Half-Life

Creator(s): Valve | Release: 1999-Present

The Half-Life series is Valve’s flagship FPS.

Much of the Half-Life series was developed on the Source engine and later the Source 2 engine.

Notable Design Implementations

• Sandbox / physics system

• Scripted sequences/events where the player retains almost uninterrupted control of the player character in contrast to cutscenes

• Environmental story telling with a “show, don’t tell” approach to teach game mechanics to the player

The Half-Life series consists of:

• Half-Life (1999): developed using the GoldSrc (“gold source”) engine which is a heavily modified version of the Quake engine from id Software

  • Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999): retells the events of Half-Life but from the perspective of a US Marine

  • Half-Life: Blue Shift (2000): retells the events of Half-Life but from the perspective of a Black Mesa security guard

  • Half-Life: Decay (2001): retells the events of Half-Life but from the perspective of 2 Black Mesa scientists; requires 2 players

• Half-Life 2 (2004): sequel to Half-Life that takes place 20 years after Half-Life

  • Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (2005): a previously cut segment from Half-Life 2 that takes place during Half-Life 2

• Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006): the first of an intended trilogy of episodic games that continue the story of Half-Life 2

• Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007): the second of an intended trilogy of episodic games that continue the story of Half-Life 2

• Half-Life: Alyx (2020): a prequel to Half-Life 2

Black Mesa is a fan-made re-imaging of Half-Life with updated graphics, a new soundtrack, updated enemy AI, additional dialogue and story elements. It was developed by Crowbar Collective on an improved version of the Source engine. The final chapter was reworked from the original Half-Life.

The Orange Box is a video game compilation containing games developed and published by Valve

• Half-Life 2 + Episode One + Episode Two

  The puzzle game Portal

• The multiplayer FPS Team Fortress 2

Half-Life and Portal occur in the same universe. The Aperture Science labs is referenced in Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

• TRIVIA

  In Half-Life, Gordon Freeman’s initial and signature weapon is the crowbar.

  In Half-Life 2, Gordon Freeman’s signature weapon is the Gravity Gun which can be used to pick up and fire objects.

  Xen is the alien world featured in Half-Life. Notable aliens include headcrabs and vortigaunts.

Half-Life 2: Episode Three

A plot outline written by Marc Laidlaw (the writer of Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Episode One, and Episode Two) represents a snapshot of what Episode Three could have been.

Following the events of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, a memorial service for Eli Vance is held and the Rebellion subsequently decides to go to the coordinates described by Judith Mossman. Gordon and Alyx fly towards the Arctic but are downed before they reach it. While investigating Mossman's coordinates which has already been surrounded by a Combine installation, they discover the Borealis is actually phasing in and out of existence, and the coordinates were merely where Mossman expected it to next appear. They are then captured by followers of the late Wallace Breen, whose consciousness is revealed to have been uploaded into a grub. The slug fears Gordon, knowing his original body's fate, but begs for a quick death—Breen's fate would have been left in the player's hands.

They then find Mossman imprisoned by the Combine, where she and Alyx have a tense reunion as Alyx blames her for her father's death. They free Mossman and, after a brief firefight, manage to get the Borealis to stay in one place long enough for them to get onboard before it returns to jumping between universes. They then discover that Aperture Science had been using the Borealis to experiment on something called the "Bootstrap Device," which could emit a field large enough to teleport it anywhere instantaneously. When the Combine invaded, the panicking scientists turned on the device, sending the Borealis to the Arctic without realizing the device could also teleport it through time and was not necessarily bound to one time or location. Thus the Borealis was stretched across time and space between the drydock and the Arctic. They are then left with the choice to either run the Borealis aground in the Arctic so it could be studied or to destroy it with all hands on board, hopefully stopping the next Combine invasion. Mossman argues for the former so it can help the resistance, but Alyx swears by her father's final command to destroy the ship. In an ensuing struggle, Mossman gets the upper-hand and prepares to ground the Borealis but is killed by Alyx who, with Gordon, turns the Borealis into a time-travelling missile heading straight for the Combine's command center.

The G-Man then appears to Alyx, who recognizes him from her childhood, and leads her away, leaving Gordon stuck on the Borealis. Seeing the Borealis's destination, Gordon grimly realizes that the ship will do little if anything to stop the Combine, and that his death will essentially be in vain. Before the ship can collide, the Vortigaunts appear and quickly rescue Freeman.