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Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2 has sold over 4 million copies worldwide, and earned over 35 Game of the Year Awards. Episode One is the first in a series of games that reveal the aftermath of Half-Life 2 and launch a journey beyond City 17. Also features two multiplayer games. Half-Life 2 not required.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
11 of the 66 reviews raise this.
“One of the best classical first-person shooter ever. Everyone knows Counter Strike and they love it so, this pearl has the same system and technology with all the benefits of the single player. In addition, the story is…”
“Half Life 2: Episode One does exactly what the main game should - focus on Alyx Vance. Alyx establishes herself as the true protagonist of HL2 and here we spend virtuality the entire Episode with her by our side. The…”
“This episode is the weakest of the bunch, but still great. The atmosphere is incredible. I love the orangey, ruined City 17. I also love how much more Alyx was expanded upon. In the original Half-Life 2, she was quite…”
8 of the 66 reviews raise this.
“A fine addition to Half Life 2! The first episode is perhaps less iconic than the second, but it would be wrong to discredit it altogether. The story takes off immediately where the base game ended, introducing Alyx as…”
“This game was fun Back in the days.”
“One of the best classical first-person shooter ever. Everyone knows Counter Strike and they love it so, this pearl has the same system and technology with all the benefits of the single player. In addition, the story is…”
5 of the 66 reviews raise this.
“This episode is the weakest of the bunch, but still great. The atmosphere is incredible. I love the orangey, ruined City 17. I also love how much more Alyx was expanded upon. In the original Half-Life 2, she was quite…”
“Amazing, would replay this once I beat the game. Play this if your wanting a challenge, storyline, or just visuals to look at!”
3 of the 66 reviews raise this.
6 of the 66 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“A fine addition to Half Life 2! The first episode is perhaps less iconic than the second, but it would be wrong to discredit it altogether. The story takes off immediately where the base game ended, introducing Alyx as…”
“This episode is the weakest of the bunch, but still great. The atmosphere is incredible. I love the orangey, ruined City 17. I also love how much more Alyx was expanded upon. In the original Half-Life 2, she was quite…”
“A good story game. it's not as long as half life 2.”
4 of the 66 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Wish this game was labelled as a proper ''game'' and not a tool in the library, I would like it to be visible on a steam profile. Nice addition by the way, I hated the ''bring these people'' to safety though, that…”
“This episode is the weakest of the bunch, but still great. The atmosphere is incredible. I love the orangey, ruined City 17. I also love how much more Alyx was expanded upon. In the original Half-Life 2, she was quite…”
Counted across 66 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 95.8% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“Though generally not as highly regarded as Episode 2, I have always been very fond of Episode 1 because of the setting. Running around in the crumbling ruins of City 17, rescuing people while wreaking havoc among the scattered, weakened Combine forces is a really good time.…”
— a player, Steam review · 9 hrs played“Unfortunately not much of a reason to play this since the base game now has all the episodes along with the steam workshop. I would only recommend playing this if you wanna 100% this and get all the achievements.”
— a player, Steam review · 0 hrs played“When Rec Room Shuts Down This Game Will Be 20 Years Old.”
— a player, Steam review · 4 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 11:37 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Half-Life 2: Episode One
An update has been released for Half-Life 2: Episode One - UI and Input support for Steam Deck verification.
Games like Half-Life 2: Episode One
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
96.8% · 20,061 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Episodic, Dystopian, Classic
Half-Life 2
97.4% · 120,362 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Moddable, Dystopian, Classic
Half-Life: Blue Shift
92.4% · 11,274 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Moddable, Classic, Short
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
89.7% · 6,962 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Dystopian, Classic, Short
Half-Life: Opposing Force
95.2% · 15,096 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Moddable, Classic, Aliens
Half-Life
96.5% · 77,975 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Moddable, Classic, Aliens
Crysis
78.6% · 5,839 reviews
shares Moddable, Classic, Aliens, Great Soundtrack
Black Mesa
94.9% · 74,744 reviews
shares Classic, Aliens, Zombies, Great Soundtrack
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Action |
| Player tags | FPS · Action · Sci-fi · Singleplayer · Story Rich · First-Person · Shooter · Classic · Dystopian · Aliens · Zombies · Adventure (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Captions available · Camera Comfort · Custom Volume Controls · Adjustable Difficulty · Playable without Timed Input |
| Languages | English * , French * , German * , Italian * , Korean * , Spanish - Spain * , Russian * , Simplified Chinese * , Traditional Chinese * , Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Swedish,… |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 13 |
| Estimated owners | 5,000,000 – 10,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://ep1.half-life2.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8.1 level Graphics Card (Requires support for SSE), Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection