The game which changed everything, or so they say. Half-Life 1 Anthology contains Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Half-Life: Opposing Force and Team Fortress Classic.
It’s 08:47 A.M. Topside temperature is thirty-three degrees Celsius with an estimated high of forty. You are entering the secret and guarded facility of Black Mesa through the automated transit system. You are a member of the science team with a recently achieved PhD, late for work and en route to the test chamber. The name you ask?
Gordon Freeman.
You don’t know who Freeman is? That’s shameful. But then again, more reason to push yourself to go and experience this twenty-plus-year-old shooter. The game lacks cutscenes, has bunnyhopping, the protagonist is as silent as a mute, you can kill anything that breathes, action and more action!
There’s a possibility I may be bias with my impressions of this old relic, but my opinion is firm that the game is a masterpiece in which I’m in astonishment, since it was made with heart and drive, unlike many of the modern world and demand.
So this was the introduction to Half-Life 1, which has an entire revamp made by a team of fans and dedicated creators. Its name: Black Mesa. It may be wise for you to play through the mod as well, but it’s not obligatory.
Half-Life 1: Blue Shift
The expansion pack follows the journey of Barney Calhoun, the security guard, a good friend of Gordon and a guy who doesn’t keep his promises in terms of beer. He and Gordon actually see each other at the start of both games, as they move on to their duties.
Of course, Barney is the less privileged of the two, as his entrance to the security sector is not so fluid due to a malfunctioning door, while Gordon is free to ride through the whole facility without hassle.
Black Mesa’s infrastructure and equipment cannot cope with the demand of the upcoming experiments and Barney must go on and help with broken elevators and bossy scientists, who constantly make jokes about the guards having to guard some donuts.
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Through the point of view of Adrian Shephard, a US Marine Corporal assigned to the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU). He is trained to kill, young and lacking experience as he is eager to take any exciting mission, a path to adventure which can be viewed in his diary entry.
Shephard is sent to the Black Mesa facility to the reaction of the incident, which is of no surprise to him since the place has had been thrown around during his special training. The transport Shephard rides in gets damaged by an unknown entity and he crashes with the rest of his crew, thus, he never is given his orders.
From there on the adventure he so sought turns into a reality of dislike and horror.
Half-Life: a game of mystery, action and depth. Its next installment in the number of 2 goes to even longer lengths, to which you shouldn’t sit in the disappointment of your indecisions, and just go and play this masterpiece of age!