Half-Life 2: Episode One

Half-Life 2: Episode 1 is a 2006 first-person shooter game by Valve. It is the sequel to Half-Life 2. It is followed by Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

Story

The game starts where Half-Life 2 ended, with the top of the Citadel in City 17 exploding. The Citadel was the headquarters of the evil Combine who rule Earth. The mysterious G-Man freezes time to rescue player character Gordon Freeman and his friend Alyx Vance. However the friendly Vortigaunt aliens are actually the ones to save them, which seems to annoy the G-Man for some unexplained reason.

Gordon wakes up in the rubble outside the Citadel and is rescued by Dog, Alyx’s robot protector. They contact their friends, Alyx’s father Eli and Dr. Kleiner. Kliener figures out that the Citadel reactor is going to explode and Gordon and Alyx need to slow the reaction so the people in City 17 have time to escape. They make their way back into the damaged Citadel to do this, then escape on an underground train. The train crashes and Gordon and Alyx are forced to find their way through a dark, zombie- filled tunnel network to reach the surface. Once there, they must escape through the ruins of City 17 by avoiding Combine troops and zombies. They reach a train station where they evacuate numerous refugees while fending off Combine attacks, and finally must fight a giant living weapon called a strider in the last boss fight. Gordon and Alyx board the last train out of the city just before the Citadel completely explodes. The blast hits their train and the game ends on a cliffhanger.