Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2533 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2006-06-02
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Windows XP
• Number of items: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
In a nutshell:
Gordon Freeman returns with the first in a series of follow-ups to the most highly rated first person shoot ‘em-up ever on the PC. There’s no five year wait for a sequel this time, however, as the war against the Combine continues.

The lowdown:
Originally intended as a standard expansion pack entitled Aftermath, this is the first in a new series of episodic content for Half-Life 2, to be released far more frequently than normal expansions and which do not require the original game to play. This chapter focuses as much on the beautiful Alyx Vance and her robot bodyguard "Dog" as Gordon, and deals with the direct aftermath of the end of Half-Life 2, and the exodus from City 17. Graphically the game uses an enhanced version of the original graphic engine -- beefed up using the new high dynamic range (HDR) lighting technology from the Lost Coast technical demo. There are also two multiplayer games include in the package: one based on Half-Life 2 and the other on an enhanced version of the original Half-Life.

Most exciting moment:
Watching Alyx’s pet Dog throwing cars and soldiers around like toys as they battle alongside you in one of the most graphically impressive environments ever seen in a PC game.

Since you ask:
Valve has already confirmed an Episode Two expansion for Half-Life 2, as well as similar episodic games for a sequel to 1998’s SiN using the same graphics technology.

The bottom line:
The best FPS ever is back and looking and playing better than ever.
Harrison Dent

Manufacturer's Description
Half-Life has been named Game of the Year by over 35 organizations worldwide. Half-Life 2: Aftermath is an all-new episode created by Valve that extends the Half-Life 2 single player adventure.

Customer Reviews

I can see why this is called an episode and not a game!!
Interesting and fun to play but ridiculously short game and I was very disappointed, Valve are just cashing in on the success of half life to rip consumers off with a short segment of a game rather than a full game. I can't believe they are releasing this as a game as really this is just a few levels which they have added on to half life 2. The fact that they market it as an episode speaks volumes for their intentions, rather than release a whole new game i.e."half life 3" they break it up and release it as 3 separate episodes (or incomplete game segements) so consumers have to buy three games instead of one thus trebling their profits. People would not be prepared to pay for a single episode of a tv programme or soap and i do not think it is fair or honest to release this game in small chunks and charge for all the separate bits while pretending each episode is a game in itself.

In terms of gameplay it is more of the same with no new ideas or inventions to make it stand out from half life 2 and they seem to have just recycled similar puzzles and scenarios from half life 2 to make a new episode. At times I wonder whether this game was supposed to be part of half life 2 which didn't get completed in time and which they decided to release late.

The game ends when you are beginning to get into it and it is highly disappointing and the feeling of "what happened to the rest of the game" is inescapable, it feels more like a fairly long demo than a game and it leaves you wanting alot more. I feel ripped off as most other games that you can get for a similar price are 2-3 times the length, you could literally complete this game in a day quite comfortably, i only played for a few hours a night for a couple of nights and then it was over and I haven't played it since. It seems that valves games are getting shorter and shorter, compared to the original half life this game isn't even a quarter of the length.

My advice - decent game but not worth the money. I felt disappointed and let down as previously valve have been very generous with good deals on many of their games but this is just a way of charging customers for an incomplete segement of a game. SHAME ON YOU VALVE. I certainly won't be wasting my money on episodes 2 and 3 after this. Really i think valve should give a discount on episodes 2 and 3 to those who have bought episode 1 as I am not prepared to pay three times to get all the episodes.

Enjoyable at the time, but just buy the Orange Box from Autumn 07 for Episodes
Electronic Arts has to make the most of its distribution deal with Valve, that's why you're seeing the episode releases and in 2008, they've released a retail off shoot of just the episodes together, plus Portal, plus Team Fortress 2.

Just get the lot in the Orange Box if you've any interest at all - that's what I did, and for Episode 1 it will fit on a single blank DVD if you back it up from Steam, making this edition unnecessary.

Same old, same old. . .
I reckon HL2 is the best game ever made. There are some very close rivals but HL2 just has everything I enjoy in a game.

I was really hoping HL2 ep 1 would be more original and really continue the story. It didn't. It starts with you needing to get back into the citadel. (even though most of the last few levels of the other game was doing that!) Then, you have to get out and get on a train. Nothing but more of the same but this time without any original surprises. Finally when I got onto the train I thought maybe the story will start to become interesting. But it just ends! What was the point in that? If you were writing this episode as a book the plot would take a few lines at the most. I'm so dissapointed. I knew it was short but I thought it would be worth it. It wasn't. Now where's Episode 2 ?!?