It will take the player a heavy dose of patience, but after ten years the game is still worth playing.
Unfortunately for Half-Life, it's not 1998 any longer. Games have come a long way in the past ten years, due in part to Half-Life's influence. Half-Life's highest accomplishment was it's method of storytelling, but new shooters such as Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock are leaps and bounds ahead of Half-Life's initial baby steps. Comparing ten year old graphics to today's standards gives only laughable results, and the onslaught of horror games from the past few years gives players many options for tense, frightening games. The first person shooter genre has remained incredibly popular throughout the past ten years, and in this interim Half-Life's gameplay breakthroughs have been improved upon significantly. While its importance in the history of game design is undeniable, is the game still worth playing ten years later?
Half-Life's greatest innovation was its assimilation of storytelling alongside traditional shooter gameplay, and the story is probably the main draw for new players of this old game. Fortunately, the storytelling methods hold up well. The scenario is a basic game plot involving aliens, marines, and a science experiment gone awry, but the way it is told makes it stand out. The story progresses through scripted events, and the player always has control of protagonist Gordon Freeman. No cut scenes jar the player in and out of the action. As the aliens take control of the Black Mesa research facility, the game takes on an air reminiscent of a horror movie. Blood spattered scientists lie on the floor, giving evidence to unseen monsters hidden in dark corners. Despite the aged graphics, it's genuinely spooky. When the player encounters the marines in later portions of the game, the threatening messages they leave Gordon on the walls are disconcerting. On a few occasions the player has the opportunity to listen to the Marines' communications, making the game seem more realistic. It is the small touches in the game that create a believable world and make the story so engrossing. Though it is a simple narrative, the ending is definitely a surprise. Some may call it anticlimactic, but no one can doubt that it is an interesting conclusion that sets up what is to come beyond the original Half-Life.
While shooting mechanics have been fine tuned in the past ten years, at its core the gameplay is largely the same. The shooting portions of the game are a lot of fun. There are only about ten different enemy types in the game, but because these enemies are different enough to keep the encounters are fresh. The encounters with the Marines in the middle section of the game are the most engaging; the AI is just smart enough to make it challenging, though with a little trial and error their patterns are easy to figure out. Gordon has a large arsenal at his disposal, but even with the variety most players will probably rely on two or three standby weapons. Though nothing about the gunplay will surprise current players, it is still enjoyable.
Unfortunately, Half-Life's incorporation of puzzles into the course of the game does not hold up as well. Most of the puzzles are environmental and involve getting around lasers or turning on complex machines. The puzzles are all really simple and at times monotonous, especially near the end of the game. On occasion the player will be required to move boxes around, and this is always obnoxious. The player has to push the box by moving into it; there is no grab button. Thus, it's difficult to place the box exactly where it needs to be and frustratingly easy to knock the box out of its place. Some of these box segments were so unnecessarily difficult that they were changed for the PS2 release of the game.
It is simple and unnecessary frustrations like these that will keep current players from enjoying Half-Life as much as the gamers of 1998. The platforming portions of the game are absurdly difficult, and it's hard to perform mundane tasks like climbing up and down ladders. On occasion the PC version of the game makes the player take mandatory falls that can kill you if you don't have enough health, and I imagine this was a game-stopping occurrence for some players. The blurry, dated graphics may cause headaches on occasion. The shooting doesn't always seem to connect, the most egregious example of this being an underwater fight with a fish that is complicated by the fish's shoddy framerate and poor collision detection. To make matters worse, the gun the player must use to destroy the fish has only ten bullets, reducing this task to an annoying hindrance. The game's final section is frustrating to the point I almost gave up and watched the ending online. Because of these problems there are times when the game is simply not fun, and less tolerant players probably will not have the patience to stick with it.
Though it's not as much of an issue as the ones I already mentioned, the most disappointing glitch involved the game's soundtrack. One of the ways Half-Life maintains its tense atmosphere is through the way music is used. Most of the time, no music plays. Instead, players traverse the silent Black Mesa facility, hearing only minimal environmental noises such as crackling electricity, running water, and the low growls of the aliens who have taken over the labs. This use of restraint holds up very well, and the silence only heightens the tension the player feels as he or she plays the game. Problems occur when the music kicks in, usually during enemy encounters. The game has a quick save feature, and it is best to use it often. Unfortunately, the music doesn't transfer to the new save. If Gordon dies and the player restarts from the quick save, the song that was playing during the encounter will not restart. The music is good when it can be heard, but any player that makes good use of the quick save will not hear much of it.
The game undeniably has many, many problems. Seeing past them can be difficult, but Half-Life is considered a classic for a reason. Current gamers have been spoiled by newer classics enough to the point that it is hard to put up with old flaws that that new games have corrected, but going back to one's roots is often a good thing. Though it hasn't aged perfectly, the core gameplay still is fun, and there are many new games that could learn a thing or two from Half-Life's storytelling methods. It will take the player a heavy dose of patience, but after ten years the game is still worth playing.