I'm pretty sure that this is the oldest game I've ever played to completion with the exception of the original Pokemon. I bring this up as a disclaimer that I am very inexperienced with the 90s catalogue and so I have little understanding of what a game from this period could and should be like. Because of this, my final rating could end up going up or down as I further explore older titles in the future.
I think it's worth mentioning before anything else that I found this game absolutely hilarious at times. It's likely the years of memes that I've absorbed with dubbed cats, crowbar noises and other shenanigans but some of the dialogue and sounds in this game, especially from the scientists, are an absolute treat. There are so many funny and memorable lines from the NPCs that were only made better with the lower fidelity audio. The fragile collision also created some goofy moments and good laughs on occasion, like a guard opening a gate for me and then exploding the moment it touched him.
I really like the way Half-Life looks. Something about the retro graphic style really appeals to me, and it helps to sell itself as a good looking game with some strong environmental design, the industrial factory and Xen being major highlights to me for their aesthetics. There's also a handful of good looking and sounding creatures, which I truthfully wasn't expecting from a low poly 90s game. The Headcrabs are obviously iconic but I'm more attached to other aliens like the Houndeye, with both its "fake" mouth and eyes and its high pitched calls. I also love Snark, shoutout Snark.
Level design was varied enough for me to appreciate the differences of many locations, and I was surprised to see how many people seemed to dislike the 'On A Rail' mission considering it was one of the levels that stood out to me the most. I liked piloting the cart through and around different hurdles, making pitstops to unlock new areas and switching between new carts and tracks as you go. I liked stealthing around a military helicopter using large rockfaces and other obstacles to conceal myself, not knowing that you could destroy them yet. I like the way that many of the boss fights encouraged or forced you to find unique solutions compared to just dumping your magazine into them.
I thought the story was pretty solid but the show was definitely stolen by The G-man, who was one of the most memorable aspects of the entire game despite his low screentime. His character model stands out among the others from the very beginning, and as you notice him throughout the game you start to wonder about the amount of times he was present without your knowledge. He helps bring an unsettling mysteriousness to the game and his ominous dialogue regarding unnamed employers is elevated by some amazing voice work.
It's safe to say that I think Half-Life is pretty cool with a lot of things to like about it, and a game that I have respect for. It is even more unfortunate then, that I can't say that I enjoyed my time with it during a large portion of my experience. The gameplay, or at least how it interacts with certain segments, is ultimately what left me feeling conflicted with this title, and the reason why I can only bring myself to give it this high of a score right now.
First of all, the movement. While the smooth way that you kind of slide around tends to feel nice as you're simply exploring the facility or doing simple jumps across gaps, it can start to feel like it's working against you the moment you have to do anything that requires precision. Many of the tighter parkour segments, even ones that would be trivial in any other game I know, can feel bothersome to get through due to how easy it is to accidentally throw yourself off of something while trying to position yourself during/after a jump, among other grievances like narrow pathways above chasms. There is a walk option which helps in some cases, admittedly I rarely used it, but I don't think that actively disengaging with the pace of the movement system is a satisfying fix.
My other big issue is the combat. I lost count of the amount of times where taking damage felt borderline unavoidable when entering a room or turning a corner for the first time. Enemies like the military and grunts were very accurate for their health pools and the only safe way to approach them was often to pick them off from an angle/distance they can hardly react to. This slowed a lot of what I thought was meant to be high octane shooting into just being peek, shoot, duck, repeat. In moderation this is okay, like how you play against Vorts, but feels poor when it impacts large portions of gunplay. Not to mention the amount of times enemies would spawn mid-combat, even behind you, and get off more mostly free damage or kill the NPC you're with.
The spread of heals and resources also felt wildly inconsistent throughout the game, with some areas having much more than you can even hold and others making you go long, gruelling stretches with little to no top-ups. This could make using your best weapons as a solution to rough enemies unreliable and unappealing. Both of these aspects accumulated in the most disgusting save scumming I have ever done in a videogame, and rarely did it feel unjustified. Way too often did this add a high degree of frustration and tedium to what was already a gameplay style I wasn't enthused with.
That said, the gameplay is hardly bad as a whole and I did of course touch on some of the positives earlier. I think the movement strafing feels nice on enemies that aren't so pinpoint, crouch jumping past the attacks of the spider boss felt cool, the aim assist feature was pretty convenient for some of the fast paced parts and peeking enemies, and there are a strong variety of guns and other tools to use. Enemy AI was also generally better than I expected, with some dynamic behaviours from the human soldiers like throwing grenades behind cover, and a spec ops variant that actively try to play around line of sight to ambush you. Progression felt natural and satisfying without having obvious objective markers placed everywhere, and I only felt like looking up a few things during my entire playthrough where I'd soon realise how fair/obvious the answer was.
If this game could have only patched up the many areas where its gameplay goes from decent or even a little fun to downright obnoxious, I might have loved it. Regardless, I'd say that I ended up really appreciating Half-Life in spite of its quirks. It's just one of those titles that I'll be much more likely to consume through fan content than by giving it a replay any time soon.