A Guilt Free Purchase

Half Life 2 has already been the stuff of legend for some time before the Orange Box came out, but the very mention of it sent shivers up gamers' spines. All of sudden, it was the stuff of legend again. What's the deal here? It's just a game after all.

Admittedly, I missed out on Half Life 2 when it first came out on PC, then I missed out when it came out on the X Box. Missing out once? An oversight. Twice? Shame on me. Three times? A shame on my good name as a gamer. But still, the question lingered: am I really going to pay sixty bucks for an old game? Well, I did, and it was some of the best money I've spent on a videogame.

First, a brief history. The original Half Life put you in shoes of Gordan Freeman, a scientist at the top secret Black Mesa lab. A portal to another dimension was opened, and you had to fight your way out of the Black Mesa facility. Though dated now, the original Half Life represented a next step in gaming: an intelligent science fiction FPS that also happened to play really well. Expansions and spin-offs followed, such as Counter-Strike, which itself set a precedent for squad based multiplayer games.

Is it necessary to play Half Life before playing Half Life 2. Not really, but it's helpful, and gives you a deeper look into the mythology surrounding these games. Plus, you can find the Half Life Anthology for something around twenty bucks, so why not?

Half Life 2 drops Gordan Freeman into a grim future. The aliens have taken over (with the help of human leaders), and the world has become a police state, with Gestapo-ish masked guards at every corner, not to mention the aliens who can't be controlled. After a brief introduction to the world you've found yourself in, you meet up with a couple of old friends, and a new one, you suit up and help Gordan do what he does best: blasting humans and aliens into oblivion, using any means necessary, all the while not saying a word.

So the journey begins, and quite a journey it is. The action starts a little slow with just picking off the odd guard now and then, but soon you'll find yourself escaping a city by going through buildings, onto rooftops, underground, through trainyards, etc. From there you'll go through almost every kind of terrain imaginable: burned out cities crawling with monsters at every turn, deserts with aliens that burst from the ground when they hear you coming, resistance towns, underground passages, under rail bridges. You name it, and it's probably in here.

Along the way you'll meet up with members of the resistance, both alien and human, who either offer you help or give you a quid pro quo (help us fight off this gunship, and we'll open the gates). You won't do all this on foot, of course, and intense vehicle chases are pretty common throughout.

One of the most amazing things about Half Life 2 is in the variety of things you do. These aren't corny side quests or minigames. They find their way naturally into the suprisingly deep story. You'll get to play fetch with a robotic dog (more fun than it sounds), command a small alien army by wielding a pheremone, and play with the gravity gun, my personal favorite.

The gravity gun really deserves its own review, but I'll keep it brief. The gravity gun is pretty much what the name implies. You can pick up objects of suprising heft, use them against your enemies, or pick up grenades they hurl at you and hurl them back. It doesn't sound rewarding, but trust me, sending a saw at high speed into a group of oncoming monsters is a blast.

None of this would be possible without great physics, however, and Half Life 2 has some of the best I've seen. Those aforementioned saws not only fire, but also ricochet, and more often than not end up doing more damage than you intended. Bodies fall realistically, domino effects can be caused. It's really almost limitless, and rivals most current games in realism. You could, and I have, spend a great deal of time just playing around with the grav gun.

Now let's talk graphics. Not at any point did I feel like I was playing a game that was part of the last generation. Character models are beautiful, environments are realistic, the monsters have great details up close, and lighting and shadow effects are sweet. There are a few pop up issues, but they're only truly noticeable when you're driving, and you have to give it a break considering how much there is to look at once it does pop into frame.

Sound, likewise, is pretty solid. The voice acting is phenomenal, sucking you even deeper into the story that I keep harping on. Pretty impressive considering the only "big" name I saw in the credits was Robert Guillame (the voice of Rafiki the Baboon in the Lion King). The weapons effects are solid, from the constant hum of the grav gun to the whoosh of the RPG. Many of the aliens are parasites that take over humans, and you can hear the human cries under the beast while you kill them. It's a bit disconcerting, but effective.

Controls are just great while you're on foot. They operate as FPS controls should. The weapons, of which there are a suprising amount, are mapped to the D-pad, several to a direction, and it works pretty well. The only control issues come when driving. I wish they had copied Halo's driving scheme as opposed to the one they chose. Movement is done entirely by one stick, and it never quite feels right, but you get used to it. The vehicle controls only killed me off a few times.

Now what of the overall experience? Well, you do get a solid amount of play from Half Life 2 by itself. I won't give an exact time, because everyone goes at their own pace, but the campaign is more expansive than any current FPS I can think of, something other developers should take note of. Puzzles can hold up your time depending on quick your mind works, but there's nothing too complex, or annoying, save a couple of irritating jumping puzzles, and the usual complaint (I have an RPG, but I can't blast through this wooden door?), but it's engrossing all throughout, with no real low points.

OK, so I've written volumes on Half Life 2, so let's get into the other contents of the box. Aside from Half Life 2, you get the expansions, Episodes 1 and 2, which are continuations of the story. Neither tops the original, but they do add variety, and play essentially the same.

Onto Portal, one of the quirkiest puzzle games you're likely to find, and about the only FPP (first person puzzle) game I've seen. To describe without being able to show it is hard to do, but let me try. Your goal is to make your way through a lab, completing each level by using portals, some that are already there, and some you create with your portal gun, to get to the exit. It's wacky, but in a good way. The lengths you'll have to go to finish a level will simultaneously blow your mind and give you a lot of fun. Adding to that fun is the robotic female voice giving comical instructions and warnings. This game is not only challenging, but really witty.

Finally, we come to Team Fortress 2. TF2 is a squad based multiplayer game, giving you several classes of fighters to choose from, classed as Offense, Defense, and Support. You can go Defense with a Heavy Weapons Guy, who's slow but powerful, or go Support with the Medic, healing your teammates, amongst many others which I would count, except for you're probably already losing patience with this review.

The big draws of TF2 are the goofy, lighthearted graphics, the leveling up system for each character, and the fact that it gives you the multiplayer you might be craving. Don't get me wrong, this is a fun game, and has plenty of replay value with the class system. My only real beef is the fact that it's online or nothing, unless you opt for system link.

Alright, alright. Time to end this. I apologize for the long review, but when you're dealing with a package that gives you five games (OK, three if you discount the expansions for Half Life 2), it's prudent to give each game as much equal time as possible.

Here's the Deal: For those of you who haven't played Half Life 2, which seems a bit crazy, but I never had before this set, this is the perfect way to do so. For those who have, there's still plenty of reason to buy this set, whether you want to play the whole thing all over again, or want to be able to do so with the simplicity of one disc on a console. Plus, you have Portal, which is an interesting game in itself, and Team Fortress 2. This is the best deal for the money, and I give it five stars without hesitation.