Half Life 2 BETA Review

by Snoopy

This is by far the biggest BETA I have ever downloaded. When unpacked, it's exactly 3.14G in size.

Okay, lots of stuff missing here, but let's not forget it's still a BETA. Anyway, some maps are working really well. Others have missing textures, scipts, sounds, models, etc...

I must say, for a BETA, the frame rate was quite good. I'm on a 1400Mhz AMD with 512MB SDRAM and 128 MB DDR VRAM. Only on big open area maps were there big framedrops. Lowest fps I had was 9fps and in small indoor areas it would reach 60 fps, which is very nice compared to the Doom 3 BETA.

Very few scripted sequences work so there isn't much storyline in the game, if any. The ones that work are great. You won't find out much about the story you didn't know already, so don't fear any spoilers.

As for the graphics, well they're great. They're not revolutionary, but they're still quite impressive. Graphics however aren't important, it's the gameplay & story which makes HL so great. The water reflection is pretty well worked out and the models look very slick.

...and as for the gameplay, well from the little action there was on the working maps, I must say it's quite the same as in the original game. Only the "AI" is much smarter. For instance: if the headcrab "knows" it can't reach you, it will go hide instead of blindly trying to jump at you, luring you from your hiding spot. The troops are deadly. They're always in groups and will spread out, looking for cover where ever they can find it. They will try to get behind you while a group of them is luring you away from the rest. It's quite neat how they "split-up".

The aliens are either weak but fast and can jump high (reach you on high places) or are strong and slow. Either way, they're very deadly. There's also a lot of mechanical enemies. There are some kind of small hellicopters of some sorts, or that's at least what they look like,... sorta. They have fans all over their metal body and move insanely fast. They go out with one or two well placed shots, but they're damn hard to hit. They don't shoot at you though, they're tying to give you "the chop" by flying straight at you. They're always in big groups. There's also a lot of mines which are not as easy to take care of as in the original HL. For instance, there's this mine that is acutally a "spiked" ball of some sorts. Damages you with its spikes and shoots an electric bolt at you. Then there's the standard mine which is proximity trigered, only it will launch itself into the air to explode right in your face.

The weapons are, as the gameplay and enemies, pretty much the same, only improved. The gauss gun, the crowbar, the pistol, the mp5 is replaced by a new gun that looks like the H&K PDW (personal defense weapon?) a new rifle which looks a bit like the OICW, the rocket launcher with the fancy laser aim. All of them are improved.

You will find many CPU controlled players who are on your side. They work pretty much the same as the enemy (troops) and will give you ammo when you run low, which is quite cool.

The level design is awesome. The detail is simply too great. It combines all of the previous just too damn well. For instance, the "spiked balls" are almost impossible to destroy, but when they try to shock you with their electic bolt, they will be pushed backwards and thrown into the air. Now, if you hold an object wooden in front of you, you won't take any damage and will be able to throw the silly thing off of you, which in most cases will be off a cliff and into the sea. Luckly, there's always junk and other objects lying around you can use to protect yourself or block the enemies way.

Half-Life 2 will be just great (as if couldn't figure that out already ) I can't wait for it to get finished & released.

Some screenshots I took.