Half-Life Review

Game: Half-Life
Year (s):  1998
Company:  dev.  Valve Corp, Gearbox (expansions)
            pub.  Sierra Corp
Engine:  GoldSrc
Type:  FPS


Plot

You are Gordon Freeman, physicist at the Black Mesa test facilities, a place for classified advanced research in a number of fields.  One day at work, a catastrophic "cascade event" occurs, and aliens from another dimension start killing everyone.  Then the military shows up, and... also starts killing everyone.  Have fun!  Should've called in sick...
Actually, this has more story than previous shooters.


GoldSrc

The GoldSrc engine is a modified version of the id Tech 2 engine used in Quake.  When it debuted, it was graphically competitive against Unreal Engine 1, id Tech 2 (and 3), etc.  With only a couple of exceptions, GoldSrc was used exclusively by Valve for Half-Life spin-offs (Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, expansions) and multiplayer mods.



So, What's New?


This was the first game I ever played that made the player reload weapons.  A simple thing, a logical thing, and it made sense.  Also new, there was a reason to not sprint all the time, as walking was required against some enemies, and running in a minefield is stupid.  Lastly, the flashlight.  It also makes sense, but hadn't been a constant item in previous games I played.


Combat


This game introduced me to secondary-fire for weapons.  A few times, you get to use turrets, and once you have a chance to call in air strikes.  Security personnel and other scientists offer assistance.  Aside from that, the fighting is pretty standard.


Expansions / DLC


Gearbox released two expansions.  In the first, Opposing Force, you play the part of one of the marines.  Sometimes other marines help you.  The enemies and plot have nothing to do with any other Half-Life game, it's buggy, and some of the new weapons, while creative, don't make up for this being a piece of shit.

In Blue Shift, you are Barney Calhoun of Black Mesa security.  If you recall the opening tram ride in Half-Life, there is a guard knocking on a door at one point.  That's you!  This game felt much more like a thought-out expansion, and is worth playing if you liked the original.


Final Thoughts


Valve was founded by two former Microsoft employees.  Half-Life was not only the start of a franchise, it was the first game the company developed.  Half-Life won over 50 game of the year awards, and by 2008, 9.3 million copies had been sold.  Now, Valve is a key service in gaming via Steam, and the Half-Life franhise seems to have stalled, with the last installment in 2007, and no news on anything further.  In 2004, fans began a full conversion of Half Life to harness the capabilities of the newer Source engine.  This project is called Black Mesa, and has a couple trailers up, but also seems to have stalled indefinetely.

In any case, all of the Half-Life games are fun and you should play them.  Also, I hadn't written about any Valve games yet, and, well, it's about time.  I have a feeling that the next Half-Life game is going to be announced at this year's E3.