I have just finished the Half-Life series. Prompted by the 20th anniversary of HL2, I decided to play HL1 (1997), then HL2 (2004), and both episodes. I’m currently playing through Black Mesa and it’s very enjoyable so far, it’s like they took everything from HL1 and removed the annoying parts, I’m excited to see what more changes they decided to make, and what other references are present.
HL1 aged badly imo, but I recognize the technical achievement that it was at the time it was released. It’s full of good ideas, and I’m amazed by what they’ve accomplished.
HL2 didn’t feel like a it has a technical leap as big as its predecessor, but the gameplay ideas in there feel more modern than most game 20 years later. The game has some long stretches that were a bit annoying but the whole journey felt worth it. During the last chapter where you get the upgraded gravity gun, I started seeing the seeds of Portal games, more so in Episode 1, it was like I suddenly understood Valve as game devs and their philosophy. Episode 2 was the most fun I had and despite being short it felt like a full fledged campaign.
Alyx was fun to watch on youtube 🤡
I’m really happy that I completed the games and can put them down (compared to grinding endlessly in live service games), I’m really glad that I now understand why the series is praised, why people are aching for the third Episode, why Valve backed themselves into a corner because of their technical ambitions.
But now, I want more of this, more of those one of a kind experiences that push the genre forward. More gameplay ideas. I’ll probably replay the Portal games, but what other games would you recommend?
Some times, Half Life reminded me of more modern immersive sims I played before (Dishonored, Prey, I’ll probably go back to them at some point), maybe Deux Ex, System Shock should be on my list?
FYI, there’s an No-VR mod for Alyx in case you want to play it, and lack of a headset is what’s stopping you.
- Mirror’s Edge: wholly unique, meh story but fun gameplay. More accessible than Kreedzmod but similar vibe of first person platforming and emphasis on ‘flow’ like you’d perform irl in parkour. Get it on sale, under $10/€10 it’s worth it
- Knights of the Old Republic: D20 based RPG set in pre-BBY Star Wars universe. Excellent story and characterization, great gameplay and progression - I’ve replayed it at least six times. If you like Mass Effect at all you should enjoy this. The sequel is worthy but not the same gem that moved the genre, but a worthy title
- Deus Ex 1: Unmissable. Accept the inventory management jank, it’s a product of its time. Absolutely worth buying
- Fallout 1 (and 2): Revolutionized the top down RPGs of the time, but will feel dated in retrospect. Make sure you save manually and make choices carefully, you can dead-end your play through or loose hours of progress because there’s no auto save
- STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl: Diceroll on this title, you’ll either hate it or love it if you enjoyed Fallout 3, 4, NV, etc. Great mood and atmosphere, solid progression once you get out of the starter areas, and understand the monster’s behavior. Dont you dare join Duty tho
- Freespace 2: Personal recommendation but nieche. “Flight sim space combat” is too simplistic yet accurate, but has excellent gameplay and story tone. Technically Descent 1 & 2 were the revolutionary games, but those have zero plot beyond arcade shooter ‘kill aliens for highscore’. Went open source years ago, and has a dedicated mod team keeping it alive and adding features.
- Command and Conquer Red Alert: The daddy of almost all RTS games, but you’ll have more fun with Red Alert 2 imo. Story is meh, but if you go online be ready to get smurfed hard by veterans.
Golden eye 007 for the N64 was pretty revolutionary. As was perfect dark and perfect dark 0, if you don’t mind going back to half-life 1 times those are worth a playthrough.
I relatively recently tried to replay Goldeneye. It was shocking—controller and FPS mechanics have evolved so much since then it was honestly not fun to play. While it was breakthrough tech at the time it just did not age well.
So many hours of fun into that game though; I’ll never not hold a special place in my heart for it even if it’s unplayable nostalgia now.
FPS keyboard+mouse shooters of that era have aged much better. I can still play Marathon (+2 + Infinity) (Bungie’s precursors to Halo) and have an enjoyable gaming session.
PD was the first fps game I remember that had bots so that you could play by yourself.
Perfect dark was my JAM back in the day.
I still have my original cartridge, but unfortunately my n64 is either in a box in someone’s basement, or a landfill, as the friend I let borrow it (and my star wars games) left it at a friend’s house and the friend moved states.
PD was the first video game my sister and I played together. We never managed to finish it when we were young.
Half Life 3 should be out any day now.
I would suggest Bioshock 1 and 2.
Bioshock: Infinite is verry meh, and hops that it’s meh gameplay will be overlooked due to it’s story, but to me the story was just annoyingly confusing.
But the soundtrack is 🤌
I don’t remember much about the Bioshock: Infinite soundtrack, apart from that it had a cool barbershop performance
It’s mostly covers of pop songs from the last 50-60 years in a bunch of different styles. The stand outs for me are Fortunate Son, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Everybody Wants To Rule The World.
