Half-Life 2 (Xbox)

It seems that with the reviewers no game is allowed to be credited up there with the mighty Halo. I for one thought Halo was good, but for me it was surpassed by Doom 3. The major credit to Halo was that it was far more expansive than Doom in terms of the freedom to move and the size of the landscape, but Doom had for me greater variation, better graphics, storyline and a real intensity.

When I played Half Life 2 I have to say that I was completely blown away. Sure it doesn't have the intensity (so far) of Doom, but in a straight fight between Halo and Half Life, HL would be an easy winner.

The gameplay on HL is a blend of Halo style action but with a puzzle element similar to Tomb Raider - but only in style and not in complexity. Where HL takes gaming to a new level is the shere expanse of area to explore. On Halo when you drive a buggy you have a limited area to explore and in reality you are pretty much guided to following a route or playing within an area. This experience compared to HL seems massively limited.

In HL you have the ability to explore in vehicles massive areas which gives the illusion that you are in a real world and not the confines of a game. When in Halo you would storm a beach area, in HL you explore miles or terrain or follow miles of river in a jet ski/hover craft.

Another benefit to HL is the Doom style interaction with your surroundings, pick up a bottle and throw it and it will smash, throw a crate at an enemy and it will knock him down and smash into and disturb other objects. The whole environment seems alive at at your mercy to change and interact with.

When it comes to weapons, Halo has variations on a theme - Guns with different styles and powers - Half Life's weopans have a wonderful blend of power accuracy and usefulness. Withouth doubt the star of the show is the Gravity Gun which allows you to pick up objects such as explosive barrels and hurl them at your enemies, pick up and stack objects to access other levels, and fire sharp objects like saw blades that can leave multiple enemies cut in half bleeding where they once stood with a single throw.

The biggest asset to Half Life though is the variation to gameplay, one minute you are trying to get your hover bike over pool by raising the ramp with floating barrels, the next you are dodging bullets and hiding from an attack helicopter, the next you are hunting enemies in a spooky graveyard and avoiding traps. This variation in intensity and variation of game objectives gives the game a real sense of not knowing what is coming next, where with Halo and Doom you know that around the corner there will be with certainty a group on enemies for you to kill and get past.

The only downside to Half Life is that there are no multiplayer or live options, which lets the overall package down. At least some access to Live for future levels (as available on PC) would have been a major plus, because Half Life leaves you with a really wanting for more.

Overall if Halo was rated at 98% Half Life must be a 100% - in summary, BUY IT AS YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR LIFE'S BEEN MISSING

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From start to finish the experience is second to none, it’s a game world you feel fully immersed in from the moment you calmly step off the train in the first level through the unrelenting action that follows right up to some frantic battles in the later levels. Valve really have surpassed themselves in cramming this game onto the Xbox. Forget about what PC owners say, sure it does look noticeable that its inferior at times and you can actually hear your console whirr away attempting to load some screens, but that is missing the point because it more than stands up against other Xbox shooters such as Halo, albeit in the sense that it feels more ‘real’. It certainly beats everything else hands down for sheer size and looks – the corridor sections for example easily surpass Doom and the vast outside driving sections quite frankly embarrass the likes of Far cry and that is no easy feat.

So the aesthetics of HL2 are near perfect, what of the game play? You will not be disappointed. Fans of the first game will recognise many weapons from the trusty crowbar to the all powerful magnum, add to this some great new editions namely the gravity gun, which really shows off the games physics engine perfectly, and you have a varied arsenal at hand which is mostly great fun to use. Some old enemies return too – the head-crab zombies are a favourite (although its mainly the new humanoid Combine that die at your hands throughout) and there is the shady man in the black suit that you will catch the odd glimpse of from time to time. It all helps to keep the story flowing while you blaze or drive your way through set pieces aplenty and levels that really beggar belief at times due to the class of their layout. So what are the problems then? Well there really aren’t any. The occasional long loading screen may slightly annoy you and there is no multiplayer, but so what! Enjoy this game for what it is, an excellent one player experience, a classic first person shooter which at times has A.I. good enough to make you believe your fellow comrades are real people fighting with you. The variety of firepower, the differing human and alien enemies you face (with nods to Aliens, The matrix and War of the Worlds all thrown in the mixer), and the imaginative levels all add to the experience.

I think this may be the last and probably best game of its type to grace this generation of consoles. It really is worth the five stars and more for an outstanding achievement that proves games can live up to and exceed your expectations – you owe it to yourself to play this, go on…They’re waiting for you Gordon.

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