"Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine."

Half-Life 2 is a game that forever changed my life as a gamer. I was only nine years old when I stumbled across a demo disk copy of The Orange Box for my Xbox 360, and I decided to check out what that weird little disk had to offer me. I don't remember ever playing an old-school style FPS before that point, and if I had, none of them ever stood out to me the way that Half-Life 2 did. Little did I know that it would forever change the way I looked at video games, specifically the way a First-Person Shooter could work.

Coming back to it for possibly the tenth time, I was afraid that this game wouldn't hold up the same as it did for me three years ago. Back then, I was worried that it "wouldn't hold up the same as it did four years ago". Both times, I was proven wrong. With an immensely creative direction and timeless characters, Half-Life 2 still remains one of the greatest FPS titles of all time.

Many fans of the original title criticize this game's lack of revolutionary flavor that the 1998 title was able to bring to the gaming industry. Yes, the sequel brought a fantastic physics engine that changed up the gameplay, but that was already expected to happen with many games in 2004. It was expected that the sequel would continue the great ideas from Half-Life , throwing the great Doctor Gordon Freeman against many types of alien foes with unique designs and powers, but...that didn't really happen. In a lot of ways, Half-Life 2 was a disappointment in the same way that The Empire Strikes Back was a disappointment - it shifted the tone of the series in a different direction...

... a much darker direction...

Half-Life 2 throws you not into a version of Earth with tons of fun aliens to fight. It doesn't throw you into the heat of the aftermath of the Resonance Cascade from the original title. This game tosses you into the remnants of human civilization, desperate to survive mass genocide being committed by an alien empire known as The Combine. There are no more children. There is little hope left...

There is only one "free man".

There really isn't anything to talk about concerning this title that hasn't already been talked about. Many gamers have heard of this title and heard of its legacy, and to describe its refined FPS gameplay and great plot would be like preaching to the choir. What I find more important is to show this game to someone who is newer to FPS games, in hopes that it can be an example of exquisite storytelling and worldbuilding within a video game.

In my opinion, this is Valve's masterpiece, it is their golden child. It is the one game that they are terrified of making a direct sequel for, so much so that it has been sixteen years, nearly three times the gap between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 , and there is still no sign of Half-Life 3 . Its been over a decade since this game fell in my lap and proved to me that a fantastic world could be formed within the realms of an FPS title. I, as well as many other people, am eagerly awaiting Half-Life 3 . Expectations are all over the place for that title, and there's a very good reason for that.

Its hard to follow up a near perfect video game. Valve would be putting its reputation on the line to deliver something revolutionary for fans. However, there are rumblings that many employees want to return to this world and finish Gordon Freeman's story. Whether it is a traditional FPS or it involves virtual reality technology, there's only one thing for certain - the only thing standing between Half-Life 3 and the end of the trilogy is...time.

Of course I Recommend this game.

Its one for the ages.


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