Half-Life

The Good
This is one of the most amazing games that can get you so engrossed into it, that you forget its a game. The engine and gameplay was so unique for 1998. The way you could interact with other characters and witness cool events in realtime made it feel like a movie. The graphics were really good to back up the gameplay, you could hardly tell it was made from the Quake 2 engine. Valve really modified the engine and made it good. The movements and characteristics of the enemies were really cool. The sound and lightning of the game made it downright scary. Even more incredible was the online multi player and the ease of custom and mods which lead to another classic..Counter-Strike!

The Bad
It's a pretty hard game, especially in the latter levels when the army comes after you. Apart from that, the AI for the NPC characters is a little weak sometimes but still pretty good considering when the game was made.

The Bottom Line
If you love FPS games or Horror or just PC games in general, you must play this once and see what made it so special. Once you see the intro, which is one of the best of all time, you will get hooked.

The Good
Half-Life was for a long time one of the best FPS games in the world and maybe it's still the number one. The Valve studios made one of the most shocking games using a genre which was a little bit stocked, only unreal was on a par with the game. The game has no important new features regarding other competitors of the same genre, it's just a FPS, with weapons (human and alien weapons), enemies (humans and aliens too), and no puzzles, just go on and kill everything that's trying to kill you and you'll finish the game. The story is more of the same, aliens on Earth and soldiers trying to kill the survivors to mask the truth.

Then, why is this game so important? It's because of its essence, it has a great story, something special is behind everything. Gordon Freeman is a perfect character, and he doesn't even speak! How is it possible? That's the essence I'm talking about. Lovecraft could be proud of this game, we have gates from another dimension, monsters coming from there and everything's because of human's mistake. Ted Backman designed the monsters and he really did a brilliant work, the aliens will not give you a fright, but they're disgusting (specially the crabs) and repulsive. There are many enemies and the game isn't repetitive.

Some survivors will help you along the way, security members will go with you killing enemies with their guns (they'll die soon, it's really difficult to protect them and they will be more like a bait to you) and scientists will heal you and can't fight. They can also open closed doors along the game (something like secret areas with extra ammo and med-kits) and that's why you should keep them alive as far as you can.

There's an enigmatic and deep story behind the game, you'll see a man with a briefcase during the entire game, talking with scientists and observing what you do from the distance. You can't reach him or shoot him and you won't know what's happening 'till you finish the game. When you play the game for the first time you'll notice him sometimes, but it's a good choice to start the game again and look for him (now that you know who he is).

The game has three difficult levels, and they're not really hard, they aren't impossible, so, if you've played many FPS try the hard level because it's difficult but not frustrating. There are many weapons and many-kits and when you know how to deal with all your enemies you'll finish the game with no problems (anyway you'll die many times).

The Bad
There are some things that are not as good as it should. The game has two important parts: Fighting against soldiers - Fighting against aliens. There are some parts in which both of them will try to kill you, but not so many, that's why sometimes maybe you'll be a little bored of killing soldiers/aliens and you'll miss the other enemies.

About gameplay, the design of the shark is poor comparing with the other enemies and fighting with it is not a comfortable experience. The survivors that will help you along the way are really stupid, they have a poor AI and they will stop walking leaving you alone. You'll have to come back to make them follow you and not walking so fast to avoid this thing, furthermore, they're not useful as a fellow team member.

Music's not good and this game deserves something better. There's only music in some parts of the game, and it doesn't suit with it. It sounds strange and out of place. It's the only important bad thing of the game (well, better to have this bad things instead of other important things like gameplay, right?). The FX is good, and the dialogues (maybe I should say "monologue" because Freeman doesn't talk and he just listen to what the others say) are adequate.

The Bottom Line
Half Life is something more than a FPS game. If you like the FPS genre you'll notice that since the beginning. The atmosphere, the characters, the enemies,the main story... Everything has something special. It's a really pleasure to play a game which you know that will make history since the beginning... and it's not overestimated.

The Good
Half-Life is remarkable, both from the technological aspect and the design aspect. It has a REAL story line, and as the plot unfolds, you will slowly put together what happened in the Black Mesa Research Facility. The story line is linear, but it is still a VAST improvement over its predecessors (except Unreal, of course). The engaging story line is the reason one keeps going, and although the game is divided to levels, it feels more like chapters in a book then levels in a game.

The graphics are very good and the engine is quite fast. Although the game uses a modified version of the Quake 2 engine, it looks nothing like it. Clever use of pre-rendered shadows, pre-lighted textures, and wise modeling, helps to created the most realistic looking scenes ever in a real time 3D game. Everything looks, feels and reacts real.

The AI is unprecedented. The enemies you generally face are not tough. They are clever. Very clever. The marines, particularly, are amazing. The act as a group, covering each others back, taking cover and always moving, changing their position to better get their target - you. They will never: blindly charge you, get in each other's line of fire or stay in one place, waiting for you to finish them off. They will: run from cover to cover, retreat to a better position, and throw a grenade at you before charging at you. They move, act and fight so much like real marines, that I won't be surprised to find that the developers consulted actual marines, or at least had some knowledge and experience in combat in an urban environment. It is obvious that without the power suit, which protect you, you won't last 20 seconds against even one squad of marines. The same, although to a lesser extent, applies to the aliens in the game. They too will act as a group, run away if necessary, and come at you when you least expect it. I sometimes load save games simply to experience the feel of fighting these marines, trying out various ways to trap them, or pick them off one by one.

The level design is clever and varied. The levels are realistic: the labs look like labs, and contain a lot of equipment, offices, and elevators. The security stations contain weapons lockers, sandbags, barricades and many trigger-happy guards. The missile silo contains blast doors, sophisticated panels and a giant alien beast, which you can't kill, so you will have to find another way to move around it. In fact, the levels are GOAL oriented and not kill oriented. You job is not to kill everything in sight, but simply to get from one place to another,or restore the power to certain areas and so on. There will be some obstacles which you can't kill, and you will have to use your wits to go around. All this makes for an extremely addictive game - and I couldn't leave it until I finished it.

The sound effects are of exceptional quality, even for a 3D shooter. And if you have a 3D capable sound card - you will find that the 3D sound makes for a completely immersive environment, and you can actually rely on it in combat.

All these things make Half-Life the best 3D shooter I have ever played, and the only one I didn't get tired of after a few levels.

The Bad
No game is perfect, and there are always a few snags:

• The plot is interesting, though it is not overly original. But the real problem is the ending, which is very unsatisfying, and is a very big disappointment.
• There are some very small parts of the game, which I think should have been kept out of it. For example, there is a section where you simply jump from platform to platform, and if you fall, you die. It is very annoying, since the game interface, although perfect for a 3D shooter, is a very bad choice for a platform game.
• The save game mechanism is horrible - since you can't actually write a description for your game. It simply gives you the place, and the time the game was saved. This is a REAL problem when two people play the game on the same computer…

The Bottom Line
This game is still one of the best of its kind: smart enemies, clever design and immersive and challenging gameplay. What more could you want?