I must admit when I first picked up half-life I was extremely skeptical. When I first fired up Half-life I was welcomed by an incredible 5 minute train sequence that makes me feel like I am really part of the Black Mesa research team. After I get off at my stop I spent about 10 minutes just walking around the building talking to scientists and security guards as if a normal day.

Later after a not so normal "accident" is where the real adventure begins, not wanting to go into too much detail this is one FANTASTIC journey! As you may know this, like many other first person shooters uses the Quake II engine. Although it uses this engine it is not fully based on it, about 70% of the code is ValvE's own original code. While visually stunning this game does not relay on its good looks to make it a winner. The developers have spent lots of time creating a world were you actually think that the entity's are real and everything seems part of a living world.

While the single player is all well and good the multiplayer has no real new features or game play. The multiplayer is simply a deathmatch with new characters and weapons. They have also added a cool feature where you can get an image and spray paint it on the walls of the game level, which is great for leaving you death mark! ValvE does make it easier to find a game though with there built-in gamespy type server finder. Maybe when valve releases there upcoming team fortress it could breath new life into the half-life multiplayer game. This is a great game and is my pick for the best game of 1998!

by Ryan Wissman

Visuals - 9.0 Gameplay - 9.5 Overall - 9.4