HALF-LIFE - PC Master Race #2 - Retro Review

The evolution of FPS games in the world of the PC has had great relevance both graphically and in its gameplay, remembering a little its most relevant beginnings as it was Wolfenstein 3D, the great DOOM, or the successful Duke Nukem 3D have always given talk, each of them was a complete evolution causing a large mountain of PC Gamers behind them, one of the main FPS that joined much of the aspects of the previous games was Unreal, but in my opinion lacked a bit of history, with this I mean that the genre FPS in its great majority was simply to enter in battle with multiple enemy no matter what happened around you and little by little it was molding to what we know in the present, that introduced this change which was impressively accepted by the Gamer community was the great Half-Life.

Despite being well known by several experienced gamers has been a little forgotten by the video players of this new generation, I consider it important to know what were the origins that led the evolution of the FPS to what we cook today, Half-Life a the 19 years of its launching is still a game of excellent quality, a totally original story and a difficulty of the gods, apart from the level of addiction that can cause you the simple fact to know what will be its outcome causes an intrigue in the player which can spend hours in front of the pc.

It's here when the 3D graphics shine in all their splendor, I clearly remember using my ATI Diamond 32 MB to see this excellent game for the best resolution, the effects of cracking boxes, explosions, blood left by enemies, everything for that moment was impressive, the characters had very good moves, although the models were not very varied (especially in security guards) this is not an impediment to highlight the excellent work by the developers.

Half-Life incorporated into the FPS world the real-time cinemas, which for the time had no game, remaining as a school for later games, the interactions you can do with the diversity of elements in the game is very wide, to take an example sometimes we need the guards to help us eliminate some monsters (which by the way their aim is terrible) and additionally they opened doors that for us were impossible to access, one of the things I liked to see was the deaths some scientists were very funny but others very traumatic.

The general design of the levels environment is one of the most original that we can highlight within an FPS, we really realize that we are inside a large laboratory that we have to escape at all costs (which will not be easy), every time we move within this wide world we realize the great difference between transitions levels, this in my opinion makes the player feel very comfortable, not bored and apart that entertains the fact of exploring something totally unknown

The graphic aspect of the weapons is excellent, at first they will appear to be common weapons such as a gun, shotgun or a submachine gun, however, in the greatest depths of the immense laboratory find us a crossbow which has the mode of firing explosive arrows (me remembered turok) or a missile launching remote control among others more that will leave them to curiosity of the reader, the arsenal is very complete and allows us to defend ourselves of all the existent threats within the game.

One of my favorite points, Half-Life adopted the keyboard and mouse configuration that we know today, making our left hand move the direction we want to go and our mouse would control the torso of the character, there will be parts that will test our playability with jumps and exact movements, that at the slightest mistake we will simply lose our lives.

There is a concept that is heard in the vast majority of current games and is artificial intelligence, it should be noted that Half-Life is characterized by having the most intelligent enemies (in its time), here we have different types of threats, however we will classify them in two types, the aliens who simply come from another dimension and not with good intentions and as always humans, the latter are represented by special forces whose mission is simply to end all existing evidence of the great laboratory, the intelligence they developed the programmers for these enemies is really impressive, I still remember in one of my games that was tucked inside a kind of hidden tunnel of these soldiers, when suddenly one appears opening a gate, I throw a mine that is activated with remote control, Close the gate and BUM !!!, I was speechless.

Apart from our story mode we have the legendary multiplayer mode, do not imagine what I enjoy this with friends, hours in cyber cafe only to kill us between us, I still remember my favorite map Datacore, God what memories !, all the elements that Mention previously it contained this great way but with the difference that it was an all against all, we liked very much to put it for kills, the one that arrived at 30 finished being the winner of the encounter (now that I remember all hated to me by my extraordinary use of the crossbow XD). It is worth mentioning that Half-Life was the model to create the famous Counter-Strike that also invested a great time of my life playing it =).

Although Half-Life is a very complete game over time, there are two excellent expansions that faithfully follow the story of the main game, but from different points of view, do you remember soldiers and guards? views creating connections between the 3 games, would be the great half-life: Opposing Force and the Hal-Life: Blue Shift, each of them has its original details that differentiate it a little from the main delivery, such as weapons, or new enemies, one of the things I liked the most that we will sometimes see our main character from the first Half-life going through those places where we fought or escaped hundreds of enemies, this is one of the things I like the most videogame.

Something that does not gloriously stands out is the music, this is the only "regular" detail I can say about this game, but not because of this and we will qualify the game in a negative way, it is here when its special sounds give a stunning , voices, enemies, weapons, explosions, among many other things have such excellent quality that it is a pleasure to hear all those details with a good headphones, just a perfect job for the Valve team.

In the long time that I have as a PC player I have had the opportunity to play many games of the FPS type, but I really consider my teacher to Half-Life, thanks to him involve me in an exaggerated way in the PC world, there are currently editions remastered with the graphics technology they used in Half-life 2, I can recommend with closed eyes these editions since they have all the elements of the original game, its excellent artificial intelligence and as dessert some super improved graphics, apart from its multiplayer mode gave me the initiative to enter the competitive world, I have really met excellent people thanks to this, I consider this game a point of my life very important gamer, seeing it as one of the best games created, simply a masterpiece, if you have never played this is the best time to dedicate a bit of your time, you will not regret it.