Is it just me or did this suck?

No Limit

No Limit

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Did people really pay $30 for episode one? I know I'm a little behind since I only finally beat the game last night but it took me no more than 3 hours to beat it. I couldn't believe how short it was plus it really didn't add much to the story. It would have been easier for them to just tell me that a transmission has been sent out and skip all that bullshit.

I started Episode 2 shortly after I finished this and so far I am pretty happy with it, hopefully I wont be disappointed as I was with episode 1.
 
You really thought it sucked?? I was thoroughly blown away by it back when I played it for the first time. The opening chapters and Lowlife were some of the best gameplay in the series - let's face it, no subsequent zombie fights are ever going to beat the elevator one.

The vent crawling, laser tripwire sections and powered-door puzzles reminded me a lot of HL1 gameplay, too, which is no bad thing.

There is a bit of a dip in quality in some of the City 17 bits, but the hospital, gunship and final strider bits were all top drawer, and the ending rules. Granted it's short, that's episodic content for you, but it's definitely more than a 3 hour average playthrough on hard. Sucked? No, not really... But Episode 2 is still better (despite starting slow).

BTW iirc I paid $20 for Ep1 (£12-ish including tax).
 
1. It was $20, and now it's been reduce to $10.

2. It was well worth the money. It added and refined a lot of gameplay types, and going back into the Citadel to get the transmission was sort of vital to the plot. I also liked seeing the abandoned, doomed City 17.
 
The game play wasn't bad, it was more difficult than Hl2 was which is a good thing. But I guess I was mostly dissapointed by how short it was and how the story didn't seem to progress at all. You might have only payed $20 for it but I believe when it first came out they were charging $30 for it, not worth that price tag IMHO.
 
Well in a way you have a point - it was £20 ($40) on British store shelves, even after nearly a year of sale. Total ripoff.

And Ep1 is still listed as $20 on Steam when you check the Orange Box price list, most likely to reinforce the impression that you're getting a bargain.
 
No Limit said:
The game play wasn't bad, it was more difficult than Hl2 was which is a good thing. But I guess I was mostly dissapointed by how short it was and how the story didn't seem to progress at all. You might have only payed $20 for it but I believe when it first came out they were charging $30 for it, not worth that price tag IMHO.
Click to expand...

how can you say the story didnt progress???

the goal of ep1 was to get out of city17 before the citadel blew up.
 
I'll tell you after I finish it. I just spent two hours playing it through again. I got a headache, I'm cranky and sleepy.

See you tomorrow!
 
Directly setting off the chain of events that lead towards Episode 2 and is leading to Episode 3 isn't considered story progression?
 
I didn't like it all that much, wasn't looking forward to ep2 but now I can't WAIT for ep3
 
It was worth twenty bucks... same price as a new movie on DVD, and it's more fun to replay than most movies are to rewatch. I think Episode 2 was much better, though.
 
Episode One was fun until you realize how horrible Valve has coded the artificial intelligence, when you have to seal three ant lion burrows and can't because Alyx decides it is more important to stay and fight them instead of moving on to higher levels and following you, no matter what you do, and dies. Every time. Every single time which I play the game.
 
Calhoun said:
Episode One was fun until you realize how horrible Valve has coded the artificial intelligence, when you have to seal three ant lion burrows and can't because Alyx decides it is more important to stay and fight them instead of moving on to higher levels and following you, no matter what you do, and dies. Every time. Every single time which I play the game.
Click to expand...

Yeah I had issues with her dying a lot the first time I beat it. then I played it through again with some new patch and I think she got invincible, as she never died.
 
Funny, I thought the AI was a big improvement over the original HL2's. Alyx always followed me up to the upper floors in that parking lot area.
 
Sure...So, it would have made perfect sense to have just jumped from the end of HL2 to the start of episode 2 with no explanation of how Alyx and Gordon survived the explosion at the citadel or why they have the transmission, etc, etc, etc....
The fact that you played through the game in 3 hours or so proves that you couldn't have been paying much attention though...
The joy of games like Half life is that they are not just 'go from a to b as quickly as possible while killing everything that that moves' games. If you play them like that you completely miss out on pretty much the whole experience....
 
It was okay.

I ****ing HATED the zombies levels though.
Having a shitty flashlight and flares that can't light up shit and little to no ammo while being thrown in the dark against endless zombies... not my idea of fun.
 
Agree with Lucid here.

Only if the flares put out realistic levels of light. All I used them for was lighting up zombies and using THEM as light.
 
Bah, your all loozers. That level was awesome. I bet some only play on easy.
 
The zombies represent one of the biggest problems on earth, I can't see there being a HL game without them myself. I thought the battle whilst waiting for the lift was very good, alot of games have tried similar things but the source engine really handles lighting levels well I think. My one problem there has always been the flares as they start up as soon as you handle them.
The hospital was great fun too I thought and I also really liked the way you get to see how the Combine and Resistance have reacted to the loss of the Citadel.
Storyline wise you get to see a few things that are really important. If you're saying that you had only just played through HL2 and then dove straight into Ep1, then maybe that was the mistake. Personaly I'd say if you're not familiar with the setting then taking a break until you've had a chance to muse the events of HL2.
I did feel that Ep1 wasn't quite as good as HL2 myself, although still very good indeed but Ep2 was right back on the ball again.
 
The elevator fight was one of the most intense and memorable experiences I've had in a HL game, maybe the most. I don't know why people don't like it... Having us fight in pitch darkness was a very neat touch.
 
Laivasse said:
The elevator fight was one of the most intense and memorable experiences I've had in a HL game, maybe the most. I don't know why people don't like it...
Click to expand...

It's just a matter of personal taste, I suppose. I got a lot of frustration from that sequence, and frustration makes me want to stop playing. I found that the whole Lowlife chapter was just another journey into darkness, creepiness and zombies. After Ravenholm I didn't need it! :)
 
I too always prefer being sent to open, bright, over-ground areas, but I know I wouldn't appreciate those so much without being scared shitless beforehand. Example: who didn't sigh and deflate a little upon seeing the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel after Ravenholm?
 
Episode 1, as a whole, was much better than HL2 in the gameplay department; more refined and more interesting. The first two chapters - Undue Alarm and Direct Intervention - are easily the best Valve have ever produced.
 
I liked Lowlife, in the dark against Zombies.

But let's not do it again. It would suck and ruin Lowlife's position as what it is.
 
If the flashlight lasted 20% longer the elevator fight would have been way better. There's a point where you stop saying, "ooh how intense! My flashlight keeps going off... takes so much strategy and ammo management!!!" and start saying, "WTF am I supposed to do!!? It's pitchblack, I have to wait 15 seconds for my flashlight to work for 20 seconds or I can waste the battery and get a two second glimpse, and I'm fighting a horde of zombies!! WITH GRENADES!! so damn stupid.."

Those are two extremes, I personally lean torwards the ifrst one but understand people who think the second one. Longer battery and it'd be perfect.
 
They improved in in Episode Two, didn't they? The stand off never bothered me, I just had to get a few more propane tanks and blocks from the areas around before activating the elevator, and then it became a cinch. And of course zombies are good light sources to. :)
 
Okay, I finally finished it.

God, I hate Lowlife. I hate it so much. It's not fun. Perhaps it's fun if your graphics look good, but otherwise you're just lighting up zombie blobs so Alyx can shoot at them. I hate that chapter so much. Minerva did the whole zombie thing so much better.

PS: Getting in the elevator, then having a zombine pull a grenade at you just outside the elevator doors so the doors block your gravity gun field and it exploding a second after the game autosaves = justification for God mode.

I was getting rather pissy around that point, but then I played Urban Flight. Urban Flight is awesome. That is all. Zombies versus Overwatch, shooting down the gunship, zombies versus overwatch... amazing stuff. The game was actually hard in hard mode this time around as well. Those are the areas worth replaying, I believe.

Exit 17 is meh. Pure meh. I rather like escort missions, so I didn't mind the one we got, especially since the game didn't end the level if one or two got killed, so that was all right. If meh. But the strider fight needed better visual cues on where to go next. Also, striders need better penetration weapons. It's all well and good to have a weapon which can shove around cargo containers, but a tank shell would have actually killed Freeman by now. Also, it can use its cannon consequtively to blow around cargo containers, but it's far too conservative to blow you up behind thin metal sheets? That bit made my suspension of disbelief go deep south. It'd have made more sense and been more fun if you hhd to run a merry chase with it actually pursuing you, instead of just painting its nails and occasionally shooting you as you ran around looking for rockets. That last boss fight need a larger environment, in other words.

Overall, I'd say it was worth it, though there was a sharp decrease in quality around two-fifths of the way in. If Lowlife didn't exist I'd be very happy with it.
 
I thought both Lowlife and the hospital were vastly superior to Ravenholm. For me that was HL2's "meh" chapter.
 
Ravenholm was mostly just annoying.

The Strider fight in the end of Ep1 was unique. Let's never do it again or both would become suck.
 
It must present a problem if your pc is having problems, but I liked Lowlife. First game ever to do a battle in the black properly. And who doesn't like flambe zombie?
 
Laivasse said:
Example: who didn't sigh and deflate a little upon seeing the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel after Ravenholm?
Click to expand...

Ravenholm>Lowlife any day.

Samon said:
Episode 1, as a whole, was much better than HL2 in the gameplay department; more refined and more interesting. The first two chapters - Undue Alarm and Direct Intervention - are easily the best Valve have ever produced.
Click to expand...

I agree. The best parts in Ep1 were the Core, the hospital and the Strider battle at the end. However now after completeing Ep2 I have to say it's better than HL2 and Ep1 combined, it's the closest Valve has come to what I wanted in the original HL2 to begin with...

corporal sheperd said:
If the flashlight lasted 20% longer the elevator fight would have been way better. There's a point where you stop saying, "ooh how intense! My flashlight keeps going off... takes so much strategy and ammo management!!!" and start saying, "WTF am I supposed to do!!? It's pitchblack, I have to wait 15 seconds for my flashlight to work for 20 seconds or I can waste the battery and get a two second glimpse, and I'm fighting a horde of zombies!! WITH GRENADES!! so damn stupid.."

Those are two extremes, I personally lean torwards the ifrst one but understand people who think the second one. Longer battery and it'd be perfect.
Click to expand...

I lean to the extreme second one. developers have to get it once and for all that: darkness + loads of enemies + low ammo =/= scary
darkness + loads of enemies + low ammo = quit button/uninstall

I've only played through Lowlife the first time because i didn't know what to expect, and didn't have a choice. Now however i always skip that part...
 
God I hate zombies. They're simply not scary anymore, even the fast ones. The darkness in Lowlife was particularly annoying first play through, because I was running in windowed mode which made it even darker for some reason. Probably my least favourite bit of the entire episode was when Alyx said "I've worked with electricity before, and that sparking wire is probably connected to a power source." Then I had to go and turn the power on. I facepalmed. Surely a sparking wire doesn't mean the power's been turned off...
The scripted sequences at the start and finish however, were probably the best Valve have ever made. The core was also very well done, although the puzzles weren't exactly brain-teasing, more a case of do the only thing you can do. If you see a wall socket, put an energy ball in it.
Lowlife and Ravenholm IMHO are just meh. Zombies aren't scary. Crows aren't scary. Rotting/burnt corpses aren't scary. If anything, Lowlife was annoying because of the antlions which just kept knocking you off those ledges in the car park. I got the feeling that antlions were very overdone in Ep1. It just got a bit repetative after a bit.

I ranted a lot. I still wouldn't say Ep1 sucked, it's just not as good as HL2 IMO.
 
Lighting the zombies in EP1 for the 360 version will see most of the tunnels light up.
 
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