"Great game, if only it were longer."

Half Life 2:Episode 1, formerly known as Aftermath, is the sequel to Half Life 2. Valve, the developers, apparently decided that it would be better to release the next game in smaller increments, instead of a big game 5-7 years later. As such, this game by itself is rather short, but it answers the questions to the cliffhanger at the end of the last game. So is the game sweet as well as short?

Graphics
As you would expect, this game uses the Source engine. However, it includes the HDR features that were present in the Lost Coast demo. One feature of this that I really like is when you look at a bright light source and then look away, its still bright for a second because your eyes need to adjust, very cool. Unfortunately, that is it for updates to the Source engine. It still holds its own in terms of graphics, at least, until the new Cry-engine comes out.

Sound
Sounds and music are nicely done throughout the whole game. There is one level where you are in the dark the whole time and need to rely on your flashlight. Conserving you flashlight is important, so you come to rely a little more on sound than you did in the previous games. I just wish there would be more games than Doom 3 that would take advantage of 5.1 sounds.

Controls
The controls are all the same. Nothing is new, and nothing is taken away. Well, you don't have any vehicle driving to do in this game, which I miss.

Game play
The game play is just as good as the previous Half-life's. In fact, I would say it's a little better. For starters, more emphasis is placed on the Gravity Gun. In fact, you don't even have a gun till the beginning of the 3rd level. Alyx is with you the entire game, which is good as she gives you backup. There is one really cool part where she snipes all the enemies that come near you.

One thing I did NOT like was the fact that you only get to face one gunship and one strider. There could have easily been more of each, gun ships especially. I would have been almost completely satisfied with this game if there were a few more of each of those. This brings me to the point that the game is just too short. Although you probably want to give leeway because its this new “episode” thing, but still as a game in general, it was too short. The Sin episode that came out a month ago took me around 6 hours, this game was closer to 4, maybe 5. I think if it was a solid 6 hours it would have been ok for its small price tag, but not really if its less than 5.

As for everything else, it's basically more of Half Life 2. The physics are still excellent. The gravity gun is still a great thing to have and use. There are some nice puzzles, like how to stop the ant lions and to steady planks to get to the exit. The only bad part really is that it is over too fast.

As for the story, yes, everything is explained, for the most part. Once again, you are left with a few unanswered questions, but somehow, I feel that that is a good thing. The G-man only makes a cameo in the game, as do the Vortagons. The ending is actually very good. It's a cliffhanger, but it is probably the best ending in a Half Life game besides Blue Shift. Oh yes, and Barney is in this game as well, but the game concentrates on Alyx. And once again, Adrian Shepard is MIA and there is no clue as to his whereabouts.

Overall, this is a decent game, its just a little too short for my taste. Although, once you play through the game, you can replay it with the commentary on. This is cool as you get to learn some of the issues involved in designing the game. I would also like to note that I did encounter a few issues while playing the game, one that caused the game to crash. This seems to have been fixed already, through an automatic Steam download, because replaying the game a second time, none of the issues have happened again. That is one feature of Steam that is great, the fixes are applied automatically. Still, they were there to begin with, and they are worth noting.

Maybe I'm just a Half Life junkie, but I think this game is awesome. In fairness I have to give this game a lower score than I would like mainly because of its shortness, maybe its because I like it so much that it is over too quickly. In any case, if you are a fan of Half Life, you should not even hesitate. If you are just an FPS fan in general, it is still a great game, open up Steam and start loading.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/06