Half-Life 2 review
20 years ago, Half-Life 2 was the recipient of two of PC Gamer's highest review scores ever: 96% in PC Gamer UK, and 98% in the US version of the magazine, which at the time published separate reviews.
«This is the one unmissable game,» UK reviewer Jim Rossignol concluded. «It's time to get that cutting-edge PC system. Sell your grandmother, remortgage the cat, do whatever you have to do. Just don't miss out.»
I didn't promise any cats to the bank, but perhaps I would have if I'd needed to. My obstacle to playing Half-Life 2 was a pathetic lack of furniture: All I had in my studio apartment at the time was a futon, one Ikea chair, and a wobbly breakfast table that was too compact for a comfortable keyboard, mouse, and monitor arrangement. My Sony desktop PC, Logitech peripherals, and tiny LCD display instead lived on the floor under a window, flanked by a radiator that worked in tandem with the meager heat output of my early-2000s GPU to keep me warm.
If there was a good reason I was living like a disgraced detective in November 2004, it's been compressed in my memory to 'I was in college.' Maybe I spent all my desk money on Half-Life 2. Whatever the case, after setting up an account with a frustrating new service called Steam, I played through Half-Life 2 lying on my stomach with my neck bent at 90 degrees, as if posing for the 'what not to do' section of an ergonomics textbook. We did what we had to do, as Jim said.
20 years later, I'm proud to say that I now own a desk, but I like to think it hasn't changed me. Half-Life 2 certainly did, though, and along with Steam it set a new course for PC gaming. To celebrate the big anniversary of Valve's landmark shooter, we've republished the original text of PC Gamer UK's Half-Life 2 review below—enjoy the brief trip back to one of PC gaming's most exciting moments. —Tyler Wilde, US Editor-in-Chief
It was all in that moment when I just sat back and laughed. I couldn't believe it was quite this good. I chuckled in
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