Half-Life

The Good
I honestly don't know how everyone can be wrong about the exact same thing, but I suppose that's how you kill an American president back in the 1960's. I read over and over again that the best thing about Half-Life is the story. Well, it's a very average story: something goes wrong at a top secret facility and it's up to one guy to save the world from an alien invasion, even though the government tries to stop him. If you disagree, then what point could you make that would spoil the story? You can't , because the plot is paper thin. It's not like someone is someone's father, one someone is actually a ghost, or that someone you didn't think was a dude is actually a dude!! See, those are meaty stories, some with more meat on the bone than others.

Now, what it excels at is how to tell the story. By only using your protagonist's POV the entire story you are witness to how this common sci-fi story could play out practically in the real world. Gone are power-ups that spin around in mid-air. If you find weapons there is a reason why that weapon is there, as in being in a weapon lock up or near the body of a fallen soldier. Basically it's taking a movie and filling in all of the blanks when the camera isn't there to explain what happened. How did he get back to full health? Oh, he crawled around in back through the air ducts and so on. This idea of logic adds to the plausibility of the story, and thus our immersion into it.

Having every area bumped into smaller areas to facillitate numerous yet very short load times makes the game into basically one level that just continues on and on. But where Half-Life succeeds is in it's use of set pieces that punctuate the flow of this one, long level and makes the game memorable. So there isn't the dam level, or the commando assault on the surface level, or fighting the helicopter level; instead you remember it for the set piece and not a level, something that increases your immersion in this game greatly.

Immersion is important because the game attempts to let you experience all the things you'd ever wanted to do in games (or life, if you're really ambitious). Fight commandos, helicopters, tanks (I'm not sure, I finished the game half a lifetime ago), use homing RPG's... immersion makes the experience much more visceral, and therefore a much better gaming experience.

Another thing I found great about this game is how you identify with this guy, faceless save for the box art or any fan pic in which he is always holding the crowbar. By making him late in the beginning of the game and giving him the option of turning on the security alarm in the reception area makes him a guy like you and me; even though he works at a top secret government facility, it's crappy!

The Bad
Even though it tells the story well it really doesn't make much sense. So who is this G-Man guy? Why is he always behind bulletproof glass? How can this Gordon Freeman guy be late for work in the beginning and in the end be taking down highly trained extremely dangerous army operatives? Doesn't it cost a fortune to run (and clean) Black Mesa? Isn't it so big that you can see it from outer space, let alone at the side of the oad that borders it?

For Half-Life to be true Gordon Freeman has to be running from one coincidence to another, and in the end it's just too many: in Half-Life one guy saw/caused the beginning of the invasion, keeps running into the mysterious G-man, and in the end travels to another dimension. See, if there were cut scenes and some invisable camera was watching secret proceedings that weren't privvy to common knowledge then you can accept that. This device hurts the believability of the game, and as such the story. In that case, how can the story "rock"?

The NPC's really weren't that thrilling (unlike DOOM3, there aren't any Asians around waiting to be turned into zombies). Really they're just there to spout some exposition and then open a door. Back in the day on planethalflife there was a section called the Scientist Killing Club; this inspired me to play through the game again, only this time I would try to kill as many "innocent" NPC's as I can. You know, once they open a door you can kill anyone you want. What kind of story is that? That just means the NPC's role in Half-Life are really not that important.

It is too bad about the last third on Xen. I would have appreciated a shorter but better game. I think this is a case of making it longer just to satisy the common consumer and also making it harder just because you are getting close to the end. 2D platformers are 2D because they work well in 2D. I think with a well-thought out first and second half you're bound to be let down at the end. By the way, I've done both choices, but for what? The game ends either way.

The Bottom Line
Half-Life is worth playing but not worth worshipping. Games matured a bit with Half-Life, but this is definitely not a "thinking man's shooter" by any account. In retrospect Half-Life doesn't deserve all of the acclaim it received for its time, but then people thought Half-Life had an amazing story because people hadn't ever been told a story that well through a FPS.

It's funny that the one game that influenced Half-Life the most, DOOM, will then rip it off Half-Life in DOOM3: arriving late, being witness to the "resonance cascade", jumping through portals, and even another monorail ride!

In truth, it was unicorn b lynx who got me really thinking about games and also prompted me to get involved on this site, so it's all your fault. Myself, I got tired of reading "pwns" and "rox!" and "suks!"

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?

The Good
Half-Life. Hundreds of publications and web-sites have praised it's gameplay and innovation. Thousands of people play the game and it's various incarnations. After purchasing Half-Life, I have one thing to say.

It has lived up to all expectations and then some.

The opening of the game feels like a movie. You are Gordon Freeman and you are a scientist at the Black Mesa Research Facility - Anomalous Materials Laboratory, a decommissioned military installation in Arizona. As you arrive to work, you ride the tram into the facility. A great aspect of this "typical" ride in is that it isn't a movie. It's all rendered in real-time using the game's engine. So you can walk around the tram, look up and down, and watch the credits go by. But the intro does something else. It immerses you into the role. You get a sense of vastness and complexity, just by looking at the size of the facility.

As you start your day at Black Mesa, you start to learn and piece together facts about what you do, and what type of research is conducted. In fact, there are area that you cannot gain access to until you get your Environmental Suit. So you need to go to your locker and suit up (like if you actually worked there) before exploring the game. I like the fact that you learn about what happened as you go through the game, similar to System Shock 1 and 2.

Half-Life runs using the Quake II engine. But trying to compare Quake and HL is like comparing Castle Wolfenstein and Wolf 3D. The basis of the engine is intact, but the guys at Valve have modified it so much that it's considered a completely new graphics engine. Running on a NVIDIA 3D card, the graphics are absolutely fabulous.
Cool electrical effects run rampant through the game, as creatures from another world materialize before your very eyes. And they seemingly appear at random as well, so if you walk into a room, always "check your six", because you never know if one will pop up behind you. Luckily, the electrical noise that is made is very distinct, so if you hear it, you can be sure that their is a creature around the corner.

Another nice graphical touch involves the numerous weapons you find while escaping from the Black Mesa Research Facility. Most FPS weapons are stationary in front of you. You are always holding them, ready to fire at any given moment. In HL, If you are holding a rifle, you'll occasionally move your hands, as if you are getting tired of holding the weapon (if this affects gameplay, I'm not sure. I haven't seen it have any drastic affects yet). It's nice to see this type of attention to detail in a FPS, especially considering the state they were in when HL released. Also, you need to reload your weapons. Take the shotgun, for example. The shotgun is a powerful weapon, but only holds 8 cartridges. So after firing 8, you'll need to reload. But you'll actually see your character loading the weapon. If you are in the middle of a firefight, then you are left defenseless. So reloading your weapon also becomes a tactical decision as well.

The controls are standard FPS layout, which can be modified as you wish. I personally feel that the initial layout is a bit clunky (but then again I feel ALL FPS shooter's initial layout is clunky) but remapping your keys is a breeze.

The sound is unreal. If you run across walkways, the metallic thumping sound is quite realistic. Yet, if you decide to crouch/walk over the same walkways, the sound is muffled, and sounds like you are making an effort to keep quiet (which is useful in some levels). Digital panning and echo effects make is sound like you are in a sterilized, cavernous research facility.

In addition to the Half-Life game that is present, they ability to switch to other single player games is easy. Instead of exiting the game and having to "program" the new levels in, it simply a matter of copying the files into the directory, and clicking "Activate". There are quite a few single player MODS out there that have a polished feel to them, so scout them out. PC Gamer's "They Hunger" and "U.S.S. Darkstar" are a couple to check out.

And then you have your online component. HL makes for an absolutely incredible online experience. From the start, HL was design for the average user to just make a few mouse clicks and then POOF you are online and actively playing. Be it Counterstrike, Team Fortress, DeathMatch Classic, Day of Defeat, or any of the countless mods that ordinary people have released (OK, not ordinary, but unbelievably talented people), there is something for everyone's taste in blowing up the bad guys. And hats off to Valve for making the source code open and available, allowing the people that play the games to play in the sandbox with the big boys. They have opened up what used to be a rather closed community, and have let regular artists, musicians, programmers and gameplayers in on all the fun

The Bad
Well this is only a personal gripe for me, and it pertains only to the single-player game. It's hard. Real hard. Even on easy, you need to use your quicksave key a lot. Now I'm not saying that it should have been easier, but for those who don't eat, sleep, and drink Quake/Unreal, it could have been easier. But I'm determined to finish the game without using cheat codes (I'm in LAMBDA CORE and it's using up all my available willpower to do so!)

The Bottom Line
Get it. If you love fast action online gaming, it WILL consume your free time. If you love a great single-player experience with plenty of ways to play, it WILL consume your free time. :)

But regardless if you have free time or not, Half-Life is a great addition to any gamer's library... You do have a library.... right? :)