Half-Life is one of the most successful first-person shooter franchises since DOOM; famous not only for its spectacled, crowbar-wielding protagonist Dr. Gordon Freeman; but an imaginative and engaging Sci-Fi storyline, formidable and terrifying enemies, and larger-than-life, memorable characters—like Gordon’s partner Alyx Vance introduced in Half-Life 2. Now, their desperate battle against alien invaders known as the Combine continues in Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

At the end of Half-Life 2: Episode One, Gordon and Alyx have managed to delay the reactor of the Combine Citadel at the heart of City 17 from going critical long enough to evacuate the last group of civilians and members of the Resistance who survived the uprising in Half-Life 2. Alyx has also obtained data from the Citadel that could prove invaluable in defeating the Combine. Gordon and Alyx barely make it out of the city on the last train, when the Citadel’s reactor melts-down—turning it and City 17 into one huge, smoldering crater. The train carrying Gordon and Alyx is derailed from the shockwave of the explosion.

Assuming the role of Gordon Freeman, you wake up and find yourself trapped in the train’s wreckage until Alyx finally shows up and frees you with your trusty Zero-Point Energy Gun—the Gravity Gun—lying nearby. With the Citadel utterly destroyed, Gordon and Alyx had hoped to deal a major blow to the Combine. Unfortunately, the Combine’s technology proves to be a lot more resilient than they had expected. A massive energy conduit rising from the ashes of the Citadel is forming a Super Portal in the clouds above—a direct link to the Combine Overworld.

And it’s growing.

Obviously not a good sign, Gordon and Alyx make their way to the nearest transmitter to contact White Forest—a decommissioned missile base where her father, Dr. Eli Vance; his colleague Dr. Isaac Kleiner, and the Resistance have relocated. Whatever illusions Gordon and Alyx may have had about the loss of the Citadel seriously crippling the Combine’s efforts against humanity are quickly laid to rest, when they discover from Dr. Kleiner that the Combine used the reactor meltdown to help create the Super Portal. And Dr. Vance feels that it signals the beginning of an even larger scale invasion of Earth than the first one.

You also learn that the data Alyx took from the Citadel is even more valuable than either of you realized—a point that hits home when your link with White Forest is suddenly cut off by the Combine, who have been pursuing and closing in on the both of you ever since you escaped City 17.

Realizing the urgency of the situation, the two of you press on; hoping to stay at least one step ahead of the Combine, and that what little luck you have left will hold out long enough for you to at least reach the nearest Resistance safe house for whatever help you can get in making it to White Forest, so that the data in Alyx’s possession can be used against the Super Portal before the Combine launch a massive counter-attack against Earth.

Unfortunately, your luck takes a turn for the worse no sooner than you leave the communications relay station. You are knocked unconscious by a new Combine enemy unlike either you or Alyx have ever seen before—but not before you witness her being critically wounded. Fortunately, a Vortigaunt—one of the sentient beings trapped in our world after the Black Mesa incident in the original Half-Life game who are now allies in the war against the Combine—comes to your aid.

There is a chance that the Vortigaunt with the help of his kin, can save Alyx’s life. But to do so, you must first make a hazardous trek through an old mine and Antlion tunnels (yes, those big, vicious bugs from Half-Life 2), and make your way to a Resistance safe-house located underground. And fight off an increasingly difficult three-pronged onslaught of Antlions who aren’t too thrilled about you taking a shortcut through their turf. And return to the Antlion colony with the help of one of the Vortigaunts to retrieve a rare, larval extract needed to help save Alyx. And avoid getting killed by the huge Antlion Guardian protecting the extract.

And you thought this was going to be easy…

Like the previous games of the series, Half-Life 2: Episode Two is divided into “chapters”—seven in all. Unlike Episode One, depending on the difficulty level you select, Episode Two will take you anywhere from 8 to 10 hours to complete—which is longer than Episode One and pretty much the standard for what an expansion pack game should be. Not only is there more going on and more to accomplish, but Valve has taken a page from Microsoft’s Xbox Live playbook by including Achievements with Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

There are twenty unlockable achievements that you can win for completing certain tasks in the game. The Bone Breaker achievement is unlocked, for example, if you kill 30 enemies with objects tossed with the Gravity Gun, while the tougher Meet the Hunters achievement is unlocked if you and Alyx can survive the Hunter ambush at the White Forest Inn. A new concept for Half-Life games, Episode Two’s achievements tie in nicely with the new Steam Community which offers similar perks that Microsoft’s pay-to-play Games For Windows LIVE and Xbox LIVE Gold-level services offer—for free and with no strings attached.

Valve has kept the bar raised high on how NPCs (Non-player Characters) should act and respond to the player as well as each other in any given situation. This makes a noticeable and welcome difference in your gaming experience when interacting with NPCs that are more like real people, as opposed to ones who aren’t. Thankfully, that hasn’t changed in Half-Life 2: Episode Two—in fact, it’s gotten better. Not only do all the old familiar and new characters move and react intelligently and realistically, but the incredible and uncanny way Valve utilizes their facial expressions to express emotion, still never fails to impress.

Of course, none of this would mean anything or have any impact on the player without the voice talent of some of Hollywood’s finest who also believe in the characters they’re playing—which makes all the difference. Merle Dandridge and Robert Guillaume reprise their roles as Alyx Vance and her father, Dr. Eli Vance, while Tony Todd has taken over the voices of the Vortigaunts (Louis Gossett, Jr. did the voices in the Half-Life 2 and Episode One). And, if you listen to some of the Resistance fighters and could swear that they sound like Adam Baldwin—that’s because it is!

Having the player single-handedly saving the day—or the world—is a common thread among first person shooters; though saving the world by yourself definitely sucks a lot less when you’ve got someone to share the burden with. Especially if that someone is as attractive, witty, intelligent, tough and skillful as Alyx Vance. Valve (and actress Merle Dandridge) have steadily evolved Alyx with each Half-Life 2 episode from just another AI sidekick to a flesh-and-blood character, partner and friend. I’ll be the first to admit that there are times when I never fully appreciate just how integral Alyx has become to the game, until she’s not there. After playing dozens of shooters where I ultimately could care less about “friendly” AI characters who are anything but when it comes to being useful and making the experience more immersive, I can honestly say that Valve has done something really special with Alyx and all the other characters that makes Half-Life more than just another game.

Tough, fearless and armed with electric shock attacks that can jump-start stalled equipment as easily as fry enemies, the Vortigaunt that accompanies you during several Episode Two chapters, is also a valuable ally to have at your side and watching your back. Although he’s obviously not as attractive as Alyx, he does have a rather odd but refreshingly off-beat sense of humor. Alyx’s robot Dog makes a brief appearance in Episode 2 in a short, scripted battle with a wounded Strider from a downed Combine transport as you and Alyx approach the White Forest complex (beat Dog in a race to the White Forest entrance, and you’ll win an achievement point). No sign of Gordon’s security guard pal from Black Mesa, Barney Calhoun, who is also a member of the Resistance and has bailed Gordon out of some tough situations. Hope he made it out of City 17 and returns in Episode Three…

Half-Life wouldn’t be Half-Life without the mysterious and increasingly sinister G-Man, who also makes a return in Episode Two, creating more unanswered questions and malevolently revealing more than just a casual or coincidental involvement in the fates of Alyx, her Dad and recent events in the game.

Valve brings back another Black Mesa scientist from the original Half-Life—Dr. Arne Magnusson, whose rocket will be used to shut down the Combine Super Portal once Alyx delivers the data from the Citadel. You may remember Dr. Magnusson from the “microwave prank” in the cafeteria at Black Mesa before all hell broke loose. In one particularly amusing scene, he will let you know that he hasn’t forgotten it. Yes, the good Doctor is still a bossy, obnoxious, self-absorbed putz. But for better or worse (I’m leaning towards the latter), the Resistance needs him, so you know how that goes…

The Episode Two bestiary has been expanded to include several new enemies for Gordon and Alyx to deal with. The Acid Antlion Worker encountered in Antlion tunnels and tunnel entrances in the mines, is capable of spitting a pulpy neurotoxin from a distance with unnerving accuracy that can easily overwhelm the HEV suit’s automatic antitoxin system with prolonged exposure, taking a huge chunk out of your health. It also has a very nasty melee attack with its enlarged cranium and razor-sharp mandibles. Antlion Grubs are not enemies, though on first sight they can be unsettling—particularly with the sound they make—and the human remains you’ll occasionally see them dining on. Whack ‘em with the crowbar or step on them, and they secrete a chemical that will give you a small boost in health. If you kill all of the Grubs in the game (and there are quite a few of the buggers), that’s another achievement point unlocked for you.

With a shiny, surprisingly tough iridescent green carapace similar to a beetle, the tripod-legged Combine Hunters are fast, agile, relentless and utterly ruthless in tracking down and killing their prey with their Tazer-like fletchetts at range, or their bone-shattering rushing melee attacks. They also spear their victims with their mandibles or the spikes at the end of their legs. Fortunately for you, these attacks are reserved only for friendly NPCs in the game. Hunters are the most challenging enemies in the game, as their ability to maneuver around—or through obstacles, make them almost impossible to evade or take cover from for long, once they have you in their sights. Half-Life 2: Episode Two finally gives the player a close encounter of the unfriendly kind with the huge, bloated, slug-like Combine Advisors briefly seen fleeing the Citadel in Episode One. Possessing formidable telekinetic powers, their method of “extracting” information from humans to process and disseminate among the Combine Collective is quite gruesome.

While Gordon’s arsenal remains pretty much the same from previous Half-Life 2 episodes, one improvement to his HEV suit is that the flashlight now has its own separate power supply and lasts longer when activated—though it can still run out of battery power and leave you in the dark at the worse possible moment if you aren’t careful. There’s also a new Fast Weapon Switch mode accessed under OptionsàKeyboardàAdvanced at the Main Menu. This allows you to scroll through and directly select your weapons with your mouse’s scroll wheel, which is faster than using the default “pop-up-and-scroll-through” menus at the top of the screen—a welcome and beneficial improvement for many of the frantic, white-knuckle battles that await you in Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

There is one new weapon in Gordon’s repertoire this time around—the Magnusson Device. A hi-tech “sticky bomb” of sorts, the Magnusson Device is designed to take out the formidable Combine Striders. Launched from the Gravity Gun, when stuck to the Strider’s body it can be detonated with a single shot from any weapon, blowing the Strider to bits. If you miss, the Magnusson Device harmlessly self-destructs. As you’ve probably guessed, trying to nail one of these towering, alien killing machines while they’re on the move can be quite a challenge—and extremely hazardous to your health if you’re unfortunate enough to get their attention.

DirectX 9-based games are still looking good and still going strong in spite of all the hype and so far, unfulfilled promises of Windows Vista and DirectX 10. With full support for dual and quad-core processors, standard 4:3 and true 16:9 and 16:10 widescreen aspect ratios, CSAA/MSAA antialiasing with High Dynamic Range lighting, and now motion blur, Half-Life 2: Episode Two with its Source engine, continues that trend admirably—without relying on third-party utilities or .INI file hacks. Granted, the visuals aren’t as breath-taking as Crytek’s upcoming Sci-Fi shooter Crysis; but for a two-year old graphics engine, they certainly don’t look bad, either.

Any rig equipped with mid-range to high-end hardware built within the last two years should have no trouble running Episode Two with most, if not all of the visual settings turned up while maintaining playable frame rates. I played the game at on a PC equipped with an Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Dual-Core Processor and Intel D975BX2 Motherboard with 2GB of Corsair DDR2 RAM; an EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX video card, and a Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card. The system was configured to dual-boot Windows XP SP-2 and Windows Vista Ultimate 32-Bit with all the latest updates and drivers for both operating systems. I played Episode 2 at 1920 x 1200 on my Samsung 244T 24” LCD display with 4x MSAA/16x AF with all visual effects set as high as they could go and Motion Blur enabled.

Using NVIDIA’s 163.75 WHQL drivers for both XP and Vista and playing through the game under both operating systems at the same image quality settings, I can tell you that:

a.    There is no noticeable difference in image quality between XP and Vista in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. All visual quality settings being equal, the game looks just as good under one OS as the other.

b.    I had a great experience running Half-Life 2: Episode Two under Windows XP with silky-smooth frame rates and no hitching or slow-downs during the busiest firefights with lots of enemies. I did experience some stuttering and slow-downs at the same resolution and visual settings in Vista—which is consistent with all of the games I've played under Vista so far, compared to the same titles played under XP. So...

c.    You can expect anywhere from a 5-10% hit in your frame rates running Half-Life 2: Episode Two under Vista.

There are many subtle but noticeable visual improvements over Episode One that reinforce and enhance the post-apocalyptic feel of the game after the Combine invasion of Earth. Rusted, abandoned and derelict vehicles on damaged and collapsing bridges. Dilapidated buildings in small villages with pitted concrete, rotting wood and blistered paint—and the occasional corpse of Resistance fighters, Combine soldiers or Head Crab Zombies. Sweeping, majestic forests with towering Redwoods standing silent and bearing witness to flowing streams devoid of life, and blackened craters with the bizarre, bio-mechanical wreckage of Combine Troop Transports and Head Crab Rockets lobbed down on suspected Resistance positions and enclaves. The Antlion tunnels and lair, whose walls are randomly lined with pulsating egg sacs and dimly lit by the phosphorous glow of Antlion Grubs, have a glossy, organic look as if they had been secreted, and are both spectacular and suitably creepy with the eye-candy pumped up. Skin and weapon textures look better, too.

Episode One kept the player mostly indoors with a lot of close-quarters combat and Gravity Gun puzzle solving, which was fun for awhile, but started getting repetitious—which was bad for a single-player campaign so short. In Half-Life 2: Episode 2, you’ll get to see plenty of the great outdoors on your way to the White Forest complex, after precariously obtaining a gutted and modified ’68 Dodge Charger for transportation. While the Charger won’t have any mounted weapons like the Dune Buggy in Half-Life 2, the Resistance will install a location device that will help you find a number of cleverly-hidden supply caches that will come in handy for those “surprise parties” that the Combine have in store for you and Alyx (plus finding all the caches counts towards those achievement points).

Episode Two’s pacing is much better than Episode One, striking just the right balance between the heightened tension of fighting in indoor levels and wild, high-speed outdoor jaunts in the Charger, where you evade a Combine Attack Helicopter and hordes of Head Crab Zombies of every stripe with Alyx riding shotgun (which is the name of the particular chapter, by the way), taking pot shots at anything that moves and booting unwanted passengers from the hood. There are a number of short-but-effective set-piece battles as well that will keep your fingers dancing and twitching on the keyboard and mouse buttons, driven along by the well-timed and excellent “action” music, like the villa where Gordon and Alyx are ambushed by Combine forces and Hunters; and a false alarm at the White Forest complex that turns out to be a Combine raid to stop Dr. Magnusson from launching the rocket to shut down the Super Portal.

Nothing compares to the final battle where Magnusson charges you with stopping an incoming wave of Striders descending on the base to destroy the silo before he can launch his rocket at the Combine Super Portal. If one Strider gets close enough to base, they’ll destroy it, immediately ending the game in failure. As if battling a small army of Striders wasn’t bad enough, they are also being escorted by Hunters who will immediately shoot down any Magnusson Device before turning their attention on you. Although some Resistance Fighters will be present to bear some of the brunt of this attack and help out as best they can, the ball as usual, is pretty much in Gordon Freeman’s court to save the day. Nerves of steel, a cool head with a lot of patience; some quick thinking, more than a few strategic quick-saves, luck, (plus a few choice cuss-words) are all that stand between you and the game-over screen (which is in Vortigaunt-speak, no less—original, at least). If you haven’t upgraded to a high performance gaming mouse and keyboard to give you an edge, Half-Life 2: Episode Two may be the game to make you do so.

When you finally emerge victorious, Magnusson launches the rocket, closes the portal—and after a brief celebration, Gordon and Alyx prepare to head out on the next phase of their campaign against the Combine in the final chapter appropriately named “T-Minus One.” That’s when Valve sets you up for the final showdown between Earth and the Combine in Half-Life 2: Episode Three by hitting you right between the eyes with one of the most powerful and unforgettable endings in the entire Half-Life saga. You can load up any of the completed chapters at any time, and listen to some fascinating comments from the dev team and actors involved in bringing Half-Life 2: Episode Two, to life, with the game’s slick Commentary Mode feature.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two is also part of Valve’s The Orange Box package, which includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Team Fortress 2 and Portal, shipping on two DVD discs for the PC. Team Fortress 2 has an all-new cartoon-based graphical style which actually works quite well for the fast-paced, over-the-top shooter action that has made Team Fortress an enduring classic in multiplayer gaming. If you can imagine a device similar to Gordon Freeman’s Gravity Gun  that opens “dimensional doorways” which allow you to pass through the walls, floors and ceilings of a maze-like laboratory complex, you’ve got the premise for Portal, which combines the first-person action genre with some very innovative and challenging puzzle-solving.

The Orange Box is quite a value when you consider its contents. Playing through all three Half-Life games in sequence is a great way to get aquainted with the Half-Life universe if you've never done so before. Plus, Episode Two is likely to make more sense if you like to follow the plot as much as the action in a game. If you already own the first two Half-Life 2 games and neither Counterstrike 2 or Portal are your cup of tea, Half-Life 2: Episode Two can be purchased and downloaded separately though Steam—as can the other Orange Box titles. If you purchase and install The Orange Box and already own Half-Life Two and Episode One and have them installed, Steam will give you the opportunity to give one of your pre-owned copies as a “gift” to a friend.

One thing I really disliked about Episode One was that the Gravity Gun was over-used to compensate for other areas where the game was lacking. As a result, most of the situations you used the Gravity Gun fell into the “Because it’s there,” and “We ran out of interesting stuff to do, but it did it anyway” categories. Thankfully, Valve has gone back to using the Gravity Gun in Half-Life 2: Episode Two for solving environment puzzles that are both logical and truly necessary. Like locating and installing a missing cog to get a broken elevator going again. Or removing boards holding back a rail car filled with steel support beams, allowing it to roll free and smash through a barricade so you can pass through. Of course, using the Gravity Gun to pick up and lob flammable canisters and other objects capable of inflicting great pain at enemies, is always great fun.

My only major criticism of the game is that the final Strider battle was a bit too overwhelming. The battle would not have lost much—if any—of its urgency and intensity if you had some of the Resistance squad members take out some of the Hunter escorts. Or even Alyx stationed in a tower with a sniper rifle close to the base to soften up some of the Hunters. One of the appeals of Half-Life is that Gordon Freeman more or less a regular guy dropped in the middle of incredible circumstances and just trying to cope, and not a genetically augmented super-soldier like Halo’s Master Chief. It kind of stretches things a bit putting him in a situation more suited for a Spartan than a Theoretical Physicist in an HEV Hazard Suit.

I still say Gearbox’s mouse-based control for propelling and steering a vehicle used in Halo for the PC, is the best in any game yet. That doesn’t make the Half-Life vehicles any less fun to drive overall—but due to the keyboard-based steering, it does make them a bit clunkier and harder to control (ditto for Far Cry and the Crysis Demo). If Valve can tweak and improve the flashlight and weapons selection, why not give steering vehicles with a mouse rather than the keyboard a try—maybe even include a user-switchable third-person view for vehicles, for Episode Three? And guys: some new guns for Gordon. Please?

While Half-Life 2: Episode One had a few brilliant moments but felt rather uninspired in many areas, Half-Life 2: Episode Two comes full circle and puts Gordon, Alyx and the war against the Combine solidly back on track with a near-perfect balance of action, suspense, Gravity Gun puzzle solving and an ending that will both stun and have you fired up for the next installment. Whether you download the stand-alone version from Steam, or buy it as part of The Orange Box, it’s an experience that no true fan of the Half-Life universe—or any gamer looking for an engaging, above-average shooter—should miss.

Final Score:

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