1998. HALF-LIFE sends a shock through the game industry with its combination of pounding action and continuous, immersive storytelling. Valve's debut title wins more than 50 game-of-the-year awards on its way to being named "Best PC Game Ever" by PC Gamer, and launches a franchise with more than eight million retail units sold...
In terms of storyline, it doesn’t really matter too much.
I still think you should play through the first one. If you need something that feels less 1998, Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half Life and it is very fun.
I disagree. Black Mesa is Black Mesa. It is no Half Life 1. The atmosphere in one is completely lost with Black Mesa. Start with Half Life and play to Alyx. Go back to Mesa for a second way to view 1.
Interesting, I haven’t actually played HL1 but I enjoyed BM a lot, and figured it’d be the better reccomendation for someone just getting into HL.
What parts of the atmosphere do you think BM missed? When I watched videos of HL1 gameplay it seemed that BM did a great job having a graphically updated but similar vibe
They each stand completely on their own. Start with 1 if you want the whole lore and like 90s PC games. Start with 2 if you want a slightly more modern experience.
I played Half Life first time few years ago, and it has aged really well in my opinnion. I enjoyed it more than Black Mesa. Also I don’t think of Black Mesa as a substitute for hl1, but as a good game you can play after beating og.
Never played any of these before. Do I start with this one or would I need 1?
In terms of storyline, it doesn’t really matter too much.
I still think you should play through the first one. If you need something that feels less 1998, Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half Life and it is very fun.
Imo the best enjoyment to time ratio is:
Black Mesa (the Xen level at the end was redone and extended compared to in HL1 and it’s cool but if it starts to drag just move on)
HL2 (main game)
HL2: EP1 start it but maybe skip and watch a playthrough if you get bored
HL2: EP2
HL Alyx, if you can play it on a decent headset. DO NOT MOD IT TO PLAY IT WITH MOUSE/KB it will be extremely boring since it’s designed for VR
Have fun, there’s simply nothing else like Half-Life games
I disagree. Black Mesa is Black Mesa. It is no Half Life 1. The atmosphere in one is completely lost with Black Mesa. Start with Half Life and play to Alyx. Go back to Mesa for a second way to view 1.
Interesting, I haven’t actually played HL1 but I enjoyed BM a lot, and figured it’d be the better reccomendation for someone just getting into HL.
What parts of the atmosphere do you think BM missed? When I watched videos of HL1 gameplay it seemed that BM did a great job having a graphically updated but similar vibe
I remember liking Opposing Force and Blue Shift too.
If you can play Alyx on a decent headset, you’ll probably want to play Half Life 2 in VR too. The port is amazing.
It is, but sadly the dev has said this latest update is unlikely to ever be ported to the HL2 VR mod
This is the way.
If you start with the second one you won’t know what’s going on and feel like you’ve missed a bunch of important story.
This is how it felt after playing the first one as well. Half Life 2 is almost an unrelated game. The plots of the two barely line up.
They each stand completely on their own. Start with 1 if you want the whole lore and like 90s PC games. Start with 2 if you want a slightly more modern experience.
Start with 1
If you cant play 1 or Black Mesa because of the clunkyness, just watch a story recap and play 2.
The story of HL 1 is like a paragraph long.
60 second summary of 1 and 2
I played Half Life first time few years ago, and it has aged really well in my opinnion. I enjoyed it more than Black Mesa. Also I don’t think of Black Mesa as a substitute for hl1, but as a good game you can play after beating og.
Start with HL2 on normal difficulty. Then do 2E1 and 2E2 on normal difficulty.
Then repeat all of that on hard.
Then you’ll be where I am. Never bothered with 1.
Start with 1, So you can understand what is happening.