User Reviews (41 - 51 of 116)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Good, but could be a tad better

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: August 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Pros:
-The graphics are amazing.
-The storyline is good. Alyx's part is much more developed.
-Some new settings that look cool.
-Some new creatures. You can't fight them, but they're there for your scenic enjoyment.
-Personally, I didn't mind the "in the dark" scene. I enjoyed it. And it wasn't too long. I liked the teamwork aspect of it.

Cons:
-If you don't like the gravity gun, you'll be pulling your hair out because there are few places where you can't progress without it.
-And you need to combine the gravity gun with puzzles, so if you didn't like the puzzles in HL1 and HL2, this game will make you want to shoot yourself.
-The load times are really, really long.
-If you're connected to the Internet when you start the game up, it will connect to Steam and if there are any updates, it will download and install those first before letting you play the game. I just fired up the game and then went downstairs to get a snack because Steam was downloading some files. I want to jump right in and play!!
-I can't play the game in offline mode. It won't let me start the game unless I'm connected to the Internet and Steam. I think this is a bug.
-The game crashes to the desktop after I play it for about 5 minutes. This has happened the last four times I've played. It's not my system, because I've been playing other graphics-intensive games like FEAR and Half-Life 2 with no problem.

Overall, I think is a good game. But the minor annoyances listed above keep it from being 5 stars. If you think you can live with the things I described above, then by all means, get this game and you won't be disappointed.

What's with the "Steam" nonscense????

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

We have dial-up internet (we live in Africa), and if you have to connect to this stupid "Steam" program before you play the game...it's hardly worth it. After a couple of days of downloading the "Steam" updates...then the game updates...I almost lost interest. Unfortunately, it's a pretty fun game after all of that, but I'll never buy another game that requires a broadband internet connection to play it. If a DVD game isn't patched well enough to play out of the box....keep it off the market.

Still better than Doom3

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Here's how I see it:

Pros:
--With a little tweaking, this game will play on older computers like my vintage '01 AMD 1600+ with 768 meg and some outdated crappy AGP video card (I think its a Geforce 6xxx somthing). CAVEATS: see "Cons" below.
--If you liked HL2, you'll like this game. Nothing much new but one character AI'd from a NPC in HL2. Why mess with a good thing. Right?

Cons:
--Nothing much new! All the environments/backgrounds are all just cut and pasted from HL2. The huge Combine building/ freedom tower like thingy is on the verge of blowing up and the world is about to come to an end, AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED! Come on, use a little imagination, like in the church environment in the HL2: Lost Coast Demo. Change the lighting, change the color pallette, do something different. In real life when the sky is filled with smoke (as with the cut scenes of Combine's skyscraper HQ) there is a yellowish color shift to everything. If this was DOOM3 I wouldn't have been surprised, but I expect more creativity and realism from Half-Life.

--The friendly AI chic gets in the way more than she helps. I was fragged many times by her blocking my progress or escape route.

--The game should have longer play time for $20. I don't play FPS multiplayer games (as I still have a modem) and don't play many FPS single player games. I finished HL2: Espisode 1 in 4 hours and half of that time was waiting for the game levels to load.

--STEAM needs to go. I still have a 56ghey modem because I live in fly-over land and high-speed is non-existent or prohibitively expensive (satellite) unlike for those who live in suburbia. As mentioned in previous reviews, you no longer own these games. STEAM allows you to use them. I bought the CD/DVD. I still had to download the entire game. It took 7 days. . . 7 WHOLE DAYS! I had no phone for 7 days. It's a good thing nobody died in my family. I would have never known about the funeral. I will not buy another HL game unless the complete game is on the CD/DVD.

--Tech support is non-existent. Note: after you log onto STEAM support, you have to go to one of the pre-existing problems/answers before the "ask a question" tab will appear and you are allowed to e-mail the ALMIGHTY STEAM with your question. I still have yet to receive a reply. It's been a week. For those of you with older video cards, if the game loads to the menu screen but crashes right after you "start a new game," try forcing a lower directx with the "-directx81" start-up command. I had to figure that out on my own. Of course, at directx 8.1, you lose all the cool light effects demo'd in Lost Coast.

HalfLife 2 Episode One (DVD)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Was not able to play "the campaine" or against the CPU tried several resolutions settings & have not been able to properly turn off my computer since i installed it. However i was able to play online for "first time" hehehehe!!! enjoyed playing against & with other players....

Great but too short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Gameplay is awesome as usual for Half-Life but just as you get into the game it ends.I guess Valve wants you to be hungry for the next installment.... which you undoubtedly will be.

Sweet, but way too short

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 17
Date: June 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I just won Half-Life 2: Episode One on Hard difficulty. I realize that it's considered an expansion (even though it is a stand-alone product), but for the price I think I should get more than a partial evening's worth of entertainment out of it. Total play time... a little under four hours.

The good:
* Is more difficult than the original HL2. 90% of the game is spent battling endless hordes of zombies and antlions and soldiers.
* Looks beautiful - excellent scenery and atmosphere.

The bad:
* Short. This is nothing more than a playable demo - an expanded Lost Coast.
* Plot? Play the original HL1, or to a lesser extent the original HL2 if you want plot. HL2:E1 is pure shooter.
* A majority of the game is horrible escort missions. Protect Alyx - if she dies you lose. Protect the citizens - if they die, you lose. ESCORT MISSIONS! ARGH!
* Runs poorly on my machine. Even with accepting the "recommended" settings for my system, which are less than what I currently have the original HL2 set to, it runs at half the speed.

The ugly:
* Level design is far less linear and intuitive than the original HL2. Sometimes this is a good thing as it adds another dimension to the game, but after a while it gets annoying when the primary goal of the whole game becomes solving tedious navigation puzzles.
* One new monster (two if you count the stalkers, which you see but never actually get to engage in HL2), but no new weapons, in fact you get less weapons in HL2:E1 than in the original HL2.

Anyone who enjoyed the original Half-Life 2 will get this game anyways, regardless of good or bad reviews. I'd say that if you're casually looking around for a game, you could easily find one with a far better fun to cost ratio.

Great Game....Waaaay too short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: June 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This was an amazing game to play through...but it could have been so much better. If you liked the other half life games you will love this; however, you will feel slightly dissapointed at the end of it. The game is only about four hours long. I wish valve had just waited and released all three episodes together. Just as the story really starts to get exciting (the core of the Citadel is unstable and could explode at any time) you find yourself watching the credits (but not after another great cliffhanger...just like at the end of hl2). Overall, its a great game and if you enjoyed the previous half life installments you should go out and but this game immediatly. The only problem is that it will take you as long to set the game up as it does for you to play though it.

Potential Masterpiece

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: July 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Th HL universe has given us something rarely seen on an FPS, which is the lonely sensation and the true inmmersion on a game. I really would like to congratulate the HL2 team.
Awesome work, keep it up.

Half-Life II: Episode One (Hour)

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: August 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Back in 2004 I was eagerly awaiting Half-Life II along with many other gamers. I heard so much about it that I put it on my "must buy" list. When I finally got my hands on a copy, I can't say I was disappointed. The graphics were even better than those of Doom III's, and everything else seemed to be about right. Like the original Half-Life, the game was very engaging. I made up and posted in a gaming forum a list of my own personal "2004 games of the year," and Half-Life II topped the list. Although I mentioned that I didn't consider Half-Life II to be a great game, I liked it nevertheless and said it was the best new game I played that year.For some reason I didn't get around to playing Episode One, the expansion to Half-Life II, until recently. Maybe the considerable system requirements kept me away for awhile, or perhaps I was busy with other games or even busy with work if any of you know what "work" is. In any case, Episode One just didn't seem to be compelling enough to try right away. Now that I've played Episode One, I can see that one of the most common observations about the game is correct: It is indeed "short." I rarely feel a game is short, but with Episode One I cannot escape that conclusion. The first time I played it, it took me maybe seven hours to finish. What goes on during that seven hours? Simply put, much of it is rehashed Half-Life II. Alyx and "Dog" are back, and you'll see more of them in Episode One. Alyx, for instance, will be by your side for almost all of the adventure. Both indoor and outdoor areas look much the same as they did in Half-Life II although the graphics have been "enhanced" to allow for more robust lighting. You'll be peering down a narrow flashlight beam in some dark areas, but fortunately you won't need to swap your light for your weapon like in Doom III. You'll need to solve a lot of puzzles along the way, and much of the seven hours of the game you'll be engaged in finding solutions to those puzzles.Will you like Half-Life II: Episode One? I think most shooter fans will like Episode One. It looks good, has very good gameplay, and it follows in the footsteps of the older Half-Life games. Some gamers might gripe a bit about the short length of the game, but if quality matters more than quantity, the length should not bother you too much. Did I like Episode One? I think it's a decent game. For the $10 I paid for it, I can't complain too much. My biggest gripe might be the incessant attacks of the ant lions, a holdover from Half-Life II. I didn't like the ant lions attacking in Half-Life II, and I don't like them in Episode One either. Once I discovered how to prevent the attacks of those annoying beasts, though, it didn't matter that much. Sometimes the less likable parts of a game are good in that it's a relief once those parts are done. Once Half-Life II: Episode One is finished, though, I can say that in some ways it's very impressive. For better or for worse, we need to live with the decisions of the game developers, decisions that lately seem to be poor decisions in many cases. In Episode One, I'd say those decisions were more often "better" rather than "worse."

half-life 2 reborn

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 10
Date: June 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you have ever played any of the half life games you will love this this is what all fps should be like.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions