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Half Life 2

When Half Life came out about ten years ago, it opened a lot of peoples' eyes.  It wasn't the best-looking game ever, but it was pretty fun.  There was a coherent story (nearly a first) that was acted out in-game (also nearly a first), and had scripted events that played out in real-time as you progressed (the first really good example).  Sure, Half Life changed the face of one of gaming's most established genres, the First Person Shooter (FPS).

The game grabbed perfect scores left right and centre (and above perfect, in the memorable case of the late PCXL's 11/10) and everyone loved it.  When a little free modification called CounterStrike was released, the gaming world went nuts for Half Life - today, it's hard to find someone that doesn't own this game.

I don't own a copy of the original game.  In fact, I barely finished it - see, the second half of the game took place on the alien planet, and abandoned all of the great action that had gotten you that far, and instead changed tone and pace completely, forcing inane jumping puzzles on you.  I got bored, and almost stopped playing. 
Also, I wasn't a big fan of the interface.  Things just didn't... feel right for me, and everything seemed rather flat, from the HUD down.
So, you can understand that I wasn't too excited about the sequel.

Ignore all of the drama leading up to the release: the stolen code, the delays, the fact that Valve really hasn't released anything but Half Life, the battles with the publisher, the Steam controversy.  None of that matters when you're actually playing the game.
And the game is good.
All of the good things from the original are back; the lengthy intro that sets the tone and mood, character interaction, and even some of the Black Mesa crew.  The combat feels good, and some of the early battles against Combine soldiers armed only with my pistol were really exciting.  You get to drive vehicles in a couple of places, which is fun.  There are puzzles to be overcome, so that it's not all just a run-and-gun affair.
And you get to play with the physics.

Ahh, the physics.  Do yourself a favour: in the early game, pick up a suitcase and wing it at the head of a combine soldier - it'll make you feel better about what's to come, trust me ;)  Most of the physics aren't anything that a gamer hasn't really seen before - you can pick up small objects and throw them, if you run into something it moves (although, I don't seem to recall my coffee table sliding away much when I run my shins into it...).  Where it gets really fun, though, is when traps and obstacles have been set up to take advantage of it - a giant see-saw where I weighed down the other end with cinder blocks, dropping metal crates on enemies... and the gravity gun.
I'm pretty sure the Valve guys were just sitting around playing with their physics engine when someone thought this up, but it's the best part of the game.  Flinging radiators and explosive barrels at headcrab zombies is great fun, and pretty quickly you'll learn some of what you can really do with it.

The first game was highly praised for its story and character interaction - this new version is again ahead of everything else in the pack (except Doom 3 comes close).  All of the characters look good, and have amazing facial articualtion that very closely matches what they're saying - it really is one of those little things that adds so much to the atmosphere when it's right, having the mouths move properly to speech.

The game is fairly consistant overall, even though there are some major shifts in tone - thankfully, these don't last too long (so you won't get bored of any particular one), and none seemed as bad as the alien planet of the first game.  One stretch of the game, in particular, was pretty interesting - a dark, creepy night scene with plenty of headcrab zombies and similar creatures.  This actually reminded me a lot of Doom 3, and had me terrified at night expecting the next creature to jump out at me.

There still are a few downsides to the game, though.  "Loading" isn't something that I enjoy looking at when I want to be playing games, especially when I see it for so long and so often.  You'll really notice it in the vehicle levels, although it never really goes away.  I guess this is a good time to go to the bathroom if you have to...
Also, the game still feels flat-ish to me.  The interface is much the same as the first game, and movement feedback is very similar.  If you liked the first's feel, you'll like this one's as well.  It's a little tighter, but I was still a bit disappointed.
Also, the story is a bit confusing or incomplete at times - surprising, since that was one of the highs from the original, that everyone expected of this one.
Finally, one of my gripes is with Steam.  The method that you use to purchase a game shouldn't really factor into a review of the game, but Valve's made it a major consideration.  Even though I got my copy at a real store, once I installed my copy I had to log onto the internet, install Steam, register an account, and register my game.  This took... a while.  Now, every time I play HL2, I need to be on the internet and logged into Steam (either that or jump through too many hoops to be worthwhile).  Steam will download any games I buy and register through it automatically if I change computers, which is nice, but it seems like way too much of a hassle for a mainly single-player game.

Overall, this is a great, great game.  It's a lot of fun to run through, and the multiplayer modes are fun (Counterstrike gets a much needed graphics and physics update, but it's still the same kind of tired old game, but deathmatch with the gravity gun is awesome).  Buy it and put up with Steam, because if you like a good FPS, you should love Half Life 2.