"A short but neat expansion"

Half-Life 2: Episode One, the expansion to one of the best games of 2004. It was released to the public on June 1, 2006, almost 2 years after the release of Half Life 2. The name of this expansion pack used to be Aftermath but Valve decided to make a trilogy of episodes instead of just the one. As of right now, there is plans for an Episode Two and Three. There is already a trailer for Episode Two but you must beat HL2-E1 to see it.

Graphics - 10/10
Amazing. That single word describes the graphics to this (and HL2s) graphics. I'd expect nothing less since they were working on it for a good 5 or so years. It's the third game developed by Valve that uses HDR. The first being Day of Defeat: Source followed by the downloadable map Lost Coast. The facial animation system has also been upgraded, most noticeable on Alyx and Barney. Now theres animation for jokes, sarcasm and the like. Very nice and realistic to watch.

Sound - 9/10
The sound is this game is wonderful. Voices have emotion in them and hardly ever sound forced. Guns sound great, zombies sound scary and the music fits the atmosphere almost perfectly. Combine soldiers actually sound intimidating. All sound effects and voices are nice and crisp, no static or anything.

Gameplay - 8/10
The gameplay is the same as it was in Half Life 2 for the most part. Point your gun, shoot and watch people fall down then move on. The few puzzles that are in the game are mostly physic based and pretty easy, yet really fun at the same time. For the first 2 chapters, I believe, your only weapon is the (super) gravity gun. Luckily Alyx is by your side through most of the game so you always have support.

The game also introduces a new mechanic for the invading Antlion forces. Remember while you were fighting in Nova Prospekt and the antlions would make burrows and crawl out? Well now you can cover those burrows up with a car. Sounds simple but it isn't, especially when you have 8 antlions chasing you around. You kill 2 of 'em to make room for pushing the car and then 2 more pop out. It's fun but gets old kind of fast.

Story - 9/10
The game starts exactly where Half Life 2 left off. The Citadel is about to explode and you have to get out of the city...but there isn't enough time. Gordon and Alyx travel back in the Citadel to try and slow the cores meltdown. A little while later and they get on a train to get away but unfortunately the train crashes and they have to slowly make there through the city and get on another train to get out of the city. Thats pretty much the game in a nutshell. Of course theres more stuff but I don't wanna spoil it for ya.

Replay Value - 7/10
The game is fun, there's no doubt about it...but there isn't much to it. The game is very short but also very fun. You'll play through it once and maybe again to hear the commentary tracks and then thats about it. As far as I know there isn't any mods out for the game yet and I don't really think there is gonna be due to the shortness of the game. Still, like Half Life 2, you'll get random cravings for the game.

Final Thought - 8/10
Good game but very short. It includes Half Life: Deathmatch Source and HDR for those with super computers. If you care about the Half Life story then I urge you to buy this. It's only $20 bucks and theres two more parts on the way. If you don't really care about the story and only the gameplay, then I wouldn't recommend it as it doesn't change anything in DoD:S, CS:S or HL2:DMS.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/06