Half-Life has been chosen one of the best games ever
created. When Gamespot and PC
Gamer had their top 100 games lists recently, Half-Life topped the
lists at number 1 for both of them. But what makes this game so great?
Let's find out.
I got Half-Life for my birthday. When I got home from
Office Depot, I installed my trackball,
then went to install Half-Life. It only took about 400 MB. When it was
done installing I started it up. I had to turn off all of the graphics
settings and set all the effects to the lowest level in order to have
some form of playability on Ed. When you play it with everything turned
off it looks like Doom. I started to play the Hazard Course. After I
completed that I went to play the actual game. I set it to the easiest
level. I played through the first section, but I just got sick of the jerkiness
I decided to play it on the monster. It looks like a brand spankin new
game when you play it on such a system as the monster.
It starts off, you are going to work via the transit
system. There is this female voice talking to you through the intercom
telling you about the Black Mesa Research Center. That is where you
work. After a long trip through canyons, tunnels, and those sorts of
things, you finally reach the end of your trip. A security officer comes
to open the door for you. You step out and walk inside the research
center. Then you go somewhere, hop into your Hazard Suit, and then this
cool music starts playing. Then you walk into another part where two
scientists let you into this big door and you walk into this large room
with some strange scientific do-hicky on the ceiling. When I walked into
this large room using Ed, the frame-rate immediately started slowing
down. Anyway, they ask you to press a button, then push something into a
ray beam. Everything seems fine, until you push the thing into the ray
beam. Things start exploding, the scientists start screaming, and I am
trying to get back up the stairs. You go unconscious, then you are in
this strange world for about 5 seconds, then you go back into unconsciousness,
then you are in this strange dark place with about 4 strange creatures. Unconscious
again and when you finally regain consciousness you realize that
something has gone very wrong.
You start to walk through the disaster area of what
was left of the Black Mesa Research Center, you come upon a scientist
trying to revive a security officer.
Now I won't tell any of the rest of the story because
it is very cool.
The gameplay is similar to System Shock 2. (Which is
also an awesome game.) System Shock 2 was more role playing and strategy
than Half-Life. Half-Life is more walking around, trying not to get
killed.
I would recommend this game to everyone who has a
descent system. After I get my new hard drive I will attempt to play
this game again and see if it does any better. Only try this game if
your system is a little better than
Ed.
Highs:
