It’s finally arrived! later than expected. Half life 2 Episode 2 and Portal!
Starting off our first review here at Picky Ass Gamer is a game that, well, was hard for me to be picky over! Lets start off with Half life 2 Ep2.
When we last left our hero, he was on a train escaping the city before the large explosion took place at the citidel. Did he survive? Well obviously or we wouldn’t be here 
The episode starts out with you in the train wreckage trying to get out and alex outside helping you. (there was a small re-cap of previous events since it has been a while for some of us)
I dont want to spoil any of the storyline, so I’ll simply say the game keeps pushing you onward to your goal for this episode, and no this is not going to be the final episode. One thing I really liked about this episode is they gave you a small idea of what to expect from the next episode so you know it’s going to be a quality storyline as opposed to something tacked on (ala the matrix movie sequels).
There are some things I’ve noticed in this episodes graphics engine that I didn’t notice previously (and this could be becuase I had an old 9800 pro video card and I’ve since upgraded to an 8800 GTS), so I’m going to asume they are new.
The first is real time shadows cast off my flash light in the game. When i first noticed this, I actually went around and shined my light on various things on the game to see if it was a gimicky cheat tacked onto the player models only, I’m happy to report everythig in the game that I shined it on was casting a shadow, even casting it on a sink model, left half the sink shadowed inside itself. In a day in age where shadows are generally neglected and generally of low quality, I am quite pleased with the effect they pulled off here! Getting close to your subject cuases larger shadows to be thrown on the wall behind them, and every detail is cast from their body/object onto the wall. Nice work Valve!
Real time shadows in the hizzzouse!
Another thing I noticed was motion blur. As I whip my mouse around the screen i am noticing no tearing and what appeared to be a ‘movie like’ motion blur effect. I didnt check the options I just noticed this as running around, I felt this was a very cool addition, I had no issues with this effect in terms of aiming or spotting bad guys, I honestly thought i’d hve something to nit pick about it, the only nit pick i can find, is that it doesnt look as hot in screenshots (it seems pixelated). But in game it works GREAT!
Blurry world! but only if you want it to be! (motion blur in effect)
Another thing I noticed this time around was the reaction and emotion output by alex. These things may have been there in previous installments again, i just never noticed them. Firstly if you take your flash light up to her and shine it in her face, she squints her eyes and holds her hand up to shade her eyes. Very cool, if trivial. Her facial expressions and body language are also conveyed very well, as she is talking to one of the vortogon (sp) she shrugs her shoulders smiles and appeared to raise her eyebrows. I allways knew the engine support this tech on the close up of the G-man’s face, but not used to seeing it all the time in most cutscenes, its kind of emotion that is not normally expressed in games becuase of the amount of time it takes, but having dedicated cutscene designers/animators helps immensely. Bodies also seem to have a bit more weight to them as well. SPOILER ** Highlight to read: At a certain part alex is nearly killed when she is stabbed by a new enemy stalker type robot. One of the vortogon comes around and picks her body up, as he does this slowly, you can realy see the ‘weight’ of her body, her arms and legs fall heavily , its the ragdoll physics to be sure, but they seem a little less, floaty in this situation alot of care taken on this cutscene.**end spoiler**
Over all what I’m saying here is, valve has really taken their time and polished the game as is. The cutscenes are WELL scripted and some of the best I’ve seen in any first person shooter game. I wont spoil any of them, but you’ll know what i’m talking about.. The scripting has allways been done quite well in the HL games, and its no slouch this time. Weather its the characters keeping an eye on you as you walk around, Facing to turn you, or each other, facial experessions bodily guestures, or just the amount of effects and camera work, it never ceases to really suck you into the game. Great job on these Valve!
Onto the gameplay! the most important part! Well largely this unchanged from the previous episode. I will say it felt like I spent a bit more time exploring than neccessarily killing but it was pretty even. You’ll start out killing bugs and such more than you will killing any combine, but fear not, you will run into the combine soon enough. I don’t remember any new weapons of any sort there are a few new enemies tho, one of which is fairly accurate with it’s ‘exploding’ darts it shoots at you and another with its slime it spits at you. It felt like they were predicting where i was going to go and shooting there more often then not, But it wasn’t frustratinly difficult to deal with. It was ballanced fairly well.
The only problem i struggled with was a little later when you must kill striders who have a few of those enemies with the exploding darts which can really team up on you if you try to take 2 at once. That also happens to be a driving level and while its fun to drive around, it can be frustrating driving in a back wooded area hitting a tiny rock and loosing steering control for a few seconds while you plow into a tree. I would not want to have the driving sections removed neccessarily, but I did wish at times the car handled a little better (if less realistic even). But its a minor quibble, I eventually got past the part, and it really was more of a challange then it was a futile exercise in frustration. I didnt yell at my screen or anything except the odd time a strider impaled me (which was only once).
Say hello to my little friend! (strider go bye-bye)
All in all, Half life 2 Ep 2 was really well polished and heavy on the cutscenes, there’s plenty of dialog, and very well done voice acting once again (even a few stars! Adam baldwin ”Jayne” of firefly, voices a few of the fighters!Awesome! and louis gossit jr among others!) and has its good fair share of action. The only real downside to the game is that the engine is starting to show its age mostly in poly count. The enviroments while very dynamic and high quality textures, don’t realy seem to hold up to some of those seen in games like Gears of War or Unreal Tournament 3, But those are much newer games, HL EP2 definately holds up against those in other area’s just fine.
Here at picky ass gamer, I either am yelling about something completely BS in a game ,or priasing it becuase I’m wowed by an experience. I’m glad to say nothing in half life 2 Ep2 pissed me off or frustrated me, And I was quite wow’d with alot of the new effects and cutscenes, or at least pleasently surprised. If you are paying the price tag of 29.99 for just EP2, I cant say my rating will neccessarily hold up in a price for play comparison. If the game were 19.99 it would be easier to say it would, but I finished it in around 6 hours or so and 30 might be a bit steep for that regardless how good the content is. But i’m going to score this game based off the asumption that you bought orange box and are getting a collection of games with it. That being said.. My verdict is….
9.2/10
Recommended buy
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