Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)

A little shorter than I would have liked and not really delivering much of the experimental feeling the base HL2 had to me, Episode One still remained a great experience overall.

The core gameplay of Half-Life 2 is so enjoyable that even if this didn't really deliver anything new, it was still very fun to go through. What this Episode did do was begin to establish Alyx as a more fleshed out character and begin elevating her to a "co-lead" type role with Freeman instead of just a side character, which I think is cool. Looking forward to Episode 2 and then Half-Life Alyx after that.

4 / 5 Stars

I have quite mixed feelings after completing the episode. On one hand, it's cool because it's still Half-Life. We get more story, more of the atmosphere we love. But on the other hand, in my opinion, there's not much new gameplay. The only new thing I saw was closing holes with cars (those damn bugs crawl out of them). It was fun, but they kept shoving it in repeatedly, and then it disappeared altogether. Although it looked really cool, especially in the two-story parking lot mission where you had to run around and find these cars.

There was a cool boss fight at the end, and finally, we saw a bit of humanity in the resistance, which was lacking in the main game. This is shown in one moment when we approach Barney: in the house on the second floor, there's a broken floor where the resistance is talking about how everything sucks and how things were better before. That was cool.

Plus, we got a few funny jokes and new gameplay, like leading Alex under sniper fire or escorting survivors to the train. This felt a bit long, to be honest.

Overall, as an expansion, it's excellent, and I would give it a 9 out of 10.

Episode one doesn’t have as many star-stopper moments as Half-Life 2, and is much shorter. It’s really an expansion to Half-Life 2, so it doesn’t really feel like it has its own unique story.

However, it still has some very good moments (I particularly enjoyed the bit where you get trapped in the Stalker car) and all the charms of a Half-Life game. Yes, more of the game involves coordinating with Alyx, but I actually quite liked this because it gave the game a slightly different feel from Half-Life 2. They probably could have made Alyx a bit weaker to make the gamer harder though, because she is pretty invincible and it’s not really a challenge to get out of the city alive (literally bombs blow up in her face and she is fine). Even though there isn’t as distinct a story as Half-Life 2, there is still some interesting little plot developments (Kleiner telling the population to reproduce, seeing more Stalkers, the creature we see in the combine base).

it gets a 5/5 from me because I loved Half-Life 2 and this game is just more of that really.

STORY-DRIVEN FPS - Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance must work together to escape City 17 before it implodes.

PROS:

++ Alyx. It was nice having Alyx as a companion throughout the game.

++ Amped-up gravity gun. Getting to use the amped-up Gravity Gun again was a great way to begin the game.

++ More Half-Life 2 gameplay.

CONS:

-- Generally forgettable Didn't really have any incredibly memorable level or moment.

-- Limited story. Didn't progress the story that much.

-- Wonky AI. Friendly AI still needs work.

-- Anticlimactic ending. Escort mission near the end was tedious, and it was followed by an anti-climactic battle with a Strider.

Half-Life 2: Episode One is kind of the black sheep of the Half-Life 2 games. It is a good game in it’s own right but it lacks the innovation of Half-Life 2 and it lacks the story of Episode 2 which is by far the best story arc of the whole series in my eyes. So we are left with a good game that is sadly forgotten in the mix by many because it is the middle child. All of the same great gameplay is back in Episode One. The story in itself is good and enjoyable. City 17 is now a warzone and the game revolves around trying to escape it. The graphics are just as good as Half-Life 2, no better but no worse. The game doesn’t have any of the driving sections of the original. There is however a great level taking place in a hospital which was almost as creepy as Ravenholm.

There are once again some AI issues. Outside of the AI issue I noticed no other bugs. You could change the difficulty level at any time as well as manually save at any time. Performance was fantastic which wasn’t surprising given the game’s age. Overall, I can’t say too many negative things about Episode One. It does its job well which is to further the Half-Life story. It doesn’t innovate but it also doesn’t make anything worse.