Half-Life 2: Episode One continues the story of Half-Life 2. Beginning immediately after the end of Half-Life 2, Episode One follows Gordon Freeman (the player) and Alyx as they attempt to escape City 17 in the wake of the defeat of the Combine forces and the battle in the Citadel. The great unanswered question of "How could Alyx have survived that explosion" is answered, as are the fates of many of the other supporting characters from Half-Life 2.

Episode One is the first of what has been promised will be a three episode trilogy which, when completed, could be considered Half-Life 3. Since it follows the episodic format, it has only four to six hours of gameplay. One feature which extends overall game life, however, is the inclusion of a "Commentary" mode, which enables hotspots on each map where the player can listen to developer commentary explaining how or why certain things were done.

Players of Half-Life 2 will find the gameplay very familiar. No new weapons were added to Episode One, although all the weapons from Half-Life 2 have been carried over. Enemies, too are familiar, with only one new enemy, a new zombie variant. The most intriguing new gameplay element is the behavior of Alyx, who fights along Gordon's side for virtually the entire game. While the player still provides most of the offensive firepower, Alyx does provide a beneficial presence, and is far from the typical cannon fodder AIs too often found in FPS games.

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Alternate Titles

"戰慄時空2首部曲：浩劫重生" -- Chinese title (Traditional)
"半条命2：第一部" -- Chinese Title (Simplified)
"Half-Life 2: Aftermath" -- Working Title
"Bantiao Ming 2: Diyi Bu" -- Chinese Title
"하프라이프 2 에피소드 1" -- Korean Title
"ハーフライフ２エピソード１" -- Japanese spelling.

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title
	Half-Life 2: Episode One
	Half-Life 2: Episode One
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User Reviews

More of the same... but that's not a bad thing.	Ian Badeer (80)
Pack your gear, Morgan.. I mean Gordon. There's still three episodes to go.	Marko Poutiainen (1155)
Half-Life 2: Episode One Is Better Than Star Wars Episode One	MasterMegid (801)
Has more of the unique level design of HL2, but not much.	Andrew Bruck (4)

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The Press Says

The Games Machine (TGM)	Jun, 2006	93 out of 100	93
Game Freaks 365	2006	9 out of 10	90
Gamers Globe	Nov 25, 2006	9 out of 10	90
Jeuxvideo.com	Jun 02, 2006	18 out of 20	90
IGN	Jun 01, 2006	8.5 out of 10	85
Gameslave UK	Sep 17, 2006	8.5 out of 10	85
Gameguru Mania	Jun 05, 2006	83 out of 100	83
Thunderbolt Games	Jul 02, 2006	8 out of 10	80
Press Start Online	Jun 12, 2006	16 out of 20	80
1UP	Jun 08, 2006	8 out of 10	80

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Trivia

Valve development commentary in the game mentions that players seemed to love Dog, so they made him the first thing the player sees at the start of the episode.

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This entry to the MobyGames database was contributed by Shadowcaster (240) on Jun 07, 2006.