User reviews

Before 1998 typical FPS games consisted of the player simply blasting their way through endless numbers of monsters in hellish and alien landscapes with an extremely vague plot that seemed like a 5 year old's daydream. Half-Life revolutionised FPS gaming by providing not only a story, but an excellent story that was highly immersive.

On the gameplay and graphics side of things, Half-Life uses a heavily modified version of the Quake 2 engine. However, the monsters are not Quake 2's mindless zombies, they are soldiers that work in teams to flush you out of hiding spots. This means you have to think about how you play the game. Blindly running into a room shooting will get you killed very fast! :-)

Until Deus Ex came along, I called Half-Life the best game ever, so it is only fair to give it 10/10.

In 1998, A software company names Valve Software released a game that would forever change the way we look at Action Games. That game was called Half-Life. Hailed by PC-Gamer as "The Best 3D action game ever made", and I couldn't agree more.

The game itself won about 45 game of the year awards from many different publications.

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Half-Life was breath taking. Before then we had not seen a game that put you in such an enviroment. The game was like Star Wars in many ways, it did not have much of a budget or anything and it turned out to be the best game of 1998 and still to this day does a game have to approve upon it.

You play Gordon Freeman, not a tough Marine just a scientist in quantum physics, the story unfolds when you go to work at the Black Mesa Research Facility and every thing goes bad that day. The story is told with in game cut scenes, not cintematics telling you whats happening, YOU LIVE THE STORY.

Also after the most wonderful single player game there is its multiplayer like Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 1.5, Deathmatch Clasic ( Quake all over again ) GO DM 2! Also there is some good expansion sets for Half-Life, like Half-Life: Opposing Force, made by Gearbox, as well as Blue Shift ( very short ) also made by Gearbox. But Valve did it with its master piece so lets hope they do it again.

This is, quite simply, the best PC game ever. Period. It doesn't short-change you in length, like most games do these days. At the same time, it isn't overly long. There isn't a single point in the game where you wish you could skip ahead to the next area. Difficulty level is not a concern; you can make it as hard or as easy as you like. Quick save and quick load are done better than any game to date. Most important is the atmosphere this game creates. When you finish Half Life, you will look back on your adventure and truly feel like you have taken a journey. The game is MASSIVE. And the many places you visit along the way are extremely convincing. When stuck on the alien planet Xen or trying to find signs of life after the initial disaster, you will feel isolated and alone. When in a firefight with Marines, you will feel a rush of adrenaline. This game does it all and is beautiful-looking to boot. In addition, it will run smoothly on nearly any PC setup. I highly recommend this game to all audiences.

As far as immersion goes, you simply couldn't have done any better than Half-Life. Half-Life pioneered many firsts in the genre when it was released in 1998. The biggest innovation is that the game NEVER shifts away from your perspective of the action. This means that there are no cutscenes, no early explanations of the backstory, and that your character cannot talk (giving you room to talk during the game, if you need to). Half-Life does NOT disappoint when it comes to fooling you into thinking that you're experiencing all of this in real life. Other innovations include seamless level transitions, having to reload your weapon occasionally, and a passable excuse for a heads-up display (since your character is a scientist, he must wear a hazard suit that comes equipped with HUD readers for health, shields, weapons, and ammo). The only thing I can think of that isn't realistic about Half-Life is the fact that you simply walk over objects to pick them up. However, since the game is pretty fast-paced, having to pick up items manually would have been quite frustrating in the heat of battle.

Of course, the gameplay isn't the only thing that Half-Life has to offer. The disturbingly realistic graphics and sound (for the time) also combine with the gameplay to further immerse you into the experience. Half-Life uses a heavily modified version of the already stunning Quake engine, which broke new ground in 1996 for creating realistic environments and characters with polygon-based true 3-D graphics. Half-Life has higher polygon counts, better lighting, and more detailed textures than in Quake, making the graphics that much more believable. To top that all off, a skeletal animation system makes for extremely realistic character animations. Overall, the graphics and animations are just so good, they even make Unreal's graphics look lame. I'm not joking around! This is as good as video games could look and sound at the time!

You've also got an excellent variety of weapons. In fact, there's probably more weapons than any other shooter at the time. You've got a crowbar (for melee combat), pistol, revolver, machinegun, shotgun, crossbow, rocket launcher, particle gun, flamethrower, alien arm (which shoots out lethal "bugs" and has an infinite ammo supply), grenades, pipebombs, laser trip mines, and a cute alien bug that runs up to enemies to bite the crap out of them. What more could you want?

But the most surprising aspect of all is that Half-Life didn't come from a high-profile developer at the time (like 3D Realms, id Software, or Raven Software). This amazing piece of work came from a newcoming developer that we didn't even know about at the time -- Kirkland, Washington-based Valve Software. But even if Valve wasn't a high-profile developer at the time, you could tell from this game that their goal was clearly to create the best game ever. You simply aren't a gamer if you don't at least try Half-Life. A definite 10 / 10 to this one!

Well what can I say Half Life is the best game ever its wonderful the monsters can be scary some times the security guards and scientists are great and funny.It took me a while to complete it but it was worth it.You play a scientist called Gordon Freeman who works for a secret organisation underground when an experiment goes very wrong the underground facility turns into a crumbling mess and most the people are dead accept for you and a couple of people who are scared and injured.But you are not alone a race of aliens have suddenly come from nowhere and are killing any one they can find.You must get around loads of problems and aliens and grunts which have been sent in to kill you.Buy this game it sure is worth it and then try Half life Opposing Force.

⭐ 99

Gameplay: Beyond Perfect

Storyline: Perfect

Graphics: Perfect

Physics: Perfect

Level & Map Design: Beyond Perfect

Audio Design: Perfect

Voice Acting: Excellent

Original Scores: Perfect

UI & Customization: Excellent

Optimization: Excellent

The game that changed the whole video-games forever. It's without doubt the biggest revolution on video-games. With it details and all, the game is just amazingly perfect. In my opinion the Universe extends too much more with Half-Life 2 but this video-game has done somethings never done before. I care about more gameplay than storyline in a video-game. Remarkable level design, perfect gameplay. It's a lesson for every video-games, not just a lesson for FPS games.

Half-Life is one on the few FPS (First-Person Shooter) games that has a good storyline, and that's just ONE of the things that makes it a great game. The story is pretty vague (nobody's written definitive anything about it yet, but I'm working on that), but it goes something like this: It was just another day on the job in a top-secret research facility in the New Mexican desert... Until you (Dr. Gordon Freeman) put the sample into the sensor. Then all hell broke loose; aliens "comin' outta th' damn WALLS!" (to quote someone from the addon Opposing Force), a USMC death squad sent in to "contain the situation" (read: Kill everyone and every thing on the base except yourselves), and stuck in the middle of it, you; a 27-year old child prodigy with a cool-looking environmental suit and a gun (which you have to find). To make matters worse, just about everything is trying to kill you.

The AI is excellent; the human soldiers will provide covering fire for each other, will use grenades to flush you out (very effectively, too), and will even refuse to follow you if you deliberately injure them (friendly NPCs exist in the game, which is rare). Realism takes a bit of a back seat to fun, though, but is is somewhat realistic. You have to reload occasionally, your shots will leave marks on the walls and will sometimes ricochet (harmlessly), and you even fire tracers every so often!

I mean you just can't describe with words the greatness of this game.For 1 and half months(while I was playing it)I was like at a different dimension.I'm not an addicted video game player, but this one rocked me.First of all it's huge at a point you can't remember all the places that you passed through.It has also a fantastic atmosphere(you think you live it in real),you don't know when something will happen,but you know it will... And at last it has an amazing AI for the enemies,so much they really scare you sometimes.Along with the outstanding graphics and sound,all these make this game a CLASSIC...

Nick Katris...

Although I'm not (and never was) a huge fan of first person shooters, "Half-Life" is the best game of all time. Me and my brother was playing it for about two weeks until he finished it. Ever since then we have never stopped playing it, and Sierra has definitely got two more fans. Not that we didn't know about Sierra, as we played all of the King's Quest series games.

As far as the story goes, you play Gordon Freeman, a scientist at the Black Mesa Research Facility, a huge nuclear building with thousands of employees. You get assigned to do a "harmless" experiment with two of your colleagues. But something goes wrong. Horribly wrong... And suddenly the existence of all mankind is in your hands.

The nice people at Sierra has once again created a masterpiece. Or wait, not only a masterpiece, but the greatest most creative computer game the world has ever seen! I salute Sierra for what they've done for the gaming industry.

Half-Life is a symphonic blend of action, drama, adventure and story. Utterly brilliant.

This game is very closely choreographed, and the main plot is that you are a scientist that works in a top secret facility (like Area 51) and one day, your experiment goes catastrophically wrong and as a conclusion you are thrown into the crossfire between bloodthirsty aliens and military 'cleaners'. this is a fast paced adventure with battle and puzzles, but also you must inlist in the aid of fellow scientists and security guards to save the world.

Great set pieces, great enemies and a great setting in the smashed-up Black Mesa Research Facility. The storyline and its twists are genuinely well handled. It's been said a million times in a million reviews, for instance, that you end up fighting US Special Forces sent to kill you and your co-workers. But the way this is revealed to the player - turning a stairwell corner to see a scientist gladly running up to his Marine "saviour", only to be brutally murdered in a hail of gunfire - is genuinely shocking the first time round. You really feel involved in this storyline. Half-Life has excellent use of music, sound and superb AI to create a genuinely creepy atmosphere. At times it's honestly difficult to continue playing; the fact that you're armed is often no comfort at all when it comes to going round THAT corner, or going though THAT door - and that's the mark of a truly scary game, in my opinion. The voice acting makes a big difference, too. The security guards and scientists could have been disposable drones - instead they're convincingly your workmates, your friends even, there to help and be protected. And, man, do they make some awful sounds when you screw up and get them killed - you almost feel guilty... Over time it will be superceded by newer and more complex games - the superb Deus Ex, in particular, has definitely put Half-Life in the shade in terms of narrative, atmosphere and involvement. But that takes nothing away from Half-Life's status as an all-time classic.

Before you bring on the hate, I understand everyone has opinions and I understand why people love this game. But I just didn't feel it. Chapters 1-7 were good. I enjoyed them. Chapters 8-13 just didn't feel as good to me. The chapters with the Alien planet I liked, even though the layout was stupid. The final boss battle was just too difficult. Personally, I like myself a good challenge, but I just didn't like it. Theending was also not very satisfying to me, either. The story was very slow, and never seemed to get too interesting. For its time, it was good. But I just didn't feel it myself.

Final review: 6.6 / 10

Half-Life was and is a major breakthrough in the world of first person video games. A great story along with fast paced shoot 'em action make this one of the greatest video games of all time!

The adventures of Gordon Freeman, a young scientist battling bloodthirsty alien invaders, will leave you breathless and your jaw dropped at the sight of the game's breathtaking visuals.

The final Xen levels seem like something out of a bad 50's sci fi movie though. But that is the only bad part in an otherwise great game.

Half-Life has also spawned a great selection of modifications. Thanks to the level maker included in later versions of the game. Mods such as the great horror fest They Hunger and the flawed but fun Gunman Chronicles.

Get your ass a copy of Half-Life pronto and feel what it's like to be an arsekicking, rock 'em, sock 'em video game superhero!

This is the game of the year for 1999, and it deserves it. So if you haven't already bought it, scrounge up $50 or so and get it. It has tons of replay value. There are 3 difficulty levels and the easiest is still incredibly hard. Plus, it's multiplayer. It has hundreds of "mods" or game modifications that you can download. The best of which is Counter-Strike, with over 14000 players online. Get it! Get it now! You won't be disappointed, I wasn't.

In half-life you play as gordon freeman age 27 education phd M.I.T. you have been given a job at the black mesa research facility in black mesa new Mexico. You have been assigned to the anamolous materials sector where an experiment into teleportation technology is being conducted. You push a cart with fuel into the beam and then hit a switch on a cat walk, the machine activates and suddenly teleporter melts down and opens portals to the alien world xen so it has fallen to you to fight the aliens and make it out of the facility alive teaming up with security guards and scientists facing horrific alien creatures, bad ass soldiers and the most unique puzzles this side of the rockies.

Valve made arguably the greatest game of all time. half-life took a new perspective towards gaming mostly with character design. Gordon freeman relates well to the player because much like the player he is just is just an ordinary man who happens to be caught in this conflict then there's the G-man yep every body loves the gman popping up every where around black mesa and you're not sure where he'll be next he is a perfect enigma with pressed grey suit and voice like Hannibal Lector AS one gamer puts it, "there is no time and space for the gman" that's why this game is so good, a balance of action, platforming, puzzle solving, level design and immersive characters. viva la half life

Instead of looking at Half Life as a game newly created, I am adding this comment as a look back at Half Life and what it means (to myself mostly) today.

By today's standards, Half Life is a game that is embedded in the minds of twenty year old's and is reminiscent of the time spent playing as a teen. The low definition graphics of the original made appreciation of the maps less favourable, and the sometimes predictable range of game play meant that you didn't have to panic that the monster was gonna pop up elsewhere. However, for a large majority of people it represents the very beginning of the fate of Gorden Freeman. With Half Life 2 and Half Life 2 episode 1, a new breed of gamer enveloped the half life world, but for the first players of Half Life, the temptation to revisit Black Mesa is all too great. Perhaps this is because of its easy access through Steam or its graphics reinvention using the HL2 engine, but for me its the nostalgia surrounding it.

Only in Half Life can you feel appreciation that it was the first game of its time to use full area maps rather than flat overlays that surrounded the character. Only in Half Life can you wonder what was around the corner where the map dropped away. Only in Half Life can you imagine how large the Black Mesa complex is. In the case of the latter two, the additional Half Life games Opposing Force and Blue Shift only fuelled the desire to see more of Black Mesa and the events that unfolded from the Resonance Cascade. This desire to see more of Black Mesa, to a lot of fans, sparked further mods to be created, each with their own dynamic story overlay from the original three Half Life games (I recommend the mod Azure Sheep for this).

So what is the future for Half Life? Unlike many old games, it will not be swept under the carpet, not with so many fans holding it so close to their hearts. The upgrade through the HL2 engine was just the start, like HL2Ep1 commentaries on the games creation, storyline, graphics and ideas will be released at some point in the future. Meanwhile Half Life gamers can enjoy Half Life 2, Half Life 2 Episode 1, and all new upcoming releases (the next being HL2Ep2 coming Sept 2007!)

PC Game: Half-Life.

Genre: Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter.

Developer: Valve Software.

Publisher: Sierra Studios.

Release Date: 19.11.98.

Engine: GoldSrc (modified Quake engine).

Protagonist: Dr. Gordon Freeman.

Settings: Black Mesa Research Facility, New Mexico, USA; Xen.

Gordon rides a tram from his dormitory deep into the heart of the Black Mesa Facility, on his way to the Anomalous Materials Lab to begin his work. Upon arriving at the lab, front desk security guard Barney informs him that a system crash has complicated communications between the Black Mesa scientists, and that Freeman must acquire his Hazardous Environment suit (or H.E.V suit) before proceeding to the test chamber. He spots Dr. Isaac Kleiner confronting G-Man in a room along the way. Freeman reports to the Anomalous Materials Lab, where he meets up with Dr. Arne Magnusson and where he is tasked with pushing a "specimen" into the scanning beam for analysis. Following that, he inadvertently causes a fictional time-space catastrophe called a "resonance cascade," opening a portal between Earth and a bizarre world called Xen. Freeman is sporadically teleported there and catches glimpses of various alien lifeforms, shortly before blacking out. Freeman awakens in Black Mesa, exits the test chamber and sees that many scientists and security personnel are dead. After discovering survivors, Freeman learns there are no means to communicate with the world beyond Black Mesa. Freeman gradually makes his way to the surface to get help, sidestepping Black Mesa's structural damage and defending himself against hostile aliens randomly teleporting in from Xen. A survivor Eli Vance was then seen helping another scientist and then tries to aid Gordon through a closed door. The other surviving scientists claim that human soldiers are en route as part of a rescue mission, only to discover that the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, which has taken control of Black Mesa, is killing both the aliens and everyone at Black Mesa as part of a government cover-up… Half-Life requires the player to perform two kinds of tasks: combat and puzzle solving. Unlike its peers at the time, HL utilized scripted sequences, which range from small events, such as an alien ramming down a door, to major plot points. While most contemporary first-person shooters relied on cut scene intermissions to detail their plot lines, Half-Life's story is put forth entirely through scripted sequences, keeping the player in the game at all times. In line with this, the player rarely loses the ability to control Gordon, who never speaks and is never actually seen in the game. However, player "sees" through his eyes for the entire length of the game. Half-Life has no "levels"; it instead divides the game by chapters, whose titles flash on the screen. Progress through the world is continuous save for short breaks for loading.

The game regularly integrates puzzles, such as navigating a maze of conveyor belts. Some puzzles involve using the environment to kill an enemy. There are few "bosses" in the conventional sense, where the player defeats a superior opponent by direct confrontation. Instead, such monsters occasionally define chapters, and the player is generally expected to use the terrain, rather than firepower, to kill the "boss". Late in the game, the player receives a "long jump module" for the HEV suit, which allows the player to increase the horizontal distance and speed of jumps by crouching before jumping. This is used for platformer-style jumping puzzles in the later portion of the game.

For the most part the player battles through the game alone, but is occasionally assisted by non-player characters, specifically security guards and scientists who fight alongside the player, assist in reaching new areas and impart relevant plot information. A wide array of enemies populate the game including alien lifeforms such as headcrabs, bullsquids, headcrab zombies and Vortigaunts. The player also faces human opponents, in particular HECU Marines and black ops assassins who are dispatched to contain the alien threat and silence all witnesses.

Half-Life has a large array of weapons the player can use, including the trademark crowbar for melee fighting, the conventional firearms of Glock 17 pistol, SPAS-12 shotgun, MP5 SMG with grenade launcher, .357 Magnum revolver, and rocket launcher as well as unconventional weapons ranging from a crossbow to alien weapons such as Snarks. There are also two experimental weapons which are the Gluon gun and Gauss gun.

With the installation of the High Definition Pack, the weapons' appearances are substantially updated, mainly due to a larger number of polygons in the models. Glock 17 and MP5 are replaced by Beretta 92FS and M4 Carbine.

Sharp original score by Kelly Bailey consists of 27 tracks in .mp3 format.

Half-Life Deathmatch is superb.

Half-Life's public reception was overwhelmingly positive in terms of reviews, acclaim and sales. As of 2007, over 8 million copies of the game have been sold, making it the best-selling PC first-person shooter of all time.

Its second demo uniquely released after the game contains level that isn't the part of initial Half-Life and can be considered as its expansion pack.

Half-Life was critically acclaimed, earning an overall score of 96% on review collection website Metacritic. IGN gave HL 95% and described it as "a tour de force in game design, the definitive single player game in a first person shooter". Gamespot (94%) inducted Half-Life into their "Greatest Game of All Time" list in May 2007. All Game Guide gave it a score of 100%. PC Gamer – 96-97%. Absolute Games – 95%. MobyGames – 93%. My rates (compared to 1998’s level, of course):

Gameplay: 9.5/10 (a slight minus for linear straightforwardness).

Graphics: 10/10.

Sound: 10/10.

Score (OST): 9.5/10.

Story: 9/10.

Controls & Interface: 9.5/10.

Multiplayer: 10/10.

OVERALL: 10/10.

If you like this game I also recommend: Half-Life Uplink, Half-Life Opposing Force, Half-Life Blue Shift, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Lost Coast, Half-Life 2 Episodes 1,2,3, F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, Doom 3.

they should make a movie about this game and spend some money on the special affects..amazing story line, amazing weapons to use, and if u use the exact same maps as halflife game i bet all the people who like the game and also who like action movies will go watch it.

This is a very amazing game! It is my favourite game ever. It is done so well in my opinion because the man that made it, "Marc Laidlaw", wrote books. So I feel he used his knowledge of how to make a good story and made an excellent game by using structure! An example for this is: Everything is fine. Build up. Something goes wrong. Cliffhanger. Problem solved. Everything is fine. Build up. Something goes wrong. Cliffhanger. Problem solved. Everything is fine. I feel basically that is what he did, seeing as he wrote books and I myself write stories and have a good knowledge of structure, I feel certain that is what he did to make the story interesting and compelling.

It sucks you in and holds you in for hours, a very enjoyable journey and will leave yo memories you will never forget. Know FPS has ever beaten Half life and it shall remain that way for many more years to come!

One to buy and cherish.

Enjoy.

10/10

They call it half life because if you buy it you will spend half off your life playing it. Forget the single player part that is a legendary on its own . However I spent ten years playing the multi-player part of the game.

I watched 3 girl friends walk out the door due to me playing constantly CYA's The game is addicting and very fun beware! The memories I have from this game are life time memories that I will have forever there is no other game that will ever reach the Plato this one did. By far this is the best game to ever come to light . Half life 2 was OK but never ever will anything come near this games originality Itis simply put Half life is the best PC game ever bottom line

HALF-LIFE...... didn't age well but I still think people should play it, the story is great, the game plays decent and if you don't want to play alone there's sven co-op and deathmatch. I rate it a 7.9/10.

This game is so unbelievably amazing... it is suspenseful (I still jump when the headcrabs fly at me in the dark vents), action packed (some of the fights against the commandos are incredible), thought provoking (the ending leaves you to think... but only if you choose to live... you'll see), with a great storyline... very original.

I agree on the fact that a movie should be made... but not about Gordon Freeman unless it takes place before the game. It should be about the scientists... what were they exactly working on? It also could be about one of the guards.. or the aliens themselves.

Bottom line: One Great Game

I had this game in my steam library for years and I never played it. I had only played the 2nd entry in the half life series and i thought it was great. But I had never played this one

I'm glad I did, because now I see why everyone loves this game!

This game is amazing. For the time it was made, the graphics are actually pretty impressive and good looking. The story seems well written and kept me Invested

Overall the game is amazing and should be played by pc gaming fans new and old.