In April 2005, Valve announced an expansion for Half-Life 2 under the working title Aftermath. Valve developed Half-Life 2 (2004) over six years using its new game engine, Source. The resulting shockwave derails the train. Several rocket pods containing Combine Advisors launch from the Citadel as it detonates.
Alyx and Gordon lead and escort the survivors to the station, as the way there is constantly being swarmed and sabotaged by Combine forces.Īlyx and Gordon take a different train out of City 17, escaping just as the reactor detonates and the Combine's message is transmitted. They meet Barney Calhoun and a group of other survivors who are preparing to move to a train station to escape City 17. They proceed on foot in the city streets, fighting through the disorganized Combine forces and rampant alien infestations. Judith Mossman, in which she mentions a "project" she has located, before she is cut off by a Combine attack.Īlyx and Gordon board a train to escape the Citadel, but it derails.
She downloads a copy of the message, along a transmission from Dr. Alyx and Gordon re-enter the Citadel and temporarily stabilize the core.Īlyx discovers that Combine Elite soldiers are accelerating the destruction of the Citadel to send a "transmission packet" to the Combine's homeworld. Kleiner tells them the Citadel's core will soon explode, which will completely wipe out City 17. Alyx contacts her father Eli Vance and scientist Isaac Kleiner, who have escaped the city. They teleport Gordon away from the scene, restricting the effect of G-Man's abilities on Gordon.Īlyx's pet robot Dog retrieves Gordon from rubble outside the Citadel, and Gordon reunites with Alyx. The Vortigaunts appear before the G-Man and stand between him and Gordon. Several Vortigaunts appear and rescue Alyx from the blast. As it explodes, the G-Man intervenes and extracts Gordon. In City 17, Gordon Freeman and his ally Alyx Vance have destroyed the reactor at the heart of the Combine Citadel. The new HDR rendering and Phong shading effects are visible. Plot Īlyx talks with the resistance leaders outside the Citadel. Similarly, Alyx will often take up strategic positions and provide covering fire to keep the player safe while they travel to a certain area or perform certain actions. In this scenario, the player can conserve their ammunition by using a flashlight to help Alyx spot and kill oncoming enemies. Examples of this co-operative gameplay include combat in underground levels. For part of the code, she was explicitly programmed to avoid performing too many mechanical or repetitive actions, such as repeating lines of dialogue or performing certain routines in combat situations. The developers described Alyx's programming for Episode One as a "personality code" as opposed to an "AI code", emphasizing the attention they gave to make Alyx a unique and believable companion. The artificial intelligence (AI) for Alyx Vance, Gordon's companion, was explicitly designed for co-operative play in Episode One to complement the player's abilities. Unlike in Half-Life 2, where Gordon's first weapon is the crowbar, Gordon first acquires the Gravity Gun, which plays a crucial role in the game by allowing the player to use physics to manipulate objects at a distance in both combat and puzzle-solving scenarios. Throughout the course of the game, the player accesses new weapons and ammunition that are used to defend the character from enemy forces. A head-up display appears on the screen to display the character's health, energy, and ammunition.
Episode One integrates tutorial-like tasks into the story to familiarize the player with new gameplay mechanics without breaking immersion. The gameplay is broken up between combat-oriented challenges and physics-based puzzles.
HALF LIFE 2 COVER SERIES
In Episode One, players make their way through a linear series of levels and encounter various enemies and allies. The co-operative gameplay with Alyx received particular praise, although the short length was criticized. The game uses an updated version of Valve's Source engine, with new lighting and animation technology.Įpisode One received mostly positive reviews. For Episode One, they focused on the player's relationship with Alyx, developing her artificial intelligence. Valve wanted to release new games quickly, without spending years developing a major new product with new tools. Players control scientist Gordon Freeman, who, alongside his companion Alyx Vance, must escape City 17 before an explosion destroys it.Įpisode One was the first in a planned trilogy of shorter episodic games that continue the story of Half-Life 2 (2004). Like previous Half-Life games, it combines shooting, puzzle-solving, and narrative. Half-Life 2: Episode One is a 2006 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve.