Recent reviews by Fofo :•]

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My first exposure to this game was on the Xbox Original, believe it or not. Since then, I've replayed this game an innumerable amount of times. After not having played it in years, I decided to buy it again on my steam account, and I'm still just as in love with it, if not more.

Half-Life 2 is a shooter from 2004. It might seem "simple" or "basic". But even 17 years later, not a lot of games can come close to emulating what it did, or do it in a scale Half-Life 2 does. I'm going to try my best to summarize some of my favourite strong points of this game, but bear in mind that it won't be a full comprehensive list of what this game achieves wonderfully.

I talk about each of these points in further detail with examples in a youtube video:
https://youtu.be/iCHGghgo2eI
Check it out, if you wish, or if you'd rather watch that than read the summary of each point below!

Half-Life 2 does not have a voiced protagonist, and it's a good thing. A lot of games fall into the trap of having their main character narrate everything in front of their eyes, and doesn't let the player form their own thoughts from the environment. (and there is quite a good bit of environmental story-telling in this game!) So many moments in this game where a voiced protagonist could ruin the fun immensely. A voiced protagonist isn't a bad thing at all, and there are some games that use a voiced protagonist well. But Half-Life 2 benefits greatly from not having one.

I give detailed examples of this in my video, but I'll try to explain what I mean in text form. This game does not give any tutorials, apart from small blurbs that say "W ,A ,S ,D to walk" or "E to pick up objects". but this game does a wonderful job at teaching you what you are capable of in the game, purely in a "show-don't-tell" method.

It shows you how an enemy behaves, various ways to deal with enemies, what you can do to the environment, and how you can apply each core mechanic in subsequent puzzles, fights and challenges you face. The game teaches these with zero text pop-ups or boring tutorials, almost purely through the environment, with some sections having a character or two explain to you the basics instead.

This game did an amazing job with the details. I've played and replayed this so many times, but even in my most recent playthrough I notice more details I've never noticed before. Details that add to building up a world, too. Interactions among NPCs, Announcer messages, Things on noticeboards, Graffiti on walls... They are all wonderful additions to making this new world you're thrust into so much more believable, and understandable to a newcomer.

Enemy Combine Soldiers even have randomized codenames given to them, consisting of a randomized word, and number. And they actually use their names and one another's names in their radio chatter, when communicating throughout a battle. Even location names in their radio chatter differ in each encounter. This is the type of detail I've never noticed till I've replayed multiple times.

Literally from the moment this game launches, the *main menu* immerses you in a rendered environment, with little things inhabiting it moving around, with beautiful ambient noises. And these environments change based on which chapter you're at in the game, too.

This game does a pretty wonderful job at establishing their main characters. For a pretty story-intensive game, there aren't a whole bunch of characters. there are probably only 8 or 9 main characters you find. But I find myself engaged in not only these characters, but the world beyond them, too. The game ties these characters with many events and places of the world, and not too much in a confusing way. Especially if you've played Half-Life 1, it's pretty nice to see so many references and characters tied to the events of that game. (Though, IMO, you don't necessarily need to fully play HL1 to enjoy this game. Maybe just a summary would suffice, if you'd really like.) But despite the small cast of characters, these are characters that add majorly to the world, instead of being characters solely for the purpose of populating the world.

This game is an extremely polished game that holds up to this day. It goes on sale for like 75% off every major sale. Just buy it.

Here's my video again, if you'd like to see more, including quite a few examples for these points
(Keep in mind, this is my first time doing an actual review/analysis format. I apologise if the video OR this Steam review is convoluted or not helpful! Have a wonderful timezone ahead, either way <3 Thank you for reading!)