Half-Life

Half-Life (1998) is considered by many to be one of the best and most influential video games ever made; despite its simplistic gameplay and lower graphic quality, it essentially paved the way for modern first-person shooters. In the first instalment in the series, the player controls Gordon Freeman, a 27 year old theoretical physicist, who is late to work at Black Mesa research facility. He arrives at the testing chamber and the experiment goes wrong, causing a Resonance Cascade, opening a portal to an alien world called Xen. Gordon then has to fight his way through the facility, that is now full of enemies, such as hostile aliens and marines who were sent to kill the aliens and "silence" any witnesses of the Resonance Cascade or its aftermath... so of course the main person they're out to get is Gordon. The game won over 50 Game of the Year awards! I bought the game and personally I highly recommend it - it's a mix of high action FPS gameplay and puzzles and it's also story-rich. The game also happened to be the first major Valve game I ever played. My one grievance with this game is the level named Blast Pit. A lot of the praise for H-L1 comes from the fact that (1) unlike other games of the time, the story was conveyed through scripted sequences as opposed to cutscenes, and (2) the only pauses in gameplay are when the next area needs to load. Despite this seeming fairly standard nowadays, this was unique at the time!

Half-Life 2 is the second game in the Half-Life series. The series takes a major leap in graphics quality and the player once again assumes the role of Gordon Freeman. I won't describe the plot of this game because it has major spoilers for the first one, and the Black Mesa/Aperture storyline in general, but I enjoy this game a lot - and have yet to complete it. Half-Life Alyx is the third game in the series. Released in 2020 in VR, we now play as Alyx Vance, a major character in H-L2 and the daughter of Eli Vance. I have never played this game myself. Again, the game's summary contains spoilers for the other two, however, the game's graphics look amazing!

The series in general has a lot of great music in the soundtrack, my personal favourite tracks are:

1. "Nuclear Mission Jam"
2. "Military Precision"
3. "Diabolical Adrenaline Guitar"
4. "Klaxon Beat"
5. "Hard Technology Rock"

In addition, H-L1 actually has many expansions, such as: Blue Shift (originally intended for the Dreamcast port of H-L1, was released on Windows on June 12, 2001) and Opposing Force.
In Blue Shift, we play as Barney Calhoun, a security guard at Black Mesa who is shown to be good friends with Gordon. Barney also must fight his way through the facility, however Blue Shift differs from the main game in that Barney consistently interacts with a character named Dr. Rosenberg throughout his escape from Black Mesa. In Opposing Force we play as Corporal Adrian Shephard, one of the soldiers sent to Black Mesa to neutralise the alien threat, however he is not aware of the mission of "silencing" the witnesses of the event. He is separated from his unit and makes his way through the facility as well. Shephard does cross paths with Gordon, he sees Gordon entering the portal to Xen.

Portal is a popular game series by Valve. Portal is another game series that is primarily comprised of puzzles, and is often praised for being one of the best video game series ever! Players take control of Chell, who is given challenges by an AI named GLaDOS. Chell must create portals with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, aka portal gun, to solve the puzzles given to her by GLaDOS (hence the name of the series). The portal gun is simple to use: you use the gun to create two portals - orange and blue. It doesn't matter which order they are created in, only that the two portals are both created. Then you can use the portals to solve the puzzles. The games make use of a fairly dark story, combined with funny dialogue. The games take place in the Aperture Science Center - Aperture just so happens to be the "rival" company of Black Mesa. The game begins with Chell waking up from a stasis bed and hearing instructions and warnings from GLaDOS about upcoming tests. After Chell completes many puzzles, GLaDOS maneuvers Chell into an incinerator in an attempt to kill her. When Chell escapes however, GLaDOS says she was pretending to kill Chell as part of the test. At this point as Chell is escaping, it's made clear that GLaDOS killed everyone else in the center. However this dark storyline is accompanied by humour and sarcasm in the dialogue. Eventually Chell destroys all of GLaDOS's personality cores and leaves the center. However, the credits song "Still Alive" shows us that GLaDOS is not really dead. Also, Black Mesa is mentioned in the song, further proving that Half-Life and Portal are connected! Portal 2 expands on the story presented in the first game, intoducing another AI named Wheatley. It takes place in a run-down version of the center, and also introduces more features in the tests. This game also has a dark story mixed with light-hearted jokes and sarcasm. Overall I fully recommend the series, they aren't referred to as "some of the best games ever made" for no reason.

"Man of few words, aren't you?"

• Gordon and Chell are both silent protagonists. Neither of them have any voice lines, throughout any of the games they are in.


• Both series have co-op modes. Portal 2 simply has co-op mode while Half-Life 1 has the "Decay" expansion.


• Many Half-Life mods and expansions have become standalone Valve series, such as Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike. Both of these series are still popular today, showing the impact Half-Life had on vide games.


• Half-Life has also inspired improv roleplay series, such as "Half-Life VR But The AI Is Self-Aware" (2020), a humorous take on the original story, in which Gordon is voiced by the host of the series Wayneradiotv. The other characters are based on the models for security guards, scientists, and soldiers. Pictured on the right is the cover of the first episode.


• Half-Life 1 received extremely high praise on release, generally being ranked 80-100/100 or 5 stars. Many reviewers referred to it as revolutionary for the first-person shooter genre, immersive, and an instant classic, as well as being the best FPS game since the original DOOM.


• Portal became incredibly popular, with merchandise Valve created being sold out in under 24 hours. Portal has won many awards:
• Game of the Year award, Innovation Award, Best Game Design award (2008 Game Developers Choice Awards)
• Best Puzzle Game for PC and Xbox 360, Most Innovative Design for PC, Best End Credit Song (for "Still Alive") for Xbox 360 (IGN)
• Wired considered Portal to be one of the most influential games of the first decade of the 21st century.
• IGN also placed GLaDOS, (from Portal) as the No.1 Video Game Villain on its Top-100 Villains List
• Time named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time.

From Half-Life 1 (1998) to Half-Life Alyx (2020)...