Half-Life

aka: Bantiao Ming, HL, Hλlf-Life, Quiver

Moby ID: 155

Released

November 1998 on Windows

Credits

80 people

Releases by Date (by platform)

Publishers

Developers

Valve L.L.C.

Moby Score

8.7

#134 of 24.2K

Critics

94% (59)

Players

(537)

Review Ranking

#28 on Windows

Collected By

1057 players

Genre: Action
Perspective: 1st-person
Gameplay: Shooter
Interface: Direct control
Setting: North America
Sci-fi / futuristic
Misc: Regional differences

Windows Specs

ESRB Rating: Mature

Business Model: Commercial
Media Type: CD-ROM, Download
Input Devices Supported/Optional: Keyboard, Mouse, Other Input Devices
Multiplayer Options: Internet, LAN
Number of Offline Players: 1 Player
Number of Online Players: 32 Players

Buy on Windows

$99.00 used on eBay
$9.99 new on Steam

Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 4/16 12:48 AM )

Add-on (official)

Add-on (unofficial)

Half-Time: Die Level-CD für Half-Life (1999)
Life/2 (2001)

Conversion (official)

Conversion (unofficial)

Black Mesa (2012)
Black Mesa (2015)

Included in

Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition (1999)
Valve Complete Pack (2008)

See Also

Half-Life (2001 on PlayStation 2)

Description official descriptions

The Black Mesa Research Facility is an ultra-secret laboratory under a government contract to conduct top-secret and extremely volatile experiments. The scientist Gordon Freeman is a Black Mesa employee. One morning, as usual, he pits his way to the research facility for a run-of-the-mill experiment. However, Gordon comes to realize that it might not be as ordinary as he thought. Odd things happen as he makes his way to one of the Black Mesa test chambers. Even stranger things happen when he begins to move the test sample towards the anti-mass spectrometer.

At that moment, everything goes horribly wrong. Aliens from the dimension Xen suddenly invade the facility, injuring or killing many of the employees. Soon afterwards, marines arrive to contain the situation by killing the aliens as well as the surviving human witnesses. Gordon understands what that means: he will have to fight his way through both aliens and marines to get to the top of the Black Mesa complex and to freedom.

The story of Half-Life is told entirely in-game: everything is seen through the eyes of the protagonist. Most story elements unfold via scripted sequences, triggered by the player reaching a certain area. If other characters have information to reveal, they address Gordon directly. The Black Mesa complex in the game is made up of both distinct levels which progress in a linear fashion as well as hubs where backtracking may be required to unlock further areas.

The game's weapon arsenal mostly consists of realistic weapons like pistols, machine guns and explosives, but there are also futuristic energy weapons developed at Black Mesa as well as organic weapons acquired from the invading aliens. Most weapons feature an alternate firing mode.

Enemies fall into two categories: aliens and human soldiers. While most of the aliens are not very bright, the humans display some relatively advanced artificial intelligence: they seek cover, retreat when hit and try to drive the player from his cover by throwing grenades. Some of the alien enemies cannot be killed by normal means. The environment must be used against them instead, going with a general tendency of the game to alternate the combat with environmental puzzles.

As of the 25th Anniversary Update from 17 November 2023, the Steam version of Half-Life includes content from Half-Life: Uplink as well as sprays and maps from Half-Life: Further Data V.1.

Spellings

半条命 - Simplified Chinese spelling
戰慄時空 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

80 People (58 developers, 22 thanks) · View all

Engine Programmer	John Carmack Michael Abrash John Cash
Engine Tools Programmer	John Romero John Carmack
The Half-Life Team	Ted Backman T.K. Backman Kelly Bailey Yahn Bernier Ken Birdwell Steve Bond Dario Casali John Cook Greg Coomer Wesley Cumberland John Guthrie Mona Lisa Guthrie Mike Harrington Monica Harrington Brett Johnson Chuck Jones Marc Laidlaw Karen Laur Randy Lundeen Yatsze Mark (credited as Yatzse Mark)
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 94% (based on 59 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.3 out of 5 (based on 537 ratings with 30 reviews)

I hated it before, but saw the light.

The Good
I earlier posted a review of this game which trashed it and made it seem like the worst game in the world. That was when I wasn't very good at games. That was when I needed god mode just to get past a simple challenge. I've changed my mind. Now that I have the skills, I've played it again, and it's remarkably different. I previously hated the jumping puzzles, but for a skilled player (which I am now) they aren't such a drag. Most of the game is, in fact, action rather than jumping. While some moments are frustrating, the puzzles can be navigated easily and get you back into the action. The marine AI isn't as impressive as it was back in 1998, but it's still great. The story immerses you in a great way. It never takes you away from your first-person perspective. You don't connect with Gordon Freeman, you ARE Gordon Freeman. The G-Man (that idiot with the briefcase) isn't just the bad guy, you genuinely hate him. Barney isn't just helping you get through the game, he's your friend, you care about him, and you feel sadness when aliens or marines kill him. The cliffhanger ending appropriately gets you excited for Half-Life 2. It makes you wonder about what is to become of Gordon, even with the details already released by Valve on the sequel.

The Bad
Some puzzles are frustrating. One in particular is a large puddle you have to cross to get to some electrical equipment. Little do you know that once you turn the power on the puddle will be electrified. Okay, maybe you've guessed, but you have to be really clever to set up a bridge of boxes across it before turning on the juice. You can do that after the puddle's electrified, but it's really hard to do. Also, monster AI (not marine) is dumbed down a little too much. Sure, lower alien life forms are done, but wouldn't a bullsquid be smart enough to at least run away when you shoot it? Also, a little more music would be nice, especially in the On A Rail chapter. That's the most boring chapter of the game and I would've liked to listen to some tunes.

The Bottom Line
I once thought of this as the most frustrating and disappointing game I've ever played. Now, however, I've seen it for what it truly is. This is a classic, and I can't wait for the sequel (and the sequel after that, and the next one, and the next one...)

Windows · by Zack Green (1162) · 2003

Mysterious and unique FPS experience

The Good
Half-Life's main strength lies in its atmosphere and overall approach. The game is a highly immersive experience that combines a dark, gritty feel with intense yet realistic action. These aspects are also aided by the fragmentized, purposefully vague storytelling which adds a really strong element of mystery.

The level design is also good, with that classic Doom philosophy of non-linear maze-like maps adapted by Valve to realistic, functional locations.

The Bad
The only real problem with Half-Life's design is overreliance on platforming, which can be rather annoying.

Surprisingly, another weak point is the game's gunplay. It feels like, in its quest for realism, Half-Life lost the simple yet powerful joy of mowing down enemies with a clearly overpowered shotgun and experimenting with futuristic guns found in earlier sci-fi FPS games. But because the overall experience is so immersive and interesting, the unsatisfying combat is just a minor flaw.

The Bottom Line
While Half-Life's revolutionary significance might be overstated if you consider Quake II's objective-oriented mission structure and Unreal's detailed environmental storytelling (let alone System Shock which did it all several years earlier), it's still a really good game that provides a unique experience you won't forget. 7/10

Windows · by Pegarange (296) · 2023

Hello Anyone??? Did you actually played this junk???

The Good
OK, I am a late bloomer, I know it. So after about 7 years that I have the Game of the year edition of Half Life, I decided to see what the hype is all about.

I don't mind games with past graphics, what I really like about a game is a story and a good design that let me blend in the game world effortlessly.

With Half Life what I liked is the promise of a great story and great setting. The good stuff is here.

Also, the scripted events are cool and add to the atmosphere of the game.

OK, that is about it, But Half Life is like a cake that looks great from a distance and turns out to be plastic when you get closer...

The Bad
For some reason everything that I am about to say has already been said in the past but people chose to ignore it when they gave the game the final scoring. So here is the full list:

Design: Really sucks. This is a FSP, not an adventure game where you have to guess what you need to do next or what valve needs to be opened. It is not Tomb Raider where you have to jump from platform to platform. At times I had to reload 15 times to go past one of those jumping puzzles. Totally out of place.

AI: I guess for 1998 it was great, but by today's games, the AI sucks.

Weapons: Not cool, you have a crowbar, a pistol, machine gun, and some other not very exciting weapons. I have completed 40% of the game and no weapon was really cool.

Monsters: Stupid and not scary at all. Take the zombies for example, they walk slow and simply try to get to you so you should them and they are gone. Or the crab head. Totally annoying. Compare it to Doom's monsters and you get my point. I recently re-played Doom and it was 1000% more fun than this crap.

Bugs: Yes, annoying bugs that prevent you from finishing. Like the one that does not let you leave an elevator and then kills you since you can not move.

I could go on and on. But this game feels half baked and with lots of bugs. I am puzzled what all the hype was about.

The Bottom Line
Life is too short to waste on this crap, go spend time with you family or better still with Halo.

Windows · by The Gay Elf (12) · 2006

[ View all 30 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject	By	Date
Narrative, wait what?	Donatello (466)	Jul 15, 2012
Sorry, Valve	xroox (3895)	Feb 12, 2009

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Half-Life appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Very early beta footage of the game, as well as interviews with some of the programmers, is available on the Diablo expansion pack Hellfire, released by Sierra a full year before the game ever shipped. Sierra already had advertisements for Half-Life in many of their products back then.

Cancelled ports

Half-Life, at one point, was completely finished for the Dreamcast console. Prima (the Official Strategy Guide folks) even had a Dreamcast-exclusive guide published. Unfortunately, the game wasn't published - probably due to the fact that SEGA announced that they would no longer produce new Dreamcasts. In certain circles of the Internet, a leaked copy can still be found and ran on a Dreamcast.
A Macintosh port was in the works from Westlake interactive and reached beta before being cancelled because of concerns about responsibility for tech support.

Development

In its first finalized form, as it would have been published if the original release date was kept, Half-Life was nothing more than a total conversion of Quake with new enemies and levels. In the one additional year spent on development the game transformed into the form that led it to critical and commercial success.

Engine

Half-Life was released a full year after Quake II and it's a common belief that it was based on the Quake II engine. This is not true. It is based on the original Quake engine and it's more than fair to say that it was modified beyond recognition by the Valve team. Amongst the additions were built-in 3D accelerator support, skeletal systems and shadow casting (the latter didn't make it into the game). Valve now refers to this engine as "GoldSrc". This is probably how the "Source" engine from Half-Life 2 got its name.

German version

There is a special German version which features robots as enemies, green blood instead of red and innocent people cannot be killed any longer. The robot design was outlined by Sierra's Germany division, then sent to Valve in Seattle, where the artists created and implemented the tin soldiers. The changes in the game's code and art, together with the text and speech localization, served to delay the German version by full four months. By then, even casual gamers had already purchased the original version, which was freely for sale up to its ban. However, Half-Life proved to be so immensely popular that the German robo-version still sold over 50,000 copies, so the venture was ultimately successful for Sierra.

On December 16, 1998, the US version of Half-Life was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games.

Gina Freeman

Apparently, Valve had written a part for Gordon's wife, Gina, to appear in the game, this idea got scrapped but she still made it to the game, her model was the one used for the holographic trainer.

id Software

When id Software saw what Valve was doing with their engine, they were reminded of their original idea for a seamless, story-based DOOM and thought it would fail. It didn't.

Innovations

Half-Life was influential in many little ways, popularising several gameplay devices which have subsequently become standards, such as: * The between-episode text which appears, overlaid on the screen, before slowly fading out (adopted not just in other computer games, but in several different Linux windowing systems too) * A training segment which is presented as an integral part of the storyline * The practice of rendering cut-scenes with the in-game engine * Blood-splatters and other persistent stains * Semi-random NPC speech and 'interaction' in an otherwise straightforward action game * Weaponry which needs to be manually reloaded between magazine changes * Constant playflow: the levels directly connect to each other

Inspiration

According to Valve's Gabe Newell, originally Half-Life was inspired by Stephen King's novella The Mist. However the game evolved so much from the preliminary concepts that the only things that remained were the horror/technology combination and the designs for the Bull Squid and the blind tentacle.

Lambda

Half-Life's lambda symbol is not the scientific symbol for half-life, but is instead the decay constant in the differential equation for exponential decay. The actual scientific symbol used for half-life is t1/2.

Mods

Counter-Strike was not a freak occurrence. Valve made the game editor immediately available, produced the mod Team Fortress Classic as an example of a finished mod, and also sponsored "Mod Expos", events where modders could present their work to other gamers and the press.

Plot

According to planethalflife.com: "the material that makes up the three green triangles protecting Nihilanth is the same as the crystal sample which you pushed into the beams to start this whole mess in the first place. Valve Software originally intended to make this connection more obvious but never did."

References

The security office is in sector 7G. Homer Simpson works in a sector with the same name.
The Gluon Gun was nicknamed "The Egon" after the Ghostbusters Character Egon Spengler. The Gluon gun projects a plasma stream similar to the ones used by the Ghostbusters.
The surnames on the lockers where Gordon goes to collect his HEV suit are of people from the development team. Gordon also has a book by Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw in his locker.

References to the game

The game makes an appearance in season 1, episode 22 of Lost, a popular TV series. Some in-game action is shown, and the characters shortly discuss the use and the effectiveness of the crowbar as a weapon.

Remakes

In 2004, Valve released a re-mastered version using Half Life 2's Source engine, called Half-Life: Source.
In 2012, a group of fans released a remake of their own, called Black Mesa. The team's goal was to provide a completely new and more modern version of the original experience, since according to them, Valve's remake "didn't fully live up to the potential of a Source engine port of Half-Life". In fact, most of the game's content remained unchanged: Half-Life: Source mainly added new water and physics effects, but didn't upgrade the game's textures or character models.

Sales

As of 2007, the game sold of over eight million since its release. (source)

Shotgun

There's a minor technical error with the shotgun. It's presented in the game as a double-barreled weapon, and the alternative fire mode shoots two shells at half the speed. However, the shotgun is modeled on a single-barreled weapon, the popular Franchi SPAS-12, which appears in several computer games. What looks like a second barrel is actually the under-barrel tubular magazine, which holds the shells.

Sound engine

Half-Life was one of the first games to utilize a software-driven environmental sound engine. Effects are applied in context of room size and surfaces of reflection. Reverb effects are calculated in realtime and applied on the fly as sounds are triggered.

University of Innsbruck

In the game manual, the first two pages contain a fictional letter from the administrative offices of the Black Mesa Research Facility to Dr. Gordon Freeman, concerning his upcoming employment. The address on the letter indicates that Freeman was a visiting fellow at the Institute for Experimental Physics, University of Innsbruck, before moving to Black Mesa. In contrast to the common practice of using fictitious addresses for storytelling purposes, the listed address is actually real. As confirmed by the official university website, "Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck" is the real-world location of Innsbruck University's Institute for Experimental Physics.

Awards

Computer Gaming World
- April 1999 (Issue #177) – Game of the Year
- January 2001 (Issue #199) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
- March 2001 (Issue #200) - #1 Game of All Time (Readers' Choice)
- March 2001 (Issue #200) - #2 Game of All Time (Editors' Choice)
GameSpy
- 2001 – #2 Top Game of All Time
- 2012 – #1 Top PC Gaming Intro
GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 12/1999 - #17 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
PC Gamer
- April 2000 - #1 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games" poll
- October 2001 - #1 in the "Top 50 Best Games of All Time" list
- April 2005 - #1 in the "Top 50 Best Games of All Time" list
PC Player (Germany)
- Issue 01/1999 - Best Game in 1998
- Issue 01/1999 - Best Shooter in 1998
Power Play
- Issue 02/1999 – Best Action Shooter in 1998
Retro Gamer
- October 2004 (Issue #9) – #38 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Analytics

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Related Games

Half-Life 2
Released 2004 on Windows, 2005 on Xbox, 2013 on Linux...

Half-Life: Blue Shift
Released 2001 on Windows, Linux, 2013 on Macintosh

Half-Life: Counter-Strike
Released 2000 on Windows

Half-Life 2: Episode One
Released 2006 on Windows, 2010 on Macintosh, 2013 on Linux

Half-Life: Platinum Collection
Released 2002 on Windows

Half-Life: Alyx
Released 2020 on Windows

Half-Life 2 (Gold Edition)
Released 2004 on Windows

Half-Life: Uplink
Released 1999 on Windows

Half-Life: Complete
Released 2008 on Windows

Related Sites +

Hints for Half Life
Question and answer type hints give you the solutions at your own pace.
Planet Halflife
The usual 'planet' site for the Half-Life game. Lots of new maps, skins, addons etc. Together with the daily news ticker this makes a 'must-stop' for every Half-Life fan.
The Final Hours of Half-Life
GameSpot writes about the last part of Half-Life's development.
The Half-Life Saga Story Guide
A site devoted to detail the various events and lore in the Half-Life universe so far.
The Official Half-Life Web Site
Wayback Machine snapshot from 2000

Identifiers +

MobyGames ID: 155

Contribute

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by doj.

Macintosh added by Sciere. Linux added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Tomer Gabel, Adam Baratz, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Zack Green, Apogee IV, Daniel Saner, Paulus18950, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Plok, lethal_guitar, MrFlibble, FatherJack.

Game added June 6, 1999. Last modified March 18, 2024.