Half-Life 2: Episode 1

[Arturo]

Downloading right now! Heard really good reviews on it

[Infinite XÆr0]

i heard it was short, a lot shorter than what was originally stated (4-6 hours)
a bunch of ppl on steampowered forums said they beat it in about 2.5 hours...

anyway, i prob wont get it for a while, i personally dont think that minuscule additions of content, no real explaination of the story, and no improvement over the fairly old 1998 style of gameplay warrants a $20 price tag...

also, for some reason i didnt like half-life 2 as much as half-life 1. I mean, i could play half-life 1 through, starting right now and enjoy every bit of it (already played it over bout 8 times), but i dont think that i could bare playing through hl2 another time (played it through twice)...

[DaveP]

I finished it earlier on..


..great progression to the story line, definitely.. I'd reccomend it to any previous Hl2 player.


As far as it being 'short', you have to bear in mind this is episodic content, that being shorter releases with a shorter time between them.


And the Ep.2 trailer at the end looks fucking great :D

[RonanHayes]

I have finished both Ep1 of Sin and HL2 and I must say I would rather pay €60 and know I am getting 6 episodes.

[DaveP]

but that said, would anybody want to wait about 5 or 6 years for 30 chapters of gameplay, that being 3 times the amount of hl2's chapters (about 10/11'ish, I think), when theycould atleast be squeezed down into 3 sequels?


The thing about Half Life 2 that lends so well to episodic content is it's story is near flawless in game terms. It has depth and reach to every single character.

It keeps you clawed to the series and wanting to know what happens next...


..heck, even most Valve Employee's aren't told most the story by the writers, and even then only told what's important (On FP, an old member got a job as a dev at Valve, he posted about nobody knowing the story quite a while ago)

[NeMeSiS]

The screens dont look very special to me, and if its really that short, then i wont buy it untill its cheaper (50%)... :cool:

[Arturo]

Cant wait to play it... Downloading is taking a lot of time

[DavidUpton]

£20... Not really worth it to be honest.

[2ltben]

The one thing I like most about the HL series is that the writers arn't just some guys from the industry, they're published authors who know what they're doing, and they know how to retain the storytelling through the first person. BIAHH is doing almost the direct opposite of this, so we'll have to see if it works out for them.

[Arturo]

It would not be 20 euros. It was 20 dollars:D Just got off playing I find it really good. Ill finish it tommorow

[Hyperion2010]

I've played through it twice (once with commentary) and god, you cant find a better SP experience out there (1944 doesnt count as a "game" persay ;)) the story is superb and I cant wait for ep2 which is supposed to be at least 8 hours of gameplay.

[DavidUpton]

It would not be 20 euros. It was 20 dollars:D Just got off playing I find it really good. Ill finish it tommorow

Well someone is getting ripped off, because when I looked in the shop it was £20... (Thats pounds, not euros)

[Lordwatson]

Most probably because, you are paying for packaging materials, Valve doesnt need to do this when it is published on steam

[DaveP]

aye, I got it on steam yesterday for about £11-12

[Arturo]

Just finished it. It is just amazing and action packed! I will sureley buy Episode 2

[RonanHayes]

Im not overly convinced, considering its made up of 3 chapters. The first chapter really lacked punch. The 1st half of the second chapter is really poor as well.

And dont get me started about Alyx, what a on dimensional twat.

"Oh Gordon this", "Oh Gordon That", "Wow Gordon your great", "You did a great job Gordon"

The second half of the game was good but was over too fast.

Now my biggest question, where in the hell was the story? One pre-recorded message from Breen, No G-Man (well not that I could see), 1 shot of Juddith and then 1 looping message by Eli. Thats not a story thats a hack and slash of ideas.

It was clear they didnt think this through completely. As the opening sequence was a sellout. They needed to backtrack and came up with such a shite excuse as to how they escaped. So eager for that ultimate cliff hanger with HL2, hoping that it would make up for such bastardised use of ideas... (So many cool concepts littered around the game but pulled due to their delays.... you could tell that they had to pull them)

Anyway, I cant see it warranting this kind of money every release, especially if its not going to add much value. Look at it this way, you can pick up HL2 for around $50 which comes with CS, HL2 MP and around 13 chapters. You can get Episode 1 which is only 3 chapters long.....

That doesnt add up, you would be looking @ $80 just to get the same amount of chapters as the full game. Thats 4 chapters one every 6 months you are talking 2 years before you get to the same level as HL2. And lets be realistic here development time for 2 good expansions would be 16 months maybe 18..

Anyway thats my rant on it all.

[Arturo]

I agree on some points Ronan... But I found the sound really amazing one of the best. The story was ok but I was hopeing more. The graphics and physics I saw were refined and better. All in all I think it was worth my money.

Did you see the trailor for episode 2? It looks good the trailer shows some new stuff that look interesting

[Hos]

That doesnt add up, you would be looking @ $80 just to get the same amount of chapters as the full game. Thats 4 chapters one every 6 months you are talking 2 years before you get to the same level as HL2.

Yes, I agree that it's overly expensive. But I guess they put out a good product with HL1 and HL2 so they are now seeing if people are willing to pay extra for less content.

So, I'm not a big fan in episodes either but if they hear enough rants that the games need to be longer with more story and such then maybe they'll give consumers more of what they want in the next episode. Sort of like a patch ...but it costs a bunch of money. :eek:

[DavidUpton]

Are you joking? Valve don't care about us, only $$$.

[Arturo]

Even though it was 20 dollars. It brought Half-Life 2 DM (If you didnt have it) and Half-Life Source, Half-Life DM:Source.

[DaveP]

Things to consider:


Hl2 had about 12/13 ish chapters, and cost about £30

Hl2 ep.1 had about 5 chapters, and cost about £10

Henceforth, 3 episodes would add up to about 15 episodes, and basically be the same price as Hl2 was.

[Hyperion2010]

@Ronan

Well, as far as the story is concerned there are a number of conclusions that can be drawn relating to the combine and the current state of earth and the resistance as a whole. Breen is also assumed to be dead, considering that alyx says "I saw Breen fall and then heard vortigaunts." I personally dont care too much about the G-Man right now, and I suspect that when we finally make it to eli's base he and kliner will give us a load of info on what has been going on and the vortigaunts will "enlighten" us as to the nature of the G-Man. (I want to know more about cubbage since he is now being portrayed as a jerk and asshole).

Also, we dont know how long the other episodes are going to be. I have heard that ep2 is going to be 2x as long as ep1 so about 8-12 hours, although that probably wont be the case (tear).

[Homer]

Beat the game in 2-3 hours was real freakin short, not worth $19.95, it was just to shut the people up that kept asking for an Expansion.

[ApeX]

Beat the game in 2-3 hours was real freakin short, not worth $19.95, it was just to shut the people up that kept asking for an Expansion.

You're WAY WAY off.

It isn't just an expansion. It was showing the new Technology, as they promissed from Lost Coast.

In my Opinion, it was 100% worth the money. If you took 2-3 hours, you didn't take your time.

It had the best implementation of HDR in a source game, yet. I really enjoyed all of it, and I can't wait for Episode 2.

(This is just my opinion, so don't kill me:( )

[Wraiyth]

Got it today, been playin through it nice and slow. Loving it so far, I don't see how anyone could hate it. Great use of the tech, yada yada.

[McCoy [1st RB]]

"Oh Gordon this", "Oh Gordon That", "Wow Gordon your great", "You did a great job Gordon"



HAHA, I've yet to try it out,

I just played hl2 for the first time at a firends house yesterday.... it roxed my soxz off!

[[EID]Sharp]

Wow, Circuit City in the US have it on sale in stores this week for $8, I might get it for that price.

http://circuitcity.shoplocal.com/circuitcity/Default.aspx?action=browsepagesingle&storeid=2396892&rapid=279100&pagenumber=8&prvid=CircuitCity-060611

[2ltben]

Im not overly convinced, considering its made up of 3 chapters. The first chapter really lacked punch. The 1st half of the second chapter is really poor as well.

And dont get me started about Alyx, what a on dimensional twat.

"Oh Gordon this", "Oh Gordon That", "Wow Gordon your great", "You did a great job Gordon"

The second half of the game was good but was over too fast.

Now my biggest question, where in the hell was the story? One pre-recorded message from Breen, No G-Man (well not that I could see), 1 shot of Juddith and then 1 looping message by Eli. Thats not a story thats a hack and slash of ideas.

It was clear they didnt think this through completely. As the opening sequence was a sellout. They needed to backtrack and came up with such a shite excuse as to how they escaped. So eager for that ultimate cliff hanger with HL2, hoping that it would make up for such bastardised use of ideas... (So many cool concepts littered around the game but pulled due to their delays.... you could tell that they had to pull them)

Anyway, I cant see it warranting this kind of money every release, especially if its not going to add much value. Look at it this way, you can pick up HL2 for around $50 which comes with CS, HL2 MP and around 13 chapters. You can get Episode 1 which is only 3 chapters long.....

That doesnt add up, you would be looking @ $80 just to get the same amount of chapters as the full game. Thats 4 chapters one every 6 months you are talking 2 years before you get to the same level as HL2. And lets be realistic here development time for 2 good expansions would be 16 months maybe 18..

Anyway thats my rant on it all.
Adding emotional depth to Alyx, the Vortigaunts, the GMan, Eli, et al is no story? The opening wasn't a quick excuse to get them out of a situation, Marc Laidlaw has that one planned out for a while, and there's evidence all over HL2 to support it. Their culture believes in "Vortessence", that the universe is made out of "vortal cords" through which everything is connected(read: M-theory and just about the entire scientific base of the series), and that one scene brought more to their culture than anything before that, not to mention set the entire stage of the GMan's denoument in the series.

HL1 was GMan's bringing Freeman to the status of hero. HL2 was the GMan's control over Freeman. The Aftermath trilogy is GMan's loss of influence over Freeman and the situation as a whole. The Vortigaunts were freed first from the Nihilanth, then from the Combine, and now they're very close allies with a race that went through the same thing and saved them from their enslavement twice. Just about everything the Vortigaunts say is foreshadowing in one way or another.

The GMan is sort of like an antihero Doctor(though with the white door thing from Quantum Leap instead of a TARDIS), he's playing the humans and Combine against eachother as a means to use Freeman to gain his ends, but in Episode One he realizes that the Vortigaunts have been playing him all along.

The entire Half-Life series shows how narratology is supposed to be used in a game. The player never loses his sense of agency.

[Hos]

Ben, I think you forgot to say "SPOILER ALERT" in the first part of your post. (Just joking dude. :) )

[RonanHayes]

When it comes to HL2 and its story I tend not to read every piece of information found on the net. Infact I avoid it so I can experience the story first hand without any additional information.

What you read above was my opinion based on no other information other than what I picked up playing the episode through once. I didnt read any reviews, interviews, spoilers, opnions or otherwise.

Adding emotional depth to Alyx

I completely disagree with this, she's a bloody pain in the ass. Sure she certainly voices her thoughts far more but christ its the same crap over and over and it was wrecking my head after the first hour. She was a bloody fanboy. Thats not depth, nor is it emotional depth. She felt more like a stalker than someone falling in love with Gordon.

With regards to everything else you said I didnt pick any of that up at all, perhaps I didnt spend enough time walking through the levels or listen to everything. But I didnt feel that they presented enough "Fact" within the game to be able to draw those conclusions. Alot of the plot is up in the air at the moment that I would feel comfortable drawing such concrete conclusions. G-Man was in it for no more than 20 seconds... so its fairly hard to count him out, and the Vortigaunds were not present enough to either add additional information or confirm what assumptions you are making. I guess this is the problem with such a story, where the player needs to decide what the story line is and how to take it.

But as with HL2 I will play it again before I draw my ultimate conclusions. Its certainly not as strong a title as I would have expected even if it is just an episode.

[lazlazlaz1]

yeah, i wont get it, but that is cos i havent completed hl2 yet. only got it 6/7 months ago, and im slow at games.

plus i got stuck on one level, its the one where you control the ant lion things that come out of the sand. i got to a big fency staircase thing on a cliff past a load of bunkers, and i cant work out how to go anywhere. i read a thing on the internet and it said there is supposed to be a cave, but there isnt. i have spent literally an hour wandering around the same bit of land and found nada.

[Rapishorrid]

I'm about about half way through with Episode 1 right now (a little after the part where Alyx snipes).

My opinion of it so far is that it was a total waste. It's the same exact thing as HL2 if not worse. So far I have not seen any story progression, or anything that warrants a full game (even Episodic game) title. As far as I can tell, aside from some voice acting and Alyx animations this could've been made easily by a mod team...

To me I really have to push myself just to keep playing (I want to see what happens in the end) because it's the same exact thing over and over again. I'm really dissapointed that Valve even started this whole Episode deal. It seems like its just a waste of resources when they could be helping development of Half-Life 3 (or 4 considering the episodes). I would much rather wait a couple years for a full game that does what Half-Life does best, sets the standard for the FPS genre. Granted I did like the original Half-Life better than HL2,

could play half-life 1 through, starting right now and enjoy every bit of it (already played it over bout 8 times), but i dont think that i could bare playing through hl2 another time (played it through twice)... and totally agree with that. This Episode seems like it could've just been deleted sections of HL2 pulled together under a continuation of the storyline and added some shiny graphics.
Speaking of graphics that's the only part I'm really enjoying in this Episode so far. I can run it 1600x1200 max everything including AA and all that plus full HDR fine with my rig. (6800gs, 1 gig ram, 3200+ venice). That pleased me.

So basically what I am saying is that these Episodes are pointless. I would MUCH rather wait for HL3 being a game that once again sets the standard with completely new features (for example HL2 had physics), location, and characters. HL2 was totally different than HL1, with the whole new environment, characters, enemies etc. Plus the reintroduction of old things in the new engine was a special treat. That said, I have a very bad feeling that HL3 is not going to follow in the footsteps of it's predecessors... :(

[[EID]Sharp]

Did you see the Episode 1 stats?

http://www.steampowered.com/stats/ep1

Only 23% of the people that bought it have actually completed it.

[FartCop]

Valve has brought this episodic idea to the scene for the sake of easy (generally speaking) money and possibly for the sake of their development cycle. The concept is brilliant; sell several episodes at a premium for a continual revenue stream without the strain of building a complete product that takes years to produce. This way you can gradually increase the embedded technology while keeping up with the nextgen game production crowd and provide a regular product that the fans are willing to buy.

Now, if they would only create something that was worth buying in the first place. As is the norm for most games today the storyline reads like a teenagers high school writing assignment (and not necessarily a good one either). The storyline is average at best and the characters are ineptly developed. Ronan is right in that Alex acts like she is experiencing puppy love and it's damned annoying. For the love of Beer, give the girl a brain and not just a gun.

There have been very few games to be released which have anything remotely similar to a good storyline. Or even one that keeps you interested. HL1 did this in stages (the overall idea was good, but the story didn't build on itself or take any chances on branching to any significant level). Max Payne was a good example of a decent story. It had obvious flaws and a linear storyline, but you didn't quite know what was going to take place after you finished a chapter. It played just a like a noir novel and I still play the game today (Max Payne 2 didn't follow up well).

The very reason I stick to this forum and watch the development of 1944 is for the possibility of it's dynamic gameplay. The idea that my actions can have a visible effect on a situation that wasn't scripted or possibly even suspected and to have the AI react to it in a fairly realistic manner throws me forward to the days when such games could be commonplace.

HL2 and it's episodes are just HL2 and Valves internal mods. I find it difficult to call them expansions packs. However, I'm not spending your money or wasting your time. So, have fun.

<FartCop steps down off the soapbox>

[DarkCanuck]

Sharp']Did you see the Episode 1 stats?

http://www.steampowered.com/stats/ep1

Only 23% of the people that bought it have actually completed it.


it may be an error. it could have to do with people not seeing the credits, which i think is the benchmark for 'finishing the game'. i dont know why i put quotes are that...

[biggles]

One of my best mates have this. Took him 2 hours to complete, but he liked it and looking forward to Ep. 2

[Bunglo]

I LOVED IT! I thought it was better than the actualle HL2, just because it had alot more faced pace action in it. How some of these people beat it in 2 hourse is beoned(sp) me. It took me at least 4-5 hourse to beat it. Im playing it on hard now, and let me tell you, it's hard lol.

[2ltben]

Cranking the difficulty up and taking your time to soak in the game will easily get you the estimated 5-6 hours. I didn't really know what people were talking about the first time I played it, 3 hours? Hell, I spent three minutes just shooting terminals and dead Combine into the core just to watch it expand.

[{TLC}Corporal_Jigsore]

hehehehe i went round my friends (Ripper) and we played it and did it in a few hours it is alot like the last one (quite easy and very short) but i have heard about episode 2! and apantly its going to have forested areas which is a new for HL!:D

[2ltben]

Its going to be about the same length as Episode 1, maybe an hour longer, but its going to cover alot of distance. I think you may go to that arctic base Mossman was at.

I really want to know what happened to the Alien Grunts after the end of the Black Mesa incident. They were genetically engineered soldiers, made by Vortigaunts under supervision of Nihilanth and his buddies, but they appeared to be sentient. Perhaps they allied with the humans after Black Mesa and first contact between humans and the freed Vortigaunts. My personal theory is that there may be some remaining, but most were killed off fighting in the Seven Hour War and during the Combine occupation(they were soldiers made by the Nihilanth's species, which are enemies of the Combine)