Half-Life 2: Episode 1

    I've only had a chance to play 2 hours but so far I've been stoked all the way through. The hazy fog outside the citadel and subtle ash falling has a real nice effect.

    I also like the fact that there are more puzzles even though you only need 2 brain cells to figure them out.

    Ordered it retail several hours ago, but by the looks of many forums including this thread, it sounds like a great buy. Hope it's my money's worth too.

    Quote from cdxx

    I also like the fact that there are more puzzles even though you only need 2 brain cells to figure them out.

    Damn I must be an idiot cause I think I used 3.

    Quote from Izuno

    Damn I must be an idiot cause I think I used 3.

    You're lucky to have that many left though. Some of us aren't

    Quote from Furyo

    Damn I must be an idiot cause I think I used 3.

    You're lucky to have that many left though. Some of us aren't

    lucky? damn i think i only have 2 left and ones giving the other cpr.

    The Citadel core is far, far too lovely.

    Took me about 4 hours, but yeah it was one hell of a journey. Valve really took the good parts of HL2; trimed the fat; enhanced their tools, execution and art direction; made a really fucking good adventure, in short.

    Shame about the lack of new weapons and 'true' enemies, although the Zombines are fantastic. The Stalkers were creepy enough, and definitely didn't justify being a combatative enemy, while the Combine Advisor pod was just plain weird, what with the mind attacks and so on - according to the commentary, they play a large role in Episode 2. Can't wait!

    Alyx never once annoyed or disappointed me with her dialogue, combat skills and pathfinding either, which is a definite improvement on HL2's bumbling, ignorant rebel civilians, and since the episode was essentially all about you and Alyx together, it's a marvellous success.

    Encore.

    Quote from Tequila

    The Citadel core is far, far too lovely.Took me about 4 hours, but yeah it was one hell of a journey. Valve really took the good parts of HL2; trimed the fat; enhanced their tools, execution and art direction; made a really fucking good adventure, in short.

    Shame about the lack of new weapons and 'true' enemies, although the Zombines are fantastic. The Stalkers were creepy enough, and definitely didn't justify being a combatative enemy, while the Combine Advisor pod was just plain weird, what with the mind attacks and so on - according to the commentary, they play a large role in Episode 2. Can't wait!

    Alyx never once annoyed or disappointed me with her dialogue, combat skills and pathfinding either, which is a definite improvement on HL2's bumbling, ignorant rebel civilians, and since the episode was essentially all about you and Alyx together, it's a marvellous success.

    Encore.

    I couldnt say it any better myself! The whole part in the train where Alyx is trapped and the thing just keeps gnawing at her was really impressive!

    I enjoyed it a lot and there were only a few minor things that annoyed me. Some places where I was unsure where to go next (platform section with the strider, for instance) and the new enemy: combine zombie and his kamikaze deathtouch grenades.

    But everything else was pure class. I don't think I've ever liked the company of an AI buddy in a FPS until now because not only are they more of a hindrance than a help, they lead to FISSION MAILED screens every two seconds because they're jumping out in enemy fire or checking out the splash damage on your weapons. But Alyx is very good in this regard -- Okay, you're kind of encouraged to exploit the fact she's practically immortal and has infinite ammo, but it was fun rather than frustrating. And that's what matters.

    But she’s not actually immortal, as I found out when I crapped myself during the zombie zerg fest in the dark and left her to fend for herself while I pegged it to the lift like the coward I am.

    Edit: And the complete darkness sections were generally quite annoying. Was cool for one little section but by the fourth it was getting a bit tedious. But hey, like I said, overall it was fantastic.

    Quote from Taylor

    But she’s not actually immortal, as I found out when I crapped myself during the zombie zerg fest in the dark and left her to fend for herself while I pegged it to the lift like the coward I am.Edit: And the complete darkness sections were generally quite annoying. Was cool for one little section but by the fourth it was getting a bit tedious. But hey, like I said, overall it was fantastic.

    She isn't? woah, and all the times when I was just letting here blow up like 3-4 times in a row by my own grenades because the zombies were swarming her etc... guess i got lucky

    I'll agree that the first time I went through the darkness, i thought it was a bit tedious (think i mentioned that in the first post), but the joke alyx did (Mazy mentioned it too) quickly made me forget that when I was playing

    The Second run through (with the audio commentaries) made the darkness thing kinda fun actually, because this time I took my time and just watched Alyx kick ass while I listened to the audio commentary about how funky the music is (and it really is funky right there, kinda cool too with the guitar screetching etc).

    If im ever gonna make a SP, Im gonna use that track ;D

    Quote from Skjalg

    She isn't? woah, and all the times when I was just letting here blow up like 3-4 times in a row by my own grenades because the zombies were swarming her etc... guess i got lucky

    Yeah, I think she has some kind of sick hitpoint regeneration, so she's alright taking a grenade every now and then, but when she's swamped she goes down fast. And I imagine explosion splash doesn't do as much damage to her. Because the most annoying thing about escorts outside of the crap AI (definately fixed here) are them dying to splash, or being so injured you need to revert to an earlier save. All this might be in the commentary, which I still have to check out, though.

    There's a lot of little jokes in it, one of the things I like about Blizzard games is they are usually quite light-hearted and it doesn't mind joking about itself - and I saw Valve doing the same thing. Alyx talking about your vent crawling skills and Barney lugging around that crowbar were really nice touches.

    anyone like me crawled the wrong way in the vents and came down the vent, alyx goes "back so soon gordon?"

    awsome.

    I liked how they sometimes put critical stuff behind a fence, with a little opening at the top so you had to use the gravity gun to get it.

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