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''Half-Life'' is a Science Fiction First-person Shooter Computer Game developed by Valve Software and published by Sierra Studios in 1998 , based on a heavily-modified '' Quake '' Game Engine . It was first published for PC s running Microsoft Windows , and was later ported to Sony's PlayStation 2 and Sega's Dreamcast Video Game Console s, although it was never officially released in the latter's case. It is now published by Valve themselves via their Steam platform. ''Half-Life'', often shortened to ''HL'', has been heralded by computer game critics for its gripping and atmospheric presentation of the plotline, which would influence the development of other first-person shooters in the years to come. It was among the first games to feature a story that was told entirely in-game and in PC First-person Shooter to date. SINGLE PLAYER The game is set in a remote area of New Mexico at the Black Mesa Research Facility , a fictional complex that bears many similarities to both the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Area 51 . The game's protagonist is the Theoretical Physicist Gordon Freeman , a survivor of an experiment that goes horribly awry when an unexpected resonance cascade (an apparently completely fictitious occurrence; see also 1 , 2 ) rips Dimension al seams that devastate the facility. Aliens from another world - known as Xen - subsequently enter the facility through these dimensional seams. As Freeman tries to make his way out of the ruined facility to find help for the injured, he soon discovers he is caught between two sides: the hostile aliens, and the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit , a military force dispatched to cover up the incident — including eliminating Freeman and the rest of the scientists. Throughout the game, a mysterious figure known as (but not actually referred to in-game as) the G-Man regularly appears, apparently monitoring Freeman's progress. Ultimately, Freeman uses the co-operation of surviving scientists and security officers to work his way to the mysterious "Lambda Complex" of Black Mesa, where a team of survivors teleport him to the alien world Xen, where he must kill the Nihilanth, the creature keeping Xen's side of the dimensional rift open. The game's plot was originally inspired by the Computer Game s '' Doom '' and '' Quake '', both produced by '' Id Software '', Stephen King 's Short Story / Novella '' The Mist '', and an episode of '' The Outer Limits '' called " The Borderland ." It was later developed by Valve's in-house writer and author, Marc Laidlaw , who wrote the books '' Dad's Nuke '' and '' The 37th Mandala ''. However, the more influential aspect of the single player mode is not the plot itself, but rather how it is presented to the player. The game tells the story by flowing into Scripted Sequence s that are integrated as part of the game rather than as Cut Scene intermissions. These sequences range from the introduction of major plot points such as the resonance cascade to bringing the player into a particularly difficult part of a level. Two of the intended results of this style of presentation were to increase immersion and to maintain a contiguous narrative that keeps the player's interest. Valve implemented other factors to heighten the feeling of immersion, including that the player never sees or hears their own character, who remains a ' Silent Protagonist ' in the plot, and that the player rarely loses the ability to control Gordon, even during monologues. The scripted sequences help flow by keeping the player in the game, whereas cutscenes in other contemporary games had often been a diversion from previous segments of their gameplay. The Levels for ''HL'' were also divided into small sections to minimize long interruptions from loading. Chapters . This shot shows the original MP5 sub-machine gun, rather than the High Definition Pack's M4 Carbine / M203 replacement.]] The game storyline is divided into "chapters":
Weapons There are 14 weapons available to players in both single player and multiplayer games of ''Half-Life''. '''' added several more weapons. Many reviews of ''Half-Life'' mentioned the impressive functionality and "usefulness" of all the weapons designed. Each weapon's damage profile is distinct, none feeling superfluous or overpowerful; each has a specific advantage in the appropriate situation. The weapons in ''HL'' (without expansions) are:
Additionally, the long jump module can increase the horizontal distance and speed of jumps. This increased mobility can be used to dodge attacks quickly and jump from one platform to another. The long jump is done by moving forward, crouching, then jumping. DEVELOPMENT ''Half-Life'' was the first product for Kirkland , Washington -based developer Valve Software, which was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell . They settled on a concept for a scary 3D Action Game and licensed the Quake Engine from Id Software . (Valve eventually modified the engine a great deal, notably adding Skeletal Animation and Direct3D support; a developer later stated that seventy percent of the engine code was rewritten.) The company had a difficult time finding a publisher at first, many believing their project 'too ambitious' for a studio headed by newcomers to the Video Game Industry . Sierra On-Line had been very interested in making a 3D action game, especially one based on the ''Quake'' engine, and so signed them for a one-game deal. The original code name for ''Half-Life'' was ''Quiver'', after the ''Arrowhead'' military base from Stephen King 's novella ''The Mist'', which served as early inspiration for the game. Gabe Newell explained in an interview that the name ''Half-Life'' was chosen because it was evocative of the theme, not clichéd, and had a corresponding visual symbol: the Greek Letter λ (lower-case Lambda ), which represents the ''decay constant'' in the Half-life equation. The first public appearances of ''Half-Life'' came in early 1997; it was a hit at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) that year, where they primarily demonstrated the animation system and Game AI . Valve hired science fiction author Marc Laidlaw in August 1997 to work on the game's characters and Level Design . ''Half-Life'' was originally planned to be shipped in late 1997, to compete with '' Quake II '', but was postponed when Valve decided the game needed significant revision. In a 2003 Making Of... feature in Edge , Newell discusses the team's early difficulties with level design. In desperation, a single level was assembled including every weapon, enemy, scripted event and level design quirk that the designers had come up with so far. This single level inspired the studio to press on with the game. As a result, the studio completely reworked the game's AI and levels in the year leading up to its release. At E3 1998 it was given Game Critics Awards for being the "Best PC Game" and "Best Action Game" at the expo. The release date was delayed several times in 1998 before the game was finally released in November of that year. Ports ''Half-Life'' was '' that allowed players to play as the two female scientists Dr. Cross and Dr. Green at Black Mesa. Versions for the Sega Dreamcast and Apple Macintosh [http://www.applelinks.com/articles/1999/10/19991019163339.shtml were essentially completed, but never commercially released. Dreamcast version Gearbox Software was slated to release a port to the Sega Dreamcast under contract by Valve and their then publisher Sierra On-Line near the end of 2000. At the ECTS 2000, a build of the game was playable on the publisher's stand, and developers Randy Pitchford and Brian Martel were in attendance to show it off and give interviews to the press. However, it was never commercially released. The following year Sierra On-Line showed a PlayStation 2 port at E3 2001. This version was released in North America in late October of the same year, followed by a European release just a month later. Despite never officially being released, the Dreamcast version was leaked onto the Internet, fully-playable; it contains the full versions of ''Half-Life'' and ''Blue Shift'', both with an early version of the High Definition Pack (it was from this port that the pack was spawned), but has a somewhat inconsistent framerate (though never to the point of unplayability) and lengthier load times when the player moves from area to area (around ten seconds, while today's average PC can load an area in around one and a half). Also, there are some saving problems; the number of blocks on a VMU increases rapidly as the player reaches the end of a level. While the game allows you to remove files to increase space, sometimes it still isn't enough. The console's mouse and keyboard peripherals are supported, if preferred to the standard controller. If the controller is used, the game adds an auto-aim feature, so that when an enemy ''nears'' the center of the player's vision, the aiming crosshair will shift over toward the enemy to make shooting them easier. The game's controls are customizable. The game has no multiplayer mode, and lacks the parental feature of the PC version (players cannot turn the Gibs off). It does have an interesting password feature, however; with three dials, the user makes various phrases, such as "Otis Loves Dreamcast" (god mode), "Fear and Gravity" (jump to Xen in ''HL''), or "Barney Goes To Work" (skip the intro in ''Blue Shift'' and jump right into the main game, pre-resonance cascade). Macintosh version Though more or less complete and ready for mass production, the Macintosh port of ''Half-Life'' was scrapped because of incompatibility with the PC version's multiplayer mode. The developers also stated that mods for PC ''Half-Life'' would not be compatible with the Mac port. Additionally, concerns over the task load associated with providing technical support on more than one end platform at once may have contributed to the demise of ''Half-Life'' for Macintosh. Later developments The sequel, '' Half-Life 2 '', was merely a rumor until a strong impression at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May 2003 launched it into levels of hype perhaps unequalled by any other game. The player again takes the role of Gordon Freeman, this time several years after the Black Mesa incident in the Dystopic Eastern Europe an "City 17" where he must fight as part of a rebellion against an alien regime. After a series of controversies and delays ''Half-Life 2'' was released on November 16 , 2004 . ''Main article: '' To experience first-hand the processes mod-makers would have to go through with the new engine, Valve '' was released on September 26 2005 . On June 10 , 2005, Valve announced through their Steam update news service an upcoming port of ''Half-Life Deathmatch'', the multiplayer portion of the original game, much in the same fashion as the earlier released ''Half-Life: Source''. No exact release date was given, simply the words "In the coming weeks..." EXPANSIONS Two '' ( 2001 ). The former, often shortened to ''OpFor'' or ''OP4'', returns the player to Black Mesa during the events of ''Half-Life's'' storyline, but this time from the perspective of the U.S. Marines sent to cover up evidence of the incident. It introduced several new weapons (notably the M249 SAW LMG and a Barnacle grappling gun), new Non-player Character s, both friendly and hostile (Otis the security guard and the "Race X" aliens, respectively) and new, previously unseen areas of the facility. The expansion is shorter than ''Half-Life'', having 11 chapters to the original's 17. ''Blue Shift'' returns the player to ''HL'''s Black Mesa timeline once more, this time as one of the facility's security guards. (This expansion was originally developed as a bonus mission for the canceled Dreamcast version.) ''Blue Shift'' came with an optional High Definition Pack that could update the look of ''Half-Life'', ''Opposing Force'', and the new ''Blue Shift'' content. In particular, the models' Polygon count and Texture Resolution s were increased, and some changes were made to the in-game sounds, most notably the shotgun. ''Blue Shift'' had relatively little new content compared to ''Opposing Force'': aside from a few models (jacket-less scientists and security guards, Otis, and Dr. Rosenberg) all content was already present in the original ''Half-Life''. '''' was another expansion by Gearbox, released only as an extra with the PlayStation 2 version of ''Half-Life''. The add-on featured cooperative gameplay in which two players could solve puzzles or fight against the many foes in the ''Half-Life'' universe. The ''Half-Life'' Platinum Collection was released in 2000. The games included are:
Later in 2002, the pack was rereleased with '''' added. MODS From its release in 1998 , ''Half-Life'' saw fervent support from independent game developers, due in no small part to support and encouragement from Valve Software. Worldcraft , the level-design tool used during the game's development, was included with the game software. Printed materials accompanying the game indicated Worldcraft's eventual release as a retail product, but these plans never materialised. Valve also released a Software Development Kit , enabling developers to modify the game and create Mod s. Both tools were significantly updated with the release of the Version 1.1.0.0 Patch . Many supporting tools (including texture editors, model editors, and rival level editors) were either created or updated to work with ''Half-Life''. ''Half-Life'''s code has been released and is also being used as a base for many mods such as the immensely popular and free '' ( 2000 , which brings back Gordon Freeman for four additional episodes and another encounter with the G-Man). Some ''Half-Life'' modifications eventually landed on retail shelves. ''Counter-Strike'' was the most successful, unexpectedly becoming the biggest selling online game to date and having been released in five different editions: as a standalone product ('', which runs on ''Half-Life 2'''s Source engine. '' Team Fortress Classic '', '' Gunman Chronicles '' and '' Day Of Defeat '' were also released as stand-alone products. SOUNDTRACK ''Half-Life'''s soundtrack was composed by Kelly Bailey . ''(Note: Most of the tracks were retitled and carried over to the ''Half-Life 2'' original soundtrack; the names in parentheses are the revised titles used in the ''Half-Life 2'' OST. Tracks 2, 12 and 24 were remixed for the sequel.)'' TRIVIA
: Yusef: "Damn it. I'm out of ammo!" : Hadded: "Use the crowbar." : Yusef: "That only works on the zombies. Not the Big Bugs ."
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