Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Half-Life 2: Episode One

1. Official Site
2. Platform: PC
3. Publisher: Valve Corporation
4. Developer: Valve Software
5. Release Date: 06/01/06
6. Genre: Action/Adventure

by Mitch Youngblood

Among the benefits of seeing behind-closed-doors sessions at E3 is the chance to see things long before the general public catches wind of what developers have in the pipeline. One of the prime examples this year was EA’s Army of Two featuring non-stop co-op between the player and a partner controlled by either the computer or a second player. This feature seems to be the major selling point of the game and the developers crowed endlessly about how having a computer controlled partner that actually looked out for itself and protected you at the same time would be a first for the world of gaming.

Sorry to burst your bubble, guys, but Valve has done just that and more with Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and it is nothing short of sensational. The feature of a smart AI partner, I mean. The game itself... well, let’s just say it has its highs and lows while simultaneously showing the future for not only the franchise but also what episodic gaming is capable of when it’s done right.

Episode 1, the first of three announced direct-to-Steam sequels to the fantastic Half-Life 2, picks up a split second after the original game ended. We see Alyx Vance still frozen in place as the top of the Citadel explodes roughly four feet away, and Gordon Freeman remains in the clutches of the G-Man. All this changes in a very unexpected way and the action picks up at ground level where Alyx and Dog dig Gordon out from the wreckage. The rest of the episode chronicles their escape from City 17, and this proves to be the game for fans who wanted more story development along with the mystery. One thing the series has never been is readily forthcoming with exposition but there are great swaths of it throughout Episode 1 that deepen and enrich the universe instead of simply adding bulk for the sake of it as so many expansion packs have in the past.

It’s difficult to pinpoint just where the additions and tweaks Valve made to the Source engine are at first. Then you start zooming in on people’s mouths and watch as the quality of the already impressive lip synching has been kicked up a few notches. Characters that already expressed emotions illustrate even more now and it seems as if nothing more than a few tight tweaks are all it took. The next iteration of the Source engine may well create characters as expressive and realistic as anything found in a Pixar film, and Valve’s extra addition of HDR lighting only ramps the realism up even further.

In short, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 doesn’t look like a major overhaul of the graphics engine, but the tweaks under the hood have dramatically increased performance. Valve even commented on this earlier in the year when they explained how porting the original game over to the Xbox lead them to new ways of optimizing their own code. We can now reap the benefit of this because the game seems to run smoother when a lot of things happen on screen at once. Other than belt tightening, Valve introduced HDR lighting with last year’s Lost Coast demo and they fully explore how light affects the world and characters in Episode 1. Watch how light reflects off of Alyx’s pupils when you shine your flashlight in her face. Or more specifically, pay very close attention to the sequence where Gordon finds himself in an attic and rapidly running out of cover while a gunship blasts the roof away a few pieces at a time. It’s both an exciting action sequence as well as a terrific taste of how the Source engine handles lighting effects. These shiny new toys can come with a hefty price if you run everything maxed out, but I found that by simply turning off shadows I still witnessed a lot of the effects while maintaining a steady frame rate.

Before writing up the score for the expansion I first went back and reviewed the score I gave the original game. Since the sound effects have all remained the same for Episode 1, there was nothing on that front that stood apart from the original game. Even all of the explosions were recycled, or kept uniform depending on your point of view, but I didn’t want to simply repeat myself. I will point out that Episode 1 does have a far better use of music than the first game, especially during Gordon and Alyx’s first real firefight together. I struggled with giving the original score a 93 percent and in hindsight I was perhaps too stringent. On the other hand, the score for Episode 1 gets an additional two points because of one reason alone: Merle Dandridge who plays Alyx Vance.

All of Valve’s impressive technical achievements would have fallen flat if Dandridge had left her A-game at home. She was terrific in the first game, but her role has drastically increased and she turns Alyx into a fully developed flesh and blood woman who can kick butt right alongside you. Her and Gordon’s relationship continues to organically grow and Dandridge sensationally sells it because she makes you believe that she believes it. Alyx grew up in this world and Gordon represents not just the way things were but the hope for the way things could be. She looks at Gordon and sees not only both the future and the past but also who she wants in her life. Dandridge brings elements to her portrayal that I doubt were in the actual script and her canny characterization cannot be discounted. Episode 1 simply would not work if you didn’t have a genuine reason to go through everything you experience, but Alyx is that reason and more.

Harry S. Robins also returns to the fold as Dr. Kleiner and his role has also increased. I can’t go into specifics of it without ruining one of the funnier surprises later in the game but Robins makes Kleiner more than just a nerd. He truly cares about humanity, hates what the Combine has done to his world, and knows that he can’t fight back like Gordon can. He contents himself doing what he can with the strengths he has, and strikes back in his own way. Of course, Alyx’s response to his do-gooder efforts is one of the funniest lines in the game.

The controls are completely customizable and revolve around the standard W-A-S-D configuration for the keyboard. The mouse is used for your aiming, or you can play the keyboard jockey and discard the mouse altogether. Nothing has changed here so what worked before works just as well now. I do wish console developers would allow for most customized options in their games instead of giving us four different patterns that make less and less sense as you scroll through them.

But that’s why we have the PC, and one of the reasons why naysayers about the imminent "Death of the PC" are idiots.

The gameplay for Episode 1 is a little tricky to get a solid grasp on because overall it feels very schizophrenic. One minute Gordon and Alyx sprint through zombie-infested sewers only to run smack dab into a series of elaborate physics puzzle deathtraps, and when they come out the other side they have to fend off another army of swarming enemies. The game feels like a short expansion pack because there’s never a slow build-up to entirely new sections of the game like there was in Half-Life 2. Revisiting that game makes you realize there was almost an entire half hour leading into the infamous Ravenholm segment and by the time players had to go through the "abandoned" city they knew they would face evils unlike any previously seen. If anything, Episode 1 almost moves too quickly at times because there are maybe three sections total where you can actually catch your breath and prepare for the next showdown.

On the other hand, Episode 1 does frequently bathe the player in exposition which threw me at first because the story up to this point has been doled out very slowly. Imagine my surprise when Barney and Alyx have a discussion about events in and around City 17 that goes on far longer than one would have anticipated and fills in a lot of gaps. The way Valve has told the story thus far relies as much on how much attention gamers pay to the world around them as it did to the voice actors, so it feels slightly off to have some fairly big details just spilled right out. There are never any major revelations like "The G-Man is Luke’s father" or anything but it’s a jarring, albeit slightly welcome, addition to the series.

The sheer joy of this game though is the partnership with Alyx who remains by your side for the majority of the time. She will cover you as enemies fire on your position, she’ll help open some doors, and she even offers you some pretty entertaining flirtations. By the end, you may find yourself protecting her not just because she’s useful but because you genuinely care for her. In my review of the original game, I referred to Half-Life 2 as a new sort of interactive fiction courtesy of many elements but the extra attention lavished on Alyx raises that bar substantially. She becomes your partner, your friend, and almost your confidante by the endgame and if she lacked any of the personality Dandridge brought to the role then it would be a wasted effort on Valve’s part. As she is now, Alyx takes on a role as vital as the beloved gravity gun does and the result is a new kind of co-operative action game where the immersion is ratcheted up several notches.

I’ve already replayed the game twice now and it remains an exciting, sometimes frustrating, experience. The addition of the developer’s commentary is a very welcome addition to the series that gives players a behind-the-scenes tour of Valve’s mindset when they built the game. It’s a fascinating and sometimes revealing look into what goes into making a game and this is a feature other developers would be wise to include. Think of it as a DVD’s commentary track only you actually activate little thought balloons as you progress through the game world.

The story itself continues to expand and explain the world Freeman now finds himself in, while at the same time setting up new mysteries for future games. Heck, the amount of detail that went into that final shot alone is staggering not only due to its beauty but also how fast and high it ramps up the stakes. The ending of Episode 1 proves that Half-Life 2 was apparently just the start of something that looks to be far, far larger than any of us anticipated. It will be fascinating to play the new trilogy start to finish and see how the story comes together in the end.

At the very least you get an entertaining couple of hours for $20 that you can play over and over again. Any DVD set you pick up at Best Buy runs about the same amount and gives you an hour or two less entertainment.

Half-Life 2: Episode 1 is a wonderful continuation of both the story and spirit of Half-Life 2 yet is sometimes frustrating with action scenes that are little more than ammunition-depleting stall tactics by Valve. If the gameplay for each episode ranges between four to six hours then so be it. Gamers have begun lining up behind this concept and most seem anxious to pay the $20 for this style of video game. But too often in Episode 1 the player will find themselves surrounded by supply crates and flooded by onslaught after onslaught of enemies with true thinking-man’s combat relegated to the back seat. That’s highly disappointing because the feeling of leading the revolution through an urban-based war of attrition is what helped make the final chapters of Half-Life 2 so emotionally gripping. The final stage of Episode 1 is really the only one that comes close to recapturing this feeling while the rest of it is spent slugging it out with waves of Ant Lions.

So why then is this title a must-own? Simple: The story of the Half-Life universe is propulsive in its own right and the sheer zeal Valve has for this world and the characters in it is a joy to experience. Partnering with a truly responsive AI also has to be seen to be believed. Once gamers charge into a room of zombies with Alyx by their side, the music kicks in and the carnage begins, I doubt many will want to go back. A side effect, whether intentional or not is up for debate, is the growing emotional attachment to her character as both a partner and romantic foil. That Valve slipped a bit of romanticism into a science fiction action title and actually made it work is the sort of audacious experimentation few other developers would even try. For that alone, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 cannot come down the pipe quickly enough.

Gaming Trend Score

92

1. Graphics: 95
2. Audio: 95
3. Controls: 95
4. Gameplay: 87
5. Value/Replay: 90
6. OVERALL:92