I played through 2 just now, it seems like what I thought was 1 and 2 was 2, and 1 is what I thought the ending to the original was. Kinda confusing. 2 is much more enjoyable this time around, though, and I have to agree, it's the better episode by far.
I miss controlling ant-lions, though. That was one of the best things about the original game, attacking that fort with fucking monster-bugs, wrecking everything. good times. Overall, the fun-ness of the games ranks the original above ep. 2, and ep. 2 above ep. 1.
What do you guys think will be in ep. 3? I know that Freeman is bound for that ship, but will the game teleport us back to Xen, or something like that? What made episode 2 so much better than 1 was in big part the new kinds of enemies - that's always a big plus. Episode 1 had zombies and combine, and that was kind of old news. I want to see some teleporting headcrabs based on aperture science-tech, or maybe a new treck through the low-gravity fields of Xen. Or maybe a ride to the combine homeworld. Pretty much anything else than just room-to-room fights on a boat filled with combine elite troops, or another ride with the über-gravity gun. That was a cool mechanic the first time around. I want something fresh. And they've had more than enough time to make something fresh, dammit!