Well we are back as Gordon Freeman, this time immediately following the events in HL2. We start with DOG digging Gordon out of some rubble, near the crippled Citadel at the heart of City-17. Gordon with Alyx are once again thrown back into battle against the Combine, in an effort to find a way to slow the meltdown of the Citadel’s reactor, to allow enough time for citizens to flee the doomed city. Of course, while in the Citadel, Alyx stole some important data from the Combine, who will stop at nothing to get it back. The Combine has loss control of City-17s defenses and all types of creatures are running wild through the streets. So it is a wild and very intense battle through the subterranean levels, decaying buildings and streets of the dying city to find way out before the climax. Most of the major characters make small showings in the EP1. I will not ruin any more of the story for you. Nevertheless, this is a great game, even if the length is short. Expect to finish the game within six hours. There are only a few major changes in this game from HL2. First, Alyx is now your sidekick, throughout most of the game, which is great since Valve vastly upgraded her AI, graphics, refined her movements, and created some new ones for her. She is now an ass kicking, shotgun toting, killing machine. Her is AI is good enough that she rarely gets in the way, though she might in tight quarters. More importantly, she is able to fend for herself, and cover the player allowing one to solve puzzles without worrying about something sneaking up on them. Most of the game’s story is told though Alyx's well written and sharp witted dialogue. Valve spent a lot of time humanizing her character so she would be endearing, rather than annoying to the player. Second, they also added HDR to the Source engine. HDR allows for beautiful realistic lighting compared to HL2. Third, Valve added a new creature in the game. A Zombine, a zombie Combine solider. Though I will not spoil the fun at first seeing one, they can be quite a handful when several of them attack at once. They also upgraded the AI of some of the enemies, which makes for quite challenging and intense battles. The only gripes are small ones. The game is short, I finished it the first time in six hours, the second time it took four on the hard level. Also Ep 1 has few new areas to explore, and most places are the same as Hl2. The EP1 offers no new gameplay that has not been done in Hl2. I also found even with the upgrade, enemy AI is still lacking compared to newer games. Moreover most of the puzzles are easy to solve, though they took time to finish because one has to fight of enemies. As we, all know the Source engine is showing its age, its going on 5+ years from it's earliest inception, as many surfaces have low-resolution textures: especially the ground, vegetation, and shadows are not well rendered compared to games like FEAR and Fry Cry. I also had some very long loading times between chapters, at times up to ten minutes. Something I did not have with HL2 even with an older computer. This time I did downloaded the game through Steam. As I stated earlier, because of the short length, the game is very intense, and challenging. At times, the player will have to fight off multiple enemies, while trying to complete a puzzle. This is where Alyx’s new improved AI greatly helps with covering your back. Ep1 is well balanced between large fights, and puzzles, and integrates the two together for seamless game play. Valve adding HDR to the aging Source engine gives it a new lease on life and adds to the already solid graphics. Source is still an excellent engine for making great looking model graphics and still very solid in rendering urban areas. Like HL2 the sound effects are excellent, and the music is low key. In all I really enjoyed this game; Valve is the master at story telling, and creating realistic characters in the HL2 world.
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