Finely Aged Wine

My View on Half-Life

Half-Life is the daddy of first-person shooters and the game that would establish Valve Software as a titan in the gaming industry. The game has an unquestionable influence on the fps genre of games, it was the seed that gave players counterstrike and forever influenced shooters with its at the time innovative in-game sequences and still awe-inspiring blend of precise gunplay, fun but clever puzzles, interesting lore and loose string story that serves the players appetite for imagination. 

The story of Half-Life is akin to pickled ginger with sushi. It is a palate cleanser, something in between bites of tight gameplay that increases player motivation to continue on with the game and provides a buffer so that the player can appreciate and savour each new thing the game has to offer. Players will experience this game through the character of M.I.T. educated professor with a PhD in theoretical physics Gordon Freeman. The setting in which most of the game takes place is the Black-Mesa Research Facility. Black Mesa is a government contractor that develops new technologies for the U.S. military to use. During the start of the game, Gordon Freeman inserts a Xen crystal into an Anti-Mass spectrometer marking the Black Mesa Incident and causing the Resonance Cascade that creates portals and dimensional rifts to an alien planet known as Xen. Dr Freeman attempts to escape the research facility amid the chaos caused by the Resonance Cascade. The player has to claw his way as Freeman around the facility and eventually even an alien planet, all the while facing aliens and U.S. military soldiers attempting to cover and control the Black Mesa Incident.

Half-Life excels at using atmosphere effectively to tell a story and control the mood of the player. An example of this can be seen in the game's chapter "Questionable Ethics". In this chapter, the player is able to see parts of the Black Mesa Facility that put the Resonance Cascade in a new light. In this chapter, Gordon can see that various life forms such as headcrabs and houndeyes were being tested and experimented within chambers. The game brilliantly, often shows instead of telling, thereby utilizing the visual medium of video games to a greater extent. After playing "Questionable Ethics" the player begins to wonder: what else might I not know? What was being done in this facility? How much do I know? The game seems to stick to a mode of visual storytelling by which more questions arise than ever answers and it works this to its advantage, the sense of not knowing exactly what is going on and what will happen is part of the game's charm and compliments the atmosphere in the game to create tension. Tension, mystery, and intrigue could be counted as the stock that makes Half-Life so great, they are reflected in the story with its lack of know-how but intriguing lore and atmosphere, they are seen in the gameplay through various ways whether it be by introductions of mobs such as the alien grunt, weapons such as the RPG or even the clever puzzles. The player does not know what is going on with the accuracy that they urge for, but it is the deliberate lack of things shown by the game, at least in a direct manner, that makes the player thirst for more.

A couple of highlights or moments that shined through in my playthrough of the game were:

·         Destroying a Gargantua (A very large mob that can't be killed conventionally)

·         Shooting an Apache (Military Helicopter) with an RPG along a mountain

·         Using a train to venture across Black Mesa

·         Killing Vortigaunts (Mob) with a revolver

·         Platforming in the alien planet of Xen

·         Destroying Tanks

·         Commencing an air strike to kill a Gargantua and platform through a zone

·         Shooting down an Osprey (Military Aircraft) while fighting soldiers

·         Using a laser beam to create a passage

One critique of Half-Life that I will stand by is that toward the end of the game, fighting bosses such as the Gonarch and Nihilanth is boring. These bosses are quite boring and while they are interesting from a lore perspective, they do not offer the same freshness that can be seen throughout the game elsewhere such as when the player uses switches and connects lasers to create a passage by quite literally breaking down barriers. These bosses can be frustrating because they are basically HP (Hit-Points) tanks, whose attacks have a wide hitbox. Once the player figures out how to beat them and dodge attacks it is simply an ammo-depleting repetitive task that does not feel as thought-out as the rest of the game.

I played Half-life twice. On my first playthrough, I would find myself enjoying the game at multiple points but would at other times find myself frustrated at blemishes on a gem and thus move on to play something else. On my second playthrough of Half-life which I began once more from the start, I was able to clear sections of the game with greater ease and found myself getting far less frustrated and far more patient. This time I had played the game to completion. It appears it took some time for my brain to get used to Half-Life and develop a game sense for an older fps title such as this.

Half-Life does contain a bit of gunk that deters the player such as slippery movement in specific zones, occasional bugs and glitches such as being stuck in a tunnel. Repeat deaths that do not necessarily feel justified every time and are often caused by pesky enemy spawns etc.

All things considered, Half-Life proves to still be an amazing game that thinks out of the box, offered much more than was expected of the time it was released in (1998) but also offers surprises that delight players versed in even the most “State of the Art” and "Modern" games. With its package of puzzle platforming, atmosphere and Gameplay, Half-Life is easy to recommend.

Half-Life is one of the best games I have ever played, Half-Life is one of the best ever made, Half-Life is legacy.

Some tips to ensure a smoother new player experience:

·         Turn off “auto-aim” in settings

·         Turn off “V-sync” in settings

·         Save the Game regularly

·         Look up a playthrough when stuck at a zone for too long (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vFZ7PZ0bwc)

·         Be patient

·         Destroy the Crystals before attacking Nihilanth

·         Do not play the Source Port (Half-Life: Source)