Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar

Half-Life 2
North American cover art, featuring series protagonist Gordon Freeman
Developer(s)	Valve Corporation
Publisher(s)	Valve Corporation
Distributor(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Writer(s)	Marc Laidlaw
Composer(s)	Kelly Bailey
Series	Half-Life
Engine	Source
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, OS X, Linux, Android
Release date(s)	November 16, 2004 Microsoft Windows WW: November 16, 2004 Xbox NA: November 15, 2005 EU: November 18, 2005 Xbox 360 NA: October 10, 2007 EU: October 19, 2007 AU: October 25, 2007 PlayStation 3 NA: December 11, 2007 EU: December 14, 2007 AU: December 20, 2007 OS X WW: May 26, 2010 Linux WW: May 9, 2013 Android WW: May 12, 2014
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Aggregate score
Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	96/100 (PC) 90/100 (Xbox)
Review scores
Publication	Score
AllGame
Edge	10/10 (PC)
Eurogamer	10/10 (PC) 9/10 (Xbox)
GamePro	(PC)
GameSpot	9.2/10 (PC)
GameSpy
GamesRadar
IGN	9.7/10 (PC)
Maximum PC	11/10
PC Gamer (US)	98%
VideoGamer.com	10/10
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The New York Times	Positive

Half-Life 2 (stylized as HλLF-LIFE²) is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to 1998's Half-Life, it was released in November 2004, following a five-year, $40 million development phase, during which a substantial part of the project was leaked and distributed on the Internet. The game was developed alongside Valve's Steam software and the Source engine.

Some years after the events of Half-Life, protagonist Gordon Freeman is woken by the enigmatic G-Man to find the world has been taken over by the alien Combine. Joined by allies including resistance fighter Alyx Vance, Gordon searches for a way to free humanity using a variety of weapons, including the object-manipulating gravity gun.

Like its predecessor, Half-Life 2 received critical acclaim. It was praised for its advanced physics, animation, sound, AI, graphics, and narrative. The game won 39 "Game of the Year" awards and the title of "Game Of The Decade" at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most important video games of all time. Over 6.5 million copies of Half-Life 2 were sold at retail by December 2008, (not including Steam sales); as of February 2011, Half-Life 2 had sold over 12 million copies.