Half-Life
-
Half-Life: Blue Shift
(2001) - Half-Life: Further Data V.1 (1999)
- Half-Life: Further Data V.2 (1999)
-
Half-Life: Opposing Force
(1999)
-
Half-Time: Die Level-CD für Half-Life
(1999) -
Life/2
(2001)
-
Half-Life
(2001) -
Half-Life: Deathmatch - Source
(2005) -
Half-Life: Source
(2005)
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Black Mesa
(2012) -
Black Mesa
(2015)
-
Half-Life: Complete
(2008) -
Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition
(1999) -
Valve Complete Pack
(2008)
-
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
Groups +
- 3D Engine: GoldSrc
- BestSeller Series (Cendant / Havas / Vivendi Universal) releases
- BPjS / BPjM indexed games
- Gameplay feature: Drowning
- Gameplay feature: Minefield traversal
- Gameplay feature: Radiation / radioactive poisoning
- Games referenced in movies
- Games with official modding tools
- Games with officially released source code
- Half-Life universe
- Middleware: SDL
- Setting: 2000s
- Setting: Future now past
- Weapon: SPAS-12
Screenshots
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Credits (Windows version)
80 People (58 developers, 22 thanks) · View all
| Engine Programmer | |
| Engine Tools Programmer | |
| The Half-Life Team | |
| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 94% (based on 59 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.3 out of 5 (based on 568 ratings with 30 reviews)
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.
Windows · by NeoJ (398) · 2009
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
The best PC game of all time. Period.
The Good
Everything. AI is quite possibly the smartest to ever grace a computer game; the marines and aliens, run from you, take cover, speak and are very smart. Also, you get fellow scientists and security guards help you along the way without being a pain. The storyline is about government cover-ups and experiments gone horribly wrong...Basically a fantastic sci-fi story that should be made into a movie sooner or later. Levels are excellent, always throwing something new at you when you least expect it. No more are you searching for keycards, HL has gameplay that makes you think of what to do next, and strategies to defeat a squad of grunts, or the huge alien Gargantua. All the weapons are very interesting and all have a very good use. For example, sometimes when you see a squad of grunts, unaware of you, but always kill you when you enter where they are you always get killed until you bounce a grenade in there. You can't just go in there and kill everything right away like you would in DOOM...HL is much more of a challenge. Basically the game has nothing wrong with it, and it not only fits all the criteria for a great game, it exceeds it and creates an experience like none other, with many innovative features added to an overcrowded genre...the one of the best FPS and games of all time.
The Bad
Multiplayer Half-Life is not that good, with some heavy lag sometimes, although maps and weapons are very good...fortunately, HL has some great mods that improve this downside, namely the tactical Team Fortress Classic. In other words, one player is the meat of the game.
Sometimes it got VERY difficult, but usually you would just keep playing anyway, no matter how fustrating it was, just so you could see what happens next...Half-Life is that good.
The Bottom Line
Think of the tactics of Rainbow Six strategy, combined with a fantastic sci-fi story containing the elements of the movie ALIENS, but not with all the mindless action of DOOM. One of the few games you could get someone like a real time strategy gamer to actually play and get interested into.
Windows · by Dragoon (106) · 2000
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.
Advertisement
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 largely 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 was commonly believed that it was based on the Quake II engine. This is not true. It is based on a heavily modified version of the original Quake engine. Amongst the additions were built-in 3D accelerator support, skeletal systems and shadow casting (the latter didn't make it into the game). Valve named the engine "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 16 December 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. Her character was reworked as Gina Cross in the PlayStation 2 port's Decay missions.
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
Valve and Sierra had a mod support program, making Team Fortress Classic as an example of a finished mod in the officially released tools. They also sponsored "Mod Expos", events where modders could present their work to other gamers and the press.
Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Ricochet, and Gunman Chronicles would get official commercial releases, with Counter-Strike becoming a series of its own.
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)
Information also contributed by -Chris, Ace of Sevens, Adam Baratz, Ashley Pomeroy, Chris Martin, CrankyStorming, Emepol, Entorphane, Foxhack, Gargaj, Maw, MegaMegaMan, PCGamer77, phlux, Ronald Diemicke, Spartan_234, rstevenson, Sciere, Scott Monster, Silverblade, shifter, Xoleras, Zack Green and Zovni.
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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 +
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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 November 17, 2024.