7. The Gravity Gun
Call me shallow, call me a useless gamer who doesn't know what he is talking about (actually don't), but one of the best parts of Half Life 2 isn't the narrative, the intelligent gameplay, the shift in tone throughout its halfway mark, the characterization, the score or anything else you can think of. It is all about the slicing a zombie in half with a saw, firing an explosive barrel at a cluster of combine, or simply picking up toilet seat and firing it at the head of an enemy, sending him flying backwards in a hail of ceramic chunks. All made possible with the most beautiful concept in gaming weaponry: the gravity gun. Pick stuff up, fling it full- pelt at enemies and become a master of your environment and its physics, what can be better than that? Well... take that, make it better, stronger and give the player almost invincible properties at the very end of the game. Admit it, the first time you got to the end of Half Life 2 and your guns were taken away and you were left with nothing but a blue gravity gun, you were a little disappointed. You could feel the end game coming, and you were ready for a scrap of epic proportions - Explosives, machine guns, magnums and those weird little orbs that work as anti material all taken away? Madness. That is until you realize what this new and improved gravity gun could do. Pick up an object and throw them at your adversary? Nah, why not pick up your adversary and fling their helpless rag doll bodies into each other. Seriously, this is the most fun I had in this game, seemingly every enemy was powerless to stop you and it was intense fun that had you grinning like a Cheshire cat even after such a tiresome journey. So refreshing to see a games freshness intact right up until the end. Although its maybe a shallow, it certainly is a true moment in Half Life 2's glory, a moment that was never tried before and never bettered since, no matter what game has a punt at it. A moment that perfectly encapsulates the whole game, an experience that no matter how hard other FPS try, will never be as enjoyable and engrossing as this.