Half Life Critique
·
Fun Factor –
Half-Life is a
fast paced first person shooter where you, Gordan Freeman, is tasked to escape
the Black Mesa Facility, after conducting a failed science experiment,
involving teleportation and intergalactic alien species. Half-Life captures the
sense of danger, as the facility around you crumbles. You tread carefully
through the rooms, and long hallways, never knowing what will confront you
next. The only thing protecting you from various threats, is your hazardous
environment suite, and the various weapons in your arsenal. If the story and
setting was not enough to capture your attention, then fast paced action will.
·
Learning Curve –
Those that are
experienced with first person shooters on PC will find themselves very familiar
with Half-Life’s systems. The game slowly introduces the player to the
mechanics and weapons, with tasks and puzzles within the facility. For example,
crouching to crawl through a hole in a locked door, or jumping across an
electrical pit filled with water. It will even introduce you to enemies from a
safe distance, to observe how they attack, before facing them yourself. With
the different levels of difficulty, (Easy, Normal, and Hard), it serves as an
excellent introduction to someone who is new to the first-person shooter genre,
or to the veteran players, who are looking for a challenge.
·
Graphics –
Considering that Half-Life is nearing its 22nd birthday from its release back in 1998, its graphics are excellent for its time. It is easy to identify objects and materials in an environment. For example, there is a clear contrast between barrels and crates, or metal from wood. Intractable objects such as buttons, levers, and explosive barrels/crates are easily identifiable from the scenery. The setting is often decorated with lights, pillars, beams, and plenty of interactable objects. Enemies feel dangerous with zombies having long sharp claws, or the underside of a head-crab, (alien type within Half Life), having extensive detail on parts of the body that are not very visible to the player. Each area in the game has a unique setting that graphically looks different from others, which keeps the game feeling fresh.
·
Audio –
The game was
paired with an upbeat techno soundtrack, that blends well with the fast-paced
action. During the creepier horror segments, the game switches tone to a darker
ambient chilling soundtrack. Metal, concrete, and wood have different sound
effects, when the player hits or walks on the material. Enemies in the game
will react with certain sounds or voice lines when attacking you. Zombies or
aliens will give off a high-pitched sound, while the human enemies you face
later in the game will announce their actions based on what is happening in the
environment. For example, if they throw a grenade then they yell, “Grenade”!
Other small details such as the enemy taunting when the player hides are also a
nice addition. My one gripe about Half Life is that they use the same voice
actor for each of the scientists in the facility, making it hard to have a
deeper connection towards any of the characters you meet on your adventure. Overall, the game has a very
well thought out audio.
·
Controls –
The controls in
Half-Life are very easy to understand, especially if you are familiar with any first-person
shooters on pc. Early on, the game teaches you all the movement controls during
a lengthy introduction sequence, and later teaches you basic interactive and
HUD controls, to progress in the story. The game is very flexible when it comes
to editing controls, through the options menu if needed. A helpful addition
that Half-Life adds that I wish more games would integrate, is alternative key binds
for your controls. For example, if I wanted to bind the C-KEY and the spacebar
both cause my character to jump. To sum up, Half-Life has very simple and easy
to learn controls that coincide to other games of its genre.
·
Story –
Without spoiling
the story for anyone that has not played, you play a scientist tasked, to
escape the Black Mesa Facility, after conducting a failed science experiment,
involving teleportation and intergalactic alien species. Something I admire
about Valves story telling is that they never force you into cutscenes to spoon
feed you the story. The story is told with all the actions and conversations
that are happening around you. On top of that, the story avoids clichés of
typically story telling at the time. Half Life’s story feels unique with its
more than meets the eye lore. The world feels plausible, you are just a
scientist that works in a secret facility, not a super soldier like most games
related to this genre.
·
Characters –
The main
character of Half Life is Gordan Freeman, a theoretical physicist, MIT graduate
that works at the Black Mesa Facility, doing subatomic and nuclear research.
Gordan is an interesting character because he spends the entire game as a
silent protagonist. As I said before, Valve’s story telling revolves around the
people, and environment you interact with. Everything you learn about the main
character is told to you externally. This helps you connect to the main
character by putting you in his shoes. Another character that I feel is worth
mentioning is an older individual that goes by the name G-Man. Although the
character seems to be human, he presents himself like a god that can bend space
and time at will. Throughout Half Life there is many moments where you can spot
the G-Man observing you, as you traverse the Black Mesa Facility.
·
Level Design –
Half Life’s
Level design is built semi linear, with the occasional puzzles, and secrets
mixed in with it. As you explore the Black Mesa Facility you run through many
unique looking environments such as labs, sewers, the New Mexico desert, etc.
Although all these areas are very different, they still feel like they are
small parts of the whole Black Mesa Facility. Within these environments there
are parts that are light or shaded and inside or outside the facility. This
helps to keep variety within the environment, accompanied with planned enemy
placement, and events as you explore. The level design in the game fits well
with the story, and is on par, with the learning curve as you progress the
narrative.
·
Changes –
If I were to
make any changes to Half Life, it would be a rework of some of the physics.
Puzzles that require pushing boxes feels odd with their directional movement.
Ladders feel hard/ridged to get off, sometimes throwing you off in awkward direction.
From time to time when you are swimming out of the deep water you will hop out
of the water only to be thrown back in. Some other changes I would also like to
see is more variety of voice actors for the scientists to make them more unique
or personable. Lastly, an improvement I would like to see a rework of certain
parts of the game. For example, there is a part early in the game where you are
crawling through a labyrinth of air vents that mostly come to a dead end.
·
Recommendation –
So, who would I
recommend this game to? I would suggest this game to anyone who is interested
in the story of Half Life but have not played the older titles. Anyone who is
interested in playing a retro first-person shooter game, or maybe if they are
curious on how Valve started off. Considering that Half Life is the parent that
defined games such as Counter-Strike or Team-Fortress. Another small benefit of
Half Life is that it is accessible on any modern computer. If that was not
enough Half Life is considered to be a hallmark of a good game and considered a
must play for some.
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