Sunday, October 21, 2007

Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Let's get the most important thing out of the way first: This is one of the greatest games I've ever played.

Valve took the original structured idea they had for Episode 1, and used it to make a game that is definitely more well-designed and balanced that Episode 1 was. Along with that, they made it more emotional than any other Half-Life game up to this point. It's more exciting. It's more fun. And it makes you care about these characters more than ever before.

Now, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. As always, if you plan on playing this game for yourself, do not read this post. I will be giving everything away.


The game starts out exactly where Episode 1 left off, and actually begins very similarly to how Episode 1 started -- your (as in you playing Gordon Freeman. "You" is easier to use when writing this) train crashed after City 17 disintegrated by the Citadel's explosion, and you're found by Alyx. She finds your gravity gun and uses it to get you out of the wreckage before handing it back to you.

The two of you stole some very important data from the Citadel before it went critical, information critical to the Combine's enslavement of humanity. They want it back. The two of you are now on the run, trying to make your way to White Forest -- a rebel base where Eli Vance (Alyx's father and the leader of the Rebellion) and Isaac Kleiner are attempting to close the huge portal that now sits where the Citadel once stood. If the portal remains open, humanity will be lost to the invaders.


The first major improvement you will see to this game are the vast, highly detailed outdoor levels. The above shot is what's left of City 17 and the Citadel -- nothing but a big portal that, when complete, would allow the Combine to invade Earth in full.


This massive portal is causing portal storms, which can do massive amounts of damage when they occur. Such as the above bridge falling apart in front of you.


The two of you find an abandoned base and contact Dr. Vance and Dr. Kleiner at White Forest. The two of them instruct you to get to them as soon as possible, so they can find out what exactly is in the packet of data the two of you snatched from the Combine.


This is easier said than done of course, because the two of you are soon attacked by the game's newest creature -- the Hunter. I just realized that I didn't get any screenshots of the Hunters, because every time the fuckers showed up, I was fighting my ass off to stay alive. They are TOUGH.

In any case, on your first encounter with a Hunter, Alyx is impaled through the stomach before a friendly Vortigaint (pictured above) shows up to help you.


He picks up Alyx and leads you to a nearby Rebel base.


This leads to one of the most exciting showpieces of the game. The rebel base is underground, very close to an Antlion hive. You actually have to crawl through this hive to get to the base. When you arrive, the two Joes above tell you that everything will be find as long as the Antlion's babies aren't stepped on. Yeah. Those there the thousands of little grubs you stepped on while making your way to the base...

So needless to say, the Antlions are pissed. There are 4 tunnels leading into the base, and each of them has a warning sensor attached to it with lights. One red light means a few Antlions are coming. All 3 lights mean a LOT of antlions are coming.

It reminded me of that scene in Aliens where the group is holding off waves of aliens using the mounted guns. Same thing here -- we had 4 tunnels, 2 mounted guns, the 2 Joes, and myself. Holding off waves and waves of Antlions. Then the guns broke, but the Vortigaint's friends showed up. Just in time too, because then all 3 lights lit up in all 4 tunnels. Zomg. Madness ensured, and it was glorious.

After it was all over, the Vortigaint informs you that in order to save Alyx's life, you have to retrieve some kind of enzyme secretion from the core of the Antlion's hive. Of course that's the answer...

So the two of you set off for the hive.


If you're a bit claustrophobic, you'll be downright catatonic before this portion of the game is over.


Here's a shot of Gordon and the Vortigaint in the elevator after retrieving the secretion. I just really, really like the lighting of that shot.

This scene actually surprised me a little bit. This is the Vortigaints healing Alyx after we retrieved the secretion. Half-Life has always been a bloody game, but it's never been "gory". And this actually shocked me a little bit -- showing the insides of someone like that. It's very well done too when you see it in the game, because it shows Alyx's muscles as the Vort waves his hand over her. Very nice animation.

Now, it's at this point that the G-Man contacts you for the first and only time in the game. I don't have any shots of this either...I was too freaking shocked when it happened, and was paying too much attention to what he was telling me. I've known all along that he's had something to do with this entire thing. He was at Black Mesa when the resonance cascade occurred, and he's been watching Gordon ever since. I still don't have a guess who he's working for. No idea. But, we do know that the Vortigant's stopped him from putting Gordon back in stasis at the end of Half-Life 2. And I don't find it a coincidence that he decides to contact Gordon for the first time AFTER that has happened right when the Vort's are occupied with saving Alyx's life. Somehow, they interfere with him.

In any case, the G-Man was as enigmatic as ever. You still don't know what his intentions are, but he does suggest that Alyx is more important than anyone realizes. Why that is, I don't know. But he tells you to ensure she makes it to White Forest safely, and he whispers something in her ear..."Prepare for unforeseen consequences."


After all this goes down, you're back on your path to White Forest. Above is another outdoor scene, beautifully rendered. In the distance, you can see the Combine. They, too, are marching towards White Forest...to annihilate the rebels. You have to get there first.


Ah, memories of Ravenholm. Loved it. I should mention something very important at this point. You find an abandoned Combine base along the way to White Forest, and in it is an Advisor in stasis. What's an Advisor?

Advisors have not been seen much, which pretty much adds to the creepiness of finding one in the first place. They are the head of the Combine empire. They are the brains of it all -- they developed all the technology, they master-minded everything. And, after your first encounter with one here in Episode 2, they are INCREDIBLY powerful. Physically, they appear pretty fragile, but they have psychic powers so strong, they can fling you across a room and hold you, incapacitated, against a wall without even moving. Below is a shot of the one you meet in the barn.

You're too incapacitated by it's psychic powers to fight it. It picks up a rebel and impales him in the back of the head with a tube that comes out of it's mouth. Then it picks you up and prepared to do the same thing...until it's stasis pod malfunctions and hurts it, causing it to flee.

You're left scared shitless, and intrigued at the same time. This is the first time...ever...that you are unable to kill something in the game.




Oh, come on. What's more fun that lighting a zombie on fire?


Ok, maybe watching Dog rip the insides out of a Strider is more fun than lighting a zombie on fire. I digress.


So you make it to White Forest. Eli and Isaac are very happy to see you. You clean out the silo, you do some more fighting, you take down a lot of Striders with the Strider Buster...and the rocket is launched to close the Combine's massive portal. And it works, the portal is closed.

But what's this? The data packet you retrieved in Episode 1 contains a message from Judith. The Borealis has been found.

The what?

Yeah...that was my question as well. This part of the story is very, very vague, and I think it's done so on purpose because the answers are coming in Episode 3. In any case, it sets up your next mission -- you have to go rescue Dr. Judith Mossman and find out everything she knows about the Borealis.

Eli then talks to you a bit privately, and admits he knows about the G-Man. I was shocked -- it was the first time ANYONE in the game has talked about him or even confirmed his existence.

The game ends with you about to take off in a helicopter with Alyx to find Mossman and the Borealis.

Then two Advisors crash into the hangar. Once again, you are incapacitated. You can't move. You can't attack. All you can do is hang in mid-air, against the wall, and watch as they kill Alyx's father in the same was they killed the rebel in the barn -- by impaling him in the back of the head. My theory is that the Advisor's gain all the knowledge of their victim when they do this. This would mean that the Combine now know everything there is to know about the rebellion. Everything.

Dog then enters and seemingly kills one of the Advisors, while the other one flees. Alyx is left crying over the corpse of her father, begging him not to leave her. And the game ends.

If there's just ONE complaint I have...is that I wasn't allowed to fight one of the Advisors. I *need* to kill one of them, and if they deny me that pleasure in Episode 3 I will be thoroughly pissed. That final scene in the game was utterly heart-wrenching, and the sense of helplessness they created was quite brilliant. I felt like I failed.

So, Valve, if you're reading this -- that's what I want. Me vs. the Advisor. One on one. Bring it!

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