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Half-Life (video game)

Half-Life
Half-Life Cover Art.jpg
Box art of Half-Life
Developer(s) Valve
Publisher(s)
Distributor(s) Electronic Arts
Writer(s) Marc Laidlaw
Composer(s) Kelly Bailey
Series Half-Life
Engine GoldSrc
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, OS X, Linux
Release
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Aggregate score
Aggregator Score
Metacritic 96/100 (PC)
87/100 (PS2)
Review scores
Publication Score
AllGame 5/5 stars
CGW 5/5 stars
GameSpot 9.4/10
IGN 9.5/10

Half-Life (stylized as HλLF-LIFE) is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Valve, released in 1998 by Sierra Studios for Microsoft Windows. It was Valve's debut product and the first in the Half-Life series. Players assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, who must fight his way out of a secret research facility after a teleportation experiment goes disastrously wrong, fighting enemies and solving puzzles.

Unlike many other games at the time, Half-Life features no cutscenes; the player has uninterrupted control of Freeman, and the story is told through scripted sequences seen through his eyes. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell said the team had wanted to create an immersive world rather than a "shooting gallery". The game's engine, GoldSrc, is a heavily modified version of the Quake engine licensed from id Software.

Half-Life received acclaim for its graphics, realistic gameplay, and seamless narrative. It won over fifty PC "Game of the Year" awards and is often considered one of the greatest games of all time. It influenced first-person shooters for years after its release; according to IGN, the history of the genre "breaks down pretty cleanly into pre-Half-Life and post-Half-Life eras."

Half-Life had sold eight million copies by November 16, 2004, and 9.3 million copies by December 2008. It was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2001, and OS X and Linux in 2013. It was followed in 2004 by a sequel, Half-Life 2.


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