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Bucky24's Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (PC)
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| [February 8, 2008 06:23:53 PM]
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Gameplay:
The game only took two hours to complete, but during the end the action was intense. In the final boss battle, I, along with a couple dozen NPC rebels (not that they survived very long) had to take out thirteen Striders, giant three-legged machines of war who can seriously back a punch. And if that wasn't tough enough, each Strider was accompanied by one to three Hunters. It was impossible to kill the Strider with the “Magnasun Devices” without first killing the Hunters, since they could shoot the devices out of your grasp. Killing each Strider was immensely satisfying-the Magnasus Devices stuck directly to the Striders and exploded with a very satisfying crunch as the now separated legs fell to earth. The NPCs would cheer with each kill, then an urgent message would come in, warning that yet another Strider had been spotted nearby.
After all the Striders had been killed, the game was pretty much over, except for the rocket launch that would close the Combine portal and save the earth, then an attack by Combine advisors. I would have liked to have my gun when the advisors picked us all up and slammed us into the walls, then began to kill people one by one. Even if it didn't make a difference, it still would have felt like I was doing something, rather than just watching a movie unfold.
Design:
My favorite improvements over Episode 1 are: 1) Flashlight power separated from suit power, so you can swim in dark places without worrying about your oxygen running out twice as fast while using the light. 2) The ammo now has little icons that show up both when you are using the weapon and when you pick up the ammo, instead of just when you pick up ammo. This was a big problem for me the first time I played Episode 1, since I never could figure out what ammo I had picked up and when I could use the more powerful weapons again. 3) The models are much better. This also means that Episode 2 took up a whopping 3 gb on my hard drive, but the enhanced quality is worth it.
I found the puzzles fairly easy to figure out. There was nothing inherently new about any of it (though driving a vehicle that didn't have a weapon for the WHOLE time made me feel slightly exposed). However, the levels didn't seem so linear as in Episode 1, giving the game a more open feel. Of course, it was still progressive gameplay, but it didn't feel so much that way.
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| [February 8, 2008 06:23:30 PM]
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Summary:
Half Life 2: Episode 2 is a first person shooter (FPS) in which the player plays Gordon Freeman, a lab assistant from Black Mesa who's specially designed HEV suit allows him to fight off wave after wave of zombies and aliens. Episode 2 continues the story of the Combine invasion of earth, and the fight to survive their assault.
Gameplay:
In the beginning of the game the action was rather slow, as new players were expected to learn how to use the controls to complete a rather simple puzzle to advance. Quite quickly, however, the action ramps up, until, about fifteen minutes into the game, I was fighting for my life against swarms of bug-like Ant-lions. Throughout the game, my heart was constantly pounding as I wondered what was around the corner, and the game never seemed to disappoint me. Even when we had finally arrived at the safe haven, not thirty seconds later there was somewhere else to go, and some more aliens to blow up.
The storyline in the game was quite compelling, with the cut scene at the beginning getting new players up to speed on what happened in Episode 1, then the rest of the game extended it quite well. I wasn't quite paying attention in the beginning, so I wasn't entirely sure why we were going to White Forest, but the game kept me too busy to worry about that much. In addition, the main characters are very well developed, allowing the story to be told quite efficiently through their mouths.
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Bucky24's Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 8 February, 2008
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