Half-Life 2: Episode One

That's not very helpful, Dog.

The Combine has been overthrown and remains fragmented across City 17.  Now Gordon and Alyx have to escape the city and try to regroup with the resistance.

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Recommended Age Minimum Age Available On... 12 8 PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Mac Overall Fun Length Frustration   Violence Sexuality Substances Gambling 6 3 3   7 1 1 0 Mods Religion Anti-Law Community Sports Magic Miscellaneous 2 0 0 0 0 1 3

1.     Gameplay

• Overall Fun - 6

Half-Life 2 is one of the greatest games ever created.  The story is so intricate and the characters so believable that the player is almost literally transported in to a world reeling from an oppressive, tyrannical government that uses technology to keep the masses from doing anything.  Humanity cannot even reproduce, let alone lead a rebellion.

Whether that is fortunate or unfortunate I will leave to you to decide.

Unfortunately, Half-Life 2 ended on a cliffhanger that left most players practically foaming with desire to see how things played out.  Episode One solves the problem of “what happened next” but unfortunately is far too short to feel like an adequate extension to the Half-Life series.

The player assumes control of Gordon Freeman, a mute theoretical physicist who is somehow able to use weaponry and overthrow governments almost single-handedly.  Despite the player never saying a word, the scripting of the other characters makes the world unbelievably believable.  The characters react with realistic emotions and push forward despite the heavy toll that the conflict takes on them.  Everything they want is put on hold to ensure the survival of humanity.  It’s better written than most movies.

Which I realize may not sound difficult, but with video games it actually is.

Unfortunately, Episode One does little but forward the storyline a bit.  The player is charged with the task of escaping the city.  There may be sub-objectives along the way, but this primary objective never changes.  This, coupled with the very short length of gameplay, makes things seem very brief.  The player is never given any new weapons, which may seem trivial but the player spends the entire campaign picking up all of the weapons he had already acquired in the Half-Life 2 campaign.  This also means that there are very few new strategies that the player can attempt.

This will seem familiar to those who played the previous game.

This expansion was a nice addition, but hardly felt worth playing alone.  Gamers will likely be left unsatisfied with the conclusion.  Fortunately, it doesn’t hurt the series, so I was left still wanting more.

• Length - 3

For the amount of time that it took to develop this stand-alone expansion pack, the amount of gameplay is extremely short.  I managed to finish the entire campaign in less than 5 hours.  To be fair, I had played through the campaign multiple times, but the end result is still something that leaves much to be desired.  Combine this with the fact that multiplayer is not included in this expansion pack and the ending length is extremely short.

• Frustration Factor - 3
  

Aside from the disappointing length and the lack of anything new, there was very little about this game that frustrated me.  Ammunition could sometimes be in short supply, but the game demonstrates how to accomplish any of the required tasks.  Most of the time, the tasks are very simple though, so even younger players should have no difficulty accomplishing what is required.

There were only two exceptions.  First, there was one sequence where the player has to descend an elevator.  Giant pieces of metal will fall on the elevator unless the player uses the gravity gun to push them out of the way.  However, the placement and rotation of the pieces can make the actual act of pushing these pieces very difficult.  It took me a number of tries to get through this section and, in the end, it seemed rather pointless.

Zap!

The antlions can be somewhat annoying.  In Episode One, these flying bugs come up from holes in the ground.  The antlions will come up continuously until the player covers the holes with a car.  Unfortunately, if the antlions hit the player it causes the player to stumble slightly.  This can be extremely annoying if the player is trying to kill the antlions while also covering the hole.  However, considering the antlions are fairly weak, most of the time this type of situation can be avoided.

2.     Parental Notices

• Violence - 7

The level of violence in Episode One is relatively mild for a first person shooter.  The player will be required to constantly engage in combat with a wide variety of enemies.  If the player uses guns, the impact of the round will result in a small spurt of blood at the site of impact and, at times, blood splatter on a nearby wall or floor.

Nice shot!

However, this may be somewhat moot.  There is an achievement to complete the game using only a single bullet.  It’s difficult to do, but entirely possible with the weaponry available to the player.  The player is allowed to use the gravity gun to throw objects which, for the most part, cause very little visible damage to enemies.

Boink.

The player can also use grenades and rockets to kill enemies.  Explosions cause enemies to fly up in the air like a doll.  There is never any gore in these explosions.

Enemies can also be lit on fire using flares or gas tanks.  This almost exclusively is meant for the headcrab zombies (described in the “Miscellaneous” section below), but sometimes normal enemies can be lit on fire.  Most headcrab zombies will scream horribly as they burn to death, but the cries sound more mournful than painful.

Who wants toast?!

• Sexuality - 1

In Half-Life 2, the administrator of City 17 used a series of giant television sets to broadcast messages to the citizens.  One of the recurring characters, a scientist by the name of Dr. Kleiner, uses the remaining televisions to broadcast messages to the resistance.  More specifically, he instructs them of recent scientific events that have occurred as a result of the collapse of the Combine.

One of the things he talks about is the Combine’s “Suppression Device”.  The device somehow managed to suppress humanity’s ability and/or desire to reproduce.  The collapse of the Combine inadvertently resulted in the collapse of the suppression device.  In an extremely scientifically geeky manner, Dr. Kleiner encourages humanity to “take advantage” of this collapse since the device could come back online if the Combine manages to retake control of the city.

• Substances - 1

The player is able to heal himself by picking up medpacks.  These packs have some sort of greenish liquid that somehow treats the player’s wounds.  However, the player doesn’t actually use the substance.  Instead, he just walks over the packs, the player is instantly healed, and the pack disappears.

Didn't help her though.

• Gambling - 0

Gambling is not a factor in this game.

3.     Other Factors

• Mods - 2

Episode one is built on the exact same technology as Half-Life 2, so any mods that could be applied to Half-Life 2 can also be applied to Episode One.  For the most part, the mods available are level design mods or custom campaigns.  However, the occasional nudity mod can be found.  Steam does not directly support these mods, however, so a player will have to actively scour the internet to find these mods.

• Religion - 0

Religion is not a factor in this game.

• Anti-Law - 0

The primary theme in this game is the violent overthrow of a tyrannical government.  In Half-Life 2, the player led the rebellion against the Combine, which ultimately resulted in the overthrow of the government and the subsequent temporarily collapse of civilization.  Episode One deals with the immediate fallout of the previous game.  The player will still be required to fight Combine forces, but these forces act less like a government in power and more like scattered cells of one side in a larger conflict.

The entire idea of “law” has disintegrated by the time the game begins and, as a result, anti-law is not a factor in this game.

• Online Community - 0

There is no multiplayer game mode for this game.

• Extreme Sports - 0

Extreme sports are not a factor in this game.

• Magic - 1
  

At the beginning of the game, Vortigaunts, an alien species, somehow appear while time is stopped and save Gordon and Alyx's lives.  The process seems magical.  Other than this, magic is not a factor in this game.

Ommmmm.

• Miscellaneous - 3

Human Disfigurement

The player will run into a few distinct examples of human disfigurement.  As with Half-Life 2, Episode One features the “Headcrab Zombies”.  Parasitic creatures known as headcrabs have the ability to jump onto a human’s head and “couple”, taking over and mutating the host’s body.  The result is a somewhat bloody wretch of a human, usually with internal organs exposed.

That can't be healthy.

The specific type of zombie that forms is based on the type of headcrab that couples with the host.  Standard headcrabs create the standard zombie shown above.  Other headcrabs can form more horrible mutations.

Half-Life 2 contained neutral “creatures” called “Stalkers” that worked as the Combine’s slaves.  These things were originally people that had been surgically modified to barely even seem humanoid.  Their legs were replaced with stilts and faces replaced with a metal plate.  They were barely noticeable in Half-Life 2 because the game never really focused on them.  However, they play a much more noticeable role in Episode One.

Sad.

The player will have to kill a few, since they will actively work to impede the player’s progress.  Their motivation is unclear but I suspect that they are resentful that the player has not been modified like they have and, as a result, the unmodified humans remind them of everything they once were.  Since they could never become human again, they end up resenting humanity.  The game never explicitly says this though, so it’s pure speculation on my part.

The player and Alyx Vance will escape in a Combine train to try and get as far out of the city as possible.  Unfortunately, the train derails at one point.  It turns out that the train car the player and Alyx had been hiding in was a transport car for Stalkers.  The Stalkers wake up after the train derails.  It can be pretty disturbing and Alyx is affected by the experience.

No solution.