| Half-Life 2 | |
|---|---|
 One of three covers for Half-Life 2. This cover shows the series' protagonist, Gordon Freeman; the others show Alyx Vance and the G-Man. |
|
| Developer(s) | Valve Corporation |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra Entertainment (expired) Valve Corporation |
| Distributor(s) | Electronic Arts (retail) Steam (online) |
| Composer(s) | Kelly Bailey |
| Series | Half-Life |
| Engine | Source engine |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X[1] |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | BBFC: 15 ESRB: M OFLC: MA15+ PEGI: 16+ |
| Media | CD-ROM(5), DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download |
| System requirements | 1.2 GHz processor, 256 MB RAM, DirectX 7 level graphics card, Internet connection (broadband or better recommended) |
| Input methods | Keyboard, mouse (a joystick is also supported on PC), gamepad |
Half-Life 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game and the sequel to the highly acclaimed Half-Life. It was developed by Valve Corporation and was released on November 16, 2004, following a protracted five-year,[4] $40 million[5] development cycle during which the game’s source code was leaked to the Internet.[6] The game uses the Source game engine, which includes a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine and was also the first video game to require online product activation.[7][8] Originally available only for Windows-based personal computers, the game has since been ported to the Xbox, and was a part of The Orange Box compilation for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game consoles.[9]
Half-Life 2 takes place in a dystopian world in which the events of Half-Life have fully come to bear on human society, which has been enslaved by a multidimensional empire known as the Combine. The game takes place in and around the fictional City 17 and follows the adventures of scientist Gordon Freeman who must fight against increasingly unfavorable odds in order to survive.
The game garnered near-unanimous positive reviews and received critical acclaim,[10][11] receiving praise for its advances in computer animation, sound, narration, computer graphics, artificial intelligence (AI), and physics simulation. The game won over 40 PC Game of the Year awards for 2004,[12] and several publications have since named it as game of the decade.[13][14][15][16] As of December 3, 2008, over 6.5 million copies of Half-Life 2 have been sold at retail.[17] Although Steam sales figures are unknown, their rate surpassed retail in mid-2008[18] and are significantly more profitable per-unit.[17]
Contents |
Half-Life 2 plays similarly to its predecessor. The player navigates through a set of levels that advance in the story, fighting off transhuman troops known as the Combine as well as hostile alien creatures. Puzzles and sequences involving vehicles are interspersed throughout the game, taking its world to a new level of realism.[19]
As Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter, the gameworld is always presented from Gordon Freeman's perspective. A heads-up display at the bottom of the screen shows the player's health, energy, and ammunition status, while a toggle screen shows available weapons at the top. Health and energy can be replenished by picking up medical supplies and energy cells respectively, or by using wall-mounted charging devices.[20]
The player defeats enemies with an assortment of weapons. The game's available arsenal consists of modern-day projectile weapons, including a ubiquitous pistol, shotgun, and submachine gun, though more elaborate, fictional weapons are available, such as a crossbow that shoots hot metal rods, a pheromone pod that guides certain previously hostile alien creatures, once acquired, and pulse rifle that shoots glowing pulses and a secondary "Dark energy ball," which disintegrates enemies on contact. The Source engine's physics capabilities extend into combat via a special device called the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator, or "gravity gun." Using this device, the player can pick up objects and either hurl them at enemies or hold them in place to create a makeshift shield.[21] The gravity gun can also perform a variety of non-combat functions, such as grabbing out-of-reach supplies and forming bridges across gaps.[22]
Many puzzles use the game's physics engine. For example, one puzzle requires the player to either turn a seesaw-like lever into a ramp by placing cinder blocks at one end, or to stack wooden crates to form a crude stairway.[23] Puzzles are frequently solved with the gravity gun. One puzzle has the player clear a highway by using the gravity gun to push numerous abandoned vehicles out of the way.[24]
Another major development from the original Half-Life is the introduction of vehicular sections; while the original featured several sections on trains, the sequel features sections where the player makes use of fully functional vehicles such as cars or boats.
Half-Life 2 was released without a multiplayer component, and was instead packaged with Counter-Strike: Source.[22] A few weeks later, Valve released Half-Life 2: Deathmatch on Steam.[25] The goal of the game is to kill as many other players as possible, using a variety of means, in either free-for-all or team-based matches.[26] A subsequent update to the game added an additional map and three new weapons.[27] The Xbox release of Half-Life 2 contains no multiplayer component,[28] however the re-release of Half-Life 2, packaged as The Orange Box for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, includes the multiplayer game Team Fortress 2.[29][30]
The original Half-Life takes place at a remote civilian and military laboratory called the Black Mesa Research Facility. During an experiment, researchers at Black Mesa accidentally cause a "resonance cascade" which rips open a portal to an alien world, Xen. Hostile creatures from Xen flood into Black Mesa via the portal and start killing everyone in sight. The player takes on the role of Gordon Freeman, one of the research scientists who had been involved in the accident and who now must escape the facility. Gordon manages to terminate the creature holding the portal open.
At the end of the game, a mysterious figure colloquially known as the G-Man extracts Gordon from Black Mesa and "offers" him employment. Gordon is subsequently put into stasis.[31]
In Half-Life 2, the story resumes an indeterminate number of years after the Black Mesa incident, with the G-Man taking Freeman out of stasis and inserting him into a train en route to City 17. Official sources differ on the actual length of the intermission; a story fragment written by author Marc Laidlaw for the development team puts the intermission at ten years,[32] while Half-Life 2: Episode One's website puts this intermission as "nearly two decades".[33] One of the characters Freeman encounters, Alyx Vance, is seen in a picture as a child at Black Mesa, but appears as a young adult by the time Gordon reappears. This information is not directly relayed to the player. The friendly characters that Freeman encounters appear unaware of the stasis he was put in and assumes that he has full knowledge of everything that has happened since the end of Half-Life. The game is set on Earth, which has been conquered by the extraterrestrial civilization known as the Combine.
The environments in Half-Life 2, in accordance with the game's story, all have a distinct post-apocalyptic theme, yet in design they are varied, and include the Eastern European-styled City 17, the zombie-infested Ravenholm; the coastal Nova Prospekt prison and the massive Combine Citadel. Viktor Antonov, the art director of Half-Life 2, who spent his childhood in Bulgaria, wrote that the developers consciously modeled Half-Life 2's setting on Eastern Europe because they were fascinated by the region's combination of both new and old architecture and desired to infuse City 17 and its environs with the same sense of history.
At the start of the game, the G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman in a hallucination-like vision as he pulls Gordon out of stasis and places him on a train going to City 17. When the train arrives, Gordon gets off and proceeds through the Combine's security checkpoints where he is detained by a civil protection officer. Once in an interrogation room, the officer reveals himself to be Freeman's former co-worker and colleague, Barney Calhoun, and helps Freeman to get to Dr. Isaac Kleiner's laboratory. After meeting Alyx Vance, Freeman is instructed by Kleiner to step into a makeshift teleporter so that he can be safely extracted to the anti-Combine resistance base Black Mesa East along with Alyx, headed by her father, Dr. Eli Vance. However, Kleiner's pet headcrab Lamarr disrupts the machine, and Freeman finds himself — after briefly appearing in several different locations — just outside Kleiner's lab. With the Combine now alerted to his presence, Freeman works his way through the drained canal system,[34] avoiding enemy forces and using the help of human resistance fighters [35] to safely arrive at Black Mesa East.
Dr. Vance and Dr. Judith Mossman debrief Freeman on events since the incident at Black Mesa. As Alyx is introducing Freeman to DOG, her pet robot, and showing him how to use the new Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator ("gravity gun"), the lab is attacked and Dr. Vance is captured. Freeman is separated from Alyx, but she explains that he must travel to Nova Prospekt, a former prison, in order to save her father.[36] Along the way, Freeman encounters other allies, including Father Grigori in the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm,[37] and Colonel Odessa Cubbage and his forces. After making his way across an Antlion-infested beach, Freeman reaches Nova Prospekt and begins to search for Dr. Vance.[38] Alyx eventually reaches him and joins in his search. Together, they discover that Dr. Mossman is a spy for the Combine, but before they can stop her, she teleports herself and Dr. Vance back to the Combine headquarters known as the Citadel using the Combine teleporter.
Freeman and Alyx follow, and the facility is destroyed by a teleporter malfunction. They materialize in Kleiner's lab one week later, discovering that their actions in Nova Prospekt have inspired the human resistance to mount a full-scale rebellion, turning City 17 into a battlefield.[39] Alyx helps to assist Dr. Kleiner and civilians to escape the city, while Freeman joins with the human resistance to dispatch the Combine forces. As the resistance gains the upper hand, Alyx is captured by the Combine and taken to the Citadel.[40] Freeman enters the Citadel to rescue Alyx. After fighting through many Combine soldiers with only an upgraded Gravity gun, Freeman eventually reaches Dr. Breen's office, where Dr. Mossman is also waiting. As Alyx and Eli Vance are brought in, Dr. Breen attempts to threaten them and convince Freeman to work for him, but Judith Mossman has a change of heart, and releases the three prisoners. Dr. Breen flees to the Dark Energy Reactor at the top of the Citadel and attempts to teleport away from Earth. Freeman pursues him and attacks the reactor.[41] As the reactor explodes a few yards away from Freeman and Alyx, time stops and the G-Man appears. He comments on Gordon's successful endeavors and then places him back into stasis.
Throughout the entirety of Half-Life 2, Gordon never speaks, and the player views the action through his eyes only. There are no cut scenes, nor are there any discontinuities or jumps in time from the player's point of view. Some critics have criticized these design decisions as narrative holdovers from Half-Life,[42] that effectively limit how much of the back-story is explained. Due to the lack of cut scenes, the player never directly sees what happens in Gordon's absence.
The ending of Half-Life 2 is also very similar to that of the original: after completing a difficult task against seemingly overwhelming odds, Gordon is extracted by the G-Man, who congratulates him and informs him that further assignments should follow. The fates of many of the major characters, such as Alyx, Eli, and Judith, go unexplained. Very few of the questions raised by Half-Life are answered, and several new ones are presented. The identity and nature of the G-Man still remains a mystery. A number of these issues are addressed, however, in the sequel games, Episode One and Episode Two.[31][43][44][45]
For Half-Life 2, Valve Corporation developed a new game engine called the Source engine, which handles the game's visual, audio, and artificial intelligence elements. The Source engine comes packaged with a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine that allows for an extra dimension of interactivity in both single-player and online environments.[46] The engine can be easily upgraded because it is separated in modules. When coupled with Steam, it becomes easy to roll out new features. One such example is high dynamic range rendering, which Valve first demonstrated in a free downloadable level called Lost Coast for owners of Half-Life 2.[47] HDR is now part of all Valve games. Several other games use the Source engine, including Day of Defeat: Source and Counter-Strike: Source, both of which were also developed by Valve.[48] Also using Source is Dark Messiah, and the upcoming game The Crossing, both developed by Arkane Studios.[49]
Integral to Half-Life 2 on the Windows platform is the Steam content delivery system developed by Valve Corporation. All Half-Life 2 players on PC are required to have Steam installed and a valid account in order to play.[50] Steam allows customers to purchase games and other software straight from the developer and have them downloaded directly to their computer as well as receiving "micro updates." These updates also make hacking the game harder to do and has thus far been somewhat successful in staving off cheats and playability for users with unauthorized copies.[51] Steam can also be used for finding and playing multiplayer games through an integrated server browser and friends list, and game data can be backed up with a standard CD or DVD burner. Steam and a customer’s purchased content can be downloaded onto any computer, as long as that account is only logged in at one location at a given time. The usage of Steam has not gone without controversy.[52] Some users have reported numerous problems with Steam, sometimes being serious enough to prevent a reviewer from recommending a given title available on the service. In other cases, review scores have been lowered.[53] Long download times, seemingly unnecessary updates, and verification checks are criticisms leveled by critics of the system’s use for single-player games such as Half-Life 2.[54][55] Regardless of whether or not a customer intends to use any multiplayer features, the computer on which the game was installed must have Steam and an Internet connection to verify the transaction.
The book, Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, revealed many of the game’s original settings and action that were cut down or removed from the game. Half-Life 2 was originally intended to be a darker game with grittier artwork, where the Combine were more obviously draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the atmosphere with noxious, murky gases. Nova Prospekt was originally intended to be a small Combine rail depot built on an old prison in the wasteland. Eventually, Nova Prospekt grew from a stopping-off point along the way to the destination itself.[32] Half-Life 2 was also originally intended to be more diverse in settings. The book mentions how originally, the player was to follow a different journey from what is in the final release.
Half-Life 2 was merely a rumor until a strong impression at E3 in May 2003 launched it into high levels of hype where it won several awards for best in show. It had a release date of September 2003, but was delayed. This pushing back of HL2’s release date came in the wake of the cracking of Valve's internal network[56] through a null session connection to Tangis which was hosted in Valve's network and a subsequent upload of an ASP shell, resulting in the leak of the game's source code and many other files including maps, models and a playable early version of Half-Life Source and Counter-Strike Source in early September 2003.[57] On October 2, 2003, Valve CEO Gabe Newell publicly explained in the HalfLife2.net forums the events that Valve experienced around the time of the leak, and requested users to track down the perpetrators if possible.
In June 2004, Valve Software announced in a press release that the FBI had arrested several people suspected of involvement in the source code leak.[58] Valve claimed the game had been leaked by a German black-hat hacker named Axel Gembe. Gembe later contacted Newell through e-mail (also providing an unreleased document planning the E3 events). Gembe was led into believing that Valve wanted to employ him as an in-house security auditor. He was to be offered a flight to the USA and was to be arrested on arrival by the FBI. When the German government became aware of the plan, Gembe was arrested in Germany instead, and put on trial for the leak as well as other computer crimes in November 2006, such as the creation of Agobot, a highly successful trojan which harvested users' data.[59][60][61]
At the trial in November 2006 in Germany, Gembe was sentenced to two years' probation. In imposing the sentence, the judge took into account such factors as Gembe's difficult childhood and the fact that he was taking steps to improve his situation.[62]
On September 20, 2004, the gaming public learned through GameSpot that Sierra's parent company, Vivendi Universal Games, was in a legal battle with Valve Software over the distribution of Half-Life 2 to cyber cafés. This is important for the Asian PC gaming market where PC and broadband penetration per capita are much lower (except Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan). Therefore, cyber cafés are extremely popular for playing online games for large numbers of people.[63]
According to Vivendi Universal Games, the distribution contract they signed with Valve included cyber cafés. This would mean that only Vivendi Universal Games could distribute Half-Life 2 to cyber cafés — not Valve through the Steam system. On November 29, 2004, Judge Thomas S. Zilly, of U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, WA, ruled that Vivendi Universal Games and its affiliates, are not authorized to distribute (directly or indirectly) Valve games through cyber cafés to end users for pay-to-play activities pursuant to the parties' current publishing agreement. In addition, Judge Zilly ruled in favor of the Valve motion regarding the contractual limitation of liability, allowing Valve to recover copyright damages for any infringement as allowed by law without regard to the publishing agreement’s limitation of liability clause.[64]
On April 29, 2005, the two parties announced a settlement agreement. Under the agreement, Vivendi Universal Games would cease distributing all retail packaged versions of Valve games by August 31, 2005. Vivendi Universal Games also was to notify distributors and cyber cafés that had been licensed by Vivendi Universal Games that only Valve had the authority to distribute cyber café licenses, and hence their licenses were revoked and switched to Valve's.[65]
All listed tracks were composed by Kelly Bailey.[66] Purchasers of the Gold Package of the game were given (among other things) a CD soundtrack containing nearly all the music from the game, along with three bonus tracks. This CD is available for separate purchase via the Valve online store.
Tracks 16, 18 and 42 are bonus tracks that are exclusive to the CD soundtrack. Tracks 44 to 51 are tracks from the game that did not appear on the soundtrack CD. Many of the tracks were retitled and carried over from the Half-Life soundtrack; The names in parentheses are the original titles. Tracks 34, 41, and 42 are remixes.
| Half-Life 2 track listing | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Track | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Hazardous Environments (Valve Theme [Long Version])" | 01:22 | |||||||
| 2. | "CP Violation" | 01:43 | |||||||
| 3. | "The Innsbruck Experiment" | 01:05 | |||||||
| 4. | "Brane Scan" | 01:38 | |||||||
| 5. | "Dark Energy" | 01:30 | |||||||
| 6. | "Requiem for Ravenholm" | 00:31 | |||||||
| 7. | "Pulse Phase" | 00:45 | |||||||
| 8. | "Ravenholm Reprise" | 00:50 | |||||||
| 9. | "Probably Not A Problem" | 01:24 | |||||||
| 10. | "Calabi-Yau Model" | 01:44 | |||||||
| 11. | "Slow Light" | 00:42 | |||||||
| 12. | "Apprehension and Evasion" | 02:15 | |||||||
| 13. | "Hunter Down" | 00:13 | |||||||
| 14. | "Our Resurrected Teleport" | 01:09 | |||||||
| 15. | "Miscount Detected" | 00:46 | |||||||
| 16. | "Headhumper" | 00:06 | |||||||
| 17. | "Triage at Dawn" | 00:43 | |||||||
| 18. | "Combine Harvester" | 01:23 | |||||||
| 19. | "Lab Practicum" | 02:52 | |||||||
| 20. | "Nova Prospekt" | 01:55 | |||||||
| 21. | "Broken Symmetry" | 00:53 | |||||||
| 22. | "LG Orbifold" | 02:50 | |||||||
| 23. | "Kaon" | 01:09 | |||||||
| 24. | "You're Not Supposed to Be Here" | 02:39 | |||||||
| 25. | "Suppression Field" | 01:01 | |||||||
| 26. | "Hard Fought" | 01:13 | |||||||
| 27. | "Particle Ghost" | 01:38 | |||||||
| 28. | "Shadows Fore and Aft" | 01:24 | |||||||
| 29. | "Neutrino Trap (Hurricane Strings)" | 01:33 | |||||||
| 30. | "Zero Point Energy Field (Cavern Ambiance)" | 01:40 | |||||||
| 31. | "Echoes of a Resonance Cascade (Space Ocean)" | 01:36 | |||||||
| 32. | "Black Mesa Inbound (Vague Voices)" | 02:11 | |||||||
| 33. | "Xen Relay (Threatening Short)" | 00:37 | |||||||
| 34. | "Tracking Device (Credits / Closing Theme)" | 01:01 | |||||||
| 35. | "Singularity (Traveling Through Limbo)" | 01:17 | |||||||
| 36. | "Dirac Shore (Dimensionless Deepness)" | 01:24 | |||||||
| 37. | "Escape Array (Electric Guitar Ambiance)" | 01:24 | |||||||
| 38. | "Negative Pressure (Steam in the Pipes)" | 01:55 | |||||||
| 39. | "Tau-9 (Drums and Riffs)" | 02:03 | |||||||
| 40. | "Something Secret Steers Us (Nuclear Mission Jam)" | 02:00 | |||||||
| 41. | "Triple Entanglement (Sirens in the Distance)" | 01:30 | |||||||
| 42. | "Biozeminade Fragment (Alien Shock)" | 00:30 | |||||||
| 43. | "Lambda Core (Diabolical Adrenaline Guitar)" | 01:44 | |||||||
| 44. | "Entanglement" | 00:39 | |||||||
| 45. | "Highway 17" | 00:59 | |||||||
| 46. | "A Red Letter Day" | 00:29 | |||||||
| 47. | "Sand Traps" | 00:34 | |||||||
| 48. | "CP Violation (Remix)" | 01:45 | |||||||
| 49. | "Trainstation PT. 1" | 01:30 | |||||||
| 50. | "Trainstation PT. 2" | 01:12 | |||||||
| 51. | "Radio" | 00:39 | |||||||
A 1GB portion of Half-Life 2 became available for pre-load through Steam on August 26, 2004. This meant that customers could begin to download encrypted game files to their computer before the game was released. When the game’s release date arrived, customers were able to pay for the game through Steam, unlock the files on their hard drives and play the game immediately, without having to wait for the whole game to download. The pre-load period lasted for several weeks, with several subsequent portions of the game being made available, to ensure all customers had a chance to download the content before the game was released.[67]
Half-Life 2 was simultaneously released through Steam, CD, and on DVD in several editions. Through Steam, Half-Life 2 had three packages that a customer could order. The basic version ("Bronze") includes only Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, whereas the "Silver" and "Gold" (collector’s edition) versions also include Half-Life: Source and Day of Defeat: Source (ports of the original Half-Life and Day of Defeat mod to the new engine) as well as the right to download all previous games by Valve through Steam. The collector’s edition/Gold version additionally includes merchandise such as a t-shirt, a strategy guide, and a CD containing the soundtrack used in Half-Life 2. Both the disc and Steam version require Steam to be installed and active for play.[68]
A demo version with the file size of a single CD was later made available in December 2004 at the web site of graphics card manufacturer ATI Technologies, who teamed up with Valve for the game. The demo contains part of the opening level of the game, and also part of the chapter "We Don't Go To Ravenholm." In September 2005, Electronic Arts distributed the Game of the Year edition of Half-Life 2. Compared to the original CD-release of Half-Life 2, the GOTY edition adds Half-Life: Source.[69]
On December 22, 2005, Valve released a 64-bit version of the Source game engine that theoretically takes advantage of AMD64 or EM64T processor-based systems running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 x64, Windows Vista x64, or Windows Server 2008 x64. This update, delivered via Steam, enabled Half-Life 2 and other Source-based games to run natively on 64 bit processors, bypassing the 32-bit compatibility layer. Gabe Newell, one of the founders of Valve, stated that this is "an important step in the evolution of our game content and tools," and that the game benefits greatly from the update.[70] The response to the release varied: some users reported huge performance boosts, while technology site Techgage found several stability issues and no notable frame rate improvement.[71] 64-bit users have widely reported bizarre in-game errors including characters dropping dead, game script files not being pre-cached (i.e., loaded when first requested instead), map rules being bent by AI, and other glitches.[72]
An Xbox port published by Electronic Arts was released on November 15, 2005. While subject to positive reception, critics cited its lack of multiplayer and frame-rate issues as problems, and the game received somewhat lower scores than its PC counterpart.[73]
During Electronic Arts’s summer press event on July 13, 2006, Gabe Newell, cofounder of Valve Corporation, announced that Half-Life 2 would ship on next-generation consoles (specifically, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) along with episodes One and Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal[9] in a package called The Orange Box. The Windows version was released on October 10, 2007 as both a retail boxed copy, and as a download available through Valve’s Steam service. The Xbox 360 version was also released on October 10, 2007. A PlayStation 3 version was released on December 11, 2007.[74]
The popularity of Half-Life 2 and the Half-Life series has led way to an array of side products and collectibles. Valve offers Half-Life-related products such as a plush vortigaunt, plush headcrab,[75] posters, clothing and mousepads.[76]
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 96%[10] |
| Metacritic | 96%[77] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Edge | 10/10[78] |
| GamePro | 10/10[79] |
| GameSpy |  [80] |
| IGN | 9.7/10[81] |
| Maximum PC | 11/10[82] |
| PC Gamer US | 98%[83] |
| The Cincinnati Enquirer | [84] |
| The New York Times | Positive[85] |
Half-Life 2’s public reception was overwhelmingly positive in terms of reviews, acclaim and sales. As of 2008, 6.5 million retail copies have been sold, but this does not include Steam purchases, which would most likely put the game at an estimated 8.3 – 8.6 million copies sold.[86] The game became one of the most critically acclaimed video games in history. It received an aggregated score of 96% on both GameRankings and Metacritic.[10][77] Sources such as GameSpy,[80] The Cincinnati Enquirer,[84] and The New York Times[85] have given perfect reviewing scores, and others such as PC Gamer[83] and IGN[81] gave near-perfect scores, while the game became the fifth title to receive Edge magazine’s ten-out-of-ten score.[78] Critics who applauded the game cited the advanced graphics and physics[85] along with the relatively low system requirements.[79] Maximum PC awarded Half-Life 2 an unprecedented 11 on their rating scale which normally peaks at 10, and named it the "best game ever made".[82]
Several critics, including some that had given positive reviews, complained about the required usage of the program Steam, the requirement to create an account, register the products, and permanently lock them to the account before being allowed to play, along with complications making it difficult to install and lack of support.[85]
Half-Life 2 earned over 40 Game of the Year awards,[12] including Overall Game of the Year at IGN, GameSpot’s Award for Best Shooter, GameSpot’s Reader’s Choice — PC Game of the Year Award, Game of the Year from The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, and "Best Game" with the Game Developers Choice Awards, where it was also given various awards for technology, characters, and writing. Edge magazine awarded Half Life 2 with its top honor of the year with the award for Best Game, as well as awards for Innovation and Visual Design. The game also had a strong showing at the 2004 British Academy Video Games Awards, picking up six awards, more than any other game that night, with awards including "Best Game" and "Best Online and Multiplayer."[87]
Guinness World Records awarded Half-Life 2 the world record for "Highest Rated Shooter by PC Gamer Magazine" in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. Other records awarded the game in the book include, "Largest Digital Distribution Channel" for Valve's Steam service, "First Game to Feature a Gravity Gun", and "First PC Game to Feature Developer Commentary".[88] In 2009, Game Informer put Half-Life 2 5th on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that "With Half-Life 2, Valve redefined the way first-person shooters were created".[89]
Half-Life 2 was selected by readers of The Guardian as the best game of the decade, with praise given especially to the environment design throughout the game. According to the newspaper, it "pushed the envelope for the genre, and set a new high watermark for FPS narrative". One author commented: "Half Life 2 always felt like the European arthouse answer to the Hollywood bluster of Halo and Call of Duty".[13]
Half-Life 2 won CrispyGamer's 'Game of the Decade'[14] tournament style poll. It also won Reviews on the Run's[15] and IGN's[16] best game of the decade.
Since the release of Half-Life 2, Valve Corporation has released an additional level and two additional "expansion" sequels. The level, "Lost Coast," takes place between the levels "Highway 17" and "Sandtraps" and is primarily a showcase for high dynamic range rendering (HDR) technology. The first "expansion" sequel, Half-Life 2: Episode One, takes place immediately after the events of Half-Life 2, with the player taking on the role of Gordon Freeman once again and with Alyx Vance playing a more prominent role. Half-Life 2: Episode Two continues directly from the ending of Episode One, with Alyx and Gordon making their way to White Forest Missile base, the latest hideout of the resistance. A further "episode" is set to be released in the future, dubbed Episode Three; being the last expansion, "in a trilogy."[90] In an interview with Eurogamer, Gabe Newell revealed that the Half-Life 2 "episodes" are essentially Half-Life 3.[91] He reasons that rather than force fans to wait another six years for a full sequel, Valve Corporation would release the game in episodic installments.[91] Newell admits that a more correct title for these episodes should have been "Half-Life 3: Episode One" and so forth, having referred to the episodes as Half-Life 3 repeatedly through the interview.[91]
Since the release of the Source engine SDK, a large number of modifications (mods) have been developed by the Half-Life 2 community. Mods vary in scale, from fan-created levels and weapons, to partial conversions such as Rock 24, Half-Life 2 Substance and Smod (which modify the storyline and gameplay of the pre-existing game), SourceForts and Garry's Mod (which allow the player to experiment with the physics system in a sandbox mode), to total conversions such as Dystopia, Zombie Master or Iron Grip: The Oppression, the latter of which transforms the game from a first-person shooter into a real-time strategy game. Some mods take place in the Half-Life universe; others in completely original settings; while some are tributes to other games, such as GoldenEye: Source, a recreation of GoldenEye 007, and Resident Evil: Twilight, based on the Resident Evil series. Many more mods are still in development, including Lift, The Myriad, Operation Black Mesa, and the episodic single-player mod MINERVA. Several multiplayer mods, such as Pirates, Vikings and Knights II, a predominately sword-fighting game, Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat, which focuses on realistic modern infantry combat and Jailbreak Source have been opened to the public as a beta.[92][93] As part of its community support, Valve announced in September 2008 that several mods, with more planned in the future, were being integrated into the Steamworks program, allowing the mods to make full use of Steam's distribution and update capabilities.[94]
Quotations related to Half-Life 2 at Wikiquote| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous: Call of Duty |
BAVGA Award for Best Game 2004 |
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Half-Life 2 at Combine OverWiki |
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| Half-Life 2 | |
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| Developer(s) | Valve Software |
| Publisher(s) | Vivendi Universal |
| Engine | Source engine |
| Release date | November 16, 2004 |
| Genre | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Age rating(s) | ESRB: M BBFC: 15 |
| Platform(s) | PC, Xbox |
| Media | CD, DVD, or Steam download |
| System requirements | 1.2 GHz processor, 256 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c or higher (included) |
| Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough | |
Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter computer game and the highly anticipated sequel to Half-Life, developed by Valve Software. It was released on November 16, 2004 to very positive reviews [1], following a protracted five-year development cycle during which the game's source code was leaked to the internet. The title featured the advanced Source game engine, coupled with a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine, and was critically acclaimed for ground-breaking improvements in animation, graphics, A.I and physics. In the two months following its release, it sold over 1.7 million copies, but sales over Valve's Steam content delivery system were not disclosed. [2]
A single-disc demo version was later made available in December, 2004 at the web site of graphics card manufacturer ATI, who teamed up with Valve for the game. An Xbox version was released on the November 15, 2005.
Contents |
On February 1, 2007, Half-Life 2 Platinum pack was relased for the PC. The Package includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 : Deathmatch, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, and Half-Life 2: Aftermath.
The original Half-Life largely took place at a remote underground laboratory called the Black Mesa Research Facility. In the course of conducting an experiment, researchers at Black Mesa accidentally cause a "resonance cascade", opening a doorway to an alien world (Xen) and releasing a flood of strange and deadly creatures. The player takes the role of Gordon Freeman, one of the research scientists, guiding him in his attempt to escape the facility. Half-Life 2 picks up the story an indeterminate number of years after the Black Mesa incident in 'City 17', which seems to be located somewhere in Eastern Europe.
At the start of the game, the mysterious G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman. Freeman then finds himself riding a train into City 17, unarmed and without his HEV suit. Details begin to slowly emerge: City 17 is under the rule of a totalitarian Administrator named Dr. Breen, the former administrator of the Black Mesa Research Facility. Breen is merely a puppet ruler, however, carrying out the will of the aliens known as the Combine. It seems that the the massive energy discharge caused by the "resonance cascade" was enough to attract the attention of the Combine. Soon after, they mounted a brutal assault on humanity in which the forces of Earth were completely overwhelmed in just seven hours (which is, appropriately enough, referred to as the Seven Hours War). The Combine now has near-absolute control of the entire planet, with only a few pockets of human resistance remaining. Dr. Breen enforces his rule (and, by extension, the Combine's rule) through armies of intimidating "Civil Protection" units (also called "Metropolice" or "Metrocops") and Combine soldiers (referred to as the Overwatch).
The gameplay, like the first Half-Life, is divided into titled chapters:
Two distinctive elements from the original Half-Life are preserved: Freeman never speaks, and the entire game is viewed through his eyes. Some players have complained about these holdovers, since they effectively limit how much of the backstory is explained. The lack of cutscenes mean that the player never sees what happens or has happened in Gordon's absence. Additionally, it would seem natural for Freeman to have a great deal of curiosity as to what has happened since the Black Mesa incident. Although these are certainly intentional devices on the part of Valve Software, some feel that it is very frustrating to only learn the story in small bits and pieces throughout the game. It could be said in Half-Life that the player's bewilderment is meant to mirror Gordon's during the chaotic events following the resonance cascade and alien invasion. By the opening of Half-Life 2, however, Gordon has proven that he can survive in a strange and hostile environment, and should therefore be at least somewhat more level-headed and inquisitive.
In any case, it's not clear to what extent Gordon exists as a separate character outside of the player's influence. Since the start of Half-Life, Valve have made sure that the player's and Gordon's experience are one and the same. Gordon may be nothing more than an empty vessel for someone else (i.e the player) to inhabit. Many of the Vortigaunts' enigmatic comments seem to indicate this, the most prominent one being: "Far distant eyes look out through yours"
Adding to the sense of confusion is the fact that while most of Gordon's former coworkers from Black Mesa have visibly aged in the interim, Gordon has (presumably) not; however, only a few passing references are ever made regarding this. (The game never specifies how many years have passed between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, but many players agree that it is likely close to 10 years.) Fans have speculated that Gordon has been kept in stasis during his absence, and this is reinforced by the presence of a strange "interdimensional tram ride" that Gordon finds himself on at the end of both Half-Life games. Another cited explanation is that Gordon has been transferred using a "slow teleport", similar to the one discovered by the player at the end of the Nova Prospekt chapter.
The ending of Half-Life 2 is also very similar to that of the original: after completing a difficult task against overwhelming odds, Gordon is "extracted" by the G-Man, wielding incredible but unexplained powers. The player is smugly congratulated and told that further assignments should follow. The fate of many of the major characters, such as Alyx, Eli, and Judith, is unexplained. Very few, if any, of the questions raised by Half-Life are answered, and several new ones are presented. Some players have also complained that they expected more insight into the identity and nature of the G-Man. (These complaints, of course, only prove that the game's designers have successfully garnered interest in the series' continuation, whether through further sequels, or expansion packs such as the announced Half-Life 2: Aftermath, which later became Half-Life 2: Episode One.)
The general theme and setting of Half-Life 2 incorporates many distinctly Orwellian elements, along with at least several more concepts borrowed from other canonical works of dystopic or post-apocalyptic fiction. In what is now seen as characteristic style, these in-game details are left to the player to discover and consider, as opposed to being deliberately and overtly projected. These include:
Many familiar enemies from Half-Life return in this game, such as the Headcrab, Barnacles, and Headcrab zombies, but the majority of the game is spent fighting the Combine, who wield large military forces against Gordon and the people of City 17. Also new to Half-Life 2 are Antlions, who act as both friend and foe during the game.
Although Gordon battles through much of Half-Life 2 alone, like Half-Life he is assisted in several places by friendly allies. For the most part these are human members of the Resistance, but Gordon is also helped by vortigaunts and (as noted above) Antlions. At several key locations, Gordon also meets up with, and fights alongside, more signicant NPCs like Alyx Vance, Barney Calhoun and Alyx's robot, Dog.
Many of the weapons featured in Half-Life 2 were carried over from Half-Life, which include the crowbar, shotgun, .357 Magnum revolver, and rocket launcher, although new ones are introduced, such as the Combine's Pulse Rifle, resistance built crossbow, and pheropods. The main weapon used is the Gravity Gun, which can pick up and throw objects and also hurt small enemies from its blast.
When Half-Life 2 was released, its only multiplayer component was Counter-Strike: Source. On November 30, 2004, Valve released the Half-Life 2 Deathmatch component (HL2DM) along with the full SDK as a free download to all Half-Life 2 owners.
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch currently has seven "official" maps, some of which are based on areas from the single-player game: "dm_overwatch", "dm_lockdown", "dm_steamlab", "dm_underpass", "dm_powerhouse", "dm_resistance" and "dm_runoff". "Dm_overwatch" is based on the single-player chapter "Follow Freeman!", while "dm_lockdown" is based on the Nova Prospekt chapter. "Dm_steamlab" is an original map loosely based on the Half-Life Deathmatch (HLDM) map "datacore", while "dm_runoff" was inspired by the popular HLDM map "dm_crossfire". Valve also ran a mapmaking contest within the community, announcing the winners in placement order as "dm_underpass", "dm_resistance", "dm_powerhouse" and "dm_avalon" as a honorable mention.
The map "dm_steamlab" was released on February 17 2005, along with three new weapons: the Crowbar, the Stunstick and the S.L.A.M. The S.L.A.M. is a mine-like device, functioning in the same way as a proximity mine. It can be attached to walls, where it emits a laser beam which when broken will detonate the mine. S.L.A.M. mines can also be thrown and detonated at will by the player using the secondary fire. Both the Stunstick and Crowbar behave as they did in the single-player version of the game.
The goal of Deathmatch is for the player to kill as many other players as possible, using a variety of means. The player spawns with a gravity gun, pistol, sub-machine gun and grenades. All weapons aside from the pheropods (also known as bugbait) are available to be collected around the maps. Players can be killed by gunfire, explosions, or through contact with physics objects travelling at high speeds.
Some players have expressed disappointment in HL2DM, specifically concerning the gravity gun. The seven official maps for HL2DM are filled with objects which can be carried by the gravity gun, leading to their near-exclusive use. This is compounded by the damage these items can deal on contact with players, which is arguably far greater than any other conventional weapon. Instead of being deathmatch, some players argue, HL2DM is an exercise in "lifting and chucking." The counter to the incredible power of the Gravity Gun is the relatively slow speed of its projectiles; indeed, the argument is not dissimilar to abuse hurled at players who camp with sniper rifles or RPG's. It is common for a player to immediately blame some factor beyond his or her control for a defeat.
Building barricades is another deathmatch strategy that has proved controversial. By using the Gravity Gun to place large amounts of objects in chokepoints (such as stairs or tunnels) leading to strategically important locations, the player defending the barricade is given a huge advantage over his opponents. Dealing with the barricades themselves is simple enough, but the distraction they provide is enough to render a player highly vulnerable against opponents. For example, the most popular camping spot in "dm_overwatch" is near the actual overwatch, a Combine lookout post. This spot is easy to defend since players can block the only way leading to the overwatch with objects. This results in a stalemate in the favour of the camper, who can indefinitely "camp" the overwatch using a RPG that is conveniently placed nearby.
A recent book called Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar revealed that the Nova Prospekt chapter was originally much longer, but was subsequently cut down to just one scene. Many hints and conversations that answered several questions players have asked were also cut. Raising the Bar shows scripts of these scenes, screenshots, and even fully rendered models, indicating the section was cut late in development. Parts of it survive as glimpsed scenes during the last section of the released game.
Promotional shots and gameplay videos released before the game became available showed parts of these scenes, and also showed enemies which do not appear anywhere in the final game, such as a hydra-like enemy. The hydra was apparently cut because its AI proved troublesome: it looked great when attacking NPCs, but it was not felt to be a convincing enemy for the player.
It remains unknown if the cut Half-Life 2 scenes will eventually be completed and released, or if they are lost forever. A removed section of the original Half-Life was eventually released as the Half-Life: Uplink demo; it is possible that removed sections of the sequel will be seen in an expansion pack such as Half-Life 2: Episode One.
For Half-Life 2 Valve developed a new game engine called Source, which handles the game's visual, audio, and AI elements.
Additionally, when coupled with Steam, the engine can be easily upgraded to include many new graphical technologies. One such example is high dynamic range imaging, and Valve released a Half-Life 2 level called "Lost Coast." Lost Coast is free with a purchase of any Source Game. The purpose of Lost Coast was to show off the Source engine's new HDR(High Dynamic Range) functions.
Integral to Half-Life 2 is the Steam content delivery system developed by Valve Software. This allows customers to purchase games (or any other software) straight from the developer and have it downloaded directly to their computer. This system also allows "micro updates" to games - games are continually updated and only the most recent version is allowed to be run. This makes it much harder to hack the game to introduce cheats or to play online with a free unauthorized copy. All users playing the single player game must also have an account on the Steam servers to do so. Steam can also be used for finding and playing multiplayer games and features an integrated server browser and friends list.
Users have had numerous problems with Steam, to the extent that the content delivery and multiplayer system is a well-marked part of the game, and is in some cases enough to prevent a reviewer from recommending the game. In other cases review scores have been lowered. Long download times and unnecessary updates and verification checks are criticisms levelled by critics of the system.
A 1 GB portion of Half-Life 2 became available for pre-load through Steam on August 26, 2004. This meant that customers could begin to download encrypted game files to their computer before the game was released. When the game was released in the shops, customers were able to pay for the game through Steam, unlock the files on their hard drives and play the game immediately, without having to wait for the whole game to download. The pre-load period lasted for several weeks, with several subsequent portions of the game being made available, to ensure all customers had a chance to download the content before the game was released.
Half-Life 2 has been the subject of many problems and controversies since it was developed and subsiquently released. A short list highlighting some of them is listed below.
There are several mods developed by Half-Life 2 mod teams. These include partial conversions which allow players to manipulate the physics engine or control Striders; mods which expand the story from different points of view; total conversions which introduce completely new settings; and multi-player mods. Several mods are listed in the article Half-Life 2 mods.
Half-Life 2: Episode 1, formerly known as "Aftermath" is the first official expansion pack for Half-Life 2. It picks up right at the end of "Half-life 2",with the core of the citadel at near collapse. The vortigaunts show up to rescue Alyx, and pull you from the Gman's grasp. However, it appears that they do not get you far enough, and you wake up in a pile of rubble, being woken up by Dog. The rest of the game revolves around you and Alyx escaping the city. Eventually, you and Alyx make it out on a train, but just after leaving the city limits, the citadel explodes with a blinding light, followed by the credits.
"Half-Life 2: Episode 2" picks up at the end of Episode 1, in the wreckage of the train. You and Alyx escape the wreckage just before a portal storm collapses the bridge and smashs what was left of the train.
Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is an upcoming addition to the series, which is further away from City 17.
| Half-Life series |
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| Half-Life | Opposing Force | Blue Shift | Decay Half-Life 2 | Deathmatch | The Lost Coast Half-Life 2: Episode One | Episode Two | Episode Three |
| Compilations |
| The Orange Box |
| Related Games |
| Portal | Team Fortress Classic | Team Fortress 2 |
| Miscellaneous |
| Half-Life Fact File |
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