Half-Life Valve / Sierra 1998

Valve licensed the Quake 1 engine (and built in the course of the game's development time, parts with the Quake2 engine). At first Half-Life was under the list of announced games rather inconspicuously (Sin and Daikatana were the ones most anticipated - although Sierra published full-page announcements for Half-Life for a long time). However, it turned out to be a huge hit and created a huge and lasting empire. In the game, you play as Gordon Freeman - a theoretical physicist and employee of the Black Mesa Research Facility who is a survivor of an experiment gone horribly wrong, allowing aliens from another planet to invade Earth. It was inspired by Stephen King's The Mist but script was from sci-fi writer was Marc Laidlaw. As you try to escape the destroyed facility you soon discover that you are caught between two sides: the aliens, and the forces of the United States military which has been dispatched to cover up the experiment - including you. It had an exciting story, numerous astonishing ideas, realistic weapons (including sound aspects), and revolutionary use of numerous in-game scripted sequences. It was also the first FPS to have: a training segment which is presented as an integral part of the storyline, blood-splatters and other persistent stains, semi-random NPC speech and 'interaction' in an otherwise straightforward action game, and weaponry which needs to be manually reloaded between magazine changes. The game does not consist of distinct levels. With some exceptions, you can walk totally free in the game world, even back to the beginning of major sections. The enemies were the most intelligent ever seen in a game up to this point (especially the soldiers which provided for adrenalin rushes without end) and with the free addon Team Fortress, a brilliant team multiplayer game. Half-Life has also been used as a base for many mods (add-ons) such as the immensely popular and free multiplayer mod, Counter-Strike. Other popular mods include Day of Defeat, Action Half-Life and Natural Selection. All this contributed to the fact that Half-Life brought new improvements and a lasting impact in the 3-D action genre and remains the best-selling FPS game of all-time as of the 2008 Guinness World Records. A graphic high-definition pack was later released as part of the Blue Shift expansion. A shoddy port to the more modern Source engine was also done as Half-Life Source which only added some physics gameplay and water effects.

See also: #Black Mesa, #Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update, #Half-Life Add-Ons, #Half-Life: Decay, #Half Life: Further Date V.1 & V.2, #Half Life MP: Opposing Force, Half Life: Blue Shift, Half Life: Deathmatch Classic, #Half-Life Source, #Half-Life: Threewave (cancelled), #PC Gamer: The Extended Play Collection Volume 3, #PC Zone April 2000 Coverdisk: Unreal Tournament, Quake III & Half-Life 500 Levels, #Ricochet, #Underworld Bloodline

Screenshots
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Uplink Level Demo (level not in retail game) ~49MB (uploaded by GameFront)
Reviews
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Total Conversions & Source Port
Infos
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CD key (upped by keropi)no-CD patch ~4KB ( @ MegaGames)
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Fan-Made Mods/TCs
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High Definition Pack ~6MB (upped by Scaryfun)Mirror ~6MB (upped by Maraakate)
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Videos
Full Demo Final v1.1.1.1 223MB (made by Maraakate & upped by Scaryfun) Mirror ~223MB (upped by Maraakate)
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Half-Life Day One - ISO Demo 167MB (uploaded by Virgil)
Half-Life Generation 3CD ISO Demo (includes HL, Opposing Force, and Counterstrike) 1.38GB (uploaded by Egon68)
Half-Life Generation 3 - 4CD ISO Demo (includes HL, Opposing Force, Counterstrike, and Blue Shift) 2.18GB (uploaded by Shattered)
ISO Demo v1.0 US Release (provided by Maraakate & upped by Scaryfun) 470MB
1997 Alpha v0.52 ISO Demo 262MB (uploaded by Wastrel)
Half-Life: Day One ISO Demo 171MB (uploaded by Wastrel)
Half-Life: Preliminary Findings ISO Demo 142MB (uploaded by Wastrel)
Uplink included in Half-Life Addon Pack - Fan-Made ISO (provided by Delacroix & upped by Scaryfun) 460MB
Half-Life Day One + Team Fortress Classic included in Half-Life: Initial Encounter - ISO Demo 373MB (uploaded by Internet Archive Software Collection)
1997 Alpha Demo 256MB (uploaded by Internet Archive Software Collection)
Game of the Year Edition v1.1.0.8 included in Half-Life: Generation - UK 4CD ISO Demo 2.2GB (uploaded by Internet Archive Software Collection)
Steam CD Release - ISO Demo *needs valid key 278MB (uploaded by Internet Archive Software Collection)


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