Seen from a gameplay perspective, each seperate moment in Half Life 2 I loved. The gravity gun is a joy to use, pretty much each moment felt carefully designed. Only exception is Ravenholm, which lasted too long. Where it falls down is the general feel; it felt like I was playing a game, with the mechanics being too obvious. The story never dragged me in or made me want to play to find out what happened next, it was always just enjoying the moment I was playing. It always feels like one big playground for me and my gravity gun.

Episode One, I think, improves on this flaw. It's still far from perfect, but Alyx being a constant presence does create something of a narrative and adds a lot of character lacking from the original.

Graphics are good, but not great. It's not photo-realistic like Doom 3, but it's more the flexibility and range of things possible that impresses. Just looking at the myriad of mods available shows how flexible the Source engine is.

So, I really enjoyed it, as a game; as an experience there's plenty of room for improvement.