Half-Life 2: Episode 1

[Rob Williams]

Finally, our 18 month wait is over! We once again take the role of Gordon Freeman, and have a return of our friend Alyx. Together, we will flight from City 17. The big question is... was it worth the wait?

After reading my review here, discuss it here!

Good review, but I'm sorry folk.. 4-6 hr games don't sell to me.

If anything, I'll wait til all 3 are out and buy them at once. I can't sit down to a game that ends just as it gets going.


ah well... too bad

[Rob Williams]

"I'll wait til all 3 are out and buy them at once."

I have a big feeling that's what a lot of people will be doing. However, the game as it stands was amazing. I plan to go through again in the next couple days using the commentary mode. The games replayability factor is high, so that's a major plus.

Does this episodic delivery thing work? Well, instead of players paying $60 for a 15 hour game, they will pay $20 for three 5 hour games

That sentence is not quite correct and very misleading.
You pay 20$ for each episode resulting in.. 60$ for a 15h game by your math. You dont get 3 games for 20$!

[Rob Williams]

Good catch, I worded that way wrong.

After about 4 to 5 hours of play time, I finished HL2E1 and am VERY disappointed in the weak story and lousy ending. This is a $20 purchase mistake!

Gordon and his bullet proof Alyx (that follows you around the entire story opening doors and killing things that you miss) make their way to a train which leads to an anti-climatic ending. I actually had to go and look for game spoilers to be sure that the fade to white was the end of the story.

TOO MANY story lines started without endings. Valve would have done better to give this story away like a Lost Coast promo pack.

USE YOUR $20 TO BUY A PIZZA AND GO READ A FEW SPOILERS. It's better use of your money and your time.

[Rob Williams]

Nothing I say is going to change your mind

I am surprised you are that unhappy with it. Story lines that weren't finished bothered me also though. It's going to be -hard- to wait 6 or so months for the next episode.

True, it will be hard to wait until the next $20 edition to the story. Sad to say, I will be one of the first in line to purchase it. I suspect I will be disappointed once again.

The great thing about Half-Life, the original, was the story line. It was beyond anything in its category. Unlike the other first person shooters of its time, you empathized and really liked the character you played.

To me, the HL2 story is more shallow and has lost its mystery. In the old HL, you could look around cornets and sneak around baddies. Not in HL2. Despite how stealthily you are, you still trip the in game triggers that activate baddies that come after you. I miss the days of being able to peak around the corners and snipe things with the crossbow.

Dear Valve, please bring back the feature of peaking around walls and sneaking past baddies.

[Rob Williams]

Well, I -really- am expecting EP2 to be a lot better than this EP. We should be seeing the storyline unfolding far quicker in the second one, since this episode was merely a primer.

It better be good.. the trailer was so cryptic :/

[Greg King]

Yeah, I just finished ep. 1 and I am impressed. I am really looking forward to the second episode and that damned ending just got you going did it not? The old building where the Vortigaunts were fighting, did that not look just like Black Mesa?!? I really can not wait now!