Half-Life (video game): Difference between revisions

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Notable for its total immersion of the player. The entire game is played out in first person and in real time, with very little sound not produced by actions in the game world, and no sounds at all made by the central character; also, there are no cutscenes (except at the very end) -- the player has control of the character at all times, and the story unfolds entirely in-game.

The designers actually had great difficulty with the level design at first, and got stuck in a rut. In order to take stock, they created a single level containing every gimmick, enemy, and bit of level furniture that they had come up with for the game so far. Said level was fantastic, and they realized that this density of [[Videogame Set Piece|set pieces]] was the "certain something" the game lacked.

 

 

Gearbox Software made three [[Expansion Pack|Expansion Packs]] for the original game. The two first were called ''Opposing Force'' and ''Blue Shift'', in which the player respectively takes control over the soldier Adrian Shephard and the security guard Barney Calhoun. Gearbox took some liberties towards the storyline within these expansions, which have set off a lot of fan debate about their legitimacy. While [[Word of God|Half-Life's writer, Marc Laidlaw]], so far have deemed these expansions semi-canon until further notice, some parts of the fanbase have already labeled them as [[Fanon Discontinuity]], while others ferociously defend their being canon - due in no small part to Adrian Shephard's status as an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]. On the other hand, ''Blue Shift'' is generally considered inferior to ''Opposing Force'', and was originally intended to be released as an add-on campaign to the [[Dreamcast]] port of ''Half-Life'', which fell through when Sega pulled the plug on the console. The third Expansion Pack, ''Decay'', was developed and released exclusively for the PS2 version of ''Half-Life'', but can also be played on the PC thanks to the efforts of the mod community. It starred two female Black Mesa scientists, Gina Cross and Colette Green, and is the only co-operative entry to date.

 

[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05/09/interview-what-happened-to-black-mesa-source-part-1/ And if you're wondering about] [[Development Hell|the progress of a certain mod]]...

* [[The Abridged Series]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slRsexrhbG8 Half Life in 60 Seconds].

* [[Action Girl]]: Gina and Colette in ''Decay''.

* [[Bee-Bee Gun]]: The Hornet Gun from the first game.

* [[BFG]]: The Displacer from Opposing Force is very obviously inspired by the trope namer.

* [[Boring but Practical]]: The Hivehand, the only weapon you have that regenerates ammo. It's especially once you get to Xen, where ammo is very scarce overall.

* [[Captain Obvious]]: In Opposing Force's training level, Shephard gets shot point-blank with a shotgun to demonstrate the effectiveness of the PCV armor vest.

* [[Creator Cameo]]: Gabe Newell's office can be seen in the chapter "Office Complex".

* [[Dead Character Walking]]: The original has this: if an NPC has scripted dialogue, but you kill them before they begin to speak, the corpse will speak anyway. The mouth moves and the audio can be heard, but otherwise he is dead. (This works at least on the security guard at the end of the Power Up sequence.)

* [[Deus Ex Nukina]]: {{spoiler|Happens to Black Mesa at the end of Opposing Force.}}.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: One of the early Beta monsters for HL1 was called "Mr. Friendly", which would attempt to "rape the player to death" according to the [http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Friendly Combine Overwiki]. The Gonarch toward the end of the first game. Looks like a very large scrotum on legs. So yes..."King Gonads."

* [[Gone Horribly Wrong]]: In the original, the experiment that let the aliens in.

* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: By the end of the first game, Gordon is carrying [[Weapon of Choice|a crowbar]], [[Standard FPS Guns|a 9mm handgun, a shotgun, a sub-machine gun]], [[Revolvers Are Just Better|a revolver]], [[Stuff Blowing Up|grenades, an RPG]], [[Frickin' Laser Beams|a laser gun]], [[Disintegrator Ray|a ''bigger'' laser gun]], [[Bee-Bee Gun|an alien gun with living bullets]], [[Laser Sight|laser tripmines]], [[Stuff Blowing Up|satchel charges]] and [[Organic Technology|snarks]]. Plus ammunition. The worst example is the Gluon Gun, which is a ''backpack mounted nuclear reactor.''

* [[Indecisive Deconstruction]]: The first game can be read as a deconstruction of the [[Trope Codifier]] ''[[Doom]]''. The basic premise (an experiment into teleportation technology [[Gone Horribly Wrong|goes horribly wrong]]) is basically the same as Doom. Like Doom, there is very little plot exposition. But unlike Doom, ''Half-Life'' showed you exactly how terrifying this kind of scenario would be if it happened in the [[Real Life|real world]]; you must think and ''not'' act like a stereotypical [[Space Marine]] in order to remain alive. And of course, this kind of experiment would require immense levels of government funding. Necessitating a large covert laboratory. And thus, when everything goes wrong the military have to be called in to ''keep'' things covert. However, the developers have at no point implied any critical intent. Thus, ''Half-Life'' is arguably an unintentional deconstruction. Also, given how influential the first game was on all future shooters, [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|the game seems like a played-straight example of the genre to someone raised on modern shooters]].

* [[No Indoor Voice]]: The HECU Marines in Half-Life 1, due to their voices always sounding like they're coming out of walkie talkies. Even [[Lampshaded]] by one line they say while idle: "Squad, quiet down!" at the same not-very-quiet level.

* [[Planet Looters]]: Race X in ''Opposing Force''.

* [[Shark Tunnel]]: "Crush Depth" in ''Opposing Force.''

* [[Sidekick]]: Barney the recurring security guard.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Science Fiction Video Games]]

[[Category:The Nineties]]