Despite this being a 15 year old game (at the time of writing this review) it still holds up as a groundbreaking masterpiece in gaming. The superb facial animations considering hardware limitations at the time still look believable and genuine and really help sell the first person narrative being told, especially since so much of the story telling falls on surrounding NPC's to convey emotion and a sense of urgency since the protagonist is silent. The gun play is a little weak mechanically, though this is more than made up for considering the wide variety of weapons you encounter throughout the campaign. The havok based physics engine really allows for amazing physical puzzles that require manipulating the surrounding environment in ways that hadn't been seen before in games. Overall a very strong entry in the franchise and honestly still a great looking and mechanically impressive game all these years later.

Despite this being a 15 year old game (at the time of writing this review) it still holds up as a groundbreaking masterpiece in gaming. The superb facial animations considering hardware limitations at the time still look believable and genuine and really help sell the first person narrative being told, especially since so much of the story telling falls on surrounding NPC's to convey emotion and a sense of urgency since the protagonist is silent. The gun play is a little weak mechanically, though this is more than made up for considering the wide variety of weapons you encounter throughout the campaign. The havok based physics engine really allows for amazing physical puzzles that require manipulating the surrounding environment in ways that hadn't been seen before in games. Overall a very strong entry in the franchise and honestly still a great looking and mechanically impressive game all these years later.