The wait is over. Gordon Freeman is back, with his crowbar and hoards of crab head zombies.
You can believe all the hyperbolic reviews that have started to appear all over the place. This is it – the best first person game ever.
But first, a reality check.
Before getting back to the goodness of playing this game, let me give you a little spoiler. As good as it is, Half Life on PC does not fare better than FarCry or Doom III as far as first impressions are concerned.
It is as expensive (about $60 with tax) and as frustrating to install as the other block busters.
First disappointment, the game requires a network connection to unlock its content through the creation of an account on Valve’s Steam system. The experience of setting this up is as chilling as the oppressive totalitarian atmosphere the game is supposed to create. This activation system means that, in the (unlikely ?) event Valve goes down, you may not be able to install the game in the future. You can also forget installing the game behind a strict firewall or on a stand alone (offline) machine.
The activation phase itself is slow, partly due to the overwhelming response to the game. Apparently, Valve and Vivendi Universal did not anticipate there would be so many people trying to activate the game at the same time. After an aborted lauch in September 2003 and a year of wait, what did they expect ?
About 45 minutes and a few downloads later, the Steam platform is installed and Half Life ready to run. The game starts smoothly and the train station of City 17 appears in all its glory…. that is until one of the characters starts losing polygons and ends up dismembered in a spectacular freeze of the game.
One reboot later, a second attempt is a little more successful. After about half an hour of game, a teleporter sends Alex, one of the main characters, in a flashy… freeze and crash to the desktop.
Playing one last time after this second crash goes a little better. Loading times are long. The game stops for a couple of seconds from time to time and the audio skips a word here and there. These little glitches spoil te atmosphere and give an aftertaste of imminent crash. Not a good thing for a game where suspension of disbelief is key.
Hopefully, these glitches will be resolved over time. That would really make Half Life the best first person game I ever player.
For the rest, like I said, you can believe the reviews. The story is captivating, the music and twists send rushes of adrenaline through your spine. The atmosphere is deliciously oppressing. And the graphics are simply stunning, even though it is not always safe to stop and admire the view.