Review: Half-Life 2 (2004)

'Rise and shine.'

★★★★

After co-founding Valve in 1996, former Microsoft employees, Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington began working on their first game, "Half-Life." It was released in late 1998 and began an instant sucess. That sucess spawned in other games using their in-house game engine, "GoldSrc," which was created using C, C++, Assembly language. After 2000, Valve decided to work on another engine, this time, called "Source," which also used C++ as its programming language, and the first game to be released was "Half-Life 2," alongside the release of their own digital game store, called Steam.

"Half-Life 2" is a sequel to the first game, which is set 20 years after the events at Black Mesa. During that 20 years gap, Gordon was put under stasis by the mysterious G-Man (Mike Shapiro), and while Gordon was under stasis, the former admistartor of Black Mesa, Dr. Wallce Breen (Robert Culp) his Combine force have taken over. When Gordon wakes up, it's up to him and the resistance to stop Breen and save City 17.

"Half-Life 2" is not only a great game, but a step in technology and video games. This new engine and its art design is fantastic and still holds up well today. Each level you complete is like a rollarcoster ride. Each level explores a different part of the world you're basically in. The difficutly also increases as you progress through each level, but it doesn't reach to the point where it's absoulety convoluted. It becomes a bit easier with the weapon selection you would aquire with each level. Most of them are the same from the first game, but the newest is the "Gravity Gun." This allows you to pick up objects, place them or even throw them, which can allow for some creative gameplay.

You may have noticed that Gordon still doesn't talk. In games like this, it's best if the protagonist is either a mute, or only speaks in cutscenes. The other characters all have dialogue and their voice cast is great as well. It's all serious, but without some funny lines sprinkles into it. Old favorites from the first game, as well as some new faces, allowing for a sense of familiarity. My favorite is Barney Calhoun (Mike Shapiro). He's chill and a great fighter. He's someone you would love to have a drink with. Which is a funny because the first thing he says to Gordon (you), is "About that beer I owe ya." That is a callback to the first game when he tells you, "Hey, catch me a later, i'll buy you a beer." 20 years later, I'm still waiting for that beer, Barney.

This game was released as a standalone with sequels. However, in its 20th Anniversary update, Valve included Episode 1 and 2 as part of the base game, as well as including a community workshop, like other games feature, allowing for the "Half-Life 2" experience to strive for greater goodness. Episodes 1 and 2 contiune the story of "Half-Life 2," with new features, that also addon onto the experience. I like the idea of combining everything into the base game, it saves a lot of time, and plus, it's "Half-Life 2," you can't go wrong with that.

Episode 2 ends on a cliffhanger, which was retconned in "Half-Life Alyx (2020)." However, before that retcon, Valve intially had plans to release Episode 3, but ended up scrapping everything due to fatigue and other projects like "Left 4 Dead" and Portal. This information was unknown for the longest time as Valve refused to mention anything relating to the game. For the longest time, fans speculated that it was Gabe Newell's hatridge of the number 3, but that was a joke that Gabe Newell decided to follow along with. That was all debunked in the "Half-Life 2" documentary, that Valve released in honor of the game's 20th Anniversary. In the documentary, Gabe Newell characterized the decision as his own "personal failure," admitting he was "stumped" about how Episode 3 could break new ground, which is something that was always important to him when it comes to pursuing new games. Hearing that at least gave us closure, but it's unknown if Valve will comeback to Episode 3. They did shock us with "Half-Life Alyx," which is a game set in between the first and second game, that also changed the ending of Episode 2, so there is hope.