Half Life

by Vivendi Universal

Product Features

• Enemy AI: Half-Life's monsters are also remarkably--even terrifyingly--intelligent. Our proprietary
• Rendering Technologies: So you don't want to have to buy a special hardware accelerator just to get
• Skeletal Animation System: Our new animation system lets us create monsters that are more spectacula
• Multiplayer: Joining a multiplayer game is now fast and easy, thanksto Half-Life's powerful interfac
• Hazard Course training area for practicing movements, special maneuvers, and weapons use

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001KUII
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: June 28, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (256 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,232 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC | Edition: Game of the Year

Amazon.com Review

Your gun had better be loaded if you're playing Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition, the smartest, shootingest, bloodiest game ever to hit the PC. Take control of a scientist charged with destroying the alien invasion force that arrived, courtesy of government experiments gone wrong. Of course, in the post-X-Files world, there's additional bad guys in the form of federal "cleaners" who want you just as dead as the monsters.

Power up your environmental suit and plunge through level after level of increasingly difficult and creepy challenges, rescuing your fellow scientists and ultimately clearing out the whole complex--if you're lucky. Game play is smooth and simple, after the obligatory false starts and botched maneuvers common to learning every new game. Persistence pays off, though: Half-Life rewards tenacity with increasing power and understanding of the virtual world.

Play on a network and cooperate or compete with folks across the world or in the next cubicle. For those who've mastered the intricacies of Half-Life , the Game of the Year Edition includes Worldcraft 2.0, which the designers used to build every detail of the base. Make your own levels and snicker at other players' pathetic attempts to evade your deathtraps. It's easy to see why Half-Life won Game of the Year from dozens of publications; try it and see for yourself--if you're not too squeamish. --Rob Lightner

Product Description

The critics agree. Half-Life is easily the most gripping, frightening and intense game experience ever. Awarded Game of the Year by more than 40 publications, Half-Life has been called a "Masterpiece of epic proportions."" The Half-Life Game of the Year Edition includes new multiplayer models and maps as well as Team Fortress Classic, the hugely popular team-based multiplayer game that runs on top of the Half-Life engine. Featuring an integrated storyline with stunning visual effects and a hug

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You would be a fool NOT to buy this!, November 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition (CD-ROM)

Let me cut right to the point: as far as action games go, this is THE game to own. It wouldn't matter if you bought another action game, because they will never compare to this. Unlike most games where they throw you right into the action, Half-Life lets you adjust to a normal, every-day setting for a while, just before bringing it crashing down over your head via a dimensional portal to an alien world. See, you play a normal, bland scientist guy named Gordon Freeman who works at a secret research base miles underground. This place makes the fabeled Area 51 seem like a little shack. Anyway, you show up and work, only your experiment is interrupted when it explodes and opens a gateway to an alien world. Now these aliens aren't really friendly, and start crossing over to our world to tear up some stuff. You race to the surface, where you know help will be and you can get them to help save your friends, right? Big mistake, pal. The help comes in the form of military commandos, on a mission to wipe out this little disaster, and this involves silencing you and your co-workers permenately. So, now what? The artwork is amazing, the story is compelling. Words simply can't deescribe this masterpiece worthy of the title Game of the Year. Plus, for those of you new to action and first-person shooter games, there's even a short but handy training area where you learn how to do the stuff you need to know for this game. Overall, this is the best bet for any computer game fan.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite simply one of the best action games ever made, June 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition (CD-ROM)

I'll tell you right now that I love action games. I began playing Wolfenstein 3D when I was eight. Ever since, action games has always been my form of entertainment. I discovered Half-Life exactly one year ago when I purchased PC Gamer magazine. At that time, Half-Life was already a few months old. After reading about all the wonderful things about it, I finally purchased it. I installed it immediately, and the second I started playing, I was hooked in its immersiveness. From beginning to end, you will have a gaming experience you never had before. You take the role of a scientist named Gordon Freeman, who is involoved in an experiment that has gone horribly wrong and has opened a portal to an alien dimension. Armed with only a crowbar, you begin your journey out of the Black Mesa Research Facility and to the surface while battling aliens. The story unfolds with numerous plot twists and surprises. The story is so immersive that there will be times when you forget its just a game.

The sound is excellent. With a sound card that supports 3D audio(EAX, A3D 2.0, Direct Sound 3D), the game will become frightengly realistic. The graphics are also very good, using a modifed version of the Quake II engine. The gameplay is superb. The puzzles are smart, the level design is diverse, and the artificial intelligence is nothing short of outstanding. The single player portion is worth the whole price. In fact that's why I got it in the first place. But multiplayer is excellent also, thanks to the Team Fortress Classic mod. If you don't have Half-Life there is no reason to wait any longer. It is about time to find out why Half-Life was awarded Game of the Year by so many publications.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than Unreal or Quake 2, November 28, 1999

By 

NBear927 "NBear927" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition (CD-ROM)

Half Life is a very stunning game. Everything about it is just awesome. Remember the part in Unreal when you could hear screaming behind a door and you don't know what's going on? Remember how that frightened you? Well, up that one, because this game is more frightening because it's more realistic (because of the wonderful A.I.), and because you don't know what's going on behind the scenes most of the time. All you'll notice is the screaming sounds, or the gore coming out of the vents, or some mysterious guy walking around. Every minute of this game is pure bliss.

One of the most wonderful parts that truly stuck out for me was watching the team of commandos outside trying to flush me out. Some would hide behind boxes, while others would throw gernades into my hiding spot. What's so spectacular about that is the fact that 'their' backup would just bomb the whole place, just to make sure I was dead! That was a truly fightening experience, not knowing where the bombs would land, or where an enemy would hide.

Buy this game, please..

2115|RUQNE5FTCE3FJ;2115|R3T248QRWPW0MN;2115|R3S5SPA24TQQKU;