So Halflife 2: Episode 2 came out today, and I admit this is sneaking in just under the wire because I've spent roughly the last 5 hours playing it, with a short break to watch some TV. So what do I think of it so far? I'll put it behind the cut, just in case it gets spoilery.
Well, first of all, it tops Episode 1
in almost every way. I know the biggest complaint about Episode 1 was
its length, and as I haven't gotten to the end yet, I can't really say
if that is any different yet. However, what I can say is, Episode 2 is
much less derivative, at least in terms of environments, than Episode 1
was. Episode 1 featured many of the same environments that were in
Halflife 2 -- almost everything was a rehash, with a few new gameplay
elements (like the antlion hole and energy ball receptacle puzzles, and
Alyx). It did not feel like it should have taken as long as it did for
Valve to finish it, which also made a lot of people unhappy.
In Episode 2, you almost get shoved into a new environment right away. After making your way through a short bit of forest, you end up in the antlion warrens, which have a totally different feel from almost anything that you saw in Halflife 2 or Episode 1. Unlike the mines and other enclosed spaces of those games, the antlion warrens are much more organic, with lots of smooth, curved surfaces that feel like they were carved out of the living rock. There are a number of new creatures in the warrens as well, including some excellent ways of providing the sorts of gameplay devices that might otherwise feel very out of place in that kind of a space.
After that, you move on to a a forest environment. While in many ways, this section of the game is much the same as the highway section of Halflife 2, it really does feel totally different -- the world here is not dead and blasted out, but alive. Valve has done a good job with the visual and audio cues to really make it come alive, although there's not much animal life out there other than things that want to kill you and the crows that you would see from time to time in the first two games. Yes, the game is pretty much as railroady as the first two, but Valve does do a good job of camouflaging that. Having Alyx and/or a vortigaunt as companions is a lot of fun too, and they are as talkative as Alyx was in the last game.
Speaking of being talkative, it sounds to me like the have changed the voice actor for the vortigaunts -- it doesn't sound like Louis Gossett Jr, who did the last two games. It sounds more like Tony Todd to me. And I swear that Adam Baldwin, of Firefly fame, is doing the voice of one of the Resistance soldiers.
I'll probably have more to say about the game tomorrow, plus maybe some words on Portal if I get around to that.
In Episode 2, you almost get shoved into a new environment right away. After making your way through a short bit of forest, you end up in the antlion warrens, which have a totally different feel from almost anything that you saw in Halflife 2 or Episode 1. Unlike the mines and other enclosed spaces of those games, the antlion warrens are much more organic, with lots of smooth, curved surfaces that feel like they were carved out of the living rock. There are a number of new creatures in the warrens as well, including some excellent ways of providing the sorts of gameplay devices that might otherwise feel very out of place in that kind of a space.
After that, you move on to a a forest environment. While in many ways, this section of the game is much the same as the highway section of Halflife 2, it really does feel totally different -- the world here is not dead and blasted out, but alive. Valve has done a good job with the visual and audio cues to really make it come alive, although there's not much animal life out there other than things that want to kill you and the crows that you would see from time to time in the first two games. Yes, the game is pretty much as railroady as the first two, but Valve does do a good job of camouflaging that. Having Alyx and/or a vortigaunt as companions is a lot of fun too, and they are as talkative as Alyx was in the last game.
Speaking of being talkative, it sounds to me like the have changed the voice actor for the vortigaunts -- it doesn't sound like Louis Gossett Jr, who did the last two games. It sounds more like Tony Todd to me. And I swear that Adam Baldwin, of Firefly fame, is doing the voice of one of the Resistance soldiers.
I'll probably have more to say about the game tomorrow, plus maybe some words on Portal if I get around to that.
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