Op: Don't let these turkeys get you down.
The game Half Life is from the old school genre of games which can basically be summed up as "shit has gone down, are you a bad enough dude to stop it". The style isn't very different to that of Doom or Wolfenstein. The basic plot of Half Life is that you are a scientist, you put a crystal in a place it doesn't belong and aliens invade the research facility. Marines come but because the game needs a new enemy, they are out to kill you. They fail and you go to an alien planet were you kill the Big Bad and then the G-Man (guy in the blue suit you might see walking around) does something to you, the game ends.
To be honest Blue Shift and Opposing Force, which are two games centralised on the Black Mesa incident, are better games. I would play those.
Don't worry about beating Half Life 1 to understand the plot in Half Life 2. The only thing that continues on is Zombies, Aliens (which some are now good for some reason), G-Man and Barney. Everything else is new.
For the record, this guy is not trolling. He isn't doing anything wrong here. The Escapist has more Valve fanboys than the Valve community forums, it's a fucking joke. Just because someone doesn't like Half Life does not mean he's a jerk out to cause harm.
Seriously, what is with this forum? Someone should be banned because they are telling us why they don't like a particular game. *Sigh*