Half-Life 2: Episode One

Reviewed by Mike Suskie (July 05, 2008)

If one thing really makes Episode One worth playing, it’s the connection to Alyx that starts thin but grows progressively stronger before the game’s three hours are up. In Half-Life 2, she was little more than a forgettable supporting character. In this episode, she’s at your side for the entire game, and provides both a surprising amount of battle support (it’s virtually impossible for her to die, so keeping her alive isn’t a concern) and a pleasant boost in morale. The Half-Life series has you doing a lot of cool things, so it’s nice that someone is finally acknowledging your heroics.

Reviewed by asherdeus (June 20, 2006)

I don’t like this whole “episodic gaming” trend that’s hitting PCs everywhere thanks to our good friends at Valve, the creators of Half-Life. While I understand their justifications for releasing segments of a single game in four-hour blocks over the span of a couple of years instead of one whole package that will inevitably spend much more time in development, I just don’t like playing through what feels like an unfinished product. Half-Life 2: Episode One has all the polish and s...

Reviewed by bigcj34 (July 03, 2007)

Half Life 2 Episode One is the next instalment of the Half-Life series, arguably the backbone of the FPS genre, and after the 1998 blockbuster and the successful sequel 6 years later, Valve decided to release Half Life 3 in three shorter episodic chunks to make release times faster. That means you don’t have to wait until 2022 to learn about the conclusion to the story.