Half-Life 2, Episode 2, Episode 1. Half-Life 2 was epic really, it added a lot of story elements and added the most new things into a video game then the other two did, even though they were awesome as well. It added everything into the series at a nice pace, never left you bored, and was long enough to keep you occupied for a long time. It’s the way alien technology is inserted the landscape, the use of color, the sounds, the moments of quiet offer a chance to reflect on what happened before. HL2 set out to do specific things very well. It was never intented to be an exploration game or have a loot system. In this way, you can treat the episodes as fun side-stories. Secondly, regard the Half-Life story is in the grand scheme; it's functional, subservient to the game play, and not really a well-thought-out masterpiece. Half-Life is praised for its game play and the micro-story telling that emerges from its carefully crafted environments. Which means that you can play Half life 2 without this episodic pack, but you have to buy it separately, unless you already did by buying Orange box or Valve Complete pack or similar pack containing HL2 with its episodic expansion pack. #4. Icaka a Jul 5, 2019 @ 4:16pm. Originally posted by Reginald CZ: A goggles-based reimplementation of the first game in the Half-Life 2 Episodes trilogy (any day now!), the VR mod for HL2 Episode 1 is a "community-made adaptation of Valve's episodic continuation The Half-Life and Portal universe, also known as the Half-Life universe or the Portal universe, is a science fiction universe created by Valve Corporation in 1998, with the release of the video game Half-Life on the PC platform. It is told through five related story arcs, each stemming from a game: Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life: Alyx, Portal, and Portal 2. Half-Life has spawned since then To be fair, Half-Life 2 was the best looking game ever made in 2004. The Source engine introduced advanced gameplay never seen before, you can't say that about any other game at the time. Character animation, narrative, smooth gameplay, lip-sync, realistic physics, engaging story and incredible graphics at the time. They can just end Gordon's story and the whole phase of half life being human resistance in earth against the combine, kinda like half life 1 went from black mesa to the resistance story. Or they could stop the combine and leave the story in a world where humanity is still fighting the combine in the ruins of earth. qGWxN.