      |
|
|
Pros & Cons:
Pertaining to My short list below.
This is a great but short followup to the previous Half-life 2.
Content review for this game:
Pertaining to the ESRB rating.
|
Intro | Half-Life 2 | HL 2: Episode 1 | HL 2: Episode 2 | Portal | Team Fortress 2 |
|
Content sum up: The blood, gore and language are still present. And Alyx, the main NPC (non-playable character) is with you throughout; she feels and acts very real, which makes you feel that much more attached to the environment. Last but not least, this is more intense and graphic then the last. So, again, I recommend this game for ages 17+. |
Half-life 2: Episode 1
is rated "M" for Mature.
Blood and gore: When you or an enemy is shot, thick moderate to extreme amounts of blood jet and spurt out, splattering onto nearby walls and floors—Headcrab spurt a mixture of red and green blood, with green blood more gooey consistency; Antlions shed green, goey blood, and break into large bug-like chunks when shot; And when Zombines explode, their heads fly off and all that's left is the lower half of their skull. Blood and bodies do linger, and you see many bloodied, burned, severely disfigured, altered, severed, and zombified human and Combine bodies scattered throughout the game. Many of the human bodies are so damaged, you can't even see facial features. There is no option to turn blood off.
There's an enemy alien, the Headcrab; in their default form they resemble a headless plucked chicken, with a huge mouth where a stomach would be. They latch onto their (mostly human) victims' heads, take over their still living bodies, and essentially turn them into zombies; once transformed, their bodies are split open from neck to waist, showing their internal organs and rib cage, as they scream with agonizingly deep, raspy, but squealing voices, as they slowly drag and lumber toward you, striking with their limbs. Another type hangs on the ceiling and resembles a huge mutated mouth, with large sharp jaws and teeth. It has a long, thin tongue that hangs from its mouth to the floor. When prey steps under it, it reels it in with its tongue, swallows it whole, with very bloody results. If you shoot and kill this enemy, it will turn inside out and regurgitate what it's eaten (including bones). The next type uses the same technique, but appears to take decomposed bodies as their hosts, resulting in them looking more like skeletons, with a small layer of muscle. Because of having less weight, they're extremely fast and rush at you, mercilessly tearing with their claws.
Specific scene of blood & gore:
- In one area you explore a former "hospital" and see its previous "patients." But the hospital is more like a experimental torture facility, with the bodies of its former victims on operating tables; bodies are heavily bloodied, beaten, and disfigured. In fact, this area is chock-full of dead bodies, with blood, gore, and overall carnage filling the whole area.
Intense violence: The story takes place in a depressed, near apocolyptic world, where an oppressive dictator and his men, the "Combine," rule the streets, tormenting and controlling its citizens. The violence is moderately graphic, realistic and intense. The majority of the game has you evading the enemy, so it always gives you a sense of urgency, and the atmosphere is involving and immersive, with no cutscenes in between, and supporting characters that feel very real and sympathetic; furthering your attachment to the world, and its violent situations.
Your character will be killing dozens of enemies with a variety of weapons, including a crowbar, shotgun, rocket launcher, Gravity Gun, etc. You'll be fighting two seperate factions of enemies, the main being the "Combine," the corrupt "Civil Protection" that patrol the city, and the main villian's henchmen. They wear full body armor, and what appears to be a gas mask that covers their entire face. The mask must have some sort of voice box, because when they speak they sound like they're talking through a heavily distorted ham radio—they're a human/alien hybrid, genetically enhanced for their work. The Combine also use a device called the "Man-Hack," and it's about the size of a soft ball, and uses very sharp blades to manuever in the air, and knock into enemies, thus being known as the Man-Hack. The Headcrab are enemy both to you and Combine. The last enemy type are called "Antlions," and resemble an ant but are as large as lions, hence the name. They're a non-sentient species, and act like wild animals. You do gain the ability to control and command them with a device later in the game. But, beyond that, they have no obvious alliances.
The next enemy is first introduced in Episode 1, and also present in Episode 2. They are a combination of Combine and Headcrab, aptly named the Zombine. When they see you, they'll either pull out a grenade and rush you in a suicide attempt, or just try to bludgeon you to death with their arms. The next isn't really one per say, but more like mindless drones of the Combine. They keep Combine facilities maintained, and are physically harmless. They're called Stalkers, and resemble a human skeleton with skin stretched thinly over the body, and metal plates where the upper half of the face should be; they were originally human, but were captured, and then forcibly turned into Stalkers by the Combine. Near the start, you acquire the "Gravity Gun," and can use it to repulse or drag and hold objects with it. Early on, it takes on a high-powered status, enabling it to attract and repulse larger objects, including humanoid bodies. In this area, you mainly use it on the Combine, and when used, it will drag them to you from hundreds of feet, and then violently repulse them into other combine or walls. You can also use them as shields against other Combine.
Specific scenes of violence:
- Early in, your objective is to get through a forcefield-shielded door, but on the other side is a Stalker working on a computer panel, keeping the door shut. You have no choice but to use weapons that can pass through the forcefield and kill the Stalker, to open the door. Both of the main characters feel reluctant to kill the stalker because of the reasons mentioned above.
- Later on, the main characters board a train to escape the Combine, but soon realize it's a Stalker train. The Stalkers are hanging in individual compartments, suspended like hangers in a closet. Soon the train crashes, and when the main character comes to, a stalker is screaming inhumanly and disturbingly in his face. As he gets to the back of the train, he sees that the female character is pinned by another stalker, who is also screaming in her face. When you finally get her unpinned from the Stalker, she is visibly disturbed, has her hands on her face, and asks for some time to recover. Throughout this whole area, you are, regrettably, forced to kill many of the Stalkers to progress.
Something worth mentioning is that NPCs (non-player-characters) can die, and most often will, if you don't protect them. The main supporting characters can also die, but if they do, it's game over and you have to start from the last save point. Also you cannot shoot, hit or kill any allies in this game.
Language: There's over a dozen uses of hell, under a dozen uses of d*mn and God, and one use of sh*t, a** and Jesus. There is no option to turn language off.
Mild suggestive themes: (The ESRB didn't mention this in their rating, although it is mild) The intro screen has a speech playing on an intercom in the background. The Combine have supressed humans' ability to reproduce, so they can't grow in number and form a larger resistance; at one point the man on the screen says, "In laymans terms you should [literally] do your Part [for the human resistance]."
