Half Life

The Best Video Game: The Half-Life Series.

Half-Life is more than your typical first person shooter. It has a captivating story line, an amazing atmosphere and requires more thought than simply running in, guns-blazing (although it has a number of sequences like this.) With the Freeman's crowbar (and later, Gravity Gun) the player must navigate obstacles and defeat enemies not with firepower but with objects in his environment. This makes the game far different than other FPS games, requiring strategy as well as quick reflexes.

One example of this is in Episode Two, when Gordon Freeman must defeat a helicopter, but he has no rockets or grenade launchers and his weapons are ineffective. His only hope is to shoot the mines that the helicopter drops back at the helicopter with the gravity gun before they explode in Freeman's face.

Another example is in Half-Life 2 where Freeman is trying to escape City 17. He's in a room with a large grate and a ladder that goes down into a partially flooded chamber. There is a pipe that the player needs to go through, but he cannot jump high enough to enter the pipe. Rather, he must go back up the ladder, place a barrel at the edge of a ledge, jump on to the barrel, then onto the ledge and move into another room with a number of pipes and a wheel. The player then jumps to the wheel, turns it, and the water level rises dramatically and now he can swim through the pipe into another room. There is a ledge with an exit, but the ledge is too high for Gordon to jump to from the water, but below the water, are several objects that float. If Gordon can break those objects free, he can jump from those floating objects and onto the ledge.

The game play is well done. The fight scenes aren't overly long and are interspaced with realistic puzzles as I mentioned above and the major fights require not firepower, but strategy. I remember the Strider fight at the end of Episode Two, it was very difficult and challenging, but it was fun because it was unorthodox and required you to think and strategize and prepare.

The story is also captivating. It has all the elements in it, intrigue, horror, twists, and a little bit of humor. Essentially in Half-Life, a portal is opened in which alien forces named the Combine invade earth. After Freeman fights them, he's put into stasis for years until Half-Life 2 occurs. In Half-Life 2, the Combine has defeated earth in a 7 hour war and have claimed dominion. Gordon Freeman becomes a part of the Resistance.


Intrigue: Throughout the series, you encounter the mysterious G-Man. In Half-Life, he shows up as the game begins to reach its conclusion and in Half-Life 2, he awakens Gordon Freeman at the very beginning. There are several times when you can spot him while you're traveling through the world, but only for a few brief seconds and only from a distance. He appears to have employed Gordon Freeman for . . . something, but it isn't explained what his motives are or who he's working for. It is uncertain whether the G-Man works for the Combine, the Resistance or for himself. He speaks peculiarly, with odd pauses and stresses on words that don't require stresses. Hopefully, when Episode 3 comes out, the G-Man will be explained. The G-Man stands out so well because the rest of the story is clear cut.

Horror: Throughout the game, Gordon encounters zombies. Zombies are the result of headcrabs. Headcrabs are little creatures that attack in large numbers and infest their host by attaching to the head. They take control of all the functions of the victim and the victim becomes a zombie. Half-Life made the element of surprise in this game, as zombies often come at you where you aren't looking. They'll hide in dark corners where you won't see them. They wail when they attack. From the sound it seems as if the victim still retains some of his humanity as you can hear him wailing in distress, even though it is muffled by the headcrab. It can be very creepy. The city of Ravenholm is completely infested by these zombies and can be come very creepy and suspenseful.

Humor: The game is serious but there are snippits of humor. One example is the stereotypical Dr. Kliener, who is the typical nerd scientist. He's balding and fascinated with physics and has a tame headcrab as a pet that likes to cause problems. There is also Father Gregori who lives in Ravenholm, who's half crazy and trying to "save" his congregation from torment by killing them (the zombies.) It is just enough to keep the game serious but apply comedic relief.

It is a very captivating game with an interesting story line. If one doesn't keep track of time, one might find himself playing the game all day long.

"Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman" - the G-Man

J Kuhl Signing Off