Half-Life (Sony PlayStation 2, 2001)

This game contains both the original Half-Life (with hi-def models installed) and a co-op spin-off called "Half-Life: Decay." HL1 is ported about as well as you could expect to the PS2, especially considering it was ported in the early stages of the PS2's life cycle. Hi-def models are on by default, with no way I could find to change them. There is also a very welcome quicksave feature, which is extremely helpful. If you haven't played Half-Life, I'd recommend playing it on PC first, but if you don't have a PC up to 1998 standards, go with this version.

As for Decay, this is the reason I bought the game even though I own the PC version. A PS2 exclusive, it lets you and a friend play as the two scientists who were directly responsible for the Black Mesa incident. Your story occasionally overlaps with Gordon Freeman's, but it works well enough on its own. There's even a bonus level that lets you play as Vortigaunts.

All in all, this is mostly a good buy for the hardcore fan who's played all the PC expansions but isn't too much of a purist to enjoy the new storyline.

I bought this game based on reviews. They were sadly out of date. Compared to other games of this genre, this one is a snoozer. Getting started is bogged down with excrutiatingly long sequences of monotonous tasks (on and off elevators, etc) which offer no entertainment but can weaken or kill you while occassionally having to interact with poorly animated AI characters. When you finally trudge through all that boredom to encounter your first "aliens" you will find that this game is not so much a "shooter" as a mapping exercise. That is, the technique of this game is connect the dots; go from point A to point B, performing activity C in exactly a certain fashion, where you will encounter creature D at exactly point E, where you will have to kill or interact with it in a specific way, or find yourself unable to proceed in the game.

This game is a lot of fun, I bought it after watching the hilarious Freeman's Mind videos on YouTube which are based on this game. After a while though, the game got boring because it was just straight shooting the whole way through with nothing to break it up and make it more interesting. I guess this is explained by the fact that it's a very old game so I really shouldn't have expected it to compete with modern shooters. In conclusion, given how old it is, this is a fun, challenging shooter/puzzle solver guaranteed to satisfy any nostalgic gamer.

Half-Life, a first-person shooter, requires the player to perform combat tasks and puzzle solving to advance through the game. Unlike its peers at the time, Half-Life used scripted sequences, which ranged from small events, such as an alien ramming down a door, to major plot points.

Half-Life's public reception was overwhelmingly positive in terms of reviews, acclaim and sales. As of November 16, 2004, eight million copies of the game had been sold,[7] while 9.3 million copies had been sold by 2008.[57] The game had won over 50 Game of the Year awards.

GameSpot inducted Half-Life into their "Greatest Games of All Time" list in May 2007. In 2004, GameSpy held a Title Fight, in which readers voted on what they thought was the "greatest game of all time", and Half-Life was the overall winner of the survey.

It's true. The best game in the world. Period.

The reason I decided to buy Half-Life on PS2 was after purchasing the Orange Box for PS3 and playing through each of the 5 games on it, including Half-Life 2 and all of its extra episodes. That title absolutely blew me away and after playing through most of the original now, I can say it is just as fun and captivating a game as its sequel. The game play is revolutionary for its time and you keep wanting to know what the hell's going on in the story and when you find out, it's great. I recommend this game for gamer who enjoys first-person-shooters that offer a bit of a challenge and make you think a little bit instead of just blasting everything in sight. I have found that this title is a bit more difficult than part two, so don't expect an easy sail-through. Gordon Freeman has to be one of the greatest protagonists in all of gaming and after playing Half-Life, you'll be hooked for the entire series.