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[Spire]

Equally unpopular sentiment: Half-Life was only significant for being the first FPS where the story and gameplay took place entirely within the same context, without the story being a one-page ripoff of Predator (with Roadhouse stuck in the middle).

Having said that, I'd also say that the shift you've just described in FPS gaming was most certainly because of the success of Half-Life. Some developers evolved by aping specific conventions of Half-Life, such as the method of story-telling.

Still others simply saw how well the game was received and realised that they had just been liberated from the traditions of the genre; from then on, whenever a publisher got nervous that an FPS was too brainy, the developer could point to Half-Life and reply "so what?"

Half-Life was also significant for its incredible support of the mod community and the fact that Valve itself was mainly made up of former modders. Their nurturing of mods like TFC, CS, and DoD lead to an incredibly long sales life for the game and in turn, a new business model. It basically took the modding that was happening with Quake and turned it up to 11.

 

[abstract alien]

Although I found it enjoyable as a whole, my main issues with it stem from the issues that most shooters(even today) seem to have. The lack of weight and mostly subpar enemy and object animation/interaction is a huge deal for me when it comes to an fps, and this was something that half-life did not deliver in, for the most part. The fact that it had no cut scenes was a huge plus(made me think of Out of this World and Super Metroid), but the story itself was pretty bad and outside of a few spots it wasn't really utilized to its potential in either its gameplay or narrative design. Again, I did play through it and thought it was decent, with a few design choices that the entire industry should embrace, but outside of the enemy soldier AI and in-game driven narrative direction, there wasn't much for me.

That and I've never understood the love for the head crab/head crab zombie at all.

Half-Life was also significant for its incredible support of the mod community and the fact that Valve itself was mainly made up of former modders. Their nurturing of mods like TFC, CS, and DoD lead to an incredibly long sales life for the game and in turn, a new business model. It basically took the modding that was happening with Quake and turned it up to 11.

This nugget right here can not be denied.

 

[Sibylus]

I played Half-Life for the first time roughly a year and 2 months ago (link to my LTTP thread from then).

TL;DR: I was very impressed at how well the game aged and how much I was enjoying it. Crazy to think that anyone's first game could be this good.

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

I remember trying to play Half Life back in 1998, but my awful computer couldn't run the damn thing.

I only finally finished it about a year ago and I thought it was absolutely amazing.

 

[JaseC]

I remember trying to play Half Life back in 1998, but my awful computer couldn't run the damn thing.

I got the game for my birthday the year it was released. Back then, I had to play the game at 800x600 in software mode. :lol

 

[CiSTM]

Great game and most def one of my all time favorites. I did hate the xenu world or what ever that was. First part and the second part were top notch. I liked the action parts as I did like the puzzles. OP go play the first expansion pack right now ! Opposing Force is probably my fav game from HL series. It is bit short game but it's fun from start to end.

 

[Dice]

I just ran through in 5 hours using god mode and no clip just to see what it was like and get whatever story was in it. It was interesting and I got the idea of what was going on with the puzzles (had to do most things to get the scripts to go) but it also seems like it'd be a total bitch. There were so many times that the game severely restricts your movement then drops a ton of enemies on you, often with environmental hazards on top. I know it had checkpoints so that by nature makes the game simpler to get through, but there were still many times that I was like "this is a bit excessive, yeah?" even in god mode. Surviving should be a dynamic thing, not trial and error, remembering at what points you simply get fucked. I can forgive it since it's old, but I'll never understand people who consider this ideal design.