Half-Life Demo

Valve may be one of the most influential video game developers on the market today, but they had to start somewhere too. In their case, the beginning was in 1998, when Half-Life was released as one of the most revolutionary FPS games of all times and Valve became an influential voice in the industry, managing to maintain the same level of quality for their future titles as well.

Half-Life presents a fascinating tale about a scientist by the name of Gordon Freeman, who works on an experiment at the notorious research facility Black Mesa. The experiment takes a wrong turn, though, and gives birth to a portal that leads into another dimension, thus clearing the way for hordes of alien monsters that immediately swarm the Earth. Feeling like the blame falls on him, Gordon and a few other scientists decide to take matters into their own hands and head into this dangerous dimension, in order to stop the aliens from destroying the planet and kill their leader in the process.

The game featured revolutionary story-telling mechanics, due to the fact that it did not adhere to the usual level design standards, but rather created a smooth transition between each chapter, without the use of standalone levels. Hence, the experience was far superior to anything else until then and it definitely was one of the biggest influences in the video games industry, especially when it comes to shooters. Moreover, it also featured intense scripted sequences, as well as first-person cutscenes that allowed the players to immerse into the story and really make a connection with the mute scientist.

Throughout the game, Gordon faces off against a wide variety of alien monsters, some of which are famous to this day, such as the headcrabs. There are some other human characters that appear in the following titles as well, including the security officer Barney Calhoun, Doctor Rosenberg and last, but not least, the notorious G-Man, who remained as mysterious as ever, although he always seems to know what's going on and has some role to play in every major event.

As far as the actual game mechanics are concerned, they basically defined the modern FPS genre, but they are rather difficult to appreciate if you are not aware of how shooters were made prior to Half-Life. The graphic engine was also revolutionary and the AI system was unheard of for that period, thus making the entire technical aspect of the game something to admire, since every component was heavily refined and superbly put together.

In the end, Half-Life featured a very popular multiplayer mode as well, which spawned countless mods and games, the most iconic of which is the Counter-Strike series. Hence, the title can be safely called one of the most important games that ever came out, since a lot of the things that are taken for granted nowadays would not be possible without it.