Short, but whatta ride!

First off, the annoyances: There is one sequence where the only light you have is your flashlight, and you're being swamped by zombies. Zombies with high explosives. This is annoying. The "end" activity is mildly annoying. There are no vehicular sequences. (I rather liked the swampboat sequence myself) Oh, and it's DAMN short. I played through it in about 5 hours.

Other than that, the game rocks.

Some people have commented that the original HL2 played like a tech demo, with different regions showing off different things that the Source engine could do. I can see this after the fact, but I rather enjoyed it.

I dare anybody to say that HL2:E1 is a tech demo and actually mean it. (Yeah, I'm no fun.)

No new weapons, only one new enemy type, but it's a heck of a ride. They do a good job of constantly switching up the action, and things are HAPPENING constantly. Alyx (your sidekick) isn't annoying, and actually adds quite a bit to the atmosphere of the game. The voice acting is top notch, and doesn't detract from the game. This is a well-polished, well thought out game.

Oh, and the graphics got some polish too. Runs like buttah on my 6800gs/2gig RAM/Athlon 3700+ system @ 1680x1050, 2xAA, 4xAF, all details maxed. It actually runs better than "The Lost Coast" did for me. HDR looked kinda wonky in TLC, but here it's a much more subtle look that doesn't look out of place, except for one particular hospital sequence where things looked too "glowy" for me.

I think it was worth it. YMMV.

Oh, and if you think anything was answered, well, not really. There's definitely a bit of a setup for answers to be forthcoming, and there are two more expansion packs due out in short order. I wouldn't bet on all answers, but there had better be some frackin' answers, or I'm going to go kick down Gabe's door and take away his doughnut supply.