Current Events > Is the original Half-Life a good game?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Or was the sequel the only classic

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yes, it was a landmark that was universally praised and basically kickstarted a new era of immersive FPSes

A lot better than 2 actually

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I am looking at my Xbox 360 copy of The Orange Box, I never realized that the original wasn't included

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It is awesome. Better than 2 in many ways.

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If you do get Half-Life 1 there are some really good mods to try.

For Singleplayer (most of these are on ModDB though you might have to search around on Google for an alternate mirror):

• They Hunger (zombie horror)
• Afraid of Monsters: DC
• Heart of Evil
• Azure Sheep
• Tactical Espionage Action
• Half-Life: Visitors
• Poke64

There's also another great mod called Sven Co-Op that is just mindblowing. As the name implies, it's meant for co-op (and you might even still find a few servers online), but you can play it singleplayer as well. What makes it different is that it features an absurd amount of community created scenarios and campaigns. Want to play Resident Evil? There's a set of maps for that. Want to play a World War 2 story? There's a set of maps for that. There's a Stargate SG-1 map (I don't remember if my friend and I could actually beat that or not though), and a ton of others.

There were some really fantastic multiplayer mods, too. I don't know if there's still a community for them or not unfortunately.

• BrainBread: There is also now a free standalone Source version (BrainBread 2 on Steam, though the development on it is tragically very slow and updates are sporadic at best). The HL1 mod was absurdly good. It's a cooperative zombie shooter set on open maps. As you kill zombies you get experience that you can use to improve basic stats like speed, accuracy/damage, etc. It was amazing because it had hitboxes (you could shoot zombies' legs and heads clean off), each map comprised of multiple objectives that you had to complete to advance, and the maps were just fun themselves. If you got killed by zombies, you also became a zombie and got to try to hunt the human players (after a while you could choose to respawn as a human if you wanted).
• Natural Selection: There's also a paid Source version (Natural Selection 2, though it plays rather differently than the original). It's a Real-Time Strategy/FPS hybrid, with Marines squaring off against Aliens on giant interactive space station-based maps. The Marines had a Human Commander that was responsible for dropping structures for the other marines to build and giving orders to everyone; he/she could use resources to research and make available better guns, jetpacks, heavy suits, turrets, etc. The Aliens were more free-for-all - they had an individual resource pool that they could use to evolve to different life forms from the basic Skulk, and they could evolve better abilities with more Hives on the map. Anyway... >_>
• Hostile Intent: It was like a realistic Counter-Strike. More realistic damage and absolutely no HUD. It was actually rather terrifying - you'd go to defuse a bomb and ask for everyone to check in and then you'd get radio silence because your team was all dead and no one could respond. Pretty heart pounding shit!

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It's still really good. As mentioned above, there are a good number of people who thinks it holds up better than HL2. If you really can't deal with the visuals, there's a remake called Black Mesa which is apparently now complete.

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better than 2.

Highwind07 posted...

This is just me but I tried it and I couldn't get used to the controls compared to 2.

What's different? From memory, they're the exact same.

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The controls are literally the exact same except I don't think 2 requires you to do the running crouch-jump that you do like twice in the original.

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Imagine 2 without the stupid gravity gun gimmick being forced on you.

However, the final part of 1 is complete ass and probably Valves worst mistake.

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half life 1 is fucking awesome. i didn't play it through for the first time until 2014
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The original was better than the sequel.
It was a launch pad for modding projects.
It didn't age too well though.
It's a very important game, in that it marks the shift from Doom/Quake style fast paced shooters to FPS games based around story, scripted sequences and slower pace.
I have a bone to pick with it due to that - prefer the older style vastly, but it's importance cannot be ignored.

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Opposing Force >>>>>> HL1

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