Half-Life
Tags: violence, alternate reality

Plot synopsis:
Chapter by Chapter:Anamolous Materials:
Gordon Freeman departs his dorm and goes to the Anamolous Materials Lab for a test chamber experiment. He gets into his H.E.V. suit and comes to the chamber. The test goes well until Gordon pushes a 'sample' into the power beam, and a catastrophic event known as the resonance cascade occurs.Unforseen Consequences:
Gordon wakes up in the test chamber again and sees that the entire facility is being destroyed. Aliens from an unknown world are also randomly teleporting in areas throughout the complex, and Gordon must seek help in order to survive.Office Complex:
Gordon arrives in an administration complex where an alien race known as the Vortigaunts are appearing. Gordon needs to find a way up to the surface where he can escape. He also hears rumors that military troops are coming to save the remaining survivors.We've Got Hostiles:
Gordon learns that the military have come in to not only kill the aliens, but also to silence all personnel. They have set up a hazard course to prevent any personnel from escaping, and Gordon needs to fight his way through them.Blast Pit:
Gordon reaches a missile silo where a rapidly growing tentacle monster is wreaking havoc upon the area. Gordon must find a way to destroy it.Power Up: Gordon reaches the tramway tunnel entrance where a Gargantua is severely beating the marines into smithereens. Gordon needs to reroute the railway power and kill the giant monstrosity.On A Rail:
Gordon travels through the tramway tunnels that lead to a missile that will possibly reverse the resonance cascade, but the marines aborted the launch. Gordon must stop them before it it too late.Apprehension:
Gordon makes it to an research facility that has been destroyed in combat by the marines and is partially underwater. Freeman needs to make it to the Lambda Complex where the rest of the science team is most likely taking cover.Residue Processing:
Gordon is captured by the marines and placed in a garbage press. He escapes and makes it to an old industrial complex that has been infested with headcrabs. He needs to continue his journey to Lambda Complex and avoid the marines.Questionable Ethics:
Gordon arrives at an alien research facility and weapons experimental lab where the marines have sealed off the way out. Gordon needs to find and cooperate with any hiding scientists in order to escape.Surface Tension:
Gordon arrives at the surface, but it has become a war zone. The government is throwing the rest of the marines at Black Mesa, and Gordon needs to stop their actions and make it to Lambda Complex.Forget About Freeman:
Gordon arrives at an underground storage area where he learns that the marines are losing severely and are beginning to retreat. Gordon is almost at Lambda Complex and is running into an increased amount of aliens and a smaller amount of marines.Lambda Core:
Gordon has finally reached the Lambda Complex. The marines are no more, but the aliens are becoming a threat. The missile he launched earlier was unable to do anything because a powerful creature on the other side of the resonance cascade is keeping it open. Gordon must prepare himself to go to the alien world and kill the creature.Xen:
Gordon enters the Lambda portal to Xen, the alien world, and must find the chamber where the powerful creature is.Gonarch's Lair:
Gordon is teleported to an area of Xen where the mother of all headcrabs lives. He must kill this giant creature and find the portal out of the area.Interloper:
In order for Gordon to reach the creature, he needs to traverse through an alien camp and a complex where Vortigaunt Slaves (Alien Grunts) are created.Nihilanth:
Gordon has finally reached the creature, and he manages to overpower the giant thing and is teleported to an elevator on Xen with the mysterious 'G-Man'. He has the choice of refusing to serve him and get killed by aliens, or he can serve him and live.

Review: The game was like Star Wars in many ways, it did not have much of a budget or anything and it turned out to be the best game of 1998 and still to this day does a game have to approve upon it.You play Gordon Freeman, not a tough Marine just a scientist in quantum physics, the story unfolds when you go to work at the Black Mesa Research Facility and every thing goes bad that day.
The story is told with in game cut scenes, not cintematics telling you whats happening, YOU LIVE THE STORY.Also after the most wonderful single player game there is its multiplayer like Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 1.5, Deathmatch Clasic ( Quake all over again ) GO DM 2!
When you finish Half Life, you will look back on your adventure and truly feel like you have taken a journey.
Half-Life was and is a major breakthrough in the world of first person video games.
A great story along with fast paced shoot 'em action make this one of the greatest video games of all time!The adventures of Gordon Freeman, a young scientist battling bloodthirsty alien invaders, will leave you breathless and your jaw dropped at the sight of the game's breathtaking visuals.The final Xen levels seem like something out of a bad 50's sci fi movie though.
Get your ass a copy of Half-Life pronto and feel what it's like to be an arsekicking, rock 'em, sock 'em video game superhero!.
Before 1998 typical FPS games consisted of the player simply blasting their way through endless numbers of monsters in hellish and alien landscapes with an extremely vague plot that seemed like a 5 year old's daydream.
Half-Life revolutionised FPS gaming by providing not only a story, but an excellent story that was highly immersive.On the gameplay and graphics side of things, Half-Life uses a heavily modified version of the Quake 2 engine.
:-)Until Deus Ex came along, I called Half-Life the best game ever, so it is only fair to give it 10/10..
Until Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 came along, this was the best game ever made..
However, since the game is pretty fast-paced, having to pick up items manually would have been quite frustrating in the heat of battle.Of course, the gameplay isn't the only thing that Half-Life has to offer.
Half-Life uses a heavily modified version of the already stunning Quake engine, which broke new ground in 1996 for creating realistic environments and characters with polygon-based true 3-D graphics.
This is as good as video games could look and sound at the time!You've also got an excellent variety of weapons.
What more could you want?But the most surprising aspect of all is that Half-Life didn't come from a high-profile developer at the time (like 3D Realms, id Software, or Raven Software).
This game is very closely choreographed, and the main plot is that you are a scientist that works in a top secret facility (like Area 51) and one day, your experiment goes catastrophically wrong and as a conclusion you are thrown into the crossfire between bloodthirsty aliens and military 'cleaners'.
Although I'm not (and never was) a huge fan of first person shooters, "Half-Life" is the best game of all time.
As far as the story goes, you play Gordon Freeman, a scientist at the Black Mesa Research Facility, a huge nuclear building with thousands of employees.
I salute Sierra for what they've done for the gaming industry.Half-Life is a symphonic blend of action, drama, adventure and story.
Well what can I say Half Life is the best game ever its wonderful the monsters can be scary some times the security guards and scientists are great and funny.It took me a while to complete it but it was worth it.You play a scientist called Gordon Freeman who works for a secret organisation underground when an experiment goes very wrong the underground facility turns into a crumbling mess and most the people are dead accept for you and a couple of people who are scared and injured.But you are not alone a race of aliens have suddenly come from nowhere and are killing any one they can find.You must get around loads of problems and aliens and grunts which have been sent in to kill you.Buy this game it sure is worth it and  then try Half life Opposing Force..
What makes Half-Life exceptional is the senses-shattering realism which laces the entire in-game environment.
The textures are realistic, the colours appropriate, the sounds rich and flawlessly integrated for stereo separation (as in a monster on your left will always be heard from your left speaker), the level of interaction possible with the environment and the human characters is above and beyond what one might expect (FYI: punch the red button under the security guard's desk to set off an alarm and make everyone mad!), and the monsters are just as scary, slimy, and vicious as they come, and backed by a good AI to boot.
And then if you get bored, join the even MORE addictive world of Half-Life online gaming (Team Fortress Classic or Counterstrike)!.
At times it's honestly difficult to continue playing; the fact that you're armed is often no comfort at all when it comes to going round THAT corner, or going though THAT door - and that's the mark of a truly scary game, in my opinion.
Over time it will be superceded by newer and more complex games - the superb Deus Ex, in particular, has definitely put Half-Life in the shade in terms of narrative, atmosphere and involvement.
I mean you just can't describe with words the greatness of this game.For 1 and half months(while I was playing it)I was like at a different dimension.I'm not an addicted video game player, but this one rocked me.First of all it's huge at a point you can't remember all the places that you passed through.It has also a fantastic atmosphere(you think you live it in real),you don't know when something will happen,but you know it will...
Armed with a limited supply of weapons, the man in the white lab coat unleashes some serious hell.This game is often considered "the" first-person shooter (along with "AvP," etc.) and to be fair it is very good.
Know FPS has ever beaten Half life and it shall remain that way for many more years to come!One to buy and cherish.Enjoy.10/10.
Half-Life is one on the few FPS (First-Person Shooter) games that has a good storyline, and that's just ONE of the things that makes it a great game.
PC Game: Half-Life.Genre: Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter.Developer: Valve Software.Publisher: Sierra Studios.Release Date: 19.11.98.Engine: GoldSrc (modified Quake engine).Protagonist: Dr. Gordon Freeman.Settings: Black Mesa Research Facility, New Mexico, USA; Xen.Gordon rides a tram from his dormitory deep into the heart of the Black Mesa Facility, on his way to the Anomalous Materials Lab to begin his work.
Freeman gradually makes his way to the surface to get help, sidestepping Black Mesa's structural damage and defending himself against hostile aliens randomly teleporting in from Xen. A survivor Eli Vance was then seen helping another scientist and then tries to aid Gordon through a closed door.
The other surviving scientists claim that human soldiers are en route as part of a rescue mission, only to discover that the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, which has taken control of Black Mesa, is killing both the aliens and everyone at Black Mesa as part of a government cover-up… Half-Life requires the player to perform two kinds of tasks: combat and puzzle solving.
While most contemporary first-person shooters relied on cut scene intermissions to detail their plot lines, Half-Life's story is put forth entirely through scripted sequences, keeping the player in the game at all times.
Half-Life has no "levels"; it instead divides the game by chapters, whose titles flash on the screen.
This is used for platformer-style jumping puzzles in the later portion of the game.For the most part the player battles through the game alone, but is occasionally assisted by non-player characters, specifically security guards and scientists who fight alongside the player, assist in reaching new areas and impart relevant plot information.
The player also faces human opponents, in particular HECU Marines and black ops assassins who are dispatched to contain the alien threat and silence all witnesses.Half-Life has a large array of weapons the player can use, including the trademark crowbar for melee fighting, the conventional firearms of Glock 17 pistol, SPAS-12 shotgun, MP5 SMG with grenade launcher, .357 Magnum revolver, and rocket launcher as well as unconventional weapons ranging from a crossbow to alien weapons such as Snarks.
As of 2007, over 8 million copies of the game have been sold, making it the best-selling PC first-person shooter of all time.Its second demo uniquely released after the game contains level that isn't the part of initial Half-Life and can be considered as its expansion pack.Half-Life was critically acclaimed, earning an overall score of 96% on review collection website Metacritic.
Gamespot (94%) inducted Half-Life into their "Greatest Game of All Time" list in May 2007.
My rates (compared to 1998’s level, of course):Gameplay: 9.5/10 (a slight minus for linear straightforwardness).Graphics: 10/10.Sound: 10/10.Score (OST): 9.5/10.Story: 9/10.Controls & Interface: 9.5/10.Multiplayer: 10/10.OVERALL: 10/10.If you like this game I also recommend: Half-Life Uplink, Half-Life Opposing Force, Half-Life Blue Shift, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Lost Coast, Half-Life 2 Episodes 1,2,3, F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, Doom 3..
Perhaps this is because of its easy access through Steam or its graphics reinvention using the HL2 engine, but for me its the nostalgia surrounding it.Only in Half Life can you feel appreciation that it was the first game of its time to use full area maps rather than flat overlays that surrounded the character.
In the case of the latter two, the additional Half Life games Opposing Force and Blue Shift only fuelled the desire to see more of Black Mesa and the events that unfolded from the Resonance Cascade.
In half-life you play as gordon freeman age 27 education phd M.I.T. you have been given a job at the black mesa research facility in black mesa new Mexico.
You push a cart with fuel into the beam and then hit a switch on a cat walk, the machine activates and suddenly teleporter melts down and opens portals to the alien world xen so it has fallen to you to fight the aliens and make it out of the facility alive teaming up with security guards and scientists facing horrific alien creatures, bad ass soldiers and the most unique puzzles this side of the rockies.Valve made arguably the greatest game of all time.
half-life took a new perspective towards gaming mostly with character design.
Gordon freeman relates well to the player because much like the player he is just is just an ordinary man who happens to be caught in this conflict then there's the G-man yep every body loves the gman popping up every where around black mesa and you're not sure where he'll be next he is a perfect enigma with pressed grey suit and voice like Hannibal Lector AS one gamer puts it, "there is no time and space for the gman" that's why this game is so good, a balance of action, platforming, puzzle solving, level design and immersive characters.
Half-Life is the best game of all time.
If you are a moviegoer and you are considering your first video game with a plot, Half-Life is the perfect choice.
The secondary characters, namely the scientists and Black Mesa security guards as the primary source of dialogue, tell Gordon intelligence as it is and with practical responses I would expect in real life, and the more focused but frequently appearing and more important G-Man with a strange and idiomic vocabulary and never fully revealing his personality or intentions gives rise to an endless series of countless fan or conspiracy theories that all imply that there is something mysterious and sinister in nature of the game that may never be fully explained.It is the next and advanced Quake with regards to gameplay, and everything that makes a modern FPS what we know of today.
It is fast, destructive, focused, witty, and hyperbolically gory, the "focused" part coming from how the story plays it safe and careful; instead of throwing in everything in haste, it is limited to only telling what Gordon witnessed throughout and voice-acting and scripting that anyone can definitely find parallel to the real life, whether it is inside a research facility or a crisis involving combat.
The spirit of the game comes from using 14 weapons like pistols, a shotgun and a rifle, an RPG, grenades, mines, and energy cannons to shoot or explode enemies into dismembered fragments and making use of physics to solve puzzles.
"You did what you were supposed to do, but did you know you can also do this or this instead?" "Did you find any secret or near-secret areas like the one (here)?" "Did you forget to do anything mischievous or bizarre?" "Did you know you can skip (what you are supposed to do) to progress?" "And most importantly, how will you use your range of arsenal, and will you use them to save a friend who may then help you in return?" With that in mind, it seems that every time I play Half-Life, I discover something I have not found before, like a near-secret area or a G-Man sighting.
Playing and transitioning from buildings to air ducts to outdoors to underwater is never enough.A staple feature of Half-Life is the GoldSrc engine, which lead to perhaps the first game to feel like reading or watching a novel or a film.
It deserves a spot in the history books of gaming, and the capabilities allowed numerous opportunities for events of scripted sequences and pathing, such as running into a "trigger" in an area of Black Mesa and causing a panicked scientist to attempt to escape as a means of story progression.
As an advantage of being a PC game, Half-Life is easily modifiable, and it has spawned some of the greatest mods on Earth due to the capabilities of the engine (remember Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic?).
Half-Life is a game like no other.
Half-Life is one of the best games ever made..
It has a great plot, excellent graphics for that time, freakin' good action, well-created enemy, which is presented as bunch of alien-like creatures, zombie like monsters and other disgusting nightmare things from other dimension or universe.
You are one tough, quiet :), mean BMF Gordon Freeman, a scientist in Black Mesa, who witnessed a main, key accident in this game and it's sequels.
Half-life is a masterpiece and should be played by every game lover worldwide.
The graphics are hell good even if it was made 11 years ago, it is still recognized by gamers as the best game ever made!
The silent protagonist, Gordon Freeman, is absolutely the best video game character ever!
Half-life made the crowbar look good in games because to complete the mission you had to use the crowbar sometimes.
Guys, if you haven't played Half-life then you are blind to realize you are missing out on something that rarely comes out.
Well, not only will you play the best game ever made, you will also have a good time playing it.
12 bucks is a great deal for any game especially Half-life.After an experiment goes horribly wrong at the Black Mesa Research Facility, you have to escape and try to save the world at the same time.
Players will be immersed into a world of fun, guns, mutants, good story, and planets.The sequel to Half-life is regarded as the best sequel ever made and that's one of the reasons why you should play Half-life.
Half Life is their first game so it is difficult to imagine such innovation, especially due to the fact that it is also quite old.
As you have definitely already played Half-Life (who the hell hasn't ?!) I won't tell the story.
Considering what I heard, I thought Half Life was going to be a huge great wonderful FPS that didn't make me dizzy, had great special effects, but best of all had excellent gameplay like Max Payne.
It made me dizzy, the gameplay wasn't incredibly cooly great thing, but it was fun, and the graphics were good, but not "blow out of my mind" good.The best part was not the plot, graphics, or gameplay, but the atmosphere.*spoiler alert*It was very cool when you start off on a little cart and see the Black Mesa Facility in all its splendor, and actually doing your job in a game was very original.
That was great and good, but Half Life is actually a lot like an almost horror/action movie.I was actually frozen when I encountered my first barnacle, (those tentacle thingys from the room) so almost nauseated that I was almost eaten by a horrible tentacle ...
Also, you can talk to everyone in and out of the facility (no, not the bad guys) and they always have something to tell you.Aside from the atmosphere, Half-life is also a very good shooter.
Before Half-Life, my enjoyment of any video game was based on how much I appreciated its gameplay, graphics and soundtrack.
Half-Life, on the other hand, made me realize the amazing potential video games have at absorbing players into their worlds.
In addition to the introduction, Half-Life maintains your immersion in many other ways, particularly by never making Gordon speak.
All the same, for providing such a thrilling, absorbing experience and for legitimizing the first person shooter genre even further than Doom and Quake did, Half-Life deserves its status as one of the best video games of all time..
I am surprised that I have not reviewed Half-life before as it was the first game that really started me on the road to gamer heaven.