Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

This is basically the best first person shooter, together with its expansions, I have ever played. I asked myself through playing why I, as a person not too much fan of that genre, was liking it that much. An obvious answer to me right now is the great storyline the game has with excellent sci-fi conventions. Firstly, the occurrence of an accident in a nuclear lab with an hidden agenda is just a perfect starting point. It opens a gate to another planet and its artistically well-created creatures. After a while a great known moment comes with the government forces entering into the scene by killing all the survivals in order to hide the accident. Pleasure grows more on more through all challenges coming from both sides. All characters, including a scientist in the main game, soldier in Opposing Force, and a cop in Blue Shift, are excellent and welcome you sci-fi atmosphere successfully. Apart from the storyline, secondly, I like the game because it does not fall into the trap of having hidden places inside gaming environment. This is very probably the first reason that leads me not play FPS games because I find hidden place crap strongly destroy the reality and seriousness of any game. Fortunately, Half Life does not damage its great storyline and reality with such tricks. Finally, I liked very much the snapshots in expansions related to the main game. Those make everything looks great like a final touch of a great piece of art which is this game for me.