Half Life 2: Episode 2 review by Termite
Game Review: Half Life 2: Episode 2
Episode 2 was released October 10th 2007 as part of the Orange Box. It was one of the 3 new games released for the first time in the Orange Box. It met massive critical acclaim, and was praised as the best the Half Life series had ever been. Like Episode 1, improvements for the Source Engine had happened that were not available to the previous game. The major improvement is even more advanced facial animation technology.
The story is awesome. Basically without giving too much away, you and Alyx Vance have destroyed the Combine fortress and now you two must bring something back to your rebel comrades residing in a facility called "White Forrest". Now that the Combine Fortress is destroyed however, it has opened a super-portal which will act as a mega-highway for Combine reinforcements if it is allowed to mature. Of course, the Rebels have other plans. 
That "Something" that you and Alyx have can stop the Combine from opening that portal of theirs, but the remaining Combine running amok around the land aren't going to make it easy for you to get to your destination, especially these beings known as "Advisers" which have telepathic powers and seem to be wildly deformed. There is some speculation that these creatures might actually be the original Combine race and that they using their vast power slowly subjugated other species.
Anyway, enough about story, let's get onto beating stuff up shall we? There really isn't much new when it comes to killing stuff in Half Life 2: Episode 2. You have all your regular weapons obviously, with no real new additions to the arsenal. You do have a car though.
The car is the biggest addition. And this isn't that car you had before, it's a worn out muscle car. And it's pretty awesome too. Since you spend lots of the game with Alyx, and a car, it gave me more of an adventurous feel.
The graphics are easily the best in the Half Life series. Especially one scene where the G-Man gets a chance to have a little heart to heart chat with you. Facial animation is even better than that of Half Life 2: Episode 1 so you can kind of guess that it is really good. Also, the environments look really nice, and it seems they got an upgrade too. There is a lot of detail in all of them, and it just feels overall like they took a bit more time than with the previous games to make sure everything looked the way it should.
The sound is the same, voice acting is top notch as always. I always did want some better sound effects for when the Antlions fly at you but that's just me being picky.
The game does introduce some new characters, but I won't introduce them here. They are all cool and have a lot of depth to them. The romance side-story thing between Alyx and Gordon seems to progressing ever further, which is always welcome.
The game is short, really short. About 6 hours I would assume. If you are looking for some epic adventure, you should look elsewhere. Nevertheless, as a part of the Orange Box it makes sense, and individually the game is like 20 bucks. I highly recommend you buy the game, it is fantastic, even if a bit on the short side
In the Orange Box score: 5/5
Individually: 4.5/5 (Because of it's length)
