"probably the best shooter ever"
User Rating: 9.4 | Half-Life PC
It is hard to refer to one particular aspect of Half-Life; in fact, every detail is done just well enough resulting in an amazing experience. Moreover, it is probably the best shooter ever. The graphics for its time were done well and so was the sound. The story is basic but compelling and is told exceptionally well due to its technical aspects being in check, its fantastic level-design, and its outstanding AI. It has the right combination of scripted and unscripted events to keep one guessing and glued to the chair. The Xen level, however, is the only flawed aspect of the game – and it is not so much flawed as it is annoying as it contains a ridiculously long and unforgiving jumping puzzle. However, most of the single-player game is near-perfect and although none of Half-Life’s features particularly stands out, they all seem to gel seamlessly thus providing a truly revolutionary FPS. Indeed it is the seamlessness that is championed in Half-Life as glitches, cut-scenes and other various interruptions are thankfully not present in the game. Furthermore, it is refreshing to play a FPS game without constantly viewing the main character in a third-person perspective via cut-scenes etc as it takes the gamer out of the game – Half-Life avoids this altogether. On another note, the value of the game is extremely high. Not only does one get a relatively long and fulfilling experience in its single-player mode, but one also gets an incredible multiplayer experience. On top, one will get access to many other multiplayer games from the mod-community such as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Day of Defeat, and Natural Selection in addition to the classic Deathmatch. Half-Life was a fantastic game and still is a fantastic game. It revolutionised the FPS genre as it became the standard for comparison. Hopefully the sequel will meet all expectations as it has rather big shoes to fill.
