Half-Life 2 - Still an A+ game 19 years later.

After 19 years I finally played Half Life 2.  Even by today's standards, this is an A+ game.  I've been hearing about it forever, of course, but what not enough people raved about was the level design.  It is brilliant in the way it breaks up racing sections with having to get out of your car and fight to a control room to open a door.  Or a semi-maze like city area that keeps bringing you back around to the weapon caches you filled up on before.

Everyone talked about the gravity gun so I was ready for it, but it was still more fun than I expected. Especially in the last parts of the game where you have a very upgraded version. The physics engine seemed better than games made as much as 7 or 8 years later.  And I also need to compliment the story a bit too. Or perhaps not the story, but the way it feels cinematic and giving you a reason to get from one area to the next.

I was a bit surprised that I only found half the ammo caches (according to the achievement, 23 of 45) but never was low on ammunition even once.  And sometimes my squad would block my path at the worst times.  But I can't really complain about that when the game is such a great example of how to make games fun.  The rapid constant autosaving that encourages you to jump right back in when killed. The variety of weapons. The sense of discovery over and over, rather than redundant levels.  These were rare things back in 2004.