Zero Punctuation: Half-Life

[RJ Dalton]

And here I thought I was alone.

I too quite enjoyed Xen and it's affiliated level designs. The jumping bits were never hard, and I liked the completely alien feeling of the world. It was an almost shocking departure from the dark, military-industrial look of the rest of the game.

I especially loved exploring every little nook and cranny of Xen, looking for little easter-eggs and other interesting tid-bits.

That's what I loved about Xen, too. I guess if you suck at jumping sections, then it's going to be a pain, but since I was always good at those, it never bothered me.

 

[Metalrocks]

yep, HL is still one of the best FPS around. it has its flaws, true. you have to jump around a lot, thats actually true as well. but i still enjoy this game tremendously.

 

[malestrithe]

I don't blame Watchmen for ruining the 90s, I blame the Dark Knight Returns for that.

Watchmen added a complex narrative structure that only appeared in comics in the early 2000s.

Too true. Could you elaborate more on that early 2000's part? Could it have to do with Grant Morrison's New X-Men or his JLA work?

Neither. Grant Morrison was a part of it, but he was not the only one that did it. It was all the late 90s/early 2000s writers, Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, Judd Winnick, Mark Millar, and so on, all developed a form of storytelling that was different than what came before it. This style owes its existence to Watchmen and Longbow Hunters, the overlooked 3rd important work.

There are exceptions, but in general, new characters in the 90s were either Batman, Wolverine or the Punisher.

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

...Seriously Yahtzee? You did Half Life this week? Well, I guess there was nothing good to review this- Oh wait there was KINGDOM HEARTS DREAM DROP DISTANCE FOR THE NINTENDO 3DS THAT YOU COULD HAVE REVIEWED THIS WEEK!!! Yahtzee, you have been dodging Kingdom Hearts games for years! Since you have mentioned Kingdom Hearts in your reviews several times in the past, why not dig into their newest game!?!?!

Oh and Portal series > Half Life series. This is a rare case of spinoff game series being better than main series. Deal with it.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Odd. An honest review of Half-Life from the most cynical game reviewer on earth and not even a token mention of Xen? Far be it from me to tell him how to do his job but come on. That's like reviewing The Phantom Menace without mentioning Jar Jar Binks.

And does anyone else expect/hope next week's video to cover Half-Life 2? It's almost as revered as the original (certainly by him considering he's mentioned it far more in his other reviews) and he didn't even mention it here like he did with the Thief sequels or Invisible War, so I can't help but suspect that's the plan. I'll be pretty disappointed if it isn't.

I got half-life when it came out in the Orange Box, and got bored in the first hour. It seemed very linear and the graphics looked bad. Portal more than made up for it, though.

Half-Life was never in the Orange Box. You must have played Half-Life 2, and if you thought the graphics of that game were bad enough to complain about only three years after its release, there is no help for you.

 

[tehweave]

You know, I've always had this nagging suspicion that Half Life 2 wasn't as good at Half Life 1. That the first game was actually really cool and the second one felt forced and schizophrenic.

After watching this review I kinda understand why.

Like Yahtzee said, Half Life 1 is a game where you decide your level of immersion. Gordon can be either the Doom level kill gun spree guy or the Final Fantasy level story guy... With kill gun spree moments.

Half Life 2 didn't have that option. You are very much forced to be a part of the story. It's much less subtle. Plus, having everyone regard you as a Jesus-like figure is... Well... Forced! There's no level of immersion here. You have to go through the story whether you like it or not.

Plus, with Half Life 1 trying new and interesting things with the shooter genre, (giving it a well-told story, including jumping puzzles, being more "realistic" than the average shooter, including tactical mercenaries alongside crazy aliens and monsters) Half Life 2 felt like it needed to try a bunch of new things as well. Vehicle sections, survival horror sections, stealth sections, RTS sections, and again had to include a military opposition alongside an alien one.

Half Life 2 isn't bad, but it is not nearly as good as HL1. It feels like a game that tried to do everything it's predecessor did. Granted, it was still fun and still had a lot of creativity behind it, but it's obsession with "innovation" was in the end, the part that made it fall short for me.

Good review!

 

[MrBaskerville]

Never really got why people loved this one so much. I find it somewhat boring and i can´t really agree that the story works in any way. Back in the day i loved First person shooters (and i still do, Blood and Doom are still highly entertaining games) but Half-Life changed everything from fun to boring. Might have enjoyed it more if the visual style and setting was more interesting or if the feel wasn´t so flat. And i really hated the segments where you fight against soldiers.

But then again, i can´t really see why Valve is so highly regarded, just really don´t like their style, their games seems about as exciting as MS Excel to me. Not exactly a popular opinion, but oh well^^.

 

[jmarquiso]

What would that make Barney, Kleiner, and Vance? I find Vance the most amazing, as everything that went on in the first game was like a horror movie, and he was the only black guy. I think that's quite an accomplishment to survive that as a black man. Though I can understand Gordan getting the Jesus status as he did survive it, take out most military and alien forces and destroyed the controlled leader of the aliens. And he only became big in Half-Life 2 after he had taken out a few hundred soldiers, he was just well known among his friends because he was a genius and he kicked some ass. And the beard, that is his claim to fame.

This is my issue with Half Life 2. Everything revolves around Gordon, despite the fact that he's basically been absent for quite some time. The fact that Barney finds him randomly (though not so random, considering who put Gordon there) is the only thing that introduces Gordon tot he world. Vance - by all rights - should be as highly regarded, if not moreso.

Everyone is telling you how important you are in Half Life 2. It's an issue with the game, that others have copied so often. I understand why, but it's something games need to grow out of. It's not far from old Romantic literature or Greek mythology, where the protagonist is always the most important person in that world in some way (the most brave, the strongest, the most beautiful, etc.) This doesn't just apply to Gordon, but Master Chief, the Vault Hunters in Borderlands, Sam Fisher, etc.

I'm more interested in the everyman against all odds, which Gordon has in Half Life 1, but loses in Half Life 2 with all the hero worship.

Great video on the subject:

http://www.errantsignal.com/blog/?p=151

By contrast, Portal 2 still makes you very important, but by berating you. That, and you have reason to be important after the first game.

Edit: Oh, and Vance is obviously John the Baptist, Barney is Peter, Alyx is Mary Magdellin, and Breen is Pontios Pilot. Sorry for the spelling.

Truthfully, the reason why people read the Jesus myth in everything is that it's incredibly influential ON anything, and the journey is vague enough that it could really apply to anything.

 

[EHKOS]

I would like to point out that the restrained narrative had the same effect in KOTOR II on Peragus. And yet people bitched about that til the cows came home. I love that though, it had this great build up feeling.

 

[MrDrProf]

Over the steam sale this summer I finally bought half life, (yes, I basically did live under a rock for the first 14 years of my life) and I found that it still holds up today. I found the campaign much more fun and exciting than call of duty, battlefield, or any of that other bs. Now I see why Yahtzee holds it as the standard for games.

 

[duchaked]

I always think about the "Freeman's Mind" series whenever Half-Life 1 comes up def helps keep it interesting throughout

 

[vezon]

I can't say I dint enjoy HalfLife, but only the mid part. 1st time I tried I got so bored by the dozens of platforming and crowbar smashing that was just so blawww. So goes for the end of it. And 2nd I dont know whats with his "Great" story? Ok their is a pretex failed experiment, portal and mosters, then the cleaning party. But didnt get what conn had the story with the bosses: tentacle one, bruiser, the final boss. I felt really disconected from the story. At mid when u fight soldier was really good(lifelike) AI.
And we should not forget we had Unreal and QuakeII before. Yes didnt have story at all (almost), but they shined in other parts.
I have to saty its a little overrated this game. Its a milestone? Yes. Its the greatest of his time? Definitely a NO.
In 1998 there were so many good games, that for me, HalfLife didnt get in the top ten.

 

[Strazdas]

We all know what Gordon Freeman is really like thanks to Ross Scott (look up Freeman Mind on Youtube).

Oh yes i can suggest watching that too, its amazing-squared.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Yes indeed, it's good to see Yahtzee give me some professional confirmation for my firm belief that Half-Life is still fucking awesome! Seriously, I took literally YEARS to beat this game, I bought it as part of a reduced price collector's box in the mid-2000s and never actually got around to finishing it until I'd actually acquired the Orange Box (again, years after its original release when I found it for a seriously reduced price) and needed to finish Half-Life 1 to properly contextualise the sequel. So I was actually playing the original Half-Life and its 2 expansions literally more than ten years after their original release and I was shocked at how BLOODY INCREDIBLE the games still were! The action was intense and exciting, the setting was tense and immersive, the story was fascinating and the overall package was brilliant.

Still, I am a bit surprised that Yahtzee didn't take a shot at Xen, the level that coined the term "Xen Syndrome" for inexplicable late-game drops in quality as it really was startlingly inferior to the rest of the game, despite its fantastic art direction. Or make a joke about Gonarch, the 12-foot tall spider with a huge ball sack hanging off it.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

I like how he completely skips over the fact that the last hour spent running around in Xen is incredibly painful, annoying, jarring and really just overall shitty compared to the rest of the game.

I mean, this is the game that coined the trope "Xen Syndrome" so I figure pointing out that the end game is a bucket of arse is at least worth a joke or two.

 

[Kayweg]

Next up...System Shock 2 !
Here's for hoping.

 

[MikeHax]

In regards to your Watchmen statement, Oh yes I can

 

[DaKiller]

This is amazing, I just found Half-Life GOTY edition in my garage last week and now this review comes out of the blue! What are the chances?

 

[Samantha Burt]

This is amazing, I just found Half-Life GOTY edition in my garage last week and now this review comes out of the blue! What are the chances?

Given the data with which I have been presented: 100%

This is a fine example of the anthropic principle. Had this not happened, would you have gone "Hey, nothing remotely connected to this game happened recently, and now there's a review? :O"?

OT: I never finished the original half life, when I first played it, I was 5-6 years old, but I still remember greatly enjoying everything upto the first couple of soldier sections.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Never had trouble jumping, I loved it, no jumping=crappy modern gambling.

Half life 2 was weak ><

And Half life 1 was not that linear , it was more contextualized than most games today that are just crazy linear.