6. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 – June 2006
Long ago, Valve had grand plans to release various Half-Life 2 episodes. The idea was that these would be faster and easier to develop. Fast forward to 2021 and we all know how that went. We got two episodes, and it took longer than expected and ended on a cliffhanger. Episode 1 is the first of these two smaller games, set after the events of Half-Life 2. Episode 1 is great, but ends up leaning too heavily on the City 17 visuals, assets, and urban gameplay seen first in HL2. So it doesn’t feel fresh enough and my memories of it blend together with HL2. But even if it’s not as memorable as HL2 or some other Half-Life titles, it’s still a Valve-developed Half-Life game. These things, why they do take time, are rarely bad.
