Half-Life (video game)
| Half-Life | |
|---|---|
Box art of Half-Life
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| Developer(s) | Valve |
| Publisher(s) |
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| 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 |  |
| CGW | |
| 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[update], 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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