There’s not much I can say about Half-Life 2 that hasn’t already been said.
It is true that it is visually stunning. It is true that the level design is nearly genius. It is true that the weapons feel satisfying. It is true that even though the physics engine is severely over-exploited, dismembering enemies with flying sawblades and creating makeshift ladders/bridges never fails to amuse. It is true that the game is so immersive that you’ll find yourself yelling “why can’t Gordon Freeman climb a god-damned fence or flip a table back to its proper position?!” It is true that even with a minimum of dialogue (or, indeed, perhaps because of it), the plot development is more intriguing than most you’re likely to find in any game, shooter or not.
So what’s the problem? In a word, Steam. Half-Life 2 brought my first exposure to Valve’s content distribution system. My experience thus far is that Steam is clumsy, obtrusive, and an incredible detriment to the way that I want to play.
You’re required to install Steam in order to play HL2. No connection to the Internet or the Steam infrastructure’s too busy/not available? You can’t launch HL2 for the first time. You’re planning on playing HL2/Counterstrike: Source at a LAN party with no Internet connectivity present? Make sure you have backup games, since despite what Valve tells you (specifically, that if you tell Steam to remember your username and password, then you can play offline) you’ll still ocassionally get “Steam ticket expired” errors and won’t be able to launch any of Valve’s games. To add insult to injury, don’t forget your CD - even if you launch your game through Steam, enter your username and password, let Steam validate that your credentials are good and you have a good CD-key via the Internet, you STILL NEED THE HL2 CD IN THE DRIVE TO LAUNCH THE GAME. Complete and utter idiocy.
I’m a gamer, so I have a vested interest in rewarding good game developers by purchasing their games instead of pirating them. I also believe that some anti-piracy measures are tolerable. In the end, though, when I buy a software product, I expect to be able to use it how and when I choose. UbiSoft’s Rainbow Six 3 patches which disabled the ability to play the game off of virtual CD drives were understandable, but annoying. Yes, launching the game from a virtual CD image instead of a physical CD made piracy easier, but it also made legitimate gameplay easier - if I have the hard disk space and I want the added performance of playing from HD instead of CD (not to mention the ability to stow my physical CD away and not have to fish it out every time I want to play), then I should be able to. However, that measure pales in comparison to a software package that requires me to check with the manufacturer every single time I want to use it to make sure I still have the right to do so. This is simply the case of a software company presuming that all of their customers are guilty until proven otherwise. Valve has decided that breaking their software for legitimate customers who can’t (e.g. on an airplane, on a trip, at a LAN party, etc.) or don’t want to use Steam is an acceptable loss in order to weed out potential pirates.
Once I finish the single-player game, Half-Life 2 is going to be relegated to a shelf and I will be as thrilled to eradicate Steam from my system as I would any other piece of spyware. No multiplayer (not that there’s much to speak of anyway), no expansions, and no mods. Much like I wouldn’t go to a restaurant that punches me in the face, takes my wallet, and checks for sufficient funds before seating me, I simply have no use for a company that treats me as a potential criminal first and, after rigorous and intrusive examination, delcares, “oh, sorry, my mistake, we have already made money off of you after all…”