Since even Half-life 2: Episode 1 is two years old now, it’s probably not fair to write a proper review of it so I’ll just jot down some of my thoughts on it. Its graphics are noticeably better than that of the original Half-Life 2, but still some way short of current standards. The most confusing thing about these episodic sequels is that they’re named Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and so forth, when as even Gabe Newell has said, it would make more sense to name them Half-Life 3: Episode 1 etc. Still, wholly brand new sequels are usually a lot more ambitious than Episode 1. The improvements, while noticeable, aren’t spectacular, and the way the story continues immediately after Half-Life 2 makes it feel like you’re playing new chapters of the original game rather than something completely new.

Episode 1 continues with Valve’s tradition of telling stories without cutscenes, choosing instead to keep the player in control in a tightly restricted environment to give for the NPCs to finish their canned speeches. It does work well, thanks to decent writing, good voice acting and, as before, Valve’s impressive technology of enabling the NPCs to have realistic facial expressions. But the way the game keeps locking you in rooms that can only be unlocked by an NPC after finishing a speech does get a bit too transparent.

The main difference Episode 1 has is that Alyx Vance is pretty much your constant companion throughout the entire game. It helps to make the game feel less lonely, and it enables the developers to come up with some cool scenarios, like the early one where you’re trapped underground and need to shine your flashlight at zombies so that Alyx can take them out. If you listen to the developer commentaries, you might be amazed at how much effort the developers spent in tweaking Alyx’s personality so that she’s the perfect companion, being helpful without making the player feel useless, being able to offer advice at key moments without sounding bossy etc. Personally, I found that Alyx didn’t really offer me any help in the areas where I felt that I actually needed help, mainly when solving puzzles. In many of the puzzle sequences, the developers simply removed Alyx while you worked on the puzzle. The best use of her that I’ve found is that she seems to have unlimited ammunition and is immortal, so it’s useful to use her to whittle away at enemies without wasting your own ammunition.

Another difference is that there’s much greater emphasis on the gravity gun than the original. In fact, you start Episode 1 with only the gravity gun, and you actually reenter the Citadel that you left during the introductory sequence, so it feels a little déja vu. As expected, with the gravity gun in hand, the player’s main challenge is working out various puzzles instead of combat. Some of the puzzles are pretty fiendish, including trapping the player in a room criss-crossed with laser tripwires and exploding barrels. To repeat what I said in my Half-Life 2 retrospective, puzzles make for an interesting distraction, but I generally prefer combat to be the meat of shooter games.

The most disappointing thing about Episode 1 however is how short it is. And if you cut out the sequences where you’re only watching things happen, as opposed to actually playing the game, you realize that the game is even shorter. Add to that the general feel that the whole thing is just a rehash of the original, with most uninspired scenarios. Overall, I’d rate Episode 1 as a competent effort, but if I’d paid full price for it back when it was first released, I think I’d have been serious pissed. The good news, having just finished Episode 2 as well, I can happily say that it fixes a lot of the things that Episode 1 did wrong.