Half-Life

This article describes the computer game. For other meanings see half-life (disambiguation).

Half-Life is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by Valve Software and published by Sierra Studios. It was released on November 20, 1998 based on a heavily-modified Quake game engine. It was first published for PCs running Microsoft Windows, and was later ported to Sony's PlayStation 2. Sega's Dreamcast video game console was also to see a port, but it got cancelled as the machine's popularity waned. An unofficial version was later released by the mod community.

Half-Life, often shortened to HL, has been heralded by computer game critics for its gripping and atmospheric presentation of the plotline, and one which would influence the development of other first-person shooters in the years to come. It was among the first first-person shooters to feature a story that was told entirely in-game and in real time, without the use of cutscenes. Half-Life is also known for its (at the time) sophisticated enemy AI. Its own success continued for years with expansions such as Half-Life: Opposing Force (OP4) and the standalone Half-Life: Blue Shift (BS), mods such as Counter-Strike (CS), Team Fortress Classic (TFC), "Firearms", Deathmatch Classic (DMC), Ricochet and Day of Defeat (DoD), and its sequel Half-Life 2 (HL2). Half-Life won over 50 "Game of the Year" awards from numerous publications and was named "Best PC Game Ever" by PC Gamer in its November 1999, October 2001, and April 2005 issuesCompany information from official Valve website. Retrieved on June 11, 2006. At eight million copies sold, it is one of the best selling PC first-person shooters to date. Overall, the Half-Life franchise, including Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, has seen over 15 million sales.

Single player

The game is set in a remote area of New Mexico at the Black Mesa Research Facility, a fictional complex that bears many similarities to both the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Area 51, during December of 200X (according to calendars in game and the Playstation 2 version's manual). The game's protagonist is the theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman, a survivor of an experiment that goes horribly awry when an unexpected resonance cascade (an apparently completely fictitious occurrence; see also 1, 2) rips dimensional seams that devastate the facility. Aliens from another world - known as Xen - subsequently enter the facility through these dimensional seams.

As Freeman tries to make his way out of the ruined facility to find help for the injured, he soon discovers he is caught between two sides: the hostile aliens, and the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, a military force dispatched to cover up the incident — including eliminating Freeman and the rest of the scientists. Throughout the game, a mysterious figure known as (but not actually referred to in-game as) the G-Man regularly appears, apparently monitoring Freeman's progress. Ultimately, Freeman uses the co-operation of surviving scientists and security officers to work his way to the mysterious "Lambda Complex" of Black Mesa, where a team of survivors teleport him to the alien world Xen, where he must kill the Nihilanth, the creature keeping Xen's side of the dimensional rift open.

The game's plot was originally inspired by the computer games Doom and Quake, both produced by id Software, Stephen King's short story/novella The Mist, and an episode of The Outer Limits called "The Borderland." It was later developed by Valve's in-house writer and author, Marc Laidlaw, who wrote the books Dad's Nuke and The 37th Mandala. However, the more influential aspect of the single player mode is not the plot itself, but rather how it is presented to the player.

The game tells the story by flowing into scripted sequences that are integrated as part of the game rather than as cut scene intermissions. These sequences range from the introduction of major plot points such as the resonance cascade to bringing the player into a particularly difficult part of a level. Two of the intended results of this style of presentation were to increase immersion and to maintain a contiguous narrative that keeps the player's interest.

Valve implemented other factors to heighten the feeling of immersion, including that the player never sees or hears their own character, who remains a 'silent protagonist' in the plot, and that the player rarely loses the ability to control Gordon, even during monologues. The scripted sequences help flow by keeping the player in the game, whereas cutscenes in other contemporary games had often been a diversion from previous segments of their gameplay. The levels for HL were also divided into small sections to minimize long interruptions from loading.

Storyline

Main article:

Half-Life'' series storyline

The "resonance cascade", as witnessed by Gordon Freeman.

Dr. Gordon Freeman starts his day riding a tram deep into the heart of the Black Mesa Facility on his way to the Anomalous Materials Lab to begin work. Nothing seems to be out of place, except a chemical leak which forces the tram to momentarily stop. It is at that point that Gordon notices a strange man in a blue suit watching him from another tram. Later on, once he reaches his destination, Gordon once again sees the suited man arguing heatedly with a scientist behind soundproof glass. After donning his HEV suit he proceeds to the test chamber. After pushing an alien sample into the scanning beam, immediately something goes terribly wrong. A "resonance cascade" has been triggered, creating an interdimensional portal between Earth and a bizarre world called Xen. Gordon is briefly teleported there during the ordeal, at one point coming into contact with what looks like sentient life forms.

Finding himself back in Black Mesa, Gordon is told that they've lost all communications outside of Black Mesa, and decides to try and make it to the surface to get help. Black Mesa has received massive structural damage, and to make matters worse, aliens from Xen begin randomly teleporting all around them. Most are simply reacting naturally to their new surroundings, but even more hostile are the creatures Gordon saw earlier (known as Vortigaunts), who seem to attack with a single minded intent to kill. Also strange is that Gordon occasionally finds the man in the suit, the G-Man, watching him from out-of-reach places, always walking off before Gordon can get to him. Gordon makes good progress until he learns that the military is already on the way. He attempts to join up with them, but walks into a room to witness the Marines kill a group of survivors. It is then that he discovers that the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, which has taken control of Black Mesa, aren't just killing the aliens, they're also killing everyone connected to the project. However, it is revealed that the surviving members of Lambda Team (in the Lambda Complex at the other end of the facility) may be able to close the dimensional rift; Gordon begins the journey across Black Mesa to reach them.

From here, Gordon has several adventures, such as killing a giant, rapidly growing creature, riding across the facility on a railway system in order to reach a satellite rocket that must be launched in order to reverse the resonance cascade, and fighting a group of mysterious Black Ops, before being captured by marines and dumped in a garbage compactor. However, Gordon is able to escape and eventually winds up in a secret part of the Facility where he discovers that scientists had been "collecting" specimens from Xen long before this whole mess occurred.

After arming himself with advanced prototype weaponry, Gordon reaches the surface. It has become a warzone. The Vortigaunts, along with a new, soldier type enemy, and a giant monstrosity, have begun fighting the marines who are beginning to lose. They've called in reinforcements, but it isn't enough. Gordon must scale cliffs and navigate the bombed out buildings while avoiding both sides as the forces of Xen begin to dominate the battlefield. Finally, Gordon reaches relative safety underground.



The Marines begin to evacuate Black Mesa and airstrikes begin. Gordon navigates underground water channels and tries to avoid scores of alien soldiers as they pick off remaining marine stragglers. After much struggle, Gordon finally reaches the Lambda Complex, where he discovers that the Lambda Complex is where they developed the teleportation technology that allowed scientists to travel to Xen in the first place. The handful of surviving personnel, who have holed themselves up in a small stronghold, inform Gordon that, unfortunately, the satellite he launched was not able to reverse the effects of the resonance cascade because an immensely powerful being on the other side is keeping the portal between the worlds open, and Gordon must kill it to prevent the Xen aliens from taking over completely. They activate the teleporter and Gordon is relocated to Xen.

Freeman on Xen.

On the strange borderworld, Gordon encounters many of the aliens that had been brought into Black Mesa, as well as the remains of HEV-wearing researchers that came before him. After killing the mighty Gonarch, and fighting his way through an alien camp, Gordon arrives at what seems to be a genetic flesh factory. The forces of Xen are literally assembling their own army to conquer Earth. After fighting his way through mysterious, levitating creatures, he finds a giant portal and enters it.

In a vast cave, Gordon finally confronts the powerful and mysterious being that is holding the portal open: the Nihilanth. Gordon destroys the being's shield and so then is able to destroy its vulnerable brain. As the creature dies, it floats toward the ceiling, and explodes in a giant green blast that overpowers Gordons senses. When he comes to, he is confronted by the G-Man who rapidly teleports him to Earth (where giant portal storms can be seen expanding outward toward the horizon), and Xen, all the while commenting on his one-man holocaust on Xen (which he refers to as "a nasty piece of work")[1]. After teleporting to the same tram car that Gordon rode on at the beginning of the game (albeit traveling through space at faster-than-light speed), Gordon is given an ultimatum: either work for him and his "employers", or be faced with an impossible battle, unarmed, against hundreds of Xen soldiers. Canon states that Gordon accepts this "job offer", and he steps into the portal that appears for him. He finds himself floating in nothingness, and hears the G-Man's voice one last time before losing all perception: "Wisely done, Mr. Freeman, I will see you up ahead..." The story continues from this point in Half-Life 2. However, the player may choose to not step into the portal. Doing so, he will be teleported into a giant cave swarming with Xen creatures (the aforementioned impossible battle that the G-Man mentioned.)

Weapons

There are 14 weapons available to players in both single player and multiplayer games of Half-Life. Half-Life: Opposing Force added several more weapons. Many reviews of Half-Life mentioned the impressive functionality and "usefulness" of all the weapons designed. Each weapon's damage profile is distinct, none feeling superfluous or excessively powerful; each has a specific advantage in the appropriate situation. The weapons in HL (without expansions) are:
* Crowbar: A simple melee weapon that is iconic of Gordon Freeman and Half-Life.
* Pistol (GLOCK 17, Beretta 92F/FS pistol with the High Definition pack): The first and simplest ranged weapon. Has good accuracy and does more damage per shot than the MP5, but these advantages are offset by a low rate of fire that makes it more useful on weak targets, like headcrabs or laser trip mines. Unlike most other ranged weapons, this pistol is effective underwater. Primary fire is accurate with every shot; secondary fires the pistol quickly, but decreases accuracy. The rate of fire is then comparable with the MP5, but does slightly more damage per shot. Patient players will sometimes use the GLOCK 17 to pick off targets from a distance when sniper weapons are unavailable, as most enemies cannot attack over extreme ranges.
* .357 Magnum (Colt Python revolver): An extremely powerful and accurate gun. It has a long reload time and a 6-round cylinder. Good for dispatching enemies in one hit, especially from a distance. In multiplayer mode, secondary fire gives the player a zoomed view.
* Submachine gun / Assault rifle (High Definition Pack) (Heckler & Koch MP5N/M203 grenade launcher, Excellent for close-range combat. Has a fast rate of fire that compensates for its poor damage and accuracy. Secondary fire launches an extremely powerful under-slung grenade that detonates on impact. It uses the same ammo pool as the pistol.
* Shotgun (Franchi SPAS-12): Does high damage at close range, but its broad fire cone makes it weak at a distance. It can be reloaded one shell at a time, but is slow to fully reload. Its secondary fire shoots two shells at once.
* Crossbow: A sniper weapon with high damage and accuracy, but with a slow rate of fire and reload time. Like the pistol, the crossbow works underwater. Secondary fire toggles its zoom mode. Multiplayer behavior is quite different: it fires explosive bolts, and when zoomed in is an instantaneous-fire sniper weapon.
* Hornet gun (alien weapon): Also known as the "Hivehand". The same weapon used by the Alien Grunts, this gun is a living creature which appears to be a larva of some sort (Due to the fact that it sports no legs). After firing out the hornets, the creature turns erect & tense, after a short while though, it returns to its normal breathing state. When the larva is not used, it appears to be sleeping. It hives, constantly replenishing "hornets" (sometimes known as "thornets") as a way to defend itself. Primary fire shoots up to 8 homing hornets that can hit unseen enemies around corners. Secondary fire launches straight-flying, non-homing hornets that move faster and have a higher rate of fire compared to the homing ones.

In this scene, the player must bypass a dam and reservoir guarded by an Apache helicopter, a group of soldiers, and a Gargantua. This shot shows the original MP5 sub-machine gun, rather than the High Definition Pack's M4 Carbine/M203 replacement.

The same level as the image above, but shown with the High Definition Pack's M4 Carbine/M203.

* Rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher (ATGM-4000 RPG Launcher): Does a large amount of explosive splash damage. Secondary fire toggles a laser designator that guides the RPG to its target. Can only hold one rocket at a time with 5 more in reserve.
* Quantum destabilizer (Gluon/Egon gun): This experimental weapon fires out a concentrated energy which disrupts its target's molecules. It is an extremely powerful gun which literally, because of how it kills, rips apart enemies of any type. It looks and operates similar to the proton pack used by the characters in the movie Ghostbusters. Because of its internal weapon name, weapon_egon, it is also known as the Egon gun; this is probably a reference to the Ghostbusters character Egon Spengler.
* Tau cannon/Gauss gun: Another experimental weapon that rapidly shoots beams of tau particles that reflect off walls if hit indirectly. Secondary fire allows the gun to charge up to shoot a more powerful beam that can penetrate thin walls and pushes the user in the opposite direction. The recoil is deliberately exaggerated in multiplayer so the player can "Gauss jump" very high and reach hidden areas or escape opponents. This feature is a deliberate nod to "rocketjumping" in Quake. If the gun is kept charged for too long (ca 10s), it overloads and discharges, damaging its wielder.
* Hand grenade: A frag grenade that explodes a few seconds after being thrown.
* Laser trip mine: A high-explosive Claymore mine-like device that can be attached to walls. It is set off either by damaging the mine or by "breaking" the laser "tripwire" emitting from it.
* Satchel charge: A high-explosive that can be thrown a short distance and detonated when the player presses fire. Secondary fire allows the player to place several satchels and detonate them simultaneously.
* Snarks (alien weapon): Aggressive and small alien creatures that quickly pursue their target, pestering and biting, until finally exploding after several seconds (or if shot). If they cannot locate a hostile target, they will turn on the player that set them loose. They can be used, for example, to draw enemies out from their cover.

Additionally, the long jump module can increase the horizontal distance and speed of jumps. This increased mobility can be used to dodge attacks quickly and jump from one platform to another. The long jump is done by moving forward, crouching, then jumping.

Development

Half-Life was the first product for Kirkland, Washington-based developer Valve Software, which was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell. They settled on a concept for a scary 3D action game and licensed the Quake engine from id Software. (Valve eventually modified the engine a great deal, notably adding skeletal animation and Direct3D support; a developer later stated that seventy percent of the engine code was rewritten.) The company had a difficult time finding a publisher at first, many believing their project 'too ambitious' for a studio headed by newcomers to the video game industry. Sierra On-Line had been very interested in making a 3D action game, especially one based on the Quake engine, and so signed them for a one-game deal.

The original code name for Half-Life was Quiver, after the Arrowhead military base from Stephen King's novella The Mist, which served as early inspiration for the game.Gabe Newell explained in an interview that the name Half-Life was chosen because it was evocative of the theme, not clichéd, and had a corresponding visual symbol: the Greek letter λ (lower-case lambda), which represents the decay constant in the half-life equation.

The first public appearances of Half-Life came in early 1997; it was a hit at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) that year, where they primarily demonstrated the animation system and game AI. Valve hired science fiction author Marc Laidlaw in August 1997 to work on the game's characters and level design. Half-Life was originally planned to be shipped in late 1997, to compete with Quake II, but was postponed when Valve decided the game needed significant revision.

In a 2003 Making Of... feature in Edge, Newell discusses the team's early difficulties with level design. In desperation, a single level was assembled including every weapon, enemy, scripted event and level design quirk that the designers had come up with so far. This single level inspired the studio to press on with the game. As a result, the studio completely reworked the game's AI and levels in the year leading up to its release. At E3 1998 it was given Game Critics Awards for being the "Best PC Game" and "Best Action Game" at the expo. The release date was delayed several times in 1998 before the game was finally released in November of that year.

Ports

Half-Life was ported to the PlayStation 2 by Gearbox Software and released in 2001. This version of the game had a significant overhaul in terms of both character models, weapons, and more advanced and extended levels and general map geometry. Also added in was a head-to-head play and a co-op expansion called Half-Life: Decay that allowed players to play as the two female scientists Dr. Cross and Dr. Green at Black Mesa.

Versions for the Sega Dreamcast and Apple Macintosh [2] [3] were essentially completed, but never commercially released.

Dreamcast version

Gearbox Software was slated to release a port to the Sega Dreamcast under contract by Valve and their then publisher Sierra On-Line near the end of 2000. At the ECTS 2000, a build of the game was playable on the publisher's stand, and developers Randy Pitchford and Brian Martel were in attendance to show it off and give interviews to the press. However, despite only being weeks from going gold, it was never commercially released; Sierra announced that Half-Life on Dreamcast was cancelled "due to changing market conditions" (presumably the third-party abandonment of the failing Dreamcast).The following year Sierra On-Line showed a PlayStation 2 port at E3 2001. This version was released in North America in late October of the same year, followed by a European release just a month later. Around the same time, Half-Life: Blue Shift, which was intended to be a Dreamcast exclusive Midquel, was released on PC as the second Half-life Expansion Pack.

Although it has never officially being released, the Dreamcast version was leaked onto the Internet, and was proven to be fully playable; it contains the full versions of Half-Life and Blue Shift, both with an early version of the High Definition Pack (it was from this port that the pack was spawned), but has a somewhat inconsistent framerate (though never to the point of unplayability) and lengthier load times when the player moves from area to area (around ten seconds, while today's average PC can load an area in around one and a half). Also, there are some saving problems; the number of blocks on a VMU increases rapidly as the player reaches the end of a level. While the game allows you to remove files to increase space, sometimes it still isn't enough.

The console's mouse and keyboard peripherals are supported, if preferred to the standard controller. If the controller is used, the game adds an auto-aim feature, so that when an enemy nears the center of the player's vision, the aiming crosshair will shift over toward the enemy to make shooting them easier. The game's controls are customizable.The game has no multiplayer mode, and lacks the parental feature of the PC version (players cannot turn the gibs off). It does have an interesting password feature, however; with three dials, the user makes various phrases, such as "Otis Loves Dreamcast" (god mode), "Fear and Gravity" (jump to Xen in HL), or "Barney Goes To Work" (skip the intro in Blue Shift and jump right into the main game, pre-resonance cascade).

Macintosh version

Though more or less complete and ready for mass production, the Macintosh port of Half-Life was scrapped because of incompatibility with the Windows PC version's multiplayer mode. The developers also stated that mods for PC Half-Life would not be compatible with the Mac port. Additionally, concerns over the task load associated with providing technical support on more than one end platform at once may have contributed to the demise of Half-Life for Macintosh.

Later developments

The sequel, Half-Life 2, was merely a rumor until it was finally revealed at E3 in May 2003, which ignited a firestorm of hype surrounding the game. The player again takes the role of Gordon Freeman, this time several years after the Black Mesa incident in the dystopic Eastern European "City 17" where he must fight as part of a rebellion against an alien regime. After a series of controversies and delays Half-Life 2 was released on November 16, 2004.

Main article: Half-Life: Source

To experience first-hand the processes mod-makers would have to go through with the new engine, Valve ported Half-Life (dubbed Half-Life: Source) and Counter-Strike to their new Source engine. Half-Life: Source is a straight port, lacking any new content or the Blue Shift High Definition pack. However, it does take advantage of vertex and pixel shaders for more realistic water effects, as well as Half-Life 2's realistic physics engine. They also added several other features from Half-Life 2, including an improved dynamic lightmap, vertex map, and shadowmap system with cleaner, higher resolution and specular texture and normal maps, as well as utilization of the render-to-texture soft shadows found in Half-Life 2's Source engine, along with 3D skybox replacements in place of the old 16-bit color bitmap skies. Also redesigned was the crossbow that will pin its targets to a nearby wall (if they're close enough). The Source engine itself, however, is not entirely perfect. Certain control issues are generally regarded as being a problem, such as ladder bounce (where disconnecting from a ladder gives a sideways vector boost, which can be highly undesirable when trying to move near a ladder on a platform over a fall), fall push (where moving off a platform into a fall gives a sideways vector boost), and jumping from platforms (where the graphics engine tends to lead the player to think a jump can be made later than it really can). Naturally, the Half-Life port possesses the Source engine's control weaknesses as well as its many graphical strengths. Half-Life: Source is available with special editions of Half-Life 2. This port has been criticised however, for not utilizing many of the features of the Source engine found in Half-Life 2, as it still used textures and models from the original game. Due to this, a third-party remake called Black Mesa is also under development. Day of Defeat: Source was released on September 26 2005.

On June 10, 2005, Valve announced through their Steam update news service an upcoming port of Half-Life Deathmatch, the multiplayer portion of the original game, much in the same fashion as the earlier released Half-Life: Source. No exact release date was given, simply the words "In the coming weeks..." On July 2, 2006, Half-Life Deathmatch: Source was released.

Recently, Half-Life 2: Episode One was released. It is part of a three episode trilogy, of which the second episode is scheduled to be released in winter 2006.

Expansions

Two expansion packs by outside developer Gearbox Software have been released for the PC version: Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999) and Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001). The former, often shortened to OpFor or OP4, returns the player to Black Mesa during the events of Half-Life's storyline, but this time from the perspective of the U.S. Marines sent to cover up evidence of the incident. It introduced several new weapons (notably the M249 SAW LMG and a Barnacle grappling gun), new non-player characters, both friendly and hostile (Otis the security guard and the "Race X" aliens, respectively) and new, previously unseen areas of the facility. The expansion is shorter than Half-Life, having 11 chapters to the original's 19.

The player takes control of Barney Calhoun in Blue Shift.

Blue Shift returns the player to HL's Black Mesa timeline once more, this time as one of the facility's security guards. (This expansion was originally developed as a bonus mission for the canceled Dreamcast version.) Blue Shift came with an optional High Definition Pack that could update the look of Half-Life, Opposing Force, and the new Blue Shift content. In particular, the models' polygon count and texture resolutions were increased, and some changes were made to the in-game sounds, most notably the shotgun. Blue Shift had relatively little new content compared to Opposing Force: aside from a few models (jacket-less scientists and security guards, Otis, and Dr. Rosenberg) all content was already present in the original Half-Life.

Half-Life: Decay was another expansion by Gearbox, released only as an extra with the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life. The add-on featured cooperative gameplay in which two players could solve puzzles or fight against the many foes in the Half-Life universe.

In 2000, a pack titled the Half-Life Platinum Collection was released, with these games included:
Half-Life
Counter-Strike
Team Fortress Classic
Half-Life: Opposing Force

In 2002, the pack was rereleased with Half-Life: Blue Shift included.

Mods

From its release in 1998, Half-Life saw fervent support from independent game developers, due in no small part to support and encouragement from Valve Software. Worldcraft, the level-design tool used during the game's development, was included with the game software. Printed materials accompanying the game indicated Worldcraft's eventual release as a retail product, but these plans never materialised. Valve also released a software development kit, enabling developers to modify the game and create mods. Both tools were significantly updated with the release of the version 1.1.0.0 patch. Many supporting tools (including texture editors, model editors, and rival level editors like the multiple engine editor QuArK) were either created or updated to work with Half-Life.

Half-Lifes code has been released and is being used as a base for many multiplayer mods such as the immensely popular and free Counter-Strike. Other popular multiplayer mods include Team Fortress Classic (TFC), Day of Defeat, Deathmatch Classic (DMC), Action Half-Life, Firearms, and Natural Selection. TFC and DMC were developed in-house at Valve Software. Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, and others that began life as the work of independent developers (self-termed "modders"), later on received aid from Valve. There was even a free team-based multiplayer mod called Underworld Bloodline created to promote the Sony Pictures movie Underworld.

Numerous single player mods have also been created, like USS Darkstar [4] (1999, a futuristic action-adventure onboard of a zoological research spaceship), The Xeno Project 1 and 2 [5] [6] (1999-2005, a great two part mod starting in Xen and again including space ships), Edge of Darkness [7] (2000, a great mod showing some unused Half-Life models), Half-Life: Absolute Redemption (2000, which brings back Gordon Freeman for four additional episodes and another encounter with the G-Man), They Hunger (2000-2001, a survival horror total conversion trilogy involving zombies), Poke 646 [8] (2002, a follow-up to the original Half-Life story with improved graphics) and Xen-Warrior [9] (2002-2004, based on Half-Life: Chronicles you play as an Alien Grunt, similar but more consistent than Point of View in which you play as an Vortigaunt).

Some Half-Life modifications eventually landed on retail shelves. Counter-Strike was the most successful, unexpectedly becoming the biggest selling online game to date and having been released in five different editions: as a standalone product (2000), as part of the Platinum Collection (2000), as an Xbox version (2003) as the single player spin-off, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (2004), and the newest addition, Counter-Strike: Source, which runs on Half-Life 2s Source engine. Team Fortress Classic, Day of Defeat and Gunman Chronicles (2000, a futuristic Western movie-style total conversion with emphasis on its single player mode) were also released as stand-alone products.

Soundtrack

Half-Life's soundtrack was composed by Kelly Bailey.
''



(Note: Most of the tracks were retitled and carried over to the Half-Life 2 original soundtrack; the names in parentheses are the revised titles used in the Half-Life 2 OST. Tracks 2, 12, 13, and 24 were remixed for the sequel.)

Trivia

* The PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life appears briefly on the popular drama TV series Lost in "The Greater Good" during a flashback experienced by Sayid Jarrah, one of the main characters. The sequence shows Sayid walking in on several people playing the game:: Yusef: "Damn it. I'm out of ammo!": Hadded: "Use the crowbar.": Yusef: "That only works on the zombies. Not the big bugs."
* Director Quentin Tarantino (who is said to be a Half-Life fan) has reportedly considered the possibility of directing a movie adaptation. Valve has stated however that they have had no contact with Quentin Tarantino nor any of "his people." Valve went on to comment that, "We've had many conversations with folks in Hollywood, but have no commitments for an HL movie at this time." Biography for Quentin Tarantino at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on June 11, 2006.
* Both Half-Life and Half-Life 2 draw some inspiration from various adaptations of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds; the three-legged "Striders" that appear in Half-Life 2 are very similar in appearance to Wells's description of the "Martian war machines" in the book, and the Vortigaunts who appear throughout the series are almost identical to the Mor-Tax aliens from the War of the Worlds TV series.
* Half-Life, as well as its two expansion packs Opposing Force and Blue Shift, are all double entendres, named after scientific terms. "Half-life" refers to radioactive decay, "opposing force" refers to Newton's third law, and "blue shift" refers to a shift in light's wavelength towards the blue end of the spectrum due to the Doppler effect. It may also refer to Cherenkov Radiation
* When Gordon puts on his hazard suit in the first level, there are two more hazard suit slots which are empty. These probably belonged (or were used by) Gina and Colette in Half-Life Decay.

See also

* Half-Life series storyline, the entire storyline of the Half-Life series.
* Half-Life: Uplink - Half-Life demo with exclusive gaming content released in 1999.
* Metamod
* Gabe Newell
* Half-Life 2
* List of Half-Life mods
* Black Mesa (game mod) - A Total Conversion Mod Remake of the Original Half Life built from the ground up using the Source Engine

References

External links

Official

* Official Steam Web site (Valve)

Major fansites/communities

* Half-Life Gamer, a popular fansite of HL/HL2.
* Half-Life Gaming, a popular fansite of HL/HL2.
* Planet Half-Life, a popular fansite of HL- and Valve-related topics from GameSpy.
* Half-Life Fallout, another popular Half-Life fansite.
* Rage-Board Forums, a messageboard for the elite gamers of HL.

Development communities

* Valve ERC Collective - features news, discussion, and help on editing and modding Half-Life.
* Valve Developer Community Wiki, a wiki for mod developers.
* Half-Life mods - the game's ModDB listing.
* Half-Life Improvement Team - Their forum contain a lot of Improved models, not just for HL. Also the home for Blue-Shift: Unlocked
* The Whole Half-life - One of the largest active Half-life modifying communities

Related resources

* Half-Life entry at GameFAQs - has FAQs, walkthroughs, (single player) cheats, and discussion.
* Half-Life at MobyGames.

Rate this Article

Was this article helpful?

Not at all Definitely                  1 2 3 4 5