I accidentally started playing this cause I was bored while being sick with covid, instead of actually playing it because of the 25th anniversary. Coincidence!
but it's a neat little game, I honestly had a lot more fun with it than I thought I would, and I'm happy to report that not only does it hold up a ton, it's also still genuinely good! (By my standards, of course)
There's not a whole lot in the way of story, with the exposition mostly being told by the scientests and security guards along the way, but this game really more feels like it just wants you to look around and play it, with Valve seemingly just saying "Look at this cool shit we made!" and honestly, I really love that! It's very fun and very cool to play through.
Gameplay wise too, it's really tight and really frenetic. It's like this happy medium between an old school shooter vs a more tactical FPS, and given that it was kinda the first of it's kind at the time, that makes a lot of sense to me. I will say, the middle part of the game kinda dragged on for me because it just felt like, the loop of the same thing over again: New area, shoot some people, solve puzzle, repeat. Not a whole lot happens here, and it kinda feels like it, but once Xen kicks in I had an amazing time breezing through the rest of the game, which I guess is an unpopular opinion? I really just liked the environment and the challenge that Xen posed, and it was really fun!
Overall, I really enjoyed my time playing this, I'll be playing the DLC's of Blue Shift and Opposition Force and we'll see how I feel about those! Then... Half Life 2....
If other games don't grab me first lol
but it's a neat little game, I honestly had a lot more fun with it than I thought I would, and I'm happy to report that not only does it hold up a ton, it's also still genuinely good! (By my standards, of course)
There's not a whole lot in the way of story, with the exposition mostly being told by the scientests and security guards along the way, but this game really more feels like it just wants you to look around and play it, with Valve seemingly just saying "Look at this cool shit we made!" and honestly, I really love that! It's very fun and very cool to play through.
Gameplay wise too, it's really tight and really frenetic. It's like this happy medium between an old school shooter vs a more tactical FPS, and given that it was kinda the first of it's kind at the time, that makes a lot of sense to me. I will say, the middle part of the game kinda dragged on for me because it just felt like, the loop of the same thing over again: New area, shoot some people, solve puzzle, repeat. Not a whole lot happens here, and it kinda feels like it, but once Xen kicks in I had an amazing time breezing through the rest of the game, which I guess is an unpopular opinion? I really just liked the environment and the challenge that Xen posed, and it was really fun!
Overall, I really enjoyed my time playing this, I'll be playing the DLC's of Blue Shift and Opposition Force and we'll see how I feel about those! Then... Half Life 2....
If other games don't grab me first lol