Halflife 2

This week I've been playing a bit of Halflife 2 again.  It's really aged quite fantastically well.  Let's figure out why.


Graphically is where the game shows its age the most.  But even in that department, it's still strikingly good looking.  It's an example of a company doing the absolute best they could with what could only be considered the best materials at the time.  When the source engine made its debut, there were more than a few blown minds.  There are still moments in Halflife 2 which are stunning to look at, the Citadel and other elements of City 17 and the teleportation scene, which is obviously intentionally reminiscient of the first game.

Perhaps the weakest thing about the game is the physics puzzles.  Halflife 2's physics engine was revolutionary when it was first revealed and there are more than a few places where it's clear they wanted to show it off.  The seesaw puzzle crops up very early into the game, there's a later sequence involving a series of weights to raise a supply drop or using bouyant barrels to allow for a ramp jump.  The pinnacle of these of course would have to be the Ravenholm sequence, where the atmospheric and creepy horror vibe are periodically put on hold.  Of course the gravity gun was the ultimate manifestation of this, but it subverts the formula by being a fantastically entertaining tool and arguably as much of an icon of the series as the crowbar.

But where Halflife 2 shines is in its story, which unfurls fantastically.  It's pretty impossible to overstate the legacy that this game had to live up to.  Before the first Halflife, fps games were given the barest of excuse plots.  Halflife raised that storytelling so highly that the rest of the genre was caught floundering to keep up.  Halflife 2 needed to follow that up and do it better.  It succeeded.  There are characters in this stories that will stick with people for lifetimes, not least of which is Gordon himself.  As much an agent of chance as anything else, Gordon is dropped into a situation and chaos follows in his wake.  By pure coincidence and the actions of his peers, he engineers the fall of the evil alien civilisation that is attempting to conquer the earth.

Alyx Vance also deserves ounces of praise (a truly reprehensible article I read a while back described her as Gordon's sidekick and love intrest, denigrating one of video gaming's few positive female characters) she is active and heroic, as much a part of the combine's defeat if not more so as Gordon, since his actions are almost happy accidents, whereas it's her deeds that actually make the difference.

Eli Vance, Isaac Kleiner, Judith Mossman, Wallace Breen, the list goes on.  All of it making for an absolutely riveting science fiction tale, that could only ever work as a game.  Gordon Freeman is an icon of gaming, utterly justifiably.  His story is simply one of the best gaming has yet to tell.  Halflife 2, still fantastic after nearly a decade.

Posted in: Alyx Vance, Game, Game Review, Gordon Freeman, Halflife 2