Although the single-player game is what sets the hook, it's the multiplayer that keeps you coming back for more. Sadly, Valve stumbles a bit here. Half-Life 2 originally shipped with Counter-Strike Source as its online gaming component. This is a graphically updated remake of one of the most widely played team-based games on the market. If you played Counter Strike before, you'll feel perfectly at home with the upgrade. It has the same rules, tosses in a few more guns, a map or two and bumps up the graphics and physics to parallel Half-Life 2.
How long it will hold your attention is dependent purely on how much you played the original Counter-Strike. Gamers who have stuck with CS since its inception may not find enough improvements to warrant extended play, especially with a new copy of Half-Life 2 sitting on the hard drive. Those few people who have never experienced CS will be in for a treat, and will quickly find out why it is a legend with the online gaming community. Although Counter-Strike Source is certainly a welcome extra, it is disappointing that Valve, a company that has made trailblazing a company motto, did not see it fit to improve or extend on the original.
Thankfully, Valve has since released a Steam add-on called Half-Life 2: Deathmatch. This provides a non-CS online gaming component, and hopes to satisfy those gamers with a hunger for a franticly paced frag-for-all. But gamers might have to contend with empty stomachs for a while, because Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, in its current state, stinks. Imagine the original's Deathmatch mode, then cut the speed in half, insert half-assed no-strategy maps and handicap all the guns to the point that they are useless, and you'll get an idea of what it is like. HL2: DM is like the mentally-challenged little brother of the high school's star quarterback; sure he's got the right lineage but that's it.
The sole bright spot of the game is the gravity gun, which allows you to dispatch foes with the means of a chair or table, but it's doubtful the novelty will hold your interest beyond a few rounds. Lets all hope the modding community will elevate the game back up to the glorious Deathmatch we all knew and loved.
Half-Life 2 has a great physics engine, great attention to detail, and great animation. All these "greats" will, no doubt, appeal to many gamers swept up in Half-Life Mania; perhaps enough to have them dub it as "The best game ever made." But there will be some who take a step back and view Half-Life 2 in its entirety, and see the game's discrete shortcomings in storyline and gameplay, not to mention the Steam component, and label it simply as a solid, fun game with room for improvement.
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