The game still looks quite good, however, and features full HDR for some nice lighting effects. The facial animation is still top-notch, the voice acting is great, and the art style is gritty and detailed. Alyx is with you almost the entire way, and she's typically more of a help than a hindrance, which is a refreshing change. The rebel squads in HL2 tended to get bunched up in hallways, making it difficult to quickly and tactically respond to a threat, so it's nice to just deal with one capable individual. And she's not invincible. There was one section where I had to do a lot of running around, and I left it to her to deal with some problems while I did my thing. Unfortunately, she died, and game doesn't let you progress when that happens. I was more conscientious of her situation from that point on, but there's only so much I can do when I don't get an indication of how much health she has, or if her health regenerates after being out of combat for X amount of time. I'll take her over an invincible ally, though, or over a slew of constantly restocked but faceless buddies.
Episode One is a very polished experience, with a sense of humanity and personality that you rarely see in a shooter. And there are some intense segments here and there. But this installment doesn't have the "wow" factor of HL2; that was an ambitious game with a legacy to live up to. It was a well-crafted experience that had obviously been in the works for years. Episode One, in contrast, doesn't feel as adventurous. It's still Half-Life, which means it looks great, is very interactive, and has some interesting mechanics. But I find myself yearning for the cliffs of Lost Coast, or the fortified bridges of Highway 17. Perhaps now that the resolution of HL2 is out of the way, we can have an experience that continues the story instead of filling in a gap.
If the Episode Two teaser following the endgame credits is any indication, we will encounter some new things and places. I just wish Episode One had advanced the story a little further than it did. One can't second guess Valve, but it seems like the escape from City 17 could have been compressed into a much more compact experience, leaving room for what comes after. Instead, Episode One feels stretched a little thin, especially when you have to go back and forth several times in one section, escorting refugees in batches of two to five people. And perhaps Valve's storytelling style is more suited to a longer arc, because no new conflict is introduced here. Well, there are hints and suggestions, but nothing rears its head in the four to five hours it takes to finish the episode. (On a side note, the game defaults to "Easy" difficulty; we played it on "Normal" and we recommend "Hard" for a good challenge.)
When it comes down to it, you should like Episode One if you liked Half-Life 2. Despite the fact that it isn't as adventurous or dramatic as HL2, Episode One still offers quality that's a cut above the rest. Its humanity (in the face of strange, masked soldiers and sometimes grotesque creatures) makes it more than a rote experience, and the Citadel is still an imaginative and interesting setting. In retrospect, HL2 appears to be a very difficult game to follow up on, and Valve does a very capable job of keeping the fire going. And buying the game on Steam is a relatively painless experience, especially compared to where the service was when HL2 launched. Judging by the material I saw in the Episode Two trailer, it looks like Valve will indeed open up the world a little. As it stands, Episode One is a brief, stylistically claustrophobic experience whose polish and personality manage to keep things moving.
