Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game and the sequel to the highly acclaimed Half-Life. It was developed by Valve Software Corporation and was released on November 16, 2004, following a protracted five-year,^[3] $40 million^[4] development cycle during which the game’s source code was leaked to the Internet.^[5] The game uses the Source game engine, which includes a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine.^[6] Originally available only for Windows-based personal computers, the game has since been ported onto the Xbox, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles.^[7]

Taking place in and around the fictional City 17, Half-Life 2 follows the adventures of scientist Gordon Freeman. Dr. Freeman is thrust into a dystopian environment in which the aftermath of the events in Half-Life have come to bear fully upon human society. Freeman is forced to fight against increasingly unfavorable odds in order to survive. In his struggle, he is joined by various allies, including former Black Mesa colleagues, oppressed citizens of City 17, and the Vortigaunts.

Half-Life 2 garnered near unanimous positive reviews and received critical acclaim,^[8][9] winning over 35 Game of the Year awards for 2004.^[10] The game has been critically praised for its advances in computer animation, sound, narration, computer graphics, artificial intelligence (AI) and physics. As of June 8, 2006, over four million copies of Half-Life 2 have been sold.^[11] Exact numbers for digital delivery service Steam and retail have not been revealed, but in general, the former accounts for 25% of Valve’s business and is significantly more profitable per unit.^[12] As of July 14, 2006, the Half-Life franchise has sold 16 million units.^[11] According to GameSpy, Half-Life 2 is the second most played online computer game (excluding MMOGs), surpassed only by Half-Life.^[13]

Gameplay

Gameplay in Half-Life 2 is very similar to that of its predecessor. The player navigates through a linear set of levels, combating transhuman troops, known as the Combine, and hostile alien creatures. Puzzles and sequences involving vehicles are interspersed throughout the game, breaking up moments of fighting.^[14]

Like other first person shooters, navigation and combat is presented entirely from a first-person perspective. A head-up display at the bottom of the screen shows the player's health, energy, and ammunition status, while a toggle screen shows available weapons at the top. Health and energy can be revitalized by picking up medical supplies and energy cells, or by utilizing wall mounted charging devices.^[15]

Using an assortment of weapons, the player can defeat enemies. The game's available arsenal consists of modern day weapons, primarily pistols and shotguns; though more elaborate weapons are available, including a crossbow that shoots hot metal rods and a pheromone pod that summons alien creatures. Physics extend into combat through a special device called the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator, or "gravity gun". Using this device, the player can pick up objects and hurl them at enemies. These objects can also be held in place, creating a makeshift cover.^[16] The gravity gun can perform a variety of non-combat functions, such as grabbing out-of-reach supplies, building bridges across gaps, and flipping overturned vehicles.^[17]

Many puzzles utilize the game's physics engine. For example, one puzzle requires the player to either turn a seesaw-like lever into a ramp by placing cinder blocks at one end, or to stack the cinder blocks into a crude stairway.^[18] Puzzles are frequently solved using the gravity gun. One puzzle has the player clear a highway by using the gravity gun to push numerous abandoned vehicles out of the way.^[19]

Multiplayer

Half-Life 2 was released without a multiplayer component, and was instead packaged with Counter-Strike: Source.^[17] A few months later, Valve released Half-Life 2: Deathmatch on Steam.^[20] The goal of the game is to kill as many other players as possible, using a variety of means, in either free-for-all or team-based matches.^[21] A subsequent update to the game added an additional map and three new weapons.^[22] The Xbox release of Half-Life 2 contains no multiplayer component,^[23] however the re-release of Half-Life 2, packaged as The Orange Box for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, includes the multiplayer game Team Fortress 2.^[24][25]

Synopsis

Setting

The original Half-Life takes place at a remote civilian and military laboratory called the Black Mesa Research Facility. During an experiment, researchers at Black Mesa accidentally cause a "resonance cascade" which rips open a portal to an alien world, Xen. Creatures from Xen flood into Black Mesa via the portal and start to kill anyone in sight. The player takes on the role of Gordon Freeman, one of the research scientists involved in the accident, guiding him in his attempt to escape the facility. At the end of the game, Gordon is extracted by a mysterious figure colloquially known as the G-Man who "offered" him employment. Gordon was subsequently put into stasis by the G-Man.^[26]

Half-Life 2 picks up the story with the G-Man taking Freeman out of stasis and inserting him on a train en-route to City 17 an indeterminate number of years after the Black Mesa Incident. Official sources differ on the actual length of this intermission—a story fragment written by author Marc Laidlaw for the development team puts the intermission at ten years,^[27] while Half-Life 2: Episode One's Web site puts this intermission as "nearly two decades" after the end of the events of Half-Life.^[28]

The environments in Half-Life 2 are varied, ranging from the generally Eastern European-styled City 17 and the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm, to the coastal Nova Prospekt prison and the massive Combine Citadel. Viktor Antonov, the art director of Half-Life 2, who spent his childhood in Bulgaria, wrote that Eastern Europe was favored as a setting for the game as it is capable of depicting a combination of both new and old architecture, creating a city with history; "gothic themes associated with Prague and vampires" were also overlooked in favor of a different aspect of the region.^[27] The entire game world in acordance with the storyline has a distinct post-apocalyptic theme.

Plot

At the start of the game, the G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman as part of a hallucination-like vision as he is pulled out of stasis and placed on a train. Gordon exits the train in City 17 and proceeds through the Combine's security checkpoints where he is detained by one civil protection officer. Once in an interrogation room, the officer reveals himself to be Barney Calhoun, and helps Freeman to get to Doctor Isaac Kleiner's laboratory. After meeting Alyx Vance, Freeman is instructed by Kleiner to step into a makeshift teleporter so that he can be safely extracted to Black Mesa East along with Alyx, headed by her father, Doctor Eli Vance. However, Kleiner's pet headcrab Lamarr disrupts the machine, and Freeman finds himself, after briefly appearing in several different locations including in the office of Dr. Breen, at the outskirts of City 17. Freeman works his way through the drained canal system,^[29] avoiding Combine forces and using the help of human resistance fighters who see Freeman as a messianic figure,^[30] to safely arrive at Black Mesa East.

Dr. Vance and Doctor Judith Mossman debrief Freeman on events since the incident at Black Mesa. As Alyx is introducing Freeman to Dog, her pet robot and showing him how to use the new Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator ("gravity gun"), the lab is attacked and Dr. Vance is captured. Freeman is separated from Alyx, but she explains that he must travel to Nova Prospekt in order to save her father.^[31] Along the way, Freeman encounters other allies, including Father Grigori in the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm,^[32] and Colonel Odessa Cubbage and his forces. After making his way across an Antlion infested-beach, Freeman reaches Nova Prospekt and begins to search for Dr. Vance.^[33] Alyx eventually reaches him and joins in his search. Together, they discover that Dr. Mossman is a spy for the Combine, but before they can stop her, she teleports herself and Dr. Vance back to the Citadel in City 17.

Freeman and Alyx attempt to follow using a prototype teleporter, but the unit explodes as they use it; they awake in City 17, but find that a week has passed, during which the human resistance has become an army, turning City 17 into a battlefield.^[34] Alyx helps to assist Dr. Kleiner and other innocent humans to escape the city, while Freeman joins with the human resistance to dispatch the Combine forces. As the resistance gains the upper edge, Freeman learns that Alyx has been captured by the Combine and taken to the Citadel.^[35] Freeman enters the Citadel to rescue Alyx but as he enters, all his weapons save the gravity gun are destroyed by an energy field; the gravity gun reacts to the field and becomes much more powerful, and Freeman uses it to remove the Combine forces in his path.^[36] Freeman eventually reaches Doctor Breen's office, where Dr. Mossman is also waiting. As Dr. Mossman brings in Alyx and Dr. Vance, Dr. Breen explains to Freeman that his services are "open to the highest bidder". Dr. Breen attempts to threaten the Vances, but Dr. Mossman reveals herself to be a double agent working for the resistance, forcing Dr. Breen to flee to the Dark Energy Reactor at the top of the Citadel and to attempt to teleport away from Earth. Freeman and Alyx pursue Dr. Breen and disable the reactor, disabling Dr. Breen's escape route, but at the same time overloading the reactor.^[37] The reactor begins to explode, with both Freeman and Alyx appearing to be caught in the blast radius, when time stops and the G-man appears. The G-man comments on Gordon's successful endeavors and then places Gordon back into stasis and leaves through a door of pure light. The plot is continued in Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Narrative

Throughout the entire game, Gordon never speaks, the action is viewed through his eyes only—there are no cut scenes—and there are no discontinuities or jumps in time from the player's point of view. There has been some criticism of these narrative holdovers from Half-Life,^[38] since they effectively limit how much of the backstory is explained. Due to the lack of cut scenes, the player never directly sees what has happened in Gordon's absence. Ultimately, it is not clear to what extent Gordon exists as a separate character outside of the player's influence. Since the start of Half-Life, Valve has made sure that the player's and Gordon's experience are one and the same. An example of Valve's player strategy is shown during the scene in Eli's lab. Investigation of certain props (most notably the newspaper board) triggers Eli to give some explanation to their meaning and history, thus indicating that Gordon presents emotions that the non-player characters can detect.^[39]

The ending of Half-Life 2 is also very similar to that of the original: after completing a difficult task against seemingly overwhelming odds, Gordon is extracted by the G-Man. Gordon is smugly congratulated and told that further assignments should follow. The fates of many of the major characters, such as Alyx, Eli, and Judith, go unexplained. Very few of the questions raised by Half-Life are answered, and several new ones are presented. The identity and nature of the G-Man remains a mystery. A number of these issues are addressed, however, in the sequel games, Episode One and Episode Two.^{[26][40][41][42]}

Production

Development

For Half-Life 2, Valve Corporation developed a new game engine called the Source engine, which handles the game's visual, audio, and artificial intelligence elements. The Source engine comes packaged with a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine that allows for an extra dimension of interactivity in both single-player and online environments.^[43] The engine can be easily upgraded because it is separated in modules. When coupled with Steam, it becomes easy to roll out new features. One such example is high dynamic range rendering, which Valve incorporated into a free download-able level called Lost Coast for owners of Half-Life 2.^[44] Several other games use the Source engine, including Day of Defeat: Source and Counter-Strike: Source, both of which were also developed by Valve,^[45] and the upcoming games The Crossing, developed by Arkane Studios, and Postal III, developed by Running with Scissors and Akella.^[46][47]

Integral to Half-Life 2 is the Steam content delivery system developed by Valve Corporation. All Half-Life 2 players on PC are required to have Steam installed and a valid account in order to play.^[48] Steam allows customers to purchase games and other software straight from the developer and have them downloaded directly to their computer as well as receiving "micro updates." These updates also make hacking the game harder to do and has thus far been somewhat successful in staving off cheats and playability for users with unauthorized copies.^[49] Steam can also be used for finding and playing multi-player games through an integrated server browser and friends list, and game data can be backed up with a standard CD or DVD burner. Steam and a customer’s purchased content can be downloaded onto any computer, as long as that account is only logged in at one location at a given time. The usage of Steam has not gone without controversy.^[50] Some users have reported numerous problems with Steam, sometimes being serious enough to prevent a reviewer from recommending a given title available on the service. In other cases, review scores have been lowered.^[51] Long download times, seemingly unnecessary updates, and verification checks are criticisms leveled by critics of the system’s use for single-player games such as Half-Life 2.^[52][53] Regardless of whether or not a customer intends to use any multiplayer features, the computer on which the game was installed must have Steam and an Internet connection to verify the transaction.

The book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar revealed many of the game’s original settings and action that were cut down or removed from the game. Half-Life 2 was originally intended to be a darker game with grittier artwork, where the Combine were more obviously draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the atmosphere with noxious, murky gases. Nova Prospekt was originally intended to be a small Combine rail depot built on an old prison in the wasteland. Eventually, Nova Prospekt grew from a stopping-off point along the way to the destination itself.^[27] Half-Life 2 was also originally intended to be more diverse in settings. The book mentions how originally, the player was to follow a different journey from what is in the final release. Weapons were also cut from the game, including the OICW seen in an E3 demonstration video and two different models of the gravity gun; a level was also cut from Ravenholm, dubbed "Traptown". Initially, a sniper rifle was included as one of the weapons Gordon Freeman could wield, but it was replaced by the crossbow.^[27]

Source code leak

Half-Life 2 was merely a rumor until a strong impression at E3 in May 2003 launched it into high levels of hype, where it won several awards for best in show. It had a release date of September 2003, but was delayed. This pushing back of HL2’s release date came in the wake of the cracking of Valve's internal network,^[54] through a null session connection to Tangis which was hosted in Valve's network and a subsequent upload of an ASP shell, resulting in the leak of the game's source code in early September 2003.^[55] On October 2, 2003, Valve CEO Gabe Newell publicly explained in the HalfLife2.net forums the events that Valve experienced around the time of the leak, and requested users to track down the perpetrators if possible.

In June 2004, Valve Software announced in a press release that the FBI had arrested several people suspected of involvement in the source code leak.^[56] Valve claimed the game had been leaked by a German black-hat hacker named Axel Gembe. Gembe later contacted Newell through e-mail (also providing an unreleased document planning the E3 events). Gembe was led into believing that Valve wanted to employ him as an in-house security auditor. He was to be offered a flight to the USA and was to be arrested on arrival by the FBI. When the German government became aware of the plan, Gembe was arrested in Germany instead, and put on trial for the leak as well as other computer crimes in November 2006, such as the creation of Agobot, a highly successful trojan which harvested users' data.^[57][58][59]

At the trial in November 2006 in Germany, Gembe was sentenced to two years' probation. In imposing the sentence, the judge took into account such factors as Gembe's difficult childhood and the fact that he was taking steps to improve his situation.^[60]

Contract dispute

On September 20, 2004, the gaming public learned through GameSpot that Vivendi Universal Games (VUG) was in a legal battle with Valve Software over the distribution of Half-Life 2 to cyber cafés. This is important for the Asian PC gaming market where PC and broadband penetration per capita are much lower (except Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan). Therefore, cyber cafés are extremely popular for playing online games for large numbers of people.^[61]

According to VUG, the distribution contract they signed with Valve included cyber cafés. This would mean that only VUG could distribute Half-Life 2 to cyber cafés—not Valve through the Steam system. On November 29, 2004, Judge Thomas S. Zilly, of U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, WA, ruled that Sierra/Vivendi Universal Games, and its affiliates, are not authorized to distribute (directly or indirectly) Valve games through cyber cafés to end users for pay-to-play activities pursuant to the parties' current publishing agreement. In addition, Judge Zilly ruled in favour of the Valve motion regarding the contractual limitation of liability, allowing Valve to recover copyright damages for any infringement as allowed by law without regard to the publishing agreement’s limitation of liability clause.^[62]

On April 29, 2005, the two parties announced a settlement agreement. Under the agreement, VUG would cease distributing all retail packaged versions of Valve games by August 31, 2005. VUG also was to notify distributors and cyber cafés that had been licensed by VUG and Sierra that only Valve had the authority to distribute cyber café licenses, and hence their licenses were revoked and switched to Valve's.^[63]

Soundtrack

All listed tracks were composed by Kelly Bailey.^[64] Purchasers of the Gold Package of the game were given (among other things) a CD soundtrack containing nearly all the music from the game, along with three bonus tracks. This CD is available for separate purchase via the Valve online store.

Tracks 16, 18 and 42 are bonus tracks that are exclusive to the CD soundtrack. Tracks 44 to 51 are tracks from the game that did not appear on the soundtrack CD. Many of the tracks were retitled and carried over from the Half-Life soundtrack; The names in parentheses are the original titles. Tracks 34, 41, and 42 are remixes.

Release

Distribution

A 1GB portion of Half-Life 2 became available for pre-load through Steam on August 26, 2004. This meant that customers could begin to download encrypted game files to their computer before the game was released. When the game’s release date arrived, customers were able to pay for the game through Steam, unlock the files on their hard drives and play the game immediately, without having to wait for the whole game to download. The pre-load period lasted for several weeks, with several subsequent portions of the game being made available, to ensure all customers had a chance to download the content before the game was released.^[65]

Half-Life 2 was simultaneously released through Steam, CD, and on DVD in several editions. Through Steam, Half-Life 2 had three packages that a customer could order. The basic version ("Bronze") includes only Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, whereas the "Silver" and "Gold" (collector’s edition) versions also include Half-Life: Source and Day of Defeat: Source (ports of the original Half-Life and Day of Defeat mod to the new engine) as well as the right to download all previous games by Valve through Steam. The collector’s edition/Gold version additionally includes merchandise such as a t-shirt, a strategy guide, and a CD containing the soundtrack used in Half-Life 2. Both the disc and Steam version require Steam to be installed and active for play.^[66]

A demo version with the file size of a single-CD was later made available in December 2004 at the web site of graphics card manufacturer ATI Technologies, who teamed up with Valve for the game. The demo contains part of the opening level of the game, and also part of the chapter "We Don't Go To Ravenholm." In September 2005, Electronic Arts distributed the Game of the Year edition of Half-Life 2. Compared to the original CD-release of Half-Life 2, the GOTY edition adds Half-Life: Source.^[67]

On December 22, 2005, Valve released a 64-bit version of the Source game engine that takes advantage of AMD64 processor-based systems running a 64-bit version of Windows. This update, delivered via Steam, enabled Half-Life 2 and other Source-based games to run natively on 64bit processors, bypassing the 32-bit compatibility layer. Gabe Newell, one of the founders of Valve, stated that this is "an important step in the evolution of our game content and tools," and that the game benefits greatly from the update.^[68] The response to the release varied: some users reported huge performance boosts, while technology site Techgage found several stability issues and no notable frame rate improvement.^[69] 64-bit users have widely reported bizarre in-game errors including characters dropping dead, game script files not being pre-cached (i.e., loaded when first requested instead), map rules being bent by AI, and other glitches.^[70]

An Xbox port published by Electronic Arts was released on November 15, 2005. While subject to positive reception, critics cited its lack of multiplayer and frame-rate issues as problems, and the game received somewhat lower scores than its PC counterpart.^[71]

During Electronic Arts’s summer press event on July 13, 2006, Gabe Newell, cofounder of Valve Corporation, announced that Half-Life 2 would ship on next-generation consoles (specifically, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) including episodes One and Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal^[7] in a package called The Orange Box. The Windows version was released on October 10, 2007 as both retail boxed copy, and as a download available through Valve’s Steam service. The Xbox 360 version was also released on October 10, 2007. A PlayStation 3 version was released on December 11, 2007.^[72]

The popularity of Half-Life 2 and the Half-Life series has led way to an array of side products and collectibles. Valve offers Half-Life-related products such as a plush vortigaunt, plush headcrab,^[73] posters, clothing and mousepads.^[74]

Critical response

Half-Life 2’s public reception was overwhelmingly positive in terms of reviews, acclaim and sales. As of June 8, 2006, over four million copies of the game have been sold.^[11] This is around half the number of Half-Life copies sold. The game became one of the most critically acclaimed video games in history. It received an aggregated score of 96% on both Game Rankings and Metacritic.^[8][83] Sources such as GameSpy,^[77] The Cincinnati Enquirer,^[81] and The New York Times^[82] have given perfect reviewing scores, and others such as PC Gamer^[80] and IGN^[78] gave near-perfect scores, while the game became the fifth title to receive Edge magazine’s ten-out-of-ten score.^[75] Critics who applauded the game cited the advanced graphics and physics^[82] along with the relatively low system requirements.^[76] Maximum PC awarded Half-Life 2 an unprecedented 11 on their rating scale which normally peaks at 10, and named it the "best game ever made".^[79]

Several critics, including some that had given positive reviews, complained about the required usage of the program Steam, the requirement to create an account register your products and permanently lock them to the account before being allowed to play, along with complications making it impossible to install and lack of support.^[82]

Awards

Half-Life 2 earned over 35 Game of the Year awards,^[10] including Overall Game of the Year at IGN, GameSpot’s Award for Best Shooter, GameSpot’s Reader’s Choice - PC Game of the Year Award, Game of the Year from The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, and "Best Game" with the Game Developers Choice Awards, where it was also given various awards for technology, characters, and writing. Edge magazine awarded Half Life 2 with its top honor of the year with the award for Best Game, as well as awards for Innovation and Visual Design. The game also had a strong showing at the 2004 BAFTA Games Awards, picking up six awards, more than any other game that night, with awards including "Best Game" and "Best Online Game."^[84]

Guinness World Records awarded Half-Life 2 the world record for "Highest Rated Shooter by PC Gamer Magazine" in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. Other records awarded the game in the book include, "Largest Digital Distribution Channel" for Valve's Steam service, "First Game to Feature a Gravity Gun", and "First PC Game to Feature Developer Commentary".^[85]

Expansions and modifications

Main articles: Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and Half-Life 2: Episode Three

Since the release of Half-Life 2, Valve Corporation has released an additional level and two additional "expansion" sequels. The level, "Lost Coast," takes place between the levels "Highway 17" and "Sandtraps" and is primarily a showcase for high dynamic range rendering (HDR) technology. The first "expansion" sequel, Half-Life 2: Episode One, takes place immediately after the events of Half-Life 2, with the player taking on the role of Gordon Freeman once again and with Alyx Vance playing a more prominent role. Half-Life 2: Episode Two continues directly from the ending of Episode One, with Alyx and Gordon making their way to White Forest Missile base, the latest hideout of the resistance. A further "episode" is set to be released in the future, dubbed Episode Three; being the last expansion, "in a trilogy."^[86] In an interview with Eurogamer, Gabe Newell revealed that the Half-Life 2 "episodes" are essentially Half-Life 3.^[87] He reasons that rather than force fans to wait another six years for a full sequel, Valve Corporation would release the game in episodic installments.^[87] Newell admits that a more correct title for these episodes should have been "Half-Life 3: Episode One" and so forth, having referred to the episodes as Half-Life 3 repeatedly through the interview.^[87]

Third-party mods

Main article: List of Half-Life 2 mods

Since the release of the Source engine SDK, a large number of modifications (mods) have been developed by the Half-Life 2 community. Mods vary in scale, from fan-created levels and weapons, to partial conversions such as Rock 24, Half-Life 2 Substance and Smod (which modify the storyline and gameplay of the pre-existing game), SourceForts and Garry's Mod (which allow the player to experiment with the physics system in a sandbox mode), to total conversions such as Dystopia, Zombie Master or Iron Grip: The Oppression, the latter of which transforms the game from a first-person shooter into a real-time strategy game. Some mods take place in the Half-Life universe; others in completely original settings; while some are tributes to other games, such as GoldenEye: Source, a recreation of GoldenEye 007, and Resident Evil: Twilight, based on the Resident Evil series. Many more mods are still in development, including Neotokyo, Grayshot, and the episodic single-player mod MINERVA. Several multiplayer mods, such as Pirates, Vikings and Knights II, a predominately sword-fighting game, Insurgency, which focuses on realistic modern infantry combat and Jailbreak Source have been opened to the public as a beta.^[88][89] As part of its community support, Valve announced in September 2008 that several mods, with more planned in the future, were being integrated into the Steamworks program, allowing the mods to make full use of Steam's distribution and update capabilities.^[90]

Valve Corporation’s Half-Life: Source was a direct conversion of the original game to the Source engine. Black Mesa is an unofficial mod under development which takes the more ambitious route of attempting to fully recreate the original Half-Life from the ground up using improved graphical assets and effects, while maintaining the original storyline and level design.^[91]

References

External links

• Official Half-Life 2 website
• Valve Developer Community
• Combine OverWiki, a Half-Life Wikia.