Half-Life Platinum Collection

I downloaded the Halflife demo in 1999 and found the demo, alone, such an entertaining and excellent game that during the entire tenure that I had my computer (7 months) it was never uninstalled, and I played it nearly every day!

Although the game is approximately 4 years old now, and I have seen the newest and best FPS out there, I only recently purchased Halflife (Half-life:Platinum Edition) and being the expert analyzer that I am of computer games, I can honestly say that Halflife is -up to this day- the best FPS that I have ever played, hands-down. It's definitely the most revolutionary FPS that has ever been developed for the PC since Doom.

To begin with, kudos to Halflife for installing so quickly on my new computer, for it's extremely user-friendly and effective game setup options and for actually functioning (and functioning EXTREMELY well in all regards) under my Windows XP operating system. Most games that came out only TWO years ago -much less FOUR- are not XP compatible.

Halflife's graphics -though dated compared to more recent games- are still very good and very acceptable, even by today's standards. The sounds in Halflife are extremely immersive, realistic, and at times very scary. They really bring the game to life and are superb in every facet, from weapon-firing to eldritch monster sounds to elevator doors shutting, etc. Halflife excels especially where it counts the most: the actual gameplay.

This game's story is very interesting and original. The character you play is Gordon Freeman who works at a secret -mostly underground- technological development institution (similar to Area 51?) and an experiment goes awry, causing the spawning of a smorgasbord of different monsters and attracting the attention of the military who's mission is to cover this "accident up" from what I can gather and eliminate Freeman and everyone else at the facility. What amazes and baffles me more than anything else is the actual length of the single player campaign. I've been playing it for at least 30 hours and have not finished it yet! I shake my head and wonder how the developers of Halflife made such a huge game; the facility is beyond gargantuan; I've had to have travelled dozens of square miles so far. The environments are extremely interesting and because of this and many more reasons, the game NEVER becomes boring. In fact, I could easily spend every waking hour playing it for two weeks in a row and I would never tire of it.

In a synopsis, Halflife is the most interesting, funnest, most addictive and revolutionary FPS that I have ever come across -up to this present day- since Doom and I have YET to play it in multiplayer mode! When it came out in '98 it would have to have been rated 10/10; even NOW, I would rate it 8.5/10...


Spectacular!   April 26, 2002
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Probably the best video game of all time!! This package comes with the best online game of all time as well. You'll never get bored of this one.


its fairly immersive, but there are problems   March 31, 2002
 2 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is a pretty fun game in singleplayer mode. it isn't the best, as others are saying. The story is simple.. its an outline of a story at best. Most of the time i had no idea why i was doing the things i was doing... just that i had to do them to keep the game going.

Most of the trouble i have with this game comes from the way the player moves. The default movement is Run. The problem with this is, when you stop, you slide about an inch.. its like the player has ice on his shoes. This wouldn't be so bad, but there are plenty of situations that occur that require you to stop on a dime, or die. You do have the option to hold down the shift key to walk, but there is no toggle run/walk option. (unless you're into editing game files). This is a pain, because the game already has your hands all over the keyboard moving around and shooting things.

Another complaint i have is with the sound. I can't understand a single thing the NPCs are saying most of the time. It sounds like they're talking through a walkie talkie.. their voices are very distorted. This is even worse because there is usually some very loud background noise occuring while they're talking to you. I have yet to be able to find a fix for this problem.

Another thing: It took me several hours to get this game working with my video card. The models looked terrible, and the mouse movements were very jerky. I couldn't even get the game to work right in Direct 3d mode... i had to use Open GL. I have an ATI Rage Pro.. and i had to search all over the web for a fix to my problem. As it turns out, there wasn't one fix... there were several fixes that involved editing the game files. After much trial and error, i finally got the game working properly.

All in all, this game is pretty challenging. I found myself on the verge of dying through almost the entire game. There are parts where the number of aliens and soldiers to deal with is overwhelming. It should keep you playing it for a while.

It is not the most atmospheric game i've ever played. Almost every level is the same thing with different (or more) aliens to deal with. For a truly creepy and atmospheric game, i'd suggest American McGee's Alice. It has some of the most beautiful level design i've seen.

For a game that is as immersive and addictive as this game claims to be, i'd go with Deus Ex. It may be the best single player game around.

Finally, the multiplayer.. i can't really get it to work right. I have played the training level to Counter Strike.. and it looks like it will be really cool.. if only i could get the thing to play online. I suspect this problem will involve more of the web searching and good ol' trial and error to solve, and i'll probably be rescuing hostages in no time..

Assuming all this stuff really does work the way it's supposed to, i'd say 4 games in one package is a pretty sweet deal.. but i would reccommend a working knowledge of how these games work before venturing into this high-maintenance package.


A REALLY good game   March 29, 2002
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This game is one of my favourite games I've played. I found myself liking it so much that Right after I beat it I played it again! If you want a really good game where there is both lots of shooting and lots of puzzles (wow, your brain actually gets to think!) then this game is for you. There are about 6 guns in this game some which have secondary attacks (machine gun that throws grenades, etc.) and other weapons such as crowbars, hand grenades, detpacks, and others. This game is beautifully handled too. You will never lose the story line. Unlike some games where you are assigned to shoot everything in your way for 160 levels, in this game you have good guys (scietists, security guards) and bad guys (military "clean-up" team, monsters). This game is truly wonderful. Long, challenging, "slightly" gory, and fun!


Oh HL, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...   February 26, 2002
 0 out of 3 found this review helpful

1. It's done some things so well that even newer games fall short of it.
2. The multiplayer was engineer'd so sweetly...
3. Ohmygod I love TFC.
4. VALVE CREATED THE ENGINEER. THE ENGINEER WIELDS THE EMP OF DEATH. THUS, HALF-LIFE IS COOL.
5. Sure the graphics arent as nice as things today but at least they're cool for their time and I never get tired of em
6. Mods, Server-Side DLLS and custom maps, oh my...
7. Oh sweet wonderful Half-Life, I have never gotten stuck inside a solid...
8. O thank you Valve, for sparing me the black disconnected screen...

(in any case, HL wins forever)