Half-Life is a 1998 first-person shooter video game developed by Valve. It was released for PC and built using the GoldSrc engine, a modification of the Quake engine popular at the time. Half-Life was the first game by Valve, a company formed by former Microsoft employees that has gone on to develop the game platform Steam as well as many successful video game series, including Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike.
When Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington left Microsoft to start Valve, they decided to create a 3D game using iD Software’s Quake engine. The game that resulted was Half-Life, a science fiction shooter set underground in the southwest. The game is about a science experiment at the Black Mesa Research Facility that goes horribly wrong. The experiment causes a rip between dimensions through which endless monsters enter the facility and wreak havoc, causing the deaths of many scientists and guards. Players control Dr. Gordon Freeman as he tries to escape the facility armed with a crowbar, guns, and experimental weaponry.
Half-Life was very well received because of its immersive, original story and its puzzle-shooter gameplay, which was revolutionary for the time. Valve went on to develop three expansions to the original game, and in 2004 the widely-expanded, much-anticipated Half-Life 2 was released. Fans of the series are still waiting for a third main installment of the series, but Valve hasn’t confirmed whether Half-Life 3 is in development.
Half-Life Games
- Half-Life (1998)
- Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999)
- Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001)
- Half-Life: Decay (2001)
- Half-Life 2 (2004)
- Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (2006)
- Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (2007)
- Half-Life 3 (????)
Featured Image: half-life.wikia