Half-life

[Maco70]

I just beat half-life today.

I played them out of order, so I had beaten 2 and episodes 1 and 2 several months before even finding half-life.

WTF was up with the last third of the game? It was so good until you went to the alien planet.

Gah...

Just share your half-life experiences here, I want to know what other people thought of it.

EDIT: I wish I had someone to play decay with.

[LuketheXjesse]

Bwahahaha, I have a friend who talks about how terrible the alien planet is.

"No wonder they invaded earth! Their planet is so FUCKING UGLY!"

Also I've only played 2 and it kicked ass.

[FR]

HL was cool. I hated the last boss.

[Maco70]

HL was cool. I hated the last boss.

Glad I'm not the only one.

I also wondered if it was worse since I am playing the PS2 version.

[Gollgagh]

I also wondered if it was worse since I am playing the PS2 version.

I don't really remember much difference between the versions.

of course it's been, what, six years?

[Maco70]

I don't really remember much difference between the versions.

of course it's been, what, six years?

So I've read, it's worse. Of course nobody has anything further to say, just that it's worse.

It has a co-op mode that was a PS2 exclusive. I'd love to play it, but that lack of friends thing makes it hard.

[Gollgagh]

the co-op mode was pretty sweet

I don't really understand why they didn't bring it to the PC

[FR]

Well with the PC there are mods and stuff and shooters are better on PC so I say the PC version is better.

[Darklink42]

I played it when they had the really good deal on Steam where it was a dollar. It was kind of a headache, because I was also playing HL2 at the time and there just wasn't a comparison. Everything is so crisp and neat in 2, and in one I kept constantly shaking my head and wondering what I was looking at.

Kind of wish they'd have brought back the underwater monsters though, those were fun and scary.

[Maco70]

shooters are better on PC so I say the PC version is better.

I really hope this thread doesn't turn into a war about this.

I never really liked PC shooters personally. I was happy to find half-life on PS2.

EDIT:

Kind of wish they'd have brought back the underwater monsters though, those were fun and scary.

Yes.

[Gollgagh]

I played it when they had the really good deal on Steam where it was a dollar. It was kind of a headache, because I was also playing HL2 at the time and there just wasn't a comparison. Everything is so crisp and neat in 2, and in one I kept constantly shaking my head and wondering what I was looking at.

well duh

doing a side by side comparison of anything with its three year sequel will do that

I can't wait until Black Mesa Source is completed

shit is going to be whack

speaking if which, does it make me a nerd that it bothers me that this:

would be more correct as this: Bλack Mesa ?

[FR]

Yes, very much so.

[Toadofsky]

I just beat half-life today.

WTF was up with the last third of the game? It was so good until you went to the alien planet.

EDIT: I wish I had someone to play decay with.

Really wish you would have waited for Black Mesa Source, which is a remake of Half Life, and completely overhauled physics, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrHzvOWLE7c

As far as the original, still love it. I vividly recall when my dad was buying me a new game, and I had the choice of Half Life or Tomb Raider Chronicles. I made the better choice obviously.

But what I remember most, was when I had started playing the game, I just thought, what? Some little tram? Big deal, there wasn't a threat at all, but then, when the experiment started, and then your transported out, in between hearing bloody screams, seeing aliens, and hearing your heartbeat, I was petrified (this was 1998, er 99 I believe).

I remember when I was playing at that part, I had the speakers up kind of loud, my parents were in the next room and they said, "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" So my dad came in and watched me play some of it. And then, HE STARTED playing it. And has been a fan of Half Life since.

I've lost count of how many times he's beaten all of the official releases and expansions (Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Episode 1 and 2). In fact, he beat the first game before me.

As far as the Alien planet. Zen is like a "inter-dimensional bus station", it's not the alien's homeworld. The Combine had the aliens pushed back to the wall, and the Resonance Cascade was like a last resort for them to get away. They just saw Gordon as another threat to them just as the Combine.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm

I can't even begin to consider what'll happen in episode 3, or Half Life 3 for that matter...

[Maco70]

Really wish you would have waited for Black Mesa Source, which is a remake of Half Life, and completely overhauled physics, etc.

See, I really prefer console to PC. I don't even have a steam account. Even when this comes out, I probably won't play it. That is unless they release it on XBLA. That would be sweet.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm

Wow, this will be helpful for clearing up anything I might have missed.

Thanks!

[Nyuura]

Really wish you would have waited for Black Mesa Source, which is a remake of Half Life, and completely overhauled physics, etc.

I'm so ashamed. This is the first time I've heard of this.

[OverCoat]

WTF was up with the last third of the game? It was so good until you went to the alien planet.

Xen was awesome

Well, I'll concede that it wasn't the best part of the game, but the whole setting overall was absolutely stunning. Especially in 1998. I had never seen anything look this good, ever. And the low grav was fun

Really wish you would have waited for Black Mesa Source

Dear lord, no. Play the original first. BM:Source isn't due for a while now anyway, plus you can finish HL1 in like 3 hours. If you want super hax check out "Half Life in Half an hour"

[mcneely11]

well duh

doing a side by side comparison of anything with its three year sequel will do that

I can't wait until Black Mesa Source is completed

shit is going to be whack

speaking if which, does it make me a nerd that it bothers me that this:

would be more correct as this: Bλack Mesa ?

That kinda bothered me too, but visually using the lambda as an a works better.

[Maco70]

Xen was awesome

Well, I'll concede that it wasn't the best part of the game, but the whole setting overall was absolutely stunning. Especially in 1998. I had never seen anything look this good, ever. And the low grav was fun

No, it looked fine for the most part.

I refer more to the platform jumping and overpowered enemies. All of that leading to the final boss just...

...

[Wintermute]

Someone wrote an article detailing why Half-Life is a funner game than Half-Life 2... it was quite an interesting ( and rather correct, in my opinion ) look at the differences between the two games.

[Bleck]

funner

ffffffffffffffffffffffffff

[Maco70]

Someone wrote an article detailing why Half-Life is a funner game than Half-Life 2... it was quite an interesting ( and rather correct, in my opinion ) look at the differences between the two games.

Useless post without link.

And I agree with bleck.

[Meeting_Gman]

Xen is regarded by many people (or seems as such from what I've read) as the weakest part of the game.

You can play Half Life coop on PC, I think it was with Svens mod. You can also coop Half Life 2, EP 1 & 2 that way.

[Gollgagh]

It's not merely having co-op, but a sidestory chapter that's actually built around HAVING TO HAVE a team of two working their way through the complex

[Native Jovian]

http://www.members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm

Wow, I was expecting "THE GMAN IS GORDON AFTER BECOMING GOD AND SENDING HIMSELF BACK IN TIME TO BECOME HIS OWN FATHER" sort of nonsense, but that's actually a fairly sucinct and accurate-as-far-as-we-know summation of the Half Life universe. The only things on there that are somewhat questionable as far as I know is the portrayal of the Vortigaunts and Nihilianth pre-Half Life 1.

WARNING: HUGE NERDY HALF-LIFE BACKSTORY THEORY INCOMING

He portrays Nihilianth as the leader of the Vortigaunts, overall head of their resistance against the Combine. Essentially, he paints Nihilianth as the Vortigaunt version of Gordon. I think it's more likely that Nihilianth is the Vortigaunt's version of Breen. Remember in Half Life 1 that one of the enemies was the "alien controller" (the midget guys with huge heads that fly around chucking fireballs). We know that Vortigaunts have some sort of mental connection to each other (exactly how much is up for debate; it could be anything from "talk with their brains" to "complete hive-mind"); the implication is that the alien controllers have been modified by the Combine in order to enslave the Vortigaunts (who are, after all, known as "alien slaves" in HL1). Nihilianth looks more like a giant version of the alien controllers than anything else; it seems a fair assumption to believe that he's the psychic overlord of all Vortigaunt-dom, especially given some of the comments made by Vortigaunts in HL2 about how Gordon freed them. So rather than the Vortigaunts being another race still fighting (albeit a losing battle) against the Combine, my thought is that they were already fulled assimilated into the Combine by the time HL1 rolls around. The events of HL1 weren't the desperate Vortigaunts trying to escape the Combine; they were the first step of a Combine invasion (the Vorts being the only Combine around when the Gman prodded the Black Mesa research into starting a resonance cascade). Gordon, in killing Nihilianth, broke the psychic control over the Vortigaunts and released them from the Combine. Presumably they decided to go while the goings were good and hitched a ride to Earth on the portal storms in order to prevent being re-conquered by the Combine.

WARNING: REQUESITE GMAN THEORY INCOMING

So where does that leave the Gman? He seems to be an opposing force (lulz pun) to the Combine. In HL1 he causes the resonance cascade and then leads Gordon around, which ends with the death of Nihilianth and the emancipation of the Vortigaunts, which is presumably a fairly serious blow against the Combine. In HL2 he sets Gordon loose again, eventually resulting in the destruction of the Citadel, effectively cutting off the Combine forces on Earth. Why the Gman fights (by proxy, at least) against the Combine is anyone's guess, but from comments he's made it seems as if he's some kind of mercenary. He refers to "hiring" Gordon at the end of HL1, and in HL2 he talks about people bidding for Gordon's services. If that impression -- that the Gman is only opposing the Combine because he's being paid to, and he's coersed Gordon into being one of his "employees" -- is correct, then it means that there's at least six factions in the Half Life universe: humanity, the Vortigaunts, the Xen "wildlife" (which are basically animals, but they're a force to consider none the less), the Combine, the Gman (and compatriots?), and whoever hired the Gman to oppose the Combine. The Gman's mission (accoplished through Gordon) in HL1 is "free the Vortigaunts" and in HL2 it's either "free humanity" or "keep the Vortigaunts free" (which amounts to the same thing: destroying the Combine's hold on Earth). The motives for this could be altruistic (the freedom of the species is its own goal), practical (freeing the Vortigaunts and the humans causes the Combine a lot of trouble), or experimental (let the humans loose and see what they do/how the Combine react/etc), but we don't really have enough information to do more than outline vague possibilities.