''Half-Life 2'' is a 2004
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...
game developed by
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
. It was published by Valve through its distribution service
Steam. Like the original ''
Half-Life
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...
'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and adds features such as vehicles and physics-based gameplay. Players control
Gordon Freeman
Gordon Freeman is the silent protagonist of the ''Half-Life'' video game series, created by Gabe Newell and designed by Newell and Marc Laidlaw of Valve. His first appearance is in ''Half-Life''. Gordon Freeman is depicted as a bespectacled C ...
as he joins a resistance movement to liberate the Earth from the control of an alien empire, the
Combine.
''Half-Life 2'' was created using Valve's
Source engine
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve. It debuted as the successor to GoldSrc in 2004 with the release of '' Counter-Strike: Source'' and '' Half-Life 2''. Updates to Source were released in incremental versions, with the engine being su ...
, which was developed at the same time. Development lasted five years and cost million. Valve's president,
Gabe Newell
Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), nicknamed Gaben, is an American businessman and the president of the video game company Valve.
Newell was born in Colorado and grew up in Davis, California. He attended Harvard University in the early ...
, set his team the goal of redefining the first-person shooter genre. They integrated the
Havok physics engine
Havok is a middleware software suite developed by the Irish company Havok. Havok provides a physics engine component and related functions to video games.
In September 2007, Intel announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Havok ...
, which simulates real-world physics, to reinforce the player's sense of presence and create new gameplay, and developed the characterization, with more detailed character models and realistic animation.
Valve announced ''Half-Life 2'' at
E3 2003
E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publishe ...
, with a release date for that September. It was delayed by over a year, triggering a backlash. A year before release, an unfinished version was stolen by a hacker and leaked online, which damaged team morale and slowed development.
''Half-Life 2'' was released on Steam on November 16, 2004, and received universal acclaim. It won 39
Game of the Year
Game of the Year (GotY) is an award given by various award events and media publications to a video game that they feel represented the pinnacle of gaming that year.
Events and ceremonies
British Academy Games Awards (BAFTA Games Awards)
...
awards and has been cited as one of the
best games ever made
This is a list of video games that multiple reputable video game journalists or magazines have considered to be among the best of all time. The games listed here are included on at least six separate "best/greatest of all time" lists from diff ...
. By 2011, it had sold 12 million copies. ''Half-Life 2'' was followed by the free extra level ''
Lost Coast
The Lost Coast is a mostly natural and undeveloped area of the California North Coast in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties, which includes the King Range. It was named the "Lost Coast" after the area experienced depopulation in the 1930s. In ad ...
'' (2005) and the
episodic sequels ''
Episode One'' (2006) and ''
Episode Two'' (2007). In 2020, after canceling ''
Episode Three'' and
several further ''Half-Life'' projects, Valve released a prequel, ''
Half-Life: Alyx''.
Gameplay
Like the original ''
Half-Life
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...
'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' is a single-player
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...
in which players control
Gordon Freeman
Gordon Freeman is the silent protagonist of the ''Half-Life'' video game series, created by Gabe Newell and designed by Newell and Marc Laidlaw of Valve. His first appearance is in ''Half-Life''. Gordon Freeman is depicted as a bespectacled C ...
. It has similar
mechanics
Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to object ...
to ''Half-Life'', including health-and-weapon systems (though with less overall weapons) and periodic physics puzzles, except with the newer
Source
Source may refer to:
Research
* Historical document
* Historical source
* Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence
* Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...
engine and improved graphics. The player also starts without items, slowly building up their arsenal over the course of the game. Despite the game's mainly linear nature, much effort was put into making exploration rewarding and interesting; many optional areas can be missed or avoided.
A diverse set of enemies is present, which usually require being approached with different tactics: some coordinate in groups to out-maneuver or out-position the player; others, such as the Manhack, fly directly at the player through small openings and tight corridors. Others use predictable but powerful attacks, while others hide before swiftly attacking the player. Gordon can kill most enemies with his weapons, or make use of indirect means, exploiting environmental hazards such as explosive pressurized canisters, gas fires or improvised traps. In chapter 10 and 11 of the game, Gordon can be joined by up to four armed Resistance soldiers or medics and can send his team further from him or call them back.
Many of the game's new features utilize the source engines's detailed physics simulation. Two sections of the game involve driving vehicles. Instead of button-oriented puzzles from ''Half-Life'', environmental puzzles are also introduced with makeshift mechanical systems, revolving around the player's new ability to pick up, move, and place objects. Solutions involve objects' physical properties, such as shape, weight, and
buoyancy
Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the ...
. For example; In chapter three, "Route Kanal", the player is required to stack cinder blocks on a makeshift see-saw ramp to proceed over a wall. Alternatively, the player can build a crude staircase with the blocks, so the puzzle may be solved in multiple ways.
Part-way through the game, Gordon acquires the
Gravity Gun, which allows him to draw distant objects towards himself or forcefully push them away, as well as the ability to manipulate larger and heavier objects that he cannot control without the weapon. These abilities are required to solve puzzles later in the game, and can also be used to great effect in combat, as any non-static object within proximity to the player has the potential to be used as a makeshift defense, such as a file cabinet, or a deadly projectile, such as a gasoline can or
buzzsaw
A circular saw is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. ''Cir ...
blade. The player can learn this through cleverly placed hints in the environment.
The game never separates the player with pre-rendered
cutscene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward th ...
s or events; the story proceeds via exposition from other characters and in-world events, and the player can control Gordon for the entirety of the game. Much of the backstory to the game is simply alluded to or told through the environment. Even tutorials are mostly placed in the environment or in dialogue. The few pop-ups that actually appear only tell the player keybindings for actions.
Plot
''Half-Life 2'' takes place approximately twenty years after the incident at the
Black Mesa Research Facility
The Black Mesa Research Facility (also simply called Black Mesa) is a fictional underground laboratory complex that serves as the primary setting for the video game ''Half-Life'' and its expansions, as well as its remake, '' Black Mesa''. It als ...
from the first game, in which scientists accidentally opened a portal to the hostile dimension Xen. The game begins with
Gordon Freeman
Gordon Freeman is the silent protagonist of the ''Half-Life'' video game series, created by Gabe Newell and designed by Newell and Marc Laidlaw of Valve. His first appearance is in ''Half-Life''. Gordon Freeman is depicted as a bespectacled C ...
being awoken from stasis by the mysterious
G-Man
''G-man'' (short for "government man", plural ''G-men'') is an American slang term for agents of the United States Government. It is especially used as a term for an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
''G-man'' is also a term ...
(
Michael Shapiro) who reveals that the Black Mesa incident attracted the attention of a multidimensional empire called the
Combine, which conquered Earth in seven hours. The Combine have implemented a brutal
police state
A police state describes a state where its government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the ...
by biologically assimilating humans and other species, including the peaceful Vortigaunts (
Louis Gossett Jr.
Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (born May 27, 1936) is an American actor. Born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, He had his stage debut at the age of 17, in a school production of '' You Can't Take It with You.'' Shortly after he successfully ...
and
Tony Todd
Tony Todd (born December 4, 1954) is an American actor who made his debut as Sgt. Warren in the film ''Platoon'' (1986), and portrayed Kurn in the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1990–1991) and '' Star Trek: Deep Space N ...
). The G-Man inserts Gordon into a train arriving at
City 17, the site of the
Combine Citadel, where
Dr. Wallace Breen (
Robert Culp
Robert Martin Culp (August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010) was an American actor widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on ''I Spy'' (1965–1968), the espionage television se ...
), the former Black Mesa administrator who negotiated Earth's surrender governs as the Combine's
puppet ruler
A puppet ruler is a person who has a title indicating possession of political power, but who, in reality, is either loyal to or controlled by outside individuals or forces. Such outside power can be exercised by a foreign government, in which case ...
.
After eluding the Combine forces, Gordon joins a resistance led by former Black Mesa scientist
Dr. Eli Vance
This is a list of characters in the ''Half-Life'' video game series, which comprises ''Half-Life'', ''Half-Life 2'', ''Half-Life: Alyx'', and their respective expansion packs and episodes.
Introduced in ''Half-Life'' and expansion packs
This sec ...
(
Robert Guillaume), which also includes Vance's daughter
Alyx (
Merle Dandridge
Merle Dandridge (born May 31, 1975) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for performing in Broadway musicals such as ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', ''Spamalot'', ''Rent'', and '' Once on This Island'', as well as her video game rol ...
), former Black Mesa security guard
Barney Calhoun (Shapiro), who works undercover as a Civil Protection officer, and another Black Mesa scientist,
Dr. Isaac Kleiner (
Harry S. Robins). After a failed attempt to teleport to the resistance base,
Black Mesa East
The ''Half-Life'' video game series features many locations set in a dystopian future stemming from the events of the first game, ''Half-Life''. These locations are used and referred to throughout the series. The locations, for the most part, a ...
, from Kleiner's makeshift laboratory, Gordon progresses on foot through the city's canal system. The teleportation attempt accidentally alerts Breen and the Combine to Freeman's return, leading to them sending forces to attack him. He obtains an
airboat
An airboat (also known as a planeboat, swamp boat, bayou boat, or fanboat) is a flat-bottomed watercraft propelled by an aircraft-type propeller and powered by either an aircraft or automotive engine. In early aviation history the term ''airboat ...
and battles through sewers and rivers.
At Black Mesa East, Gordon is reintroduced to Eli and meets another resistance scientist,
Dr. Judith Mossman (
Michelle Forbes
Michelle Renee Forbes Guajardo (born January 8, 1965) is an American actress who has appeared on television and in independent films. Forbes gained attention for her dual role in daytime soap opera ''Guiding Light'', for which she received a D ...
). Alyx introduces Gordon to her pet robot,
Dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
, and gives him the
gravity gun, an instrument that can manipulate large objects. When the base is attacked by Combine forces, Eli and Mossman are captured and taken to the Combine detention facility
Nova Prospekt. Separated from Alyx, Gordon detours through the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm, aided by its last survivor,
Father Grigori (
Jim French). Escaping the town, Gordon discovers a resistance outpost. He uses a customized
dune buggy to travel a crumbling coastal road to Nova Prospekt, fighting off alien antlions, and helping the resistance fend off Combine raids.
Gordon breaks into Nova Prospekt and reunites with Alyx. They locate Eli but discover that Mossman is a Combine informant. Before they can stop her, Mossman teleports herself and Eli back to City 17's Citadel. The Combine teleporter explodes moments after Gordon and Alyx use it to escape Nova Prospekt.
Returning to Kleiner's lab, Gordon and Alyx learn that the teleporter malfunctioned and that a week has passed. In their absence, the resistance has mobilized against the Combine. With the aid of Dog and Barney, Gordon fights his way inside the Citadel. A security system inadvertently supercharges Gordon's gravity gun, allowing him to fight his way up the Citadel.
Gordon is captured in a Combine transport pod and taken to Breen's office, where he and Mossman are waiting with Eli and Alyx in captivity. Breen explains his plans to further conquer humanity with the Combine, contrary to what he told Mossman.
Angry, Mossman frees Gordon, Alyx, and Eli before Breen can teleport them off-world. Breen tries to escape through a teleporter, but Gordon destroys its reactor with energy orbs launched from a gravity gun, killing Breen. Just as the reactor explodes, the G-Man reappears and freezes time. He praises Gordon's work and mentions offers for Gordon's "services", before placing him back into stasis.
Development
![Gabe newell doug lombardi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Gabe_newell_doug_lombardi.jpg)
Development of ''Half-Life 2'' began in June 1999, six months after the release of the original ''
Half-Life
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...
''. It was developed by a team of 82.
With voice actors included, this number is 100. Valve's president,
Gabe Newell
Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), nicknamed Gaben, is an American businessman and the president of the video game company Valve.
Newell was born in Colorado and grew up in Davis, California. He attended Harvard University in the early ...
, wanted to redefine the FPS genre, saying: "Why spend four years of your life building something that isn't innovative and is basically pointless? If ''Half-Life 2'' isn't viewed as the best PC game of all time, it's going to completely bum out most of the guys on this team."
Newell gave his team no deadline and a "virtually unlimited" budget, promising to fund the project himself if necessary.
The game was built with Valve's new in-house
game engine,
Source
Source may refer to:
Research
* Historical document
* Historical source
* Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence
* Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...
, developed simultaneously.
Whereas ''Half-Life'' was set in a single location, the Black Mesa research facility, Valve wanted "a much more epic and global feel" for the sequel. One concept had the player teleporting between planets, which was discarded as it would make continuity between levels difficult. At the suggestion of the Bulgarian art director
Viktor Antonov, the team settled on a city in an Eastern European location. In this early concept, players would start the game by boarding the ''Borealis'', an
icebreaker
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...
bound for the city.
Nova Prospekt was conceived as a small rail depot built on an old prison in the wasteland and grew from a stopping-off point to the destination itself.
After observing how players had connected to minor characters in ''Half-Life'', the team developed the characterization, with more detailed character models and realistic animation. The animator Ken Birdwell studied the work of psychologist
Paul Ekman
Paul Ekman (born February 15, 1934) is an American psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco who is a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions. He was ranked 59th out of ...
, who had researched how facial muscles express emotion.
The writer
Marc Laidlaw
Marc Laidlaw (born August 3, 1960) is an American writer of science fiction and horror, musician, and a former writer for the video game company Valve. He is most famous for working on Valve's ''Half-Life'' series.
Biography
Laidlaw was b ...
created family relationships between the characters, saying as it was a "basic dramatic unit everyone understands" rarely used in games.
The team integrated the
Havok physics engine
Havok is a middleware software suite developed by the Irish company Havok. Havok provides a physics engine component and related functions to video games.
In September 2007, Intel announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Havok ...
, which simulates real-world physics, to reinforce the player's sense of presence and create new gameplay.
To experiment, the team created a minigame, Zombie Basketball, in which players used a physics-manipulating gun to throw zombies through hoops.
In mid-2001, to test the engine, Valve built a street war between rioting citizens and police, featuring tanks,
Molotov cocktail
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with fla ...
s, hand-to-hand fighting, and looting. The designer John Guthrie described it as "an early attempt at getting something ''–'' anything ''–'' in the game that used non-player characters and physics".
In late 2001, Valve began creating a
showreel
A showreel (also known as a demo reel, sizzle reel, or work reel) is a short video showcasing a person's previous work used by many kinds of people involved in filmmaking and other media, including actors, animators, lighting designers, editors, a ...
, hoping to demonstrate it at
E3 2002.
For several months, Newell let the team work without his input so he could provide unbiased feedback, and focused on developing
Steam, Valve's upcoming digital distribution service. The team presented the showreel to Newell, showcasing physics, environments such as the ''Borealis'', and a dialogue-heavy scene with the scientist character Dr. Kleiner. Newell felt the showreel did not adequately show how the physics would affect gameplay and that the Kleiner scene was overlong. Reflecting on the failure, Laidlaw said: "The dramatic scenes with the characters are important, but they have to be in service of the interactivity and gameplay."
In September 2002, the team completed a second showreel, featuring a buggy race along the City 17 coast, an encounter with headcrabs on a pier, an alien strider attacking the city, and a greatly shortened Kleiner sequence. In October, Newell told the team they would announce ''Half-Life 2'' at E3 2003 and release it by the end of the year.
As with the original ''Half-Life'', the team split into "cabals" working on different levels. Designers created levels using placeholder shapes and surfaces, which then were worked on by the artists.
Valve announced ''Half-Life 2'' at E3 2003, with demonstrations of the characters, animation, and physics. The reaction was positive, and the game won the E3 Game of the Show award. Newell also announced a release date, September 30, 2003, hoping this would motivate the team. They worked long hours to meet the deadline, but by July it had become clear they would miss it. Rumors spread of a delay, but Valve made no announcement until September 23, when they released a statement targeting a "holiday" release, leading to fan backlash.
Newell had been hesitant to announce a delay without a new release date. He said later: "We were paralyzed. We knew we weren't going to make the date we promised, and that was going to be a huge fiasco and really embarrassing. But we didn't have a new date to give people either."
The
graphics card manufacturer
ATI
Ati or ATI may refer to:
* Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines
**Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group
** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines
*Ati language (China), a ...
had arranged a promotional event on
Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pris ...
to coincide with the planned release of ''Half-Life 2''; Newell, unable to pull out of the event, gave a prepared speech, demonstrated the Source engine, and left without addressing questions.
On September 19, the ''Half-Life 2''
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...
was obtained by a German hacker, Axel Gembe, who had infiltrated Valve's internal network months earlier. According to Gembe, he shared it with another person, who leaked the code online in early October.
Fans soon
compiled
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...
a playable version of ''Half-Life 2'', revealing how unfinished it was. The leaks damaged morale at Valve and slowed development.
In March 2004, Gembe contacted Newell and identified himself, saying he was a fan and had not acted maliciously. Newell worked with the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
to invite Gembe to a fake job interview, planning to have him arrested in the United States; however, police arrested him in Germany.
In November 2006, Gembe was sentenced to three years'
probation
Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration.
In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...
.
In 2004, the development team returned after Christmas to long hours, stressful working conditions, and no guarantee that the game, which was costing $1 million a month to develop, would be finished soon. However, Newell felt that progress was speeding up, with the team producing about three hours of gameplay per month. In March, they created the first version playable from start to finish and stopped production for a week to play through the game. Major changes by this point included the cutting of the ''Borealis'' sequence, the replacement of the jet ski with a hovercraft, and the physics-manipulating gravity gun being introduced earlier in the game. Feedback was positive across the company. Newell recalled: "The fact that you could go from one end of the game to the other was a really big thing for us. Then we knew it just had to get better ''–'' but it was all there."
After several months of bug fixes and
playtesting
A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...
, ''Half-Life 2'' was completed on October 13, 2004.
Release
Valve made a 1GB portion of ''Half-Life 2'' available for download in an encrypted format through Steam on August 26, 2004. On the day of release, Steam customers were able to pay, unlock the files, and play the game immediately, without having to wait for the game to download. In retail, distribution of the game was handled by
Vivendi Universal Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
through their
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre ...
subsidiary.
''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'' (ports of the original ''Half-Life'' and ''Day of Defeat'' mod to the new engine). The collector's edition/"Gold" version additionally includes merchandise, such as a baseball cap, a
strategy guide and CD containing the soundtrack used in ''Half-Life 2''. Both the disc and Steam versions require Steam to be installed and active for play to occur. The retail copies of the game came in two versions, standard and Collector's Edition. The Collector's Edition differed from the physical items in the "Gold" edition, and included a T-shirt and sample of the Prima strategy guide.
A
demo
Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to:
Music and film
*Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release
* ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes
* ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...
version with the file size of a single CD was made available in December 2004 at the web site of
graphics card manufacturer
ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies Inc. (commonly called ATI) was a Canadian semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technology Inc., ...
, who teamed up with Valve for the game. The demo contains a portion of two chapters: ''Point Insertion'' and ''"We Don't Go To Ravenholm..."''. In September 2005,
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...
distributed the ''Game of the Year'' edition of ''Half-Life 2''. Compared to the original CD-release of ''Half-Life 2'', the ''Game of the Year'' edition also includes ''Half-Life: Source''.
The soundtrack was written by
Kelly Bailey. ''The Soundtrack of Half-Life 2'', containing most of the music from ''Half-Life 2'' and many tracks from the original ''Half-Life'', was included with the ''Half-Life 2'' "Gold" edition and sold separately from Valve's online store. Valve released a
deathmatch mode in 2004.
Cyber café dispute
On September 20, 2004, ''
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' reported that Sierra's parent company,
Vivendi Universal Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
, was in a legal battle with Valve over the distribution of ''Half-Life 2'' to
cyber cafés
Cyber may refer to:
Computing and the Internet
* ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems
Crime and security
* Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks
** Conventio ...
. At this time, cyber cafés were important for the Asian PC gaming market where PC and broadband penetration per capita were much lower (except Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan).
According to Vivendi Universal Games, the distribution contract they signed with Valve included cyber cafés. This would mean that only Vivendi Universal Games 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
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...
in Seattle, Washington, ruled that 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
Pay-to-play, sometimes pay-for-play or P2P, is a phrase used for a variety of situations in which money is exchanged for services or the privilege to engage in certain activities. The common denominator of all forms of pay-to-play is that one mus ...
activities according to the parties' current publishing agreement. Also, Judge Zilly ruled in favor 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.
On April 29, 2005, the two parties announced a settlement agreement. Vivendi Universal Games would cease distributing all retail packaged versions of Valve games by August 31, 2005. Vivendi Universal Games also was to notify distributors and cyber cafés that had been licensed by Vivendi Universal Games that only Valve had the authority to distribute cyber café licenses, and hence their licenses were revoked and switched to Valve's. Valve subsequently partnered with Electronic Arts for the retail distribution of its games, including the forthcoming Xbox version of ''Half-Life 2''.
Ports and updates
In 2005, Valve released an extra level, ''
Lost Coast
The Lost Coast is a mostly natural and undeveloped area of the California North Coast in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties, which includes the King Range. It was named the "Lost Coast" after the area experienced depopulation in the 1930s. In ad ...
'', as a free download to anyone who purchased ''Half-Life 2''. On December 22, Valve released a
64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A compu ...
version of the Source engine for
x86-64
x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging ...
processor-based systems running
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, released on April 25, 2005, is an edition of Windows XP for x86-64 personal computers. It is designed to use the expanded 64-bit memory address space provided by the x86-64 architecture.
The prima ...
,
Windows Server 2003 x64,
Windows Vista x64, or
Windows Server 2008 x64. This update enabled ''Half-Life 2'' and other Source games to run natively on 64-bit processors, bypassing the
32-bit compatibility layer. Newell said it was "an important step in the evolution of our game content and tools", and that the game benefited greatly from the update.
Some users reported major performance boosts, though technology site Techgage found stability problems and no notable
frame rate improvement.
In 2006, Valve partnered with
Taito
is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. I ...
to release ''Half-Life 2: Survivor'', an
arcade game version for the Japanese market.
Valve rereleased ''Half-Life 2'' as part of the 2007 compilation ''
The Orange Box
''The Orange Box'' is a video game compilation containing five games developed and published by Valve. Two of the games included, ''Half-Life 2'' and its first stand-alone expansion, '' Episode One'', had previously been released as separate ...
'' for Windows,
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
and
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
. On May 26, 2010, ''Half-Life 2'' and its two episodic sequels were released for
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
.
In 2013, Valve ported the game to Linux, and released a free update adding support for the
Oculus Rift
Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a division of Meta Platforms, released on March 28, 2016.
In 2012 Oculus initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Rift's development, af ...
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...
headset.
An
NVIDIA Shield
Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...
-exclusive port for
Android was released on May 12, 2014. In January 2022, a new UI designed for the
Steam Deck
The Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer developed by Valve Corporation. Released on February 25, 2022, the Steam Deck can be played as a handheld or connected to a monitor in the same manner as the Nintendo Switch. It is an x86-64-v3 de ...
was released through an update in the beta branch.
Reception
''Half-Life 2'' has an aggregate score of 96/100 on
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
. Sources such as
1UP
In video games, a life is a play-turn that a player character has, defined as the period between start and end of play. Lives refer to a finite number of tries before the game ends with a game over. It is sometimes called a chance, a try, rest ...
,
[ GameSpy,] ''The Cincinnati Enquirer
''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, al ...
'', ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', and ''VideoGamer.com'' gave it perfect scores, and others, such as ''PC Gamer
''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
'', ''IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'', '' GamesRadar'', and ''Eurogamer
''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson.
Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EG ...
'', gave near-perfect scores. It was the fifth game to receive ten out of ten from ''Edge
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...
''. Critics praised the advanced graphics and physics. ''Maximum PC
''Maximum PC'', formerly known as ''boot'', is an American magazine and website published by Future US. It focuses on cutting-edge PC hardware, with an emphasis on product reviews, step-by-step tutorials, and in-depth technical briefs. Component ...
'' awarded ''Half-Life 2'' 11 on their rating scale which normally peaks at 10, calling it "the best game ever made".
In the United States, ''Half-Life 2''s PC version sold 680,000 copies and had earned $34.3 million by August 2006. It was the country's 17th best-selling PC game between January 2000 and August 2006. It received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association
The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...
(ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' reported on February 9, 2011, that the game had sold 12 million copies worldwide.
In a review of ''The Orange Box'', IGN stated that although ''Half-Life 2'' has already been released through other media, the game itself is still enjoyable on a console. They also noted that the physics of ''Half-Life 2'' are impressive despite being a console game. However, it was noted that the graphics on the Xbox 360 version of ''Half-Life 2'' were not as impressive as when it was released on the PC. GameSpot's review of ''The Orange Box'' noticed that the content of both the Xbox 360 releases, and PlayStation 3 releases were exactly alike, the only issue with the PlayStation 3 version was that it had noticeable frame-rate hiccups. GameSpot continued to say that the frame rates issues were only minor but some consider them to be a significant irritation.
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 the products, and permanently lock them to the account before being allowed to play, along with installation difficulties and lack of support.
Awards
''Half-Life 2'' earned 39 Game of the Year
Game of the Year (GotY) is an award given by various award events and media publications to a video game that they feel represented the pinnacle of gaming that year.
Events and ceremonies
British Academy Games Awards (BAFTA Games Awards)
...
awards, including Overall Game of the Year at ''IGN'', ''GameSpot'''s Award for Best Shooter, ''GameSpots Reader's Choice — PC Game of the Year Award, "Game of the Year" from the Interactive Achievement Awards and "Best Game" with the Game Developers Choice Awards, where it was also given various awards for technology, characters, and writing.
The editors of '' Computer Gaming World'' nominated ''Half-Life 2'' for their 2004 "Single-Player Shooter of the Year" and overall "Game of the Year" awards, although it lost to ''Painkiller
An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic (American English), analgaesic (British English), pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used to achieve relief from pain (that is, analgesia or pain management). It i ...
'' and ''World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
''. They wrote, "''Half-Life 2'', everyone's default pick to win this year, is indeed a fantastic roller coaster of a ride, not as great as the original but still leagues above most other shooters."
''Edge'' 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 British Academy Video Games Awards
The BAFTA Games Awards or British Academy Games Awards are an annual British awards ceremony honouring "outstanding creative achievement" in the video game industry. First presented in 2004 following the restructuring of the BAFTA Interactive En ...
, picking up six awards, more than any other game that night, with awards including "Best Game" and "Best Online and Multiplayer." '' Computer Games Magazine'' named ''Half-Life 2'' the fourth-best computer game of 2004. The editors call it "a masterful single-player experience that plays a constant game of one-upmanship with itself." It won the magazine's "Best Technology" (beating out ''Doom 3
''Doom 3'' is a 2004 survival horror first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. ''Doom 3'' was originally released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004, adapted for Linux later that year, and ported ...
'') and "Best Writing" awards, and was a runner-up in the "Best Sound Effects", "Best AI" and "Best Voice Acting" categories.
''Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' 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". In 2009, ''Game Informer
''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
'' put ''Half-Life 2'' 5th on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that "With ''Half-Life 2'', Valve redefined the way first-person shooters were created".
''Half-Life 2'' was selected by readers of ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' as the best game of the decade, with praise given especially to the environment design throughout the game. According to the newspaper, it "pushed the envelope for the genre, and set a new high watermark for FPS narrative". One author commented: "''Half-Life 2'' always felt like the European arthouse answer to the Hollywood bluster of ''Halo
Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to:
* Halo (optical phenomenon)
* Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head
HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Video games
* ''Halo'' (franch ...
'' and '' Call of Duty''". ''Half-Life 2'' won Crispy Gamer
''Crispy Gamer'' was an American video game website that published news, culture, reviews, comics, and videos. It launched on October 26, 2008, as an independent website after being in beta for six months. Founding staff included former employe ...
's Game of the Decade tournament style poll. It also won Reviews on the Run
''EP Daily'' (formerly ''The Electric Playground'') is a daily news television show that covers video games, movies, TV shows, comic books, collectibles and gadgets. Created and executive produced by host Victor Lucas, and his Vancouver, British ...
's, ''IGN''s Best Game of the Decade and Spike Video Game Awards
The Spike Video Game Awards (in short VGAs, known as the VGX for the final show) was an annual award show hosted by American television network Spike from 2003 to 2013 that recognized the best computer and video games of the year. Produced by ...
2012 Game of the Decade. In December 2021, ''IGN'' named ''Half-Life 2'' the ninth-best game of all time.
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
''Garry's Mod'' is a 2006 sandbox game developed by Facepunch Studios and published by Valve. The base game mode of ''Garry's Mod'' has no set objectives and provides the player with a world in which to freely manipulate objects. Other ga ...
'' (which allow the player to experiment with the physics system in a sandbox mode), to total conversions such as '' Black Mesa'', '' Dystopia'', ''Zombie Master'' or '' Iron Grip: The Oppression'', the last 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. Many more mods are still in development, including ''Lift'', ''The Myriad'', ''Operation Black Mesa'', and the episodic single-player mod ''Minerva
Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...
''. Several multiplayer mods, such as ''Pirates, Vikings and Knights II
''Pirates, Vikings and Knights II'' is a multiplayer team-based first-person action video game, developed as a total conversion modification on Valve proprietary Source engine. The game is currently in beta development stages, with its first pu ...
'', a predominately sword-fighting game; '' Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat'', which focuses on realistic modern infantry combat; and ''Jailbreak Source
''Jailbreak: Source'' is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer team-based first-person shooter, first-person action video game, developed as a Mod (computer gaming)#Total conversion, total conversion modification on the Valve Corporation, Valve' ...
'' have been opened to the public as a beta. 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. In Sept 2022, after a decade of development, a fan made full-VR mod was released titled "Half life 2: VR".
Sequels
''Half-Life 2'' was followed by two episodic sequels: '' Episode One'' (2006) and '' Episode Two'' (2007). After canceling '' Episode Three'' and several further ''Half-Life'' projects, Valve released a prequel, '' Half-Life: Alyx'', in 2020.
See also
*
References
External links
*
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