Screenshots & trailers
What players say
Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 425 sampled Steam reviews (407 positive / 18 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.
What positive reviews talk about
- Story & writing19% mention it
- Visuals & art7% mention it
What negative reviews complain about
- Story & writing22% mention it
Satisfaction by hours played
Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.
Under 5h
91%
56 reviews
5-15h
97%
115 reviews
15-40h
96%
170 reviews
40-100h
94%
67 reviews
100h+
100%
17 reviews
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (Metacritic) | – | 96 | 6 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 98% | 93 | 1445 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 94 | 6 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 97% | 93 | 3000 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: since the last significant patch (Jul 23, 2025) · 300 reviews sampled · 26180 total reviews in window · weighted 195.7 up / 7.8 down · computed 1h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (81)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 90
“While it may do what other games have already done, the important point is that it does it <I>better</I>.”
read full review ↗ - 96
“Revel, savour and bask in the brilliance; this is a game that no gamer can afford to ignore... The PC's finest gaming moment, with a half-life of forever. [Nov 2004, p.83]”
read full review ↗ - 97
“Half-Life 2 doesn't have any radically new technology under its hood, but every bit of it is as polished as the floor of a palace...A lock for Game of the Year but also as the yardstick against which future first-person shooters will be compared for years to come.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Half-Life 2 has astonished us from start to finish. Valve has done to the FPS genre what restaurants in Chinatown do to ducks; shredded it, smothered it in a delicious sauce of their own devising, and served it up in a way which you simply couldn't have imagined when looking at them in the pond.”
read full review ↗ - 92
“While Half-Life 2 breaks little new ground, it's still a superb and engaging first-person shooter, as well as an amazing technological accomplishment.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Valve's inclusion of an interactive physics-based environment and the wonderful gravity gun lends itself to fun gravity puzzles, making use of good old-fashioned common sense and intuition - something I've found to be absent in the average first-person shooter.”
read full review ↗ - 94
“Some may find it tedious and even frustrating at times, but there are enough jaw-dropping moments throughout the campaign that still make Half Life 2 one of the greatest first person shooters ever.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Represents the pinnacle of great action shooters because it strictly adheres to the one rule that makes an FPS great, the one rule that so many developers ignore, or break due to ineptitude and then conceal behind a shroud of tacked-on complexity: in a first person shooter, level design is <I>everything.</I>”
read full review ↗ - 98
“History in the making. It raises the bar for interactive entertainment, and then uses that bar to club all other games into submission...Valve has forged the framework for the next generation of games, demonstrating what our medium can and should be able to accomplish - an exhilarating entertainment that can emotionally move you one moment, kick ass the next, and keep you immersed the whole time. [Dec 2004, p.48]”
- 95
“The attention to detail is simply staggering and I'm not referring just to City 17. The sky is beautiful, regardless of the time of day, a lot of the surfaces are bump-mapped and I often found myself using the zoom to see just how good the objects looked in the distance.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“It's solid and requires, thanks to the variety and great AI of the enemy you meet throughout, more than a modicum of strategic thinking to get through with a good selection of interesting weapons on offer.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“From its opening moments to its spectacular closing sequences, Half-Life 2 assaults you with a variety of gameplay styles and memorable moments, all executed with amazing precision.”
read full review ↗
Worth Playing
Eurogamer
GameSpot
PC Gamer…and 69 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- July 23, 2025 UpdateJul 23, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- Half-Life 2 - UpdateFeb 11, 2025
- November 26, 2024 UpdateNov 26, 2024
- November 18, 2024 UpdateNov 18, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- November 16, 2024 UpdateNov 16, 2024
- Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary UpdateNov 15, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Half-Life 2 UpdateNov 17, 2023
- Half-Life 2: UpdateJan 17, 2023
- Half-Life 2 UpdateNov 19, 2022
- Half-Life 2 - UpdateApr 13, 2022
- Half-Life 2 - UpdateFeb 28, 2022
- Half-Life 2 and Episodes - UpdateFeb 24, 2022
- Half-Life 2 - UpdateFeb 18, 2022
- Half-Life 2 Beta UpdatedNov 14, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta UpdatedNov 14, 2013
- Half-Life 2 update releasedSep 25, 2013
- Half-Life 2 update releasedSep 25, 2013
- Half-Life 2 updatedJul 15, 2013
- Half-Life 2 updatedJul 15, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedJul 1, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedJul 1, 2013
- Half-Life 2 updatedJun 26, 2013
- Half-Life 2 updatedJun 26, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedJun 25, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedJun 25, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedJun 3, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedJun 3, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 30, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 30, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 24, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 24, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 24, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 24, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 23, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 23, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 17, 2013
- Half-Life 2 Beta updatedMay 17, 2013