Suskie's Half-Life 2: Episode One review

I agree about the first two chapters (the levels are cool, I just wasn't digging having the super grav gun again--maybe it would have been neat if you only had the regular one and it gave you ways to deal with soldier using that) but I thought Lowlife was actually pretty cool. it would have worked better with Episode 2's new flashlight, but I had a great time with it.

cool review, anyway. though as a quick one-off opinion, I also read your HL2 review (and liked it too) but that last line was really lame. I'd change it :P

Yeah I also liked the second half of Lowlife. The car pushing bit was pretty clever and the end where you had to wait for the elevator in the darkness was cool. The worst part about the game is it is pretty unnecessary if you think about it. Valve could've gotten rid of the whole idea and added one more level to Episode 2.

The whole game just seemed stale to me. It seems like everything was ripped out of some part of the original. The best part of HL2 was the surprises in each level and there were very few here.

Ha, you're totally right, that line sucked. I wrote the review pretty late at night and never really proofread the thing with a clear mind, so I deleted it for now until I can think of a better way to close the thing.

I actually didn't enjoy the elevator part at all, mainly because I didn't want to have to worry about a zombine running up behind me and killing me with one of those damn grenades. (Is it just me, or did they make the blast radius for grenades much bigger in Episode One?) Lowlife was my least favorite chapter of the game, mainly because those zombines score too many cheap kills. I know you can just rip the grenades out of their hands and throw them back, but I can never think of that on the spot :P

Anyway, I still plan to review the remaining components of the Orange Box soon, so keep an eye out.

That brings up another complaint I have with the franchise: you can't hotkey! Luckily I hotkey the gravity gun into my mouse so I can quickly switch to that when I see zombines but it's a pain that you can't hotkey other weapons. Luckily the game is easy enough so fumbling though weapons isn't too big of a problem.

"... the striders, it seems, have effectively tossed City 17’s salad"

That's an, um, interesting, uh, way to put it.

Hahaha that's a brilliant line. Can't believe I missed it last night, but I suppose that's what I get for reading it at 3-4 in the morning.

You know you can just hit the G key for the gravity gun, right? I usually do that, but occasionally I don't reach far enough and turn on the flashlight by mistake.

Thanks for the feedback from everyone, by the way. I haven't felt as "on" lately as I have at other times so everything helps.

Yeah I know about that but it doesn't help me much. I programmed it into my mouse actually and switching to it was never a problem for me. It's the other weapons that I can't hotkey. After playing HL2 three times and the episodes twice each I'm pretty good at using the mouse wheel but still not perfect.

This is what I would do if I could hotkey each individual weapon.

Mouse 3 - Gravity Gun
Side buttons - Shotgun and Pulse Rifle
Q - Grenades
E - SMG
R - use button

I don't use the other weapons enough to put them in.

Yeah, I really wish I could hotkey the grenades, since I never really have enough time to select them individually and only really bother to use them against turrets. I guess having a grenade trigger is one thing Halo has over Half-Life.