Its time to choose

I am disappointed to say the least. It's not a bad game or anything, but with the amount of critical acclaim this game has garnered, I really expected more from it, which makes we wonder if I would have liked it more if I hadn't heard a thing about this game. Starting off with the positives, this game has a distinct art style and premise that'll make it memorable even for someone like me who didn't enjoy the game. That is the only real strong point I can name. Now on to the rest...

This game often just feels like a chore to play. Whether its a combat chapter, or a platforming/exploration one, I can't help but feel that everything it attempts is either average or a miss. No matter what it is, I always think of another game that did something better. I know this might seem unfair because the game came out in 1998, but I wont change my standards & preferences because of that. Many old games still hold up, and even surpass modern titles with certain story or gameplay elements (the original Resident Evils, MGS', Dooms to name a few). Half-Life is not one of these games.

The combat is designed with a plethora of weapons, but none of them are particularly fun to use with them all feeling the same. With weapon variety, I want each weapon to feel distinct, however, guns like the revolver or crossbow feel exactly the same to shoot. No recoil, no visual effects (apart from reload animations ig) just point and shoot. Furthermore a good chunk of weapons are blatantly useless. Shotguns often take multiple hits to kill an enemy even at close range, the alien arm-hand gun never has enough ammunition to be reliable, and the tripmines only work in subsequent playthroughs when you already have knowledge of how the maps are designed. On a first playthrough though, you really don't know where enemies will move (or in the alien's case just spawn from) which makes the trip mines pretty much obsolete.

Human enemy variety is also scarce. Human enemies just have guns and don't challenge you to be strategic in combat encounters. Its basically a run and gun or stay behind cover until they throw a grenade. Snipers have ♥♥♥♥ hitboxes and tanks are boring bullet sponges. The aliens are more interesting because of the variety but none are really outstanding in any way. You could say I'm nitpicking here, but again, for a game with this much acclaim I really expected more. And by the way, why did they even add a mechanic where you could have companions? They aren't that useful and if anything its just comedic to see them blindly walk into those ceiling aliens and get eaten.

Level design is also quite average with a good third of the chapters just being bad. Surface Tension for instance is wayy too long and breaks up the pacing of the game with far too much combat for too long a stretch of time. Residue Processing has the most bland platforming section I've ever played (why even add platforming in a game which doesn't prioritise it?). Interloper is even worse with its platforming with the awkward long jump addition, and moving platforms that are more of a hindrance than a meaningful platforming challenge. That is just to name a few from the top of my head. Furthermore, they aren't designed in a way that lets you approach combat encounters in creative ways. Nine times out of ten, combat encounters are just a single entrance door that lead to a big room with some boxes. If its the late game, its a big and tall room with no boxes. All this amounted to times where I forced myself to keep playing just to get to the part of the game that was so spectacular which never came.

Half-Life never impressed me at any point. It is an average shooter game with forgettable enemy encounters. I don't wanna be that annoying guy, but I really do think that this game is a case of nostalgia blinding people to what is a mediocre game with a couple cool ideas. I'm gonna play the sequel and I hope I enjoy it more than I did Half-Life 1.

good game