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15 Jun 03 Konami has blown us all away with Snake in the jungle and Bungie's city-based marine battles left us gibbering for more Halo 2, but now we've seen the real future of shooters, and it's called Half-Life 2.
As we told you in last month's exclusive story, you can take it as read that the plot, graphics and atmosphere are everything you'd expect from the sequel to the most influential PC shooter the world's seen in years.
When you actually see the game up and running, you know you're witnessing gaming genius. It's fast and stylish, with a brooding apocalyptic atmosphere and some dark humour. Every few seconds, it seems, you're presented with the sort of gameplay, AI and physics that make everything you've seen until now look like something a gibbon did on a ZX Spectrum.
Not all of this is instantly obvious, but as you begin to understand just how complex and interactive the environments are, you also start to realise the potential for offering the sort of freedom to tackle objectives that other shooters have been talking about for years.
EXCITEMENT FACTOR 11/10
Sure, there are scripted moments, but much of the action is AI-based and unprompted - Freeman could have gone about the scenarios in different ways if he could think of them. Some day, all shooters will have this stuff as standard. Until then, you'll just have to play Half-Life 2. Here are a few anecdotes to whet your appetite...
*Incoming fire shatters windows and the impact makes blinds stand on end. Meanwhile Freeman uses a magnet-like gun to wrench up a radiator as a shield to assault a staircase, then tosses it into a guard, knocking him over and triggering drinks cans to tumble down the stairs!
*Freeman shoots a part of a crane to send a huge girder crashing down on enemies, before blowing the legs off a massive metal container which topples onto their heads. Moments later he uses a giant fixed rotor blade to dice enemies, who keep on coming even though their legs are missing!