I’ve been playing Half-life 2 for the past couple of days and I must say, so far this game is kicking Doom 3’s ass. I mean, I love id and I have nothing but respect for what Carmack has done for shooters and gaming in general, but there’s no denying that Valve has got a real classic here. (I believe the relevant catch-phrase here goes: “Other developers make great games. id makes great engines.”)
There’s nothing really startling about the image quality that Valve has accomplished with HL2 … which is not to say it isn’t really, really good. It’s just not quite as good as Doom 3’s graphics though (the flashlight halo is one of the most obvious differences). On the other hand, it does give you a whole lot more to look at. The major problem with Doom 3 was that it tended toward formulaic run-and-gun missions with little in the way of variation. With HL2, the settings are many and varied, and the pacing is just fantastic. (Keep in mind that I’ve only played through to the 3rd chapter, which means I haven’t seen a whole lot of what the game has to offer.)
Some of the puzzles are really cute. In the screenshot above, Gordon Freeman (that’s you) is trying to set up this ramp so he can use his water-cycle-thing to jump over a high wall. The problem is, the ramp isn’t tilted high enough to clear the obstacle.
I was stumped for a few minutes when I reached this point, until I noticed that there were a handful of empty blue barrels lying around. I realized that you could force the ramp upwards by placing those blue barrels in the water underneath it, because the air inside them would push it up. All you had to was look for enough barrels to do the job.
It was the sort of puzzle that shows off the game’s shiny new physics engine, and I thoroughly enjoyed solving it.
The skirmishes have so far been pretty tame. I’m playing it at Normal level, and I haven’t lost a firefight yet, although I’m expecting it to get tougher soon. Dialogue, music and sound effects are all top-notch. (The dialogue is, btw, well-written and well-voiced. No Far Cry foolishness here!)
This is a really, really good game, and if your PC can handle the stress, you owe it to yourself to try it out.