It's time for you to once again take up your submachine gun and take out all the foes threatening humanity. Still, that doesn't stop Half-Life 2 from being a very impressive and engaging shooter, and a faithful follow-up to one of the greatest PC games of all time. With that said, many of those tricks feel more than a bit familiar now, and the game itself is saddled with a disappointing story.
And, in many ways, this big-budget sequel does what it sets out to do: Half-Life 2 is a technically amazing, sharply honed first-person shooter that pulls all the tricks that made Half-Life such a beloved experience. Well, it's time to forget about that, because Half-Life 2 has arrived. And while there was little question that there would eventually be a sequel, no one could have imagined the long and torturous development process that led to Half-Life 2. As a result, it paved the way for many of the outstanding first-person shooters that have followed.
Half-Life single-handedly reinvented the first-person shooter, putting the emphasis on cinematic pacing and complete immersion in the experience. It's hard to believe that, prior to Half-Life 2, Valve had really made only one game.
