Half-Life 2 is the game of the DECADE!

[DarkD]

Taken from http://www.gamesradar.com/best-games-ever/ at rank 12


Hitting in 2004, Half-Life 2 instantly made every previous advancement in the rapidly accelerating FPS genre look like a total joke. The Source Engine brought stunning graphic and lighting effects which, combined with H-L 2’s gorgeously idiosyncratic production design and amazing facial animation, created a living world generations ahead of anything we’d experienced before.

And then there was the physics model. With a heavily modified version of Havok running within Source, Half-Life 2 didn’t simply look like no game before it, it felt completely different too. The groundbreaking interactive design of the first Half-Life suddenly looked stiff and lifeless compared to H-L 2’s free-flowing, organic environmental manipulation. And of course, that led to the Gravity Gun, the most inspired and important weapon and tool yet to hit FPS.

But all this talk of technical achievement misses what really makes Half-Life 2 so special. The narrative journey, characters and sense of attachment to its world are what really stick with you. Here, we’re talking about the best written, best acted and most wonderfully human characters and story in all of games. Nuanced, layered, immaculately paced, and with the ability to fire up the emotions just as much, if not more, than the pulse rate, Valve’s clever decision to eschew cut-scenes in favor of constant first-person exploration and playable narrative means that you’re never pulled out of it for a second.