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Why I love?

Odd, as it featured

missions rather thana flowing world.

DECAYPS2 > 2001

Whats the iconicmoment fromtheHalf-Life

universe?Perhaps itsbeing woken by

the G-mans pep-talk inHalf-Life2 as your past and future flashesbefore your eyes. After 20 yearsin limbo, youre on a train toalien-occupied City 17. Exitinginto the monolithic station hall, afloating camera blinds you withits flash while Dr Breen leers outfrom the screens way above. Themasked Combine soldiers bullyyou at the checkpoint; theirbatons descend when you try toflee. Youre a stranger in a strange

land, and only yesterday youwere in the test chamber

So perhaps it wasthe originalHalf-Lifes

monorail ride to thechamber andopening a door toanother world.That slow build-up,

that ominous hum,that crack as you were

catapulted across theuniverse and returned back to

a lab overrun by alien creatures.Or perhaps it was an

altogether different moment

that one inPortal 2 where youwere catapulted towards a testchamber wall by a co-op buddywho put that portal one foot outof place. What is that IDIOTAtlas doing? Youre going to beshattered by the impact andrebuilt at the entrance again butyou cant move your portalsbecause Atlas will need them tofollow you and the acid fizzeshungrily below you and the

portalstillisnt there. What thehellis wrong with him?

No, its that moment with thestrider on the rooftop, or gettingthe crossbow just before youmeet the ichthyosaur, or crossingthe bridge, or the huntersassaulting the White Forest Innat the end ofEpisode 2. Its findingthe first of the Ratmans graffiti-riddled dens, or Alyxs pet tankDog tearing chunks off thestrider in the woods, or fightingfor your life with buzz saws andcinder blocks in Ravenholm. Itsthat bit where GLaDOS sung you

a song, where you learned thecake was a lie, where you racedan airboat out of City 17, whereyou fought side-by-side with agirl youve grown to love.

PERFECT MOMENTSAnd Breathe. I dont have asingle stand-out memory ofHalf-

Life; I have hundreds of them andtheyre all different, and theywere probably different the way

you played them, too. The seriesdoesnt have one thing thatmakes it superb; it has many, haspioneered many, and willcontinue to have them as long asValve has lines in its employeehandbook like: A fearlessadventure is knowing what to dowhen no ones there telling youwhat to do and a team full ofpeople who believe in that.

Valve doesnt know howto stand still. Theirfirst game definedstorytelling in first-personshooters and gave you the best

The Half-Life series doesnthave one thing that makes it

superb; it has many

Dan Griliopoulos reminisces about Valves richuniverse, from Gordon Freeman to Portal 2Half-LifePROFILE

Dan GriliopoulosNot a Freeman PC

Dan has been playingHalf-Life since day one;Half-Life Deathmatchalmost got him kickedout of university and theamazing mod scenealmost cost him his finalexams. These days, hetakes a holiday for a newrelease, like Half Life:Episode 2 or Portal 2.

The Evolution of Half-Life

Gordon Freeman is a scientist trying to

prevent an alien invasion of earth that heaccidentally triggered. Its a massive hit.

You played as dull security

guard Barney trying to escapeBlack Mesa. Short and repetitive.

This expansion introduced a marine

who is operating in Black Mesa at thesame time Gordons escaping it.

HALF-LIFEPC PS2 > 1998

BLUE SHIFTPC > 2001

OPPOSING FORCEPC > 1999

Six wordgame summary

Ginger nerdsaves world

(for now)

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A free flash game that took what had been

revealed ofHalf-Life 2 and turned it into asideways scrolling-platformer.

Barely carrying on from Half-Life, this

retcons a lot of the plot and sees a newalien invasion, to justify new enemy types.

You still want to messwith the science geek,eh? You come and try

CODENAME: GORDON(AKA HALF-LIFE 2D)PC >2004

HALF-LIFE 2PC, 360, PS3 > 2004

A simple deathmatch mode, to match that

released in the original Half-Life, as well as TeamDeathmatch. Included the Gravity Gun. Yay.

HALF-LIFE 2 DEATHMATCHPC >2004

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A free additional level for Half-Life 2, this was a

piece of cut content that didnt make the game,but was used to show o Valves design process.

Originally calledAftermath, this sees Gordon

and his sidekick Alyx attempt to evacuate City 17before the Citadels reactor detonates.

A twin joystick arcade shooter developed for

Japan by Taito. It featured three modes; cut-down story, deathmatch and co-op Mission.

LOST COASTPC > 2005

EPISODE ONEPC 360 PS3 > 2006

SURVIVORARCADE > 2006

My FiveFavouriteHalf-LifeMoments

Gnome ChompskiHalf-Life 2: Episode TwoThis Garden Gnome seems

insignificant but can be your travellingcompanion for a significant part ofEpisode Two if you choose to chase theLittle Rocket Man achievement. Itsbased on the gnome from Amelie and isnamed after linguist Noam Chomsky.

Scone or Sponge?PortalGLaDOSs idea of incentivisation

throughout Portal is to remind you thatsome cake is waiting for you at the endof the puzzles. Beat the game and, whileyou dont get any cake, a video showso the hidden cake waiting for you inthe bowels of Aperture Science, whileJonathan Coultons magnificent songStill Alive plays over the credits.

We Dont Go ToRavenholmHalf-Life 2

Fleeing the Combine, Gordon has totravel alone through Ravenholm, aformer refugee camp that the Combineattacked with the zombifying headcrabs.A mad priest guides you through the

darkened streets as the zombiessurround you. Grim, last stand territory.

The Part Where

He Kills YouPortal 2One-time buddy AI Wheatley has lied toyou, telling you hell kill you later whenin fact hes going to kill you now! Youescape in the nick of time, but Wheatleypleads with you to come back. If you do,he acts surprised, but asks you to jumpinto the pit. If you do, you unlock thePit Boss achievement.

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No ChoiceHalf-LifeIts the end of the game. Black

Mesa has been nuked. The G-man savesyou, and gives you a choice. Work withhim or not. If you choose not to, hetakes all your weapons and leaves yousurrounded by monsters. Helluva choice.

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Half-Life inmany wayswas a responseto thetrivialisation

of the firstperson genreGabe Newell>Managing director> Valve

Many of us had fallen in lovewith videogames becauseof the possibilities of thefield, and felt theindustry was reducingthe experiencesto commondenominators, saysGabe. Our hope wasthat building worldsand characters would bemore compelling than building

shooting galleries. When Valvestarted work on Half-Life in

1996, part of theirimpetus was that the

FPS was totallystagnant. Choosingto revamp the genrewith a horror-themed

action game, theystruggled to find a

publisher until SierraOn-Line signed them up.

Alyx and Gordon continue their journey to a

rebel base, where they activate a satellite thatblocks the Combine from calling reinforcements.

A departure for the series, in an entirely

new setting. Funny, challenging, technicallyinnovative and whimsical. A true one-o.

The sequel to a one-o. Even funnier,

with the vocal talents of Steven Merchanttaking the part of idiot AI Wheatley.

EPISODE 2PC > 2007

PORTALPC > 2007

PORTAL 2PC 360, PS3, MAC > 2011

action experience since Quake.The second, in 2004, gave youcharacters you could love,revolutionised environment

design, and introduced the worldto game-changing physics.

Episodes 1 had the best AI partnerever,Episode 2 had the boss fightto end all boss fights.Portaland

Portal 2 showed the world youcould drop the guns and enjoyyourself just with comedy andphysics puzzles.Half-Lifesgreatest moments covermultiplayer, single-player,scripted sequences, emergentgameplay, design, comedy,puzzles, physics. With noself-imposed limits on theirambition, Valve just keepexperimenting and tinkeringuntil the thing is perfect.

But whatHalf-Life did bestwas to give lessons in storytellingand game design, often throughscripted sequences in a deeply-designed world. An audaciousopening sequence gave you aguided tour of the Black Mesafacility from aboard a smooth

monorail a visual conceptstolen by dozens of shooterssince. Below you and to the sidescurried the enemies and allies ofthe game, working on all thedangerous, esoteric projectsyoud hope Science is working onin a secret base somewhere in theuniverse (and which you wouldeventually make such a fightthrough), while an automatedfemale voice filled you in on thetime, date, temperature, socialcalendar, HR messaging andmyriad safety tips. The world,from the off, was believable.

Stepping from thismasterclass in foreshadowing,you proceeded through theSector C test labs, themselves

futuristic vignettes of work,security and domesticity allnormalised by chipper guardsgrunting Morning, MrFreeman or scientists mutteringWerent you meant to be in thetest chamber half an hour ago?Youre the focus of attention, bothas the key science-hero of thefacility and someone whos quiteobviously overslept for the mostimportant day of their life. Thenyou trigger the resonancecascade (and, with it, an alieninvasion), and Gordons worldends. Thats ten minutes of tense,action-free, layered storytellingwith quickly-sketched characters,all pushing you towards the TestChamber, and one helluva start.

FOR SCIENCE!Valve ownHalf-Life; its their soleproperty and it made thempowerful enough for wildexperiments like Steam and

Steamworks, for experimentalgames likePortal, and forself-indulgent freebies like AlienSwarm. Steam has helped smalldevelopers thrive in a world ofcutthroat mega-publishers andhas become as essential to PCgaming as PSN is to PlayStationowners. Valve give technologyaway for free, innovate both insoftware and hardware, andwont put a game out until itsabsolutely polished to perfection.If they finally enter the consolemarket theyll have aninsurmountable advantage

incredible software, incrediblehardware, genuine goodwill fromthe gaming community, and, ofcourse,Half-Life 3.

Half-Life may have been absentfor five years, but Valve wont beresting on their laurels. With

Episodes One andTwo, theypushed the technology of thetime as far as they could; iftheyve been waiting this long torelease the final, promised

Episode Three, its because theyvebeen waiting for a killer twist, tofinish the series on a high. Thatsa story we all want to hear told.

With no self-imposed limitson their ambition, Valve keep

tinkering until its perfect

Origins

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