This game. Yes, this game.

The Half-Life series in general has one of the best storylines of any games I've played. HL2 is enjoyable without having played HL1, though HL1 is also an amazing game too, and if you don't mind outdated graphics and want the full experience, play the first one. Also, you should probably read my HL1 review as it's also based on the HL series in general.

Anyways...

If you're one of those people that doesn't like FPS's and generally thinks that all they are about is blood and gore, no general gameplay or anything, then Half-Life may change your mind about that. Games like Call of Duty are bad examples of that, unfortunately they are also the most common examples.

Half-Life, in my opinion, is enjoyable even if you don't particularly like FPS's. It has amazing gameplay and story, and I showed it to my friend Pokaymon and he played through the entirety of Half-Life: Source (hl1 but directly ported to the Source engine) and loved it, even though he didn't like FPS's that much.
If you don't walk into it thinking about it in a biased way and expecting no gameplay or story, then you might not enjoy it. If you be openminded about it, then you may enjoy it a lot and become attached to the amazing characters and storyline.


Half-Life 2 expands on the story and characters introduced in the first game by making them actual characters and not player models with filenames. All jokes aside, Half-Life 2 takes place 20 years after the end of the first Half-Life and the initial events of the Black Mesa resonance cascade and the portal storms. The Combine, who had invaded the Vortigaunt homeworld before they fled to the borderworld Xen, set their sights on Earth after witnessing the heroic actions of Doctor Gordon Freeman who saved Planet Earth from the Nihilanth and the other aliens from Xen. A war took place between Earth's military and the Combine forces that lasted a total of seven hours, giving it the name the 7-hour war. Doctor Eli Vance and his daughter Alyx started to live in their own secret lab called Black Mesa East with Doctor Judith Mossman, a completely new character not form Black Mesa. Doctor Kleiner also has his own lab, and together they are forming the Resistance, a group bearing the Greek letter Lambda, which means not only the letter L, but the scientific term Half-life, which is why it is in the logo for the game series.
The Vortigaunts, after being freed from the Nihilanth, now have joined forces with the Resistance, and when the G-Man awakens Gordon from stasis 20 years since the events of the Black Mesa incident, he learns about the Combine's enslavement of Earth and Administrator Dr. Wallace Breen working with them in the "safe" City 17. Gordon Freeman, the "one free man," quickly becomes the face of the Resistance as they begin to attempt to stop the Combine.

Gameplay is mostly smilar to the first game, although there is much more variety in scenery, as well as the first known implementation of Havok physics in Valve's Source engine, allowing new forms of gameplay.

I recommend this game to a lot of people, and if you've played the Portal series, it might interest you to know that Half-Life takes place in the same universe. In fact, Portal was originally a sidegame to the Half-Life series, but then it became very popular so they released Portal 2 with more storyline and turning it into its own parallel series.

I rate this game 10 out of 10. kbai

This game. Yes, this game. The Half-Life series in general has one of the best storylines of any games I've played. HL2 is enjoyable without having played HL1, though HL1 is also an amazing game too, and if you don't mind outdated graphics and want the full experience, play the first one. Also, you should probably read my HL1 review as it's also based on the HL series in general. Anyways... If you're one of those people that doesn't like FPS's and generally thinks that all they are about is blood and gore, no general gameplay or anything, then Half-Life may change your mind about that. Games like Call of Duty are bad examples of that, unfortunately they are also the most common examples. Half-Life, in my opinion, is enjoyable even if you don't particularly like FPS's. It has amazing gameplay and story, and I showed it to my friend Pokaymon and he played through the entirety of Half-Life: Source (hl1 but directly ported to the Source engine) and loved it, even though he didn't like FPS's that much. If you don't walk into it thinking about it in a biased way and expecting no gameplay or story, then you might not enjoy it. If you be openminded about it, then you may enjoy it a lot and become attached to the amazing characters and storyline. Half-Life 2 expands on the story and characters introduced in the first game by making them actual characters and not player models with filenames. All jokes aside, Half-Life 2 takes place 20 years after the end of the first Half-Life and the initial events of the Black Mesa resonance cascade and the portal storms. The Combine, who had invaded the Vortigaunt homeworld before they fled to the borderworld Xen, set their sights on Earth after witnessing the heroic actions of Doctor Gordon Freeman who saved Planet Earth from the Nihilanth and the other aliens from Xen. A war took place between Earth's military and the Combine forces that lasted a total of seven hours, giving it the name the 7-hour war. Doctor Eli Vance and his daughter Alyx started to live in their own secret lab called Black Mesa East with Doctor Judith Mossman, a completely new character not form Black Mesa. Doctor Kleiner also has his own lab, and together they are forming the Resistance, a group bearing the Greek letter Lambda, which means not only the letter L, but the scientific term Half-life, which is why it is in the logo for the game series. The Vortigaunts, after being freed from the Nihilanth, now have joined forces with the Resistance, and when the G-Man awakens Gordon from stasis 20 years since the events of the Black Mesa incident, he learns about the Combine's enslavement of Earth and Administrator Dr. Wallace Breen working with them in the "safe" City 17. Gordon Freeman, the "one free man," quickly becomes the face of the Resistance as they begin to attempt to stop the Combine. Gameplay is mostly smilar to the first game, although there is much more variety in scenery, as well as the first known implementation of Havok physics in Valve's Source engine, allowing new forms of gameplay. I recommend this game to a lot of people, and if you've played the Portal series, it might interest you to know that Half-Life takes place in the same universe. In fact, Portal was originally a sidegame to the Half-Life series, but then it became very popular so they released Portal 2 with more storyline and turning it into its own parallel series. I rate this game 10 out of 10. kbai