The Gold Standard for FPS Games | Half-Life (Half-Life Series Retrospective) 

Thanks so much man! I actually did know about the scent AI but completely forgot to talk about it. I might be able to sneak that detail in somewhere later down the line, because I also forgot to mention that scientists can heal you if your health is low enough (which I never opt to use, so it just slipped my mind). The amount of effort placed into creating complex AIs in this game is astonishing.

hi there

"Something died down here" -Barney #427

I should probably quit while I'm ahead, nothing will ever top this dank moment

Thank you so much! Now make a video of your own so I can compliment you

Absolutely, I'm certainly that Halo's developers took at least some inspiration from Half-Life, as have many shooters and other games since its release. I've never actually played any FEAR games myself but it is a series I hear good things about - I might just have to try it out some day.

Thank you very much!

Always enjoyed playing the first halo game when I was younger

I am one of those people who are to young to grow up with Half-Life and I actually wasn't really aware of Valve until one day (a few months after this video) Half-Life Alyx was revealed and while I was not remotely into VR at that point in time, I still found out about this game and was immediately intrigued as at that point (until now) I was/am seriously interested in everything that goes on in the gaming industry, especially game-development and the tech behind it and since the first pictures it was clear to me, that Half-Life Alyx is one of the most impressive technical showcases I have seen in the industry so far (as a pretty young gamer I haven't had these continues breakthroughs around the 2000s) After that I started watching and reading more about Valve and when Black Mesa was released started playing that game and was immediately captured by it. After now reliving all the Half-Life Games (Black Mesa instead of Half-Life as that game is simply to old for somebody like me who still thinks visuals are important in games) and diving very deep into Half-Life Lore, Half-Life has become my favorite Franchise at least in Video Games, maybe even as a whole. At the end of 2020 (at Chrismas) I then treated myself with an Oculus Quest 2 and instantly started playing Half-Life Alyx and it is now in my personal top games of all time and 100% GOTY 2020. So, back to the question about my favorite FPS. Well, it would be obvious that it must be a Half-Life Game, right? Wrong, because when we purely talk about FPS-Games (where of course all other aspects of a game are important but still the FPS-Gameplay is most important) it is in Fact Titanfall 2, another game I didn't find out about when it came out (I was a gamer back then but simply not as invested as I am now) and funnily enough also found out about at the beginning of 2020. Why is it my favorite FPS-Game? Well besides the great campaign which obviously draws many of it's strong elements by looking at games like Half-Life (the developers have said so and have even hidden a secret easter-egg to Half-Life in the game) the most important part is that in my opinion it has the best Gameplay out of any FPS I have ever played (probably even any game I have ever played) and it isn't really about the shooting itself, although that is pretty good too as you would expect from ex COD-Developers. It is obviously all about the traversal and shooting combined, and also that with Titans you then do get a different kind of shooting again that is much more like the standard. It's basically 2 FPS Games running at the same time, just with one being more like a Hero-Shooter with OK Mechanics and the other being a super-fast Movement-Shooter (probably best compared to Quake) with (in my opinion) world-class Gameplay.

Ha, did that mainly as a joke. That meme hasn't died yet, so why not capitalize?

Hey, thanks for watching! It's awesome to hear from a Half-Life speedrunner. I've never ran Half-Life before but I'm always in awe at what the HL speedrun community is able to do. It's something I wish I mentioned in this video, actually - the sheer size of the Goldsrc/Source engine speed community and how they've managed to break so many games over the years. I did know that the We've Got Hostiles skip is possible in Goldsrc, I just focused on the HL:Source method because it's disgustingly easy to do. And I'm a relative newcomer to the series, too; I first played HL2 in 2012 and didn't play HL1 until either 2013 or 2014.

True; I did simplify things in the script, but I'm aware there are different versions of HL:S with varying degrees of glitches.

Thank you!

CloudConnection thank you for the quality content :)

Correct, though my point was that you're intended to defeat them through nontraditional means, or just avoid them. But yes, if you have the ammo you can kill them with your weapons.

True; I do correct this in later videos.

CloudConnection yeah I just started this series but great review I can't wait to watch the rest I'm a sucker for Half Life it is after all my 2nd favorite fps series after Halo. Sucks Halo is awful now and Half Life has been forgotten though I do have hope for Infinite and I do hope Alyx may get Valve into making traditional games once again.

That's an interesting perspective - what makes you say that? Not trying to prove you wrong or anything, just curious.

@@CloudConnection Sure thing. Half Life moved the focus point of FPS games over to story telling from movement, speed, and reflexes. Levels were linear and simple rather than sprawling; puzzles were breaks in the path rather than part of the environment. Enemy encounters in other shooters were about constant movement and prioritization of enemies; projectile paths formed realtime "3d mazes" to solve in real-time as where enemies in Half Life were more a matter of no-lean cover-shooting and ammo prioritization. Last, it doesn't feel like a game, it feels like a student project. Half Life 2 only feels worse since it was literally slap dashed together and disjointed - on an even worse engine. Worst of all, it was the main influence of shooters from that point on - ruining the genre. I'll argue it is the direct father of the CoD-ification of shooters in the next decade and the "story telling" focus of mainstream (aka shitty) gaming. As for a story telling focus, beating it at its own genre, check out System Shock 1. Rebind the controls or use a nod or the new sourceport. I don't like SS2 very much, but it does some similar shit and was a better game. To see an alternate universe where shooters didn't get shitty, check out the mod scene for DooM and Duke Nukem 3D. They have the same design focus as the old games - often with elements from other genres like platforming, survival horror, and "story-telling" - without ruining or diluting the original focus of the genre.

Hmm, fair points. It's interesting that the reasons you listed as to why you don't like Half-Life are some of the reasons why I enjoy it. Maybe we can chalk that up to "different strokes for different folks," but I totally understand that heavy story emphasis and sprawling level design won't appeal to everybody. I'll admit to not being that familiar with System Shock or its sequel - I just haven't gotten around to playing them as of yet. When I do, I'll definitely consider its approach to storytelling. I've heard plenty of people say that they don't like Half-Life, but I've never heard someone say that Half-Life's influence ruined the FPS genre. That's why I was intrigued to hear what you had to say. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I don't agree with everything you've said, but you've given me some stuff to think about as I continue to play through the Half-Life series for these videos.

@@CloudConnection I said that Half Life was linear level design rather than sprawling, but otherwise, thank you for the response.

Ah, my mistake. I even called Half-Life's level design linear in the video - not sure how I messed that up. And you're welcome!