Valve, the Valve logo, Half-Life, the Half-Life logo, and the Lambda logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation. Sierra and the Sierra logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sierra Entertainment Inc., in the U.S. and/or other countries. Vivendi Universal Games and the Vivendi Universal Games logo are trademarks of Vivendi Universal Games Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. © 2004 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved.

Half-Life 2 rocked the PC gaming world with an unmatchable recipe for success: story-driven sci-fi gaming sprinkled with action, a new physics engine, cool aliens and awesome weapons. It set a high standard for first person action titles that games of today still strive to match.

How does developer Valve attempt to improve the already near-perfect formula? Simple: they don't. With a few tweaks here and some polish there, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 picks up right where its big brother left off, putting you in the boots of Gordon Freeman just after the explosion atop the Citadel. Both games look and play almost identically, the only real difference being that Episode 1 is a shorter and more intense experience. Visual detail has been increased, the narration is as powerful as ever, and a new dose of adrenaline has been injected into its blood. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 recreates the success of its predecessors and delivers another amazing, albeit shorter, game.