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Game play
The
game play of Half Life 2 is simple and like many 3D 3rd
person shooter games. Default controls are the
keyboard and mouse with a configuration most of us already
know.
Gordon
is again equipped with a crowbar, flashlight and protective
hazard suit, plus there are many other weapons you find
and pickup as you go.
Like
in the first Half Life, you can find med packs and batteries
lying around in crates or scattered around on the floor
and occasionally from the re-charging station on the walls.
I’ve
noticed that here and there are helpful niches, marked with
the Half life 2 symbol (lambda symbol), that help you out
with med packs, batteries or ammo. These
are definitely worth watching for as the action increases,
they just might save your life.
The
levels are divided in sections that load as you go from
one section to another. This
reduces big level loading times.
The
auto-saves in the game are triggered by checkpoints that
you pass and you can also save your game at any moment.
There
are no cut scenes or perspective changes throughout the
game that take you out of the moment.
Some of the weapons are the same as in the
first part, like the crowbar, pistol, submachine gun and
shotgun. There
are 3 new weapons, however, which are a pulse rifle, pheropod
and the gravity gun.
The
pulse rifle is like a space weapon firing pulses at your
enemies, the pheropod allows you to summon and control ant
lions and the gravity gun allows you to manipulate objects
and use them as weapons.
A
new feature in the game is that you get to drive a high-speed
buggy and an airboat.
In
these vehicles you will encounter many obstacles and experience
chases throughout the game.
Facial expressions
Right
away, I was amazed by the very detailed and high quality
appearance of G-man. The
facial expression is a nice and new feature as well.
Each character can produce different facial
expressions making interacting with them even more fun and
interesting.
The
system for facial expressions covers 40 facial muscles used
to convey a whole array of human emotions. It’s
unlike anything I’ve seen in any action shooter yet.
Everything
is viewed from Gordon’s perspective and the conversations
are single-sided. If
you look closely enough, you might even get to see the gleam
or twinkle in someone’s eye.
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