Product ReviewsHalf-Life 2 (PC, 2004)

Half Life 2

Half Life 2 is a great, fast paced first person shooter. The graphics are terrific, and game play is fast and smooth. It gives you the ability to interact with almost every object you see which is unique to many games of this type. The game is full of puzzles, and maze type scenarios which are challenging, but not impossible. With the game, you get an account with Source, which is an online gaming company. It will give you access to many other games, some of which are at an additional cost. A nice feature to Half Life 2 is that once the game is loaded on to your computer, it does not require you to keep using the CD/ROM to play. The game is launched through Source. My only complaint about Half Life 2 is the load times during game play. They usually occur when moving from one level to another, but they feel like they take forever. All in all it is a terrific game, and a lot of fun to play. If you like first person shooters, this is a game for you.Read full review...

came on time and in great shape

Half-life 2 is one of the best PC games ever made, and it should be on every PC gamers playlist. glad i made this purchase.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: vashjmv89

Brilliant in Most Aspects

First off lets start with pros and cons.

Pros: Excellent gameplay, beautiful graphics, cool storyline

Cons: Less creativity the HL in the weapons selection most of which seemingly taken out of the original, various early release glitches, complete incompatability with the Intel 950 chipset, game requires a broadband connection to properly install (copy protection excessive).

Seems like a lot of cons huh? Well the pros far outweight the cons, The graphics capabilities of this game still rivel those of most console hits and the Lost Coast expansion really shows promise for even more rivaling performances. The gameplay is fairly smooth and offers a less then totally linear experiance, the open environment takes away from some of the valor in seeking secret items or shortcuts though as they feel less like secrets and more like just another way. The world area is expansive and detailed including beautiful water texture as well as reflect/refractory experiances that are enough to make you ready to take a swim. The combat is impressive, the implementation of the new source engine is impressive to say the least best exemplified by shooting a particular enemy NPC in a particular body part causeing realistic recoil actions (ragdoll physics). The weapons left a lot to be desired as your vast inventory only supplies you many of the same weapons available in the original game (and you EVEN lose a few) of coarse the weapons detail is drastically advanced in contrast, I can't help feeling a little left out from all of the cool alien weapons originally available in the original.Read full review...

Half-Life 2, one of the greatest PC games ever

This game is great. Anyone that played the first Half-Life, any of the expansions (OpForce, Blue Shift) or mods (Counter-Strike, Firearms, ColdIce, etc) would enjoy playing this game. Take all the challenges, puzzles, and the fun you had playing HL, and add a complex physics engine, complete with ragdoll physics. Blow stuff up and watch it fly around, throw objects, complete puzzles where you have to move things around that affect balance on a lever, boyancy of a float, etc.

There are several mods available, including Garry's mod, which allows you to spawn NPCs, build things with various objects, and in general just mess around with the physics engine.

My friends have had HL2 for quite some time, and I had never picked it up. I was on eBay a few weeks ago and saw a brand new in the box SEALED copy of the game for $20. Not someone selling the username/password to their Steam account, but the actual game. It was the best $20 I've spent on a PC game in a LONG time.

If you don't have it already, HL2 is a must-have game for any PC gamer, hardcore or casual.Read full review...

Spot on.

Exactly what I was after.
One of the finest games made, and still wrapped, with a valid registration number, and at the right price.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: pe-494312

Half-Life 2

awesome game, a must for collectors, following the hl1 saga, experience the new half life engine and its amazing graphic thechnology, the storyline falls far away from the hl1 story a whole different game, with previous background. basically it has come down to urban warfare, with low grade weapons, and alien technology weapons, the game is set in a dystopian future not far from today, in eastern europe. the populace has been decimated by the alien occupation, and a dictatorship regime, governed by humans to the service of alien. Fighting a lossing batle, you must turn the tide against the enemy. make a revolution(eastern europe) and destroy the tyrants. Find the ussual blast from the past, now find unusual allies, and trust no one, for betrayal is at the order. The fact that it is a different game might let down some people like me at first wanting a continuation of the awesome hl1 that i got to love. but then when u play this game long enough one starts to like the new story. remind me a lot of timeshift for those who know it. It has however the same flaw as timeshift, somewhat short and cryptic end. as hl1 had a criptic end suggesting a sequel, at the end u get a feeling of completion of the game. in hl2 you dont. well thats my unprepared brief review, hope u buy it / pirate it whatever the case and enjoy it as i did, PS dont steal the product key from someone that even low for a pirate.Read full review...

The Best that FPS genre has to offer, so far

HalfLife 2 is a sequel to HalfLife 1. In the end of HalfLife 1 Doctor Gordon Freeman was given a choice by the old man with a briefcase. One one hand he was giving a battle that he had no chance of winning, and on the other hand he was given a chance to work for the briefcased man and his organization. HalfLife 2 starts with Doctor Freeman arriving by train into an occupied city.

Pros: The game features stunning graphics and sound. The facial animation of characters and the excellent in-game physics brings the game to life. There are vehicles to pilot and so many objects to pickup and throw with the gravity gun.

Cons: "Steam" required registration is annoying! This mean that only those with internet connection are going to be able to play this spectacular game.Read full review...

half life 2 is Excellent Game

If it seems like PC game fans have been waiting forever for Half-Life 2 (buy it), it's only because they have. The original game was released six years ago, and raised the bar on first-person shooters so high that it created astronomical expectations for the sequel. Fortunately, the game has seemed to live up to these expectations.
The original Half-Life made great strides in gameplay, but the graphics engine wasn't quite the kind of cutting-edge code that made it the subject of numerous benchmarks. Half-Life 2 is different. The first game was based on the Quake engine but with scores of modifications (especially to lighting and animation systems). Valve developed its own cutting-edge engine for Half-Life 2, called Source. It's a complete DirectX 9 graphics engine that scales back to even DX7 rendering if you have a very old video card, and it produces some of the most impressive visuals we've ever seen on a PC.

Performance in Half-Life 2 is going to be a key metric for video cards. The Source engine it is based on has already been licensed for several other games, one of which (Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines) is already on the shelves. More than that, the original Half-Life was host to dozens of fantastic multiplayer mods, including perhaps the most popular online shooter of all time, Counter-Strike. We have no reason to believe that Half-Life 2 won't spawn a similar mod community. In other words, Half-Life 2 performance will probably be a useful video card metric for a long time to come.Read full review...

Half-Life 2 (PC Games)

This game is awesome! Graphics are amazing, characters are life like. It will make you fly out of your seat with thrill poping aliens out of no where. Make sure to save often while playing so you dont have to back track too far if you die. Takes up a lot of memory to run so make sure all other programs are closed while running the game. You will not be disappointed with this game! The orange box is the way to go! Get all 5 games in one cheaper than getting them one at a time! If buying this game used make sure to get a valid valve account information that is linked to the CD Key canNOT make 2 accounts if the CD Key is used by the previous owner on their active account. Great game!!!!Read full review...

I would give it a 0 if I could

Awful game, more of a walking simulator tech demo, just a way for Valve to kick off their war against physical copies and war in favor of spyware clients such as Steam and being charged for a download. Gabe Newell said releasing games complete on release day and selling them physically is a bad thing.
EA wishes they were as evil as Valve. The release of this game should have resulted in Valve being boycotted into bankruptcy. Read full review...

Verified purchase: No