HALF-LIFE 2

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Valve Corporation

Publisher : Sierra Entertainment And Valve Corporation

Engine : Source Engine And Havok Physics

Genre : Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter

Release Date : November 16 , 2004

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : AMD Athlon XP 2500+ / Intel Pentium 4 Processor

Memory (RAM) : 256 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0 Compatible Video Card with Memory 64 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 4 Series
ATI : Radeon 9200 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 5 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

At the start of the game, the G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman in a hallucination-like vision as he pulls Gordon out of stasis and places him on a train going to City 17. When the train arrives, Gordon gets off and proceeds through the Combine's security checkpoints where he is detained by a civil protection officer. Once in an interrogation room, the officer reveals himself to be Freeman's former co-worker and colleague, Barney Calhoun, and helps Freeman to get to Dr. Isaac Kleiner's laboratory. After meeting Alyx Vance, Freeman is instructed by Kleiner to step into a makeshift teleporter so that he can be safely extracted to the anti-Combine resistance base Black Mesa East along with Alyx, headed by her father, Dr. Eli Vance. However, Kleiner's pet headcrab Lamarr disrupts the machine, and Freeman finds himself - after briefly appearing in several different locations including in the office of Dr. Breen, the administrator of Earth on behalf of Combine - just outside Kleiner's lab. With the Combine now alerted to his presence, Freeman works his way through the drained canal system, avoiding enemy forces and using the help of human resistance fighters who see Freeman as a messianic figure, to safely arrive at Black Mesa East. Dr. Vance and Dr. Judith Mossman debrief Freeman on events since the incident at Black Mesa. As Alyx is introducing Freeman to Dog, her pet robot, and showing him how to use the new Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator ("gravity gun"), the lab is attacked and Dr. Vance is captured. Freeman is separated from Alyx, but she explains that he must travel to Nova Prospekt, a detention facility, in order to save her father. Along the way, Freeman encounters other allies, including Father Grigori in the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm, and Colonel Odessa Cubbage and his forces. After making his way across an Antlion-infested beach, Freeman reaches Nova Prospekt and begins to search for Dr. Vance. Alyx eventually reaches him and joins in his search. Together, they discover that Dr. Mossman is a spy for the Combine, but before they can stop her, she teleports herself and Dr. Vance back to the Combine headquarters known as the Citadel using a prototype teleporter.

Freeman and Alyx attempt to follow, but the teleporter explodes as they use it; they materialize in Kleiner's lab one week later, discovering that their actions in Nova Prospekt have inspired the human resistance to mount a full-scale rebellion, turning City 17 into a battlefield. Alyx helps to assist Dr. Kleiner and other innocent humans to escape the city, while Freeman joins with the human resistance to dispatch the Combine forces. As the resistance gains the upper hand, Alyx is captured by the Combine and taken to the Citadel. Freeman enters the Citadel to rescue Alyx but as he enters, all his weapons except the gravity gun are destroyed by an energy field; the gravity gun reacts to the field and becomes much more powerful, and Freeman uses it to remove the Combine forces in his path. Freeman eventually reaches Dr. Breen's office, where Dr. Mossman is also waiting. As Alyx and Eli Vance are brought in, Dr. Breen attempts to threaten them and convince Freeman to work for him, but Judith Mossman has a change of heart, and releases the three prisoners. Dr. Breen flees to the Dark Energy Reactor at the top of the Citadel and attempts to teleport away from Earth. Freeman pursues him and attacks the reactor. As the reactor explodes a few yards away from Freeman and Alyx, time stops and the G-Man appears. He comments on Gordon's successful endeavors and then places him back into stasis before leaving through a door of pure light.

The sound effects are also well done. Once again, it's the little details that stand out, like the buzzing noise of manhacks as they approach and the clatter of a gutter pipe as something climbs up to reach you. As in the original game, there's very little music, and what's here is electronic in nature and reserved to emphasize important moments, such as when you're headed for a showdown with a major foe. There are some genuinely interesting weapons in Half-Life 2's single-player mode, and it'd be fun to see what the gravity gun, for example, could do in a multiplayer setting, particularly with all the physics turned on. Rather than build a new multiplayer component based on the single-player campaign, Valve has instead included Counter-Strike: Source with Half-Life 2. The original Counter-Strike was developed as a free team-based multiplayer mod for the original Half-Life, and it quickly grew into one of the most popular online first-person shooters in the world. Valve even released a retail package of Counter-Strike, and earlier this year there was an updated retail version, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Counter-Strike: Source is the updated version of the original Counter-Strike, bringing the graphics in line with the powerful new Source engine and making a few tweaks, but otherwise keeping everything else the same. Half-Life 2 is a very impressive and engaging shooter, and a faithful follow-up to one of the greatest PC games of all time.

GAME REVIEW :-

9/10

Half-Life 2 Trailer :-