Half-Life 2: 6 Years Later
Can you really believe that it’s been 6 years since this game came out? Much has changed to games since its release, but war never changes just the way it’s being fought. However when you play the game you do get the feeling that this is an “old generation” game, this does not make the game bad so don’t get me wrong. One of my main issues when starting the game was that it has no “aim down the barrel” like most modern FPS games have today. But you quickly get accustomed to this as the game progresses, but you still get a feeling that the guns in the game are not accurate enough because of the lack of this functionality. This is why I spent most of the game running around with my pistol (for long-range shooting) or the shotgun (for close quarters). I guess that I have just grown accustomed to the way the new FPS games feel and handle, and this lurks in the back of my mind throughout playing.
Another slight irritation that I had with the game was the way the voice acting was handled, a lot of the time it sounded like acting and it didn’t really pull me into the game and its story. Dialogues end suddenly without really giving you a closure, characters emotions shift from one emotion to another without warning. This really shows during the final parts of the game where Alyx is talking to Gordon, she tells him how grateful she is for everything he has done, then she suddenly shifts and tells him to go on turning the reactor off as if nothing has happened.
But if you can look past some ageing issues the game has, this still is a game that you must play. The plot of the game is very nice, the graphics still hold up and you will have a blast playing though it. And who knows, maybe by the time you have finished all the games (Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two) Valve might have announced when Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will come out.
