Recent reviews by Argorath

Incredible writing, art style, and level design, only let down by some technical issues due to it's age, all of which you can easily overcome with a few google searches, primarily through PCGW, as well as an annoying difficulty spike at the end with some infuriating platforming.

Obviously there are a bunch of performance issues that need to be fixed, but I capped my framerate at 60, and haven't experienced any stutters since. Once you get past the bugs, this is an incredible game.

An incredible deep-dive into the development of HL:A, if you're at all interested in Valve or Half-Life, this is a must read.

9.5/10

I just finished it and started my second playthrough, and wow. The visuals are some of the best I've seen in VR, and I'm not just talking about the technical aspect. It runs flawlessly on 2015 Titan X (about equivalent in power to a 1070) with my Index at 90hz. I have it set to high fidelity, with a couple of options turned down to medium to keep it smooth.

The story and characters are better than ever, making Half Life 2's characters feel archaic. The massive jump in quality between games is impressive, and just like HL2, it feels far beyond anything else on the market as far as quality of facial animations. Although, disappointingly, they aren't used much excluding the beginning and end.

The combat, although not as diverse as something like Boneworks, feels a hell of a lot more polished, with the benefits of VR with reloading really shining here. I didn't feel unstoppable, every headcrab or zombie felt like an actual threat, and the combine, although basic in terms of AI, feel threatening, and playing on hard mode, I died quite a few times.

The gravity gloves took me a while to get used to, as I was accustomed to the force mechanics in games like Blade and Sorcery or Boneworks, this gives you a lot more control than boneworks, although not quite as much as Blade and Sorcery. If you just want to move objects out of the way, then don't grab them, but if you want to grab the ammo or resin, simply grab it as it flies towards you.

Speaking of resin, the upgrades to the weapons are much more useful than any other game I've played before, and with how threatening the enemies are, I'll take any help I can get. I didn't even fully upgrade my weapons in my first playthrough, and I'm definitely focusing on that this time around.

The immersion is incredible, the environments look closer to photorealistic than anything I've seen before, even more impressive considering the lack of screen space reflections or raytracing. It's all done through cubemaps, cleverly creating the environments to lack anything too shiny. This allows them to look beautiful, easily as good as the water reflections in HL2, although usually not as clear. Everything in the game works towards this, from the way the enemies react to you, to the reactions of Alyx to things happening around her. It feels almost real.

SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD > YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

That ending was spectacular, mixing weird sci-fi elements, with familiar Half Life enemies and characters. Coming face to face with the g-man for the first time felt terrifying, with him towering over you, ominously. Every time I thought I knew where it was going, it threw a curveball at me. Getting to save Eli at the end of episode 2 was incredible, and seeing these characters and environments in a higher quality than we've seen yet was incredible. Picking up that crowbar, and hearing Eli say we had work to do sent shivers down my spine, I was in pure shock. Half Life 3 is actually happening, and I really hope it's VR. With everything Valve has innovated with here, I can't see it being 2D after this point. I want to take down the combine and save Earth from the perspective of Gordon Freeman, not staring at a screen with a keyboard and mouse.

You might be wondering why I didn't give it a 10/10, given my enormous praise, and that's mostly because I don't think any game deserves 10/10. That implies it has 0 flaws, and despite everything HL:A does right, it has flaws. The movement can feel too slow at times, and the levels are clearly designed around teleport movement, even requiring it fairly often. However, these didn't detract from the overall experience too much, so I still think it's a 9.5/10.

it has it's issues, but it's halo

Either I've gotten dumber or this game has gotten better. I'm hoping it's the latter.
I tried this game a while back when it got a free weekend, I hated it. The combat felt weak and I didn't feel like I had any reason to want to progress. Now.. I like it?

At least give it a try, it's free after all.

The game is great but screw facebook

I love this game, I've spent 15 hours in it and could easily spend another 15

Very interesting concept with great execution. Surprisingly, it also has a great sense of humour in parts (if you keep doing stuff wrong)

Incredibly fun and satisfying! Especially for a free game. I could play for hours!