Customer Rating: 
Summary: The perfect game shadowed by an useless "steam" !!!
Comment: Definitly HL2 is and always will the most popular FPS game in history. And now with this excellent expansion is even better. BUT !!! Steam is always try make head ache to all of us. How is posibble, I install the game and I need to update the game from to 70% to 100% to be able to play, What happen if I don't have any decent ADSL conection at home ??? I can't play. So I carry my CPU to my office to connect to a 512kb ADSL connection, and after 6 hours the was be complete able to be played. 6 HOURS, this is almost imposible, how it could be ??
Be sure that the game has anything you want in a game of this class: graphics, great history, emotion, thriller, even scare; but is not justified that STEAM make this kind of "barrier".
Thank you, and have a good play.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pitch Black for a good deal of the game
Comment: I must say that HL2 was superb. HL2 Episode 1 is an absurd waste of time. A huge chunk of the game takes place in pitch black and you have a flashlight that lasts a few seconds and when it works all you can see is a flicker here or there. Just when you finish one area in pitch black, you're thrust off to another area that's, you guesses it, pitch black. Area after area of that is just no fun at all.. it become extremely tedious and extremely boring. No, Quake 4 was MUCH better in that it wasn't PITCH BLACK. The other issue is that these games work well on only a few select configurations. I have plenty or ram and HD space and a 64MB graphics card but apparently that's nowhere near enough. I won't even mention the STEAM aspect of this - that's nothing but brutal torture.
All in all... HL2 is superb. The rest is not worth it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, but Short and Lacking Ambition
Comment: I've never been all that enamored with the Half Life series. I played the original, but it never impressed me the way that, say, Deus Ex or System Shock 2 did. I suppose I value choices and customization over pure action. However, I can never turn down a solid FPS, so I've played Half-Life 2 and now Episode 1, hoping each time that I'll experience what everyone else does and become a diehard Half Life fan.
First of all, knowing in advance the approximate length of Episode 1, I waited until the price dropped to $10. Why pay $20 - $30 for an expansion when I can get a terrific full length game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the same price? Having finished the game in around 4 hours, I'm glad that I waited. There are so many other games on the market that offer far more hours of play, and actual replayability. Like Half Life 2, playing episode 1 feels like any other scripted shooter. Press the right buttons at the right moments and experience the game exactly as the developers intend, and exactly as everyone else has.
I've played as Gordan Freeman throughout Black Mesa and City 17, but I still have no idea who he is. He has no personality to speak of. He never talks. He's treated like a god, and for what reason? Presumably he can shoot straighter than any trained soldier and his apparently one-of-a-kind hazard suit allows him to absorb enough damage to kill a brigade. A degree from MIT and pushing carts in a lab really paid off.
There's hardly a coherent story, and the one-dimensional characters exhibit predictable and equally one-dimensional emotions. So is there anything that warrants a three star rating? Like Half Life 1 and 2, Episode 1 excells at providing diverting and well executed action sequences. For what it does, it does it with perfection. Fights are frenetic, some made especially so by the absurdly short-lived flashlight attached to the otherwise exceptional hazard suit. The graphics are very good and visually the game has a great deal of atmosphere. The game also succeeds at making fun of itself, with humorous references to duct crawling and crowbars.
Episode 1 is polished and does what it means to do as well if not better than any other game. But for all the hype surrounding the series, am I wrong in expecting something more than typical FPS action? Rather than a forgettable few hours shooting zombies and soldiers, I'd prefer something more unique, more memorable, even if it's not quite as polished. More character, at the expense of less finesse. Despite the shiny graphics and tight production, I still feel like I'm playing the same shooter I played over a decade ago.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great NPC Interaction
Comment: Half Life 2 is a great game and Episode One plays just as well. The added interaction with the characters like Alyx and Barney improves game play even more. You worked to get into the citadel in the original game this episode has you working your way out. The downside is that it only takes 5 hours to complete this episode.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Continue your journey
Comment: All half life lovers will obviously buy it!
Half Life always come up to your expectations.
Summary: The perfect game shadowed by an useless "steam" !!!
Comment: Definitly HL2 is and always will the most popular FPS game in history. And now with this excellent expansion is even better. BUT !!! Steam is always try make head ache to all of us. How is posibble, I install the game and I need to update the game from to 70% to 100% to be able to play, What happen if I don't have any decent ADSL conection at home ??? I can't play. So I carry my CPU to my office to connect to a 512kb ADSL connection, and after 6 hours the was be complete able to be played. 6 HOURS, this is almost imposible, how it could be ??
Be sure that the game has anything you want in a game of this class: graphics, great history, emotion, thriller, even scare; but is not justified that STEAM make this kind of "barrier".
Thank you, and have a good play.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pitch Black for a good deal of the game
Comment: I must say that HL2 was superb. HL2 Episode 1 is an absurd waste of time. A huge chunk of the game takes place in pitch black and you have a flashlight that lasts a few seconds and when it works all you can see is a flicker here or there. Just when you finish one area in pitch black, you're thrust off to another area that's, you guesses it, pitch black. Area after area of that is just no fun at all.. it become extremely tedious and extremely boring. No, Quake 4 was MUCH better in that it wasn't PITCH BLACK. The other issue is that these games work well on only a few select configurations. I have plenty or ram and HD space and a 64MB graphics card but apparently that's nowhere near enough. I won't even mention the STEAM aspect of this - that's nothing but brutal torture.
All in all... HL2 is superb. The rest is not worth it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, but Short and Lacking Ambition
Comment: I've never been all that enamored with the Half Life series. I played the original, but it never impressed me the way that, say, Deus Ex or System Shock 2 did. I suppose I value choices and customization over pure action. However, I can never turn down a solid FPS, so I've played Half-Life 2 and now Episode 1, hoping each time that I'll experience what everyone else does and become a diehard Half Life fan.
First of all, knowing in advance the approximate length of Episode 1, I waited until the price dropped to $10. Why pay $20 - $30 for an expansion when I can get a terrific full length game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the same price? Having finished the game in around 4 hours, I'm glad that I waited. There are so many other games on the market that offer far more hours of play, and actual replayability. Like Half Life 2, playing episode 1 feels like any other scripted shooter. Press the right buttons at the right moments and experience the game exactly as the developers intend, and exactly as everyone else has.
I've played as Gordan Freeman throughout Black Mesa and City 17, but I still have no idea who he is. He has no personality to speak of. He never talks. He's treated like a god, and for what reason? Presumably he can shoot straighter than any trained soldier and his apparently one-of-a-kind hazard suit allows him to absorb enough damage to kill a brigade. A degree from MIT and pushing carts in a lab really paid off.
There's hardly a coherent story, and the one-dimensional characters exhibit predictable and equally one-dimensional emotions. So is there anything that warrants a three star rating? Like Half Life 1 and 2, Episode 1 excells at providing diverting and well executed action sequences. For what it does, it does it with perfection. Fights are frenetic, some made especially so by the absurdly short-lived flashlight attached to the otherwise exceptional hazard suit. The graphics are very good and visually the game has a great deal of atmosphere. The game also succeeds at making fun of itself, with humorous references to duct crawling and crowbars.
Episode 1 is polished and does what it means to do as well if not better than any other game. But for all the hype surrounding the series, am I wrong in expecting something more than typical FPS action? Rather than a forgettable few hours shooting zombies and soldiers, I'd prefer something more unique, more memorable, even if it's not quite as polished. More character, at the expense of less finesse. Despite the shiny graphics and tight production, I still feel like I'm playing the same shooter I played over a decade ago.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great NPC Interaction
Comment: Half Life 2 is a great game and Episode One plays just as well. The added interaction with the characters like Alyx and Barney improves game play even more. You worked to get into the citadel in the original game this episode has you working your way out. The downside is that it only takes 5 hours to complete this episode.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Continue your journey
Comment: All half life lovers will obviously buy it!
Half Life always come up to your expectations.