Do I take the job? This weird guy keeps asking me to choose!
What’s the saying?
The best time to beat Half-Life was twenty years ago. The second best time is today?
this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2025
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I think the saying was about planting a Half Life Tree, but I doubt it's ever going to happen.
What’s the best time to best Half-Life 3?
Now you're thinking with portals.
There's no way HL is over 20 years old, right?!?!
You already missed the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2.
Congratulations!
You should have played Black Mesa instead of Half-Life 1 these days. It's not a 1:1 remake but quite close and of course much more modern, and just awesome. Xen in particular is much better in BM than it is in the original, so it even fixes HL1's weakest part. The rest is kind of similarly awesome. Maybe you should play it right now to see the difference.
(Black Mesa is a successful fan project remake of the whole Half-Life 1, and they even expanded on some things (especially Xen). It's based on an updated Source engine and has at least the graphical fidelity of recent Half-Life 2 builds, if not more).
I didn't like Black Mesa as much as most. I thought a lot of the charm was lost with the "modernizing" decisions. It just doesn't look like half life and the enemies don't behave like half life enemies to me. It looks and plays like a really, really good fan remake. Cuz it is. I still think the original has loads of merit though and would never suggest black mesa before playing the original.
Black Mesa felt to me, at the time, as a different story in the same universe. Maybe something else happening more or less in the same period to other protagonists, or something like that. I don't remember it very well, it's been a while.
I definitely plan on playing Black Mesa on PC at some point. I played Half Life on PS2 this time. I wanted something a little closer to the original state the game released in but I don’t have a retro PC. But I’m ready to enjoy it more modernly
In that case, don't forget to find a friend and play Half-Life: Decay.
The 25 anniversary update helped a lot with making the game more similar to the cd release. Try turning on software rendering if you want a more old-school feel.
I just did black mesa last year and now making my way through hl2, currently on episode 2 now. Really great games, so well put together.
You should also play black mesa, portal, and alyx
Black Mesa is just ""chef's kiss""
Yeah xen in hl1 is pretty meh but in black Mesa it's incredible. So well done
Well done, Mr. Freeman!
The Orange Box is one of the last gaming purchases that I actually got my moneys worth out of.
Orange box was amazing value for money
It's a hard game.
When they go all order 66 on your ass it's a huge surprise.
“Forget about Freeman” the last thing you hear before shit gets real
The helicopter chase was the first time I heard a game really use sterio sound to ots full effect. It's up there with Dday in Medal of honor.
I've played through Half Life twice. Once on original release and secondly when it received that big remaster fairly recently. I'm my opinion, it's a fantastic game until you get to Xen and it becomes a bit of a annoying platform fest.
I actually like the platforming in the game but the low gravity in Xen does make it annoying. Missed so many jumps, definitely abused quick save
Same. Original and then Orange Box.
Xen when you have to jump on those space manta rays to get to the floating island is mega annoying
Those same criticisms were there when it was released. I remember reading it on Digitiser.
You might hate me for this, but I never finished the original Half-Life.
I have finished Black Mesa, original game's expansions, Half-Life 2 and it's episodes, but never Half-Life 1.
I always quit somewhere after the middle of the game, and only once I got to Xen.
Status: Hired
I never finished it; I kept running out of ammo against the final boss and just gave up. That was many, many years ago though, so I probably just missed its weak point and didn't think to look up how to beat it.
I probably just missed its weak point and didn’t think to look up how to beat it
Hint: you have to aim down from above it.
you need to shoot the cristals on the wall, then he opens his head, you then have to launch above him with the alien jumppads and shoot down on him
Young me did not work this out!
If you haven't played them, Blue Shift and Opposing Force are amazing as well (better than HL itself, IMHO).
Heresy
I get the sentiment, but I'll stick to my guns on this one (as I have for two decades). I honestly believe that Blue Shift might be the best game Valve has ever made.
But Valve didn't develop or publish Blue Shift?
FML, I knew that and still said it. Best Half Life related game, ever.
Dang, and I thought I was late to the party when I did my first play through in 2004.
I got stuck at a bad save point where Gonarch wouldn’t come down to the boss area and gave up forever.
I recently played HL1 and Black Mesa back to back. It was really fun :)
I beat it for the first time a couple years ago. Not too shabby. I think I had to look up how to do the platforming in xen.
Blue shift and Opposing force are neat add-ons to hl1.
I am still a little upset that if I don't take his offer, I don't even get to try and fight all those aliens he teleports me into the center of. 😠
Fantastic game. What a year for landmark video games, too.
Nah don't take the job, only empty treats this guy, he can do nothing to you, trust me.
I absolutely love this game but unfortunately I just couldn't bring myself to compete Zen in this and Black Mesa so I can't say I've beaten either.
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I've bothered to finish Xen maybe 3-4 times in my life but everything before that point I've played through probably 80 times, I love it so much
Same here, the journey is over when you reach Xen it's just some mopping up that's left.
And when I reach the Citadel in HL2 it's also a tossup if I continue.
Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine.
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