Episode One First Thoughts
Half-life 2 was 6 agonising years in development, sure it was defiantly worth the wait, but it’s nice to be back in city 17 so soon after HL2, your last vision of the destruction of the citadel still etched in your mind.
Episode One begins right where HL2 left off, it drops you straight back into the action at the base of the citadel. HL2 ended on a killer of a cliff hanger, with everyone dying to know if Alyx would survive. Thankfully she does, as I’m sure you know already know from the previews of the game. I am not going to explain how she survives, frankly I’m not even sure that I understand it, but no doubt it will be explained later on in the game, and if not then in the next episode.
So far I’ve made it to the second chapter of the game, so to give a definite verdict of it would be silly but for the moment it feels, well, the same. I think that is probably the best way to sum up the first section. You head back into the citadel, armed only with the gravity gun, and Alyx by your side but it feels like a repeat of the end section of its parent game. Eventually you get the “super� gravity gun, which was a really fun little device in HL2 but now seems tired. Orb based, bridge crossing puzzles abound until you close the core. The last thing I did was jump on a train. I’m waiting to see where it takes me.
So for the moment at least the jury is out on this the first of a trilogy of episodes. I’ll be sure to finish the game pretty soon, and give you my verdict, no doubt Matt will beat me to it though! Check out my Half-life 2 Episode One flickr set.
Matt Brett
June 3rd, 2006 at 5:57 am
My thoughts as of now are basically the same. I have also only played through the first chapter. One thing I really liked so far was the casual nature of the characters and how they’re interacting with one-another. I guess since it’s been a while since most of us have played Half-Life 2, it really feels like they’re old friends and re-grouping after some time apart.
I just watched GameSpot’s review and they admit that it does feel very familiar and certain sequences like the return to the Citadel were almost disappointing. But they rave about other aspects and later chapters.
Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to playing through the rest of the game.