Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Year: 2007
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve (EA PS3/Xbox 360)
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
BBFC: 15
Published: 11/12/23
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve (EA PS3/Xbox 360)
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
BBFC: 15
Published: 11/12/23
October 10th 2007 was a huge day for Valve and for PC gamers as it brought with it the release of one of the greatest games collections of all time, The Orange Box. It was appealing for a number of reasons and appealed to all sorts of gamers, but its premiere game was the highly anticipated Half-Life 2: Episode Two. When the Half-Life 2 episodes were announced by Valve they promised a quick development turnaround on three HL2 expansions that would continue and finish the story that the original game left so unceremoniously on a cliffhanger. It was all to be said and done by mid-2007, but when it took eighteen months for Episode Two to release following Episode One’s June 2006 launch the writing was already on the walls. Episode Two did release to critical acclaim, but it would be the last we saw of the Half-Life franchise for thirteen years! So, looking back at Episode Two, is it all it was cracked up to be?
City 17 and the Citadel are gone and in its place is a swirling vortex connecting the Combine home world to Earth. When Gordon and Alyx awake in the White Forest and they must reach the remaining Black Mesa team at a nearby rocket facility, where a rocket is being prepped for launch that will close the vortex. But when Alyx is gravely injured, Gordon must fight off a seemingly endless barrage of Combine forces to get her to safety.
Episode Two’s story is far more intrusive than any Half-Life game before it. The previous titles were always noted for their seamless storytelling techniques that never wrestled control away from the player, but here in Episode Two that seems to have been ignored in favour of multiple lengthy exposition sequences which the player is forced to listen to. In fact, the entirety of Episode Two is setting up the finale of Episode Three, which obviously never came to pass. Whilst I won’t deny that this story is some of Valve’s finest writing, Episode Two’s narrative identity is almost non-existent because it has no clear goal to it, other than preparing you for Episode Three.
There’re some great narrative choices here such as putting Alyx’s life in danger, and working to close the vortex, but what you do here doesn’t feel of much impact to the world. It’s all very personal and immediate.
City 17 and the Citadel are gone and in its place is a swirling vortex connecting the Combine home world to Earth. When Gordon and Alyx awake in the White Forest and they must reach the remaining Black Mesa team at a nearby rocket facility, where a rocket is being prepped for launch that will close the vortex. But when Alyx is gravely injured, Gordon must fight off a seemingly endless barrage of Combine forces to get her to safety.
Episode Two’s story is far more intrusive than any Half-Life game before it. The previous titles were always noted for their seamless storytelling techniques that never wrestled control away from the player, but here in Episode Two that seems to have been ignored in favour of multiple lengthy exposition sequences which the player is forced to listen to. In fact, the entirety of Episode Two is setting up the finale of Episode Three, which obviously never came to pass. Whilst I won’t deny that this story is some of Valve’s finest writing, Episode Two’s narrative identity is almost non-existent because it has no clear goal to it, other than preparing you for Episode Three.
There’re some great narrative choices here such as putting Alyx’s life in danger, and working to close the vortex, but what you do here doesn’t feel of much impact to the world. It’s all very personal and immediate.
The Episode gets off to a very slow start by forcing you down into some mines infested with Antlions. Part of the joy of Half-Life is the excellent outdoor environments and intricate design of architecture, but this has neither as you’re funnelled through identical looking tunnels for the best part of an hour and a half. It comes to a head with a wave survival sequence that forewarns what’s to come at the end of the game. It’s slow, it’s clunky, and there’s no plot here. You’re literally just shooting Antlion’s who are some of the least interesting enemies in all of Half-Life 2 because they just run straight at you.
Once you get out of the mines things do open up quite a bit as you find a car and then drive through the forest, stopping off at various points of interest, reminiscent of Highway 17 from the main game. It does feel like its retreading old ground here, because whilst this moment-to-moment gameplay is fun it does feel largely recycled, and the world feels empty.
The finale sees you defend the missile facility from waves of Stalkers and the new enemy variant Hunters. This section is just tedious and is basically just a bigger and slightly more complicated version of what you did earlier on with the Antlions. The Hunters are tough to take down, very powerful and lightning quick. The Stalkers meanwhile can only be taken down with a sticky bomb which can only be fired using the Gravity Gun. You need to navigate an area of forest in the car, which can only carry one sticky bomb at a time, then cross your fingers that the bomb will stick (because it liked to fall off if you get it too close to the legs), and then you need to shoot the bomb to detonate it. Meanwhile the bomb itself will explode if it gets shot, and if you miss the bomb disintegrates so you need to go find a teleporter where you can pick up new bombs. It’s intentionally clunky by design so that you panic, but the reality of it is that it’s actually just incredibly frustrating.
It uses the same building blocks as Episode One so visually it remains impressive even today. Animations are smooth as butter and the subtle details in faces and body language make these characters feel so real. There are a couple of UI enhancements that Episode Two has over HL2 & Episode One, but at this point if you’ve played any of the previous Half-Life 2 games you’ll know what you’re getting yourself in for.
For many Half-Life 2: Episode Two seems to be their idea of what best epitomises the franchise, but for me Episode Two falls short on so many levels. The pace is horrendously slow, the decision to have over half the game just driving in the car feels lazy, and the final battle is tedious rather than tense. I know that the ending never being resolved is not explicitly Episode Two’s fault as a Third Episode was always planned, but this unfinished nature makes it an even more bitter pill to swallow. For me it’s a disappointing footnote in the history of Half-Life 2, and one I often don’t bother revisiting.
Once you get out of the mines things do open up quite a bit as you find a car and then drive through the forest, stopping off at various points of interest, reminiscent of Highway 17 from the main game. It does feel like its retreading old ground here, because whilst this moment-to-moment gameplay is fun it does feel largely recycled, and the world feels empty.
The finale sees you defend the missile facility from waves of Stalkers and the new enemy variant Hunters. This section is just tedious and is basically just a bigger and slightly more complicated version of what you did earlier on with the Antlions. The Hunters are tough to take down, very powerful and lightning quick. The Stalkers meanwhile can only be taken down with a sticky bomb which can only be fired using the Gravity Gun. You need to navigate an area of forest in the car, which can only carry one sticky bomb at a time, then cross your fingers that the bomb will stick (because it liked to fall off if you get it too close to the legs), and then you need to shoot the bomb to detonate it. Meanwhile the bomb itself will explode if it gets shot, and if you miss the bomb disintegrates so you need to go find a teleporter where you can pick up new bombs. It’s intentionally clunky by design so that you panic, but the reality of it is that it’s actually just incredibly frustrating.
It uses the same building blocks as Episode One so visually it remains impressive even today. Animations are smooth as butter and the subtle details in faces and body language make these characters feel so real. There are a couple of UI enhancements that Episode Two has over HL2 & Episode One, but at this point if you’ve played any of the previous Half-Life 2 games you’ll know what you’re getting yourself in for.
For many Half-Life 2: Episode Two seems to be their idea of what best epitomises the franchise, but for me Episode Two falls short on so many levels. The pace is horrendously slow, the decision to have over half the game just driving in the car feels lazy, and the final battle is tedious rather than tense. I know that the ending never being resolved is not explicitly Episode Two’s fault as a Third Episode was always planned, but this unfinished nature makes it an even more bitter pill to swallow. For me it’s a disappointing footnote in the history of Half-Life 2, and one I often don’t bother revisiting.