Do not buy the Half-Life 2 PC game, as it leeches all ideas from other, more successful games. There is nothing original at all. It is the worst ending to a game ever. If you don't already own it, get Alien vs Predator 2 instead.

Half-life2 was a very memorable and enjoyable experience for me. The only frustration was Steam, which you need to install to play the game. I didnt bother, though, 4 hours without progress, I got another version of half-life, from my sources without steam. I think that is fine seeing as I already paid for the game. Then it was great, everything sparked, exploded, or made a noise. There are even realtime interactions! Take, for example, the mini teleporters in Dr.klein's lab; you can drag anything from the lab into it, and it will teleport to the other side, intact! Even the powerups are subject to physics, you can actually throw them around. The weapons are plentiful, you will not get bored of using just one weapon. They are all unique and the environment you use them in, are simply amazing. The graphics require the proper hardware, but when that is used, and the settings tuned as high as the hardware can go, half-life 2 is immersive. The lighting sets the mood in the scarier levels, your heart rate will increase, you will jump at things that lunge at you and you will be disgusted by terrible displays of corpses. It will make you scared. Everything looks real, the water especially, and everything feels realistic, too, everything responding to your actions. Then there is combat, fighting off a.i. has never been more intense. A swarm of combines rushing at you, you have only one choice: to kill them all! And they are intelligent. They will move around as a group to kill you, so you have to be on your toes. There's no relaxing. The storyline is good, too. well, not good, but ehough that the game makes sense. You will know what you have to do, and why you have to do it. Play long enough, and you forget reality. You really feel like you're in the game, saving the world from evil. It is one of the best pc shooters i have ever played but, if you plan on going legit, you will have a hard time. find other sources, by allmeans, but atleast pay the company, because they deserve the money.

First you will be lucky if you ever manage to play Half Life 2 at all as you will probably not be able to get an account with the site (look how many people can not) Then ask the support team for help & look how many changes you have to make to your pc every time you want to play & then have to reinstate to use your pc again. I have thrown the game away without playing once. It is a con

Lets be honest, we all expected Half-Life 2 to be the game of the century, but what we got was far from that. Although, I really did enjoy it while it lasted.

The best part of it is that the package I bought it with, gave me counterstrike source. Possibly the best multiplayer game ever! It's very close to Black Hawk Down in my view

Half-Life 2 was so over-hyped, and as anticipated some people were disappointed. I've learned to ignore most hype for movies and games for exactly the reason that seldom a product can live up to the imagined perfection, so people feel let down. That said, the graphics, physics, game play, virtual characters and dialogue, are all either well above par or almost perfect. HL2 and Far Cry are without doubt, in a class by themselves for First Person Shooters.
In order to get the most from this game, a high end graphics card is a must (I recommend an ATI 9600XT or better), a fast processor, and at least 512MB RAM is required to have a smooth frame rate without choppiness and delayed response. It's a top of the line technology in this, game and of course requires top of the line hardware.
I do agree that the game is too short, and would love to see Valve release an HL2 part 2 through their Steam online games for free, or for minimal charge.
For those wanting more, Steam will be releasing a few more campaigns using the HL2 engine very soon.
Half-Life 2 is worth its price, and I do hope Valve continues to upgrade and add on with campaigns for this platform, while they begin work on their third generation engine.
If you like this game, also buy Far Cry; If you liked Far Cry, get Half Life 2. They are different, but they are both far beyond any previous FPS I've ever played.

Half life 2 is a great game, but if you want to play the multiplayer component of it, or if you want to play counter strike source, be warned!!
Valve, the games creators, have an anti cheat system called valve anti cheat (VAC). If you are found to be a cheat, then you are banned for life, and have to buy another copy of the game to play.
I'm all for banning cheats, but what valve don't tell you is that "cheat" can refer to a few things: people who manipulate game files to gain an advantage (what you would think of as a cheat), or innocent people like me who install new mods and skins to make the game more enjoyable and interesting. These modifications have NO effect on gameplay and offer NO advantage to the user.
If you are banned then there is no appeal. Valve hold all the cards. They will not reply to emails, they will not unban you, and they will not tell you what it was that VAC thought was a cheat.
If you try to ask questions on the customer support forum, then you are greeted by a shocking post that basically tells you that you are lying if you say you aren't a cheat, and that you can basically just run and jump (swearing deleted). It is quite a disgusting piece of customer relations, in fact, it looks almost like a specially made "how not to keep customers" initiative.
In short this is one of the best games available, but because of Valves non-existant customer service, I have to give it 1 out of 10.

Half-Life 2 was the veritable Holy Grail of many gamers for years after the Half-Life phenomenon started back in 1998. Valve certainly are the masters of hype, milking it with every opportunity they got. And, after several delays, we finally got our Holy Grail.

Half-Life 2 is set in what appears to be an East European city, City 17, in a world radically different from the one Gordon Freeman left behind after the events at Black Mesa. An alien race known only as the 'Combine' have taken over the planet. Dr. Breen has been entrusted with the administration of their new territory, and continually spreads his propaganda of how you should thank your 'benefactors'. Under his watchful gaze, people go about their business in fear, avoiding contact with anybody and keeping their heads firmly aimed at the ground. Civil Protection forces maintain law and order with less-than-humane methods, and brutal efficiency.

Most blatently obvious in any game is the graphics engine. It's the first thing you see, it's where the action takes place, it's the last thing you see. And in this case, it's nice to see. City 17 comes alive; people's emotions can be read from a variety of subtle facial expressions. Combined with a third-party physics engine, objects appear to interact with their environment realistically -- throw a brick into the water, and it will sink. Throw a plastic bottle into the water and it will float. Throw a glass bottle at a wall and it will smash into pieces. While Half-Life 2's Source graphics engine is technologically inferior to the Doom 3 graphics engine in many areas, most obviously lighting effects, it simply has more 'life' to it, especially in the characters. It's wholly more convincing, and it is used very well. When you look at a room in Doom 3, you think, "Ah, those are good graphics!". When you look at a room in Half-Life 2, you think, "Ah, this is a room."
This is combined with some excellent sound effects. The traditional explosive barrel is present in HL2. But when these babies go up, they go up with a BANG. A concussive, thudding boom that'll actually make your ears ring if you're nearby at the time. Grenades and other explosions are all equally impressive. Some of the old music from HL1 is used in some places to add atmosphere, as well as a few new tracks.

The storyline is a mixed bag of chocolates. In some ways, it's a good one and it will keep you involved from the get-go. It's certainly more impressive than most first person shooter offerings. But this game is in direct competition with HL1, and against such competition, I personally feel it falls short. It seems to be missing something; some level of mystery and intrigue that HL1 had. Most of the mystery in HL2 simply comes from not being present for the past few years, and, of course, wondering who the hell G-man is. It also seems to be lacking the same high-quality level of narration. Of course, as with HL1, you never leave the viewpoint of Gordon -- indeed, I don't think there was even a Gordon Freeman model until the deathmatch mode was put up for download some time later. So the narration quality is still higher than most games, just... not Half-Life 1.
The ending is also a little questionable, even lazy, though I won't spoil it for those who have not yet seen it. It leaves a LOT of loose ends untied, and only raises even more questions. It is either a shameless attempt guaranteeing a sequel, or simple laziness on Valve's part. You'll see what I mean when you play it.

Action-wise, HL2 is at least as good if not better than HL1. You can forgive the absence of story quality if only because of the pure entertainment value of the action. It's well-paced, not too hard, not too easy. A variety of tactics can be used for a variety of situations -- from fighting off hordes of Head Crabs in an abandoned mine shaft, to fighting off legions of zombies in an abandoned village, to battling against the Combine in a war-torn City 17. It has everything.
Some niggles, though. I personally would have liked to see more alien species. There is some added diversity from the new types of Head Crabs -- as well as the standard waddling 'n jumping variety, we now see a speedy version and a poisonous version. These also give rise to two new versions of zombies. As well as the familiar slow, blind, stupid zombie, we also have a speedy, wall-climbing one, and an even slower, tank-like zombie which actually throws poisonous Head Crabs at you, with a surprising degree of force. But they're still just zombies. I would have liked to fight some more intelligent aliens, like the alien Grunts in HL1.

The human AIs are decent. They are capable of some levels of tactics, but I'm disappointed with their AI. FarCry is the current king of AI so far as I'm concerned -- they use a whole host of different tactics in that, which makes they a lot more challenging than the soldiers in HL2. That's not to say it's not fun to fight the Combine, though, and they do use a limited variety of strategies. Mostly involving surpressive fire with the odd grenade thrown in.

Of special mention is the gravity gun. This baby takes full advantage of the impressive physics engine incorporated into HL2. With the gravity gun you can lift things you couldn't ordinarily pick up, move them around or simply throw them at your enemies. You can use the gravity gun to stack crates to reach a ledge or window. You can use the gravity gun to clear a blockade quickly.
You can even use the gravity gun in a tactical scenario. You're ambushed by some Combine soldiers. They outnumber you and outgun you. You quickly pull out the gravity gun, and rip a chunky radiator off the wall. You spin it round and use it as a shield to ward off enemy fire. Their onslaught pelts against the radiator, creating a hail of metallic 'ping' sounds, but you survive. You slowly creep towards the nearest soldier, shrugging off his fire. And then 'BLAM!' You launch the radiator straight into his face at an astonishing velocity. He is knocked clean off his feet, and lands a corpse. Lather, rinse, repeat. You win! You can also use the gravity gun to catch grenades and return them to their owners, if you know what I mean.

I would like to point out that there was no Half-Life 2 multiplayer mode when I purchased this game on DVD, hence why I have said 'no' to multiplayer. I do not know if DVD copies of HL2 are now shipped with multiplayer or not, but mine was not. I had to download the Half-Life 2: Deathmatch official mod from Steam some time later. It did come with Counterstrike: Source, however, which is a multiplayer objective-based team game, also using the Source graphics engine.

In all the hype that led up to HL2's release, we saw many scenes that looked very impressive. The video I can remember off the top of my head involved a Combine soldier suddenly being impaled through the chest from behind by some mysterious blue tentacle, which rapidly dragged the poor soul away. Anyone who followed the development of HL2 will notice the absence of this and many other scenes and items.

All in all, HL2 is a very impressive shooter, though it lacks the same intelligence as its predecessor. The action surpasses it, though, and will keep you addicted right the way through to the sooner-than-expected and disappointing ending. If you never played HL1, this will probably make no sense to you but it will certainly be one of the best first person shooters you'll have ever played.

Half-Life 2 is truly the best game made in the world, ever. Multiplayer brings it out into it's own, and development kit ensures a constant supply of new levels keeps the game fresh.

Half-Life 2 is too short, too easy and not enough brain food.
I am sorry, perhaps I played a different game...

It was well below my expectations, I adored HL1 and play Counter Strike with an alarming regularity so I am a fan of Valve in general. I bought the game via my Steam account and so I didn't have any of the problems many people mention with install and registration.

It starts, as did the first with a long video sequence and you quickly enter the game. I suppose the makers have to assume some people are not used to the movement and so forth so the first level is really just movement practice. Then the games really commences after the second video sequence.

The graphics are awesome. There has been a lot of talk of the game giving players motion sickness or headaches due to the involving graphics and the narrowed 70degree field of vision. The detailing is great and there is a fantastic atmosphere to the enviroment.

The levels have 3 main types: fighting with the combine, dealing with monsters and 'special levels' that usually involve a vehicle or some use of the grav gun. Unfortunatly these are the least enjoyable levels: overly long boat and dune car sequences, the stupid last three levels which took ages and were no fun at all.

The weapons briefings we tedious and nothing you couldn't figure out. I liked the grav gun but too much of the game hinged on its non combat use.

The only level I thought was any good was 'Dont go to Ravenholm' which at least was interesting to figure out, damn scary in places and had the right ration of puzzle to blasting.

The game is way too linear. The grav gun based sequences, are far too long. It felt at times they were padding the game out with longer repetitive sections to cover up that the game is very short.

The AI was not that bright to be honest and I found that as long as it didnt fire back a crowbar just about dealt with most of the spooks.

The things that did fire back were either pathetically easy, combine and combine elite or took a long time and were weapon specific (striders and those damn gunships). I played on Normal difficulty.

IN SUMMARY.
A lack of imagination in the gameplay left me often feeling like I was just going to develop RSI doing the same moves over and over again. No real puzzles (Half Life 1 was better in this respect). Too much use of the grav gun, too many Video sequences, and long periods of boredom punctuated with sporadic fighting with hundreds of critters and dim witted combine. All topped off with 3 very irritating last levels ending with a huge anti-climax of an ending.

PS: The deathmatch is actually quite a lot of fun

To sum up: I eagerly awaited my half life 2 copy, I had been awaiting it's arrival for years like so many other fans. When it FINALLY arrived, I was thrilled, except the STEAM registration and log on process can take from several hours to days, the storyline is extremely vague at best, there is a noticeable disppointment in A.I and in graphics especially textures. Very short areas before another long loading sequence, steam registration tragic, poor weapons, poor enemies, good areas of the game dragged out far too far. Many people share this opinion, it's still a lovely game in parts but not worth the money or the name of Half Life 2.

When I purchased my ASUS Video card back in February 2004 it had a coupon for Half Life 2. This was of course when the game was due to be released in the first half of the year and not delayed and delayed on and on etc....

When the final element had been downloaded I was able to un-encrypt it and head straight into the game and see what all this hype, smoke and mirrors was all about.

Initial Impression.
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The first impression was one of annoyance and impatience. It had taken 5 to 6 years of development and they still had problems. Reports coming in from all quarters about the problems with authentication and problems with the game started to surface. After all the hubbub you would expect they would have a finished product, not a completed one but with bugs kind of product. But due to the secrecy and the problems with leaked code it is amazing they got it out the door.

As I started to play the game my initial comments were, "Excellent graphics, Excellent physics model, Excellent textures and Excellent lighting, but where the hell is the game play???"

Examples of bad model placement in the environment is clear when you look at the trains in the train yard near the beginning, they are resting on the ground and not the rails. There are other problems with some of the models but they take some looking for. If you are trying your best to look as real as possible then things like this only add to the disappointment felt by the end user.

The more I progressed through the game the more I saw, but still I asked myself where is the game play, long boat trips aside and head hugging zombies attacking me from the middle of no-where etc... don't make a great game. To add insult to injury, you were sheparded down streets with only one exit and no options, Linearity aside the game at this moment had no reason for being. In a city there is more than one way round an obstacle, in HL2 there is only one way.

Things heated up in Ravensholm with some new things to shoot and some freedom on where to go, I use the word "some" in a loose sense.

As I left the mine level the game took on a new approach, and from there on in, it was as though I was playing something that had been thought out. Team play with Ant Lions, other members of your race, and some action that was well choreographed, all made me think that this was not a waste of download time after all.

As with everyone who had seen the videos that showed the AI doing everything and no scripting, we were all led to believe this was something new, but in the end it had elements of scripting that made some of the game quite predictable.

The freedom to drive on the beach and deviate from a set path was such a refreshment from the normal corridor warfare I had seen so far that I started thinking that this was now beginning to be fun.

From here on in the game got better and better and in my view this is were the fun really starts.

GamePlay & Graphics Overall.
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The gameplay is designed around a story that starts very slow and builds up to a crescendo. You don't need to have completed the previous Half Life game to appreciate the overall story. Depending on your way of thinking the ending could be considered an anti-climax, but without giving anything away it leaves the door open to more sequels and new toys to play with.

During the game you never feel the it is unduly hard, in some cases I and several of my friends think that even on hard it was too easy, but in my view, it is better that is slightly too easy than having to cheat to find a solution. How hard a game is can be very subjective, I found the Call of Duty series of games to be very well balanced and the same applies to Half Life 2, even with the slow 1st half.

Graphically this will set the benchmark for large scale environmental gameplay. Doom 3 was graphically impressive inside small confined spaces, which is what the whole plot of the game was designed for, but due to way it was programmed and the way some graphics cards and drivers handle the textures it caused some major problems on ATI cards. I enjoyed Half Life 2 more than I enjoyed Doom 3 due to the environmental settings the game was placed in. I also think that graphically Half Life 2 puts less of a strain on the graphics hardware than Doom 3 whilst providing for a much richer visual look and feel.

When things heated up and lots of textures and models were whizzing around the screen I did not see any drop in frame rate. The problem I had in Doom 3 was the complete opposite; it completely crippled my graphics card and slowed to 1 or 2 fps in some of the more intense fighting sequences. The graphics card used was an ATI 9800XT with 256Mb so it is no slouch on 99% of all titles.

Positives.
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The physics system in the game, makes all the difference. You feel like your environment is almost real. Not everything is believable but it has the edge over anything else out there to be crowned current king. The graphics are some of the best outside of the films and do make a very memorable impression.

The textures and lighting are some of the best I have seen, and even beat the Nature level from 3dMark 2001. You get a real feel for the levels and models, especially the bridge, which is one of the best models in the game.

The Grav gun, and its mod later on in the game are brilliant. The weapons are evenly matched and cheats are prevented getting weapons ahead of time as they are only available when the maps that use them are loaded. (I tried this on the second run)

Game play is slow to start but when it does you feel the game is starting to live up to its hype. The lack of cut scenes means you never really feel that the game is a third party experience, you feel like the character you play. He also does not speak so you can do that for him, this helps to make the game a more personal experience.

I also like the way some of the bad guys played dead on the floor, so when you walked near then they would get up and pursue you. Some other games seemed to have set trigger points that activate a hidden bad guy just behind the door. This was not as evident in Half Life 2.

Annoyances.
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I have some annoyances with the gameplay that I think could and should be ironed out, although as I have finished the game it makes little difference now. Most of the following do not detract from the gameplay so this is really a personal list of irritants rather than a condemnation.

1) Some shadows can be seen through floors. Soldiers standing on a stairwell in one of the levels, can be seen on the wall of the floor below.
2) The AI is slow to start with, it reminded me of playing one of the light gun games, where things pop up in the same position waiting to get shot.
3) Trains in the train yard, do not sit on the rails, they sit on the ground and this includes the moving trains.
4) Does Gordon Freeman have some unknown telekinetic ability we are unaware of. He only uses his hands on guns. Never steers with them, never picks things up with them, never opens doors or operates buttons with them.
5) The Airboat seems to have some form of Radiation shield, if you turn the boat over in the radioactive muck then you don't loose life, if however you get out of the boat into the radioactive waste you can die real quick.
6) Loading sequences can sometimes get in the way of the gameplay. You can predict some of them but in general, you are running along and then blamo, LOADING... is display on the screen.

Final thoughts.
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Even with the problems I have talked about I would rate this game as one of the best I have played. It may not excel in all areas but the areas it does provide, give everything else a good run for its money. No doubt in time this will be superseded but until then I have enough save positions to jump in at my favourite points and play the game again.

So far I'm having so much fun just messing around in the game and re-playing certain bits just to fool around with the physics of Half-Life 2.

The graphics are great and run smooth on an Athlon 3200+, ATI 9800pro 256 meg, 1 gig system ram machine. This is the only system I've played it on so far, I won't guess what it can do on faster or slower systems.

Check the usual online gaming sites for all the techno-detail stuff.

The game is addictive, it's great to look at and the 'wow gee!' factor is pretty high. Several of my friends have just sat and watched me play, mesmerized or something, they're not the smartest lot anyway though. Not sure about multiplayer yet, I haven't played enough of that yet (single player is good).

I gave 10 stars for value because my video card came with a coupon for free HL2!! It worked and I got it freeeee! Amazing, I was expecting the nefarious fine-print to somehow screw me outta another free game. If this game keeps on entertaining me like it has it would rate a solid 8 even if I payed full for it ;)

The Steam client that is installed with the game is good and bad. It's cool that you can get other Valve back titles and Half-life, Half-Life 2 mods etc. It's cool that these will download in the background and are playable before they are completely downloaded. The annoying part is that you have this program starting with your system and using resources.. I've heard that Steam is also a bandwidth sharing app and that it uploads to others needing game content as well (this is hearsay I DON'T know if it's the case), you can disable the Steam client at any time however...

Have Fun!

I loved the first Half Life, and like many others, I know that the wonderful feeling of playing Half Life for the first time will come again...with Half Life 2. Not much is known yet about the most anticipated game in the world, but it doesn't take much to get people hyped.
But from what is known, through previews, videos and interviews, it's obvious that HL2 will yet again dominate. Next Generation graphics(we're all suckers for graphics) combined with the same addictive gameplay plus a whole new story, aliens, characters, environments, weapons...etc. will help do just that.
Nuff said.