Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

While waiting for the release of Borderlands, I’ve been re-playing Half-Life 2, Episode 2. I think I’d forgotten what amazingly good games the entire Half-Life 2 series is. Beginning with Half-Life 2, and continuing in Episode 1 and 2, Valve tells shows a deep story about the invasion of planet Earth by an extradimensional race known as The Combine. They defeat humanity in what’s later called The Seven Hour War, and quickly subjugate the human race. Gordon Freeman returns with the help of the mysterious G-Man, and with aid from the human resistance and some members of another enslaved alien race, “vortigaunts”, he manages to escape from City 17 and go on to aid the resistance in fighting The Combine.

While the original Half-Life was an amazing game for its time, what really grabs me about Half-Life 2 is the story, the setting, and the characters. I’ve probably played through the man game two and a half times, and I know that I will again someday. It’s probably my second favorite video game, close on the heels of Beyond Good and Evil.

There is more to say about Half-Life 2 than I can fit into this small non-review, but I’ll try to fit it all concisely. Half-Life 2 still has the best graphics I’ve seen in just about any game, yet will run on an old machine with a 700mhz processor, 128 mB of RAM and a 64 mB video card. Half-Life 2 has the absolutely best voice acting and character animation I’ve ever seen in any game. Alyx Vance and Professor Kleiner might as well be real people. A scene at the end of episode 2 very nearly made me cry. And I don’t think I’ve ever cried at a movie. Half-Life 2 has such a fantastic storyline and setting that I always want to know more about what happens in that world and how the war between the Combine and the human resistance is going.

Half-Life 2 and every bit of extra content they put out for the game is a keeper if I’ve ever seen one.