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The story for Half-Life is hard to piece together for the average player. This is because there are no cutscenes in Half-Life, rather the story is told through subtle clues given to the player during gameplay. For an extensive guide on the events that transpire within the series, this site is a good resource. Marc Laidlaw, one of the writers at Valve has commented that the site is "pretty darn accurate". A brief overview of the story in HL2 is written below:
Half-Life 2 is set roughly ten to twenty years after the events in Half-Life 1 . Earth has been conquered by an oppressive trans-dimensional army known as the Combine. The combine army managed to defeat humanity within a mere seven hours. With free reign of Earth, the Combine have forced humans into the few remaining urban centers, giving each urban center a number that served as its new name. The combine have also put drugs in the water supply that are designed to make it difficult to remember what the world was like before the invasion. The most alarming thing the Combine have done was to erect a massive Citadel which created an energy field that inhibits the human race's ability to procreate. Be aware of spoilers below.
The game starts with Gordon Freeman being released into an urban center known as City 17 by the mysterious G-man. The location of City 17 is never revealed, but the Eastern European architecture of the buildings, and the Russian letters seen on signs throughout the game hints to its location. Gordon's arrival helps trigger a massive human uprising in which he and Alyx Vance manage to destroy the Citadel. Gordon and Alyx become trapped in the Citidel's explosion, but before they are killed, time is stopped by G-man. This is where the game ends and is picked up in Half-Life 2: Episode One.
Half-Life 2 sets itself apart from other first-person shooters of its day with the use of a robust physics engine called Havok. A major feature of Half-Life 2 is the inclusion of a new weapon, the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator, or Gravity Gun, which makes heavy use of the game's physics, allowing the player to pick up and launch just about any small-to-medium-sized object.
Many of the game's puzzles are built around this sort of object manipulation, and the ability to fling objects at high speeds makes it useful as a weapon, as well. This idea of manipulating objects in the environment as weapons would go on to influence many other first person shooters, including BioShock (Telekinesis Plasmid) and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (Ionized Plasma Levitator). Follow-ups to Half-Life 2 appear as shorter episodes, continuing the story but with a handful of engine and graphical enhancements with each release.
The iconic symbol of Gordon Freeman. The crowbar is the first weapon you get and its usefulness is more in the realm of breaking things than taking down armed forces, but it can do that too if necessary. It does more damage per hit than the Pistol and doesn't need reloading. It has a first-rate application beating down headcrabs that are normally a pain to shoot.
Gravity GunThe Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator as the diehard scientists call it. The Havok physics engine was put in the game primarily to improve the experience this weapon provides. A left-click will send any object smaller than a car flying away. A right-click will compel objects in the distance toward you until they are tractor beamed into the Gravity Gun's grasped, at which point the object can be set down for stacking with another right-click or sent flying with the left-click. Hitting people with chairs, as it turns out, is very fun and the Gravity Gun's ammo is only limited to the number of movable objects in the area around you, making it useful from the time you get it to the end.
A weak backup weapon, very similar in appearance to the Heckler and Koch USP. The 9mm Pistol's main upshots are the availability of its ammo and its ammo capacity in the magazine and in reserve. That aside, it has little stopping power and should be avoided if other options are available; there is almost always a better weapon for the job than this Pistol.
A satisfying deathblow in any situation. Ammuntion for this gun is scarce, generally only found in secret areas; this is because it is designed to be used in a nearly theatrical fashion. The Magnum will kill any standard enemy in one shot on Normal and is perfectly accurate--the only gun in the game to possess this trait. Line up your shots carefully to avoid wasting them and crank up your speakers to ensure the fantastic kick of this gun doesn't go unnoticed. If you position your crosshair over an opponent in the distance while using the zoom function, you can exit the zoom and then land a perfect headshot if you don't move the mouse (you can't fire while using the suit's zoom feature).
Well-rounded is the name of the game for Valve's knockoff of the MP7. This automatic is accurate to respectable distances, has decent stopping power, and the clip lasts for long enough to keep you from running dry before finding cover. A large fraction of the Combine use this gun and drop ammo for it, so only trigger-happiness or a lack of weapon variety will deplete your reserve of its bullets. The SMG comes with a 40mm grenade launcher that can fired with a right-click. Grenades for this launcher are rarer than Magnum rounds but they are also vastly superior to normal grenades thanks to their detonation on contact.
The assault rifle of the future. The inner workings of the Pulse Rifle are questionable at best (are those tiny pods the entire clip?), but its power is hard to contest. Its magazine and reserve are a bit short so it doesn't work well in extended engagements, but Combine soldiers in areas like Nova Prospekt all use them so this should be an infrequent problem in these places. It knocks out most targets in a second or two. The secondary fire for the Overwatch Pulse Rifle is an exposed fusion core launcher (again, is the whole thing really inside that little glass jar?) that releases a ball of swirling energy that bounces around and vaporizes anything it hits. These balls are hard to use tactically because of their sporadic bouncing pattern, but if there are enough enemies in the room, you're guaranteed to get a few of them.
The alpha and omega of close quarters combat in Half-Life 2. It is modeled in form after the Italian Spas-12 shotgun and uses readily available ammo. The pellet dispersion is far more realistic than in most games, meaning it works to greater ranges than you might initially expect. This range, combined with the hefty damage it doles out, makes the shotgun useful in many situations. Additionally, the secondary fire unleashes even more stopping power by firing the second barrel simultaneously with the primary barrel. Although this is a twist on standard shotgun functionality (as a shotgun's secondary barrel simply holds shells) it opens up new possibilities for hostile neutralization. If you find Half-Life 2 to be too easy, try playing through it without the Shotgun; you'll be surprised just how often its immense strength solves your problems.
An overly physics-inspired sniper rifle. The crossbow is much harder to use than the average sniping weapon for one reason that really becomes two reasons in practice. The crossbow fires an electrically superheated copper rod great distances and can pin unsuspecting Combine soldiers to walls and objects, leaving them to flop around in the most glorious of ragdoll fashions. Unfortunately, the rod qualifies as a standard projectile, meaning that it has travel time and is affected by gravity. This forces players to make two separate corrections to their aim if firing at range: one for the drop in height and one to anticipate their target's motions. Thankfully, the crossbow at least has a right-click zoom function identical to the suit's except that you can actually fire while using it. The Crossbow is, ironically, hardest to use at sniping distances and is more than powerful enough to used against enemies in direct conflict. The ragdoll pinning is also always a plus.
Another victim of the Havok physics engine. One would hope that the good old 'nade would provide a surefire way to clear out a room full of baddies or at least shake them up before you storm in, guns blazing. Unfortunately, upon inspection, the Half-Life 2 grenade is a large cylinder. This means that the grenade's explosion may be nowhere near where you threw the thing in the first place; depending on how it lands, the grenade can roll a considerably long way (or it might not roll at all). Make sure that any grenade you throw explodes before moving into the area--you'll have no good idea where it will explode unless you can see it. The right-click flicks the grenade under-hand so it doesn't go very far, unless of course the grenade lands awkwardly at which point anything can happen.
Arguably the most fun twist on a standard firearm in the game. The Combine gunship has the ability to shoot down missiles that fly toward it with its guns. This makes killing it very hard without overwhelming firepower. Cue the Rocket Launcher. Unsatisfied with run-of-the-mill heatseeking or lock-on homing devices, the Half-Life 2 RPG Launcher has an undermounted laser pointer the rocket follows around in the sky. Though the practical application of this against the gunships is obvious, using it in regular combat is both hilarious and satisfying in its own right as the rocket makes circles in the sky following a red dot. You rarely ever get ammo for this thing when there isn't a gunship to destroy, so stock up after these battles to maintain your supply.
After defeating your first Antlion Queen, a Vortigaunt "extracts" these orbs of something from her and gives you an endless supply of them. From this point on, Antlions become your friends as you can manipulate their actions by squeezing or throwing Pheropods. When you squeeze the Pheropod, all Antlions in the area converge on your location. When you throw it, the Antlions move to where it landed and attack any foes in the area or specifically one of them if the Pheropod hits someone. The Antlions themselves are good in melee combat but they are quite fragile. They should be used more as a distraction than as a solution to opposition.
For Half -Life 2, Valve developed a new game engine called the Source engine, which handles the game's visual, audio, and AI elements. The source engine also included a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine that allows for more interactivity during both single-player and online environments.
In June 2004, Valve gave a press release stating that the FBI has arrested several people suspected of involvment in the source code leak. Valve claimed the game had been leaked by a German black-hat hacker named Axel Gembe. Gembe later contacted Valve CEO Gabe Newell thinking that Valve wanted to employ him as an in-house security auditor. He was to be offered a flight to the USA and arrested on arrival, but the German goverment learned of the plan and arrested Gembe themselves.
In November of 2006 in Germany, Gembe was sentenced to two years probation because the judge felt Gembe had a difficult childhood and was working on his problems.
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Black Mesa Trailer
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Once again in the role of Dr Gordon Freeman, players must join the last of humanity as they battle the Combine, an occupying force of trans-dimensional aliens that have conquered Earth.
Overview
Half-Life 2 is the sequel to 1998's ground breaking Half-Life. Developed by Valve Software, it was released for PC on November 16th, 2004 to near universal acclaim. The game has earned over 35 game of the year awards as well as ports to the Xbox, Xbox 360, and PS3.Plot
Combine in City 17
Half-Life 2 is set roughly ten to twenty years after the events in Half-Life 1 . Earth has been conquered by an oppressive trans-dimensional army known as the Combine. The combine army managed to defeat humanity within a mere seven hours. With free reign of Earth, the Combine have forced humans into the few remaining urban centers, giving each urban center a number that served as its new name. The combine have also put drugs in the water supply that are designed to make it difficult to remember what the world was like before the invasion. The most alarming thing the Combine have done was to erect a massive Citadel which created an energy field that inhibits the human race's ability to procreate. Be aware of spoilers below.
The game starts with Gordon Freeman being released into an urban center known as City 17 by the mysterious G-man. The location of City 17 is never revealed, but the Eastern European architecture of the buildings, and the Russian letters seen on signs throughout the game hints to its location. Gordon's arrival helps trigger a massive human uprising in which he and Alyx Vance manage to destroy the Citadel. Gordon and Alyx become trapped in the Citidel's explosion, but before they are killed, time is stopped by G-man. This is where the game ends and is picked up in Half-Life 2: Episode One.
Gameplay
Fend off the zombies!
Many of the game's puzzles are built around this sort of object manipulation, and the ability to fling objects at high speeds makes it useful as a weapon, as well. This idea of manipulating objects in the environment as weapons would go on to influence many other first person shooters, including BioShock (Telekinesis Plasmid) and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (Ionized Plasma Levitator). Follow-ups to Half-Life 2 appear as shorter episodes, continuing the story but with a handful of engine and graphical enhancements with each release.
Development
The road to release was not easy for Valve. In its five year development, Half-Life 2 went through numerous delays, a source code leak, a lawsuit with its publisher Vivendi Universal Games, and had to launch with the unproven and, at the time, unreliable Steam. The game is estimated to have cost 40 million dollars to produce. As revealed by the coffee table book Half Life 2: Raising the Bar, Half Life 2 was originally intended to be a much darker, grittier experience where the Combine are more evidently draining the Earth's resources and executing civilians. The settings of the game were also to be more diverse, and Nova Prospekt was originally just going to be a stopping point but eventually grew into being the final destination.Vehicles
In certain chapters of Half-Life 2, Gordon Freeman uses two vehicles to help him through enemy territory. The vehicles widen the range of the gameplay even more and help prevent the game from becoming overly repetitive.
Airboat
Airboat
The Airboat is a land and water based vehicle. It's easy to maneuver, thus making it possible to dodge obstacles like bombs dropped by the combine. Gordon Freeman uses the Airboat to navigate through the canal network and make his way to Black Mesa East, where he meets up with Alyx Vance, her father Eli Vance, Dr. Judith Mossman and Alyx's robot pet named Dog. At first the Airboat is unarmed and has no form of attack; however, later on it is mounted with a Combine chopper gun by a Vortigaunt.
Dune Buggy
Dune Buggy
The Dune Buggy is a land based vehicle that is used to cross the beaches while avoiding the Antlions. The Dune Buggy is equipped with a mounted Tau Cannon which is used to gun down any enemies the player might encounter on the way. The Tau Cannon is the same from Half-Life. This one, however, cannot overload or run out of ammo.Weapons
There is a diverse array of weaponry in the Half Life universe. Every weapon has unique properties and their uses generally don't overlap. There is a weapon for every purpose and nearly every weapon is a worthwhile option in combat so long as it is used properly. 
CrowbarCrowbar
The iconic symbol of Gordon Freeman. The crowbar is the first weapon you get and its usefulness is more in the realm of breaking things than taking down armed forces, but it can do that too if necessary. It does more damage per hit than the Pistol and doesn't need reloading. It has a first-rate application beating down headcrabs that are normally a pain to shoot.
Crowbar
- No ammo.
- No range.
Gravity Gun
Gravity GunThe Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator as the diehard scientists call it. The Havok physics engine was put in the game primarily to improve the experience this weapon provides. A left-click will send any object smaller than a car flying away. A right-click will compel objects in the distance toward you until they are tractor beamed into the Gravity Gun's grasped, at which point the object can be set down for stacking with another right-click or sent flying with the left-click. Hitting people with chairs, as it turns out, is very fun and the Gravity Gun's ammo is only limited to the number of movable objects in the area around you, making it useful from the time you get it to the end.
Gravity Gun
- No ammo.
- Short range punting and long range grabbing.
- Range of grabbed items up to long range depending on angle shot, medium if shot straight forward.
9mm Pistol 9mm Pistol
A weak backup weapon, very similar in appearance to the Heckler and Koch USP. The 9mm Pistol's main upshots are the availability of its ammo and its ammo capacity in the magazine and in reserve. That aside, it has little stopping power and should be avoided if other options are available; there is almost always a better weapon for the job than this Pistol.
9mm Pistol
- 18 round magazine (180 in reserve).
- Accurate out to fairly long distances.
- Ideal at medium to long range.
MagnumMagnum
A satisfying deathblow in any situation. Ammuntion for this gun is scarce, generally only found in secret areas; this is because it is designed to be used in a nearly theatrical fashion. The Magnum will kill any standard enemy in one shot on Normal and is perfectly accurate--the only gun in the game to possess this trait. Line up your shots carefully to avoid wasting them and crank up your speakers to ensure the fantastic kick of this gun doesn't go unnoticed. If you position your crosshair over an opponent in the distance while using the zoom function, you can exit the zoom and then land a perfect headshot if you don't move the mouse (you can't fire while using the suit's zoom feature).
Magnum
- 6 round magazine (12 in reserve).
- Perfectly accurate.
- Can be used at any range effectively.
Sub-machinegunSubmachine Gun
Well-rounded is the name of the game for Valve's knockoff of the MP7. This automatic is accurate to respectable distances, has decent stopping power, and the clip lasts for long enough to keep you from running dry before finding cover. A large fraction of the Combine use this gun and drop ammo for it, so only trigger-happiness or a lack of weapon variety will deplete your reserve of its bullets. The SMG comes with a 40mm grenade launcher that can fired with a right-click. Grenades for this launcher are rarer than Magnum rounds but they are also vastly superior to normal grenades thanks to their detonation on contact.
Sub-machinegun
- 45 round magazine (225 in reserve).
- Accurate to medium-short ranges but useable at longer ranges.
- Ideal in medium and medium-close range combat.
- Grenade launcher holds 3 rounds.
Overwatch Pulse RifleOverwatch Pulse Rifle
The assault rifle of the future. The inner workings of the Pulse Rifle are questionable at best (are those tiny pods the entire clip?), but its power is hard to contest. Its magazine and reserve are a bit short so it doesn't work well in extended engagements, but Combine soldiers in areas like Nova Prospekt all use them so this should be an infrequent problem in these places. It knocks out most targets in a second or two. The secondary fire for the Overwatch Pulse Rifle is an exposed fusion core launcher (again, is the whole thing really inside that little glass jar?) that releases a ball of swirling energy that bounces around and vaporizes anything it hits. These balls are hard to use tactically because of their sporadic bouncing pattern, but if there are enough enemies in the room, you're guaranteed to get a few of them.
Overwatch Pulse Rifle
- 30 round magazine (60 in reserve).
- Slightly less accurate than the SMG.
- Ideal in medium-close range combat.
- Exposed core launcher holds 3 rounds.
ShotgunShotgun
The alpha and omega of close quarters combat in Half-Life 2. It is modeled in form after the Italian Spas-12 shotgun and uses readily available ammo. The pellet dispersion is far more realistic than in most games, meaning it works to greater ranges than you might initially expect. This range, combined with the hefty damage it doles out, makes the shotgun useful in many situations. Additionally, the secondary fire unleashes even more stopping power by firing the second barrel simultaneously with the primary barrel. Although this is a twist on standard shotgun functionality (as a shotgun's secondary barrel simply holds shells) it opens up new possibilities for hostile neutralization. If you find Half-Life 2 to be too easy, try playing through it without the Shotgun; you'll be surprised just how often its immense strength solves your problems.
Shotgun
- 6 round magazine (30 in reserve).
- Reloads one round at a time.
- Accurate only at close range but usable at medium-close ranges.
- Ideal at close range.
CrossbowCrossbow
An overly physics-inspired sniper rifle. The crossbow is much harder to use than the average sniping weapon for one reason that really becomes two reasons in practice. The crossbow fires an electrically superheated copper rod great distances and can pin unsuspecting Combine soldiers to walls and objects, leaving them to flop around in the most glorious of ragdoll fashions. Unfortunately, the rod qualifies as a standard projectile, meaning that it has travel time and is affected by gravity. This forces players to make two separate corrections to their aim if firing at range: one for the drop in height and one to anticipate their target's motions. Thankfully, the crossbow at least has a right-click zoom function identical to the suit's except that you can actually fire while using it. The Crossbow is, ironically, hardest to use at sniping distances and is more than powerful enough to used against enemies in direct conflict. The ragdoll pinning is also always a plus.
Crossbow
- 1 round magazine (8 in reserve).
- Accurate at any range with proper aim correction.
- Ideal at medium-long range.
GrenadeGrenade
Another victim of the Havok physics engine. One would hope that the good old 'nade would provide a surefire way to clear out a room full of baddies or at least shake them up before you storm in, guns blazing. Unfortunately, upon inspection, the Half-Life 2 grenade is a large cylinder. This means that the grenade's explosion may be nowhere near where you threw the thing in the first place; depending on how it lands, the grenade can roll a considerably long way (or it might not roll at all). Make sure that any grenade you throw explodes before moving into the area--you'll have no good idea where it will explode unless you can see it. The right-click flicks the grenade under-hand so it doesn't go very far, unless of course the grenade lands awkwardly at which point anything can happen.
Grenade
- Maximum of 5 in reserve.
- Completely inaccurate at any range.
- Ideal if you don't get hit.
Rocket LauncherRPG
Arguably the most fun twist on a standard firearm in the game. The Combine gunship has the ability to shoot down missiles that fly toward it with its guns. This makes killing it very hard without overwhelming firepower. Cue the Rocket Launcher. Unsatisfied with run-of-the-mill heatseeking or lock-on homing devices, the Half-Life 2 RPG Launcher has an undermounted laser pointer the rocket follows around in the sky. Though the practical application of this against the gunships is obvious, using it in regular combat is both hilarious and satisfying in its own right as the rocket makes circles in the sky following a red dot. You rarely ever get ammo for this thing when there isn't a gunship to destroy, so stock up after these battles to maintain your supply.
Rocket Launcher
- 1 rocket tube (2 in reserve).
- Accurate at any range with line-of-sight.
- Ideal against air targets or enemies in open areas.
Pherapod Pheropod
After defeating your first Antlion Queen, a Vortigaunt "extracts" these orbs of something from her and gives you an endless supply of them. From this point on, Antlions become your friends as you can manipulate their actions by squeezing or throwing Pheropods. When you squeeze the Pheropod, all Antlions in the area converge on your location. When you throw it, the Antlions move to where it landed and attack any foes in the area or specifically one of them if the Pheropod hits someone. The Antlions themselves are good in melee combat but they are quite fragile. They should be used more as a distraction than as a solution to opposition.
Pherapod
- Infinte ammo.
- Can be thrown long distances depending on arc.
- Ideal for diversionary tactics.
Source Engine
For Half -Life 2, Valve developed a new game engine called the Source engine, which handles the game's visual, audio, and AI elements. The source engine also included a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine that allows for more interactivity during both single-player and online environments.
Notable Technology
- High dynamic range rendering
- Lag compensating network communications
- Network-enabled and bandwidth-efficient physics engine
- Future-proof multiprocessor support
- Facial animation system
- Blended skeletal animation system
- Full-screen motion blur
- Dynamic lighting and shadowing
Source Code Leak
Half-life 2 was merely a rumor until being revealed at E3 May 2003. The game then received huge amounts of hype and won many awards for best in show. Initially the game had a release date of September 2003, but was delayed. The delay was because of the cracking of Valve's internal network through a null session connection to Tangis which was hosted in Valve's network and subsequent upload of an ASP shell, resulting the the leak of the games source code in early September.In June 2004, Valve gave a press release stating that the FBI has arrested several people suspected of involvment in the source code leak. Valve claimed the game had been leaked by a German black-hat hacker named Axel Gembe. Gembe later contacted Valve CEO Gabe Newell thinking that Valve wanted to employ him as an in-house security auditor. He was to be offered a flight to the USA and arrested on arrival, but the German goverment learned of the plan and arrested Gembe themselves.
In November of 2006 in Germany, Gembe was sentenced to two years probation because the judge felt Gembe had a difficult childhood and was working on his problems.
System Requirements
Minimum System Configuration
- Processor : 1.2 GHz
- RAM : 256 MB
- GPU : DirectX 7 Capable Graphics Card (64mb or higher)
- OS : Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
- Mouse
- Keyboard
- Internet connection
Recommended System Configuration
- Processor : 2.4 GHz
- RAM : 512 MB
- GPU : DirectX 9 Capable Graphics Card (256mb or Higher)
- OS : Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
- Mouse
- Keyboard
- Internet Connection
| Game Name | Half-Life 2 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Genres |
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| Themes |
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| Original US Release |
Nov. 16, 2004
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release |
know the real date? |
| Aliases | HL2 |
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Half Life 2 Achievement Guide
Half Life 2, Episode 1, and Episode 2 achievement guide for the xbox 360.
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HL2 Console Commands
A list of all console commands for HL2
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Shotgun FAQ
How and why this is the only gun you need to beat Half-Life 2.
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