God, where the hell do I start? A couple months ago some people were fortunate enough to receive a copy of Half Life: Day One, I was one of these people. Half Life was hyped for well over a year and a lot of people were skeptical about if Half-Life really could live up to all of it's promises. After playing Half Life: Day One (basically a big demo).. it didn't live up to all that hype... it completely and utterly surpassed it by a hundred times. With a demo this freaking (I can't use the word I'm thinking of right now..) amazing, how awesome can the full version be? Oh, it's good all right.

Background
You are Gordon Freeman, a 28 year old scientist, an employee of the Black Mesa Research Facility and you work in the Anomalous Materials sector and on this particular day of work everyone seems different. After entering the Black Mesa in a totally awesome way (I'm not going to spoil it), you realize that all of your fellow colleagues are worried and are acting different than usual. As you make your way to your assignment for this day you come across lot's of scientists who are having conversations  but strangely stop talking when they see you. Are they trying to hide something? Eventually you make your way into the test chamber where you must deliver a new, and very unstable core sample from an unknown source or location. All goes wrong. Images of different, awe-inspiring worlds flash before your eyes before you are eventually transported back to the test chamber where you find almost everyone dead, and the entire place in chaos. What's going on? Whatever it is, you have to save the world. During this catastrophe dozens of alien species have been transported to earth and the government has sent a huge army to take out all of these aliens. There orders were to kill everyone and everything, including you.

That is a very brief overview of the immersive story line in Half Life, this story is very fun to watch evolve in front of your eyes and until now I didn't realize how much a good story enhances a game like this.

Gameplay
Wow. Oh my God. Wholy Shit. Those three phrases pretty much sum up the gameplay, but I'll get into a little more detail, you should already have this game but if your still not convinced, keep reading.

Everything in Half Life is completely interactive and the outcome of everything is decided by you.  There are no third person views, cut scenes or any other fancy stuff.  It's all from Gordon's perspective. The AI, the weapon placement, sound, graphics, and everything else immerse you further and further into this game. Instead of various levels like in other shooters (most which rarely have any meaning or connectivity to others), Half-Life is one huge, mother sized level.  Every once in a while the level will re-load to keep frame rates high. It is all one level, but it is separated into separate map files. Each load never takes more than 2-3 seconds and doesn't ruin the gameplay at all. It also gives you a chance to catch your breath.

Half-Life's enemy AI (Artificial Intelligence) is stunningly realistic. This is not to say that every enemy circle strafes, and has amazing combat skills. What I mean is that some enemies will use their size and power to try and kill you but might not exactly have the brains. Some are more hesitant and usually take a second glance before attempting to attack you, and some have amazing combat skills that will live you in awe. The marines' AI is nothing short of amazing, they're life-like reactions, movements, communication, and combat skills will leave you with your mouth wide open. They will often attack in groups. Sometimes you start getting pounded with an array of bullets, but where are they coming from? Suddenly before you die, you notice light flashes in a building behind some camouflage. You come back after dying, expecting them to be there, but sometimes they are not. Now they got you again, unexpectedly. Injure a marine and watch him limp away screaming "Medic!".

Object and weapon placement is very well done. You won't find guns floating around, rotating in mid air, nope. You will find them on dead soldiers, dead security guards, or abandoned military bases. Black Mesa doesn't manufacture weapons, they play around with highly toxic and dangerous materials. Thus, your not going to find rocket launchers sitting in the middle of a room for no reason. Ammo is found by old military outposts, first aid kits are found by dead or dying scientists, the list goes on and on.

The weapons are both realistic and very cool. Some do seem unrealistic, but with a facility as advanced as Black Mesa, you can imagine they're resources for their weapon research department. I am not going to spoil the weapons for you, I'm sorry. But as you find them and learn to use them on your own you will enjoy it much more. I think that naming off and describing the weapons would ruin much of the surprise.

Interaction with characters and objects is like no other game before. You'll meet guards and scientists of Black Mesa who will help you on your journey, and you will also be able to do humorous things like turn up a microwave so high it explodes then scientists scream "my god, what are you doing?!". Go and try to open a bathroom stall door and you'll hear someone go "Ahem" and clear their throat. Virtually every character will say something to you when you walk up to them and press the "use" key. You can watch marine's communicate, preparing ambushes or sometimes you'll find death messages stating "Die Freeman!" painted on walls, or soldiers screaming out at you during battle. Enemies are also fun to watch. On on occasion I came across 2 aliens fighting over a dead scientist's body for lunch. Well, my shotgun is about to make them today's lunch.

Half-Life's scripted sequences add so much to the game and it's progressive story line. You do not observe these events, you are a part and usually the center of them. There are dozens of such events, and naming them off would ruin the story but an example is something like: A certain part of the Black Mesa needs power and one lone scientist needs your help. Do you help him and risk your life turning on a massive reactor manually, or do you shoot him and run away? Well either decision will affect your outcome in some way. There are much better examples but I refuse to ruin it for everyone, sorry :).

Half-Life's multiplayer aspect was not heavily concentrated on according to Valve. They were shooting for a superb single player game (and they succeeded!). Half Life's shipping deathmatch play is good, but nothing stellar. It is relativley choppy even at decent pings. All of this will be fixed soon I am sure in future patches, and currently Half Life has a built in Gamespy-type server finder for deathmatch games which is really convienent (assuming you don't have problems with WON.net authentication).  Aside from that deathmatch is very good, but needs some work still. Some good user created levels or a good TC (Total Conversion) could change this.

Half-Life's interface, controls, and menu's are very well done and are easy to navigate and understand. All controls are completely customizable. Just like Quake and Quake2. Your Head's Up Display (HUD) is very clear and gives you all the details you need to know about your H.E.V suit which you spend most of the game in. No complaints here, a job well done.

Graphics
Half-Life was originally developed using the Quake engine, then they moved to the Quake2 engine. Half-Life's final engine is almost a complete rewrite but still contains bits and pieces of Quake and Quake2. Well, Half Life looks nothing like Quake or Quake2. The bland and repetive graphics from id's old games are gone and make way for new, original, crisp, bright, and realistic textures which add to Half Life's 5-star level design.

The indoor and outdoor environments are portrayed with a great sense of scale and believability. Although, Half Life's outdoor scenes cannot compare to Unreal's massive sense of scale. That's where Epic really outdid themselves. Models move very realistically thanks to Valve's own skeletal animation system. Weapon effects are great and most of them leave scars in the levels which makes you feel like you are actually damaging something. A lot of stuff can blow up, and sometimes is required to progress.

Half Life needs a 3D card, I don't care what the system requirements say. Software rendering is so primitive, and if you don't have a 3d card, go and get one if you want to truly enjoy this game! To explain all of this in a much better way check the 800x600 screenshots below because words can't describe much more.

Sound
Can you say Aureal Semiconductor A3D 2.0 20 times fast? Well keep saying it because if you have an A3D 2.0 sound card (such as the MonsterSound MX300 or Turtle Beach Montego 2, you are in for a real treat). On top of that, Half-Life also supports the older A3D 1.0, and Creative's Environmental Audio eXtensions. Still, none of these can compare to A3D 2.0's representation of sound. Check my Diamond MonsterSound MX300 review to learn more about A3D 2.0 and the possibilities in 3D sound. Even without 3D sound acceleration, Half Life does an awesome job of representing sounds in different rooms and substances. Sound is muffled underwater, it echo's in some rooms, and it turns down as you look away from the source.

All of Half-Life's sound effects are kick ass you cannot complain. Ambient sounds set the mood constantly and weapon and enemy sounds are loud, clear, and realistic. Voice acting is almost perfect and most of it is very believable unlike some other games. With support for almost every current 3D sound API, Half Life really shines in the audio department. The right soundcard or pair of speakers can make all the difference in a game like this. A 3D sound card is recommended but is not required by any means to enjoy this game to it's full extent. Valve did an excellent good job in this department, just like in every other department!

Conclusion
In my opinion, this game is the game of the year, and it also bears the 3DGW Editor's Choice Award. Everything is what was expected, and a lot more.  Revolutionary gameplay, great graphics, and freightingly realistic sound make this game one of the best ever released. It is seriously going to change the future of shooter games. My only real complaint is the current multiplayer, it isn't very good. Hopefully all will be improved and more patches/level add-on's will be released for this great game. One quick thing I should mention is that Half Life ships with WorldCraft, a editor which will let you make your own Half Life levels. Here are the final ratings I give each section:

Storyline: 100%
Gameplay: 97%
Interface: 90%
Multiplayer: 75%
Graphics: 90%
Sound: 95%
Overall: 91%

Screenshots can in no way compare to the actual game, just go and buy it. You won't be disappointed.

Reviewed by: Adam "kami" Koebel
Date: December 28, 1998