User Reviews (1 - 11 of 219)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

You would be a fool NOT to buy this!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 19
Date: November 16, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Let me cut right to the point: as far as action games go, this is THE game to own. It wouldn't matter if you bought another action game, because they will never compare to this. Unlike most games where they throw you right into the action, Half-Life lets you adjust to a normal, every-day setting for a while, just before bringing it crashing down over your head via a dimensional portal to an alien world. See, you play a normal, bland scientist guy named Gordon Freeman who works at a secret research base miles underground. This place makes the fabeled Area 51 seem like a little shack. Anyway, you show up and work, only your experiment is interrupted when it explodes and opens a gateway to an alien world. Now these aliens aren't really friendly, and start crossing over to our world to tear up some stuff. You race to the surface, where you know help will be and you can get them to help save your friends, right? Big mistake, pal. The help comes in the form of military commandos, on a mission to wipe out this little disaster, and this involves silencing you and your co-workers permenately. So, now what? The artwork is amazing, the story is compelling. Words simply can't deescribe this masterpiece worthy of the title Game of the Year. Plus, for those of you new to action and first-person shooter games, there's even a short but handy training area where you learn how to do the stuff you need to know for this game. Overall, this is the best bet for any computer game fan.

Quite simply one of the best action games ever made

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 30
Date: June 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I'll tell you right now that I love action games. I began playing Wolfenstein 3D when I was eight. Ever since, action games has always been my form of entertainment. I discovered Half-Life exactly one year ago when I purchased PC Gamer magazine. At that time, Half-Life was already a few months old. After reading about all the wonderful things about it, I finally purchased it. I installed it immediately, and the second I started playing, I was hooked in its immersiveness. From beginning to end, you will have a gaming experience you never had before. You take the role of a scientist named Gordon Freeman, who is involoved in an experiment that has gone horribly wrong and has opened a portal to an alien dimension. Armed with only a crowbar, you begin your journey out of the Black Mesa Research Facility and to the surface while battling aliens. The story unfolds with numerous plot twists and surprises. The story is so immersive that there will be times when you forget its just a game.

The sound is excellent. With a sound card that supports 3D audio(EAX, A3D 2.0, Direct Sound 3D), the game will become frightengly realistic. The graphics are also very good, using a modifed version of the Quake II engine. The gameplay is superb. The puzzles are smart, the level design is diverse, and the artificial intelligence is nothing short of outstanding. The single player portion is worth the whole price. In fact that's why I got it in the first place. But multiplayer is excellent also, thanks to the Team Fortress Classic mod. If you don't have Half-Life there is no reason to wait any longer. It is about time to find out why Half-Life was awarded Game of the Year by so many publications.

Highest Praise

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: March 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I'm reviewing this game now having played it religiously for over 15 months. No game has ever held my attention for nearly so long a period. Even though newer and probably better games are on the horizon to claim the #1 spot due to technology advancements- Half-Life will likely forever hold my fondest gaming memories.

In my opinion, Starcraft was the first game to have truly amazing online support. Including quick and easy updating, ease in finding fast games, and a constant stream of new maps and game play variations to keep it interesting. Half-Life with Won.net was the first game to bring that kind of support to fans of first-person fragging. Single player was great, but once you visit the online Half-Life community... kiss your other hobbies goodbye. I praise valve for creating this game- quite possibly my favorite of all time. Never has a FPS had such amazing weapons, and well-tuned multiplayer maps. Thanks to won.net, finding on-line games have been a snap with filters to find exactly what you are in the mood for and a fast connection.

Like Starcraft again, Valve constantly released free maps, and variations including Team Fortress Classic- a whole other game in itself, which quite frankly deserves a five-star rating of its own. With 9 unique classes, and goals more detailed then simply "killing", TFC added cunning and strategy to a gaming genre that previously relied on reflexes and the memorizing of maps. It truly feels as though you are on a team in fierce competition. This game is a sport.

To top it off, Half-Life gamers themselves were able to make their own maps, character skins and mods- propelling this game and its community into unbeatable longevity. It has been more than a year and a half since this game has come out, and still new FPS games are hard pressed to mimic its appeal. Even though everyone must know its reputation by now, I feel obligated to pay tribute to this amazing game.

It will be interesting to see if any game will ever be able to match its popularity. My money is on Valve's next game, Team Fortress 2.

Whoa...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 19
Date: February 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

In Half-Life, you play Gordon Freeman, a scientist working for the government in the Black Mesa Research Facility. During an experiment envolving a strange alien crystal, somthing goes horribly wrong, and you are knocked unconscious. You awake to find yourself in a badly damaged test chamber, you walk outside and you find your collegues dead. From here on, its you, and maybe a surviving security gaurd or two, against an ARMY of other-dimensional aliens... That is the basic premise for Half-life but there is more to the plot, and i do not want to spoil it for you, so i will not say anymore about it. Half-life is a first person shooter, and a gory one at that, so kiddies, turn away...although im 12 and i had no problem whatsoever with it. This game is the best. It not only has single player goodness, but multi player to back it up. About single player : The artifical intelligence is frigteningly realistic, and the graphics are excellent, especially for a game using the Quake 2 engine. Multi-Player is good too, the net code is solid as a rock, and the mods out there are great. TFC is a plus too, it is a very addictive mod made by the creators of Half-life that has differnt classes of characters. Most of the TFC maps are Capture the Flag, or variants of capture the flag. But there is one, called Hunted, it is awesome. You escort the president to a certain point on the map, trying to protect him from deadly assasins... As far as i can tell, half-life has no flaws, and is the best game i have ever played. I hope this review helps those in need of a good game, but i assure you, it is the best out there of yet. Now Valve...about TF2...

Much better than Unreal or Quake 2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: November 28, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Half Life is a very stunning game. Everything about it is just awesome. Remember the part in Unreal when you could hear screaming behind a door and you don't know what's going on? Remember how that frightened you? Well, up that one, because this game is more frightening because it's more realistic (because of the wonderful A.I.), and because you don't know what's going on behind the scenes most of the time. All you'll notice is the screaming sounds, or the gore coming out of the vents, or some mysterious guy walking around. Every minute of this game is pure bliss.

One of the most wonderful parts that truly stuck out for me was watching the team of commandos outside trying to flush me out. Some would hide behind boxes, while others would throw gernades into my hiding spot. What's so spectacular about that is the fact that 'their' backup would just bomb the whole place, just to make sure I was dead! That was a truly fightening experience, not knowing where the bombs would land, or where an enemy would hide.

Buy this game, please..

Simply the best...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: November 24, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This package with Half-Life and the Team Fortress Classic mod is really hard to beat. First off, Half Life is the most immersive, fun, and exciting game of all time. Nothing comes close to the tension you feel when your flashlight is low on power, you are low on health and have only 3 shots left in your pistol...and you must make your way through a ventilation shaft populated by those little spider crab creatures. Make sure the system you plan to play this game on more than meets the minimum requirements in order to enjoy the full experience (3d card is almost required). If Half Life wasn't enough then anyone will surely enjoy Team Fortress Classic. I've spent countless hours playing this game over the internet. It contains nine different classes from which the player can choose. Each class has its own plusses/minuses and each map you play on has their own special objective. One map may have you capturing the enemy flag and running back to your base for a score whereas another map may have you protecting 'the president' as you escort him across the map while being targeted by enemy snipers. All in all, TFC makes this product worth getting! This game puts Quake III, Unreal, Sin, Kingpin and all other First Person Shooters to shame. It rightly deserves its 'Game of the Year' award.

Brilliant!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: December 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Half-Life is one of the greatest games of all time and one of my personal favorites. It is the perfect balance of pure interactive gaming bliss and riveting cinema (unlike the cheesy Metal Gear Solid). I love that you are still playing during the story sequences, which makes it possible for anything to happen at any time. I was glued to my computer for the entire duration of the game. You are IN the game. Another amazing feature of this game is the genius artificial intelligence. Battling the crack squad of commandos was one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences of my life. I wasn't gunning down brainless dummies. I was fighting to survive. No game has ever surpassed Half-Life in this department. This is a wonderful game. The graphics are great and they set a spectacular atmosphere. The music is superb when it's there. The sound effects are realistic. The voice acting is spot on. The gameplay is breathtakingly brilliant, and it's even funny at times. What more could you want? Well, there's a level editor and multiplayer! Simply put, Half-Life has everything required for a fantastic gaming experience. Buy it.

Holy cow!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: March 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Wow! Rarely am I as floored as I was when I popped in Half-Life for the first time! This is done with the Quake 2 engine! I certainly couldn't tell! When you first get off the train in the beginning, a security guard TALKS to you, and his mouth even moves (although one of the scientists looks like he talks out of the SIDE of his mouth)! Of course, other games do this now, but Half-Life was one of the first when it came out, and MY mouth dropped open! When I entered the facility, another guard talked and told me that his computer crashed and was going to get it fixed! Trust me, there's PLENTY of other scenes like this that will make you wonder if it's a movie or a game. Everything is just so REALISTIC! What's the catch? ...NOTHING! Listen to the gaming magazines and web sites...buy it! You'll be glad you did!

Hot Da.... uh, er, What a great game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: September 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Boy this is a tough one to write about. How can I fairly review a game that has resided on my hard drive since the very day it was released? For the technical minded, Half-Life (H-L) is based on a modified Quake 2 engine, but the modifications simply blow Quake away in almost every aspect. Valve made an excellent move with this choice. It is well known in the gaming community that Quake's engine has some of the most stable networking code in the business. Too bad the video compatibility is a little odd. For the gamer at heart, this game may have a . . . half life longer than Quake itself. Valve made a good move allowing the gaming community to have the WorldCraft level editor and other SDK software. What this means to the average player is that a simple jaunt to a good web page, will yield every manner of new levels, characters, and baddies to download and install to their hearts content. And with Valve's Op-for expansion pack, this game will take up a large amount of space on a lot of hooked players' computers.

One of the most notable modifications to Half Life is the apparently intelligent enemies. Shoot the "dogs" and they'll run for cover and regroup with their pals. Let the marines see or hear you and they'll drop a hand grenade on your head. Ninja's don't just run into you, they jump over your head and land behind you. Crabs pop up at the most inconvenient times. A well designed level and a poorly designed level is differentiated by the "intelligence" of the enemies. Although the modifications are great, they are certainly predictable to an extent. Play the game enough and you'll eventually spot patterns to the enemies "thinking".

So of course, after defeating the game forward and backwards it would be time to test the Quake engine network code. Needless to say, a 56k modem is NOT recommended. Even though with my experience the network game play is better than the Unreal engine, the modem does this game sad justice. Hopping up to anything better than a 56k modem really makes this game shine. Valve has multi-player levels packed right in with this game, nice big areas with lots of weapons make this game a fun "frag-fest". The levels don't have that disgusting "dark" feel to them. Underground levels have suitable colors and lighting. Out door levels have an expansive feeling (although no where near the "out door" feeling that Unreal does so well). Too bad that H-L has compatibility problems with various video cards.

It's really not so much compatibility problems it's really more that valve's default settings for the are usually not the correct settings. (The voodoo video family suffers the worst from this.) By default the video gamma is far too bright for the voodoo 2 card. The decals have the incorrect value. Lighting don't appear correctly. And SLI seems to have an odd effect on the game. Most cards have their unique set of problems, and all of these adjustments have to be done at the command level. Not something to be done by the average gamer.

And this game screams to be played by all gamers. With many advanced gamers using the enclosed Software Developer's Kit (SDK) and WorldCraft to make new levels, and in some cases, completely new games. Valve guaranteed H-L's place in the gaming community. Even if the average player has no idea how to use the software to create new levels, they can still go to numerous web sites and download any number of home made levels. The Opposing Force expansion pack and the upcoming Gunman game are direct descendants of users and their Valve's SDK That are purchasable in the store while hot downloads like They Hunger and D.S.S. Darkstar add free life to the game.

This leads up to the final gripe with H-L, though not a major one. I have the Team Fortress Classic (TFC) expansion, the Opposing Force pack and numerous "user made" levels and my directory continues to grow. Currently the space taken by H-L and the various packs, levels, and extras has reached 912 MB of space. In contrast Diablo 2 (Full installation) is 1.10 GB, while Diablo 1 is only 10.1 MB! The game's are growing guys and gals, so the PC requirements should be followed like a bible.

All in all I would have given more than five stars if the system would have allowed me to do so. But I admit I had to take at least one star away, I did this to force a point onto most people who wish to own a copy of H-L. The game can be played right of the box but to get the full effect of the game, you're going to need to edit the auto start and configuration files. Voodoo 2 owners used to have the H-L Voodoo Doctor but alas, I have not seen his web page in months. H-L really does not like the Voodoo card. ATI Rage Fury does a little better, but you'll get a bizarre "ghost" on occasion. The TNT family does the best out of the bunch with the default values. I understand Valve is working on this issue in H-L 2 (TFC 2?) but we'll have to wait and see. Congrats Valve, this game shoved Quake, Quake 2, Unreal, and Duke Nukem 3D permanently off of my drive. I've since gotten a dual 13 GB drive configuration (26 GB total), I've never even bothered to dust off those games. With the purchase of Bungee software by Microsoft (Please God, Don't let Halo and Oni be X-Box only games.) , the Multi-Player nature of Quake 3, and Duke Nukem (with the Unreal engine) on a perpetual release date, H-L will be a tough game to knock off the "Game of the Year" throne. Has H-L cursed the first person shooter genre? Are developers afraid to knock the king out of the ring? It may look that way.

Half-Life: How Long It Takes to Beat!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

...In low light and solitude I first imersed myself. My headphones and screen immediately presented the most humdrum, plausible beginning for a reality based game: you are going in to work. Fade in to the interior of an automated tram car. A prerecorded voice welcomes you to the Black Mesa Transit System. Such inauspicious beginnings mark the first 20 minutes of the game, and while it might sound boring, it has a devious psychological purpose.

For you are Gordon Freeman, Reseach Assistant. And the liesurely tram ride through the massive Black Mesa Research complex provides subtle clues that everything in your life is about to go horribly wrong. Sure, everything SEEMS normal; just another day at the top-secret government laboratory, right? Yeah, the gaurds grumble about their computers crashing and senior scientists berate you for being late, but its just another one of those days at the office.

Heh, heh, heh...

You actually percieve all of this through Freeman's eyes, right in the game. Like I said, you must go into work at first. You run through bright, institutionalized enviornments and chat with your coworkers as you rush to get to your work center on time.

Finally, the big experiment! All you gotta do is don your protective Hazardous Enviornment Suit, go into the armored, airlock-accessible chamber, and follow some simple instructions. What's this? A senior scientist notices an anomoly as your team bombards an alien substance, but "it's well within acceptable parameters."

BOOM! CRASH! SPARK! SCREAM! Oh no-- everything is exploding in showers of green energy! A massive bolt of radiation hits your coworker's observation post! The ceiling is caving in!

ZAP! Heavy breathing. Fade into a strange, almost aquatic like landscape. ZAP! More breathing. More bizarre scenes. Zap into unconciousness.

When the real world fades back in, klaxons blare. The experiment chamber is in shambles. Sparks fly. The airlock has been blown open. You must get to safety.

But as you try to retrace your steps, you find the devestration has touched everybody and everything. All the "boring" scenes you walked through now lie in ruins and bloody corpses. Welcome to Black Mesa. Welcome to Half-Life.

This whole opening sequence had me right where it wanted me. For the duration, I was this game's slave. I remember sitting in my chair and lifting a dazed look around my room after the disaster sequence. Like Keanu Reeves, all I could say was, "Whoa". I ended up played the game seven hours straight, an unprecedent time spend on one game by me.

I liked many aspects of this game, from the badguys, to the weapons, to the atmoshphere. This is the first game I played which actually creeped me out at times. That opening sequence played a good mind trip, with immersing you into an everyday enviornment which spirals horribly out of control. But I can describe the weapons and beasties some other time. I think what I have shown you speaks for whether or not this game is a good investment.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions