Part of History of 1990s Computer Games.

Half-Life 1 Review: Valve 1998

Developed by Valve in 1998, Half-Life is a first-person shooter (FPS) that employs a heavily modified Quake engine. Half-Life's GoldSrc engine was coded from Quake's core, but Half-Life does not play, look or feel much like Quake at all: their designs fundamentally differ.

Half-Life 1 Cinematization via Scripted Sequences

First and foremost is that Half-Life moved away from the pure FPS experience by adding an in-your-face storyline, NPCs and scripted sequences, none of which concern FPS gameplay.

During scripted sequences players usually maintain control of their character (within the current confines), but players must actually wait for scripted sequences to conclude before the campaign can progress; that is, before they can continue playing normally.

Even though players maintain control of their character (within the current confines), scripted sequences amount to cutscenes or cinematization: it doesn't matter that players maintain control of their character during scripted sequences because players still need to wait and watch passively while events unfold, regardless.

In Quake you never need to wait for scripted sequences because Quake is a pure FPS.

Scripted sequences put players into passive states rather than active gaming states. During the first three chapters of Half-Life's story players are mostly just derping around and waiting for NPCs to do something. Indeed, it takes quite some time before Half-Life introduces actual FPS gameplay (about 20 minutes for new players). But load up Quake and within seconds you are blasting away at raging monsters, fighting for dear life.

Half-Life's introductory tram ride overlaid by cinema-style credits says it all: Half-Life's narrative is on-rails and presented via scripted sequences and voiced NPCs; this game wants to emulate the Silver Screen; it wants cinematic prestige; it wants to be seen as a professional product -- and it is.

Moreover, scripted sequences can annoy players (faulty doors) or glitch out.

Scripted sequences have long been celebrated by mainstream computer game journalism; the buzzword "immersive" often being employed in relation to them. And yet Quake is more immersive than Half-Life without them. If someone were to argue that scripted sequences furnish narrative, I would respond that player-generated stories that evolve within frameworks of potentialities are superior, and that driving narratives are unimportant and even get in the way of gameplay.

For game-flow, and providing they are skippable, it is actually less jarring to employ end-of-chapter intermission cutscenes than suddenly interrupt gameplay by forcing players to wait and watch. But of course, players should never be waiting and watching unless they are in full control to act at-will.

Note also that Half-Life suffers from perceivable in-area loading: Half-Life displays a loading message in the middle of the screen while it loads one of its "contiguously-linked, seamlessly-transitioning" levels. [1]

Is that immersive?

Half-Life 1 versus Quake 1

This review is based on the original Half-Life v.46 / 1.1.1.0 hardware-accelerated via OpenGL in Windows. What follows does not delve into post-Doom 3D engine significance because that has already been covered in Quake 1 Review. Instead, what follows compares Half-Life with Quake.

Half-Life was released more than two years subsequent to Quake and one year subsequent to Quake 2 (1997). Considering that two years in the 1990s was akin to a life-time in terms of software and hardware engineering advancements, does it show?

Not really.

Valve did not have to code an engine from the ground up while at the same time designing Half-Life. And Valve had the luxury of seeing where Quake was lacking in terms of designwork. Does that show?

In both positive and negative ways, yes.

If Quake was answerable to Doom, Half-Life is answerable to Quake. As it pertains to FPS gameplay, is Half-Life on par with or superior to Quake?

Half-Life is not on par with Quake, let alone superior to Quake.

But the above answers demand elaboration.

Elaboration

In regards to FPS mechanics, Half-Life expands on what players can do in exploration and battle (see below), but Quake's limited repertoire is more polished and refined. Quake movement and gunplay simply feels better: control is silkier yet weightier and more impactful (battles that evoke earthquakes), but Half-Life actually plays more like Doom due to its floaty, feather-weight controls.

The same goes for graphics: Half-Life has more knick-knacks (placeables) and scripted mechanisms jam-packed into its levels, but Quake's levels are visually superior, tonally consistent and ooze atmosphere. And Quake surface texture-maps rarely show unsightly lines where their tiles intersect, unlike Half-Life texture-maps.

On the other hand, Half-Life addresses several of Quake's issues and omissions. Half-life features:

• (+) Manual reloading of weapons (R-key)
• (+) Hand grenade-throwing
• (+) Weapon Primary & Secondary firing modes
• (+) Fired projectiles leave blastmarks on surfaces via r_decals
• (+) Ability to crouch / duck + ventilation ducts
• (+) Pushable and pullable placeables
• (+) Progressive destructibility is a norm
• (+) Ladder-climbing
• (+) Surface-dependent footstep sounds
• (+) Models have increased polygon-count and skeletal animation
• (+) Xen Aliens have more interesting AI behaviors. Examples: ceiling-mounted aliens can lift victims upward (Barnacle) and Headcrabs can attach themselves to victims
• (+) DSP sound technology
• (-) Scripted sequences (cinematization)
• (-) A storyline (linear narrative)
• (-) Talking NPCs
• (-) Poor texture-mapping until 3rd-party Blue Shift High Definition Pack (2001) [2]
• ⊝ NPCs have (limited) facial expressions and lip-synch
• ⊝ More use of physics, gravity and special effects (VFX)
• ⊝ Long Jump (Long Jump Module)
• ⊝ Flashlight (F-key)

Half-Life's DSP sound technology addresses the issue of Quake sound effects not being muted or reduced in volume by the existence of walls, which meant that monsters in adjacent, sealed-off chambers that would otherwise be in the player's presence if not for the walls, could be heard as loudly and as clearly as if they were actually in the player's presence, which could occasionally cause unnecessary alarm.

Quake 2 had already advanced Quake's vertex animation one year prior to Half-Life and its skeletal animation. But what difference is there in FPS gameplay between vertex- or skeletal-animated models? None. Half-Life employed skeletal animations to facilitate its scripted sequences, not to enhance its gameplay.

Quake 2 added radiosity lightmaps. Half-Life has color lightmaps but the original Quake didn't need them due to its spartan "monochrome" color scheme ("grayscale" lightmaps were enough).

Quake hides its limitations via tricks and design choices whereas Half-Life's limitations are laid bare by its stark aesthetics, placeable-spam and outdoor design ambition.

Note that some of Quake's issues and omissions could have been addressed by an extended dev-cycle, since they would otherwise be too puzzling to ponder. But apart from monster behaviors the above bullet-list is trivial.

Quake's weakness was its bare-bones designwork (reason: small team + coding an engine from the ground up at the same time) whereas Half-Life's weakness is its over-design via storyline and scripted sequences. Half-Life presumably employed such adventure-game features in order to separate itself from Doom and Quake.

Due to its emphasis on narrative drive and structure, Half-Life does not employ Doom / Quake end-of-episode Scoring Screens that give players a rundown on killcounts, items looted, secrets discovered and completion times. The removal of this arcade-game legacy affects Half-Life's replayability and arcade-action pedigree.

Couple that removal with enforced wait-states and I saw no reason to replay Half-Life back in the day. And in my 2023 replay Half-Life bored me to tears whereas Quake held up across the board.

Half Life 1 HEV Suit

Once acquired, the Hazardous Environment Suit (HEV suit) indicates the following environmental hazards through its danger monitors:

• Poisonous biohazard
• Burning
• Radiation (Geiger counter)
• Freezing
• Acid or corrosive chemicals
• Electric shock
• Drowning

The HEV suit is functionally a heads-up display (HUD) that shows player health, weapon, ammo, hazards etc. HUD components are not displayed as a solid panel but rather as a transparent overlay. [3]

cf. Doom and Quake HUDs.

Half-Life 1 Specs

Comparison of recommended hardware specs:

• Doom (1993) runs well on i486DX-33 CPUs (11 MIPS) and 4 MB RAM (Software-rendered, MS-DOS-only)
• Quake (1996) runs well on Pentium 100 MHz CPUs (190 MIPS) and 16 MB RAM (Software-rendered in MS-DOS or hardware-accelerated via OpenGL through GLQuake in Windows)
• Half-Life (1998) runs well on Pentium 166 MHz CPUs (230 MIPS) and 32 MB RAM (Software-rendered or hardware-accelerated via OpenGL or Direct3D in Windows only)

The doubling in RAM recommendations is just because Half-Life is Windows-only. Note also that Half-Life runs in SVGA high-color (16 bit color depth: 65,535 colors) whereas Quake runs in VGA 8 bit color depth (256 colors). However, look at my comparison screencaps: Quake looks better.

For more commentary on color depth in computer games, please refer to History of Computer Role-playing Games.

Half-Life 1 Conclusion

All in all, my conclusion is that Quake represents a loftier achievement than Half-Life.

Quake broke more ground, took bigger strides and is more replayable than Half-Life even though it lacks extra features. But Half-Life should also be recognized as a great achievement as well even if one disagrees with its design direction.

***

Half-Life 1 PAK

As in Quake, most of Half-Life's assets are stored in uncompressed *.pak files, which are similar to Doom *.wads. The pak files contain compiled 3D maps (Binary Space Partitioning files), models, textures and sounds.

Half-Life 1 Console

The Half-Life console is called up with the tilde key (~). As with the DOS prompt, up-arrow recalls the previous command.

The console is activated via shortcut target "C:\Half-Life\hl.exe" -console. You can skip the intro by adding -nointro.

Half-Life 1 autoexec.cfg

An autoexec.cfg file can be created in the Valve folder. Comment-out text with //.

Half-Life 1 Savegames

Savegames are stored in *.sav files in the Valve folder. For example, C:\Half-Life\Valve\Save. These include Quicksaves, Autosaves and manual savegames.

[1]

Half-Life 1 Story

The Half-Life story consists of 17 chapters broken up into 96 maps or sectors. The player assumes the role of Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist working at Black Mesa Research Facility located in the desert of New Mexico. When an experiment goes wrong (a Xen crystal sample triggered a resonance cascade in the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, causing an inter-dimensional rift), Gordon is forced to take up arms and defend humanity against hostile alien lifeforms that are invading from the dimension of Xen.

The storyline is presented via scripted sequences that play out in real-time (usually by voiced NPCs or scripted events). Everything in the story is pre-determined via linear narrative design and scripts; thus, campaign progression and outcome are unalterable, unlike Deus Ex (2000).

Format is chapter / initial acquisition of item.

• Hazard Course (optional tutorial)
• Black Mesa Unbound (tram ride)
• Anomalous Materials: HEV Suit acquisition
• Unforeseen Consequences: Crowbar acquisition, Pistol acquisition, Grenade acquisition
• Office Complex: Shotgun acquisition
• We've Got Hostiles: Submachine gun acquisition
• Blast Pit: Magnum acquisition, Laser Trip Mine acquisition
• Power Up
• On A Rail: Rocket Launcher acquisition, Satchel Charges acquisition
• Apprehension: Crossbow acquisition
• Residue Processing
• Questionable Ethics: Snark acquisition, Tau Cannon acquisition
• Surface Tension: Hivehand acquisition
• Forget About Freeman
• Lambda Core: Gluon Gun acquisition, Long Jump Module Acquisition
• Xen
• Gonarch's Lair
• Interloper
• Nihilanth (final boss)
• Endgame (G-Man)

Half Life 1 Weapons

Some Half-Life weapons are conventional, some are experimental energy weapons and some are organic Xen weapons.

• Crowbar: Unforeseen Consequences
• Pistol (9mm semi-automatic Glock): Unforeseen Consequences
• Shotgun (semi-automatic): Office Complex
• Submachine gun (SMG, MP5): We've Got Hostiles
• Magnum (.357 revolver): Blast Pit
• Crossbow (it is not a Stealth Crossbow or Tranquilizer Gun): Apprehension
• Gluon Gun (energy weapon): Lambda Core
• Hand Grenade (fragmentation): Unforeseen Consequences
• Hivehand (Hornet Gun): Surface Tension
• Rocket-propelled Grenade Launcher (RPG): On A Rail
• Satchel Charges (remotely-detonated explosives): On A Rail
• Snark (living Xen alien: bio-weapon): Questionable Ethics
• Tau Cannon (Gauss Gun energy weapon): Questionable Ethics
• Laser Trip Mine (laser claymore): Blast Pit

Half-Life 1 Items

• Battery
• Weapon Box
• Suit Charger
• Health Charger
• Health Kit
• HEV Suit: Anomalous Materals [3]
• Long Jump Module: Lambda Core
• SCUBA Oxygen Tank (not implemented)

Half-Life 1 Enemies

• Barnacle: Ceiling-mounted parasite with tongue-based grapple
• Bullsquid: Acid-spitter
• Gargantua: Heavily-armored Xen military grunt
• Gonarch: Spider-like boss
• Houndeye: Dog-like
• Vortigaunt: Fires energy rays
• Ichthyosaur: Aquatic dinorsaur-like
• Leech (Hagworm): Aquatic parasite
• Tentacle: Apply fire
• Headcrab: Similiar to Alien face-hugger
• Nihilanth: Final Boss of Half-Life
• Alien Grunt (Xen Grunt)
• Alien Slave
• Alien Controller (Xen Master)
• Alien Craft
• Boid (Xen Flyer)
• Assassin Black Ops
• Human Grunt (Marines): Shotgunners and submachine gunners
• Zombie (Mawman)
• Automatic Turret
• Sentry Gun
• Tank
• Bradley Fighting Vehicle
• Apache (attack helicopter)
• Osprey (Bell Boeing V-22)
• Fighter Aircraft (Jet)
• Archer, Charger, Chumtoad, Flocking Floater, Panther Eye, Kingpin, Mr. Friendly (not implemented)

Half-Life 1 Expansions

Impacting expansions and the base campaign of Half-Life, Blue Shift (2001) includes a High Definition Pack that increases texture resolutions as well as the polygon-counts of models.

• Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999, Gearbox Software)
• Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001, Gearbox Software) [2]
• Team Fortress Classic (1999, Valve, based on TeamFortress Quake mod)
• Counter-Strike (2000, Valve, based on the Half-Life mod of the same name, origin in Navy SEALs Quake mod)

Note that Blue Shift is standalone (C:\Blue-Shift\bshift.exe) whereas Opposing Force is run via shortcut target C:\Half-Life\hl.exe -game gearbox. Be sure to add -console -nointro:

C:\Half-Life\hl.exe -console -nointro -game gearbox

cf. Quake 1 Review --- Doom 1 Review --- The Origin of Counter-Strike.

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