HALF-LIFE 2, Vivendi Universal/Valve Software
First Half-Life's developers at Valve reinvented the first-person-shooter genre by giving it a meaningful plot -- then they gave gamers six years of waiting while they toiled on this sequel.
| | | | ___Personal Tech E-letter___ Washington Post personal technology columnist Rob Pegoraro answers reader e-mail and expands on themes he touches on in his weekly newspaper column. The e-mail version of this weekly feature includes links to the latest gadget and software reviews.
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Here, players once again take on the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist-turned-killing machine. Now working for the mysterious G-Man, the shadowy leader from the original Half-Life, Gordon must battle an alien force known as the Combine that has taken over Earth. The story of how it did that is told across 14 chapters in conversations Freeman has with other characters and scripted scenes you watch. We're still fuzzy on some key points, but this plot line did hold our attention until its somewhat open ending (look for Half-Life 3 to clear that up when it ships in late 2010).
Half-Life 2's long development cycle allowed Valve to work in some never-seen-before graphics tricks. A part of this game called the Source engine maps out the physics of every object around -- shoot a 50-gallon drum filled with oil, and the resulting explosion will cause the bridge it sits on to collapse, thus killing the Combine enemies shooting at you from below it. This inescapable realism comes into play in more than just combat; many of Half-Life 2's puzzles require you to manipulate objects to achieve a goal (for instance, placing cinderblocks on a ramp to strengthen it, allowing a safe escape across it).
The Combine, a swarm of mostly humanoid creatures, attack with a fierce cunning, thanks to the artificial intelligence Valve programmed into them. They show a lot of tactical smarts, splitting to flank your position, going for cover at the right times, calling in reinforcements when needed and using the environment to shield them. In your favor, the game provides a wealth of interesting weapons, most not seen in the first Half-Life. Our favorite was the Gravity Gun, which can pick up an object and propel it with massive force, turning saw blades into whirling Frisbees of death.
The graphics surpass those of any other Windows game we've seen, even Doom 3. Characters' faces show genuine emotions and ricocheting gunfire sparks just so as it caroms off walls. Fortunately, Half-Life 2's hardware requirements fall short of those of other games. It ran fine on a 128-megabyte graphics card that didn't even support the current Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics standard.
Unlike most action games these days, Half-Life 2 has no online multiplayer component; fans of multiplayer fragging can only get their fix with the new version of Valve's Counter-Strike title that comes bundled in the box. That may not make Half-Life 2 everybody's game of 2004, but it is easily the best single-player game to ship this year.
-- Tom Ham
Win 98 or newer, $55
THE INCREDIBLES, THQ/Heavy Iron Studios
