HL2: EpTwo stats digested

By Tom Bramwell Published 19 November, 2007

Are we there yet?

We all had fun pouring ourselves over the new Steam hardware survey results last week, but accompanying those were also some Steam stats for Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

Looking back at the equivalent Episode One stats, average total playtime was 4 hours, 1 minute, with average completion time at 5 hours, 36 minutes. 38.82 per cent of people completed the game, although Valve notes that over 50 per cent reached the final map, and suggests that people were quitting before the credits or that there is a bug in how they collected the data.

So how does Episode Two stack up? On the surface of it, not all that differently. Average total playtime is up, but only to 4 hours, 45 minutes, while average completion time is now 6 hours, 12 minutes. The Episode Two stats page doesn't specifically list a completion percentage, but if you check the Achivements monitoring page, some of the Achievements associated with acts at the very end of the game have been unlocked by over 50 per cent of the Steam player-base who have played Episode Two.

So, maybe not what Valve was hoping to hear? It depends how you look at it. Probably the most important detail missing is that we're still only just over a month into the game's life, whereas the Episode One stats page covers a period between 6th June 2006 and this morning. A better comparison, then, would be the stats people first observed on 26th June 2006, at which point the average playtime was just under three hours, with average completion time just over five.

Assuming that a lot of the people who have completed Episode Two on the PC in its first month on sale are hardcore fans of the series, then it seems safer to compare their feats to the early-days stats from Episode One, and to assume that people who come to it slightly later will either take more time or spend more time over it. The early adopter comparison would suggest that Episode Two takes over an hour longer and that most have got an hour and a half more out of it.

What's more, PS3 and Xbox 360 stats are not reflected, and it would be interesting to see how many less fussy Valve fans chose to take home the latter version a couple of days later rather than sitting there at 8am on the morning of the Steam unlock chomping at the bit.

The Episode Two stats page also includes some highly sexual graphs and "death maps", which note where people usually died. You can also observe, as with the Steam hardware survey, who was using which version of DirectX, and which difficulty level people opted for - with over 70 per cent playing through the game on Medium, and just under 18 per cent playing on Easy.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bdc #1 4 years ago

    Not as good as Halo then ?

  • jiveguy #2 4 years ago

    Hmm, both of these came tagged on to the orange box when I bought it. Played Ep 1 for a while...

  • tonynibbles #3 4 years ago

    Completed it yesterday!

    Great game.

  • ChrisOTR #4 4 years ago

    Yeah, especially the ending fight bit. Won't ruin it here for non-finishers though.

  • Paukl #5 4 years ago

    Picked up The Orange Box for the 360, and got a bit bored in Ravenholm and haven't gone back to it for a couple of weeks. I was really enjoying it, but that level is a bit of a slog.

    Halo and Pro Evo are just too damn addictive :(

  • m0thr4 #6 4 years ago

    The stats on completion time are relatively meaningless as they don't take into account the difficulty setting used.

  • sharpfish #7 4 years ago

    @ Paukl... HL2 the proper game isn't actually as good as Episode 2 was. I understand you getting burned out on the whole lot but EP2 is worth it, it's more advanced, exciting and compelling to play than the original HL2 ever was. :)

    So... whatever you do make sure you play EP2!

    Mind you, I won't play them again now i've played Crysis, every other game feels 'dead' somehow.

  • m0thr4 #8 4 years ago

    @Paukl

    Yeah, I did the same when HL2 came out on the PC and never went back to it. In the Ravenholm level the pace of the game drops, there's too much fiddly platforming, not enough shooting action and the environments are too confined.

    Having worked past that bit on the 360 (I'm on the last level of the first game) I can tell you that you are in the most tedious part of the game. Once you're out of Ravenholm it gets much better... honest!
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/07 @ 11:24

  • Fyzzu #9 4 years ago

    "Poring" over, as opposed to "pouring" over, surely? Although I'm not sure "poring ourselves" works in that context, so I give up.

    Interesting read though.

  • Gaol #10 4 years ago

    My favourite fps this year, and thats saying a lot this time around. Really satisfying climax, unlike previous installments; and well paced throughout. After you get the buggy it just gets better and better.

  • SeesThroughAll #11 4 years ago

    Garden Gnomes FTW!

  • Killerbee #12 4 years ago

    Interesting.

    I'm yet to pick up the Orange Box - it's on my Xmas list - but I'm pretty sure I'll complete Ep. Two eventually.

    The other contrast you've got to bear in mind is that Ep One was a stand alone title. How many people will have picked up Orange Box and still be plugging away at HL2 or Ep. One (assuming the play in chronological order)? That's actually quite a lot of gaming time before you get to the "new" stuff, so really I don't think Valve need to be disappointed by these stats at all. Give them a few more months and then we should have a fairer comparison.

  • gelf #13 4 years ago

    The fact that only 80% have the Acid Reflex Achievement says to me a lot of people haven't bothered to start playing it properly yet. And I'm proud to be part of 1.1% to have taken that damn gnome all the way.

    Also am I the only one who enjoyed Ravenholm?

  • skillian #14 4 years ago

    Certainly not, I thought Ravenholm was the most fun part of HL2. Who doesn't like setting zombies on fire?

    I think if you enjoy/are good with the gravity gun, then Ravenholm is great, otherwise the lack of traditional ammo can make it a bit of a slog.

  • gelf #15 4 years ago

    Yeah that's a good point, I think I found it a bit of a slog on my first play through, albeit an enjoyable one. Using the gravity gun properly when playing it again was much better.

    That reminds me that the one problem I have with the episodes is the weaponry, you tend to get them all at once rather then staggered through the game like in HL1&2. Which means I'm using my favored shotgun 80% of the time unless I consciously decide to make it a different experience by changing to a lesser weapon.
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/07 @ 14:40

  • tedster11 #16 4 years ago

    I am in the top hard core of mega bastards, opting for the 'hard' setting from the off.

    WOOF!

    Come get some I'm a machine. YES.

  • hbunny #17 4 years ago

    I enjoyed the Ravenholm level in the original HL2 - great atmosphere with the night, zombies and flames from the exploding gas cylinders. Ooh, and the circular chainsaw discs - they're great.

  • Hypercube #18 4 years ago

    I loved Ravenholm. The bonkers Eastern Bloc vicar was comedy gold!

    I completed Ep 2 within 3 days of starting it, but I did Portal first.

    And to gelf - you really launched the gnome? Kudos to you! I'd already gone way past it when I found that there was an achievement for firing the smug looking little git into space :( I may replay it some day to try and get that one done.

    Edit: Incidentally, for all you HL2 first timers, once you've completed the game you should read this brilliant web comic: http://www.hlcomic.com/ Althought the 'old timers' probably already know about it! :)
    Edited by 3 at 20/11/07 @ 10:04

  • gelf #19 4 years ago

    I did indeed get the gnome achievement, because I am obviously quite insane. Still haven't got the bug squashing one though and I don't think I'll bother for a while if a all. At least with the gnome I always knew I was on track but with the other I could have missed a bug at the start and be non the wiser until I got past the cave levels.