Review: Half Life 2 Episode 1

Hello fellow Freemans,
I just got done cranking this baby out and I have to say that I have mix feelings about the game. Valve really can put a game together period! The sound, graphics, and A.I. are all top notch but why in the hell cant they get rid of the glitch of the sound skipping? I have to say that the boys at id put out games that do not have these problems.. and Doom 3 and Quake 4 are no cake walk for them and Raven to make glitch free! I had one of my friends named Azrael e-mail me that someone else knocked out the game before I did and had a review but did the guy knock out 2 games in 3 days? On with the review.. I also will be vague about things so I will not spoil it for other people who haven't played it yet. Not like my friend Azrael who HAD to tell me about Alyx and Freeman going for a little ride:)

I have to mention how incredible Valve is in making a game that never "feels" like your riding on coat tails but in reality you really are! Seeing Dog and Barney was really nice. The graphics all look a lot better than HL-2 especially in the characters. What was shocking to me is that all you use in the first part of the game is the gravity gun. They had some cool ideas but I would've preferred to be able to shoot someone in the head. The "decked out" gravity gun was waaayyyy to powerful and it was like you were playing in god mode. I am really curious to see if everyone else feels a little Deja-Vu playing this game? It seems like you have been there and done that already. I am not saying that there isn't special moments in the game or that it is a bad thing, but I really would've liked to see more since how long this has been in production. I really believe for the episodes to work out well for Valve they will need to crank these out every 3-4 months tops. Having them go longer than that I feel you will "lose" the feeling of the story, but since more questions popped up than answers in this first episode maybe that's a good thing:)

Pros
1. Graphics and Sound are state of the art in this game
2. A.I. is what you expect from Valve
3. No steam problems
4. Dog's animations looked awesome
5. Water looked really good
6. Barney handing the crowbar to me was a nice touch
7. The price was good for the quality of play time
8. Strider was a blast to take down



Cons
1. couple of glitches in the game.. one is the sound skipping like in HL-2 and sometimes when I would "Quick Save" the game would lock up
2. The load times are a little long in my opinion
3. The beginning of the game felt like a "Tech Demo"
4. Nothing really new, you have been there and done that!
5. Comparing time of play I would have to say that I enjoyed Lost Coast better than this episode and it was free! ( I wonder how much hate mail I will get for saying that statement?!)

until next time...

LORD NATAS