The year was 1998 and first-person shooters were just starting to gain a foothold in gaming popularity thanks to Duke Nukem 3D, Goldeneye and Quake. Now those had little plot, mostly kill the bad guys and that was it. Sure Goldeneye had the illusions of plot and brains but as long as you did a few things, you could spend the whole game just killing everyone but I digress since the mood was about to change. A game was released that focused more on plot and more realistic-stuff. That game was Half-Life and I'm about to review the PS2 port.
Gordon Freeman was just your typical scientist working at Black Mesa. It was going to be a normal day of doing some science by pushing a button and pushing a cart into something but then everything changed. The cart had a sample that opened up a dimensional riff that led to an alien invasion in which they start killing everyone. But fear not, the military has sent a rescue team to help save you and by save you I mean kill everything to keep this covered up. So Gordon has to fight his way through the aliens and soldiers to get help, stop the invasion and figure out the mystery of some guy who keeps watching you.
The main selling point of this game was its total immersion. Aside from 30 seconds, you are always in control. And it really hammers it in during the first 15 minutes when you're riding a tram on the way to work where you can control Gordon's eyes and see the world of Black Mesa. It may be a bit much but it works as you check out all the neat stuff the institute has. Then it really kicks in once you unleashed the alien invasion happens. If this game only did one thing right it was in writing one hell of a first chapter. As you go through the initial stages of the invasion, you see dead bodies and falling infrastructure as you try to make sense of it all. It really is quite an adrenaline rush but it kinda fades when the military starts to come into play but before that....man what a rush.
However, this game has not really aged all that well. A fair amount is it being copied to death and back but there are some elements that are kinda hokey no matter what. At times, you can easily wind up stuck wondering where you need to go and it degenerates into a pixel hunt finding a vent to crawl up to. The amount of "broken bridges" you need to fix gets to be a bit annoying around the half-way mark especially when you need to turn on some equipment to fry a tentacle monster. Those things just take away from the atmosphere and intensity of the rest of the game.
Despite it showing its age, Half-Life is still a very good game. The atmosphere is electric, the action exciting and at times it's really tense. Sure it hasn't aged very well, the controls are a bit loose and the loading times & frequency is a bit annoying but it is worth playing. It does its job very well. Now since this the PS2 port, it comes with an expansion port, Half-Life: Decay. How is it you may ask? You really need two players like the game suggests since doing it with one player is just tedious and excruciating.
8/10
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