>>315572101
I'd say horror Jeff episode was great. Allowing player to trip things over, forcing him to gently maneuver around to avoid making noises, those luring mechanics, it all combined up into a very interesting, exciting, and fun level. That's around where Alyx peaks, and it's one level that's (i think) being universally loved.

I agree it wasn't all that 10/10 though. As a flatscreen game, it would probably be rated as a shorter (yet more diverse) HL2EP1, with review ratings circling around 8-9/10. Not bad at all, not great either.

[spoiler]i dislike valve pursuit for polish that resulted in removing lots of very exciting jank you can see in other games. first thing i did after finding a zombie was trying to kill him with a brick, and it felt very wrong to see him being completely unaffected. i understand this decision though, and it stopped being a bother after an hour or two[/spoiler]