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Half-Life 2, like many high profile game releases, brings with it gargantuan expectations. Many gamers hold the original Half-Life in the highest regard, and it often tops numerous "Best Games of All Time" lists. Half-Life was introduced just as First-Person Shooters (FPS) were starting to plateau in terms of originality, and the game proceeded to turn the genre on its head. Half-Life featured intelligent AI coupled with stellar graphics and a gripping single-player environment, then topped it all off with an engaging deathmatch mode and add-ons.
Half-Life 2 is a bit different story, and treads onto a shooter landscape lush with a fresh crop of high-end FPS games like UT2004 and Far Cry, and faces an uphill battle to attain the outstanding reputation of its predecessor. Still, Valve succeeds in many game play aspects and delivers a title that is realistic, diversified and engrossing but, sadly, cuts a few corners on storytelling and gameplay.
What will keep gamers trudging onward in Half-Life 2 is to see what kind of surprises are up ahead. In this way, Valve has masterfully blended thematic elements from all types of games. The camp at the beginning has the distinct flavor of a World War II environment, drawing parallels to Nazi internment camps. It then shifts to a psuedo-racing game, with Gordon in a mad dashed rush to flee from pursuing helicopters. We'll even see him in a Serious Sam type situation, fighting off dozens of antlions. HL2 adopts the wonderful habit of keeping the player on his toes and forcing them to play the game in a variety of different ways.
While all these different themes may sound disjointed, the physics engine ties it all together by keeping the experience consistent from area to area. The parabolic arc that projectiles take looks real and feels natural. Items thrown across a room will hit other objects, which will then react in a very convincing way. Even dead bodies that are close to the radius of an explosion will be tossed around like a rag doll. The Half-Life 2 physics engine helps ties it to the real world better than any other game in the genre.
