Five or Six of some of the best hours of your life
User Rating: 9.7 | Half-Life 2: Episode One PC
I have always loved the Half Life series, and feel that Episode One is a worthy successor to Half Life 2. It has fun and captivating gameplay, suberb voiceovers and an engaging story. This game partners you up with Alyx for most of it, and she helps you a good deal. Though an escort mission sounds stupid, it does not feel this way at all, as Alyx is invincible, and a good gun. WHile it may be unrealistic to make it possible for her to take round after found of enemy fire, it is in my opinion far superior to watching her die and having to reload your quicksave. She also follows rather than leads, so the game still makes it feel like you are in charge, and for severl long segments you will leaver her and play alone. Gameplay for the title hasn't changed at all since Half Life 2, which is not a bad thing, as mowing down combine is incredibly fun, and physics based problem solving feels fun and makes you feel clever when you solve it. This games graphics are also superb, running in nearly full DirextX 8 settings on my not so powerful PCI FX5200. This way it looks great, has no slowdown and quick loadtimes. Those with cards powerful enough to support it will recieve some impressive features like dynamic lighting and the like, many of which were featured in the Loast Coast Demo. Replay value is only decent, and I was rather interested in the Commentary system that is included, and thought it was worth playing through again just to hear some of the Developer's thoughts and plans for the game. To conclude this game is extremely fun, I can't wait for episode 2, and it is well worth the small $20 price tag.
