This review contains spoilers
So, not terribly long after beating Half-Life, I decided to play through its sequel. Half-Life 2 was a pretty interesting game, if I do say so myself. I love how it expands the universe of this series more and it has some awesome concepts. I think Vortigaunts are probably among my favorite fictional alien races now. Great designs and funny voices...I'd buy a plushie or figure of one!
Something I found interesting about the shift from Half-Life to Half-Life 2 is the general change in atmosphere. In the first Half-Life, I felt most of its levels had you going through dark abandoned areas as you traverse through worn down laboratories, military bases, and eventually the strange alien planet of Xen. There were a few levels that had some actual sunlight and let you see the outside world (honestly some levels felt brighter than they probably should have been in my opinion), but I feel that the essence of Half-Life is defined by all its dreary and dirty environments whereas Half-Life 2 generally feels more bright and clean in comparison. There are definitely areas in Half-Life 2 that carry that same dark ugly vibe as the levels in Half-Life, but not quite as much in my opinion. In Half-Life, you rarely saw friendly NPCs around, and when they do pop up they tend to either die or just be used to progress and move on (plus they often commented on the dire situation adding to some suspense and dread). In Half-Life 2, there are more friends around this time to help you out, like the Resistance members you meet along the way that tell you where to go or give you goodies (supplies, the airboat for Chapter 4, the firearm upgrade to that airboat, the scout car, etc.). Alyx, Dr. Kleiner, Eli, and Barney are all companions of yours that are present at various parts of Half-Life 2, while Half-Life did not have any consistent companions. The Vortigaunts that you slaughtered in droves in Half-Life are friendly to you in this game, too, although you may have gathered from my introduction paragraph that I love the change (and it makes sense in the lore). Also, this is a minor detail, but I don't think you can kill any of the friendly NPCs in Half-Life 2, whereas in the first Half-Life you could kill all your allies if you really wanted to. Even in Ravenholm, which is probably the creepiest place in the game, you have Father Grigori helping you out at certain parts of the chapter. It kind of destroys that feeling of lonely dread I felt the first game pulled off so well, but I will say I still like what Half-Life 2 does with its atmosphere. The world you live in is an Orwellian dystopia from the beginning of the game to the end. You are chased down by the Combine sort of like how the Marines were a constant threat in Half-Life. The story often shows just how fascist the Combine are through showing you the propaganda they use and the way they brutalize and interrogate anyone they perceive as being against them. Their leader, Dr. Breen, often shows his nefarious face on screens to spout out anti-freedom or anti-intellectual propaganda. He was a pretty interesting villain honestly, you get to hear a few different speeches from him in the game. I think this game really nails that feeling of enemies being around every corner; Gordon is basically an enemy of the state and you really feel that after Chapter 1. There's a full on war going on in Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 which was really cool to fight your way through. All of this is to say that, although Half-Life 2's atmosphere feels quite different from Half-Life, I think it still does a great job with what it is going for. For instance, striving for a grander narrative with this game in comparison to Half-Life made a lot of sense in my opinion.
The story and characters of Half-Life 2 seem to be given much more focus than in Half-Life. The most you got in the previous game was hints at the wider world of this series through talking with the few NPCs you find and there were no real characters to speak of. There are interesting theories crafted using the cool bits of lore given in Half-Life, like how the strange dialogue of the Nihilanth is still being dissected by fans to this day, but I never got the sense of a big story to connect everything together. That kinda shows with how this game retcons some things, but they are pretty minor at the end of the day. It's just details like Eli and Barney acting all chummy with you, talking about their personal history with Gordon even though they weren't even there in Half-Life. I do hear that was expanded upon a little with Barney being playable in one of the Half-Life expansions, but I didn't play those so I don't know what their stories were. I find that Half-Life 2 has more explicit exposition, with a narrative that has actual characters with names that you get to see talk a lot and do things in the story. Gordon Freeman is still very obviously the most important guy in the room despite not saying a word - don't worry, you'll hear nothing but praise from every character in the game that isn't a villain - but he is no longer the only person that matters. As for the general story itself, I thought it was pretty good. Basically, when you first start the game, your goal is to get off the train into City 17, where you then leave to begin your journey to take down the Combine. You go on a trek to various Resistance bases, then through the Combine's strongholds like Nova Prospekt, then you go back to City 17 to fight an intense battle with your comrades to get to the Capital, and finally the game ends with you getting into the Capital through an underground passageway to confront Dr. Wallace Breen. You meet Eli Vance, Alyx Vance, Dr. Isaac Kleiner, and Judith Mossman - four important figureheads of the Resistance that help you out - in Chapter 5, which is a short Chapter that is almost entirely focused on exposition. Alyx is the most important character outside of Gordon and a good amount of the story focuses on her whenever Gordon isn't the (Free)man of the hour. Alyx saves Gordon in Chapter 5 when the Resistance base gets wrecked, Gordon and Alyx work together to invade Nova Prospekt in Chapter 9a, Alyx is there to learn the truth of Judith actually working with the Combine (honestly wasn't really expecting that twist myself) in Chapter 9a as well as being the one to interrogate Judith (in that same chapter Alyx is also the one to get the teleporter working to take her and Gordon to Dr. Kleiner), Alyx and Gordon get through parts of the hectic warzone at City 17 with the help of Resistance soldiers and she goes off on her own while Gordon goes to fight with Barney and his troops, and Alyx is used as a bargaining chip by Dr. Breen in the final Chapter in his attempt to convince Eli to make the Resistance surrender. Speaking of which, that part was really good; having a direct confrontation with the man himself after only having seen him on TV screens prattling on with constant platitudes was cool. Dr. Breen is a compelling villain: his goals are somewhat understandable when taken at face value, since he works with the Combine to prevent them from destroying the planet, but he is still clearly a villain. Dr. Breen wants to silence differing opinions so that he can continue to prosper in his position as a frontman of a totalitarian faction of aliens. The only reason he is the leader of the Combine is because he sucks up to the alien forces. He is a very "the ends justify the means" kind of villain, except he also has no good intentions. Overall I think both the story and characters of Half-Life 2 are good, although some are obviously better and more important than others. Eli had little to no screen-time, but he also got kidnapped for the whole game after Chapter 5 so I can excuse that. Dr. Kleiner only appeared two times, but he was also only ever needed those two times so I can understand it. Barney is another character you meet in Chapter 5 and don't see again until way later in the game. The focal characters of this story are Gordon, Alyx, and Dr. Breen, and that's fine. The last thing I want to say about this game's story and characters is...pretty much everything about the G-Man. I feel like he's only present in these games to Deus Ex Machina us out of a bind and be blatant sequel bait. For context, this game ends with G-Man stopping time right when an explosion happens after Gordon destroys the machine Dr. Breen is using to teleport to another universe. The G-Man transports you to a universe of nothingness, monologues about having plans in store for you, then a white space in the dimension of darkness opens and he leaves. This isn't too much different from Half-Life's ending, where the G-Man transports you all throughout Xen to explain to you his plan and offer you a job with his "employers" (whoever they may be). Hopefully Episode One and Episode Two reveals more about The G-Man and who exactly the "Benefactors" that Dr. Breen referred to are; in this game's ending he mentions something about being used as a host, so that'll be interesting to see.
The core gameplay of Half-Life 2 is very similar to Half-Life, which was already solid to begin with so I have no complaints there. Go through some pretty well-designed linear chapters, each with their own dedicated level areas, and figure out the ways to progress. Sometimes you gotta use your brain to think of how to get past some kind of obstacle to progress, sometimes you have a bunch of enemies to obliterate, sometimes you just have to follow NPCs and listen to them talk in scripted sequences. There's also some very minor platforming you can do in some chapters, typically just to find some extra goodies. As you progress, you naturally find new weapons to add to your arsenal of artillery. Most of your weapons in Half-Life 2 return from the first Half-Life: you got your standard crowbar, pistol, SMG, Magnum, shotgun, crossbow, and RPG. The weapons from Half-Life that don't return in Half-Life 2 are the Gluon Gun, Hivehand, Snarks, satchel bombs, and claymores. The Tau Cannon is technically still in the game but it is not usable as a solo weapon anymore since it's attached to a vehicle instead. There's a decent amount of weapons that were taken away, but this sequel helps make up for it by giving you some new tools to play around with. Perhaps the most notable one is the Gravity Gun, which has become one of the most iconic weapons of the series and is quite fun to mess around with. The Gravity Gun makes it to where you can use the debris and objects in your area to your advantage, which is very useful for conserving ammo. It isn't exactly the most reliable weapon in my opinion, since I find that its pretty easy to run out of items to toss at enemies or make the mistake of overshooting which would force you to go run past enemies to pick the object up again. The Gravity Gun can make for some amusing kills since you can kill Combine officers and zombies with some random cardboard boxes you found lying around. It's a creative weapon for sure and I'm glad its here, even if I tend to prefer just blasting away my foes the old fashioned way. Aside from the Gravity Gun, Half-Life 2 also introduces the Plasma Rifle and Bugbait. The Bugbait in particular is a pretty fun new tool you get that lets you have a personal army of infinitely respawning Antlions (basically human-sized insect monsters) to kill enemies for you, but you only get to use it in Chapter 8 and Chapter 9. Suffice to say, all of this artillery is pretty nice to have, and the game is fair with ammo so you won't need to worry about running out of firepower. Also, the feeling of shooting and gunplay itself is amazing, with my only real complaint being how awkward it can be to control the RPG rockets. When you fight gunships and Striders, you have to use the RPG rockets, and, although the battles against these vehicle bosses are cool, the awkwardness of having to move the rockets in a way where the ships don't shoot it down while still having enough precision to actually land the shot is unfortunately a big blemish on the experience for me. Also, the vehicle controls in this game felt pretty off to me, but I've never been good at driving in video games anyway so that's probably the reason why. As for the level design itself, I think its great. I already admitted to using guides a lot in a previous paragraph, but I don't think that's a point against this game; its more so just me not being good at figuring out how to progress (and I've stated this before in a few other reviews I made). At the end of the day, Half-Life 2's gameplay isn't the greatest of its craft in my opinion, but it is solid and I think its the best aspect of the game.
Overall, I think Half-Life 2 is a good game and a good step-up from the first game as far as presentation and story goes. I think that both games have plenty of merit and its definitely worthwhile to play both of them, but if I had to pick which one I think is better, I'd go with Half-Life 2. It gets a solid 4 stars from me. Here's hoping I like Episode One and Episode Two once I get to them. As far as I know, Lost Coast isn't necessary, so I'm skipping that.
Something I found interesting about the shift from Half-Life to Half-Life 2 is the general change in atmosphere. In the first Half-Life, I felt most of its levels had you going through dark abandoned areas as you traverse through worn down laboratories, military bases, and eventually the strange alien planet of Xen. There were a few levels that had some actual sunlight and let you see the outside world (honestly some levels felt brighter than they probably should have been in my opinion), but I feel that the essence of Half-Life is defined by all its dreary and dirty environments whereas Half-Life 2 generally feels more bright and clean in comparison. There are definitely areas in Half-Life 2 that carry that same dark ugly vibe as the levels in Half-Life, but not quite as much in my opinion. In Half-Life, you rarely saw friendly NPCs around, and when they do pop up they tend to either die or just be used to progress and move on (plus they often commented on the dire situation adding to some suspense and dread). In Half-Life 2, there are more friends around this time to help you out, like the Resistance members you meet along the way that tell you where to go or give you goodies (supplies, the airboat for Chapter 4, the firearm upgrade to that airboat, the scout car, etc.). Alyx, Dr. Kleiner, Eli, and Barney are all companions of yours that are present at various parts of Half-Life 2, while Half-Life did not have any consistent companions. The Vortigaunts that you slaughtered in droves in Half-Life are friendly to you in this game, too, although you may have gathered from my introduction paragraph that I love the change (and it makes sense in the lore). Also, this is a minor detail, but I don't think you can kill any of the friendly NPCs in Half-Life 2, whereas in the first Half-Life you could kill all your allies if you really wanted to. Even in Ravenholm, which is probably the creepiest place in the game, you have Father Grigori helping you out at certain parts of the chapter. It kind of destroys that feeling of lonely dread I felt the first game pulled off so well, but I will say I still like what Half-Life 2 does with its atmosphere. The world you live in is an Orwellian dystopia from the beginning of the game to the end. You are chased down by the Combine sort of like how the Marines were a constant threat in Half-Life. The story often shows just how fascist the Combine are through showing you the propaganda they use and the way they brutalize and interrogate anyone they perceive as being against them. Their leader, Dr. Breen, often shows his nefarious face on screens to spout out anti-freedom or anti-intellectual propaganda. He was a pretty interesting villain honestly, you get to hear a few different speeches from him in the game. I think this game really nails that feeling of enemies being around every corner; Gordon is basically an enemy of the state and you really feel that after Chapter 1. There's a full on war going on in Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 which was really cool to fight your way through. All of this is to say that, although Half-Life 2's atmosphere feels quite different from Half-Life, I think it still does a great job with what it is going for. For instance, striving for a grander narrative with this game in comparison to Half-Life made a lot of sense in my opinion.
The story and characters of Half-Life 2 seem to be given much more focus than in Half-Life. The most you got in the previous game was hints at the wider world of this series through talking with the few NPCs you find and there were no real characters to speak of. There are interesting theories crafted using the cool bits of lore given in Half-Life, like how the strange dialogue of the Nihilanth is still being dissected by fans to this day, but I never got the sense of a big story to connect everything together. That kinda shows with how this game retcons some things, but they are pretty minor at the end of the day. It's just details like Eli and Barney acting all chummy with you, talking about their personal history with Gordon even though they weren't even there in Half-Life. I do hear that was expanded upon a little with Barney being playable in one of the Half-Life expansions, but I didn't play those so I don't know what their stories were. I find that Half-Life 2 has more explicit exposition, with a narrative that has actual characters with names that you get to see talk a lot and do things in the story. Gordon Freeman is still very obviously the most important guy in the room despite not saying a word - don't worry, you'll hear nothing but praise from every character in the game that isn't a villain - but he is no longer the only person that matters. As for the general story itself, I thought it was pretty good. Basically, when you first start the game, your goal is to get off the train into City 17, where you then leave to begin your journey to take down the Combine. You go on a trek to various Resistance bases, then through the Combine's strongholds like Nova Prospekt, then you go back to City 17 to fight an intense battle with your comrades to get to the Capital, and finally the game ends with you getting into the Capital through an underground passageway to confront Dr. Wallace Breen. You meet Eli Vance, Alyx Vance, Dr. Isaac Kleiner, and Judith Mossman - four important figureheads of the Resistance that help you out - in Chapter 5, which is a short Chapter that is almost entirely focused on exposition. Alyx is the most important character outside of Gordon and a good amount of the story focuses on her whenever Gordon isn't the (Free)man of the hour. Alyx saves Gordon in Chapter 5 when the Resistance base gets wrecked, Gordon and Alyx work together to invade Nova Prospekt in Chapter 9a, Alyx is there to learn the truth of Judith actually working with the Combine (honestly wasn't really expecting that twist myself) in Chapter 9a as well as being the one to interrogate Judith (in that same chapter Alyx is also the one to get the teleporter working to take her and Gordon to Dr. Kleiner), Alyx and Gordon get through parts of the hectic warzone at City 17 with the help of Resistance soldiers and she goes off on her own while Gordon goes to fight with Barney and his troops, and Alyx is used as a bargaining chip by Dr. Breen in the final Chapter in his attempt to convince Eli to make the Resistance surrender. Speaking of which, that part was really good; having a direct confrontation with the man himself after only having seen him on TV screens prattling on with constant platitudes was cool. Dr. Breen is a compelling villain: his goals are somewhat understandable when taken at face value, since he works with the Combine to prevent them from destroying the planet, but he is still clearly a villain. Dr. Breen wants to silence differing opinions so that he can continue to prosper in his position as a frontman of a totalitarian faction of aliens. The only reason he is the leader of the Combine is because he sucks up to the alien forces. He is a very "the ends justify the means" kind of villain, except he also has no good intentions. Overall I think both the story and characters of Half-Life 2 are good, although some are obviously better and more important than others. Eli had little to no screen-time, but he also got kidnapped for the whole game after Chapter 5 so I can excuse that. Dr. Kleiner only appeared two times, but he was also only ever needed those two times so I can understand it. Barney is another character you meet in Chapter 5 and don't see again until way later in the game. The focal characters of this story are Gordon, Alyx, and Dr. Breen, and that's fine. The last thing I want to say about this game's story and characters is...pretty much everything about the G-Man. I feel like he's only present in these games to Deus Ex Machina us out of a bind and be blatant sequel bait. For context, this game ends with G-Man stopping time right when an explosion happens after Gordon destroys the machine Dr. Breen is using to teleport to another universe. The G-Man transports you to a universe of nothingness, monologues about having plans in store for you, then a white space in the dimension of darkness opens and he leaves. This isn't too much different from Half-Life's ending, where the G-Man transports you all throughout Xen to explain to you his plan and offer you a job with his "employers" (whoever they may be). Hopefully Episode One and Episode Two reveals more about The G-Man and who exactly the "Benefactors" that Dr. Breen referred to are; in this game's ending he mentions something about being used as a host, so that'll be interesting to see.
The core gameplay of Half-Life 2 is very similar to Half-Life, which was already solid to begin with so I have no complaints there. Go through some pretty well-designed linear chapters, each with their own dedicated level areas, and figure out the ways to progress. Sometimes you gotta use your brain to think of how to get past some kind of obstacle to progress, sometimes you have a bunch of enemies to obliterate, sometimes you just have to follow NPCs and listen to them talk in scripted sequences. There's also some very minor platforming you can do in some chapters, typically just to find some extra goodies. As you progress, you naturally find new weapons to add to your arsenal of artillery. Most of your weapons in Half-Life 2 return from the first Half-Life: you got your standard crowbar, pistol, SMG, Magnum, shotgun, crossbow, and RPG. The weapons from Half-Life that don't return in Half-Life 2 are the Gluon Gun, Hivehand, Snarks, satchel bombs, and claymores. The Tau Cannon is technically still in the game but it is not usable as a solo weapon anymore since it's attached to a vehicle instead. There's a decent amount of weapons that were taken away, but this sequel helps make up for it by giving you some new tools to play around with. Perhaps the most notable one is the Gravity Gun, which has become one of the most iconic weapons of the series and is quite fun to mess around with. The Gravity Gun makes it to where you can use the debris and objects in your area to your advantage, which is very useful for conserving ammo. It isn't exactly the most reliable weapon in my opinion, since I find that its pretty easy to run out of items to toss at enemies or make the mistake of overshooting which would force you to go run past enemies to pick the object up again. The Gravity Gun can make for some amusing kills since you can kill Combine officers and zombies with some random cardboard boxes you found lying around. It's a creative weapon for sure and I'm glad its here, even if I tend to prefer just blasting away my foes the old fashioned way. Aside from the Gravity Gun, Half-Life 2 also introduces the Plasma Rifle and Bugbait. The Bugbait in particular is a pretty fun new tool you get that lets you have a personal army of infinitely respawning Antlions (basically human-sized insect monsters) to kill enemies for you, but you only get to use it in Chapter 8 and Chapter 9. Suffice to say, all of this artillery is pretty nice to have, and the game is fair with ammo so you won't need to worry about running out of firepower. Also, the feeling of shooting and gunplay itself is amazing, with my only real complaint being how awkward it can be to control the RPG rockets. When you fight gunships and Striders, you have to use the RPG rockets, and, although the battles against these vehicle bosses are cool, the awkwardness of having to move the rockets in a way where the ships don't shoot it down while still having enough precision to actually land the shot is unfortunately a big blemish on the experience for me. Also, the vehicle controls in this game felt pretty off to me, but I've never been good at driving in video games anyway so that's probably the reason why. As for the level design itself, I think its great. I already admitted to using guides a lot in a previous paragraph, but I don't think that's a point against this game; its more so just me not being good at figuring out how to progress (and I've stated this before in a few other reviews I made). At the end of the day, Half-Life 2's gameplay isn't the greatest of its craft in my opinion, but it is solid and I think its the best aspect of the game.
Overall, I think Half-Life 2 is a good game and a good step-up from the first game as far as presentation and story goes. I think that both games have plenty of merit and its definitely worthwhile to play both of them, but if I had to pick which one I think is better, I'd go with Half-Life 2. It gets a solid 4 stars from me. Here's hoping I like Episode One and Episode Two once I get to them. As far as I know, Lost Coast isn't necessary, so I'm skipping that.