Loaded it up solely to see the old logo and menu screen from the anniversary update; Ended up playing it through for the umpteenth time. I couldn't resist.

Half-Life came out in my early teens. You've heard the story a million times but it really completely changed things. Especially for me since I hadn't played many FPS games prior. I simply didn't think video games could be... This. I was lost in this game. Absorbed in it. Every vent, every gun, every sequence, I loved it. Even Xen. I'm a Xen apologist through and through. It was daunting and alien. There isn't a moment in Half-Life I wasn't sweating during that virgin(in more ways than one) playthrough. While the illusion is long gone and I know how to fly through the game and beat the bosses, I still remember the way it all felt the first time, every time.

Half-Life is the perfect game to me. You just always remember your first. The level design is as good as it gets, still. And the way the narrative is told ambiguously through play still rarely gets matched all these years later. It has more of a sense of freedom than some open world games even though it's linear. I can't gush enough. It came together at the perfect time in gaming history with the right recipe of love and deadline crunch. It can't, hasn't, and won't ever be improved in my eyes. I even put it, well, ahead of HL2 (there are dozens of us, dozens!).

I love Half-Life. Happy (belated) anniversary.

[copied from my Steam review]