My last blog entry was a rather critical take on Half-Life, or rather its more polished fan-remake Black Mesa. In short it was cool experiencing history but the game itself was janky and boring. While it may still be janky, HL2 is anything but boring. Today I’m diving into my opinions on this game and restating the fact that Half-Life 2 is one of the greatest games ever made.

While it’s easy to make comparisons between HL2 and its predecessor, the surface-level impression is that the two games couldn’t be more different. That being said, HL2 shares much of the same underlying philosophy and game design IQ that made the first one so special. HL1’s sprawling levels and moody atmosphere make a return, as do the silent protagonist and eager supporters. Gordon’s arsenal of weapons is greatly expanded, and the range of gimmicks and tools available to the player is greatly increased. While playing HL1 I found myself growing tired of the combat after a few hours. HL2, on the other hand, never failed to introduce a brand new battle technique every time I grew comfortable with my current loadout. In HL1, all of Valve’s emphasis on player choice and interaction shines through fairly well for the time thanks to industry firsts ranging from material-specific bullet particle effects to infighting enemies. However in HL2 that freedom and interactivity reaches a whole new level. The Source Engine’s physics simulation means that the game becomes a sandbox. You can pick up items and throw them at enemies, you can put your car in a shipping container then pick that container around with a crane, you can build yourself a makeshift staircase out of pretty much anything. Almost everything in the game can be interacted with in a way that is fun and immediately intuitive.

These individual mechanics and “gimmicks” are massively entertaining. Whether chucking sawblades at zombies, harnessing the power of your former enemies such as turrets and antlions, or commanding a squad of allies, there’s always some new trick to learn and understand, and the individual tricks never fail to amaze. It’s strange to me that I can’t think of any contemporary games that do anything similar. It’s one of the most engaging FPS games I’ve ever played, which seems like a crime considering how far technology has come since then. One day I hope to see a game that utilizes physics as well as Valve did all the way back in 2004.

In a way, everything that can be said about HL2 pretty much has been said. This whole post is very much just my opinion. That said, I am super glad I played this one, and am very much looking forward to checking out the next games in the series.

What’s Next?

This game glitched out on my Steam tracking, but I would guess it took me about 12-15 hours over a 1.5-week period. Next up is Elden Ring. This one is incredibly fun so far but will likely take me months to beat. Stay tuned, I may write some non-backlog content soon.

Here’s a list of the whole backlog along with times played so far and estimated “how long to beat” times. You can view the full list here. See ya at some point in the near-distant future.

• Elden Ring: 22/60 hours (optimistically)
• Doom: The Dark Ages: 15 hours
• Fallout 3: 10/22 hours
• Red Dead Redemption 2: 50 hours
• System Shock: 2/17 hours
• Callisto Protocol: 10 hours
• Armored Core VI: 17.5 Hours
• Control: 2/11 hours
• Remnant 2: 18 hours
• Robocop: Rogue City: 12 hours
• Metal Eden: 8 hours
• Armored Core 3: Portable: 4/12 hours.