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for PlayStation 2
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Tout: One of the PCs most heralded first-person shooters makes its way to the PS2 with mixed results. The evolution of the first-person shooter has been ongoing for roughly a decade now. The genres roots lie in the now landmark Wolfenstein, but the popularity and resulting proliferation of first-person shooters can be mostly attributed to I.D. Softwares Doom. There have been other notable contributions to the genre such as Unreal, Serious Sam, and, of course, Half Life. Debuting on the PC about three years ago, Half Life quickly endeared itself to FPS loving PC gamers with its excellent level design, engaging storyline (a rarity in an FPS), and its cadre of interesting monsters with which the player did battle. A testament to its endurance, a number of add on packs and patches have been released for Half Life (Counter Strike anyone?) which have helped it remain a game thats still played by many today. Obviously realizing that a great deal of money can made in the console gaming market, not to mention brand advancement, Sierra, Half Lifes publisher, decided to port the PC mainstay to the PlayStation 2. Although Half Life PS2 is strong in a number of areas, mostly notably graphically and aurally, its age is definitely beginning to show and relative to other current FPS, it really doesnt stand out in any significant respect. The background story to Half Life is the foundation for the single player mode, so well start there. You play the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Innsbruck in Innsbruck, Austria. Youre contacted about a job at the Black Mesa Research Facility in Black Mesa, New Mexico, a decommissioned missile base. You accept a position as a Research Associate assigned to the Anomalous Materials Laboratory at the facility and take part in a top-secret project that seeks to open a portal to another dimension. The portal gets opened and the results are disastrous. The entire base is soon under siege from all manner of bizarre monsters, and most of the staff are either dead or have been turned into monsters themselves. Thats your cue to go kick some monster butt. After only a few minutes of play it was evident to me that Half Life is a visually brilliant game. The light sourcing, texture mapping, and crisp sixty frames per second framerate all contribute to making the Half Life PS2 experience an eye-pleasing one. The character animations are somewhat limited and result in the appearance of stiffness, but thats a really minor fault that isnt very noticeable and doesnt hamper the gameplay in the least. Also of note are the main and in-game menus. Theyve all got a very slick, polished look and are easy to navigate. The multitude of alien monsters youll encounter (over a dozen of them) look very nice and animate quite well, even a little better than the human characters do. The stages themselves also look really good, but theyre a little on the small side and, from a design standpoint, arent that imaginative. However, the stages do reflect a great deal of realism and allow for a good bit of interaction, so that somewhat compensates for the blandness. Youll find throughout the course of the game that youve got to push and pull things, flip switches, and open various doors. The environments also reflect your presence, whether its bullet holes in walls, smashed light fixtures, or broken glass. Your character also is affected by gravity and miscellaneous environmental conditions. Wet floors will be slippery and weak flooring will collapse under your weight are but two examples of this. One rather annoying aspect of the realism is the kickback on the guns. When you shoot your character jumps slightly as a result of firing and that can get to be frustrating when youve got a room full of monsters accosting you. On the gameplay side of the equation Half Life offers up three different modes of play. Theres the one-player story mode, simply called Half Life, the one or two-player Decay mode, and the two-player Head-to-Head Mode, which is basically your typical Deathmatch Mode. In the one-player story mode youve got to rid the Black Mesa Research Facility of the malevolent monsters that have overrun it. Using an assortment of weapons like an Assault Rifle, Trip Mines, and a Crossbow you make your way through the base dispatching the baddies. The story mode is a bit slow going at first for a number of reasons. For starters, theres a lengthy intro sequence that has you traveling underground to the base in what looks a bit like a ski lift cab. This wouldnt be so bad except for the fact that you cant skip through it and it seems to last forever, though in actuality its only about five minutes. Once off the cab theres still more information gathering to do. Youve got to talk to a number of scientists and guards as they tell you where to go in the facility to get started with the experiment. It took me a while of wondering around and getting my bearings before I finally got to where I needed to be and commenced with the experiment that gets the game underway. Since youre dealing with hazardous materials you have to first find a Hazardous Environment Suit, or HEV. Once you put it on and then open the portal the monsters start coming and theres finally some action. It wouldve been nice to have the option of skipping through some or all of the story elements and just get to the wasting the monsters part, but once they show up theres really not a lot of idle time, which is good. The HEV serves as your armor, and needs new batteries and charging from time to time. HEV charging stations and new batteries are all over the place, so its not too much of a hassle. There are also first aid stations and medical packs called first aid satchels in copious amounts so staying alive isnt too hard. In the Decay Mode you and a friend, or just you along, take control of Dr. Gina Cross and Dr. Colette Green. In this mode youve got to complete a number of objectives while also being rated on things like shot accuracy and kill count. The Decay Mode moves a lot faster when you play it with a friend because you can both work simultaneously to complete the objectives. When playing alone youve got to constantly switch between the two characters, and when youre controlling one the other stands still. The inactive player will defend herself if attacked by monsters, but thats about it. So, you can see how it would quickly get laborious. Move one player, stop, move the other player, stop, and on and on. Decay is really only at all playable and fun with two people. Developers Valve and Gearbox Software shouldve just made Decay two-player only. The Head-to-Head Mode is your basic one on one battle to the death, but its important here to key in on the word basic. Maybe Ive been a little spoiled by FPS like Perfect Dark in which youve got literally dozens of options, but two-player Half Life is a little dull. You dont have the option for one-hit kills, you cant put in computer-controlled bots, and you cant really customize the selection of weapons. What you can do is select a stage and set the number of kills required for victory. A little under whelming to say the least. Sound wise Half Life is quite good, but not in the way you might expect. Theres scant music to be heard, but in this sense whats missing actually helps the atmosphere and feel of the game. Walking around a dark, dank underground base and running into a screeching foe has a lot more impact without any music. Another FPS that employed this same technique comes to mind, and it was a great game at the time: Aliens vs. Predator on the Atari Jaguar. The many sound effects like guns firing, glass breaking, and footsteps falling are all well done. Youll even find that walking on different surfaces produces different noises, such as when you go from walking on a smooth floor to walking on a metal grate. When all is said and done Half Life on the PS2 is a solid game, if a bit unimpressive. It looks really nice and sounds good, but it lacks variety in many areas and as a whole doesnt compare that favorably with the likes of the aforementioned Perfect Dark. If you have Half Life for the PC theres definitely no need to get the PS2 version. If youve never played Half Life on the PC or really want a first-person shooter for your PS2, it is currently the best option. Its a dressed up game thats three years old though, and with the likes of Timesplitters 2 and Perfect Dark Zero not that far off, most would be best advised to take a pass on Half Life. Pros/Cons:
Graphics: 4 (of 5) -Ian Johnston
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