About that beer I owe you,
Tonight's topic is a little game called Half-Life. I know most of you out there in reader-land have never heard of it, but that has never stopped me before, now has it?
When talking about the best and most influential FPSes of all time, HL often comes up. Hell, when discussing the best and most influential games of all time, it is almost inevitably mentioned. That's quite a reputation, you might say. How well can this Half-Life actually hold up when separated from all the hype, you might continue. How much of my salary can I donate to dkaufman so that he may continue playing and writing about games for a living, you go on to wonder.
Released in 1998, HL was something of an oddity. FPS norm was generally things of the DOOM or Quake persuasion: level-based blastfests that required little thought to complete. Sure the fragging was good, but the industry was changing. Goldeneye had come out a year earlier and revolutionized console first person shooters with its emphasis on stealth, mission objectives (and multiplayer, but I'm not here to discuss Counter-Strike.) Gamers were ready for something more.
Enter Valve Software's first effort, Half-Life. Running on a hybrid Quake/Quake2 engine, it was a game unlike most anything that had come before. Rather than some buff space marine, you play as Gordon Freeman, a 27 year old physicist/nerd/stand-in for the geeks who would inevitably play and love it. He has recently been transferred to Black Mesa, a top secret military research facility in the middle of a New Mexican desert. Showing up late to an experiment, you accidentally open a portal to another dimension, allowing ravenous creatures to pour through and feast upon the delicious brains of scientists scattered throughout the complex.
In all honesty, the plot itself is not spectacular; it is really nothing more than B-movie drivel. Yet, it is one of the most talked about aspects. Why? This is because the story-telling was revolutionary when it came out. In a time when games boasted about how many hours of cutscenes they contained and Final Fantasy VII sold a bazillion copies for a few short CGI sequences, HL bucked the trend by having none. You are never taken out of Gordon's perspective or forced to watch ten minutes of people talking. The story is never really forced on you; most everything is felt and implied. The opening tram ride is perfect for giving players a feel of what is coming, hinting without ever giving away. When the military shows up, you know their mission is to silence those who have seen the creatures because you might witness them shooting a scientist in the back. If you are attentive, there is a lot to pick up on and ponder over. This drives some people, who have no patience for nuance or subtlety, crazy. However, it is very effective at setting the atmosphere and overall effect of "you vs. the world."
Black Mesa serves as the backdrop to your fight for survival. Rather than being broken into levels, it is one massive interconnected game environment. This helps add some realism and plausibility to the entire experience; it is not some abstract version of hell, neatly broken into stages with a different colored key separating each.
Mood and atmosphere are very important to HL. Black Mesa is in appropriate disarray, with plenty of leaking radioactive waste, screaming scientists, crumbling catwalks and the like. Ammo and health are not found in random locations, floating in midair, but instead are in armories or near the bodies of less fortunate souls. The soundtrack is very sparse, only coming in to accentuate a particular discovery or enhance an intense battle. All of these elements combine to create an appropriately creepy and somber game.
This is not always the case. Early on, I was surprised by the gore in the game, which seemed rather campy. There was never enough of it to be realistic, but still more than was necessary. I suppose this is a byproduct of the time period, but after beating a body repeatedly with a crowbar, I don't expect the body to explode and leave behind only a skull and and a rib. I thought it was kind of jarring and out of place at first, but then I realized that the game is more sly than I gave it credit for. However atmospheric and intense some of the game is, there is definitely a satiric undercurrent throughout. Valve is aware that they have created the equivalent of a 50's sci-fi horror movie, regardless of how immersive it may be. The various scientists and security guards you happen upon are pretty much parodies of similar characters in movies or TV. Or they might just be thinly veiled stereotypes. You decide!
Enemy AI deserves a mention, as it is impressive. Each of the various creatures you encounter has its own attack style and personality. Some attack all the time, some retreat when not in a group, some are blind and seek you by the sound you make. You can even get some of the different enemies to fight each other, which is always entertaining. The variety helps keep gameplay fresh. The tactics the soldiers use can be particularly impressive and devious at times, taking cover, flanking and using grenades to flush you out. I still have nightmares about the ninja assassins encountered later in the game.
All is not well in the land of Half-Life however. The biggest gameplay gripe I had was the platforming, of which there is quite a bit. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark have proved that FPSes do not need a jump button. While some of this hopping kind of makes sense in the context of the setting, it isn't nearly as polished as a game like Metroid Prime or Jumping Flash. Some areas were made unnecessarily frustrating by a plethora of environmental hazards that needed precision control to navigate.
Towards the end of the game, there are some parts with infinitely spawning enemies. This is never a fun design choice, especially in the platform heavy sections and ammo is scarce.
Some people complain about the game's linearity, which is not a gripe I understand. Does anyone complain that Super Mario Brothers is linear? Or Metal Gear Solid? Or God of War? Sure, it kind of sucks that any event you witness is planned in advance and will happen every time you trip the trigger, but it is a viable solution working within the constraints of 1998's PC technology. This is especially true with the lack of overt cinematics.
The middle of the game drags a bit, particularly the entire "On a Rail" portion. That little cart just isn't fun for any length of time and if you abandon it the game restricts your movement. What is the point? The whole thing is slow and boring and the game would do better without it.
What really broke the experience for me was the ability to quicksave. It utterly destroyed any semblance of challenge as I could walk into an ambush, die, restart and approach it, instantly save, try a few strategies and take the attempt that expends the least health and ammo. It was like using a save state. There are better ways of recording progress than giving the player that much power. It seems like an easy way out, rather than implementing a thought out system.
So, at the end of the day, is Half-Life the amazingly awesome game it has hyped up to be? Of course not, no game ever is. It was probably a lot more impressive if played back when it was released, but its influence cannot be denied. A pretty good FPS in its own right, genre fans definitely should give it a look. Additionally, if you are interested in gaming history, HL should not be missed.
Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there,
Gman
