Do I take the job? This weird guy keeps asking me to choose!
What’s the saying?
The best time to beat Half-Life was twenty years ago. The second best time is today?
this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2025
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I think the saying was about planting a Half Life Tree, but I doubt it's ever going to happen.
There's no way HL is over 20 years old, right?!?!
You already missed the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2.
What’s the best time to best Half-Life 3?
Now you're thinking with portals.
You should have played Black Mesa instead of Half-Life 1 these days. It's not a 1:1 remake but quite close and of course much more modern, and just awesome. Xen in particular is much better in BM than it is in the original, so it even fixes HL1's weakest part. The rest is kind of similarly awesome. Maybe you should play it right now to see the difference.
(Black Mesa is a successful fan project remake of the whole Half-Life 1, and they even expanded on some things (especially Xen). It's based on an updated Source engine and has at least the graphical fidelity of recent Half-Life 2 builds, if not more).
I didn't like Black Mesa as much as most. I thought a lot of the charm was lost with the "modernizing" decisions. It just doesn't look like half life and the enemies don't behave like half life enemies to me. It looks and plays like a really, really good fan remake. Cuz it is. I still think the original has loads of merit though and would never suggest black mesa before playing the original.
Black Mesa felt to me, at the time, as a different story in the same universe. Maybe something else happening more or less in the same period to other protagonists, or something like that. I don't remember it very well, it's been a while.
I definitely plan on playing Black Mesa on PC at some point. I played Half Life on PS2 this time. I wanted something a little closer to the original state the game released in but I don’t have a retro PC. But I’m ready to enjoy it more modernly
In that case, don't forget to find a friend and play Half-Life: Decay.
The 25 anniversary update helped a lot with making the game more similar to the cd release. Try turning on software rendering if you want a more old-school feel.
I just did black mesa last year and now making my way through hl2, currently on episode 2 now. Really great games, so well put together.
Congratulations!
You should also play black mesa, portal, and alyx
Black Mesa is just ""chef's kiss""
Yeah xen in hl1 is pretty meh but in black Mesa it's incredible. So well done
Well done, Mr. Freeman!
It's a hard game.
When they go all order 66 on your ass it's a huge surprise.
“Forget about Freeman” the last thing you hear before shit gets real
The helicopter chase was the first time I heard a game really use sterio sound to ots full effect. It's up there with Dday in Medal of honor.
The Orange Box is one of the last gaming purchases that I actually got my moneys worth out of.
Orange box was amazing value for money
You might hate me for this, but I never finished the original Half-Life.
I have finished Black Mesa, original game's expansions, Half-Life 2 and it's episodes, but never Half-Life 1.
I always quit somewhere after the middle of the game, and only once I got to Xen.
Status: Hired
If you haven't played them, Blue Shift and Opposing Force are amazing as well (better than HL itself, IMHO).
Heresy
I get the sentiment, but I'll stick to my guns on this one (as I have for two decades). I honestly believe that Blue Shift might be the best game Valve has ever made.
But Valve didn't develop or publish Blue Shift?
FML, I knew that and still said it. Best Half Life related game, ever.
Dang, and I thought I was late to the party when I did my first play through in 2004.
I recently played HL1 and Black Mesa back to back. It was really fun :)
I got stuck at a bad save point where Gonarch wouldn’t come down to the boss area and gave up forever.
I beat it for the first time a couple years ago. Not too shabby. I think I had to look up how to do the platforming in xen.
Blue shift and Opposing force are neat add-ons to hl1.
Nah don't take the job, only empty treats this guy, he can do nothing to you, trust me.
Fantastic game. What a year for landmark video games, too.
I absolutely love this game but unfortunately I just couldn't bring myself to compete Zen in this and Black Mesa so I can't say I've beaten either.
tbh zen isnt to long so i don't know why people complain about so much, jeah could have been a better ending but tge game is still a masterpiece
I've bothered to finish Xen maybe 3-4 times in my life but everything before that point I've played through probably 80 times, I love it so much
Same here, the journey is over when you reach Xen it's just some mopping up that's left.
And when I reach the Citadel in HL2 it's also a tossup if I continue.
I was so free to take your weapons inhales, they were government property anyways. For the suit, ... well ... I guess you have earned it.
Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine.