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Half-Life
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 best

By William O'Neal
(11/17/1998)

Game at a Glance
Recap: 3D shooter with remarkable single-player game
Ups: Challenging AI in enemies; solid story line; great selection of weapons
Downs: Some lag in multiplayer games; NPCs look like same three guys
Multiplayer: Very good
Single player: Excellent
Demo: N/A
Patch: N/A
There's so much to say about Half-Life. As a tried-and-true member of Generation X, I hate hype as much as the next guy, and I've waited with bated breath for a chance to dump on this much-anticipated game. Despite my almost cultlike adoration of Quake II, I figured any game that's been preceded by this much hype just had to suck. But Half-Life doesn't. Not at all.
In the Beginning
Half-Life has one of the scariest intro segments I've ever seen. Riding in a tram through the Black Mesa Federal Research Facility, you slowly descend deep beneath the earth and are given just enough time to be concerned about what's going on. Your name is Gordon Freeman, a 27-year-old research engineer with a PhD. Most of you have already read the plethora of previews out there, so you probably already understand the game's premise. But we'll quickly do the rundown for you just the same.
As Freeman, you're involved in a top secret government experiment gone wrong, and soon you realize that aliens are somehow involved in the whole thing. Taking it upon yourself to save the day, you go about trying to reach the surface. This story has a twist, however, and one of your fellow scientists explains it quite eloquently: "Apparently, [the government's] idea of containment is to kill everyone involved."
Bad Guys With Brains?
This scenario makes for some excellent, heart-pounding gameplay; not only are you forced to battle it out with extraterrestrials, but human commando units are also on the hunt for you, and the two display distinctly different AI and skill sets. The commandos communicate with each other over radios--"Get Freeman!"--before they bum rush you with a barrage of gunfire, grenades, and even rockets. The aliens, on the other hand, have that classic alien 3D-shooter vibe: I'll just stand here and fire at you with some weird-ass weapons that may be crude-looking but pack a serious wallop. Even though the commandos are typically easier to kill than some of the mo' badder aliens, chasing them down, and being chased by them, is more single-player fun than I've experienced in a 3D shooter for a long time.
The human enemy units sport a variety of real-life weapons that have given me a newfound respect for ground troops. In one stage of the game, Apache helicopters circle around searching for you while commandos fire artillery and rockets in your direction. Some commandos will even taunt you as you each pause to reload your weapons ("Is that all you got?!"), giving the standalone game an almost-multiplayer feel.
The ferocity of your enemies--as well as Half-Life's fairly integrated puzzles--creates a different bar with which to measure success. As the game marches on, body counts become completely irrelevant, as simply getting through a specific door or window intact takes precedence.

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