Unlike Episode 1 that had you manhandling the Combine for the first few levels in a most entertaining way, Episode 2 drags on and on initially but before you feel like throwing your keyboard (or controller) away in frustration, you’ll be beset by an intense moment that grabs you by the cojones in true Half Life style. There on, it’s a fast-paced roller coaster ride to the very end.
Moving away from claustrophobic environments, the bulk of the game takes places in vast and expansive outdoor locales. This is definitely a refreshing change from the closed quarter combat seen in previous iterations, and I can only hope EP 3 takes it to the next level.
At the end of the day, Episode 2 is just more of the same that made Half Life 2 a treat to play. You have your scripted moments, innovative physics-based puzzles, killer acting from the entire cast, tons of subtle humor sprinkled throughout the game and overall kickass gameplay.
People keep whining about the length of each episode but if these episodes were any longer, they’d probably wouldn’t be called episodes in the first place, would they? I know Valve shouldn’t have taken this long (nearly two years) to release a six-hour game, but on the bright side you have one polished shooter that makes an excellent addition to the Orange Box.
If you don’t feel like shelling out big bucks for the entire Orange Box, Episode 2 is available as a standalone game on Steam as well.We strongly recommend picking up the retail version that’s priced at just Rs 999.
truely a great game and me a big fan of hl2 series recommends a 8 series video card to observe the power of the game engine in episode 2 
