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Half-Life 2: Episode Two

A fine episode, but not a full feature

Reviewing episodic games is somewhat difficult. What standards should be applied? As a fully stand-alone title Half-Life 2 Episode Two fails in the story department - it's too short and the plot starts in the middle. Even with the quick recap of the previous episode, it pretty much expects you to know what happened before, and doesn't hold up as a stand-alone tale. The weapons and enemies are mostly familiar from previous adventures of Gordon Freeman.

However, putting Episode Two to the test as a fully stand-alone game wouldn't be entirely fair. It's an episode, and as such it carries the continuing saga of Half-Life 2 acceptably, and it leaves you hanging with a proper cliffhanger for Episode Three, while even dropping some hints that tie Aperture Science from Portal to the whole mess. Even the length isn't much of an issue, as you can't expect much more from such a cheap title. Bought alone it's pretty reasonable, but as part of The Orange Box it's essentially free, as Team Fortress 2 and Portal together are already worth the price of the box; and with Half Life 2 and Episode One included in the box, there is no real need for the story to try and hold it's own.

The only real bugs you find in Episode Two are those you are supposed to shoot.

Hunters are fairly annoying opponents due to the amount of damage they can withstand.

The only real problem is that it feels too easy and familiar after the first two games. There are some great thrill-packed "events" along the way, bringing near-cinematic feel to some of the action. Yet the slow parts between the important fights are too much of a milk run through a linear route without much of a challenge, and there is a distinct lack of new features. In a way it feels like a sequel to a big budget action film - it has some great bits here and there generating some "ooohs" and "aaahs", and it carries your favorite storyline forward, but as a whole it leaves you wanting for that something which made the first one so great. Surprisingly Episode Two is the weakest link of The Orange Box, but that's mostly because it's bundled with some really tough competition.

Summary of YouGamers Hardware Testing

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Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: Story and GameplayPage 3: Visuals and PerformancePage 4: Final thoughts & Scores

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