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Pros & Cons:
Pertaining to My short list below.
Full Pros & cons re-review coming soon...
This installment is probably the best in the series, and is full of great gameplay and one of the best stories in gaming.
Content review for this game:
Pertaining to the ESRB rating.
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Intro | Half-Life 2 | HL 2: Episode 1 | HL 2: Episode 2 | Portal | Team Fortress 2 |
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Content sum up: There is still plenty of blood, gore and violence, and in fact this game is probably the most intense in the series, with some pretty intense scenes involving main characters. So, I recommend this game for ages 17+. |
Full content re-review coming soon...
Half-life 2: Episode 2
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; Striders and Hunters shed liquidy green goop that spills like oil and vomit when you damage them; 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 scenes of blood & gore:
- Early in, as you're crawling from under an abandoned building's porch, your female companion is there to greet you—when a Hunter (enemy explained in "Intense violence") jumps out of nowhere, grabs and stabs her through the abdomen (bloody results) with its teeth, and stomps at her while she's down.
- Your first encounter with an Advisor (enemy explained in "Intense violence") is in a room with a dead human body slumped on a control panel. Hanging over the control panel is what appears to be a metal egg. It so happens this is an Advisor's egg and has yet to hatch. The main characters then decide to kill it by shutting down the life support with the control panel. But, they are too late; as it hatches, it suspends the two main characters and the dead body with it's powers. It then pins them to the wall, and attracts the dead body to itself, and uses its tongue to probe into the body and Then pulls its spine out (with bloody results). Tossing the dead body aside, the Advisor turns to the main character, and just as it's about to do the same thing, there is an explosion, injuring the Advisor, and preventing it from harming the main characters. It then escapes.
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.
There is a new enemy called the Hunter, and resemble a 6 foot tall, walking robotic tripod. They attack by dashing with their three legs toward you and applying pure mass trauma, or by shooting small, razor sharp electrified spines at you that explode right after impact. Their big brothers are called Striders. They are about 50 feet tall, and shoot electrified energy beams from their heads—they can also impale enemies with their legs. The last new enemy are the Advisors; from what can be gathered, they oversee and control the Combine. They resemble huge grubs, with long tongues, used to pierce through human enemies and sever their spines. They also have pychic powers, and emit powerful pulses that damage you, as dark flashes fill the screen. Something worth mentioning is that NPCs (non-player-characters) can die, and most often will, if you don not protect them. 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 God, under a dozen uses of hell and d*mn, three uses of sh*t and one use of p*ss. There is no option to turn language off.
Mild suggestive themes: (The ESRB didn't mention this in their rating, although it is mild) In Episode 1, there's a speech about doing your part for the human resistance. Well, in a brief bit of dialog, while you, the main female character and her father are in the room, the father tells them, now that humans can reproduce again, maybe she and you should do their "part" together. She's embarrassed, and says as much, but the unabashed father replies that he can hope for grandkids if he wants to—there is nothing going on between the main male and female character.
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