As with Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 picks up directly where the last game left off and for the first time in the series, I found myself awed by the visuals. After you extricate yourself from the train that crashed at the end of Episode 1 and reunite with Alyx, you’re confronted with the spectacular sight of what used to be the Citadel. As you soon learn, the Combine is opening a massive superportal to call in reinforcements, and you need to head to the Resistance base at White Forest to warn them and help to shut down the portal.

Again, Alyx Vance accompanies you throughout most of the game, except for an extended sequence when a Vortigaunt fills in for her. They supply much needed commentary since as usual Gordon Freeman is conspicuous in his invisibility and silence (even from the opening cutscene that recounts the story so far such that it ends up looking like the Adventures of Alyx Vance instead). Valve’s storytelling magic is still here and the good news is that this time it’s backed up with great gameplay.

Episode 2 fixes a lot of what I found annoying about Episode 1: small, constricted levels, a focus on puzzle rooms instead of combat, a general sense of repeating stuff that had already been done in the original Half-Life 2 and a disappointingly short overall length. Instead, Episode 2 features large, expansive levels with impressive vistas including sequences involving a drivable car, a large variety of new environments include a trip through an antlion nest as well as a suitably satisfying gameplay length. The introduction of the Hunter as a new enemy is a great way of making the combat much more exciting. It’s tough, powerful and can go wherever the player can go, so no place is safe when they’re hunting for you. Combined with the much larger levels, the result is more non-linear battles where you’re forced to constantly move about the level while scrounging for ammunition with the Hunters on your tail.

Episode 2 actually has more puzzles overall than Episode 1, but this time instead of locking you in a room to solve them, the puzzles are more logically placed and make sense in the progression of the storyline. For example, in one particularly thrilling sequence, you find yourself ambushed and need to find a way to disable a force field to escape while fighting off Combine forces from every side. Some of the puzzles are even entirely optional, so that you can choose to solve them for additional rewards in the form of extra ammunition and energy, or bypass them completely to get on with the main story.

Apart from those refinements, I felt that Episode 2 features more varied and more interesting encounters. The climatic battle for example is something that you’ll remember for a long time, what with the number of enemies and allies involved. The level that the battle takes place in is so huge that you need to use the car to drive around it and your car is now equipped with a radar to let you know from which direction the enemy is coming from. Another encounter that I found particularly satisfying is playing turret defense against onrushing hordes of antlions.

All of this is rendered in a much improved version of the Source engine that the more expansive levels of Episode 2 make good use of. It isn’t perfect. The grass textures for one thing compares badly with that of Crysis, but it looks good enough that I’d load a level just to see the scenery and the stuff moving around in it. The levels, apart from being bigger, also feel much busier. In the sequences set in the outposts and bases of the Resistance you can see NPCs walking around, performing tasks and talking to each other. I know that everything is scripted, but it feels satisfying to be congratulated by your fellow freedom fighters when you take down the enemy.

With its greater length and more epic feel, Episode 2 finally feels like a great game in its own right rather than filler material. My only complaint is that, apart from a new anti-Strider bomb that you wield with the gravity gun, there are no new weapons and the selection feels a bit too familiar now that you’ve played with it over the course of three games. Valve could at least have followed the trend of more recent shooters by making the grenade throwable using a special key instead of being an individually selectable weapon.

Still, I’m heartened by the small preview of Episode 3 included in the game which hints that the next sequel will tie the Half-Life saga together with Portal. Will the Portal gun will be the latest addition to Gordon Freeman’s arsenal? If so, I’ll be there on day one.