Half-Life 2: Episode One sets of right away with an alternate ending to
the events of Half-Life 2. Although if these events occur before or
after the actual ending is not clear - but by now the player should be
used to be left in the dark when it comes to the storyline.
The
first thing I noticed, sadly, was the frame rate. Now those of you on
older systems who previously could run Half-Life 2 should be warned that you might notice choppiness
and tears in dialog that really break immersion. The game scales nicely
though and feels fairly smooth on the lower graphical settings,
although it seems odd you should have to lower the overall graphical
quality of the game to get a decent frame rate when you could run Half-Life 2 just fine.
Right from the
start the game gives the player some breathing space, reintroduces the
cast of characters, fills in some of the story, and sets a new goal for the player. The
character interaction is very believable and most of the time the
scripted AI feels great, but one very unpleasant experience stands out,
right from the beginning of the game. The AI is pretty much completely
oblivious to your presence in some cases (in others they make
eye contact and such with the player), and you might find yourself
stomped by Dog if you're not paying attention. It was pretty much a
loading sequence I could have lived without.
Now, I
mention the friendly AI because it plays such a huge part
in Episode One. It serves not just to deliver dialog and story, but as
your main companion thought the game. You have Alyx by your side pretty
much from beginning to end, with some long-distance co-op (in other
words, Alyx goes of to do something in another area, to give the player
some space working on some of the puzzles) in between. Even if the game
doesn't ship with co-op multi-player support, the AI does a great job
of simulating a co-op companion. And in some cases the immersion might
have been broken should they have shipped with co-op MP support.
The
game doesn't feature classic co-op things like boosting someone up a
vent and flanking enemies at every corner, but rather taking co-op in
new and fresh directions such as holding your flashlight in dark areas
so that you and Alyx can fire at the stuff you put the light on, or
defending areas together. You're never standing idle by while Alyx lays
waste to everything, and the game does a great job of making you as
involved in the combat as Alyx.
But Alyx is more than just a
walking turret. The animations, scriptwriting and voice acting all
make for a great believable and natural character. You actually care
for your companion, which is a great feat in any video game. She seems
compassionate and trusts in the ability of the players (she tries not
to nag on you) and her character (and the bond with the player) is
built upon all throughout the episode. That said, players who dislike
Alyx will probably not find Episode One very exiting unless they give
her another shot.
Episode One has gone through a lot of play
testing, and boy does it show. Whenever you feel like resting after a
big battle the game slows the pace down for a while with puzzles and
basically gives you sort of sequential combat "highs" which really
makes the game more enjoyable than its predecessor. When hopping around
the game world, the game plays a lot on perceived danger and events
occurring at a distance from the player. Explosions and such never
really feel scripted, and everything just seems natural. The player is
also constantly manipulated without knowing it, getting introduced to
smaller versions of bigger battles before even knowing it, which makes
for less anger and frustration once those battles actually occur.
All
in all (and I hate to hit you with one of those anoying review clichés) if you liked Half-Life 2, you should by all means consider
giving Episode One a go. If you do, you can expect about 2-6 hours of gameplay depending on difficulty and your playstyle.
