Product Description

In Half-Life you play a scientist trapped in a secret underground lab after a high-energy physics experiment goes bad. Your job is to explore the ruined complex, rescue fellow scientists, and wipe out extra-dimensional aliens. Watch your back, though: shadowy government agents would rather see you dead than let their project be exposed to the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9051 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sierra
• Released on: 2001-11-02
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 95

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the most influential first person games, Half Life is the big daddy of its genre. released in 1998 before Unreal Tournament, Soldier of Fortune and other greats, it still manages to be one of the most played games online. With an equal balance of action and storyline, you play a Dr Gordon Freeman, a professor starting a new job at a black ops research facility. However, soon after you arrive, things go horribly wrong with some of the experiments. Left to your own devices in a locked down facility, you basically have to get out alive. The game is based across one seamless level--the facility. Half Life broke the rules of the level-to-level games before it. Here you get immersed into the Half Life world. Yet it isn't just the maps that are different from what you have come to expect from this genre. The weapons aren't just strewn around as they are in Quake 3. Half Life prefers to hide them on people, lockers and testing rooms making the overall environment more realistic. But where Half Life excels is the multiplayer options. As a standalone package this game will keep you busy for a long time, but Half Life has a very big following, so in addition to the official add-on packs such as Opposing Force, the game has spawned a number of un-official, but hugely successful add-on packs such as Counterstrike and Team Fortress. This game has managed to create a special place in many a gamer's heart. Whether you are new to the genre or just looking for a new challenge, this game is well worth a look at. What's so great is that it's accessible to everyone. If you're new to the genre, stick with the single player missions. But if you're looking for that new challenge, get this and then download Counterstrike straight away. --Stuart Miles

Customer Reviews

Still The Best Game Ever Created !
Since I bought Half Life in November 1998, I have played the single player game at least a dozen times over. I cannot imagine doing that with any other game. Most of the games I have bought have been played two or three times at most and then sit gathering dust.

But something compells me to install Half Life every few months and play it again. You cannot get a better recommendation for a game !

With Half Life 2 not quite out yet, I can reliably say that Half Life is STILL the best game ever created. And that's despite graphics that are now 6 years old and new games such as Far Cry that are a visual feast for the eyes.

Half Life is just superb....and any other superlative I can add. No other game has the excellence of plot, the variety of scenery, or the sheer grandness of scale.

Indeed, there are scenes fron Half Life that no other game has bettered to date. Half Life remains the daddy of all FPS games, and belongs in your collection.

Half Life deserves its own special rating of 10.

This game took the world by storm......
This game took the world by storm, much like Doom did all those years ago and it set the standard of FPS games for the millenium. Though launched in 1998 I was still on my third attempt at Dungeon Keeper and hadn't actually paid for a game since Duke Nukem in 1996. I got my moneys worth though because I ended up playing this about four times. The game starts with you taking a mining carriage into some secret planetary laboratory and reminded me of the beginning to an all action Arnie film, well little did I realise that it was very much like being part of a film and one with a story line too - which is a bonus. It is a First Person Shooter (FPS) which basically means you run around killing anything in sight by using your huge arsenal of bombs, grenades, guns and organic alien launchers and at the same time desperately trying to salvage health and ammo . I think the game took me so long to complete the first time because you would very often find me hiding behind some plant like tentacle plucking up the courage to dive into the jaws of a huge pant-browning monster. Anyway, it sat at the number one FPS spot for 2 years until Medal of Honour swiped the throne.

MUST HAVE - NO SERIOULY
If you don't already own this game - where the hell have you been for the past 4 years?

This game runs on XP (I have a few problems with alt-tabbing but you can expect that with a vast majority of games), in fact if you can't get this game running on your PC it is grounds for returning it. This game has been patched continuously with bug fixes and updates so up to date hardware is supported.

The best thing about this game is that just about anyone can make a mod for the game. This means that someone writes new game files that use the games engine but, it is in many ways a new game. There are lots of these “mods” out there and they are free to download. The best and most successful mod out there is "counter strike" this is the internets most popular game. It is free, multiplay only, you can buy it on its own now but it will be cheaper to get half life and the mod. It may take some time to get set up and playing properly but is incredible fun.

If your think about getting half life 2 and don't own this, trust me get this while you wait, it will be worth it.

If you only buy 1 game ever this should be it.