Half-Life is one of the best PC games ever made.
It feels such a shame to have to rate the game as only 8.6, so I will say what score I WANT to give it - 9.8... Its my second favourite game ever - and here's why:
Half-Life simply set a new standard for all shooters. It had everything a game should ever need - amazing graphics, exhilirating gameplay, immersive environments, big weapons to kill big aliens, and a badass scientist with glasses and a cool orange suit.
The basic premise of Half-Life is that you are this scientist (Gordon Freeman) and you arrive for an ordinary day of work ('ordinary' is a gigantic futuristic science lab) only to end up unleashing aliens upon earth during an experiment gone wrong, and screwing up mankind as we know it.
So, armed with a crowbar and an awesome suit, you must fight off hordes of creatures and try to fix what you have done.
Its all very cliche, but its not the story of Half-Life thats so great... Its the way the story is executed.
When you first play Half-Life, you dont see a cutscene to introduce you to the game... The screen just fades in and BAM! There you are, travelling on a tram through the Black Mesa Facility (the science lab) to get to your destination and bugger up the world. In fact, you dont see any cutscene throughout the whole game. The idea of this is to give you the impression that YOU ARE Gordon Freeman. From the fade in at the beginning of the game, to the fade out at the end of the game, you see everything from Gordon's perspective. And it works! I never played another game as immersive as this until Half-Life 2 came out, which used the same method and worked even better (imo).
When you are travelling in this tram, you might just like to look around at stare at everything going on - you can see futuristic objects being fixed, scientists scurrying around everywhere, and huge robots clearing up toxic waste. You see a helicopter taking off outside, and watch as a scientist gets locked out of a room by accident and bangs on the door.
When you get out of the tram, you can explore a little bit before messing up the world if you so desire. You can talk to scientists and security guards, some of which tell you to get going to the test chamber for the experiment because your late.
When you finally get into the test chamber, you are told by two optimistic scientists that there have been some problems which havent been entirely fixed, but it should all be ok (yeah right). Then you go inside, press a few buttons, push this thing into this other thing, and finally screw the world up.
Everything starts exploding, aliens appear everywhere, the scientists get turned into gibs, and you black out. After having a few freaky visions, you appear back at the facility, and embark on the most exhilirating 10 - 12 hour journey you have had for a long time.
I'd better shut up now, because im letting myself talk here, and if I wanted to I could tell you every little thing that happens throughout the whole game, but i wont.
Basically, if you are any kind of fan of First Person Shooters at all, you should get this game. It was amazing and immersive when it came out, and its still amazing and immersive today, despite rubbish graphics. Ive completed this game so many times I lost count (I got to 31 times when I forgot to continue counting), I know it all off by heart, and love it like a son (yes im very, very sad) ;)
Just get it, Ok? Promise?