Half-Life

Black Mesa Research Facility, an ultra-secret laboratory under government contract, conducting top-secret and extremely volatile experiments with stuff we're not supposed to know about. You play as Gordon Freeman, a Black Mesa employee. And this morning, as usual, you pit your way to the research facility for a run-of-the-mill experiment.

But this morning's experiment is not quite as ordinary as you thought. Odd things begin to happen as you make your way to one of the Black Mesa test chambers. Even weirder things happen when you start to move the test sample towards the antimass-spectrometer.

And you ain't seen nothing yet. Yes indeed, the experiment went wrong. Aliens from the planet Xen have suddenly invaded the facility, injuring and/or killing many of the employees. The Marines have come to the facility to kill off the aliens...and the surviving witnesses of the accident. You know what that means: you'll have to fight your way through aliens and Marines to get to the top of the Black Mesa complex. When you face your ultimate challenge, you'll see why being a government employee really does suck.

Half-Life's story is told entirely in-game: everything is seen through the eyes of the protagonist. Most story elements unfold via scripted sequences, triggered by the player reaching a certain area. If other characters have information to reveal, they address the player directly.

The Black Mesa complex in Half-Life is not made up of distinct levels, but is mostly a continuous world, where it is possible to backtrack through large parts of the game.

Half-Life's weapon arsenal is to a large part made up of realistic weapons like pistols, machine guns and explosives, but there are also futuristic energy weapons developed at Black Mesa as well as organic weapons acquired from the invading aliens. Most weapons feature an alternate firing mode.

Enemies fall into two categories: aliens and human soldiers. While most of the aliens are not very bright, the humans display some relatively advanced artificial intelligence: they seek cover, retreat when hit and try to drive the player from his cover by throwing grenades. Some of the alien enemies can not be killed by normal means. The environment must be used against them instead, going with a general tendency of the game to alternate the combat with environmental puzzles.