Half Life 2 released: First Impressions
Half Life 2 was officially released yesterday. I installed it last night, and have played through a few hours so far. Very strange installation process. When installing the game, you will create an online account with Steam if you do not already have one. An internet connection, and Steam account, are required to install AND play the game. This has proved to be a tremendous hassle for a lot of people. For me, installing the game went fairly smoothly, though I had to wait awhile to connect to Steam. I've never been a fan of Steam. I had to install it awhile back when Counter Strike first required it. It tends to be very buggy and slow. The thing is, after you install Half Life 2 out of the box, it connects to Steam to download and install "additional" Half Life 2 files. For a single-player game, shouldn't everything I need be in that box? Also, It also connects to Steam every time you launch the game. For some people, this simply doesn't work, and they are very pissed as a result. Why you have to go through all this for a SINGLE player game is a mystery to me. If they want to use Steam as one means of distributing the game to consumers (which they did), that's fine. But if I bought a retail copy in the box, why should I have to mess with all this crap?
Anyway, on to the game itself. From what I've seen so far, this is an awesome game. The graphics are stunningly detailed, and the ragdoll physics are incredible. The lighting is probably the best I've ever seen. Better even, than Doom 3. I've been in alot of outdoor environments so far in the game, and the natural sunlight, and it's resulting effects, are extremely realistic. Also, nearly everything you see in the game is movable. You can pick up just about anything, provided it is not too heavy to be moved. As a result, you can, for example, throw explodable barrels into crowds of bad guys, then shoot the barrel to blow it and your enemy's up. Very cool. The story so far seems good as well. You are part of some kind of resistance movement, being oppressed by these jack-booted thugs. I can't give a full review since I have not finished the game, but so far it's pretty engrossing. Here are some of the screenshots I've taken so far...
