Graphically, the game is impressive. The new Source engine, which was totally revamped after the source code was leaked over the internet, is truly a marvelous thing to watch. The motions are fluid and the overall details are superb. You'll feel like you’re running through a real sewer system or walking through the streets of a highly-monitored city, as opposed to just being in some cartoony or fake environment. On my high-end gaming PC I was able to get frames per second in the upwards of 50-60 on all high settings. For normal PC users, turning a few of the features off such as anti-aliasing and vertical sync might help a bit as well. Valve gives you a lot of options to mess with, so no matter what computer you’re using, Half-Life 2 should run. The only gripe I have is that during big firefights, or while outside in a very wide-open environment, if there is a sudden movement (say, for example, I turn to my left quickly), the frames per second suffers, and there is some tearing, even when the vertical sync option is enabled. Besides that, the game is seamless. Even the boxes in the environments are extremely realistic; wooden boxes will splinter and break when hit, while steel barrels will just dent, and cardboard boxes will unfold and tear or crumble apart. Pretty cool!
Gameplay is where Half-Life 2 really excels. This time around, it’s VERY open-ended. Yes, you will have to move in linear paths or hit certain objectives to complete missions and win, but the way to go about completing those objectives can vary. You can run into a room, guns blazing, trying to take out a dozen or so police at a time, and risk getting shot full of holes. Or, you can sneak around, hiding behind barrels, boxes, and other pieces of your surroundings in order to survive. In one instance, you are literally given three choices: run straight at them, pick up a barrel and run at them using is as cover, or push a cart full of boxes towards them and into them to distract them, then open fire while they recover. The A.I. (artificial intelligence) is good, but it’s kind of easy. In most cases I was able to kill upwards of 6 or more police without even having to take cover. Of course, I’ve been playing first-person shooters forever, but that’s beside the point. As you progress further, the baddies will begin to hit harder, and you’ll find you’ll have to start hiding out and sneaking around in order to survive.
Overall, the gameplay is pretty solid, open-ended and very fun. The only thing I came across that bugged me was the fact that when enemies are very very far away, you cannot hit them, and sometimes, they can hit you! A perfect example is when you are outrunning some police and one is on an overpass above you, shooting down at you. Well, I put about twenty bullets directly into his head, and none hurt him whatsoever. So I took two steps forward and did the deed. Strange, but true. For the most part, this won’t effect the fun you have while playing, but keep it mind before you waste too much ammo.
Now, for the multiplayer. Well, unfortunately, Half-Life 2 doesn’t have multiplayer. What’s that, you say? An FPS with no multiplayer over the net? Say it ain’t so! Well, don’t worry too much. Valve also includes with every copy of Half-Life 2, a copy of Counter-Strike Source. Yes, that’s right, it’s the classic Counter-Strike with a few revamped maps, brought to you in the all-too-pretty Source engine. The gameplay is exactly the same as the last Counter-Strike patch, so don’t expect an entirely new game here. All the guns and gameplay that you grew to love years ago are still available. Considering that so many people have played Counter-Strike for so long, perhaps the mindset of “don’t fix what ain’t broken” applies perfectly here. All that was needed was a revamp of the graphics for the modern times, and that is exactly what Valve gives us. I found that while playing Counter-Strike Source, I came across the same graphics issues as I experienced during Half-Life 2 single player: frames per second drops and tearing during times of excessive action and motion. Thankfully, turning down my screen resolution made these unfortunate issues disappear. It’s definitely not enough to make the game unplayable, and CS:Source succeeds as a modern-day version of the classic co-op strategy shooter.
Also included in the collector’s edition of Half-Life 2 are versions of Half-Life Source and Day of Defeat, both mods of previous versions of Half-Life now updated with the Source engine. I didn’t shell out the $80 for the CE, so I haven’t had the chance to test them. However, from people who have played these games, the majority verdict has been along the lines of identical gameplay from the old versions, but updated graphcs; but, the games are still ugly!
