Half-Life
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment | Developer: Valve Software
Half-Life
The fall of 1998 saw a wave of famous (and infamous) games hit PCs. There were high-profile sequels, such as Fallout 2 and Railroad Tycoon II; games that were saddled by bugs, like SiN and Trespasser; and a few games that are already enshrined in GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time, like Thief: The Dark Project, Grim Fandango, and Starcraft: Brood War. But for most people who were playing computer games at the time, one name stands above the rest: Half-Life.
;)
It's difficult to appreciate this now, but Half-Life was really something of a sleeper hit when it arrived. People paid attention to it before it was released, especially after its showings at E3, but in the face of all the competition, this debut game from a couple of ex-Microsoft employees flew under most people's radar until just before its release. But when it finally did hit shelves just before Thanksgiving, it was immediately recognized as one of the best games of the year, and has since been recognized as one of the greatest games of all time.
Half-Life tells the story of Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist (and lab gofer) at the Black Mesa facility in New Mexico. Part of his work revolves around experiments with "anomalous" materials. During a scene that all Half-Life fans remember well, Gordon and his team cause a "resonance cascade" as part of an experiment, which sunders the dimensional fabric and allows aliens from a dimension known only as Xen to infiltrate the facility and begin killing the inhabitants. As Gordon, you have to fight your way through the aliens, as well as through Marines who have been sent to cover up the incident, until you find a way to shut down the dimensional rifts and, hopefully, prevent a full-scale alien invasion.
;)
What made Half-Life such a remarkable game was the intensely focused way it told the story. Instead of requiring you to read pages of text or sit through prerendered cutscenes, the game immediately plopped you into the shoes of Freeman and told the entire story through his eyes in real time. The only story you saw, you saw directly from Freeman's point of view; other events were transpiring in Black Mesa at the time that were later revealed in the subsequent expansion packs, Opposing Force and Blue Shift.
Besides this novel approach to telling its story, Half-Life is also famous for its pioneering use of scripted events. Scripted events are fairly commonplace now, but at the time, Half-Life broke new ground with the dense array of throwaway details that gave the world a sense of being lived in. As you traveled around, you'd see scientists in closed-off rooms attempting to fight off headcrabs, security guards getting pulled into air ducts, or the corpses of fallen Marines being dragged into cracks in the walls by the less pleasant alien invaders. The density of these events really helped create a believable world that lived and breathed--Gordon was just one of its inhabitants.
;)
On top of all this, Half-Life also had some of the best pure shooting action of its time, thanks to its well-designed and unique weapons, fantastic enemy artificial intelligence, memorable foes (including the iconic headcrabs), and a good deal of challenge. In addition to that, the game's presentation greatly helped to support the illusion that Black Mesa was a real place--especially the extremely short loading times and mostly seamless transitions between levels.
Half-Life ended up one of the most successful shooters of all time, with more than 8 million copies sold across multiple platforms. This was due, at least in part, to the somewhat absurd number of collections and packages that its publishers had put onto shelves, including Half-Life: Platinum, Half-Life: Generation, and Half-Life: Platinum Collection 2. While its sequel, Half-Life 2, is arguably a more impressive game in terms of the world that game creates, the original Half-Life had an undeniable impact on the first-person shooter genre. It's definitely one of GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time.
What are your thoughts on this induction to GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time? Leave us a comment and let us know!
753 Comments
not as good as hl2.... bt definitely more influencial
operation blak mesa anyone??
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Never played this but always wishing that this was a download for the orange box
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As a gamer , I still like HALF-LIFE 2
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Yeah, most definetley one of the best games of all time... but, I still can't believe I don't have this game!... YET ! ! ! !
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The game that i will introduce to my sons...
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Amazing And extremely influential
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Excellent game, highly recommended. Make sure your system can handle it or else the stutter and frame rate loss will be brutal.
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Half Life is one of, if not THE deepest first person shooter you'll ever play. It's story evolves to the point of mythos (through its sequels and alternate storyline expansions)
Many people, including IDIOTS like John Carmack, say that story is not important in a game. Half Life manages to prove people like these wrong. HL and HL2 both have revolutionary gameplay and graphics for their time, but it is the games complex, intellectual and mind bending and conspiratory story line that keeps me addicted and in love with the series.
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To put it simple, Half Life is the game when everything "really" started. I mean, come on. The most addictive, fun to play, innovative, sharp edge looking shooter ever made... its like... the electronic bible for gamers. A "must read" book, a "must heard" song and all those crap that comes along the way. Hail the G-man! /bow
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if there was no half life then there would be no far cry, meaning no Halo, meaning no Gears of War, but most importantly, no half life 2
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Half-life made FPS, no, the game industry what it is today. Try to imagine it without Half-Life having ever being realesed. Not nice is it?
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It is one of my life's ambitions to play Half-Life (and a burden on my soul that I have not done so already, albeit due to circumstances beyond my control).
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I have an insanely deep love for Half-Life, and it will remain one of my favorites for eternity.
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Took them waaaaaaay to long to add this to the list.
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While game made a big revolutionary step in the genre,it also had the depth,the personality,the addiction other games didn't have.That are the reasons why this game cant be called anything other than flawless
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Half-Life is " THE BEST GAME OF ALL TIME "
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I am playing this game on PS2 right now and I love it!
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G O A T
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I couldn't even begin to tell you how many hours I spent playing HL on multiplayer. Single player was nice, but multiplayer ruled. Playing with eight to sixteen guys on a single map... good times. This game practically turned me into a gamer overnight.
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i any game that has something to do with the half life world. i finished hl1 6 times
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HL came, HL played, HL conquered.
Half Life is the only FPS which I have played again and again since it release. When ever I boot it up , completes it then let go my keyboard+mouse.
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rly rly great game...
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It was the longest lasting game in my PC, had it installed and played for 5 years.
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Gordon and Black Mesa can still pull in a crowd. It's an awesome game that will be on my greatest games list forever.
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halflife is defently one of the best games of all time, im a HUGE fan of the halflife series
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The game is awesome, it definitely belongs here. I grew up watching (and later playing) this game. It revolutionized video games as a whole, and simply, it kicks ass.
*Waits for Halo to get on this list as well*
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If you don't think this game belongs on this list, you haven't played it. Half-Life is so crazy and so much fun (though I am ashamed to admit I have only beat it on God Mode).
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Every time I see a bad review or comment of the game, I can't help it, but I get really furious about it (I know it's stupid, because it's just a game), this has never happened to me before, and it must be because I spent so much time with HL, loving it, that it came an important part of my life.
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Deus Ex is good, but not better. It's not even the same genre.
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Half-Life set a standard that few have been able to exceed. It was an amazing show of cinematic design. It also has one of the best story to be featured in a game. Both of these things made this game one that I played through 4 different times. Half-Life is one of the most worthy to be called one of the greatest games of all time!
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Although Half life did indeed change the way people thought about FPS's in general, and basically laid the framework for every FPS around nowadays. And now that I think about it, Deus ex was more of an RPG than an FPS so I suppose they aren't really in the same class, so yes, HL does deserve the title, though I'd like to see Deus Ex inducted sometime if it isn't already.
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I have to agree, Deus ex was much better in my opinion. HL was a good game, but I never felt like I was actually there, was never really "blown away" by it.
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I agree Deus Ex is better, one of the only games to make me sit there for the credits in such appreciation.
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But I definitely agree with the guy who said that Deus Ex is way better. Now there's a game that I finished at 5 times, each time playing differently and each time enjoying it. Plus the multiplayer (that came with the patch) used to be awesome. To me the two games are not even in the same league.
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Mmmm.. I probably missed something. I finished about 70% of it, and it was ok, but I wasn't blown away. Oh well..,
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Half-Life is so awesome!
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My first Computer game. Didnt really know what to expect. I was just blown away. After this i got Grim Fandango. Another great game.
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I just beat this game (or it's source counterpart - Half-Life: Source with an HD model/skin pack) and it really is the greatest FPS game of all time!
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love it.
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Can't believe I waited soooo long to get this game. I'm not usually into FPS, but I love this game
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this game is a true classic and more than deserves to be here
...
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One of the greatest games of all time. And it will continue to make technology breakthroughs every time an addition is released.
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this deserves to be in there, but i'm scared sh*tless every time i play it, i've still not completed it, the gameplay is so imersive, and thats the sort of games that should be sold, ones in which you the player do everything, reminds me of vietcong
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i've waited awhile for this to happen
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Its about time.
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This game is definitely worthy of this list.
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Half life is the most amazing (and the biggest) fps i ever played. this is one of the games that will be still played and praaised in 20 years time (my guess anyway)
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the sould add half life and half life 2 and half life2 episode1 to half life 3 box!
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Half Life is THE greatest FPS experience to be had. It may be 9 years old but it can still stand out amongst the Halo's and Far Cry's. This was the first PC FPS I played and I'm glad it was. I still play it now!
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