FOG Review: Half-Life (PC)
“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.
I have never been a PC gamer. When Half-Life came out for the PC, I was still rocking my Commodore 64 (which was just a teensy bit short in the RAM department). Besides I was too busy with my PS1 to worry about insanely awesome FPS games with pitch perfect atmosphere; I had some Battle Arena Toshinden to conquer.
In all seriousness Half-Life dropped with the force of a judo throw from Segata Sanshiro (which is equivalent to 10 megaton bombs.) It completely revolutionized the FPS genre. Everything from the graphics to the story to the puzzles to the combat pushed the genre in fantastic new directions. Even dedicated non-PC guys like myself stared enviously at our buddy’s copy and hoped for a console port.
Instead of a nameless space marine shooting legions of monsters, you are theoretical physicist Dr. Gordon Freeman. As you help your fellow scientists with some anomalous materials for their teleportation experiment, a resonance cascade is triggered which opens up a portal to the world of Xen. Aliens come pouring through this portal and at first, you are just trying to make your way to the surface to escape the research facility.
The game presents its story through a series of scripted sequences, rather than cut scenes. This means you never feel like you’ve lost control of the action, even when the game is herding you along predetermined paths.
Half Life is perfectly paced. The gameplay is constantly evolving and presenting you with new challenges. Just as you get used to fighting aliens, the marines show up and present an entirely different challenge. Then right as you start to think you’ve gotten the hang of the marines, you have to adapt to a whole new way of fighting enemies.
There are a couple of spots that are a pain in the butt and there is a little too much jumping for my tastes, but at this point I am nitpicking about the number of cup holders in the Bugatti Veyron.
Why did I pick this game?
I picked this game because it is amazing. You can only play so many Rise of the Robots and Skeleton Warriors before you need to rock out to something amazing. There is a reason that Valve is one of the most respected video game developers in the industry, and it all started with the original Half-Life.
How does it hold up with time?
I actually came to the Half-Life party way late. It was well after the PS2 version came out that I finally sat down and seriously played the game for the first time. So all of this hyperbole is for a game that was no longer on the bleeding edge of technology when I played it, and yet it remains one of my favorite games of all time.
The only thing that doesn’t stand the test of time is the graphics. The character models and textures really show their age.Everything else about Half Life is still fantastic. The combat is still amazing, and the rest of the industry is still trying to figure out how to tell a story as effectively.
I don’t think Half-Life is the greatest game of all time, but it is definitely in the discussion. If you consider yourself a gamer you need to play experience Half-Life. It stands as one of the true milestones in gaming history.
Tags: FOG, FPS, Half Life, PC, Valve
This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 10:47 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 16th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Jonah "spambot" Gregory says:It looks dated now, but I remember when I first played it the graphics seemed super realistic compared to everything else I had played to that point.
Even today, it is a game that will freak you out with it’s surprises around every corner.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, the long in the works Black Mesa project is looking pretty sweet:
http://www.blackmesasource.com/
July 16th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Jeff says:Wow, Half Life as a Friday Old Game? that makes me feel old
.
I totally agree with everything you say though, the graphics are really the only thing that doesn’t hold up well. Though if I were comparing Half Life and HL:2 with graphics out of the equation, HL2 would still win out for me.
Off topic: one thing I really liked about Half Life (as a franchise), was its approach to the additional episodic content via Opposing Force and Blue Shift. HL2 has Episodes 1, 2 (and allegedly 3), which are great but still from Gordon’s perspective.
I think it would have been interesting to see the HL2 universe from the combine perspective, no?
July 20th, 2010 at 5:21 am
Michelle "Leneux" Baldwin says:I only had my first experience with Half Life about two years ago - put into that context it’s not hard to see why it’s a massively influential game.
Visuals aside (because frankly its aged better than some games from the same year) it’s timeless in it’s design decisions.