Not the game industry's first attempt at "episodic gaming" that sees complete games segmented into chapters and released incrementally at "value" pricing, but Half Life 2: Episode One is certainly the best realization of it.

Not quite a sequel to nor an expansion of Half Life 2 (widely regarded as 2004's Game of the Year), Episode One is, nevertheless, the next chapter in the lone nerd vs the alien invaders tale, picking up exactly where the last game left off.

You start with the Gravity Gun as your default weapon, the cool uber tool that lets you pick up most inanimate objects (like those ubiquitous wooden crates and cinder blocks) and some (but not all) of the bad guys, then hurl them away (or into others) in an effortless toss. Great, superhuman fun from the get go. Standard weapons are gathered as you move along, because shotguns and automatics never get old, and rocket launchers are really the only way to climax a good shooter (which doesn't, incidentally, reveal an iota of insight into the intricate plot of the series, which is as ornery and confounding as ever). Too, you spend the entire game with she-buddy Alyx at your side, that crack shot wise-cracker who does a fine job of helping you out and providing at least two notable chuckles, like a good side-kick oughtta.

Gameplay is a decent mix of harrowing firefights against impossible odds, tactical tippy toeing and the obligatory puzzle solving for which the series is renowned--shove a scrap car over a ant-lion nest, blast the horde that's emerged thus far, mind the sniper up in that window, that sort of thing. Nothing new, all told, but a whole new dose of the familiar sci-fi fantastica nonetheless.

It doesn't feel particularly balanced, either. Many a moment of skulking down corridors, all puckered up anxious, waiting for all hell to break loose, but it doesn't. Then, when hell does actually break loose in its all-of-it fashion, it breaks hard and relentless and seemingly disproportionate to the last ten minutes you just spent all a-pucker looking for a lost doorknob. By the end of it, however, you'll be yearning for those moments of quiet knob & pucker because it's a screaming big ending--go go gadget rocket launcher--followed by a classically-episodic cliff-hanger of blinding white-light shockwave proportions. So it's balanced in the end, just with a lot of peaks and valleys of pucker and action to get there.

As the first segment of what's shaping up to be a trilogy, Episode One can be completed in one 5 hour sitting (on normal difficulty, at least), which makes it a freakishly short game, even at a scant $20. But while other action/shooters in that price range can offer much longer game time, they're rarely as competent and certainly can't hope to offer the same graphical superlativeness nor level design wizardry of the mighty Half Life franchise.

Too, the next two episodes, slated to come available in six month increments, are also expected to boast discounts if you buy them all. Worse case scenario: you'll end up paying $60 in three installments on what would otherwise be a long-playing, $50 game (at retail, at least, though you can also buy Episode One in a package deal, online through the Valve Software's Steam service, which offers an 8 or 17 pack of Valve games and expansions for a tantalizing $60 or $80 USD. Heck of a deal.). But that's the whole point of episodic gaming; fast(er) turnaround time on new content, new content at an attractive price, more usable user feedback to inject into the next iteration, more sated gamers snacking on pieces of Half Life extravagance rather than waiting two more years for the full meal deal. Sure, it's a trade off, but it's worth it.
 
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