Review: "Half Life 2: Episode One"

Last weekend I finally caved and bought "Half-Life 2: Episode One". First of all, kudos to Valve. Their Steam content delivery platform is awesome. Credit card, click, and about 20 minutes later (depending on the speed of your pipe), I'm killing Combine.

For those kindred souls who felt betrayed when the credits scrolled at the end of Half-Life 2 ("but I only just started playing 73 hours ago!!"), this is going to be akin to the feeling one gets when opening a bleary refridgerator and finding that the pizza isn't over after all.

Pros:

• You get to play (almost) the entire game alongside Alyx. She's kinda hot. And kicks ass with a shotgun.
  
• Fighting in the dark (whenever your flashlight battery runs out). This is scary and pretty cool. Kinda Doom-esque.
• Nice progression of the City 17 storyline. As always, they've done an incredible job meshing story-arc and gameplay.
  

Cons:

• No real novelties with respect to the gameplay, weapons or enemies. But for those of us who just wanted more, it's enough.