BENGALURU: The life cycle of a great game goes somewhat like this. From the hype for its release, to a sudden rush of people playing and talking about it, enemies bond and friends disintegrate over the game, it changes the world for those few hours of gameplay. And then it meets its eventual demise on the virtual world... that is, until the sequel of the game releases. And so it was until Half-Life.
Half-life surprised everyone with an immersive story, when first person shooters at the time were otherwise dominated by Doom-like shooting sequences in strange den-like labyrinthine sets.
Half-life was a welcome relief — like moisturiser on dry skin, and a suppressor against a loud videogame-gun. The comments on Steam (the developer’s platform for games), recognise the legacy that it left on the future of gaming. “Counter Strike first worked on a modded version of Half-life,” says one — and truly so (there’s a long list of Mods built for the game). “20/10,” says another — recognising the 20th anniversary of the first game. It’s been 20 long years, and still the gaming world whispers the name of ‘Gordon Freeman’ — the protagonist of the first HL game. Every gamer is grateful for the entry of aliens into his mundane physicist life. The game redefined the use of the crowbar as a useful weapon, and induced the fear of laboratories to many young gamers.
The fans waited for a Half-life 3, but it looked like a third installment was never to come. It was time then, for fans to step up with a game themselves — and that was ‘Black Mesa’. The final mysterious ‘Xen area’ of the game finally seems ready for release, set in an alien landscape with floating sting rays and giant crab-monsters.
This release is scheduled for 2019, three years after the early-access release of the terrestrial chapters. The entire experience of this new game is to be for about 16 hours. Although Half-Life is incomparable to the photo-realism of the games of today — it was integral in helping create the games we see and play today.