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Simply Superb If you can manage to install it (it took HOURS of CD copying, decompression, update downloading etc), this game is a cracker. Steam is quite possibly the most contentious move ever made by a company, and I know of several people who have issues with it. However, it is possible to play it offline (once you create the account, you can switch on offline mode as long as you save the account details with them). The game itself, while massively resource intensive (occasionally causing my machine to crash) is a major achievement; quite simply, I've never seen graphics quite like it. Obviously, graphics alone do not make a good game, and Valve have excelled here. I've never before played a game that makes me shaky with adrenaline - it's genuinely frightening in places (one example being slowly stalked by a troop of moaning zombies, while you only have a gravity gun and a bread crate for ammunition). It's also difficult to think of any other moments of utter glee when playing a game, as when you fire your first paintpot into the face of something. That gravity gun is sheer genius. I loved the original, but this shames it in comparison. It's hard to see how this can be improved upon in the future. Perfect AI, perfect graphics, and perfect gameplay. It's just a shame that the whole thing is tainted slightly by the Steam experience.