If you are a film student, you should have probably seen Citizen Kane at some point. If you are studying literature, you should have leafed through Ulysses years ago. Where video games are concerned, if you want to be taken seriously, it seems that you should have played the Half-Life games. I, Daniel Hill, of sound mind and body, do declare that I have not played any of the Half-Life games to completion.
I’m just horrible, aren’t I? Valve’s classic Half-Life is credited with being one of the most if not the most influential first person shooter of all time, and is said to have revolutionized storytelling across all videogame genres. Right alongside The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the Half-Life games are some of the most important, influential games of the 3D era of video games.
It should seem strange, then, that a supposed “video game journalist” hasn’t played these games, then, doesn’t it? Well, I can explain why this is a thing that has occurred. Half-Life blew up the PC gaming world back in 1998. I was eight years old, sitting somewhere around the third or fourth grade. Would you like to know what I was playing? Pokemon, Goldeneye, and Wave Race. I stopped playing PC games after Doom (yep, I started playing that at age five), when I got an N64 for Christmas one year, and have been with consoles ever since.
Sure, I could have played Half-Life: Decay on the Playstation 2 and the rest of the Half-Life series on the Xbox 360, but there were so many other shooters out there that I have simply not gotten around to it. The original came out 15 years ago, and the sequel around a decade ago. There have been hundred of competent shooters released since then.
Should I play this game? Probably. I mean, I did go out of my way two years ago to play Ocarina of Time on the 3DS to say I played it, but that’s slathered in nostalgia, with me recalling vivid memories of reading the guide for my sister as she played through the game when we were kids. So, there was an emotional reason for me to play that.
With all of the character-driven shooters out nowadays, is there a reason to step into the boots of a mute Gordon Freeman and play games with shooter mechanics that are 10+ years old? I don’t get it, but I should probably try to. And hey, there are probably things you haven’t played that I have! So screw you anyways! GOSH.
Should I drop what I’m doing right now and go play all of the Half-Life games, or are these games that I can live without playing? Verbally abuse me in the comments below!
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Your reason for not playing Half-Life in 1998 is the same reason as mine. I was eight years old and only knew of the glory of the N64 and the original Playstation.
That didn't last too long, though.
When I was 10 or 11, I went on a train trip with my adoptive mother to meet my birth family for the first time and while I was at a Walmart in a state that was strange to me, I found the Half-Life platinum collection. My mom had a laptop, and she allowed me to install my new games on it for the trip.
I don't think I slept on the way back home. I was in love. Not just with Half-Life, but with computer gaming. I had played a few first-person shooters on consoles, but something was different on the laptop. Even with the trackpad, which I am certain I could handle better with smaller fingers, I found the controls far more intuitive. To be fair, console FPS controls weren't as refined then as they are today. I had also played a few FPS games on my Mac as a three year old, Marathon being the big one, but it wasn't quite the same.
Before even hitting puberty, I had beaten Half-Life during a single train trip (roughly 10 hours) and I feel as if I hit gaming puberty. My view on video games changed because of Half-Life. I became more serious, more critical, I had a reference point for games that put my childish views into perspective and I truly began to blossom into a nerd.
Obviously, your experience will vary as you are already an adult with a passion for games, but to me Half-Life is the most important game I have ever played. With a more critical eye as a grown-up, I have gone back through and while it is not quite as revolutionizing for the game industry as it was on my pre-pubescent mind, it brought some important pieces into modern gaming that we now see as standard and should be played by anyone with a love of games.
There are very few things about it that feel dated. Most of the guns don't have the realistic 'umph' of todays shooters, the controls are a little more clunky in some ways, or entirely too loose in others (with both issues making some obstacles painful to overcome), and the graphics are, of course, not going to be pretty. The story and game world are both still very compelling and it's difficult to not feel as if you are really in the Gordon Freeman's shoes.
I think everyone who enjoys video games should give Half-Life a try. You don't have to like it, but anyone who has any part in the industry (journalistic, developer, or other) should be able to find quite a bit to respect about the game.