Customer Reviews

Half-Life 2: Game of the Year Edition

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

This game is a blast- no way around it. But Steam, Valve's annoying memory hog run in the tray adware copyright protection content delivery application is a constant source of screaming fits. Every time I sit down and I just want to play for 30 minutes or something before work or school, Steam throws an error and refuses to let me into the game, even going so far as to tell me that I do not own the game, or its "unavailable."
Valve is going to have to realize that treating customers like criminals is just bad business, and that Steam has GOT to go.
I can no longer reccomend this game despite it's being so much fun, because at least %50 of the time I try to get in to play it, I am unable for some error.

I endorse all the other reviewers postive comments about this game. As 1st person shooters go, it's about as good as they get. But I felt I had to post a warning for anyone who, like me, had no idea about this 'Steam' anti-piracy thing.

Frankly, I thought some of the other reviewers were getting too worked up about it. After all, for goodness sake, how bad can it be?

The answer is, very, very bad. I really, REALLY resent having to install this kind of adware on my machine, just so I can pay a game that I paid good cash for. I can't believe how intrusive the Steam system is, and much as I love this game, I will not ever buy any other product that forces me to install this junk on my machine, regardless of how good the game may be.

Half Life 2 is a very good game that combines puzzle-solving and First person shooting elements. The gameplay is fun, as are the graphics and sound.

First, let me start off with the basic summary.

You play as Gordon Freeman, physiologist of Black Mesa. After the accident and defeating the Xen, the G-man offered Gordon a job in which he assumingly accepted. In the beginning of the game, you end up in City 17, during the time where the Combine(Aliens) invaded and controlled Earth. Throughout the game you fight the Combine as well as Zombies.

A very fun and interesting part of Half Life are not the standard weapons, but the Gravity Gun. Using the Gravity Gun, you can lift almost anything, and towards the end, even people. The physics are really amazing. If you turn on a furnace and throw a gas tank in there, a fire will start, burning zombies chasing you.

Here are your weapons: Shotgun, Gravity Gun, RPG, SMG with grenade launcher, crossbow, grenades, crowbar,pistol, magnum,pulse rifle, and also the enviroment. (Be creative!) You get to drive some vehicles in the middle of the game.

The graphics are almost as good as Halo 2, but detailed enough that you can see scraches and dents on objects.

Here is what I hate about the game: Steam.

Steam is this thing Valve uses that forces people to sign up online, even just to play offline. You can't just install it, like other PC games. This gets really annoying if you've got slow internet or no internet at all. My dad (I'm 13) gives me barely any internet time so I can barely play Half Life 2. So, in other words, If you don't want a hassle, don't buy Half Life 2. This stupid program valve runs pisses everyone off.

Hope this review was helpful.

I have owned this game for just about a month now and I must admit. HL and HL2 are the best games I have EVER played!

HL - Source: while the game was certainly very good. I do feel cheated by the fact that the Source engine was not fully tuilized. I understand it doesn't look much diferent from the original HL except for better water effects. but you do have your scary moments. Overall, very good for an 8 year old game.

HL2: This is where the fun REALLY began... character appearances and behaviours are so lifelike. It's also the ONLY game I've played where AI ally characters say "excuse me" and "sorry" when I bump into them.

HL2 - Deathmatch: definitely a fast paced game where the gravity gun makes everything movable around you a weapon... just know that you are very prone to one-hit kills - with a toilet bowl!

HL2 mods: OMG..... The mods people are creating out there for Half-Life 2 are simply amazing!! get your hands on a download of the "Mistake of Pythagoras" mod. You'll be hooked forthwith looking for mods.

Now I come to my criticisms:

- game playing time is just a tad too short for me... beat both games in just about 2 weeks in between living life.
- WHY ON EARTH Does a game ship with FIVE CDs.... Don't these people know about DVD media??
- STEAM: (one star DEFINITEY deducted for this!) If ever there was an intrusive engine, Steam is it.... at least Sony's DRM was actually removable. I literally waited THREE hours between popping the CDS in my PC to install and actually playing the said game! You just installed the game, yet you still have to wait for HLS source files to download and install. (God help those on anything less than 256Kbytes/ps!) You are forced to register as soon as you've installed and also activate (What is this? Windows XP on steroids??).

What also really annoys me is that you MUST be online to play, even in single player mode. (At least having the CD in th drive is no longer required at this point.) So what happens if my DSL connection dies? And there is always an "update" that you are forced to wait on to finish before playing?? Geez! Can't these updates be done in the background? How no-brainer is that??

I just hope I can find a way to back up all these "updates" that Steam put on my PC... I swear I'll spin a tornado if I ever have to reload Windows on my PC and go through THAT torture again.

Conceeding that Getting STEAMED will be a permanent part of your HL2 experience, The games are good enough for me to go out and acquire the stand-alone expansions Episodes 1 and 2. If you are gonna buy this game, get DSL at 256K or higher! you have been warned!

I purchased this game used from Amazon Marketplace. Everything that I would expect to come with a used game came with this copy: CDs in good condition, original case/documentation/CD-key insert. The installation was trouble-free and was a lot quicker than some reviews here would lead you to believe. Everything about this purchase was looking good...

...that is until I tried to play the game. I wasn't able to activate the game via Steam, so I contacted Steam Powered Support. It took them over 3 weeks to reply to my support request. When they did, they were rude. (When they asked me where I purchased my copy, so I told them Amazon Marketplace. The support rep replied, "I doubt you bought a used copy from Amazon. I believe they are in the business of selling new software." WHAT A CLUELESS MORON!) So after sending them an image scan of my CD-key card with my Steam username written on it in ink just above the CD-key, they proceeded to ask me to send it again...which I did.

After two more weeks, I finally got the answer that CD-keys cannot be reset on used game CD purchases. They recommended I purchase the game through the Steam application (which does not sell the HL2: Game of the Year Edition.) To purchase all of the games that make up HL2:GOTYE via Steam, I'd spend more that way than if I'd just purchase another shrink-wrap copy of the CDs, which won't happen after this experience with their tech support.

Hell will freeze over before I spend any more money on Valve Software games again. People hated Microsoft when they started their product activation stuff, but even Microsoft is pretty lenient about giving out replacement keys to customers who appear honest. Valve has completely lost their minds with Steam. I hope they wise up soon, otherwise I hope they go out of business soon, arrogantly confident in their belief that they can abuse honest customers as much as they want and still make mountains of money.

If you buy this game used, it will not play! The game must log onto the game developer's network and verify that your key is unused. If your key has already been used, they will not give you another one! (They will, however, give you the run around. They will also pit you against their crappy web "help" system.)

This is probably illegal, but for now, it is just a waste of the $20 to buy the CD.

I'd like to write a review of the game itself, but unfortunately I can't even play it! Not only do you need to install the steam software to play online, but you have to install it for offline single player mode as well! Hey Valve, here's a newsbreak-not everybody has a high speed connection! When I purchased this game (for forty bucks), I knew I wouldn't be able to play online right now, but I figured I would be able to at least play the single player modes offline without installing Steam. So now what do I have? A forty dollar beer coaster. Thanks Valve. Needless to say, I won't be buying any Valve or Steam-related games ever again. You just lost a customer before even using your product. What a shame.

Half life 1 was a good game and very challeging at times. This game is good too and you have to find the right way to get to the next level. Bad news now. The graphics require a very high graphics card and memory. Now the worst is that, I just wanted to play a single game and after I installed the game I still had to down load more crap and the whole game again and register to play a game I paid for. Now I am down loading Counter Strike in which I already installed. It takes me over an hour just to start to play a game here.
I am now going to look for Notices that say that I must register and down load the games that I have the disc for. Steam will not have me as a customer if they keep this up.
I would not buy another game like this one.

As far as HL2 goes, the game is nearly perfect. It is easily the best FPS I have played and I would recommend it to anyone over eighteen. It is bloody and filled with gore not to mention a few places that will make you scream/jump/scared. The only drawback is Steam but it is not that bad.

The installation is time consuming. The CD version contains five discs. Please make sure all drivers including sound are updated. Once installed, Steam takes over to provide updates. Once updated and verified you have the option to disallow Steam to run on startup through the setup which I recommend. You do not need to connect to the internet to play the game. If you disable your internet connection prior to starting the game you will be prompted to either connect to the internet or play offline which is what I normally do. One added bonus to using Steam online is that you can backup your saves using Steam which I do on occasion because I switch back and forth between my desktop and laptop. Nice feature but probably not useful for most people.

As for the game itself, the main drawback is the load times that occur during play. This can be annoying but it is there for a reason. During this period the games loads new information into ram and virtual memory allowing for the immersive play. A trade-off was made between the need for hardware performance and allowing users of lesser systems to run the game on higher settings. The game is processor driven. A high end video card is not needed. I initially was running a basic ATI X300se series card with 64 mb of memory from Dell. I have since upgraded to an ATI X600 series with 256 mb of memory and really can not tell the difference. RAM and processor are much more important to a good experience than a more expensive video card.

My desktop runs the game extremely smoothly with the following configuration. Current configuration includes 2 gb of RAM and an ATI X600 video card and the difference is not very noticeable.

Dell Dimension 4700C

Intel Pentium 4 at 3.4 ghz
1 gb of memory
ATI X300 video card with 64 mb of memory.
160 gb SATA HDD 10,000 rpm
19" Ultrasharp LCD

My laptop does an OK job on HL2. Performance is somewhat jumpy and load times are much longer.

Toshiba Satellite

Intel Celeron M at 1.5 Ghz
704 mb of memory. (this is not a typo and I know that it is an odd configuration)
ATI XPRESS 200M series card with 64 mb of memory.
60 gb PATA HDD at 5,000 rpm
15.4" monitor

I would not recommend running this game on a comparable or lesser system than my laptop, It just takes the fun out of it. However, if you have a decent system, it is absoluetly wonderful. Steam is a pain but you really only have to deal with it once and the game makes it worth it.

I'm a fan of the Half Life series, played Half Life 1 and was the first game that really held my interest with the story line. The game was what I felt, the first thinking first person shooter, not just a run and gun Doom type game.

Here in Half Life 2 we see the similar style of game play but with a deeper story and greater graphics. Basically, the game starts out with your character, Dr. Gordon Freeman, on a train to City 17, a place somewhere in Europe. The world has been taken over by the Combine, an alien race that is controlling the world. Without giving away more of the story and some of the suspense, the game play is your character battling with the Combine forces and teaming up with the rebel underground fighters.

Overall the game is very impressive, one very fun item about Half Life 2 is the fact that most objects can be moved, picked up, or destroyed. With a physics engine built in, objects act like they do in the real world, especially when shot with a weapon. The characters also react to your actions in a somewhat responsive style but usually it's just a looped message.

As for the graphics, I'm playing this game at 1280x1024 on a GeForce 7800GT, AMD 3800 XP2, 2GB memory, running at a steady 100 frames per second. There are some places where the frames really drop, for example in the large outdoor areas I saw some drops near 30fps but overall the game plays fast enough for me. It's much faster than a game like FEAR which even my computer can not play at 1280x1024. The sound is great as well, I have a 5.1 surround system for my pc and the ambient sound is awesome. I can easily pin point a target behind me and the music for each level or end boss matches well.

Overall there are great details and the settings are done very well. I especially liked the feel of the level Ravenholm, it was very dark and spooky, where as Highway 17 displays awesome views of the coast line and bright colors. Don't be surprised at the colors when you first play Half Life 2, there is a very over-exposed look of the game, and while you still have bright colors some things appear more washed out. I noticed this mostly on the long bridge of the Highway 17 level.

As for the overall game play I have to say it's a bit more in depth with the fighting thanks to the interactive objects of the environment. For example, there are many explosive red barrels located through out the game, which can be used against the opposing force. Also other objects can be thrown as well, later in the game you will receive a new weapon that makes great use of most objects such as saw blades, cinder blocks, gas cylinders. Personally, for this factor alone I love playing Half Life 2 :).

With Half Life 2, I really enjoyed the story and dialog between the characters. The game really doesn't have many cut scenes since the actual scene is really in the game. You interact with the computer players of the game but again, it's very linear and only can give them basic "follow" "stay" commands. The opposing forces AI is decent but does not open up nothing new other than using different techniques for fighting them. I didn't notice any of the AI getting stuck (sometimes the computer characters will get stuck in a door way or someplace cramped) but still attacked in a very simple method.

If you have read about Half Life 2 on the Internet you may come across many arguments about Valve's Steam application. Basically Steam is the method for authorizing and downloading the latest patches. You can also download the latest games from Valve and other popular modifications of the Half Life 2 engine. Basically, in order to run Half Life 2 you need to have Steam running in the back ground. Again, some people hate it but it looks like this is the future of video game publishing and a method to defeat game copying.

I should also mention that with Half Life 2 there is a very common problem of a stuttering with the game. Basically the game will load the next scene and just stutter for a few minutes or lock up and crash. On my system, the stuttering is usually only when loading or saving a new game save. I have heard many suggestions from not enough memory to slow drive access causing this problem.

On the down side, Valve has pushed out a few questionable patches to the public. A month ago they updated the game content with a video change that caused all of the surfaces to be very glossy and have a silver sheen. A few weeks later Valve again published another upate to resolve this issue.

Once you finish the game I didn't feel the need to complete the story again. I think part of the factor about this is you already know where the people are going to jump from and all of the traps.

But that doesn't mean you can't play any modifications of the Half Life 2 game! Since Valve allows free use of the tools to create Half Life 2, many people (including you) can create a game of their wishes. Now it's hard and not just point and click but this means lots of custom games are available for download from the Internet for free. My personal favorite is a mod called Garry's Mod (http://gmod.garry.tv/) this mod allows you to free roam or what's called playing a "sandbox" level. Basically you can add any player to an empty level, monsters, weapons, even add building objects. It's lots of fun and you can create little battles, or practice your shooting by adding a bunch of zombies.

Overall, if you don't mind spending the money I think your will be greatly impressed with Half Life 2. Yes, it has a tad more bugs than other games but the graphical quality will overcome that. If you're a gamer like me and enjoy a slightly slower paced first per shooter with some thinking puzzles and traps, then this is a great game. If you are looking for a much faster or pure shooting game I would possibly suggest Quake 4 or Battlefield 2, which don't have puzzles and other slowdowns of the game play.

Pros:
Great graphics
Awesome sound, especially in 5.1 surround
Controls feel great, no sluggish or sloppy aiming feel
Steam (for easy downloads)
Story line


Cons:
Steam (for crashing and authentication issues)
Load times between levels
Buggy updates (some times)
Multiplayer is not as fun

Hope you enjoyed my review.

Thanks,
Rob