

Occasionally characters will move a little awkwardly, but Episode Two still features the most life-like AI characters you’ll see in an action game. As ever, special mention must go to the facial animations of the human characters, which still manage to outclass the efforts seen in practically every other modern game. The one new enemy, the hunter, is a superb piece of design, looking like a smaller, more muscular strider, and its animation gives it a sense of life that you’d expect to see in creatures found in our natural environment. It certainly lacks some of the next-gen-ness of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3, but the lighting is exquisite and the enemy designs are simply brilliant.
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Valve must have been working overtime on the engine, as Episode Two features some of the most detailed and open environments of any PC game to date. While most games these days feel rather dated without support for some form co-op play with another human, I can’t imagine Episode Two being nearly as good without my AI chums.Īlthough Episode Two runs on the Source Engine (the same engine that powers the original Half-Life 2), don’t think that the game isn’t up to much visually. It serves to flesh out the story and is consistently funny, even in the direst of situations. Games like Halo 3 have set a new benchmark in terms of chatter, both from squad mates and enemies, but the speech from your allies in Episode Two is on another level. In terms of what’s new, Episode Two doesn’t deliver a whole deal, focussing mostly on the characters, weapons and enemies that we’ve been playing with over the past few years, but with the Gravity gun we already had one of the greatest weapons in FPS history, so this is more of a comment than a criticism.Īs in Episode One, you play large parts of the game with AI characters, and one in particular proves to be one of the most likable comrades ever programmed. Still, its emphasis on play with the AI controlled Alyx served to show that you needn’t play with another human to experience some great co-op moments.Įpisode Two is altogether more of a sequel to Half-Life 2, delivering a more diverse, longer campaign that ups the ante in terms of action and moves the story along where Episode One simply filled a gap. For the most part it was fairly slow, it moved the story on very little and featured one of the most annoying sections of gameplay in any FPS I’ve ever played – I’m scared of the dark at the best of times. Looking back at it though, Episode One wasn’t as great as it could have been. Half-Life 2 pretty much started next-gen gaming back in 2004 and developer Valve has now finally managed to release part 3 of the Half-Life 2 story: Half-Life 2: Episode Two.Įpisode One ended on quite a cliff-hanger, instantly making gamers anticipate Valve’s next chapter. While console gamers have been squabbling over which system has the best FPS (the Xbox 360 with Halo 3 if you want our opinion), PC gamers have been quietly waiting for their own FPS masterpiece to arrive.
