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

[duchaked]

well you can take a look at it here lol

http://www.youtube.com/show?p=bYPdeqBaYDg&feature=fvsp

 

[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!

Why not send Freeman? He won, not the Gonarch.

True, but as far as I know, the OP is not Gordon Freeman, nor Chuck Norris, therefor, I believe the Gonarch is more than a match for him. Plus, it stays with the theme of "I'm, going to send a headcrab to you in the night unless you buy HL1"

 

[Gardenia]

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?

speaking as someone who played hl2 before hl1, I'd say not really. You could, and you probably wouldn't regret it, but hl2 is an amazing enough experience to be played on it's own

 

[sgtshock]

I bought Half-life one. It's not bad, but I regret buying it. You can clearly see why its the sequel that made Valve so successful.

Half-Life 1 made Valve wildly successful. They won a ton of game of year awards, and made them enough money to allow them to work on HL2 for 6 years without releasing another product (besides a few expansion packs and commercialized mods). In fact, Half-Life sold more in ti's third year of release than its first.

Playing Half-Life today is like watching Seinfeld or the Matrix. What it did is now commonplace but when it was released there was quite literally nothing like it. Back then all shooters were rooms + guns + monsters. Half-life took the same basic concept and introduced a much more dynamic-seeming and enthralling experience through the use of subtle in-game storytelling, cinematics, and scripted events. FPS games have been trying to emulate this cinematic style with varying success ever since.

So if you want to see who did it first and how, then you owe it to yourself to play through Half-Life. just be warned that the game sorta stinks after you get to Xen.

Pretty much this. Every time you play a shooter where the story is presented in anyway other than a cutscene, you can thank Valve. It may seem samey and cooridor-ey now compared to the Call of Duties and Mass Effects of today, but it was revolutionary for its time. And in my opinion, its still hella fun now.

 

[Mr.Black]

I...I....WHAT!?

Sorry but as a gamer, you have to know about Half Life 1...You have to, otherwise I will lose all faith in gamers! Thats the next step after losing faith in humanity!

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.

I'm 15 and Half Life 1 is one of my favorite games of all time, age shouldn't matter when it comes to games.

You're probably one of the few 15 year old's that have played it. Kids these days are into their DS's and PSP's.

 

[Brickcups]

At first I was thinking this was a joke. But upon reading through the thread, I find myself deeply concerned. Go play Half Life now!! (Seriously.. play it)

 

[tijuanatim]

I don't know why, but this topic made me laugh quietly to myself. Im not sure why, but I just imagined Jerry Seinfeld reading it as part of his stand up rutine...

 

[Tacota]

Look. I'm not against old games. Not in the least. I've had a ton of fun with some of them. But its archaic at this point. The gameplay is just plodding along grabbing health and ammo, with only the story pushing me forward. Also, I'm killing any scientist who stops while following me and says, "I CAN GO NO FURTHER!" And the story is running out of Steam. I haven't played it in a over a week. I doubt I'll ever finish it. The shooting isn't fun, and the story kinda sucks.

I understand that. Wasn't my point. Was just saying HL2 probably wouldn't have been nearly as big if it wasn't for how successful HL1 was and how awesome it was in its time. It does get old now.

 

[atol]

Also, Black Mesa Source is going to fucking rock!

I wouldn't say "is". The project is practically on life support.

 

[Jekken6]

I haven't played HL1, but i've played HL2. I;m gnna get the orange box on PC soon and get Black Mesa: Source when it comes out.

 

[David_G]

I...I....WHAT!?

Sorry but as a gamer, you have to know about Half Life 1...You have to, otherwise I will lose all faith in gamers! Thats the next step after losing faith in humanity!

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.

I'm 15 and Half Life 1 is one of my favorite games of all time, age shouldn't matter when it comes to games.

You're probably one of the few 15 year old's that have played it. Kids these days are into their DS's and PSP's.

I'm 13 years old and I've played Half-Life, really awesome game. I was scared so many times, especially with the headcrabs jumping out at you.

OT:Oh, and if you want to get Half-Life and can't find it, try Steam.

 

[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!

Would a person want to play half life 1 before they play half life 2?

It's recommended, alot of the backstory will be explained if you finish it all. Be advised, though, the graphics don't look anywhere near the quality of today.

 

[Valiance]

Really wasn't that good; some people really enjoy scripted events since they don't know how level design works.

Others (me) get tired of touchplates triggering everything and enemies spawning behind you for the sake of an illogical "challenge" of how fast I can whip my mouse around or how low/high my mouse sensitivity is. Or the argument of "game rocks cuz u have battlesuit an' crowbarr" when I found other games of that time to have more interesting weapons, scenery, gameplay, etc.

(FOR EXAMPLE, SEE: Unreal 1, Starsiege: Tribes, Rainbow Six (the first one!), Battlezone (the fps/rts hybrid thingy. ;P)

 

[Koeryn]

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.

i am not a troll,
just too lazy to bother googling

Don't you expend the same effort (if not more) in making a thread here, than looking it up yourself?

 

[No_Remainders]

Being a 16 year old who still plays Half-Life (original); I personally prefer it to Half-Life 2. I'm not sure why. It's a more challenging game in my opinion. That's it really.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

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.

You liked it but...it was a facepalm-inducing nightmare?

 

[Voodoomancer]

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.

Half Life 1 has aged very well.

HL 1 and 2 are both good, each in their own way. I recommend getting and playing both.

 

[DazZ.]

I love Half Life. Remember begging my mum to get me it in a shop because my friend told me about it.

Recently played through HL:Blue Shift as well because I couldn't get to my computer for awhile so downloaded it through Steam. That was still fun.

Wasn't interested in playing Black Mesa: Source until I saw the trailer up there, I'd happily replay HL1 in Source. You don't fight any vortigaunts in HL2 that I remember, would be good to kill them instead of work with them.

 

[Voodoomancer]

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 half life 1 before they play half life 2?

It's recommended, alot of the backstory will be explained if you finish it all. Be advised, though, the graphics don't look anywhere near the quality of today.

I will point you to the Black Mesa Source project, which is basically "make HL1 look better than everything", it's a freelance project mod to overhaul the graphics.

[sub]Edit: semi-ninja'd[/sub]