Episode 2 is a huge step.........SIDEWAYS.
+ The outdoor areas are amazing and better than before.
+ Offers a new engine for modders.
+ Life-like scripting and voice acting.
- Graphics are still pretty bad.
- Blood effects look kind of cheesy.
- Playing as Gordon Freeman is starting to turn stale.
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Episode 2 is the second expansion to Half-Life 2, a highly popular fps by Valve. And needless to say, its half as long, and can be finished in just one day. There isn't a whole lot of change here, but Half-Life 2 still has a bit of fresh air left. Episode 2 takes place after the shockwave that derailed the train in the end of Episode 1. If you think that the story is still interesting, you will probably want to try Episode 2, as it's considerable alot more enjoyable than what you've seen from Episode 1 or even Half-Life 2 itself and continues the plot, whatever that may be.
Admittedly, however, the innovation of Half-Life 2 and its charm is starting to wear thin. Furthermore, playing as a speechless doctor who looks exactly like Hugh Laurrie also conjures that sickening feeling inside you that maybe its time for Half-Life 2 to step off the stage. I mean, how many times has this scientist in an orange HEV suit had his life threatened by falling debris, crashing machinery malfunctions, exploding buildings, and yet, watz his way through it with even his glasses untouched? Gordon still keeps his mouth shut during the entire episode, not even uttering noise when he's shot. In fact, the only way you know he's even a man with brown hair, facial hair, and glasses is just the perception you find on the front of the boxart. If you just play the game and switch to 3rd person view to see what Earth's hero looks like, all you see is a pair of floating hands and a gun. How this sub-devision of a ghost got crowned as the best video game hero of all time remains a mystery.
Anyway, Episode 2 takes you through a fairly straightfoward campaign of chapters as it did before. There's about 9 hours in it for you before its done, depending on how often you play the game. In a non-stop one go, you'll probably finish it in one day by midnight. The primary fact of this matter is, Half-Life 2 Episode 2 features one of the most breath-taking enviorments. White Forest maybe be one of the most interesting landscapes you'll find in any game, and so much detail put into these outdoor areas isn't far from what you've seen in Crysis. You'll also undergo numerous threats of well-implemented combine forces, as well as a few new enemies.
But the actually gameplay hasn't changed a bit. You'll still find yourself playing the same game, shooting Combine here and there, and having to sit through painfully long talking sequences without saying anything to the characters. The game is still littered with loading screens, although they are less frequent as opposed to the original Half-Life 2 where you would find yourself suffering loading screens almost every 10 minutes. The only real change in the game is Episode 2's seperation of the AUX power from the flashlight power, which was a major downfall in Half-Life 2 in a situation where if your flashlight was out of battery and you went swimming, you would drown.
Episode 2 uses a new improved Source engine (Thank goodness), so it looks better than before. Shaders are less bright and more 'rough', in the sense that it looks more realistic and less 'shiny'. When you shoot your enemies, a puddle of cheesy-looking blood gushes out of them instantly, but that makes firefights alot more rewarding. Strangely, you'll probably need to step your hardware up a bit if you want to play the game with a high fps, because it seems to take a bit more resources than you'd expect. And frankly, people keep praising the Source Engine, but I for one think it looks way overdated. Its not totally aweful, textures look decent, but models in particular (such as vehicles and steel fences) look absoulutly horrible and muddy.
Episode 2 is a nice expansion, but it doesn't give Half-Life 2 the overhaul that it really needs. If your a modder like me, you'll want to buy it just to get a new engine to tear apart. But apart from that, its just another cluster of maps that could be made in the SDK. For those who care more about the story, you should buy this expansion regardless. Or you can wait for Episode 3. But I wouldn't reccommend that, since Valve is taking forever to release it.