Gordon Freeman is back and this time they have improved the game in all departments.  Before I tell you about the story, I will give you an idea what is involved to get it running.

The specs for this game is high, very high.  The computer I was running it on did not have high specs, it was a direct x 8 graphics card.  You first need to install the game and a program that comes with it to setup an account.  You can not run this game without first registering the game on the Valve website.  Once you have setup an account you then just press the play button and the game will start to decompress onto you hard drive, then it will install any updates.  Go make a coffee or something this will take some time.

Back to the story.  Gordon Freeman is back and so is the G Man.  You start the game in a city that seems to have been taken straight out of 1984.  It is a totalitarian city and as with all city of this nature, there are small underground terrorist groups who want to over throw the government at that time.  You quickly meet up with Barney from the first Half Life and he helps you to escape.  You wander along the tops of buildings and get to a point where you are surrounded.  You get knocked out and whilst you are semi conscious on the ground, you hear the voice of a women beating up the soldiers.  When you wake, you see a women who knows you name and tells you to follow her.  This is where I will leave it for you to play.

They have stolen elements from Halo.  For example later you get to drive vehicles.  I found this a bit of a pain.  It isn’t that difficult to overcome them but annoying none the less.  You control the vehicle with the directional key and use the mouse to control the gun.  This can be pain, as you will find yourself looking in the direction of the thing you are trying to kill but at the same time trying to control the vehicle, which you now cannot see where you are going.  They obviously like the fact that they can provide you with outside levels thanks to the extra power PCs offer today.

Personally I like corridors, I like the claustrophobia that they provide.  I like the fact that you can hear something around the corner but don’t know what to expect until to look around the corner and see.  There is something reassuring about having a solid wall behind me and that I don’t have to constantly look over my shoulder.  When something should jump out of the wall whilst you are looking the other way, it can scare the living daylights out of you but that just my opinion.

It is, as we should expect, a solid FPS shooter and has a good atmosphere.  Perhaps the hype surrounding this game had pushed my expectations a little bit high.

The thing about games of this nature is they aren’t that special.  I know there are a few new features.  For example one of the interesting weapons that you will be able to use latter on in the game is a gravity gun that allows you to pick up objects and throw them.  Just don’t do what I did and picked up an explosive barrel and promptly blew myself up trying the throw it.

I would have to say that as a whole it well worth the money and you could do worse buying something else.  Just don’t expect a game created by god himself.

The graphics engine is scaleable but I would not even try playing this game on anything less than either a 2 GHZ CPU with at least a Geforce 6800 or windows xp 64 bit if you don’t have a fast graphics card.  Don’t even bother attempting to play this game with a cut down version.  There is a reason they’re s cheap.  You would recommend at least 512 MB of ram and 1 GIG is best for optimum play. 

Some of the weapons found in the game

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