A rippling explosion was just moments away from devouring both you and Alyx. You’d done critical damage to the dark fusion reactor in an attempt to thwart Dr. Breen’s escape from Earth, gone against his dire warnings “You don’t know what you’ll unleash” and delivered the final blow to the Combine Citadel. The portal array was collapsing, the reactor was exploding, you’d never make it – but your perception of time was lost, and again you were taken away from the unfolding events of the world, lost and confused…

What is the Gmans agenda? What happened to Alyx? Eli? Mossman? City 17?


All these questions however, are soon to be answered. Valve has released the first of three episodes continuing the Half-Life 2 storyline. The first of which has been aptly named 'Episode One' previously known as the codename 'Aftermath'. Why episodic? Why not just go straight onto HL3, or simple expansions? Robin Walker explains "Right now, we're really, really good at making Half Life 2. We think our customers want a lot more of Half Life 2. That's what we're going to give them. But we'd just got comfortable with all our tools and what we could do. That's normally the point in which we'd go off and make new tools - we didn't want to do that."

Valve is focusing on specific elements in each upcoming episode, such as vehicles, or AI. For Episode 1, it's Alyx, and how she interacts with the player in the game world.

Valve has gone to a great deal of effort to introduce interesting and imaginative new ways of interacting with her, and how she aids your progress throughout the game. Alyx can interact with the player in a number of ways, such as re programming roller mines to attack the enemy, and using a much more varied range of weaponry to take on the Combine. "We really want Alyx to grow as a character, there was the promise of that in the first game, but we spent so much of our time introducing her as a character, we didn't really get a chance to spend time with her for an entire section. She would flit in and out. Since she's with you quite a lot, we're working on ways to make her a lot more interesting to be around, a lot more interesting to interact with." Alyx will accompany you throughout the entire episode.

Episode 1 picks up exactly where Half-Life 2 left off. Scientist and resistance fighter Gordon Freeman had successfully de stabilized the Combine Citadels Dark Fusion reactor, leaving energy seeping out of the collapsing portal array. But Gordon's perception of time was lost as the reactor began to pulse, crackle and detonate - a massive explosion rippling outward. Freeman had served his purpose and was plucked from the tip of the Citadel by the G-Man, once again left lost and confused, worried for his friends. Robin Walker explains, "At this phase of the story the G-Man loses control over you and you begin to work for yourself". (Yes, you play as Gordon).

And from this you and Alyx begin the exodus from City 17. "You've done critical damage to the Citadel. The whole place is going to go up, taking out City 17 and what's in its immediate radius. You and Alyx are leading the flight from the city getting up close and personal with some of the creatures and sights from the end of the game".

However, you haven't quite stopped the Combines presence on Earth yet. Most displeased with Breen's failure to deal with Freeman and the resistance, they are beginning to take things into their own hands...

With the Citadel in such a state the barriers surrounding the City have given way to the alien infested wastelands of Earth, and countless aliens, such as the Antlions, which were previously blocked from the city, are pouring in. You'll also face a few new enemies along the way, namely the Zombine - a zombified Combine soldier.

Episode 1 is a standalone game and does not require Half-Life 2 to play. It is also part of Valve's 'Orange Box' available now on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.