Half-Life is still to this day my most favourite game. It has won over 50 game of the year awards all over the world and is to this day still one of the best video games of all time. The storyline is of a 27 year old Theoretical Physicist named Gordon Freeman working in a secret research facility in the desert of New Mexico named Black Mesa. You start off on a normal day working on an experiment but when it all goes wrong and monsters from the alien world Xen take over the facility you turn into the hero and save Black Mesa from the horrors that the Resonance Cascade has created. This is a first person shooter created by the now widely known video game company named Valve and published by Sierra Entertainment. The main goal of the game is to work your way through the massive research facility, killing any aliens trying to stop you. The weapons you can get in the game are very diverse as you start out with a crowbar but later in the game you can get weapons like a rocket launcher and snarks which are small alien creatures that you can throw at enemies to harm them and distract them from you. A few chapters into the game you will find out that the American Government has ordered the United States Military to enter Black Mesa and wipe out the alien threats, you will then later know that the soldiers are also attacking and killing scientists and security guards for no apparent reason, that adds another thing to the list of threats you have to go through to get out of Black Mesa.
The atmosphere in the game is very serious and has a dark feeling as the world around you is slowly turning into nothing but a place filled with monsters and bad smells. The audio of the game is very high quality and each monster, weapon and character has their own individual sounds (apart from Gordon). These really add to the experience as different characters like the scientists will talk about different things from time to time which sometimes explain some of the bad things going on there and what they have been doing since everything went wrong. The monsters all have very different and strange sounds, each enemy you encounter makes you feel scared as they the sounds they make instil the fear inside you. along with that comes with lots of various different background sounds such as gunfire in the distance and dripping water sounds in a sewer system. The music can be very dark at times and makes you feel very alone and scared, however at other times the music can be very uplifting like it's trying to tell you to do your best to kill the enemies around you. The graphics of the game are very good for it's time as it was made in 1998 which was a very long time ago, however the game featured full 3D Direct X 6 support with high quality textures and models. The shadows and lights are very atmospheric and have a dim look that make you feel like you're trapped underground forever. The textures are very good quality and really bring out the dark and dim colours of an old scientific research facility however the colour pattern is very big as there are many different coloured textures used depending on what room or area of the game you're in. The models really work well as they were made in all different shapes and sizes which really add to how the animations are as they are very realistic looking and really help you get into the game, they make you feel like you're really there. One of the most interesting features is the mouths of the models move which not many games had back then and although the mouth movements were simply just moving up and down as they talked, it was a really good thing to add to the game to further enhance the quality and the realism. The final thing I am going to talk about here is the effects. There are many different effects in the game such as gun muzzle flashes and explosions, they really get you into the game and help you see where enemies are coming from and what sort of firepower you think is best to take them out. These are very important aspects for the game as if they were not there the game would look very bland and too clean which is the complete opposite of what the developers wanted it to be like. Overall I give this game a 10/10 as there aren't any flaws in the game that I can see apart from maybe a couple of bugs however the mix of action and horror is perfect, the storyline is very indepth and expands across 4 games and 2 expansions which are all brilliant in telling the story just as well as the first game. The GoldSrc engine that it was made in has become very popular and hundreds of modifications for Half-Life have been made telling different storylines with all new models, textures, weapons and sounds which is amazing. Every gamer out there should play this game before any others and this will define your thoughts on the first person shooter genre and action in general.
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