Half-Life is a very good FPS in which Gordon Freeman, a scientist from an underground complex, has to deal with an experiment gone wrong and the soldiers wanting to cover it up.
Half-Life -- This is an FPS game that takes a scientist and forces him to survive a mass of mutated creatures and the government soldiers who want to clean this mess up. You play Gordon Freeman, a scientist at the Black Mesa Research Facility. This is an underground facility located in Black Mesa, New Mexico. As the game begins, you are reporting to work, and when you are asked to help with a current experiment, something goes very wrong, and the underground complex is besieged by mutated monsters of all kinds. As the game goes on, you find yourself trying to survive attacks from these creatures as well as the soldiers that have been sent to the complex to keep this mistake hush-hush and destroy any evidence that it happened, which includes yourself and all the other scientists that work at the Black Mesa Facility.
Gameplay in this game is excellent. It is a large game, with 18 different levels or missions. The interface is easy to use, and it is from a first person perspective, so most of the gaming screen shows the area that you happen to be in. On the bottom of the screen you can see your current weapon, and then there are numbers representing the total available ammo, ammo remaining in the clip, secondary ammo if it applies, your health meter, and the HEV suit's meter (I will go into further detail about this suit shortly). This info on the bottom of the screen is known as the HUD (Heads Up Display), and it automatically goes into effect when you put on the HEV suit. The mouse is used to look around, and fire your weapon. The left mouse button fires the primary weapon, and if that weapon is equipped with a secondary function, then the right mouse button fires it. The number keys 1-5 are used to select your weapons, and if there are multiple weapons in that particular slot, than you can just keep hitting that number key and it will scroll to the next one.
The HEV is your Hazardous Environment suit, and it acts as a buffer against hazardous surroundings such as cold, radiation, heat, or toxic waste. It will also take damage from your enemies weapons, and your health meter will not reflect damage from weapons fire until the HEV meter is at zero. Movement is controlled by the keyboard, you can either use your arrow keys if you have any, or the typical WASD. The space bar will make you jump, and there is a long jump maneuver that will be tough to master, but once you do, it will come in very handy during the game (use up arrow + CTRL + space bar). The CTRL key will be used to duck/crouch, and that will also come in handy. Another keyboard function that you might use sometimes during the game, is the F-key, which activates your Flashlight. There is a display on the upper right hand corner of the screen that will tell you if the Flashlight is activated or not.
Some of the great weapons that Gordon Freeman will get to use include a crowbar (which should mainly be used to break crates), a 9mm pistol, and a Navy Seal sub-machine gun (which has a secondary fire mode that is a grenade launcher). The combat in this game can be challenging at times, and I consider that a positive. You will be facing the mutated monsters that I mentioned before, as well as the government goons who are equipped with some heavy firepower. There will also be civilians running around at times, and it would be good to try not to shoot them....LOL. Some of these guys will be guards who will at times join you and help you fight your way out of the Black Mesa complex, and some will be other scientists who mainly help you open doors.
As far as ammo and other equipment is concerned, you will either get it off of dead soldiers, lying on the ground in areas that may take some effort to find, and as I mentioned before, crates that can be busted open with the crowbar. You can find med kits, power ups for the HEV, weapons, and all kinds of ammo. One of my favorite features of this game was the consoles for restoring your health and restoring the HEV suit. They are built into the walls, and can be found quite often. All you have to do to activate them is walk up to them and press the E-key, and keep it pressed down until you are completely healed or until the console is used up. This is a very convenient way of healing yourself, and I enjoy games more when I don't have to work so hard to keep myself alive.
The graphics in this game are good. They are a little dated, but not too bad. If you consider when this game first came out, then I think you would probably consider its graphics very comparable to what was out then. The environments are detailed, and for the most part you are exploring an underground complex. There are a few times in which you are outside, and at the end of the game you are in what could be described as an alternate reality, a very strange place.
The learning curve is excellent in this game. There is a tutorial section in the main menu called the Hazard Course, and if you decide to go through this course, you will learn everything you need to know to play Half-Life. The main menu can be accessed anytime by pressing the ESC key, and it also has options for saving and loading games. In general, the controls and other functions of the game are very easy to understand and use, so it should not take you too long to get the hang of how the game works.
The replay value of this game was not too high for me. I think for the most part, the game would be the same if played again. There is a difficulty setting that is set when you first start the game, and that might provide for a more challenging Half-Life experience. There are two different endings to the game as well, but both of those can be easily viewed by just saving at the right moment and replaying from that point. This game does have a multiplayer option, and there is a GOTY edition that offers even more online play. The Half-Life gaming experience can be continued through the many different versions of this game that have come out (both retail and user-made mods). Some are more for internet play, but there are a few that are single player games as well. There was not really much of a story-line going on in this game. It was basically "the experiment went bad, and now you must make it out of the facility alive." But FPS games are not known for their story-lines, so I did not consider this a big disappointment.
The sound is good in this game. The weapons had an authentic sound to them. The monsters had their own unique sound to them, not sure if you would call it a voice, because most of them just grunted or squelled....LOL. The guards and other civilians had voices that were easy to understand, and that helps when you are needing to obtain information from them. The one thing that was noticeably missing in this game was any kind of soundtrack, or background music. The lack of music was not a problem with Half-Life, and in fact, I think to some extent it helped. In most games, the music will become louder or more intense when you are about to deal with enemies, but when there is not any music, you can actually be surprised when they jump out at you. I think this provides for a more realistic experience.
In conclusion, I would say that Half-Life is a very enjoyable shooter game, and it will keep you entertained for many hours. I have the Platinum Collection, which contains all five of the Half-Life games, and it is a superb collection. I would highly recommend this game, and that particular collection is really the best one to get as it conveniently has all the titles and a single manual that describes each game.
I plan on playing all the other Half-Life games, and as soon as I am finished with them, then I will write reviews of those as well. I know one GTZ user in particular (Richie), is a HUGE Half-Life fan, so I hope that this review passes his inspection...LOL.
Pick this game up, and help Gordon Freeman escape the Black Mesa complex !!!!!!!!!!
