The Justice Files: The Orange Box: HλLF-LIFE 2: Episode 1 -- Mini-review

Quick aside: I know, I promised a review of Arkadian Warriors and have been silent since Christmas. I've had a horrible cold virus that I'm just now getting over. I'll be posting reviews for both episodes of Half-Life 2, with the Arkadian Warriors review to follow later this week. Apologies to anyone who was waiting for it.

Early Monday morning, shortly after Midnight, I couldn't sleep due to a virus that was mucking around with my sleep schedule as much as it was my immune system. So I decided to give Half-Life 2: Episode 1 on the Xbox 360 a go. Yes, at Midnight.

This game starts at the moment where Half-Life 2 ends: the field containing the Combine's dark energy reactor has just collapsed and the death of both Alyx Vance and Gordon Freeman appears to be a foregone conclusion.

But, in that instant, the Vortigaunts and the G-Man each make an appearance. The former to save the lives of Alyx and Gordon; the latter to make their newly revived lives more complicated.

The first half of this story is played in and around the Citadel -- the massive Combine nerve center that was partially destroyed at the end of Half-Life 2. Gordon and Alyx must re-enter the Citadel to place a temporary containment field around the dark energy reactor core -- granting time for the denizens of City 17 to escape the inevitable explosion of the core.

There are a number of Valve-caliber physical puzzles to solve as you work you way through the decaying Citadel and quite a few encounters with hostile Combine guard forces who don't seem to understand that the Combine has been defeated. As you work your way through, you will have Alyx with you most of the time. This is a good thing, as Alyx is armed with a pistol and is a decent shot.

Having Alyx with you is also important if you decide to go for the "The One Free Bullet" achievement. For this Xbox 360 achievement, you must play through Episode 1 in its entirety, firing exactly one bullet. As you might expect, the opportunity to fire that one bullet becomes pretty obvious. After that you must use your gravity gun, er, I'm sorry, Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator, for most of your kills. You are also free to use any other weapon that does not use bullets, such as grenades and the rocket launcher. I went for this achievement on my first play through and found that it added greatly to my experience. You end up having to depend more on your wits and agility when you can't fire bullets. You don't have to play the game this way, but I highly recommend it.

When you finally contain the dark energy core, you find that the Combine has been deliberately trying to accelerate the destabilization of the core in order to create a massive inter-spatial portal. You also intercept a data packet that may be the key to closing that portal, as well as some video footage recorded by the redeemed turncoat Dr. Judith Mossman.

The remainder of the game document's Gordon and Alyx's escape from City 17, culminating in a showdown between Gordon and Combine forces at the last train out of town.

I should warn you that there is a series of short escort tasks at the very end of the game, but they are not your usual typical "escort mission." The overall task is to deliver groups of citizens safely to a nearby train. The citizens are armed, which helps, but the task gets progressively more difficult after each group is delivered. It is possible to deliver everyone safely without using a gun -- you just need to be judicious with how you dole out your rockets. To sweeten the deal, there is a resupply locker full of rockets about 1/3 of the way into the escort pathway. Delicious!

Episode 1 is short -- I finished it in just over four hours. (I went back to bed at 4:30 AM after finishing it.) Even so, there is a lot of story packed into that time frame. The end of the game leaves you breathless, wanting to see where the story will go next.

The dialog in this episode is probably the best in the series. They worked very hard to develop Alyx in this game and it shows. There is a wonderful moment, for example, where your flashlight runs out of power and you are left in total darkness. Alyx growls like a zombie from behind you as a joke. It's very effective and there are nuances to the dialog like this throughout the game.

With a very few stark exceptions, Merle Dandridge's voice work here as Alyx is exceptional.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Robert Guillome in his portrayal of Dr. Eli Vance. He still comes off as Uncle Remus sitting on the rocking chair, telling tales about Brer Rabbit, when he should be playing the role of the concerned father. It's not quite so bad as it was in Half-Life 2, where Dr. Vance has been kept in a standing coffin for days after the Combine cut off his left leg and he sounds like he's saying "Jus' run 'long, chile, I'll catch up with you" when he should be angry and terrified. (Honestly, I don't really blame Guillome here -- I think he is well-cast -- I believe this is more a case of bad directing.)

Michael Shapiro's voice work for Barney Calhoun is still atrocious. He delivers every line as if he's a 1970s afternoon game show host.

Other than the flawed voice work, this is a well-built, intelligent expansion to the Half-Life series. And for those of us who waited for it to come out on the Xbox 360, it's an excellent value, packed as it is in The Orange Box bundle.

And definitely, play it without using your guns. You can thank me later.