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 Half
Life 2: Episode 2 (PC)
Just over a year in the making, Half-Life
2: Eps. 2 is now available for general consumption via the online game
distribution system STEAM, or from your friendly neighborhood software
store. With the added time it took to produce this latest chapter, has the
much celebrated 'Half-Life' spark finally fizzled out? Check out the
review from PC gamer Jim McHugh to find out for sure. |
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the end of Half-Life 2, Episode 1 we saw our favorite crow-bar wielding
ex-scientist Professor Gordon Freeman finally escape the claws of the evil
and mysterious intergalactic/pan-dimensional forces of The Combine. Well,
almost. After surviving numerous attacks from the giant spider-like
Striders, hideously mutated zombies, and super angry enemy infantry units
hell bent on revenge, our hero seemingly succumbed to the most innocuous
of all of his various life-threatening scenarios: poorly designed railroad
tracks. Apparently (and thankfully) that was not the case. In
fact, at the start of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, we find out rather quickly
that our hero has indeed survived the plunge off of the shear cliff-face
inside of the railroad passenger car, and must now find his way through
the great outdoors (and other nasty scenarios) back to the Rebel
Encampment in the deep forested areas North of the ruins of City 17 and
the Combine Citadel. And this is only just the beginning of Gordon's fun.
 For
those familiar with both the original full length game Half-Life 2 and its
subsequent expansion pack, Episode 1, you'll find similar themes running
through this release: First-Person perspective combat, minor puzzle
solving and intuitive thinking scenarios, as well as some of the best
story-telling arcs that have ever been produced for a PC game. No
changes or additions to the the weapons cache either, save for a nasty
Strider killing gravity-gun launched mine that makes it's appearance later
in the game. And the same goes for the character/creatures found Episode
2: most of the original 'nasties' make a return, with just one or two
additional foes (including a 'mini' version of the Strider, not to mention
a few variant forms of the ant-lion).
While gamers won't see really anything
new in the game-play components and mechanics of HL2:Ep2, what they will
experience is a rich, underlying plot that unfolds right before their eyes
in a very different atmosphere than was seen in the last two Half-Life
games. And in reality, that is the real driving force behind the hoopla of
the Half-Life franchise. For
example, while most of the locales for the previous releases centered
around large city areas and the like, HL2:EP2 changes things up a bit.
Instead of adventuring within and around the urban based landscapes and
areas, players get more of an opportunity to see and experience the
surroundings between the mega-cities. This includes the previously
mentioned forests, some massive underground caves, and small abandoned
ghost towns and mountain resorts that dot the countryside of this
futuristic earth. This in-game location revamp not only provides an active
change in the way the Episode looks and feels as compared to earlier
iterations within the gaming series, but also gives fans of the Half-Life
mythos a different viewpoint of the desolation and destruction that the
Combine has dealt to Earth.
 All
in all, I have to say that Half-Life 2: Episode 2 was just as much fun to
play as any of the other Half-Life releases: and that's saying a lot.
Being able to keep the game-play fresh with the new locales and new
enemies was a feat that Valve pulled off incredibly without a hitch. OK,
maybe there isn't alot of change up with the overall feel of the game, but
then again that isn't the real point of the Half-Life 2 series. Keeping
the player enthralled with a solid story and believable characters is
really what keeps fans of the series coming back for more. But, that in
itself can also be the Achilles' Heel with the Half-Life franchise.
Simply put, the only real problem that I
had with the game was the amount of time it took Valve to release this
latest Episode in the franchise. Clocking in at just over a year since the
release of Episode 2, it falls 6 months shy from the mark of the initial
selling point of the episodic games 'Bi-Yearly' premise. And with such an
intricate story-line that has come to be the real backbone of the
Half-Life experience, making the fans wait for such a long time when there
are so many new and exciting PC games waiting in the wings, it might be
hard for even the most dedicated fan to keep his or her patience from
waning.
- Jim McHugh
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