Electronic Arts Half Life 2 – PC

One of the best games to come out for it’s time, and still has plenty mods and total conversions being made for it. Heck I was playing a beta of a total conversion that made it like Stargate, and another like Pirates…

I have to admit, I am utterly shocked and confounded by all of the positive reviews this game has gotten. It is one of the most highly-rated games on GameSpot’s and IGN’s websites, as well as many other places. It’s called one of the best games ever made, and possibly the best FPS ever made. But I’m afraid I have to vehemently disagree with that opinion.

Before I talk about the game itself, let me just say this about the Steam engine: I don’t like the idea of it at all, but having said that, installing the game and setting up an account was extremely easy and painless. It was just a normal installation as far as I’m concerned. There was nothing complicated about it. Those who had problems either had a different version, or made some mistakes, or maybe had something like AOL that was perhaps incompatible. I don’t know, but don’t let the whole Steam controversy deter you from trying the game.

Now for the game itself. First off, let me name the good things about this game: excellent graphics, excellent voice acting, nice level variation with vehicles mixed in, and the story develops in an interesting way (rather than cutscenes, the characters walk around and talk with you in the actual game world).

Having said that, I simply despised every minute that I played this game. In a way, I almost can’t describe why I had such a strong negative reaction to what I was really hoping and expecting to be a great game. But some of the definite things I can say are these:

There are absolutely too many enemies! Right from the beginning (which is even worse, since you have fewer weapons) you are constantly bombarded by enemies all around you. You might think everything is clear, but suddenly there are two or three guys way ahead of you, so far ahead that you can barely see them, but they are pretty good at seeing and shooting you. On top of this, there are guys above you (on elevated areas) which are difficult to find, so you are always wondering what’s shooting at you, and finally they’ll appear behind you as well, even though you’ve already “cleared” the area behind you. And all of this happens *at the same time*! I’m all for an action-packed shoot ’em up, this is an FPS after all, but this is just too much. It was so overwhelming (and right from the start) that I was frustrated nearly every minute that I walked around in this game. I was constantly under fire and taking damage, and there was little I could do about it but try to shoot back — that is, whenever I could finally find them all.

On top of this, throw a few helicopters and spaceships flying above you, constantly shooting you and dropping bombs on you, and for quite a while there is *nothing* you can do about it but take it. It’s difficult to find a place to hide since there is so much going on, so you’re pretty much at the mercy of a million things at once.

Add to this the most annoying enemy I have ever seen in any game I’ve ever played (that little creature with four “legs” that jumps at you). These things are everywhere and they are extremely quick and difficult to target. Until you get a more powerful weapon, they take a few shots to kill, but getting in more than one or two shots before they move again (and lunge at you) is difficult. I wouldn’t mind so much if they only existed in one part of the game, but they are everywhere and they are unbelievably maddening to deal with.

I’m also not a big fan of driving vehicles in general, and I didn’t really like the controls of the vehicles in this game. It didn’t feel very precise to me, and often I would have to backtrack or slow down and figure out where to go. It didn’t feel like it played out as quickly and as smoothly as it should have.

As far as the story goes, there isn’t much of one. The way the story unfolds is interesting, as I mentioned above, but it’s unfortunate that not too much is unfolding! For the first part of the game you’re just told to move from one area to another. Finally a couple of scientists are kidnapped and you have to go rescue them, but I never felt like I was actually *in* this game at all. Of course, getting immersed in a game that is constantly aggrevating you is difficult to do.

I should also add, just to emphasize that my reaction to this game was so strong and so visceral, that this is the only game I’ve ever played where I’ve actually slammed my hands down on my desk, or thrown them up in the air, and shouted profanity and cries of frustration at the screen. More than once I actually shouted “I *hate* this game”. I think it takes a lot to actually elicit that kind of involuntary reponse, but this game excelled at bringing it out of me. I truly hated every minute that I played it.

Now, given that it’s gotten such great reviews, and that my hatred of it is almost too emotional to be valid for anyone else, I would encourage people to still try it. Certainly any game that receives near perfect scores should be experienced for yourself. Perhaps you’ll find it much less frustrating than I did.

Was very disappointed to find that this game requires an internet connection to even install it.An internet-basef program, Steam, is used to verify whether it is a legitimate copy and not pirated. My game computer, unfortunately, is not connected to the internet.

Came with Half-Life 1 and 2. Pretty old.
Neither work properly. #1 bombs immediately after starting and drops the video to 640×480.. #2 can’t connect to their server (likely due to URL changes) so never begins the install. Looks like it was repackaged from a jewel case to a DVD case. Also was not shrink wrapped.
Waste of money.