game looks great on those as well, so he source engine seems to be more efficient than those used in the other two games.

Half Life 2 also has the right level of puzzles versus shooting, and even firefights reward intelligent thought.

Of the 3 games, I think it will be Half-Life 2 that is still generating mods in 5 years time. Given that the original Half Life was getting high resolution models a few years after it came out, I'm really looking forward to the high resolution version of Allyx!

My only reservation concerns Valves Steam delivery system. Although I've had no significant problems with it (I bought my first copy via Steam download) there have been numerous reports of issues, although these do seem to be abaiting. The loading time from saved games does seem a trifle long as well.

In short: Great fun, doesn't need a Cray to run well but gets better as your system does, will probably outlast both DOOM 3 and Far Cry and will generate loads of mods. The 'lost' star is because of Steam and the long loads. It'll be on my system long after Far Cry and DOOM 3 have been removed.

So was it worth it? I've played through the whole game twice now & I'd have to say yes it was. Game wise it was an amazing experience & the variety of settings, story driven gameplay + all those little touches that Valve seem to be so good at adding, made it very worthwhile. The graphics are fantastic & the areas in the game often have a kind of gritty realism not seen before in a FPS. City 17 is an amazing backdrop for a game not to mention the surrounding areas such as highway 17, the Nova Propspekt prison complex & especially the citadel which is as alien as Xen but portrayed in a much less organic & much more mechanical manor. On the whole the HL2 world is an amazing contrast of urban/suburban realism, a variety of outdoor locations & cold alien structures. None of the areas in HL2 feature the kind of sprawling landscapes & open vistas of games like Far Cry which is a little dissapointing but I guess this maybe be one current limitation of the Source engine (possibly dictated by hardware considerations) given that it packs so much other stuff in.

The physics engine is one such area where HL2 excels far above anything thats come before. Never before has such a realstic & interactive world been created in a video game. Everything in HL2 behaves as you would expect it to in the real world & this really helps to draw you into the HL2 world. No more so then when you are first let loose with the gravity gun. This 'weapon' almost turns the game into a glorified physics engine demo but Valve have managed to impliment this device in such a way that it becomes indespensible in your quest as well as an awe inspiring tool for demonstrating the physics engine.

The other weapons in HL2 are less inspiring (especially compared of the awesome specticle that is the gravity gun) & many of the weapons make a return from the original. The main automatic rifle/machine gun I guess is similiar to the MP5 waepon of the first game but soemhow feels a lot weeker in HL2. The Combine rifle is pretty cool as it chugs away & it's secondary fire is very spectacular not least when it actually hits it's target or group of targets. The Rocket launcher is as awesome as ever. No alien weapons to speak of though.

The sound in HL2 is a very strong point. Amazing FX, background sounds & music that suites the action & seems to carve a nich of it's own. It's good to see such attention payed to an area which is sometimes overlooked in games & plays second fiddle to the graphics. In HL2 the sound is as important to the feel of the world as the graphics are. Probably some of the best sound I've ever heard in a game. I thought Doom 3's sound was amazing but HL2's is more subtle & as such often more effective.

Now the bad points - Gameplay. HL2 is just to easy. The combat as a result of this is not very engaging & it's pretty easy to blunder your way through most parts of the game with little or no tactics or effort. Even on the HARD setting it's a doddle & seasoned FPS players will walk this with there eyes closed! It's a real shame because if the combat had the kind of depth that the other areas of HL2 exude it would be trully awesome. I have to say that the combat doesn't even feel up to the quality of the first game & it's in this area that HL2 looses out to games Like Far Cry & even Halo. While it's true that there's nothing in those games quite like taking on a Strider or a Gunship it has to be said that even these adversories, spectacular though they are, are not exactly difficult to bring down! Combat was one of the orignal games strongest points & so it's very dissapointing that HL2 is such a cake walk in this department. A.I. is difficult to judge but in HL2 it doesn't feel like it's moved on a great deal from the first game although some well used scripted action sequences would have you believe otherwise! In my opinion a really good FPS is defined by the quality of the combat & the gameplay challenges this brings & unfortunately HL2 is severly lacking in this area for the most part. It's great to play but it's just to easy & it never feels like it's forcing you to play well. Rather it feels like your invited to play well in order to try & make the experience more enjoyable but you can't hide the fact that there's little opposition in the game that could stop you just speeding through with little thought for tactics. There's little need to even bother taking cover for the most part even on the hard setting.

HL2 also attempts to build on the character interaction that was revolutionary in the first game. Later in HL2 you will be joined by resistance fighters that form into a small squad that you can control. However you have extremely limited control over this squad. You simply order them to collectively follow you or move to an area that you point out with the crosshair & thats about it! This all takes place in the City 17 streets & buildings. Things are not so bad in the streets but trying to navigate the tight corridors & rooms of City 17's buildings with this bunch of goons in tow is incredibly annoying & most of the time they get in your way more than anything else (although they do apologise for this!). Quite often I was happy to send them to their doom just to get them out of my way!

One of the strongest points about this whole package is the inclusion of the Counter Strike: Source multiplayer mod. The graphics & physics have been updated to the Source engine & a few new maps added but little else has changed since CS 1.6. That's a good thing since it's one of the best on-line action games there is! Then there's the ever growing HL2 Mod community which Valve has huge support for & Source development is something thats encouraged at all levels via the Source development tools (SDK) available to anyone who owns HL2. Already there are some exciting looking Mods starting to appear for HL2/Source.

All in all then this is a very worthwhile package with room for improvement that will hopefully come with either add-on packs (offering more of a challenge), Mods from the community as well as Valve themselves & at some point in the future, Half Life 3! The future's bright, The Future's Source! Some might not say the same about Valve's on-line distribution system known as Steam. This got off to a shaky start but it seems to work very well now. Nethertheless, some people simply haven't warmed to the idea of distributing content in this fashion. Certainly people who do not have fast connections (or any connection at all) will have a problem with Steam & HL2 because you need to go on-line to validate the HL2 package before you can play! It's a case of tough cheese for non-internet players & there's one reason why Steam is often viewed in a draconian light.

The game automatically set itself at 800x600 with most of the settings on medium and of course no AA or AF. At these settings it runs smooth as silk (although the fact that the graphics card is only DirectX 7 capable means that I don't get to appreciate any pretty water effects etc). However, there are two main compromises -
i) Only surfaces very close to Gordon are rendered in detail. While moving it is fairly easy to see the border between sharper and more blurred texture changing.
ii) Non-important objects (boxes, non-explosive barrels, bits of wood, etc) become transparent and then disappear altogether at a distance from Gordon. This is mostly of no significance, but can occasionally be troublesome. Cleverly, objects such as medkits and supply boxes are visible from any distance.

As the game was running so well, I tried upping the resolution to 1024x768. At this level it still runs superbly well, with the only problem being a second or so of stuttering following a load screen. (By the way, load times are fairly long, but that seems to be a problem on higher specced machines aswell.)

Overall I am extremely impressed at how well this cutting edge game runs on an old computer. It has certainly not detracted from my enjoyment (although I do sometimes think how truely stunning it must look on a high spec system!). I would highly recommend this game, and I hope this review has convinced anyone with a less powerful computer that they won't be disappointed.