Whadda Game! (Half Life (PC))

Member Name: patslap

Product:	Half Life (PC)
Date:	14/06/01 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Never tiresome, Runs without 3D acceleration, Better than Goldeneye

Disadvantages: It has to end sometime

My first foray into the daunting world of PC Games after being a console kid for 10 years previous, and I decided to purchase Half Life Generation at £19.99, as I'd heard that this was a bit of corker.

I expected many to encounter the usual problems of incompatibility and PC crashes that are supposedly par for the course with an underpowered PC for games (Celeron 600 with no 3D accelerator). After installation, I played around with the configuration and decided to risk 800 x 600 full screen display, and high quality sound option. I was amazed to see the game start up with a respectable frame rate, but most of all, not crashing.

Onto the game itself then.

The plot is fantastic (for a game). To get an idea of the atmosphere conjured up, think Aliens and Total Recall. Probably sounds a bit hackneyed and cheesy, but playing through the game will convince you that this is disturbing stuff. Particularly when you take into account the sounds that some of the other-worldly creatures make. Turn up the volume, switch off the lights.............and go insane.

Gameplay-wise Half Life is sooooo finely honed. There are no breaks in story,except for a second or two every five to twenty minutes to load the next segment of horror. A feeling of being in a real, living, world is so convincingly created due to the fact that there are no "levels" as such, but just one huge complex you keep on steaming through (admittedly in a linear fashion, but even that is well disguised due to the imaginitive environment design).

This is a very bloody game. Lots of gore. I was disappointed to begin with, as the enmy are aliens such as face huggers, and mutated slime-spitting alligators, but this is sorted out quite early on in the game with the first of many gripping plot developments.

To say more would be to ruin the game, as playing it through is so satisfying. The puzzles are logical and you never are baffled by the puzzles, but
more often battered byt the enemy whilst trying to work out a way to solve them. The pressure is FUN. This is a great achievement, as games can so easily become tiresome when you can't see a solution to a problem. This rarely occurs in Half Life because you always end up thinking "If I can just get past him then maybe....", and the solution reveals itself after a little more effort.

Classic stuff. If you've a PC: Buy it. If you haven't a PC: Buy one for this.

I haven't even mentioned the extras yet. For £19.99 you also get Half-Life Counter Strike, and Opposing Force, and of course all the online multiplayer games. Bargain.

Summary: