Half-Life 2: Episode One has obviously been released, and if you're still on the fence about whether you want to pick it up, check out
Shack's full review of Valve's latest effort. Here's the short version, though: Buy this game.
Update: We now have a new screenshot gallery for Episode One featuring high-resolution shots taken directly from the game.
All in all, Half-Life 2: Episode One doesn't offer a revolutionary experience over its predecessor. What it does offer is significant improvements in just about every meaningful area of gameplay: pacing, variety of puzzles, overall density, and so on. It's a much shorter experience, but it is by no means like five hours taken out of a larger game. No, this is a larger game compressed into a five hour block. That in itself is something of an achievement; it really is absolutely packed with action to a degree that you simply never see in games that take twenty hours to complete, because that kind of development would be impractical. It makes up for the fact that a lot of assets have been reused, if touched up, and the weapon selection is identical to that of the previous game. You'll be doing so many new things in those environments, and you'll be in so many different situations with those weapons, and it's packed so full that you won't feel short changed.
When i play Half-Life2,counter-strike source,day of defeat source,Half-life2 deathmatch,Half-life deathmatch source and Garr´s mod its no lag. But when i play half-life 2 episode one.
LAG AS HELL!
Do sombady know why??
Is GMan going to go get Corporal Shephard now?
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Your favorite "Awesome!" or "Holy Sh*t!" moments from the game. Please use spoiler tags!!
I'll start:
In the car, getting thrown across the ravine into the Citidel by Dog, THEN falling through the floor
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I loved. Would play and pay again. Well worth it. Felt satisfied, very rarely am I satisfied throughout the game, this game did that.
In one mission you have to actually help get people to safty, a nice change from HL2 where you had a squad that you kinda just lead to their death... in Episode 1 you were leading them to their life. Made it more important not to let any die, when there was a reason to keep them alive.
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Alyx making zombie noises in the dark and scaring the shit out of me: awesome.
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On top of that, his complaints are so forced and needless to be said it's almost laughable. He complains that the HDR makes the game look too much like an action movie? What does that even mean? And complaining you couldn't pick up everything with gravity gun... why don't you complain that you can't blow up walls too, while you're at it. To his credit, he did confess his complaints were "out of a sense of duty". Either way, finding flaws for the sake of finding flaws is not the job of a reviewer.
I suppose it's hard to write a 2000 word review on a 5 hour game, particularly one that's so spoiler-vulnerable. Still, I think Chris could have put a bit more effort into it, or shortened the review replicating Valve's quality-over-quantity approach.
I give this review a D. (The game is magnificent, however)
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and left me on the fence about buying it :D
$20 for 5 hours of game. Hmm.
I still haven't picked up Sin either, for the same reason (though I have a feeling Ep 1 is a more polished experience)
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This is an expansion pack.
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This expansion was, in my opinion, a waste of money. It was a big cocktease; promises of more answers about the HL2 story and all it was was a light show. I honestly thought I was maybe 1/3-1/2 done when the game ended. :(
Valve created a jewel of a game with HL2 but boo to this "episode" nonsense. I would much rather pay $50 once every three or four years to get a brand new game than to pay $20 every six months for levels that weren't quite done to fit into the main game but might as well be used for something.
Surely I cannot be the only person woefully disappointed by this.
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And I think that's good, but mostly bad because of the time it took, and what was promised in more details to the story.
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But I'm looking forward to playing through it again on easy with commentary on. Such a great idea.
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http://sikander.shackspace.com/hl2ep1
excellent game btw. ~6 hours of play for the price of a pizza. i hope the next one comes out soon.
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It did take those pats, but it rehashed them.
For $20 for 4 hours, I want something fresh. Or at least call it like it is, an expansion pack and a short one at that. Remo said Newell mentioned, "This is basically Half-Life 3." If that's their intention, they totally, totally dropped the ball.
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But while I'm not really happy with the length of HL Ep 1, I will say I'd pay for the next ep to come out.
Alyx needs to get some new clothes.
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trailer!!!!!!!
http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=11174&type=mov
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Yeah, 3 hours for $20. Love Valve, but...little bit let down.
I think the pacing seems improved because it's a 4 hour block or chunk of the game, instead of 40. It took bits and pieces of the best parts of Half-Life 2, and shortened them.
The structure of the game and how it is setup, with puzzles and gaps in between wasn't very different.
How are the variety & complexity more comlex than those in Half-Life 2? What gameplay is specifically different?
Half-Life 1 had NPCs like that and so did Half-Life 2. She's there more often is all, however it doesn't dramatically change the gameplay from Half-Life 2. You can often times beat the game without her there, few moments is she fundamental, just as the NPCs in the other Half-Life games.
Question, did you go back and play Half-Life 2 recently? I'm wondering when you last completed it.
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same boring linear levels, same ai, same story, same everything. the only thing ritual ever talked about is the dynamic difficulty, and the only sign of that was the helmets on the soldiers after a bunch of head shots.
and the voice acting, story blows.
im hoping hl2 episode one will make up for that.
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The buildup to the end was a little lax. But the actual end was cool. Did remind me a bit of FEAR though.
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