HALF-LIFE sends a shock through the game industry with its combination of pounding action and continuous, immersive storytelling. Valve's debut title wins more than 50 game-of-the-year awards on its way to being named 'Best PC Game Ever' by PC Gamer, and launches a franchise with more than eight million retail units sold worldwide. Half-Life 2 Steam charts, data, update history. Half Life 2 is a first-person shooter by Valve Corporation. Six years did fans of the critically acclaimed Half Life have to wait for its successor, Half Life 2. Developed by the Valve Corporation, it was the very first game to use the developer's Source engine.
Half-Life 2 | Table of Contents | Walkthrough
Table of Contents
| Half-Life 2 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Valve Corporation |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Distributor(s) | Steam |
| Release date(s) | Windows November 16, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | FPS |
| System(s) | Windows, Xbox, Mac OS, Linux |
| Players | 1 |
| Modes | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature |
| Preceded by | Half-Life |
| Followed by | Half-Life 2: Episode One |
| Series | Half-Life |
| Website | http://www.half-life2.com |
| PCGamingWiki | |
| Neoseeker Related Pages | |
| Twitch | Half-Life 2 Channel |
| Search | |
| Search | |
Half-Life 2 was developed by Valve Software and was released on November 16, 2004 for Windows following a 5-year development cycle, and later on Steam and the Xbox. The game gained almost unanimous praise and acclaim for its story, fluidity and the gameplay in general. The game was bundled with Counter-Strike: Source, a remake of a critically-acclaimed total-conversion mod for the original Half-Life. Half-Life 2: Deathmatch was later released via Steam and was free to download for all owners of Half-Life 2. The full game was included in an updated form with The Orange Box compilation for Windows, Steam, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
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You are Dr. Gordon Freeman, theoretical physicist and one of the only survivors of the Black Mesa incident. Finding yourself on a train to who-knows-where, you are plunged into a world oppressed by an alien empire, a world fraught with dangers that you, a mere scientist, will have to overcome.
Table of Contents
editHalf-Life series
Half-Life (Opposing Force ·Blue Shift ·Decay) ·Half-Life 2 (Lost Coast ·Episode One ·Episode Two ·Deathmatch) ·Alyx
Half Life 2 is a first-person shooter by Valve Corporation.
Six years did fans of the critically acclaimed Half Life have to wait for its successor, Half Life 2. Developed by the Valve Corporation, it was the very first game to use the developer's Source engine. Continuing the story of scientist-turned-action-hero Gordan Freeman in a alternate Earth world where aliens had arrived from another dimension after a science experiment gone horribly wrong in the first game, players experience a first-person shooter like none other, with outstanding graphics for its time as well as a realistic physics engine, which the game took full advantage of.
As in the first game, Gordan begins his adventure without any weapons and slowly builds up an arsenal to face consistently more ferocious enemies. The world has changed a lot since Gordan's escape from Black Mesa, as now twenty years have passed and a multidimensional corporation, Combine, has taken control of the planet. A police state was put in place and the citizens suppressed. As to be expected, an underground resistance movement formed and Gordon is introduced to them early in the game. Fan-favourite character Barney Calhoun is back to help Gordon out, going undercover as an officer for Combine. Alyx Vance, the daughter of one of Gordan's former co-workers at Black Mesa, is the games female star, shedding some humanity and passion into an otherwise bleak world.
Gordon meets further characters, both friend and foe, throughout the game, and as in the first installment of the franchise, he has to fight his way out of difficult situations and use the environment to overcome obstacles. Without giving away too much information, it is safe to say that Half Life 2 ends in as just a dramatic fashion as the first game. An enjoyable part to the game is use of vehicles, including beach buggies and speedboats, which are a pleasant change of pace to an otherwise long trek on foot. Players should not get carried away with the joy riding, as they might pass their objective!
Fans were given more of the game in two sequels, titled Half Life 2: Episode One and Half Life 2: Episode Two, as well as an additional level to the game, Half Life 2: Lost Coast. Fans hoping for Half Life 3 might be disappointed, as Gabe Newell, founder of Valve, stated that the expansions to Half Life 2 were essentially Half Life 3. We live in hope that this is just an elaborate bluff to allow for the announcement of Half Life 3 to be even more spectacular.
As with the original Half Life, the community was able to develop mods for the game, one of the most famous being Garry's Mod. Other Valve games - not mods of Half Life 2 - based on the Source engine include Counterstrike: Source, the moderately successful sequel to Counterstrike 1.6, and Day of Defeat: Source.
Half-life 2
Pros
- Best graphics and physics engine for its time
- Unique and compelling story
- Fluent gameplay
Cons
Half-life 2 Mods
- A nagging longing for Half Life 3