Incredibly short and okay at best. The story ends at the moment where it seemed to start building up towards something interesting.

While the game is derivative in its design and played it incredibly safe by opting to not introduce anything new in terms of enemies or weapons, the atmosphere in places felt better than the base game. Having more environments where it was darker and you had to have the flashlight always on felt like a nice change, at least in my opinion.

You don't get the crowbar until you're pretty close to the end of the game, and combined with the limited ammo you get in most chapters, it was pretty noticeable the devs wanted you to over rely on the gravity gun.

A pretty shit epilogue to Half Life 2.

Take everything wrong with the game (pacing,weak level design,shitty gimmicks) and somehow make them WORSE and you have Episode 1. For being less than 3 hours its genuinely baffling just how fucking dreadful going through it can be. The first two levels (out of FIVE) are just retreads of Half Life 2s finale with little sprinkles of originality (mainly platforming and light puzzles). It doesn't get much better after that, with the only real new mechanics being roller mines (which suck) and Zombine (who are annoying but otherwise fine) alongside unnecessary padding. Having to depend on Alyx so much in the levels really makes things so much worse, which reaches its peak with the absolute dogshit sniper section that forces you to wait for Alyx to take her sweet time to snipe (which could fuck you over since ammo is oddly stingy in the middle of Episode One). I'd like to say that things get better in the final level but NOPE. Exit 17 might just be one of the worst final levels in a shooter, with the crux of it being a pretty low energy escort mission ending in another ass strider encounter which ends on another cliffhanger.

If I had anything actually nice to say about Episode 1 it'd be just how nice it looks. Source really has held up after 20+ years of being an engine and the improvements look nice. Will also say some of the tracks go pretty damn hard, with the Hospital music being a great battle piece and the best section of the expansion. Otherwise this shit sucks and might just be the worst thing Valve has put out (that I've played).

3/10

Gameplay: Good
Story: Good
Controls: Good
Graphics: Good (for its time)
Length: A bit short

It's good enough for what it's trying to be. Nothing really game changing here, just more Half-Life, which is cool. Really short and kinda uncompelling in the narrative department, while still managing to feel rather repetitive and dull at parts. Alyx is still great, and here you get to spend a bit more time with her through the story, and there are some cutscenes that offer some real spectacle and scale. I just don´t see how this adds anything of consequence to the Half-Life series as a whole. It´s not the next step, it´s a bit more of the same.

The music score goes insanely hard though.

Não há muito o que eu adicionar aqui já que basicamente tudo que tem no Half-Life 2 tem nesse aqui também.

A história continua logo após o fim da história do Half-Life 2. É uma história bem dinâmica e progressiva que faz sua jornada ficar divertida, interessante, mas difícil. No começo do jogo já foi avisado que sair da Cidadela podia ser uma tarefa impossível, e foi difícil mesmo terminar essa campanha, principalmente no último capítulo, onde você realmente deixa a Cidade 17.

Eu reclamaria da dificuldade dessa campanha, mas a dificuldade dessa campanha é justificável. Porém, pra mim ela se encerrou muito cedo, já que eu a completei em menos de 3 horas, ela dá um gosto de "quero mais".

Eu não gosto de ser uma fiscal de relacionamento, mas eu sinto que nesse jogo, o relacionamento de Gordon com a Alyx vem realmente se concretizando, mas eu não sinto que esse relacionamento está sendo bem construído, só parece que foi jogado ali de um jeito apressado. Tanto que em uma das últimas sessões do Half-Life 2, a Alyx falava que conhecia o Gordon há pouco tempo, mas que estava grata pela sua ajuda.

Enfim, não é uma reclamação, mas algo que eu queria pontuar aqui. Se os dois tiverem um relacionamento juntos, que seja bem construído durante a campanha inteira.

This was a disappointing one and emphasizes why I think endings are more important than beginnings. The beginning of this is pretty cool, you get some GMan stuff and the first indication that he isn't untouchable as well as some more Citadel gameplay and Alyx is a lot more emotive throughout. However, as you continue, it gets boring, but not super frustrating thankfully. It's especially boring when you get to the last mission where you must ferry people to a safe room, going back and forth each time for more survivors. Aside from that, it is not too bad, just disappointing.

Half-Life 2: Episode One is a great continuation of the Half-Life story and builds upon one of the weaker sides of the previous game. Episode One still uses all the great gameplay and story elements from the second game and uses them to create new and interesting experiences, but this time it also turns Alyx into a fully developed character. Alyx stays with you for a lot of this game and she is a great character to have around. She has a great personality that isn’t annoying and also actually takes out enemies in the many gun fights. Exploring the city with Alyx is just as enjoyable as before and seeing how everything is falling apart adds to the atmosphere you feel in all of the Half-Life games. Half-Life 2: Episode One continues with what makes Half-Life 2 so great with more of everything and when it's this good, there’s not much more you could ask for.