Almost six years after its release on Windows, the legendary Half-Life 2 has arrived on the Mac thanks to Valve’s Steam digital distribution channel. For newcomers to the series, Half-Life 2 is everything the Mac hasn’t had since the halcyon days of Marathon--it’s a terrific sci-fi/horror first-person shooter with a brain.
Set in a dystopian world where humanity has been enslaved by a multidimensional alien race known as the Combine, Half-Life 2 places you in the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist turned unlikely hero who must battle the Combine and work to free humanity from both the Combine itself and the authoritarian human presence that has seized power since the alien invasion.
So, you guys are brothers? We can see the resemblance.
The game takes a little while to get going--it’ll take about half an hour to obtain your hazardous environment suit and get your hands on the game’s first weapon, the mighty crowbar--but it’s worth the wait. This isn’t your typical first-person shooter. You’ll need to solve puzzles to advance, and at times you’ll be seriously outnumbered and outgunned--moments that require more brains than brawn to survive.
Despite Half-Life 2’s age, this giant of a game still impresses. Beautifully rendered models both create stunning landscapes and convey an incredibly claustrophobic world you can’t help but rebel against. The outstanding dialogue draws you into the plot and characters. Those in authority sound like they enjoy their power, the friendly scientists sound lost in their intellectual wanderings, and the rebels gain your sympathy and make you want to fight for their cause. Half-Life 2’s unique inventiveness also sets it apart. Where other first-person shooters might immediately grant you a giant arsenal and tell you to shoot everything in sight, Half-Life 2 utilizes quieter strengths: good artificial intelligence, for example, great controls, a terrific physics engine, and pheromone-based pods that can summon a giant insect army to attack your enemies. The awesome gravity gun can draw objects to you and fire almost any object as a projectile--it’s as much a tool as it is a weapon.
Valve did well with the port to Mac, but a little more work remains to be done. During testing, the game crashed twice on a Mac Pro running Mac OS 10.6.3, and occasional control glitches emerged that caused the main character to automatically move sideways for 30 to 60 seconds. These are by no means deal-breakers to an otherwise great game, but some patch work isn’t out of the question.
A few hiccups aside, this remains one of the finest first-person shooters for any platform--ever. The story and visuals are spectacular, and the inventive gameplay keeps you coming back. For $9.99, it’s hard to go wrong, even though the multiplayer mode is in a separate $4.99 game called Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, which wasn’t available for the Mac at press time.
Half-Life 2
COMPANY: Valve
CONTACT: www.valvesoftware.com
PRICE: $9.99
REQUIREMENTS: 1.8GHz or faster Intel processor, Mac OS 10.5.8 or later, 1GB RAM, ATI X1600 or Nvidia GeForce 8 graphics card or better, 3GB free disk space
Terrific story, great graphics, amazing sound, and inventive gameplay for a meager $9.99 price tag.
Occasional system crashes and control issues make us grateful for Valve's frequent updates.
