Halflife 2 Episode 1

Posted by AtariBoy | Filed under Gaming, Geeky

ep1

Halflife was a revolution in PC gaming.

Halflife 2 raised the bar once again.

Will Halflife 2 Episode 1 live up to its name?

If you have not already heard, Halflife 2 Episode 1 was released on 1st June, it’s the first of 3 episodes to be released by Valve to extend the story and world around Halflife 2.

Episode 1 starts as Halflife 2 finished, Gordon and Alyx are on top of the combine citadel after blowing it up, facing certain death.

I won’t spoil the story but I will say it was a disappointment not to see more Gman within Episode 1. Anyway on with the review:

Story
Episode 1 lasts for about 5-6 hours and the action rarely stops, you work your way through city17 with the goal of getting out of it, fighting all kinds of combine on the way. The NPCs have been improved immensely, especially Alyx. She talks and jokes with you and Barney and is never too far from your side, unlike in HL2 the NPC don’t get in the way and block you anywhere near as much either.

Gameplay
The game plays very much like HL2, the controls are the same as is the style of play. There are lots of puzzles, usually involving the gravity gun in some way, which split up the action nicely. If you liked Halflife 2 you’ll like this. simple.
Unfortunately the only real addition to the game is one new type of zombie, there are no new guns or any vehicles.

ep1b

Graphics
Halflife 2 had some stunning graphics when it was released last year, and episode 1 has been tweaked and improved to include some of the features of newer graphics cards since then like HDR and more shader effects, there is also an option for ultra graphics, perfect if you have an SLi rig.

Conclusion
The change towards releasing smaller games more often by valve is welcomed by some and hated by other. After waiting 6 years for Halflife 2, I am glad they are doing this but I also hope that they don’t forget to create Halflife 3 sometime as well.

Episode 1 is well worth the £10 ($20) and as long as valve keep up the pace by releasing Episode 2 before the end of the year I don’t think anyone will complain.

Links

Comments (4) | June 5th, 2006

4 Responses to “Halflife 2 Episode 1”

  1. AtariBoy Says:
    June 5, 2006 at 4:42 am

    Sorry for my absence, with exams and moving house recently I have not had a huge amount of time for GL.

    But I’m back now and full of posts. Lets get GeekLimit going again!

  2. neoncheez Says:
    June 5, 2006 at 10:16 pm

    WOOOOOT! HL2 rocked and I cant wait to get my paws on HL2 episode 1.

    ** On a side note, I think Steam is a beautiful thing.

  3. AtariBoy Says:
    June 6, 2006 at 5:49 am

    I love steam too and support it by buying most of the games that are released on it, I’m still thinking of getting Sin episode 1.

    The games tend to be cheaper than in the shops, plus you can re-download them at anytime, and you have the builtin friends network and server viewers.

    I hope they continue to develop it and add more features :)

  4. E@zyVG Says:
    June 6, 2006 at 8:28 am

    Finished playin’ Episode One yesterday. It was little short, but HDR effects were cool.

    Now waiting for Ep. 2.

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