Half-Life

"Shooter fan says: S'alright"

I'm a console gamer. The only PC games I've played are Duke Nukem 3D and Decent. I love shooters. I've certainly played my share, so why not review one of the most famous? Well, I am, so bug off.

Half Life used to be one of my all-time favorite games, and certainly one of my favorite shooters. But as I've replayed it, and played more recent shooters, I feel that Half Life hasn't stood up well against time. Lets discuss.

MAJOR FLAWS
-STORY?-
I'm a pretty critical person in life, so lets get these out of the way. First of all, it takes like, 15 minutes before you get into the action. Now calm down! I love games with good stories, but I think the train riding sequence could have been shorter or perhaps skipped on subsequent playthroughs. You run around the complex until you find your Hazard Suit (which turns out to be the real hero of the game, not Gordon Freeman), which I always seem to have trouble finding. Could've made it easier to find, Valve (the developers). Then you're treated to a "Story Sequence", all in real time, no cutscenes..*cough* Doom 3 *cough*. The scientists walk you through a remotely-scientific explanation of whats happening, then you press a button, push a "sample" into an energy field, then all goes wrong. There's your story. Enjoy it, because that's about it. I happen to be a big fan of physics, and this part disappointed me in that respect. In other parts of the game, they make mention of extra dimensions, gluon, particles, and the like, which is cool! Way to do your research! But this part should have been a bit more thought-over in my opinion, since it is what spurs all the following events onward. As for the rest of the game's story, you'll occasionally hear where to go or what has happened from guards and scientists, but there aren't any major characters and no other outlet for the storyline.

-MUSIC-
As for the gameplay, it has it's flaws as well. First of all, where's the music? You hear a random, short music clip during certain parts of the game, but most of the time there's only the sound effects. The sound effects are good, and I would have been fine with just that through the whole game, but the fact that there are random spots of music just bothers me. Either have music or not. It makes Valve look like they couldn't come up with more music.

-ENEMIES-
Another thing is the enemies. I have a lot of complaints about them. Those head-crabs you see throughout the game are pretty annoying and hard to hit, which is fine for a challenge, but it sucks to have to change to your pistol, shoot them 4 times, then change back. Pretty soon in the game you'll encounter soldiers, either with shotguns or machine guns, and boy are they flawed. They have practically no intelligence and will chase you around a corner to stand and shoot at you in short bursts. They don't even react to your gunfire. You can shoot them all you like, but they'll just continue to stand there until one of you are dead. Plus, they're the most common enemy in the game, so get used to em. Then there are those alien guys with the guns on their arms. These guys just suck. No matter what you do, you're going to get hit, because their bullets home in on you around corners and such. So what can you do? Stand in front of them and shoot whilst being pummelled by their precise gunfire. Much like the soldier strategy, only they're tougher. Then there's the helicopters, and boy are they annoying. They can only be taken down by rockets and they move about so much that its so hard to hit them. You can sometimes avoid them, after taking so much damage. But in those circumstances, they're usually taking shots at you while you're trying to get through a difficult enough part. They do so much damage, too. They'll blow you away and you'll be like, "Whoa, what just happened?" That quickly. There are a few tanks, too, and they're also annoying. They take so much gunfire to destroy and there's no other way around them, so you have to take forever. Oh, then there are the silent sniper people. There are only maybe ten of them in the whole game, and thank god, because they're tough. You won't hear them unless you've got good hearing, and by the time you do, they're shooting at you with their powerful, rapid fire silent pistols. They're small, dark, and slender, so they're very hard to see, which I understand is the point, but they take a lot of damage before they go down. And those turrets? I hate them. HATE THEM!! They do a ridonculous amount of damage, they're nearly impossible to avoid, and they can't be killed until you've already passed them. And sometimes, you're supposed to throw a grenade in their cubby before you move on, and that's unbelievably and unneccessarily difficult.

-WEAPONS-
Okay, these aren't too bad, but there is something to be said here. First of all, what's with the sound of the handgun? Sounds ridiculous. The rocket launcher blows. In a bad way, I mean. It takes forever for the rocket to hit its target, and there are so few rockets in the game that you'll only really get to use it on helicopters or tanks. Being so slow, it's also hard to gauge when to fire the thing or else it will miss. Then there are those weird bug things. I like holding them because Gordon will sorta play with em and it just looks so bizarre, but they don't do diddily-doo. There are only a couple of pick-ups in the game and it takes more than one to kill anything, so what's the point? Leave them as annoying enemies. And what about that alien gun you have? The one those big guys use that sound like bugs? How come I can't do as much damage as they do to me? And there's such a short run-on time with them before they reload that it makes it basically worthless. Also worthless are those laser trip-mines which are in abundant supply but rarely used due to the lack of AI.

-OTHER ANNOYANCES-
Pushing boxes and stuff is so hard to do. In one or two parts, it's required that you master this flawed system of pushing. You sort of have to hold down X to push farther, but it kinda does it when it wants to and random selects how far you push it; hard to describe, but lets just say it sucks. Also, the boxes are way too easy to move sometimes and you'll be moving things without trying.

GOOD THINGS
+GAMEPLAY+
All-in-all, it's enjoyable to run around and do things. There's enough variety to keep you from getting bored, with objectives that stretch out for half an hour and rather creative puzzles to endure. Ladder-climing is done sort-of decently, which is a big problem in many shooters, but done alright here. There will be segments of the game where you'll be doing a certain thing, like riding a train or killing an enemy, and it's done for just the right amount of time and done well at that. Killing some enemies can be gratifying with the right weapon. Those aliens that shoot the electricity make a d-lightful laughing noise as they go down. Blowing up enemies with your grenade launcher is also enjoyable as they'll separate into chunks and leave a large bloodstain on the scenery. Locking on to enemies is useful if you need it, but hard to use sometimes. You're better off just blasting, but it's nice to be so accurate. Speaking of accuracy, Gordon is quite the marksman and you'll always hit very close to where you aim. I like that. *cough* Red Faction *cough cough* I like the quick-save option as well. It's so useful to be able to pause, save, then carry on without fear of repeating so much. And it only takes 3 seconds to do! Again, Red Faction *cough cough*

+WEAPONS+
Speaking of weapons, many of them are satisfying to shoot. The shotgun is next to perfect with decent range, great sound, and a secondary "double-barrel-fire" ability. The assault rifle is a joy. It makes this great blasting sound, has plenty of ammo in the clip, fires quickly, and jumps in your hands so you know it's powerful. It also has a grenade launcher attached, which is perfectly accurate and extremely useful. However, you'll find that you use this weapon more than any other in the game because of its sheer power. The revolver is awesome and can take down many of the enemies in a single shot. Your sniper rifle is a crossbow with a scope that is fun to use. It's so powerful that it'll take many things down in a single hit. The laser weapon is a blast to use, as is the gluon gun. Grenades are done well and so are the remote charges which are the most powerful weapons in the game, though sometime unneccessary due to the grenade launcher on the assault rifle rocking so much as it does.

+LENGTH+
This game will keep you busy for quite some time. You'll spend days on end getting through this game. It also starts up rather quickly, so you can easily turn on the PS2 and be in action within a minute so you can pick it up before work or whenever.

TO CONCLUDE
There are a lot of flaws to this game, but there are some staples that will keep me coming back to it on occasion. It's certainly worth buying and you'll find yourself hooked on it obsessively for awhile. That's a good thing in my book. If you see it for $15 bucks somewhere, I say go for it. But not a penny less. If you're going to do that, buy Half LIfe 2, which is superior. Or just pick up Doom again. Yay Doom!!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/12/07

Game Release: Half-Life (US, 11/11/01)