Half Life 1... what is it, and why have i never heard of it?

[tthor]

these days, i hear a lot about Half Life 2.
but 1 thing i've noticed is, i've never really heard anyone ever talk about Halflife 1. i mean, if there is a 2, there must have been a 1. but nobody seems to talk about it, and no game stores i've checked have it.
what was it? why is it that it has been forgotten?

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[Valate_v1legacy]

Half-Life(one) was a facepalm-inducing nightmare. I liked every minute of it, just a lot less than Half-Life 2 and the following episodes.

 

[j0z]

...

It is up there with DOOM and Wolfenstein as one of the most influential PC FPSs ever made. Now, I want you to open up your Steam client, and go to the Steam Store, and Buy either Half Life, or Half Life: Source (Source is a port to the same engine as HL2, but the difference is not huge)

It is a must-play.
Get it.
Get it now.

Or I will send Lamaar after you in your sleep.

 

[Greyfall]

They released the 10-Year anniversary edition last year. It was actually pretty good if you can deal with the blocky graphics and grating sounds.

 

[Segadroid]

I have the ENTIRE available series, so I can explain.

HL1 had exellent gameplay for the time, using a modified Quake 2 engine. It was praised with alot of trophees. However, when HL2 came out... Oh boy, totally new experience!

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

You don't? I'm actually surprised you haven't. All self-respecting gamers at least know about Half-Life 1.

 

[orangebandguy]

Half Life 1 was just a run and gun shooter from the late 90s, HL2 was ALOT better.

 

[tthor]

I have the ENTIRE available series, so I can explain.

HL1 had exellent gameplay for the time, using a modified Quake 2 engine. It was praised with alot of trophees. However, when HL2 came out... Oh boy, totally new experience!

would a person want to play halflife 1 before they play halflife2?

 

[Crimson Cade]

these days, i hear a lot about Half Life 2.
but 1 thing i've noticed is, i've never really heard anyone ever talk about Halflife 1. i mean, if there is a 2, there must have been a 1. but nobody seems to talk about it, and no game stores i've checked have it.
what was it? why is it that it has been forgotten?

Just out of curiosity, how old are you? The gap in time between 1 & 2 is pretty big.

 

[tthor]

these days, i hear a lot about Half Life 2.
but 1 thing i've noticed is, i've never really heard anyone ever talk about Halflife 1. i mean, if there is a 2, there must have been a 1. but nobody seems to talk about it, and no game stores i've checked have it.
what was it? why is it that it has been forgotten?

Just out of curiosity, how old are you? The gap in time between 1 & 2 is pretty big.

i'm 17

 

[Crimson Cade]

these days, i hear a lot about Half Life 2.
but 1 thing i've noticed is, i've never really heard anyone ever talk about Halflife 1. i mean, if there is a 2, there must have been a 1. but nobody seems to talk about it, and no game stores i've checked have it.
what was it? why is it that it has been forgotten?

Just out of curiosity, how old are you? The gap in time between 1 & 2 is pretty big.

i'm 17

Yeah, there you go. It came out in 98, when you were 6/7. It spawned the insanely popular (STILL) Counter-Strike, and was more or less forgotten after the novelty wore off.

 

[Nimbus]

I have the ENTIRE available series, so I can explain.

HL1 had exellent gameplay for the time, using a modified Quake 2 engine. It was praised with alot of trophees. However, when HL2 came out... Oh boy, totally new experience!

would a person want to play halflife 1 before they play halflife2?

Not really. It hasn't aged very well.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

...

It is up there with DOOM and Wolfenstein as one of the most influential PC FPSs ever made. Now, I want you to open up your Steam client, and go to the Steam Store, and Buy either Half Life, or Half Life: Source (Source is a port to the same engine as HL2, but the difference is not huge)

It is a must-play.
Get it.
Get it now.

Or I will send Lamaar after you in your sleep.

He's not kidding. I was gonna tell you to do the exact same thing, stop waiting around for a good reason and just go try a great old game. You'll realize pretty quickly that it has a lot of elements that are cliche and common place in today's games, except that it was made 11 years ago. This is where almost every great FPS game idea began.

 

[Mr.Black]

Half-Life 1 is 11 years old, you haven't heard of it because you're young? Half-Life was awesome, I loved every minute of it, and when HL2 was announced and we saw what it looked like, it was the most realistic game ever conceived by man.

 

[j0z]

...

It is up there with DOOM and Wolfenstein as one of the most influential PC FPSs ever made. Now, I want you to open up your Steam client, and go to the Steam Store, and Buy either Half Life, or Half Life: Source (Source is a port to the same engine as HL2, but the difference is not huge)

It is a must-play.
Get it.
Get it now.

Or I will send Lamaar after you in your sleep.

Lamaar? She's pathetic (debeaked, can't zombify (Holy ******* ****, Zombify is not a word. My Spell Checker however suggested Combine!) you) and dead. Send a bunch of Manhacks or an advisor.

LAMAAR ISN'T DEAD! She can't be! can't be...

Okay, I'll send a Gonarch after you! Beat THAT!

 

[Fasckira]

Surely the op is a troll? Even if he is still quite young, a swift google search would have told him what it is and common sense would have told him it was obviously the first game to pre-date HL2. I mean, HL2 does enough to reference the first game at the beginning with everyone remarking how long its been.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

Half Life 1 was just a run and gun shooter from the late 90s, HL2 was ALOT better.

doom is a run and gun shooter, quake is a run and gun shooter, half-life actually had a story and puzzles to it.

I have the ENTIRE available series, so I can explain.

HL1 had exellent gameplay for the time, using a modified Quake 2 engine. It was praised with alot of trophees. However, when HL2 came out... Oh boy, totally new experience!

would a person want to play halflife 1 before they play halflife2?

Not really. It hasn't aged very well.

I really hate when people use that term phrase. When a game won't run under Vista, or uses a gameplay mechanic that simply isn't fun anymore, THAT is a game that hasn't aged well. half-life may look old and be a little less sophisticated in its design (compared to the brilliant sequel) but it's a historic game. and you will absolutely enjoy half-life 2 more after playing 1, there are just too many call-backs in HL2 to recommend otherwise.

the only other thing I will say, the last levels on Xen are notoriously obnoxious. give them a fair shot, but if you start to go really nuts or just get stuck then you can go ahead and start half-life 2, and finish 1 when you've got time.