Not as good as the first Half Life 2, and is quite short. But--it has an important part of the story clinging onto it. Still pretty good.

One thing you should know before you dive into Episode One, is that if you have not played the original Half life 2, you will be very very lost. This game plays just like a continuation of the story in the original, and to say the least, is amazing. It takes all the intensity and creativity of the HL2 and kicks it to high gear. It may go by quick, but it might just be the most exhilirating 4 hours of gaming I've ever had. Content wize, it has the same amount of violence as the original. Blood splaters when someone is shot, disfigured zombies roam in the dark, and youll come across the occasional dead-guy-with-messed-up-face. Still, this game is no where near the violence of other M games like Resident Evil 4, FEAR, or Doom 3. But what this game does have that those do not, is an overwhelming sense of doom and dread. The visuals here may disturb even though they are not particularly violent. The characters are well-developed and add a sense of humanity to the game. Other then that there are a few dirty words (nothing beyond a few s-words). On a good note, there are strong female and minority characters and the puzzles require some high critical thinking and logic skills. Play away my fellow gamers, here is one true work of art!

This was much shorter than Half-Life 2 (obviously), but it was still a much better play. Again, no puzzles, but not as much violence. There's still too much running, shooting, and killing.

great series, and great game. the violence is moderate, blood does splatter, but it is unrealistic. the swearing is relatively toned downb for an m-rated game, just sh*t, h*ll, b*tch, no f-bombs at all. the great story line details alyx vance and gordon freeman trying to delay a massive reactor from exploding long enough for the just-liberated citizens of city 17 to escape into the surrounding wilderness. alyx is a very nice and caring person, and while gordon never talks, he IS a quantum physicist. this is a really fun game for mature tweens to adults, but <10 year olds shouldn't play it.

what would you do if you were under attack by aliens and they wanted to kill your children and turn you into a mindless soldier? violence would be the only way out of that situation.