Half-Life: from the origins to Alyx, the story of a revolutionary game

That of the 1998 it was probably one of the most important years for the videogame industry. If video games are what they have become today, we also owe it to what happened during 1998. There were so many titles released that year which, more or less, revolutionized the world of video games. Metal Gear Solid, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Xenogears, Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro the Dragon, Resident Evil 2, Tekken 3, StarCraft, Unreal, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango...

But 1998 did not have enough and wanted to end with a flourish, giving the world what would become the most iconic and influential FPS in history. On November 19th of that year it was released Half-Life.

Half-Life, how it all began

Valve, half-known at the time, published Half-Life without knowing (or maybe yes, who knows) that it would permanently change the gaming world. That FPS with an unlikely professor on the cover skinny, pale and with two huge glasses would have done watershed between what it was and what would be from there on. The protagonist of the game is the theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman, the "nerd" on the cover just mentioned. Already from the appearance it was evident that we will not have played the typical hero of the classic FPS of that decade, a beefy fellow who loves the smell of napalm in the morning. It will seem like a trivial thing. but at the time the choice of a protagonist of the genre was already in itself an innovative aspect. And he wasn't the only one, of course.

Because Half-Life is still believed by many today the best first person shooter in history?

Already from the introductory sequence of Half-Life we ​​can understand how something, compared to the other FPS of the time, had changed. Gordon Freeman finds himself aboard a convoy passing through the research center of Black Mesa. While this convoy transports the good Gordon to one of the various laboratories, the opening titles scroll with the names of the various developers. A bit like a certain Metal Gear Solid did, in 1998 the line between cinema and video games became slightly thinner. If today that line has almost disappeared, it is also thanks to Valve and Kojima.

But the thing that made Half-Life truly unique at the time was allowing the gamer to have control of his alter ego right away, without ever taking away this power.. The story was not told through movies, but told through the eyes of Gordon Freeman. Everything was in real time, everything around us was alive and believable, and for a moment playing Half-Life we ​​forgot that we were playing as Gordon Freeman ... because Gordon Freeman had become us. Gordon, as already mentioned, was not a trained soldier with all muscles with an easy trigger, but a harmless scientist who as his first weapon finds a simple crowbar (which would later become the symbol of the game). Gordon never spoke, we never saw his face. He observed the tragic events in which he had found himself silent in spite of himself. All these elements managed to immerse the gamer in a way never seen before at the time. That might be enough to make Half-Life the most influential FPS in history, but Valve's title didn't stop there.

Half-Life was (and is) a thoughtful and reasoned shooter where you were not limited to just shooting the enemy on duty. It was indeed possible to meet gods PNG (Non-Player Characters) and you will say “So what? the NPCs are in all the FPS ". In reality, the existence of characters who were not enemies was anything but obvious, and this was another genius from Valve. Scientists who would meet inside Black Mesa they were programmed to look real, alive. They acted like real sentient beings, they could even react differently based on our actions. They helped the protagonist, they even talked to him, they talk to each other or to the protagonist, they help him by opening doors. They were even able to smell, and each of the NPCs had a different comment based on the situation.

Half-Life had it all, the NPCs, a large set of weapons, never trivial environmental puzzles and a deep and told story like no one else had ever done before that November 19, 1998. Half-Life, that day, made history.

Half-Life 2, fifteen years and not hear them

After Half-Life, many tried to replicate that feeling and atmosphere of the Valve title. Some succeeded in part, but only one succeeded in repeating that miracle. That video game was Half-Life again, but this time it had a 2. Half-Life 2, released on November 16, 2004, in fact, it did not just take up point by point when done with its illustrious predecessor, but improved where there was to be improved and added with criterion and intelligence.

Once again we wore the role of Freeman, in our hands we clasped our trusty crowbar again and the story flowed before our silent protagonist. On the surface it looks like a simple one more of the same, but as already mentioned Valve did not limit itself to proposing a winning mechanic, far from it.

If in the first Half-Life the protagonist had to escape from Black Mesa, here instead he was called to face a real pilgrimage, crossing cities, places and situations that were always different as he advanced. Just think of Ravenholm, where the atmosphere became strongly horror, or the phases in which we were called to pilot a hovercraft or dune buggy, which made the title even more varied and "open".

The graphics engine source, which would later make Valve's fortune itself, was another of those elements that made Half-Life 2 not just a masterpiece, but also a title that would later age very well. The lighting system, the facial expressions, everything was incredibly realistic by the technological standards of the time (there were still no graphics engines like Decima or Motion Capture). Added to this was the physics engine Havok, which gave even more realism to the video game. The symbol of this was the Gravity Gun, a weapon that allowed you to play with game physics in the most diverse and creative ways.

In short, although not like its predecessor, with Half-Life 2 Valve again managed to create something unique and innovative, something that would once again influence the new FPS (and not only) that would come later.

Half-Life 3, confirmed?

After Half-Life 2 the rest is a known story. Two other "expansion" episodes of the second chapter of the series were released, that is Half-Life 2: Episode One e Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Several expansions were also released of the first chapter, even a fan-game titled Black Mesa, who rebuilt the first Half-Life with unparalleled dedication. The The Orange Box, a collection of video games with the already published Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One, and the unreleased Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and above all that little gem of Portal.

But after Episode Two, silence. A silence such as to be "noisy", a noise that resembled an alarm bell. Episode Three it was announced in 2006, but then nothing was heard. All the mysteries of Episode Two and the complex mythology of Half-Life remained such, because that third episode that was supposed to end the story of Half-Life 2 never saw the light, unleashing what would become one of the most famous and recurring memes on the internet, namely that "Half Life 3 confirmed”Which in its being a joke hid so much regret and sadness from the fans.

This heavy burden is poured out Half-Life: Alyx, recently announced by Valve and which will take place between the first and second installments of the series. Why after all this time has Valve made the decision to return to its most beloved franchise? Was it because he found something that would dramatically revolutionize the gaming industry as it has done in the past? Perhaps because the implementation of VR technology could reach heights of realism never before reached? Or maybe because Valve just wants to make easy money by taking advantage of fan nostalgia?

Does Half-Life still have something to say in 2019? Maybe yes, maybe no, only time will answer this question. Maybe Alyx will not please the fans, who already have to say about this operation, and maybe it will prove to be an artistic flop. But Half-Life is back, and who knows, maybe the Half-Life 3 meme could become reality sooner than we could imagine.