Crabs will eat you in the Black Mesa Research Facility. Beware.
The original Half-Life is a true classic that is better known for its modability. You’ve probably played more Counter-Strike or Day of Defeat rather than the original classic deathmatch or single player. And that’s where the game is special, it’s still alive, even after 13 years have passed, because of its mods. It is also one of the few games which has won over 50 Game of the Year awards from various media outlets and got perfect scores from some of them.
From crowbars to gauss guns, this game has lots of guns, lots of enemies, and lots of weird people in suits, and it is still highly entertaining even after all these years. Single player is extremely long, and then you can also throw in Counter Strike, Opposing Force or Blue Shift mods that you like and add a few more hours of gameplay into it.
Those are Blue Shifters - the security guards with a pistol.
In the original, you play the role of a poor guy called Gordon Freeman getting sent into hours of hell… because he has a Ph.D and a hazmat suit. A nuclear reactor has gone awry in the Black Mesa research facility that dabbles in teleportation technology, and nasty things from the netherworld are coming into the USA via these portals. You have been challenged to fix that, and then, there are a few other organisations trying to fix that too, except they want to keep the truth hush, and that means silencing everyone including you.
The game is a complex mix of first-person shooting, NPC interactions, some first-person puzzles and a lot of storyline. Before you talk to the G-Man (the Administrator who creepily stalks you as you play) at the end of the game, you’ll go through thousands of bullets, slash many more with high-tech weapons and blow up many more things with rocket launchers and grenade launchers.
Being such an old game, you will have no problems running it, except for one little niggle which is that it was designed as a 4:3 aspect-ratio game. Therefore, in order to run it well, you’ll have to either mod it or tell your graphics driver not stretch it. You can get this game off Steam or… search your store room.
Like
Welcome to Half Life's interpretation of Oblivion.
Lightweight game
Plays well on a netbook
Lasts extremely long
Good value if you bought it off Steam (and you’ll probably have it)
Dislike
Can’t play on widescreen unless you mod it
Verdict
This is a game that you will enjoy for hours especially if you are a fan of FPS games, it has the perfect combination of a good game – a good storyline, exciting gunfights and lots of things to do after you’re done with the single player.
Screenshots: Chain Reunion, Half-Life Wikia
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It is one of the best games ever, specially in the FPS world!