Weapons

The first episode only features four weapons: the Magnum, a pistol that holds 20 shots that features an laser site with alt fire; the Shotgun with bouncing bullets for its secondary fire; the assault riffle with a zoom scope and grenades.

The recoil on the assault rifle is closer to Counter-Strike than Half Life 2. The recoil pulls the weapon up rather than randomly spraying an area. A three round burst is pretty easy to pull off, but anything more you will have to start moving your mouse to compensate.

Enemy / A.I.

The enemy, for the most part, is what I would expect from a fast pace FPS. They would make use of cover and even flank as a team from time to time. Good level design kept the AI from being to important of a factor like most games. They did not get stuck hiding or just swarm you like Painkiller. The enemies kept coming at a nice pace. I did get a nice surprise when hiding on top of a platform, taking pot shots at some mutants on the ground when one jumped way up to where I was and started attacking me. At some points enemies would spawn right beside me, so the spawn system for enemies was not perfect.

You also have a sidekick from time to time. For the most part, she spent so much time trying to stand by you that she often ended up watching me fight and not helping. See guys never trust a red head.

Graphics

The amazing thing about this game is how smooth is runs on my system compared to how Half Life 2 did when it was first released. The Source engine has come a long way. The whole package looks great from buildings to player models.

Sound

Sound is top notch, if even borrowed a bit from Half Life 2. That is not a bad thing really. Explosions rattled my windows and that is all I am asking for from a game.One of the interesting uses of sound is when your low on ammo a little chirp sounds to warn you.

Extras

Ritual likes to put little things in the game to reward people who look hard enough. Funny newspaper clippings to Easter eggs can keep you entertained enough but they have gone the extra mile by adding a mini game called Whack a Grunt. Just enable console and type Map SE1_U4Lab05. You will get a shotgun and a pistol to shoot 150 grunts as they are thrown into the air for target practice.