The subtle, hands-off storytelling of Half-Life 2 is still hard to beat

Half-Life 2
(Image credit: Valve)

PC Gamer magazine

(Image credit: Future)

This article first appeared in issue 354 of PC Gamer magazine, in our PC Gaming Legends feature. Every month we run exclusive features exploring the world of PC gaming—from behind-the-scenes previews, to incredible community stories, to fascinating interviews, and more.

The magic of Half-Life 2 lies in how it tells its story. In most games developed in the early 2000s you're forced to endure endless exposition about the world and the state it's in—usually in the form of cutscenes. In Half-Life 2, a few scraps of old newspaper stuck to a notice board achieve the same goal; and in a much more evocative way. In the secret laboratory of eccentric scientist Isaac Kleiner, this entirely missable detail refers to a "seven-hour war", Earth surrendering to the invading Combine, and villain Wallace Breen being declared administrator of Earth. 

It's everything you need to know in one unassuming texture file—but also, importantly, it leaves enough of the finer details out to let your imagination run wild. This is more effective than an elaborate, expensive cinematic showing the Combine invasion of Earth would ever be, and puts you on a level playing field with Gordon Freeman. Having just been yanked out of stasis by the G-Man, he knows as much as you about this bleak, Orwellian nightmare world; that is, ‘not much', which only adds to the unsettling mystery of how Earth ended up like this. 

This kind of environmental storytelling continues throughout Half-Life 2, painting a more detailed picture of everything that happened while Freeman was on ice. And as you learn more about the invaders' infrastructure, the extent of their assault on the planet becomes chillingly clear. At several points in the game you catch glimpses of Stalkers; human bodies gruesomely retro-fitted with alien technology, turned into mindless slaves. Seeing one out of the corner of your eye is, again, more affecting than having someone sit you down and tell you everything about them.

(Image credit: Valve)

Free reign

Half-Life 2 is a game that plays to the strengths of the medium, using player agency as a way to tell a story in a more interesting, intimate way. It's also a masterclass in subtlety. When it's time to travel to Ravenholm, an abandoned town infested with headcrab zombies, all Alyx says, gravely, is, "We don't go to Ravenholm." And that's all it takes. That sentence is absolutely loaded with meaning, and it also makes your first tentative steps into the place scarier. What did she mean by that? Valve understands the power of holding back, that less is more, which is something that eludes many developers even now, 16 years later. 

Of course, storytelling is just one part of the package. Half-Life 2 is also a great FPS, with the gravity gun adding an improvisational feel to its firefights. Switching to this once revolutionary physics-manipulating weapon when you're backed into a corner, plucking a saw blade or radiator out of the level and transforming it into a deadly weapon, still feels incredible. The raid on Nova Prospekt, the brutal Combine prison, is tense and thrilling, and working with the resistance in City 17 towards the end of the game features some superb set-pieces. 

If you haven't played it for a while, you might wonder if the people who still eulogise Half-Life 2 are half-remembering it through a mist of nostalgia. But play it and you realise that, although it has aged in some ways, it still feels like an important, landmark game. It still delivers as a first-person shooter, and the way it relays its story is still wonderfully subtle and restrained. It's also exciting to revisit when you consider that Valve may be falling back in love with the series. The end of VR prequel Half-Life: Alyx dramatically opens up the very real possibility of a Half-Life 3, teeing up a sequel I'd lost all hope of ever being made.

Andy Kelly

If it’s set in space, Andy will probably write about it. He loves sci-fi, adventure games, taking screenshots, Twin Peaks, weird sims, Alien: Isolation, and anything with a good story.

Read more
Spirit of the PC: Stalker 2
Spirit of the PC 2024: Stalker 2
Screenshots from Half-Life 2 RTX, showing the various new effects delivered by full ray tracing and enhanced assets.
I just played Half-Life 2 RTX, a fully ray-traced overhaul of the original, and its meaty headcrabs have me hankering for more
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is so authentically Indiana Jones it should probably be called Henry Jones Jr. and the Great Circle
1000xResist
The Allmother is dead, long live the Allmother!: Why 1000XResist is the best sci-fi story I've experienced in years
Silent Hill 2
Bloober's Silent Hill 2 was more remix than remake and that's why it was great
Half-Life: Alyx
Valve's Steam page currently lists a second mystery game alongside Deadlock, sending Half-Life 3 theorists into another frenzy of speculation
Latest in FPS
A smiling man in military fatigues
Get in here, stalker: Stalker 2’s Patch 1.3 is here with a whopping 1,200 fixes
CS 1.6 remade in CS: Legacy.
A gorgeous ground-up remake of Counter-Strike 1.6 is on its way to Steam, and one of the game's original creators says 'it really gives me old vibes'
Metro Exodus
'I want to raise this glass to our fans, to our community': 4A Games celebrates Metro 2033's 15th anniversary and hints at next Metro game
Official artwork of Valorant showing the game's characters in a row
Valorant dev accepts there's too much random crap cluttering up the screen: 'The balance team generally agrees with this take'
Fragpunk FPS
Fragpunk review
Battlefield 1
The best Battlefield game of the last decade is 95% off until Thursday
Latest in Features
assassin's creed shadows yasuke riding a horse
Don't expect to unlock Yasuke for a while in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Atelier Yumia screenshot
Help, I can't move forward in this chill crafting RPG because I'm too wrapped up in building bases and making sick tools
midnight murder club
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 17, 2025)
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Alligator skull with glowing eyes on human body and cords coming out sitting at piano with "The Norwood Etudes" ready to play
My new most anticipated RPG let me be a kleptomaniac gourmand set loose in a noir city on a quest to make 'the perfect sandwich'
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Monster Hunter Wilds' new gyro controls are a fantastic option for disabled and able-bodied players alike