Half-Life: Uplink

The Good
Recently, I decided that before I play Half-Life 2 and its episodes, I thought I might play the series from the beginning, starting with Uplink and working my way up. In the game, players are introduced to Gordon Freeman, a scientist working at the Black Mesa Research Facility. There is no real plot to speak about. You just make your way through the facility, and shoot both soldiers and aliens with your weapons along the way. Your primary objective, though, is to send a message to the USNRC, but this can't happen unless a radio antenna is tuned into the frequency.

This task will get difficult because Freeman will encounter enemies such as headcrabs, Vortigaunts, and soldiers. Enemies are easily dealt with crowbars, pistols, machine guns, and grenades. These weapons are basic, and the more advanced weapons aren't available in Uplink. Fortunately, these weapons are enough to take down the enemies you encounter early in the game. Besides the weapons, you can use objects to your advantage. I remember using my pistol to shoot a tank and blowing apart about four headcrabs.

Uplink was released one year after Half-Life, and gamers who haven't played it yet at the time could download it and get a feel of what they would expect the game to be like. If they liked it, they would go out and buy the full version, and those that didn't like it had no idea what they were missing out on.

The elements are there – non-playable characters (ie: scientists and security guards), mounted guns, buttons and wheels that you can use to move heavy objects, etc. The environments are similar to that of the original game. You start the game in Black Mesa with the usual gadgets on the walls and the security monitors that are included in the reception area You then go down a huge elevator and proceed to a warehouse containing large crates, and finally navigate your way to your destination.

The Bad
Nothing.

The Bottom Line
As I mentioned earlier, users can download Uplink and play it to get a feel for the game, but the demo, which most Half-Life fans refer to this as, is rather limited. You only have standard weapons which do the job properly, and the demo itself can be completed in 30 minutes even if you have a little bit of trouble taking down certain enemies. There is no background music because it impossible to include redbook audio in a download, and Valve originally chose not to include MP3 tracks.