There will come a day when we will commonly review games based on the artistry of their execution, not their technology. There will be a time when comments about poor dialogue or scenes that move too slowly or concepts that are too bland will be meaningful. Someday, we will be able to look at a game like Half-Life and quibble with its opening scene (which is a long train ride). We will say it takes too long. We will be able to chide developers like Valve for relying on too common an "evil conspiracy" motif. We will be able to, rightfully, complain about the design choices made throughout Half-Life, and that will be the purpose of all game reviews.
When that day comes, we will have Half-Life to thank for it.
Half-Life is an astonishing game - not because it has mind boggling technology, not because it has an earth shatteringly good story, not because the AI is superior to anything ever released, not because the level design is superior to any game we've ever seen. It is simply astonishing because - well, because they bothered to think about everything.
The game elevates the idea of an action game to a whole new level, with a thoroughly integrated story, environment, and countless little touches that remind you that you are a part of something. You don't walk into a hallway and kill a demon because, well, that's what you do in these games. You walk into a hallway and kill a weird extra-dimensional being because you have to in order to get to Tube A, and you really want to get to Tube A, because that's how you're going to get the hell out of here. There was no point in the game that we found ourselves wondering "what the hell is the point of this?" and, as any gamer can tell you, such games are few and far between.
It is those little touches that are so gratifying, though. The game was built on the "show don't tell" philosophy which is the underpinning of any good piece of literature, be it cinematic or written. For instance, there are certain human looking monsters which the game shows you early on are people who have been taken over and mutated by little jumping creatures. These creatures show up throughout the game, and continually try to get onto your face. You are well aware that you will become a mutated freak zombie if they hit you, but at no point does another character say "Hey! Watch out! If they kill you, you'll become a mutated zombie!"
At several points in the game, you see a creepy looking man in a blue suit walking around the compound from which you are trying to escape. Whenever you try to follow him, he disappears. You don't need to have someone say "Look at that creepy evil business man guy. He must be behind some sort of conspiracy!" for you to know exactly what his presence means. [Warning: Minor Spoiler ahead] Similarly, early in the game everyone you run into yells "they're coming to save us!" and you likely know full well that THEY, the mysterious government forces, have no interest in saving you. However, if you don't know, it is quite a sickening shock when you see your first "savior" and he opens fire on you. [Spoiler Over] In neither case does the game rely on another character telling you what's happening.
The reason why is because Half-Life, dig this, assumes you are intelligent. Half-Life assumes you've ever read a book or seen a movie. It falls back on our culturally accepted mechanisms of story telling to deliver a complete story and interactive experience.
Okay, so that would be good enough, but Half-Life also has the incredible AI and beautiful looking enemies that have been promised throughout the years of its development. Couple that with great sound, clever problems to overcome, and very satisfying resolutions to those problems and you have a thoroughly designed game.
For multiplayer, Half-Life has all of the options you could hope for, but is not likely to displace Quake II as the dominant multiplayer title. It is simply not as inspired a game in multiplay as it is in single, though the maps are well designed and it is a great deal of fun. While that's not really a problem, it's not really a grand slam either and multiplayer is the only place where Half-Life fails to awe. If there are actual problems with the game, they are merely minor annoyances.
There are only a few skins for NPCs, which gives them too generic a feeling. The game doesn't offer a voice for your character, Gordon Freeman, so when you speak to NPCs you don't know what you just said. We assume, however, this was an intentional design choice on Valve's part. Why? In very few cases does hearing some voice actor prattle on serve to immerse you in the character you're controlling. It is better, this game posits, to leave Gordon's words to the player's imagination.
And perhaps that's Half-Life's greatest gift to the world of games. It is an open treatise on game design, challenging our accepted notions of what an action game should and should not do. It opens a dialogue (in the form of a terrific game) on the topic of how we interact with games.
The Bottom Line: Half-Life is a work of genius. Valve has quietly stepped up to the plate and produced the best Single Player PC Action title ever made.
