The end of the 1990's has to be one of those benchmark eras's that will stand out in the history of gaming. Like the 1970's that introduced playing games on your television sets, the 90's had the elements of the internet, a good economy, computer technology innovations (to name a few) that allowed gaming to breakthrough its threshold and go beyond many people imaginations and expectations. Half Life is one game out of a very few that pushed the industry forward and caused many sleepless nights of blurry eyed fun. It's usage of a great storyline simultaneously giving the player a feeling of freedom to interact with the environment wasn't used before in quite the same way. Couple this with Graphics, lighting and sound that pushed the quality envelope at the time to new heights and you get a classic game worthy of going back to, and one that will be hard to improve on. It is also noteworthy to mention the success valve had in creating a new character and story that were good enough to make me actually care how the story ended up without any existing background story to barrow from. The actual story is pretty simple: Take a mid-20's scientific genius, place him in a dire situation and give the player the controls to get him out of his precarious situation. On the way to salvation our hero encounters monsters, zombies and overzealous Special Forces units. There is even that element of mystery throughout the game seeing that odd spectator in the suit and briefcase calmly watching you for a minute and then just as calmly walking off camera to someplace just out of your reach. Its an easy story to relate to, not because we are all genius scientists in harms way, but because we welcome the idea of being one as long as we don't have to actually get shot at or get out of our comfy chairs. But don't take my word for it: Valve has produced at least 7 spin off games based on the storyline or the character and game engine concepts that came from Half Life, these are: 1: Half-Life: Opposing Force 2: Half-Life: Blue Shift 3: Half-Life: Counter-Strike 4: Counter-Strike: Condition Zero 5: Team Fortress Classic 6: Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms 7: Day of Defeat Then there is Half Life 2 to consider and all that will eventually come from its new engine. Its a shame that most gamers who have not played Half Life will not pick it up because so many titles, that have taken elements from the original Half Life, have come since. These newer titles might look a little better (and probably have load times twice as long) but its good to know than many of them probably wouldn’t exist had it not been for this original. Thankfully Valve bundled the original half Life with Half Life 2 (which is a bit too short) so that when everyone finished HL2 they might have a chance to see where all the hype came from :)
Gameplay: 10 Graphics: 9 Storyline: 10 Sounds: 10 Multiplayer: - Impression: 10 Score: 9.8 GS Score: 10 *Because I played only a bit of its multiplayer, I won't be bothering giving a score for the multiplayer... Read Full Review
These days, first person shooters clutter the gaming world with unoriginal gameplay and very thin storylines. The announcement or release of a FPS is generally met with the words "Ugh... Not again!" by the gaming commun... Read Full Review
