Half life is what one might call a major breakthrough. It was, and still is, one of the best first person shooters ever made. The story, although not overly original, is interesting. The real winner here is the game play but more about that later. This game was released by valve that lets face ... Read review
Advantages: It's amazing Disadvantages: It has to end at some point
Half life is what one might call a major breakthrough. It was, and still is, one of the best first person shooters ever made. The story, although not overly original, is interesting. The real winner here is the game play but more about that later. This game was released by valve that lets face it, at the time, were nothing. This game not only brought the attention to valve but completely revamped the whole 1st person shooter genre. The very original ... ...Let's thank our lucky stars for that or we may not have what we have today. But anyway, let's get started.
I'll start at, well, the start. Your name, Gordon Freeman. You've got some good science grades behind you and you're looking for somewhere to go. Luckily you come across the Black Mesa research facility that's been set up in an abandoned air base. You're going about your usual business, you take the transport system to work, you ... more
Half life is what one might call a major breakthrough. It was, and still is, one of the best first person shooters ever made. The story, although not overly original, is interesting. The real winner here is the game play but more about that later. This game was released by valve that lets face it, at the time, were nothing. This game not only brought the attention to valve but completely revamped the whole 1st person shooter genre. The very original half life was scrapped completely and the project was restarted. Let's thank our lucky stars for that or we may not have what we have today. But anyway, let's get started.
I'll start at, well, the start. Your name, Gordon Freeman. You've got some good science grades behind you and you're looking for somewhere to go. Luckily you come across the Black Mesa research facility that's been set up in an abandoned air base. You're going about your usual business, you take the transport system to work, you don your biohazard suit and you get on down to today's work. Then, suddenly BOOOM CRASH KAPOW and other 60's comic book terms. Everything's gone terribly wrong. Half the place has been destroyed, and those creatures, what on earth where they...? More importantly how are you going to get out alive?
Lets kick off the actual reviewing the game play. To be quite frank it's amazing. All the way through the game play is smooth, your never taken out of first person mode and its fun. There are plenty of enemies to kill to satisfy your bloodlust and there's the occasional puzzle thrown in as well. Some can be quite tricky but with a bit of careful thought and sometimes sheer luck the answer is never too far away. The area is quite interactive. There are often crates to go smash up with your crowbar and when you shoot a wall you get a small hole in it. And unlike many games it doesn't just disappear into nothingness it stays there for the next time you walk past it, and the next and the next etc, bringing back fond memories of total annihilation.
The A.I in this game is very impressive. It was one of its most outstanding factors that made it that higher class of gaming. In some games of this era it can be obvious to guess what the enemy are about to do but in half life this is not the case at all. Some enemies are very aggressive and others are a bit more reclusive. Also the enemy reactions are realistic. If an enemy thinks it is going to die it actually runs from you in hope of surviving and launching another attack. I call it A.I but when your being flanked by 2 separate enemies from vantage points sometimes it does not seem that it is really that artificial.
Next on my list of things to discuss is the graphics. Even by modern day standards the graphics of half life are not too shabby but at the time the graphics were awesome. Movements are fluid, creatures are realistic to behold and the actual areas you are in are decorated and coloured well. It has a very realistic feel to it in general. Although it's not a gore fest game there are some gorier moments but these can be adjusted on the options menu. I don't think I have ever come across a time where the graphics has caused my pc to slow and believe me when I say my PC could do with some improvement.
Sound in this game is quite intelligent. Instead of having loads of sound files for all situations and all guns the sounds adjust according to the area you are in. For instance if you are in a large area you will get some echo or. If you are in a room with padded walls, the sound becomes more muffled. The actual quality of the sound is good and all sound effects are realistic and tie in with the game.
Next on the agenda are weapons. There are your usual pistols and shotguns and grenades and whatnot but the further into the game you get the more interesting the weapons get. Later on you can get some fun futuristic weapons and boy are they fun to play with. I don't want to ruin the surprise though so that is all I am prepared to say. Except all the weapons are realistic of course but you would expect that from this game.
Now unlike most games there is no proper movie clips dotted about and there are no levels. Instead there are scripted events and the story is told through the people you meet. And from time to time you will get a loading sign come up and this will literally take a few seconds and you will be back in the action. Both of theses little things add to the amount you can sink into the game before you think hey wait a second this isn't really happening. Well ok you never become that engrossed because that would just be scary but you get what I'm trying to say here.
Yet another thing adding to the realism of the game is pickups. There are no stupid spinning health packs littered around the place. Health can be found on medical packs on the wall. You can recharge health from them and the further you go the less of them there are. Also you can get packs on the wall for recharging your biohazard suit to lessen the pain you feel from being shot or from being generally exposed to extreme radiation. Ammo is picked up from dead enemies, crates or even from your companions, dead or alive.
I didn't really know where to put this random information so I am going to shove it in this paragraph. Once you have installed half life you do not need the disc to run it anymore so if you lose the disc all is not lost. There is some multiplayer modes as well that are quake like and the technical jargon of system requirements really isn't necessary as it's so old.
I can summarise this game in 3 words. Try it now! But then again that on its own would be plain silly and an awful ending to what can only hope was a good review. But seriously give it a go. It's not too expensive, it should run on most computers and it is sheer brilliance in my opinion. In my opinion picking this up on eBay will be the cheapest option if you do plan on buying this game, which of course you should.
Advantages: Counterstrike is WAY fun! Disadvantages: Half-Life is way average.
...Year? No. So why was Half-Life given 40 "Game of the Year" awards? Hype. Half-Life isn't even my favorite First Person Shooter of that year. That distinction goes to Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. In our LAN get-togethers, we tried to run Half-Life once, on a whim, and for the next 3 months it was Shogo and Warcraft for us. On top of that, my pick of Game of the Year was Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, a game which was a truly immersive experience in ... ...FPS I've ever played, from Half-Life to Unreal to Deus Ex, I've been killed an inordinate amount of times by my evil nemesis...the ladder. What's up with that? You've got a few interesting weapons, and a lot of ho-hum weapons. Multiplayer was pretty disastrous until you get to the Mods. Counterstrike is incredibly fun, but that's of no credit to the original game designers, because they didn't do any of that. The fact that an entertaining game can ...
alkaiser 03.01.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Half-Life (PC)
Advantages: Everything about it, gripping story, great action, very immersive Disadvantages: slightly outdated these days (was released in November 19, 1998) but you wont care :)
My Personal Thoughts
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Half Life is a truely exceptional piece of gaming. I first played Half Life when it was released on ps2 as i never had a PC at that time. However when i did get a PC Half Life was straight into my collection. I thought he game was fantastic and unlike anything i had previously played. It had a gripping story that was very realisitc as you were at the hands of it all. In fact it was this game that got me into ... ...to all the factors contained within this masterpiece of a game.
Intro
~~~
Half Life is the story of Gordon Freemans work at the Black Mesa Research Lab. It starts off as a normal day, u come into work on the onboard train system (this is a great start to the game as you can see all around you and the goings on at Black Mesa) you come into work and talk to a few of your work mates. After exploring and getting use to the controls and just messing ...
Geddes-i 20.10.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Half-Life (PC)
Advantages: The evolution of the genre Disadvantages: Too short
...and the blockbuster success of Half-Life is the testament to the rare amalgamation of unique gameplay design, technology, atmosphere, and theme. It proved a long time before a game surpassed the accomplishments that Half-Life unleashed upon on the PC gaming industry.
The story is pretty intense your immediately put in the place of Gordon Freeman who is a scientist in the Black Mesa Complex where an experiment goes horribly wrong and ends up being ... ...oddly theres no music in Half-life throughout the whole game but to be fair this isn’t a problem simply because it seems to make the game much more atmospheric without music. In Half Life the Sound effects are the focus point of play, if all were not silent while creeping around trough Black Mesa, you would find that it would kill the atmosphere the developers worked so hard to make. To Half Life’s credit the AI of the computer characters ...
vectrex001 31.05.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Half-Life (PC)
Advantages: Amazing graphics, with amazing game play to follow Disadvantages: none, very good game
In the basic sense, Half-Life IS just another first person shooter. You play the role of Gordon Freeman, a research associate in a top-secret research facility. The difference in the game is apparent at the outset, as you start at the beginning of a normal day of work, rather than fighting aliens. You play through a reasonably short storyline as you report to the office (late, of course), and you are ushered directly to the materials testing lab. ... ...some equipment problems are cropping up. Thing go downhill from there.
Once the experiment goes awry, you find yourself facing the unknown. Apparently, some type of creatures have taken over the facility. You are deep below the surface, without weapons, facing certain death. And if the creatures don't get you, the soldiers sent to rescue you just might.
The graphics are extraordinary, especially with a 3D card. The types of enemies are varied, ...
JamieMckeen 08.02.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Half-Life (PC)
Advantages: A good puzzler Disadvantages: Too simple
Half life is a game that I borrowed from a friend at work.
He is also a member here so I challenge him to a writing competition about this game. Come on Arthur, you know you can do better....
Anyway, Half life has been a very enjoyable, if obvious puzzle/action game in the same genre as Doom/Quake. A "behind the eyballs" type game where you command the character as he/she interacts with his/her environment.
Setting the scene.
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... ...owned by Black Mesa. After watching the introductory sequence and disembarking from a transport shuttle, you begin the game.
You are a scientist working on samples deep inside this research facility out in the desert/mountains somewhere.
Something has gone wrong though and its your job to get out alive.
Loading Graphics.
-----------------
Very nice. Very little of the game is revealed as you start the game. It requires a blast on the tutorial ...
andycharger 21.08.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Half-Life (PC)
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Advantages: amazing all round Disadvantages: needs a powerful pc
download games off steam.
overall i know its the best first person shooter game i've ever played and possibly the best out
i'd say if you can only buy 1 pc game this year buy halflife 2
but you need a powerful pc with 1.2ghz proccesor at least and 256 Ram but 512 is recommended. Grpahics card is the most important, you need a card that can support direct x 7, and broadband is recomended for multiplayer. ...
ian_alexander 19.02.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Half-Life 2 (PC)
Advantages: Immense longevity, Great weapons, tense exciting, strategic gameplay, lots of user-made maps Disadvantages: Repetitive, Superceded by Counterstrike Source for Half Life 2
has a better graphics engine and much improved visuals. The original Counterstrike remains just as enjoyable as ever however, and is ideal if your PC is old and not up to the task of running HalfLife 2. An incredibly simple yet stupidly addictive game that is guaranteed to have you playing long into the wee hours. "Just one more turn, then I'll turn it off and go to bed... next turn for sure...."
Summary: A timeless classic ...
Advantages: an amazing game all round - no faults Disadvantages: none
HalfLife 2, a simple but effective game... Somewhat a masterpeice, a work of art... The Mona Lisa of all games... You stand in the shoes of Gordan Freeman, a scientist who opened a rift from one world, to another... And since you were the one who managed to cause the destruction of the human world; you have to set it right... But knowing Gordan Freeman, a crowbar just won't do it...
As in many of the other HalfLife games you are set mainly with a Crowbar to fend for yourself and defend you from anything "Alien" OR Human... But, in this HalfLife 2 you get a vast array of weaponry ranging from a 9mm Pistol right the way through to an Spas-12 Shotgun...
HalfLife 2 runs off of a game engine known as "Source" which happens to be a very useful game engine, as you are able to run HalfLife 2 on Almost ANY computer you want, depending ...
