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It is a way of life!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The only bad thing about this game is that it will destroy the fun from every game you will ever play again. Every game that I have played since will always be compared to this. It is the Michael Jordon and Tigger Woods of PC games.

Oh. My. God.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Revolutionary. This is one of the best games I ever played. The skeletal movement system and A.I. make for a very awesome time. It's long and kind of boring in some parts, but its really fun. I recomend Blue Shift and Opposing Force, as they add to the fun and tie together nicely with the story. The High-Def models that come with BS are ok, but I found out that the ones at http://ambientimpact.hl-improvement.com/index.htm were better because they have moving eyes, 5 fingers, and a much higher poly count. BUY THIS GAME

The best first person shooter ever.. this game started it all!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Mention first person shootears and this is probably the first game that will come to your mind. its' tht damn good!

i first played this game in 2000.. asked my sister from american to get it for me. was so excited after playing uplink(the half life demo) that i just could'nt wait..and as soon as i installed it onto my computer.. i was hooked.. i had never seen anything like this.. i mean, duke nukem and doom 2 were appetisers compared to this baby!!

okay.. about the game :

WEAPONS : you start off with a crowbar and slowly move on to advanced guns like the machine gun,RPG,M-16(aaaaah)magnum,gauss,etc. But the RPG is my all time fav. Guiding missiles with ur mouse controls.. i mean.. how cool is that?
i used to mess around with the missiles half of the time.. just for fun:)
unlike doom or duke nukem. guns ARE'NT Just lying somewhere. You're supposed to collect most of them from the dead enemies, which makes it so real. i was surprised when i got the machine gun after killing one of the soldiers. i was expecting it to be lying somewhere, waiting for me to pick it up.. or a miracle! You might find it funny but these are just some of the minor details which earlier games did'nt have.. guess the guys at valve were taking this a little seriously,which is a good thing.

ENEMIES : the best AI ever. the soldiers, the crabheads, the 'oh so cool' apache helicopters, the huge monsters at the end of the game.. ooooh(drooling)..!!!
every enemy was detailed and hit back at you. they don't wait for you to make a move. If the see you coming, u better be prepared. a slight noise and they're gonna come back at you with everything they've got. they reload and use ammunition in the same way tht u do.

STORY : wow!! breathtaking.. this game is totally story driven. right from the beginning. You're probably thinking wht's so good about the story.. every game has a story,probably even better than this one. But i dont think any game out there allowed you to be a part of the story like this one did. it is so intense and it just sucks you in.
There is this one part of the story called APPREHENSION, where the kidnap gordon freeman. I've showed this scene to my friends over and over and over again. These 2 soldiers are carrying you and you have no guns with you nothing.. You just wait for their coneversation to get over. You have no idea what they are going to do to you, what's coming next.. It is one of the coolest scenes ever. And it's not CGI. It's actually the game. You're in it..
You actually would want to complete the game just to know what happens at the end. I knew that the moment i defeated the final monster, there was something bigger coming. And that is exactly what happened.. One of the BEST and the coolest ENDINGS for an FPS EVER!!!

To sum it up.. i would give this game 5 stars all the way for its cool factor and its originality. I have'nt played half life 2, quake 4,F.E.A.R. and doom 3 yet.. but my new PC is on the way..should have it in a week.. an athlon 3500, 1 GB ram and a 6600 nvidia geforce.. have already bought the games and cant wait to play half life 2.. it has been rated game of the year and i'm sure they already have a platinum edition out for it yet. They are just taking games to the next level!!
Thank you valve. We'll never forget this game.. It is a classic!!

Half-Life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Great game. Old now of course, but still fun to play. Good gameplay and pretty good graphics, not the best but good. Fun shooter. The Half-Life series is really successful and this is the game that started it. You dont have to have a great computer to play this game and thats the plus of it. I never beat this game, but got close to it, I just got stuck lol. If you are new to the Half-Life series, then this is the game to get. Check it out!

Too frustrating for me, interesting, but not fun. Half life is past its half life

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 12
Date: October 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Maybe its me, but Half Life is too crude to be an engaging play. Been meaning to play it for years, but never got to it. I played Half Life 2 first, and that is simply the best experience in gameing I've ever had. It is brilliant. I can see how 2 is a derivative and continuation of 1.

But after a few hours, I simply could not take the constant jumping/missing/dying. And the totally totally obscure paths through each scene. The long passages with no health. The obscure mazes and constant times of being squished. After a while, I became so frustrated I simply stopped playing the game.

There were some jump/fall/sqish episodes where replayed the silly jump part over 100 times. I think that the playability is dated, just like the graphics. The peculiar movement, where you always run, and have to press shift just to walk and not fall or overshoot where you're trying to get to, is simply not a current way to control movement.

All in all, a charming prequel to the best game ever. I'm sure this game was truly groundbreaking 7-8 years ago when it first shipped. But by today's standards, its not for me at least. I cannot wait for more from Valve, as they are fantastic. But this one, I'll pass forever

(XP User) A series of unfortunate incidents...luckily

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Fans of dedicated single-player "first person shooter" games who've never played this game before should definitely not pass it up. HL takes an utterly unoriginal idea for either games or movies and crafts an utterly unstoppable gaming experience. You play Gordon Freeman, who works in the bowels of an ultra-secret, underground research facility called "The Black Mesa". (Having played the game yet I'm still not sure what's supposed to be going on in BM - it's what happens that matters.) Oozing high-tech, the facility is host to another dimension when you/Freeman accidentally...do something that tears a whole in the fabric of our own - allowing beings from that other world to enter ours.

Now, if you think that these otherworldly denizens are peaceful beings intent on fostering cross-dimensional love, or that your fellow human beings will enter the Black Mesa unarmed intent on warmly welcoming these beings to our world, I'm afraid you've picked up the wrong game entirely. For in the bowels of "Black Mesa" you'll confront howling dog things, flying crabs, alien-zombified versions of your colleagues, gigantic aliens that breathe fire through their fists, aliens that hang from ceilings (and entrap their victims using these vine-looking things) and squads of human special forces troops intent on killing everything that moves. If the above attracts you because you think it may be the setting that elevates the nobility of the human existence, I should warn you to look elsewhere - for in "Half Life", you'll find yourself acting indiscriminately with a 9mm automatic, a submachine gun, grenades and (most regrettably of all) a nasty crowbar; you'll make few friends and find yourself (for the most part) alone and (not infrequently) exiled to ventilation ducts (again with the ducts!!) to avoid getting shot at by humans, or burned, bitten, bolted or tongue-bathed by aliens. Complex problem solving skills (as much as marksmanship or bullet-saving) are crucial in this game - in which your enemies have above-average levels of AI. There are unfortunately times when a level may be hung up by the failure to achieve some specific mission-goal, but this is on the whole a game in which the goals are sufficiently complex to make you feel cool for achieving them, yet not so complex as to be impossible to solve. The settings are fantastic - from the vast to claustrophobic. The game is long - uncommitted gamers may find it tedious - but the scope of design here rewards those who keep up with it.

I ran this game on an XP-equipped P4, with a 64MB AGP card, and had no problems (other than those involving the evil aliens and homicidal fellow humans). Graphics and sound were smooth, and I suffered no CTD's.

A Dark and Brilliant Thrill Ride

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Gordon Freeman is a scientist assigned to the secretive, subterranean bowels of a desert research facility. An experiment in particle physics goes awry, space is ruptured, and through the breach comes all manner of alien nasties.

The plot sounds cliche, but that's only because so many games have since imitated (or tried to) what Half-Life pioneered. The game is a FPS of great quality and unusually effective storytelling (it demonstrates a classic show-don't-tell technique) and weaves an unsettling atmosphere that is tough to shake. As Freeman tries to escape from his labyrinthine workplace to the promise of upper ground, a spectacular pace is set as he confronts nightmarish enemies... not all of which are alien.

If you don't have Half-Life as part of your gaming collection, here's why you should:

1. A paranoid, oppresive claustrophobia is built quickly and skillfully. There are no cut-scenes to break the spell. Once you begin playing, you're locked inside an unfolding nightmare. Few games (and fewer films) have ever managed to craft such a relentless atmosphere.

2. The AI is chillingly realistic. This is all the more impressive when you realize this isn't a new game. Enemies demonstrate intelligence, tactical planning, and behave as few video game creations do.

3. As mentioned above, Half-Life pulls a challenging story-telling stunt. As Gordon Freeman, you never get all the answers. No book with The Solution falls into your lap, and no omniscient character fills in all the blanks. Instead, the plot unfolds with nuance and implication... allowing a player to draw his/her own conclusions. This could easily have backfired. Instead, it works.

4. The alien creatures are masterfully depicted. Two of them are so disturbingly realistic that I can completely believe somewhere in the universe they actually exist: the "ceiling barnacles", and some creepy things that emit an ear-splitting sonic attack while convulsing their malformed bodies.

Enough said. Half-Life is an own-it experience.

not compatible with Windows XP

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: March 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I hate to say this? but this game is not compatible with Windows XP OS, so owners of newest Dell computers have to install compatible OS.

An old game still worth buying...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: February 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Made in 98, but still better quality, play, and design than most games on the market in '05. Good storyline, great AI and graphics, not-overly aggressive system requirments, tons of add-ons available. Incredible single player mode, good weapon selection, and arguably one of the best FPS online games of all time. If you like HALO, you will like Halflife. Very similar, but no limit on how many weapons you can carry, and the levels aren't as repetative. (My biggest complaint about Halo, though it's obvious why, many of the levels and hallways are exact copies of one you've seen dozens of times already...gives a feeling of being lost, and even fed up at times.) Halo does have the edge as far as cars and what not though. I also recommend Halflife 2, the sequel to what I'm talkin about here... INSANE graphics and gameplay.

Best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: February 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

You know, you shouldn't even have to read the reviews. If you see that this game has 4 1/2 stars, even though it was made way back in 98, you should know that its good. But good doesn't describe this game. Its better than great, excellent, or even outstanding. I'm going to have to say that this game is groundbreaking. Before this game, shooters were shooters. This game is a shooter that just happens to have a Final Fantasy quality storyline as well. And don't think that you'll be sitting around all day watching cinemas. No, the entire story is delivered to you in real time via other characters talking. *Note* This is not one game you want to play with the sound off! I'll now break the game up into 5 major categories, Graphics, Sound, Story, Gameplay, and overall fun.

Graphics are a biggy in a gamers life. Now adays with HL2 and Doom 3 out, were getting spoiled, and expect graphics like that when about 4% of all the nations PC's are capable of it. Half Life's graphics are very good, but you can easily see why it was made in 1998. The close up images are extremely pixelated, and blocky. But the overall movement is smooth, and if your rig can handle it, the cranked up Graphics are the best eyecandy available for games made in that time period. 18/20

Sound is also a major factor in this game. Creepy sounds coming from unseen creatures, characters talking and giving away the great story, and finally fantastic weaponry sound effects. 20/20

Story is one of the big plusses in this game, and rightfully so. Fantastic is all I will say. Fantastic story. Fantastic story telling. Fantastic Pace. Nuf said. 20/20

Gameplay is big in this game as well. The controls are phenomanal(sp.), the menu is easily accesable, and switching through weapons is a breeze. Only problem is that there are alot of buttons to get used to. Still, if your commited, this category is also a winner. 18/20

Finally, this is overall a very fun game. Stressed out? Tired from work? Then pop in Half Life and sit back. Blowing away monsters is a very good stress reliever. Add to that that the gory effects are great(blood splatters, organs and bones flying all over the place) if you are not turned off by blood. But if you are, why the hell are you playing an M game with a guy holding a gun on the front cover?! 20/20

Final score 96/100 which means this game is a rare gem that you should indulge upon immedietly. I can't wait for our new computer to arrive so I can get Half Life 2! Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you it has an absolute kick @$$ online mode!

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