Half Life

Recently finished playing Half Life: Source, which is simply Half Life ported to the Source engine. It has the same levels, same graphics, same everything; Wrapped in a shiny new and theoretically better engine. It is simply a fantastic game with a wide range of entertaining experiences to offer. Playing the game I could not help but stop and think that they really don't make FPSs like they used to. There are elements of horror, action, tactics, and even a few puzzles.

It is simply an amazing game full of unique and enjoyable gameplay. On the the most acclaimed parts of this gameplay is the enemy AI; While the monsters act quite normally for games of that era the human squads act far more realistic then ever before seen. They will run away if losing and even have a habit of flanking you. Overall it is a simple system that seems to be based on damage ratio (do significantly more damage then you take, particularly in a short period of time, and you can cause the enemies to turn tail and run) which adds a significant amount of tactics and strategy to the game. Adding to this are remote controlled bombs, vicinity detonated mines, and turret emplacements and a plethora of unique weapons.

But above and beyond the AI and the action and shooting is what really makes the game. There is a ton of platforming, exploring, and even a few puzzle like challenges. The shooting as actually a minority of the gameplay, it is really the platforming and exploring that the game is about, i just wish that more developers understood that a FPS does not have to be all shooting and that anything done in enough repetition is boring.

My mini-review of Half Life.