Half-Life (1998)

Half-Life: The Infected By Neclipse

Single-player mod that combines the weapons and enemies from Half-Life and Opposing Force (Does not require Opposing Force to play) Has a nice industrial aesthetic. Good (but short) maps with decent level design and lighting. Keeps the same tone of the original game(s) but overall just plays shorter. Few puzzles and fairly straight forward. Overall, okay but a very middle-of-the-road experience.

Rating 3/5 2 Hrs, 30 min playtime

I have played the most of the mod Absolute Zero, which was an attempt at recreating Half-Life before it became as we knew it; an early beta. A group of devs used various sources and familiar resources to make the experience as close as it was in its early years, back before Valve decided to polish it further.

As a Half-Life fan, I find it interesting how different the models were on the grittier side, the levels were either simplistic or too spacy for a tight gameplay. Even the enemies cut from the original release were implemented and provide new challenges by maneuvering or toxic treatment. Otherwise, the plot is just as minimalistic and similar as it was in the original.

Alas, since this mod project bumped into too many adversities, regarding coding and staff issues, Absolute Zero was finally put to rest unfinished. As long as this mod is available for download, this rough mod serves as a true fan service in opposite direction to the remake Black Mesa.

Beat on Hard. I can't believe I missed this game back in the day, given that Doom and Duke Nukem 3D were 2 of my favourite games growing up, and Half Life is right up there as one of the best FPS of all time. I even played Half Life 2 around the time it came out; the beginning of that game makes a lot more sense now.

I rarely used the crowbar since ammo was so plentiful, but did on occasion use it to kill head crabs, vortigons and soldiers. I used the pistol to snipe from long range and found it highly effective. 9mm ammo was so common that I used the smg (which looked like an M4, which I thought was weird but I read it is from a texture upgrade) as my main weapon, with the grenades being a great power weapon for unexpected battles. The revolver was good vs soldiers and I tried to get one shot head kills. The shotgun was great at close range, and I almost always used the double shot, though never so much that I ran out of ammo. I did not use the crossbow all that much but it is my kind of weapon; much of the combat is at too close a range for this kind of weapon, and the times when there is long range the pistol works too. I mostly conserved the power weapons for helicopters and tanks, though there were a few times near the end where there were so many enemies at once that I used the energy weapons to mow them down. During the end game, starting at the Lambda reactor level and through to the final boss, I started using the bee gun mostly to conserve ammo. I found it highly effective as long as there was cover (the flying fireball throwers are easy enough to dodge in the open though) and especially liked the homing nature. I did not use the various types of explosives all that much. Satchel charges have extremely limited use but I got a few kills with them. Trip mines were good for soldiers and bee warriors, and the bug grenades were a decent way to distract soldiers.

I did find the soldiers a little bullet spongy, which encouraged sniping them from afar and using explosives and power weapons to kill them ASAP. Otherwise it is very difficult to not take damage. They were also bastards with grenade spam. The alien enemies were good with a nice balance of attack types. I sometimes had a hard time figuring out what to do and had to check a walkthrough a few times. Biggest problem I had with the game was basic movement and platforming. The strafing speed feels too fast, which makes it somewhat difficult to do precision movement to get on ladders and not fall of ledges. I don't feel I should have to hold crouch or walk to bring the speed down. The jumping is also wonky and I had to save scum to do simple things like jump across the electric train rails without taking damage, nevermind the actual hard platforming. By the time I got to the alien world, I said fuck it and used noclip to bypass the platforming. And if I play through the game again I will be making liberal use of noclip. The platforming is well designed though with believable environments, I just wish it controlled better.

No doubt there are a ton of mods and maps to play, so at some point I will check them out.

Played the Source update up until the Xen levels, then switched to Black Mesa (remake).

As someone who never played Half Life as a kid and thus has no nostalgia for it, I can appreciate the impact this game had on FPS's that came afterwards. It's story and atmosphere and character are all fantastic, and the gunplay is great. The AI is challenging without feeling cheap. Some of the level set pieces are super memorable and I get why this game is held in such high regard.

However, the occasionally frustrating level design and irritating platforming got in the way of my enjoyment and made this game a chore to get through at times. It got to the point where as soon as I got to the Xen levels I felt I had to switch over to Black Mesa - graphics were too gross and the platforming too much of a piss off.

Overall, I agree with the idea that everyone should play Half Life at some point, and though I'm happy I stuck with the original as long as I did, I think playing through the updated version may be far more fun for most modern gamers.