Half-life

Half-Life logo

Valve Corporation
Gearbox Software (PS2)

Sierra Entertainment
Electronic Arts
Valve Corporation

Microsoft Windows: November 19, 1998 November 27, 1998 PlayStation 2: November 11, 2001 November 30, 2001 Linux, macOS: January 25, 2013

platform

Windows , PlayStation 2 , Linux , macOS

Subject

Game mode

Single player , multiplayer

control

Mouse and keyboard , gamepad

system advantages
preconditions

Windows 95 or newer
Pentium 133 MHz
24 MB RAM
8 MB SVGA graphics card
2 × CD-ROM
400 MB HDD storage

medium

CD-ROM , download , DVD-ROM

language

English , German

Current version

1.1.2.1

copy protection

CD key , Steam connection

Age rating

USK

PEGI

information

Unabridged version (USK 18) indexed until April 2017.
USK 16 version cut.

Half-Life logo as a stencil

Half-Life ( proper spelling : HλLF-LIFE ; English for half-life , HL for short ) is a video game in the first-person shooter genre . It was developed by Valve and published on October 31, 1998 by distribution partner Sierra . According to the manufacturer, over 9.3 million copies were sold in retail stores worldwide. The number of sales via the Steam distribution platform developed by Valve are not known.

The sequel Half-Life 2 was released on November 16, 2004. Half-Life (1998) and Half-Life 2 (2004) are full-length video games, while Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006) and Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007) are shorter episodic video games. A third episode, Half-Life 2: Episode Three , was slated for Christmas 2007, but remained unfinished. Valve announced the virtual reality shooter Half-Life: Alyx in November 2019 , which was released on March 23, 2020. After several years of development, the Valve-authorized fan remake Black Mesa by the Crowbar Collective development team was released in March 2020 .

In addition to its literal meaning, the title of the video game is an allusion to the technical term half-life from nuclear physics . The symbol for the game is a lambda (λ), the symbol for the decay constant in physics. The title is intended on the one hand to target the science fiction component of the game, on the other hand, the developers wanted to break away from the shooting gallery game concept of other video games such as Quake , which was prevalent at the time , and focus on a more thought-provoking concept.

Plot and game content

In Half-Life , the player takes on the role of Gordon Freeman, an MIT physicist who conducts top-secret research in a fictional rocket test base called Black Mesa , which has been expanded into a research complex in the remote desert of the US state of New Mexico . When an experiment to develop a new energy source with crystals of extraterrestrial origin fails, the research facility with dimensional gates is flooded by a parallel world. Gordon Freeman finds himself confronted not only with hordes of strange creatures from another world, but also with US Marines who are tasked with eliminating anyone who wants to leave the premises. Since the Marines are unable to cope with this situation, the Black Ops Special Command is sent on. Its orders are to wipe out all living things in Black Mesa without exception. The game is mainly solved with the help of real, but also fictional weapons (such as the Gauss rifle ). Again and again on his way out of Black Mesa, Freeman encounters the mysterious G-Man , a stranger who apparently wants to test Freeman and offers him a job at the end of the game.

Valve hired horror writer Marc Laidlaw to develop the game's story. Was crucial that the development of the plot completely was considered from the perspective of the player, so no cutscenes interrupted the flow of the game. For this purpose, many events in the game world were scripted and triggered when the player arrived at a certain location (so-called script sequences ).

Although Half-Life was technically based on a typical first-person shooter engine , the game set new standards by adding elements from the adventure and jump 'n' run genres . For example, in many situations the player must skillfully overcome obstacles such as power cables, fans, deep chasms or toxic sewage. In other game scenes, for example, movable boxes have to be correctly positioned in order to get to higher positions or to bypass the triggers of sticky mines. The game also includes computer-controlled characters in the role of guards and scientists who are necessary for the player's progress (for example, by opening doors) or helping the player with firepower or medical assistance.

In terms of typical first-person shooter elements, Half-Life was one of the first games to include secondary weapon fire modes. This made for a wider range of tactics and smoother flow of the game in combat. There is also variety in the game sections in which the player controls a carriage moving on rails or uses permanently installed weapons such as machine guns and heavy artillery.

German version

The original English version was indexed shortly after the start of sales in Germany by the then Federal Testing Office for writings harmful to minors . In the German version, the player fights against robots instead of human soldiers, the aliens no longer bleed, the corpses of killed opponents slowly dissolve and, in this version, researchers shot at and shook their heads on the ground. This partially changes the course of the game and the difficulty, as the head-shaking researchers direct fire from automatically firing weapons and these no longer target the player. The USK gave her an age rating of 16 years and over. The game was unindexed in April 2017. Valve released the uncut version in Germany on Steam a few days after the de-indexing. From now on, users who already own the game can download Half Life Uncensored for free.

reception

Half-Life was named "Game of the Year" by the German computer game magazine PC Games in 1998 and rated it 91%. GameStar magazine gave the game a 92% rating.

Half-Life also received high ratings from other magazines around the world : IGN rated the game with 95% and Gamespot with 94%. Half-Life was named “Game of the Year” more than 50 times, leaving its genre competitor Unreal (also a great critical hit) from the same year behind. The Metascore of Half-Life is 96 points out of 100, so the game is one of the highest rated first-person shooters.

The port for the PlayStation 2 , published in 2001 , also received positive ratings, the Metascore is 87 out of 100 points.

technology

The Half-Life - Engine (codenamed GoldSrc or gold source) was formed in 1998 from the from id Software licensed Quake engine . Half-Life's engine is only slightly similar to that of Quake I, however. The most important changes compared to the Quake engine were the new skeleton-based animation model , the switch to C ++ , the improved network subsystem (netcode), the artificial intelligence of computer opponents (AI), the ability to create complex scripted scenes, and the graphics .

The diverse use of script sequences is used to convey the story and improves immersion . The character Gordon Freeman remains silent during the entire action, so that the player can better empathize with the role. Still, allied characters (scientists and guards) respond when they receive instructions from the player.

The Half-Life storage engine uses as the Quake storage engine BSP Trees for minimizing the computational effort. It uses textures with 256 colors, but the engine itself renders with 16 or 32 bit color depth . In addition, the network subsystem uses Quake World technology, with which smooth gaming is also possible over the Internet .

A special feature of Half-Life compared to other games at the time is that a level , of which there are 17 pieces, was not loaded completely in one piece, but is divided into small sections, which are connected by clearly defined transfer points within identical rooms . This gives the player the impression that they are in a huge, connected complex. The only indication of the subdivision of the levels is the brief interruption of the game during the loading process. A way back to previous levels is basically allowed by the game software, but is restricted by the structure of the level.

The latest technology was also used for the sound. For example, the A3D and EAX sound processes created the various room effects. The soundtrack for Half-Life was composed by the in-house composer Kelly Bailey, who was also responsible for the sound effects. The 27 tracks are contained in the normal audio format on the Half-Life CD and can be played on any CD player.

In January 2013, Valve released native beta versions of Half-Life for Linux and OS X on Steam .

weapons

A total of 14 weapons are available to the player, some of which are also used by AI opponents.

The crowbar is the first weapon the player encounters in Half-Life . As a pure melee weapon, it is mainly used in the first few parts of the game and when opening boxes with bonuses.

The Glock 17 pistol is the player's first firearm and is also used by Black Mesa security personnel. Besides the crossbow and the alien rifle, it is the only firearm that can also be used underwater. In secondary fire mode, the pistol shoots faster but less accurately. The MP5 and Glock 17 share the ammunition supply.

The game's second handgun is the .357 Magnum . It is relatively powerful and accurate, but its six- round drum magazine takes a relatively long time to reload. In multiplayer mode, the Magnum has a secondary fire mode in which the target is zoomed in.

The Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun is the standard weapon of soldiers and military robots. In addition to its 50 round magazine, it fires rifle grenades in secondary mode . The supply of primary ammunition is shared with that of the Glock 17.

Relatively early in the game, the player also has a forearm repeater . It is loaded with eight shotshells, one (primary fire mode) or two (secondary fire mode) fired at a time. In addition to the player, some soldiers also use the pump gun.

The only weapon with a scope is the crossbow in single player mode . The zoom in is activated with the button for the secondary fire mode. In multiplayer mode , the zoom without fired bolts are curiously explosive.

The player has a rocket launcher as his first heavy weapon . The missile is guided with a laser beam after it has been launched ; in the secondary fire mode, the aiming laser is switched off so that the missile only flies in a straight line.

Science fiction characters have a Gauss rifle and a gluon cannon , which also share the ammunition. The Gauss rifle fires short, yellowish beams that are also reflected at a flat angle on the walls and floor. In secondary mode, the beam is charged longer and thus more powerful, and in this mode the weapon also has a strong recoil. In multiplayer mode, you can shoot through walls with the Gauss rifle. The gluon cannon, on the other hand, fires a continuous, violet beam. In secondary mode, regardless of the player's position, the beam stays on the same point.

As the first alien weapon, there are also small beetles ( snarks ), which are thrown on the ground by the player and which attack all detectable targets within their lifespan of 15 seconds and explode after the time has elapsed.

The second alien weapon is the so-called hivehand , which is also used by the enemy type Alien Grunt . It has a self-regenerating ammunition supply with a maximum of eight rounds. In the primary fire mode, target-seeking projectiles are fired, which also ricochet off walls. In the secondary mode, these projectiles are fired faster and harder, but without targeting.

There are also hand grenades , remotely detonable explosive charges (backpack bombs) and sticky mines based on the M18 Claymore with ignition by a light barrier .

In addition, there are permanently installed weapons in some places:

Heavy machine guns that the player can use to take out alien grunts.
An electronic map table that can be used to give a bomber coordinates to attack an alien and clear the way.
An opposing soldier uses a permanently installed rocket launcher, but the player cannot use it.

Level

Half-Life is divided into 17 chapters, which in turn contain small sections that make the game appear coherent without major pauses in loading and thus maintain the tension. The chapter title of the original English version and the German title are given in brackets.

Black Mesa Inbound (The Way To Work): It shows the path of a train that takes Gordon Freeman to his workplace in Black Mesa, more precisely Sector C, Testlabs and Control Facilities . On this trip the dimensions of the complex become clear and the player gets to see some interesting things: transit system, scientists and, for the first time, the G-Man . This section is also the intro to the game. This combination of intro and interactivity was sensational at the time and was widely praised.
Anomalous materials

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Half-Life was composed by Kelly Bailey. The 27 tracks are contained in the normal audio format on the Half-Life CD and can be played on any CD player.

"Adrenaline Horror" - 02:09 "Vague Voices" (Black Mesa Inbound) - 02:11 "Klaxon Beat" - 01:00 "Space Ocean" (Echoes of a Resonance Cascade) - 1:36 "Cavern Ambiance" (Zero Point Energy Field) - 01:39 "Apprehensive Short" - 00:23 "Bass String Short" - 00:08 "Hurricane Strings" (Neutrino Trap) - 1:33 "Diabolical Adrenaline Guitar" (Lambda Core) - 1:44 "Valve Theme [Long Version]" (Hazardous Environments) - 01:22 "Nepal Monastery" - 02:08 "Alien Shock" (Biozeminade Fragment) - 00:36 "Sirens in the Distance" (Triple Entanglement) - 01:12 "Nuclear Mission Jam" (Something Secret Steers Us) - 2:00 am	"Scared Confusion Short" - 00:16 "Drums and Riffs" (Tau-9) - 02:03 "Hard Technology Rock" - 1:40 am "Steam in the Pipes" (Negative Pressure) - 01:55 "Electric Guitar Ambiance" (Escape Array) - 1:24 am "Dimensionless Deepness" (Dirac Shore) - 1:24 "Military Precision" - 1:20 am "Jungle Drums" - 1:49 "Traveling Through Limbo" (Singularity) - 1:17 am "Credits / Closing Theme" (Tracking Device) - 01:39 "Threatening Short" (Xen Relay) - 00:37 "Dark Piano Short" - 00:17 "Sharp Fear Short" - 00:06

(Note: Most of the songs were also used under different names in Half-Life 2, the corresponding titles are in brackets. Tracks 2, 12, 13, and 24 were remixed for the sequel.)

Extensions

For Half-Life two official are extensions appeared, the owners of Half-Life, the their game with Steam , free or in the registered generation Pack v3 and the Half-Life 1 Anthology are commercially available. Both extensions were developed by Gearbox Software .

Opposing Force

In the Opposing Force expansion, released in October 1999, the player takes on the role of Corporal Adrian Shephard , who is sent on an unknown mission to Black Mesa as a member of a division of the US Marines and is the only one of his squad to survive a helicopter crash.

Similar to the original, the player now finds himself in a precarious situation between the aliens and human soldiers - in this case the Black Ops , a government special unit that is supposed to cover up the operation of the Marines and the entire incident in Black Mesa . And here, too, the mysterious G-Man appears again and again . Because Opposing Force and Half-Life play at the same time, the two storylines cross at some points in the game. In the role of Adrian Shephard you see Gordon Freeman, who you played in Half-Life , disappear behind a corner or step into a teleporter portal.

The expansion itself offers new weapons, such as the marine pistol with laser sight, but also new tactical options: It is now possible to climb up ropes or swing from one rope to the next. In addition, it is often necessary to work with other soldiers, for example to launch a joint attack or to have a pioneer weld a locked door open to you. From Opposing Force have been sold according to the manufacturer more than 1.1 million.

Blue shift

In Blue Shift , you experience the events surrounding the Black Mesa research complex from the perspective of the security guard Barney Calhoun , whose goal is to escape from the complex. In this expansion, too, you can come across Gordon Freeman one time or another that links the games.

Originally, Blue Shift was to become an exclusive part of the Half-Life port for SEGA's Dreamcast game console , but the project, which was already well advanced, was discontinued and Blue Shift was released separately for the PC .

Sierra / Valve has also included a technical update for the half-life engine with newer versions of Blue Shift : With the so-called high-definition pack , the number of polygons of the models and weapons in the original game was also subsequently increased. However, this had no effect on the resolution of the textures. According to the manufacturer, Blue Shift has sold over 900,000 copies.

Characters and Groups

Dr. Gordon Freeman

Dr. Gordon Freeman is the protagonist in the Half-Life series, in whose role the player is placed. Freeman is 27 years old and single. Freeman received his doctorate in theoretical physics at MIT after writing a dissertation on observations of Bell's inequality . He then worked at the Institute for Experimental Physics in Innsbruck on research series on teleportation effects before accepting a job offer from his former professor Dr. Kleiner followed and returned to the United States to do research as a quantum and astrophysicist at the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico.

After being forced to live in the service of G-Man at the end of Half-Life , Freeman spends several years in stasis . After almost two decades, he is woken up. This is the beginning of Half-Life 2. The further fate of Freeman remains undetermined after Half-Life 2 and the subsequent episodes.

G-Man

During the course of Half-Life , the mysterious G-Man reappears in different places and seems to be watching Freeman's progress. However, if you see the G-Man , he adjusts his tie elegantly, and then disappears. After Freeman has defeated the final boss at the end of the first part, the G-Man gives him an ultimatum: either he works for him or he “has to compete in a fight in which he has no chance of victory”.

His real name is unknown and is not mentioned in the course of the game, but he was called G-Man by the community because this name appears in the game files. Valve went on to do this and continued to refer to him as the G-Man . The name comes from the English colloquial language, in which G-Man stands for "Government-Man". However, this is not a statement of his actual role in the game and his identity remains unknown.

Nihilanth

The first part of the Half-Life series ends with Gordon Freeman killing the so-called nihilanthene in the border world Xen. It is a floating alien about 15 meters tall. With his death, the previously hostile alien slaves (Vortigaunts) are freed.

Vortigaunt

The Vortigaunts are aliens from the border world Xen who were freed from the nihilanthene and their metallic slave collars in Half-Life by Freeman and who have been working with humans since Half-Life 2 . They have healing abilities and stand out because they can use green energy discharges as weapons.

Barney Calhoun

Barney Calhoun is a security guard at Black Mesa who has played the role of someone who has no clue about science throughout the Half-Life story, but especially in the second part. In Half-Life you can see him in one move at the beginning and also later in the game. In the Blue Shift expansion , the player can then control it himself. Through a chain of happy circumstances and working with surviving scientists, he escapes Black Mesa. He is also a leading member of the resistance against the Combine rule in the second part.

Corporal Adrian Shephard

Adrian Shephard is the protagonist of the Half-Life expansion Opposing Force . His NBC protective mask is typical of him .

Otis Laurey

The weighty security guard Otis Laurey can be found in the Opposing Force expansion and at the beginning of Blue Shift. In Opposing Force, he assists Adrian Shephard at various points in the game. His predilection for sweets is striking, especially for donuts, which even after the serious Black Mesa accident cannot be stopped. Whether he escaped Black Mesa is unknown.

Dr. Rosenberg

Dr. Rosenberg only appears in Blue Shift and in the Decay expansion integrated in the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life 1 , but he is not mentioned in any other Half-Life game. He is a scientist who, like Dr. Kleiner is working on teleportation technology. Through his knowledge, he can talk to Barney Calhoun and Dr. Walter / Isaac Kleiner flee Black Mesa.

Gina Cross

The mysterious Gina Cross has her only appearance in Half-Life in the Hazard Course as the instructor. Later she is only seen as an Easter Egg at the beginning of Blue Shift , as she drives the dangerous material that triggered the incident to Gordon Freeman. At that time, the name of this person, like that of the G-Man, could only be found through the name of the 3D model outside of the game. Gina later appeared in the co-op mode of the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life . Her name and last name Cross were also mentioned there. Gina Cross fights the aliens that invaded Black Mesa in co-op mode Decay with another scientist named Colette Green.

Colette Green

Colette Green fights with Gina Cross in Decay co-op .

Dr. Arne Magnusson

Dr. Magnusson is not mentioned in Half-Life , but you meet him at the beginning of the game in the room with the microwave, where you can destroy your lunch. You only learn more about him in Half-Life 2: Episode Two .

Dr. Walter / Isaac Kleiner

Dr. Walter / Isaac Kleiner is not mentioned in Half-Life and only appears in Blue Shift and Half-Life 2 . His first name is unclear because he is called Isaac in HL2, while Walter Kleiner is mentioned in the first Half-Life parts. Typical for him is a bald head, horn-rimmed glasses and a somewhat naive to childish behavior. In the course of all Half-Life episodes it can be seen that he must be a competent scientist who deals with teleportation. At the end of Blue Shift , he escapes along with Barney Calhoun and Dr. Rosenberg teleported to the exit of the research complex.

Published games

Half-life engine

Half-life ( valve )
Half-Life Uplink ( demo of Half-Life ; no longer available in stores, but can be integrated into the game with the uplink add-on)
Half-Life for PlayStation 2 ( Gearbox ; includes Half-Life: Decay )
Team Fortress Classic (Valve)
Opposing Force (Gearbox; extension )
Blue Shift (Gearbox; extension)
Counter-Strike (formerly Fan- Mod - from version 1.0 independent version of Valve)
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero ( Turtle Rock Studios )
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero - Deleted Scenes ( Ritual Entertainment )
Day of Defeat (formerly Fan-Mod - from version 1.0 independent version of Valve)
Gunman Chronicles ( Rewolf Entertainment )

Half-Life was originally supposed to be released for the Dreamcast game console , but the project was discontinued.

Half-Life Modes from Valve

Team Fortress Classic (based on Team Fortress ( Quake -Mod) from 1996)
Deathmatch Classic (Valve & id software ; porting Quake weapons and cards to Half-Life )
Ricochet
Absolute redemption

Unofficial mods

With the two software development kits published by Valve (2006/2007) numerous mods for Half-Life and Half-Life 2 were developed by fans. The multiplayer mods Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat were later taken over by Valve and marketed commercially. The best known are Absolute Redemption , Cry of Fear and Poke646 for single player and the multiplayer mods Natural Selection and Science and Industry .

Unofficial remakes

After eight years of development, Black Mesa was released in September 2012 , an unofficial remake of Half-Life up to and including the Lambda Core level based on the Source Engine , developed by fans . This incomplete version could only run as a modification for Half-Life 2 . In March 2015, a stand-alone version of Black Mesa followed in early access , which has been further developed over the years. The full version of Black Mesa was finally released in March 2020, but the Crowbar Collective development team will continue to improve it with updates .

Fan-made remakes of the two Half-Life expansions originally developed by Gearbox are in the works under the names Operation Black Mesa (Opposing Force) and Guard Duty (Blue Shift) .

In September 2018 under the name Project Lambda from the Russian development studio SilverTM the first chapter of Half-Life remake with the Unreal Engine 4 - game engine released. If interested, one would continue the work.

Anti-cheat measures

The first tool to make cheating in multiplayer more difficult was the PunkBuster , released in 2000 . However, due to the lack of support from Valve, development for the Half-Life engine was discontinued in 2001.

Around this time, Cheating-Death (alluding to Creeping Death by Metallica), which was developed by the developer group United Admins , was also created. If a cheat is discovered in a player, the tool blocks his input so that he can no longer move his character. Most leagues recommend cheating death as an anti-cheat tool. At the beginning of 2006 the further development of Cheating-Death was stopped because no programmers could be found to continue the project.

Valve integrated its own anti-cheat tool Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC for short) into its games. Since July 2004, however, VAC has not been further developed and at the beginning of August 2005 it was replaced by the successor VAC2 , which is available for all games from Valve. VAC2 is intended to discourage the fact that a detected attempt at fraud leads to the permanent exclusion from games on VAC-secured servers for the Steam account concerned . The ban is engine-specific, which means that not all games on an account are automatically excluded from playing on secure servers.

In addition to these tools that are running on the computer of the player and server created plug-ins that require no installation on the computer of the player, for example, the HLGuard of the United Admins or server log . The WWCL league released a server plugin that monitors certain game parameters on the player's computer and is supposed to discover cheat programs. Server-side anti-cheat measures, however, do not achieve the level of effectiveness of client-server tools .

Since there are always successful cheaters despite anti-cheat measures, many leagues require the players to record their competitions using the built-in demo function and to present the log files when requested.

Since every player has an identification number (formerly WON -ID, then Steam -ID), databases with IDs of cheaters were created, which are displayed in a virtual pillory on various websites . Game server administrators should also be able to more easily exclude known cheaters from their game server.

Valve Hammer Editor

The Hammer Editor (formerly Worldcraft ) is a map editor that allows you to develop your own maps for Half-Life , Half-Life 2 and their modifications, but you can also use it to create your own mods. The editor only supports the two half-life engines.

It consists of five individual programs: The editor itself, in which the map is created and can be equipped with special objects (lights, weapons, special effects, textures, etc.) and four compilation programs with which the map is then converted into a half-life Card file is converted. These programs include the calculation of visibility, geometry, objects and light.

The user (mapper) can compose landscapes and buildings from square blocks, so-called brushes, which are provided with textures, and add light, starting positions of the players, equipment and the like with so-called entities .

There is a large mapping scene on the Internet that offers instructions, textures, ready- made elements (so-called prefabs ) and of course a large number of ready-made maps. The demands are very high here and only those who design their cards playfully and visually flawlessly can hope that it will become more or less popular.

The Hammer Editor is currently (November 2005) available as version 4.0 for Half-Life 2, but must first be downloaded from Steam (free of charge). The editor is located in the program package of the software development kit .

literature

Ken Birdwell, The Cabal: Valve's Design Process for Creating Half-Life . In: Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman (Eds.): The Game Design Reader. A Rules of Play Anthology . The MIT-Press, 2005, ISBN 0-262-19536-4 , pp. 212-225 .
Valve, David SJ Hodgson: Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar . Prima Games, 2004, ISBN 0-7615-4364-3 .

Web links

Commons : Half-Life - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Valve publishes sales figures. In: Half-Life Portal. November 16, 2008, accessed May 29, 2010 .
↑ Andreas Bertits: Half-Life: Alyx - Valve introduces the new VR shooter. In: pcgames.de. November 21, 2019, accessed on November 23, 2019 (German).
^ Valve / Hodgson 2004, p. 31
↑ http://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=11984
↑ Half-Life: Classic egoshooter available uncensored for the first time in Germany after almost 20 years. Retrieved May 5, 2017 .
↑ Half-Life (German). In: GameStar. IDG Entertainment Media GmbH, accessed on May 31, 2010 .
↑ Samuel Claiborn: Half-Life Review (November 26, 1998 / December 13, 2018) on IGN.com (accessed March 24, 2020)
↑ Ron Dulin: Half-Life Review (November 20, 1998) on Gamespot.com (accessed March 24, 2020)
↑ Half-Life. In: Metacritic. CBS Interactive Inc., accessed May 31, 2010 .
↑ Half-Life for PlayStation 2 Reviews on Metacritic.com (accessed March 24, 2020)
^ Alfred Reynolds: Half-Life 1 Beta released for Linux. In: Steam Community - Linux Beta Access group. Valve Corporation , January 25, 2013, accessed February 10, 2013 .
↑ Half-Life: Uplink. Retrieved February 10, 2013 .
↑ Uplink addon. Retrieved March 13, 2013 .
^ Operation Black Mesa (Opposing Force: Source). In: ModDB. DesuraNET Pty Ltd., accessed February 10, 2013 .
^ Guard Duty (Blue Shift: Source). In: ModDB. DesuraNET Pty Ltd., accessed February 10, 2013 .
↑ FAQ . In: Tripmine Studios. Tripmine Studios, February 25, 2013, accessed February 24, 2017 .
^ Project Lambda - The intro train ride of the Half-Life remake in Unreal Engine 4. In: GameStar. Webedia Gaming GmbH, accessed on September 22, 2018 .
^ Project Lambda Download. In: Homepage. SilverTM, accessed September 22, 2018 .
↑ Valve Anti-Cheat System (VAC). In: Steam Support. Valve Corporation . Retrieved April 23, 2018 .

[hlpVerkaufszahlen-1] Valve publishes sales figures. In: Half-Life Portal. November 16, 2008, accessed May 29, 2010 .

[2] Andreas Bertits: Half-Life: Alyx - Valve introduces the new VR shooter. In: pcgames.de. November 21, 2019, accessed on November 23, 2019 (German).

[3] Valve / Hodgson 2004, p. 31

[4] ttp://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=11984

[5] Half-Life: Classic egoshooter available uncensored for the first time in Germany after almost 20 years. Retrieved May 5, 2017 .

[6] Half-Life (German). In: GameStar. IDG Entertainment Media GmbH, accessed on May 31, 2010 .

[7] Samuel Claiborn: Half-Life Review (November 26, 1998 / December 13, 2018) on IGN.com (accessed March 24, 2020)

[8] Ron Dulin: Half-Life Review (November 20, 1998) on Gamespot.com (accessed March 24, 2020)

[metascore-9] Half-Life. In: Metacritic. CBS Interactive Inc., accessed May 31, 2010 .

[10] Half-Life for PlayStation 2 Reviews on Metacritic.com (accessed March 24, 2020)

[SteamCommunity_Linux_OSX_Ankuendigung-11] Alfred Reynolds: Half-Life 1 Beta released for Linux. In: Steam Community - Linux Beta Access group. Valve Corporation , January 25, 2013, accessed February 10, 2013 .

[12] Half-Life: Uplink. Retrieved February 10, 2013 .

[13] Uplink addon. Retrieved March 13, 2013 .

[14] Operation Black Mesa (Opposing Force: Source). In: ModDB. DesuraNET Pty Ltd., accessed February 10, 2013 .

[15] Guard Duty (Blue Shift: Source). In: ModDB. DesuraNET Pty Ltd., accessed February 10, 2013 .

[16] FAQ . In: Tripmine Studios. Tripmine Studios, February 25, 2013, accessed February 24, 2017 .

[17] Project Lambda - The intro train ride of the Half-Life remake in Unreal Engine 4. In: GameStar. Webedia Gaming GmbH, accessed on September 22, 2018 .

[18] Project Lambda Download. In: Homepage. SilverTM, accessed September 22, 2018 .

[19] Valve Anti-Cheat System (VAC). In: Steam Support. Valve Corporation . Retrieved April 23, 2018 .