Your experiences in Black Mesa (Half-Life Thread)

[Ashen]

So, for those who are into the PC gaming scene (and some who aren't), we know that Half-Life is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month. As such, Valve gave out (is still giving out?) Half-Life, the original game, through Steam for only one dollar USD. I know someone who decided that, for everyone in this one IRC channel I was active in, if they had Steam and wanted the game, he'd buy it for them. So... I downloaded Steam and asked for it because I had never played it before.

I did the training first; it seemed like a fun enough game to me. Then I got into the story mode. I put it on Easy because I had some idea of what was to be going on later in the game. But... I'm only a half-hour in and the game's already killed me three times and scared the bejezzus out of me many more times. (*cries*)

tl;dr: Have you played Half-Life before, and if so, what are your experiences with it?

 

[kohei]

Personally as a videogame, HL1 triumphs over HL2 because of more enemies, more weapons, smarter AI (I swear the Marines are smarter than the Combine) and of course, gibbing!
Introducing adventure/exploration in the FPS genre was big too.

The ending was target of complaint pre-HL2, but not anymore... and Gordon holds a special place in my soul. HL is my favourite game series by far.

 

[Cherrim]

I've played some of HL2 on the 360, but I'm not good with the controls. :( I dunno if it's my controller or what, but I keep accidentally crouching all the time which is ridiculous because I don't even notice if/when I push down on LS. So I've been dying a lot in it and that makes it... not that enjoyable. (Though I could still tell it was a good game. xD)

I did purchase the original on Steam last week during their $1 special. ♥ Haven't downloaded/installed it yet, but I do look forward to playing it.

 

[Jack O'Neill]

I've played through the original Half-Life and the Opposing Force and Blue Shift expansions. Overall, they were quite enjoyable.

 

[ShadowDeeps]

It's still my favorite game ever (the first Half-Life), and I mean that without a window of doubt. The game universe and franchise itself is also my favorite ever. I love the commanding, less genteel, overarching nature of it; it's always appropriately building, there's never a second of action sacrificed by any account, and yet it calls to heightened immersion and building, dynamic, quiet moods in a way that games didn't at the timeframe. And, for that matter, the G-Man is my favorite game character ever - I love his separate will (as though screwing over the player is a trivial matter, whilst still leaving the player pondering over things by the most subtle insinuation), subtly morose but other worldly nature, as well as the other worldly notions and slow but unsettling inflections his voice has an authoritative allure of (whose voice actor, might I add, is Mike Shapiro, who is my favorite game voice actor ever and also voiced Barney - quite a great vocal range and quite a dissimilar voice there).

I also love Black Mesa and just the whole premise.... despite that many games of today's sort are arguably superior, Half-Life accentuates what you don't see (with very good sound effects on an account of that) and never goes astray from the hinging of immersion. And I love the score that plays in the tram ride of the original game; it's an other worldly background for a very pivotal and critical sequence (with less action-rooted and heightened beats and more power to ebbing, natural, and creepy notes), which establishes that not all is what it seems in an auguring and frightening way. And though I love Half-Life 2, its episodes, and Portal I prefer the original (the expansions of the original being somewhat mediocre in my eyes and not having the clean map design that HL1 had for me) as the original did not leave quite the same lack of finality and resolution and didn't throw the player out of the main game for no reason on my view. Oh and by the by, when I first played the original I played the main game itself, then the Hazard Course (training room). That gave fruit to more mystery for me. :rambo:

Oh, and fans of the original may be looking forward to this, which I've waited for for over 4 years now:

https://www.blackmesasource.com/

But yeah, I love Half-Life.

 

[moon]

So, for those who are into the PC gaming scene (and some who aren't), we know that Half-Life is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month. As such, Valve gave out (is still giving out?) Half-Life, the original game, through Steam for only one dollar USD. I know someone who decided that, for everyone in this one IRC channel I was active in, if they had Steam and wanted the game, he'd buy it for them. So... I downloaded Steam and asked for it because I had never played it before.

I did the training first; it seemed like a fun enough game to me. Then I got into the story mode. I put it on Easy because I had some idea of what was to be going on later in the game. But... I'm only a half-hour in and the game's already killed me three times and scared the bejezzus out of me many more times. (*cries*)

tl;dr: Have you played Half-Life before, and if so, what are your experiences with it?

8D

Half-Life is a part of my history. I first played it when I was about 10 years old. I was quite good at English and understood what was said, but didn't really get the plot... and since I was pretty bad at FPS at that time (xD) I soon found out about cheating codes and used godmode the whole game through then. So I'm sad to say I first beat the whole game in godmode and no clue about the complicated and deep story xD -shot billions of times-

But I've played it since, and the thing that really grips you is the simplicity in gameplay and the genial design of the levels. Crawling around in ventilation shafts-things must have started seriously with this game... And those headcrabs! >.< I've nearly pissed myself dozens of times.

The expansions, I've played too. I remember liking Opposing Force better than the original game, but I think most people find that storyline not as good as the original one..? Blue Shift wasn't really as fun as the others to me, I think I never really got through it actually... But my brother did, and he said he liked Barney's adventure better than Gordon's :]

Play through the original game, then you MUST get Opposing Force and play as Adrian Shepard too... it's really a great experience, and adds understanding to the story. I guess Blue Shift does too. Cuz people playing Half-Life 2 without having played Blue Shift don't get that wonderful cool feeling in the beginning, when the guard takes off the helmet and reveals himself to be Barney...! :D

While Half-Life 2 seems to have a great big story (I haven't really played it much), Half-Life originally was a dark, creepy story in a closed (more or less) underground (more or less) area, with a totally different feeling to it (imo). A cool feeling.

:)

 

[yvette]

My brother has the Orange Box, so I played a little. Mostly, I watched. I love the physics engine of the game; it makes it more realistic, if not annoying, sometimes. Lol at the zombies. Oh, and I've always liked those little mines that become friendly to you once you touch them. They're so cute. =)

Anyways, my brother is a bigger fan than me (obviously). He wants the original Half-Life.