All too often the virtual worlds visited by videogamers are illogical, internally inconsistent and littered with disruptive misapplications of design. Even the original Half-Life was decried by many gamers for finishing on the bum note of an ill-conceived alien dimension. This time around the developer has made no such mistakes. Half-Life 2 is a seamless adventure that is so exquisitely produced as to diminish all previous achievements of the genre.

Half-Life 2 attempts no overt revolution, but its casual implementation of manipulable objects is an innovation that utterly transforms the interactive possibilities for a game that is at heart a first-person shooter. The capacity to pick up even large objects is sewn into the very fabric of the plot. A simple but elegant narrative imbues the experience with considerable inertia. Urgent, funny, frightening and bleak, Half-Life 2 tells its tale of rebellion against a grim European dystopia with ease and vigour.

This impressive sequel is the second act in a planned trilogy. The question is: will we have to wait another six years for the third instalment?

Jim Rossignol