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Half-Life 2 's public reception was overwhelmingly positive in terms of reviews, acclaim, and sales. It was critically acclaimed for advances in computer animation, sound, narration, computer graphics, artificial intelligence AI , and physics.
When sales figures were last announced, 12 million were sold at retail on PC and Xbox. If Half-Life 2 eventually surpasses Half-Life in sales, it will take the title of the best-selling first-person shooter game to date. Roughly 25 percent of all Half-Life 2 copies have been purchased using the Steam content delivery service; their exact number is between , and one million, depending on whether they are included in the figure of 6.
Half-Life 2 has become and remains one of the most highly acclaimed video games in history. Half-Life 2 holds Metacritic's highest-ranking and standing "universal acclaim" among PC games with a score of 96, followed directly by Half-Life also with a score of Maximum PC awarded Half-Life 2 an unprecedented 11 on their rating scale which peaks at 10, and named it the "best game ever made.
Individual reviews were almost universally glowing. Critics who applauded the game cited the advanced graphics and physics along with the relatively low system requirements. Very few reviewers gave Half-Life 2 lower than a nine out of ten ratings.
One such critique was Netjak, a reviewing website known for its relative harshness, which gave Half-Life 2 a rating of 8. Several critics, including some that had given otherwise glowing reviews, complained about the required usage of Steam along with a difficult installation process.
The popularity of Half-Life 2 and the Half-Life series has led way to an array of side products and collectibles. Valve offers Half-Life -related products such as plush Headcrabs , posters, clothing, and mousepads. Doctor Breen's office at the top of the Citadel, showing the advanced lighting abilities of the Source engine. For Half-Life 2 , Valve developed a new game engine called the Source engine, which handles the game's visual, audio, and artificial intelligence elements.
The Source engine comes packaged with a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine that allows for an extra dimension of interactivity in both single-player and online environments. Additionally, when coupled with Steam , the engine can be easily upgraded to include many new graphical technologies. One such example is High Dynamic Range Lighting , which Valve debuted as a free level called Half-Life 2: Lost Coast , which functions as a playable tech demo for the new technology.
All Half-Life 2 players are required to have Steam installed and a valid account in order to play. Steam allows customers to purchase games and other software straight from the developer and have it downloaded directly to their computer as well as receiving "micro-updates. Steam can also be used for finding and playing multiplayer games through an integrated server browser and friends list, and game data can be backed up with a standard CD or DVD burner.
Steam and a customer's purchased content can be downloaded onto any computer, as long as that account is only logged in at one location at a time. The usage of Steam has not gone without controversy. Some users have reported numerous problems with Steam, sometimes being serious enough to prevent a reviewer from recommending a given title available on the service.
In other cases, review scores have been lowered. Long download times, seemingly unnecessary updates, and verification checks are criticisms leveled by critics of the system's use for single-player games such as Half-Life 2. Whether or not a customer intends to use any multiplayer features, the computer the game was installed on must have Steam and an Internet connection to verify the transaction.
This meant that customers could begin to download encrypted game files to their computer before the game was released. When the game's release date arrived, customers were able to pay for the game through Steam, unlock the files on their hard drives and play the game immediately, without having to wait for the whole game to download. The pre-load period lasted for several weeks, with several subsequent portions of the game being made available, to ensure all customers had a chance to download the content before the game was released.
Through Steam, Half-Life 2 had three packages that a customer could order. Both the disc and Steam versions require Steam to be installed and active for play. A demo version with the file size of a single-CD was later made available in December at the website of graphics card manufacturer ATI Technologies, who teamed up with Valve for the game.
The demo contains part of the opening level of the game, and also part of the chapter "We Don't Go To Ravenholm On December 22, , Valve released a bit version of the Source engine that takes advantage of AMD64 processor-based systems running a bit version of the Windows operating system. This update, delivered via Steam, enabled Half-Life 2 and other Source-based games to run natively on AMD64 processors, bypassing the bit emulator.
Gabe Newell , one of the founders of Valve, stated that this is "an important step in the evolution of our game content and tools," and that the game benefits greatly from the update. An Xbox port published by Electronic Arts was released on November 15, While subject to positive reception, critics cited its lack of multiplayer and frame-rate issues as problems, and the game received lower scores than its PC counterpart.
The PlayStation 3 version was delayed and finally shipped on December 11, There were reports Valve was having troubles with the PlayStation 3 hardware and it shows with bouts of slowdown that are not seen on the Xbox or PC versions.
Since the release of Half-Life 2 , Valve has released an additional level and two additional expansion sequels. The sequels Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two take place shortly after the events of Half-Life 2 , with the player once again taking on the role of Gordon Freeman and with Alyx Vance playing a more prominent role and expanding the mysteries surrounding the G-Man and the Vortigaunts. Additionally, one further episode is set to be released in the future, dubbed Episode Three ; being the last expansion, "in a trilogy".
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