For my money, Half Life 2 is one of the best games ever made. Sure, it was actually entirely linear, keeping you on a narrow winding path, but for the sheer cinematic blockbuster effect it delivered like no other. Furthermore, it transformed throwaway NPCs from the first game into distinct fleshed-out characters that you grew to care about as the game progressed. It's probably the game that's come closest to simulating a cinematic experience, and a good AAA affair at that.

My initial reaction to the news that the follow ups would be by way of episodic content was wariness. Episode 1 didn't completely win me over when it came out as well. It helped push the story forward and develop Freeman's rapport with Alyx, and there were quite a few awesome bits, but too much of the game revolved around running around indoors and taking out zombies and antlions. That's why I wasn't looking forward to Episode 2 with the open-mouthed baited breath that most people felt it deserved. Having now played it through, I can safely say that I was way mistaken.

The story arc covers Freeman and Alyx's escape from City 17 and their journey to rendezvous with the main rebel base at White Forest, starting from when the train from the city crashes mid-journey and the two of you have to pick up and carry on pedestrian-style, fending off the creepy advances of all your familiar freaks - headcrabs, zombies, antlions, the works. I have to say, as far as sidekicks go, Alyx is up there with the best. She's a crack shot, doesn't need babysitting, passes on all the cool weapons to you, has an 8-ft robot for a pet, is duly awed when you do something badass, lets you drive the car, and goes "Yeah!" when you do a hit-and-run on a zombie while dodging mines tossed from a Combine dropship, not "Ohmigod you're crazy! You're going to kill us! Stop the car! Let me OUT!" like most women.

Oh, and when she rides shotgun, she takes it literally. Boom! It figures that you'd have to practially be a messiah reborn like Gordon Freeman to get her to give you the time of day; normal guys don't have a chance. Thank god for the vicarious lifestyle of gaming. Anyway, the developers have kept up their performance breathing life into Alyx from the last two games, and the result is that she's a damn good character overall, and also one that you can trust to cover your six. When she gets taken down, it really hits close to home.

The first part of the game is an indoor tunnel crawl, shooting up the usual beasties, plus a new subspecies called the acidlion (think the venom crab equivalent of the antlion) that can make progress quite painful using its poison-lobbing abilities if you're not nimble enough. It's the usual mix of shooting, puzzle-solving and making last-second spectacular saves from certain death that we've grown accustomed to. The high point here is a siege in an underground bunker where you have to hold off multiple waves of antlion rushes from 4 different entrance points using two other rebels, two sentry guns and your own skills. Intense stuff, and an awesome feeling surviving it.