Half Life 2: Episode One from the Orange Box
Source has never looked so good, with HDR lighting technology being the booster shot it really needed to be pretty outside scenes involving water. It is still kind to slower systems, and unless you are running it on something very anemic you should have no trouble whatsoever. On a XFX 8600GT XXX edition it ran as smooth as silk, but the many load times are still slightly frustrating, but that is more anticipation of what is going to happen next rather than the games fault.
Spending more time with Alyx is great and her charecter receives much more development than in HL2 . She is rarely not by your side unless you are solving one of the episodes many enjoyable co- operative puzzles. These almost never feel formulaic, with clearing Alyx a line of sight for her mounted sniper rifle an example i particularly enjoyed. The Ant- lion puzzles are repeated a little too often, however. You will see what I mean.
There are a few disappointments, particularly about the length of the game which, if you are good, can last only one sitting. To be fair, this is exactly what Valve promised with its shift towards episodic development, but if you purchased it with the Orange Box, you have nothing to complain about. The other qualm is that it really does not take you anywhere new, as many of the areas in city 17 will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has played the previous game. Ditto the lack of vehicles, which were a highly entertaining new facet to Half Life added by HL2. All of these issues are solved by Episode 2, which is personally my favourite of the two episodes. There is really no point to buying Episode One if you do not own Half Life 2, as there is no introductury moive clip a la Episode 2 that will fill you in on the events of the previous incarnation of the series. There are many points in buying the Orange Box however. Through Steam, it is great value, and the Half Life 2 series, Portal and TF2 are a gamers paridise.