If you listen to the podcast then you'll know that it's no secret that I really dislike Half Life 2. My reasons? I found HL2 to be a boring game.

It's just that City 17 or Waterways were really quite bland and boring, the gameplay when battling enemies or completing puzzles was really quite repetitive, and it had a lack of information from the story that just had me asking, "Why am I taking this journey and gaming experience with Gordon Freeman?" just a little too frequently.

Which brings me to the purpose of this article.

I took the dive into Valve's episodic content.

More after the jump...

So, you're wondering why someone who really didn't like Half Life 2 took the time to play the episodic add-on.

It's quite easy to understand, actually. I don't like not knowing the ending to something. It really just bugs the hell out of me when I don't know how a story ends, and the fact that HL2 had no real ending just shits me (Yes, much more than Halo2).

I was standing in the store, thinking about the comments I'd heard on the Widget podcast from Ryan, Tim and CountZero regarding how the game actually plays without the original. I had disposed of the original game because I no longer felt like going back to play it. To my surprise, Episode One reportedly played well without the original -- the wonders of Steam.

While staring at the box of Episode One and the other episodic game, Sin, I thought, "What the hell. I am going to see what all the fuss is about."

Arriving home, I opened the box for both HL: Episode One and Sin: Emergence to find only small leaflets detailing the controls and install methods. Somehow I felt that they had really cheapened the experience. I love game manuals and other sorts of free info stuff -- like F.E.A.R with the comic book. Stuff like that somehow makes my purchase feel like it's worth more for my money and adds to the overall excitement of playing the game.

So I installed Episode One, which took approximately 20 minutes. I launched Steam, which then proceeded to tell me it needed to download a few things for the game to run, which took 15 more minutes.

Yes, finally I'm ready to play.

Episode One starts out with the saving of Alyx and Gordon Freeman, which isn't too spectacular but is a good enough way to start a game. We find ourselves awakening to the rescue efforts of Alyx and Dog at the base of the citadel, which is now going critical due to Gordon's previous efforts.

This is probably the most beautiful and brilliant level in a HL game. The sounds and sights of the falling debris really set the mood right for once. It really plays out well, especially the roller-car ride. I felt enticed to play more.

Sadly I was let down once entering the citadel. It offers only pretty much the same corridors we ran down at the end of HL2, only now you have the inclusion of things blowing up and the grav-ball puzzle.

The ball puzzle works like this: You grab an energy ball, shoot it at an energy-ball holder to power the doors to let you proceed. Cool, yeah?

Not when you repeat that ten more times!

To add variety, the game sends citadel combine troopers at you while you're trying to complete the ball puzzle. Valve has also placed a glass sheeting in the way, which makes you trek around the level to find a good position to shoot at the energy-ball holder.

Unfortunately the game doesn't get any better than that. The levels are bland and repetitive. Really, everything you have seen in Half Life 2 you are about to see again with a slap of War-esque look to it.

But what would have to be the most horrible level I played was the final level.

Basically how the level works is that you have to gather the remaining City 17 citizens, who are holed up with Barry (the ex-security guard from Black Mesa and apparently Gordon's best friend).

I'll get to that later.

You have to babysit these citizens and take them across an open train yard that contains a building with a full view of you. You need to shepherd the citizens through a train-maintenance shed -- and you can guess what happens: When you cross the yard or go through the shed, the enemies come out of the building or jump through windows, and every time you make a pass there's something new thrown in just to make it more interesting.

Oh yeah. Real value there, Valve. It's really interesting guarding people through the same area several times just to deal with different enemies. You make the run several times, which is quite boring by the second or third pass.

But fortunately you won't take this journey alone. You have the witty and entertaining Alyx, who delivers some of the corniest and stupid lines, some of which are so bad you have to laugh.

The sexual tension is high between the two -- blatantly high. Is Valve trying to hint at a relationship between Gordon and Alyx?

The best line I heard had to be the scene between Alyx and Dog at the start:

Alyx: Well, Gordon... unless you have a better suggestion. He is a robot. He's done the math. [Looks to Dog.] You did do the math, right?

Also I suggest you pay attention to Doctor Kleiner's speech about getting it on, where Alyx remarks, "Uh, is Dr. Kleiner really telling everyone to... 'get busy'?"

Somehow, one of the saving graces of the game is Alyx. They have really just built her character well, and the witty one liners add to that. Her only downside is this one gem (please feel free to correct me on this as I'm trying to go by memory):

Gordon proceeds to enter the ventilation duct and Alyx remarks:

I heard stories about you and Barry racing through air ducts at Black Mesa. Loser buys a round of beers.

There is more to it I think, but when did they get the time to do that? When the vortigon were chasing both of them down or a when there wasn't a headcrab lurking in one air duct?

While the character dialogue is corny and stupid, the background music is interesting but only noticeable while some of the narrative is being related or during an all-out brawl sequence. If you're like me, I suggest you kill everyone then have the music continue for a little while. The music is one of my favorite things about HL and HL2. When the soundtrack is added, it is excellent, but again, once the battles or story has finished the music seems to disappear, leaving the scene kinda bland and boring, which doesn't help because the levels are also bland and boring. It leaves not much to the imagination.

You can probably see where I'm going with this. Half Life 2: Episode One is plagued with boring level designs, repetitious gameplay in the form overly used structured events with enemies and puzzles that isn't propelled by any story or any form of real background ambience. The only discernable development is the character background for Alyx, who is probably one of the only saving features.

For the money I paid for this episodic content, it really wasn't worth the bother with this lackluster title.

Stay tuned for Part 2: Sin Emergence coming soon!