LGR - Half-Life

doublecross, I think. and you can survive the nuke by hugging the outside of the bunker door. I miss tau cannon + laser rpg midair kills lol

Kenny Ketner

Just bumped up my Patreon pledge due to you bringing back the "practice mode" sample.

Will

Look up Black Mesa on Steam. It's a fan-made remake with much better graphics.

Chris Rogers

I loved that level where you could trip the alarm and blow up everyone else.

Chris Rogers

I remember lots of original half-life deathmatch at college!

Kenny Ketner

20 years! Damn! I'm getting old! The memories of the first time playing this game however are still fresh! Man that game blew my mind back in the day! Good times! Great vid as always Clint!

Mat Cooper

I've never played this believe it or not. I my have to find me a copy and check it out.

I was definitely more of a Unreal Tournament guy, but its undeniable the influence that Half-Life add on FPSs. The first scene on the train is unforgettable. I was like "where's the intro?" and that's how the story goes. No cut scenes, always in the eyes of Gordon Freeman. It was a new experience indeed.

Deckard Games

20 years... Crap... I'm old... Time is a heck of a thing

Jacob Nelson

I never played half-life. I didn't get a pc that could play it until 2001 or 2002. I did play counter strike. We played in the schools computer in the middle of class, because the teacher said, now you are supposed to be responsible for your own learning. And we were, it really thought us the fundamental skills of fps games :)

Uncleawesome

woo! fantastic stuff! I remember playing the Counterstrike mod when it was beta ver 7 . .that was a huge multiplayer phenom back when i was in college

Evan B

Awesome retrospective, Clint! I've spent so many nights playing the first Half-Life and went through the main campaign multiple times. Your video made me want to reinstall it

Frederic St-Georges

20 years?! Please excuse me while I die of old age.

Adam Thibault

The first time I played Half-Life was on my Pentium MMX 133mhz with an integrated video card. Software mode and 320x220 resolution or thereabouts. Did not get to play it properly for at least two years.

Aleksander

Playing this at night with a friend was a blast with all the well-done jump scares.

JennaKay

Very nice, I would have loved hardware acceleration back when I first played it. Mind you even with software rendering for my first play through I had vivid memories of exploring Black Mesa

Peter Bridger

This game was the reason I bought my first 3D accelerator - a Creative 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee.

i'm still on my play-through on my P2-450 with a pair of Diamond Monster 3d II 12MB in SLI :) works like a charm

Tom Schaack

20 years hmm.. (2+0)/(2-0) + 2.0 = 3. half life 3 confirmed. :P

Blair Harrison

There's a brilliance in Half-Life's slow introduction. It does an amazing job of presenting the setting, the story and (little as they have) the characters, while also giving sneak peeks to stuff that'd come later in the game. After that, many other games have tried to emulate the slow introduction, and they've failed because all they do is making things slower but they don't really bother with the worldbuilding.

Pablo Rodriguez

Amazingly, I don't like Half-Life. I did indeed play it when it was brand new and ultimately got a copy myself in the mid 2000s, but my first time playing it I loved the visuals but got frustrated with the gameplay, and my second time playing it was pretty much a repeat of that. For me, the action is too touchy; It's too easy to die and you have to be incredibly meticulous to survive without quick-saving constantly, unless you already know what to expect because then it becomes too easy. That's just my experience anyways. Though smacking the vending machine in the demo version just once with the crowbar was freaking hilarious! (The effect was toned down in the full game.)

Kris Asick

I must have played through HL a half dozen times over the years.

DOSGamerMan

Another personal favorite that turns 20. I'm feeling really old now somehow (54 and still going -_-). I remember when I bought Half-Life at my local Best Buy in late November 1998 and went straight home to install it. The PC I had back then wasn't a powerhouse (a Pentium MMX 233 with a Voodoo 1 and SB16) but was still able to run it somewhat decently. This game was so different from others I just couldn't stop playing, I had to know what came next; I spent the rest of the day and all night trying to finish - and I had to go to work the next day. Needless to say, I called in sick (and didn't finish until a few days later ^_^'). In 2002 I bought the Platinum Collection Second Edition; it had Half-Life GOTY, Team Fortress Classic, Opposing Force, Counter-Strike, and Blue Shift. Once again I was hooked and spent several months going through it. Those were the days. I still have both the original release and Platinum Collection and still play them every now and then, but not with the same intensity as I did before; one of the reasons is that the maps get very tedious and repetitious at times and I no longer have the time or patience that I used to, frustration can set in very easily now; if I take a slow and methodical approach then I can better deal with it. Nevertheless Half-Life is one of those games that left a very vivid impression on me, and still love it for that.

Half-Life was one of the first 3D games that made me want to puke. Now sure why Quake didn't bother me at all yet Half-Life had me ready to throw-up in 20-30 mins. It wasn't the first game however that did this, the first game was Doom on the 32X, that game made me puke in about 5 mins - as in I actually threw up and had no idea why until the 2nd time through and it did the same thing. But the record for vomit inducing games is Team Fortress 2 on the Rift DK1, it was maybe 2 mins in and I felt like I was gonna hurl.

Chris Munch

I literally picked up Half-Life yesterday on the PlayStation 2 at a Retro Game store out of curiosity. I would play it tonight! ...if I didn't misplace my PS2 AC Adapter. Ah well, I have a replacement on the way. In the meantime, a little bit of LGR on the subject will be the perfect fit. :)

Christopher Foss

Great video! I had no idea Counter Strike had it's origins as a Half Life expansion.

I love how valve treats it’s modding community, so many great games have come from this one game and mods

Zachary Outen

Heck yeah,been waiting for this one!

neuroflare

Quality in a game is often tied to attention to detail it receives. Thanks for this!

Beegotron

Hell yeah!