Well, I finished it and you know what?
...i definitely overreacted lol
the first scene definitely shows off the worst of the graphics the remake has to offer, but once you get into the game properly and into the city it looks really great!
i don't really have a lot to say about this, except that it's goofy, i wish it took itself a little less seriously, there's a ton of jank still (both good and bad - the audio bugs and glitches from the og pc port are still very present), but it's a fun romp around. just like how i remember it!

This retroactively makes me like episode 1 a little more, mostly just because I forgot how much I liked Alyx until she was gone!
There's really not much I have to say about this that isn't also just, what makes Half-Life 2 so good and interesting, this episode really goes back to that sort of exploration and quest formula that I really just loved. Music is great, acting's mostly great, G-Man remains one of the most interesting characters just because of how little he says and how much there is to him, potentially speaking.
Just, so much more gets explored here, and I love it!
What I didn't love as much was the strider fight at the end, that was a bit frustrating for me but it ended up being ok in the end lmao
good game! can't wait for episode 3

...wait i mean can't wait for Half-Life 3! Oh wait...

Alyx will be next!

Yeah it's alright lol

Half-Life 2 had a lot of good shit to it that, even though I was very aware that I was playing a 20 year old game, I still had an incredible time with it.
In Episode One, I felt like it was more of a rehash of the game mechanics; all there was that was actually extra was utilizing the suped up Gravity Gun (my favorite parts of this) and throwing cars over antlion holes. Nothing else really stuck out to me in that department.
Story wise, I think that it's a nice lil addendum to the whole Citadel siege and kinda holds that same sorta feeling that Blue Shift had for me, in that it was more focused on like the little stuff, like the people... except Gordon is still there. It's fine, it's short, and it's serviceable.
I will say that the writing for Alyx started to annoy me greatly, mostly because it felt like she couldn't stop saying one-liners? I know that Episode One is very focused on having Alyx in the story which I am a huge fan of, but in the underground pitch black areas it started to get a little obnoxious.
Speaking of the underground areas, I thought there was a heavy over-reliance of the pitch black areas to fight and do arenas in? it felt like it crossed over from being a cool idea into a bit of a gimmick that was meant to pad out the time of this. I got that feeling a couple times in Episode One, which kinda sucked, but whatever.
I will say, i really loved the Citadel parts and the Strider boss fight at the end, I thought all of that was super well done, and I had a really good time with it. In the end, it's just alright, which is a little disappointing after Half-Life 2's high highs, but what can you do!

God damn!
This joins the likes of Halo in terms of FPS's that are incredibly fun and awesome to play, because I don't think I've ever played an FPS that is as immersive and experimental as this, because the game just wants you to play around, constantly. The gameplay is fucking awesome, and it holds like that from the beginning to the very end last chapter (with the best gravity gun holy shit).
The voice acting is good, I'm thoroughly impressed with the models and animations from this era, and I gotta talk about that art direction because it's just so fucking perfect and incredible. I need like, an artbook or something because holy fuck
I don't have a lot more to say about this except that this was time well spent, and I think I'm gonna be more than excited to play it again!

Played this again, this time in Co-op mode!
I don't have a lot to add to the game than what I already said, but the same things apply. It's fun, it's so well written, and the puzzles are very well thought out without being too overbearing, because at the end of the day, this is a game that you are meant to fuck around with your friend with.
We probably spent about 15 minutes getting the Rock Paper Scissors achievement for him after I got it on my first 3 times, and we kept making jokes and goofing off during our play time, finishing up the 5 main courses. The fact that it legitimately adds a little bit of the story onto it as well is just pure icing on the cake. 13 years later, and this game is still one of the most fun and enjoyable experiences I've had with a game in a very long time.

It doesn't get easier, but it is more comforting with a companion.
Someone who sticks by you, and sings a little song when you sing the first notes, and vice versa.
They sail across the sea of sand, and you feel the need to join them, and you both fly through the air, red trails in the dunes.
The way they help you out and find the secrets that you miss, and the way you help them find things yourself.
The inevitable frustration that they just happened to leave the shelter at the same time the big scary creature shines its spotlight over you, and you only watch helplessly as that scarf is torn, but thankfully they're alright.
How you see them climb up that peak with you, as it gets harder and harder, and slower and slower... until they stop, and wait. Wait for you to join them, and become strong again.
And how even at the very end of things, they still walk with you, and you sing the songs back and forth with each other, even as the light takes you both.

I've never played Journey, nor have I ever seen anything really about it, other than knowing that Austin Wintory composed it, and that it was on PlayStation until 2020, and that's about the time I put it on my wishlist on Steam. I was practically blind going into this game, and I'm sure fucking glad I was.

I really needed this game right now.

Reminds me of Portal 2 in the best ways, and also the not-so-best ways. I appreciate what they tried to do!
Even if what they ended up doing was just, copying Portal 2 again.
To be fair, there's clearly a lot of effort and a lot of love put into this, and I liked the new additions to the puzzles (I wish that the portal cubes and the pneumatic tubes were used more!) and I also did like the voice acting and the characters! It really does retread that same ground that Portal 2 did, but it also didn't try to add a bit more to it's characters to try and differentiate itself. There's some cool fanon that could have happened, but alas, it ends up being nothing too special.
But it is fun! and I'll happily give it a recommend based on that alone.

it's alright lol
it's a cool mod that really, really wants to be taken as seriously as a unofficial official mod, but i think it just kinda falls flat by the end. to me, the puzzles are weirdly paced and get genuinely frustrating at some points, and it doesn't help that it starts off hard, then gets really hard, then gets reaaaally easy by the end. kinda weird development, but a few of the puzzles were really good and felt really good to solve!
i also think the writing is, just kinda really average? same with the voice acting, it feels a lot more like a "hey remember wheatley?" kinda voice acting than anything, and the very end just was very very underwhelming
besides that, i think the atmosphere was really nice, and i liked the directions that they were trying to take with this, so kudos to them!

Wow!
This takes everything great about Portal and just amps it up to 11.
The writing is even MORE cynical and sarcastic!
There's not just one but TWO sassy robots!
The puzzles start getting way crazier and a bit tougher to beat!
And above all else, it's fucking fun and cool to play!
I was laughing, I was thoughtful, and above all else, I really liked this game. Fucking incredible shit!

It's weird how much better Blue Shift is than Opposing Forces, and I think a good element about it is that I just really like the scrappy nature of how Half-Life feels that this nailed. Like, in terms of characters, Barney is just some security dude whose priority is just to help the people out, and it makes more sense to me that he would be a scrappy individual to make puzzles work and such. It just works a lot better, and especially because this doesn't overstay it's welcome at all. It's short, sweet, and to the point, and is a fun look at the events of Half-Life... in the eyes of someone else.
On the topic of puzzles, they're way more engaging here and require a lot more sort of thinking with it, and I wasn't ever frustrated by them, but more of a "oh WOW!" in a good way! Like connecting a barrel to complete a line to blow up a door? Fuck that's awesome! It's also a way more interactive game and kinda has a lot more of that feeling of player control, even if it is just scripted sequences and do A to get to B so you can do C, but it just feels so much better to me.
Because Barney is also just a security guard, the amount of weapons he gets is so refreshingly small, and only from sources that he just finds. You barely get more than the 5 slots that the HUD gives you and even then, it's only like 2 weapons per slot, thank god.
Overall it's just really cool I think lol
Barney Calhoun for life!

Boy and I thought the middle part of Half-Life was a drag, this whole thing just feels like it. It's very bloated with weapons that you'll literally never use, filled with some unfair enemy types that are not present in the base game (The Halo: Reach problem lmao) and I think it just kinda, is full of the same kinda gameplay loop that isn't incredibly interesting and is much more frustrating than anything.
Also that boss battle is weak as shit lmao
Not very memorable, it's ok, more of the same of Half-Life, that's about all I have to say.
(Edited on 12/4/23 to reduce rating to 2 1/2 stars instead of 3)