More than 20 years have passed since the release of Half-Life 2, and the game series still confidently holds its place on the Olympus of the gaming industry. After so many years, fans still believe that Half-Life 3 will be released. Hope has been ignited even more after statements from several trusted insiders: Half-Life 3 will be announced before the end of 2025! To understand the phenomenon of "hopium" regarding the third part of Half-Life, we decided to remind everyone why gamers dream of a continuation of "Half-Life" today, December 3rd, on the 3rd day of the week!
In this article, you will find memories of Valve games: what revolution they made for their time, how they captivated not only with gameplay but also with characters. Grab a snack – the material will be extensive!
Half-Life
The game begins in a way that no other shooter could afford – allowing you to familiarize yourself with the environment, rather than throwing you straight into the heat of battle. The player is placed in a minecart, and for what seems like an eternity, they watch the interior of the "Black Mesa" research base "rushing by." Such a display of muscle by the developers skillfully made you appreciate the scale of the theater of operations where further events would take place.
The presentation of the story also became revolutionary. Before this, shooters were limited to a summary or a short video, and then sent you off to shoot virtual opponents. Half-Life allowed you to form your own opinion through the environment – listening to military radio communications, reading their inscriptions on the walls, or observing the growing alien infection on the territory of "Black Mesa" as you progressed.
The emphasis on the fact that the main character is a silent protagonist was also cleverly done – all conversations are structured in such a way that the player does not feel uncomfortable that their character is silent during the explanation of the next task. This was done so skillfully that for a long time in games, developers made protagonists silent – imitating Gordon Freeman and the masterpiece from Valve, even when it was out of place.
The hero himself turned out to be revolutionary for the genre. Before Half-Life, the main characters were machines for destroying all living things. These included Duke Nukem, Caleb from Blood, Doomguy. But this time, the player took on the role of a silent theoretical physicist who solved problems with the help of ingenuity, skills, and a massive arsenal of weapons. Many found it strange that instead of the usual muscular man, they were given a weakling in glasses. But the "weakling" passed the test of time, and, without saying a word, Gordon Freeman ended up among the most recognizable game characters — and holds a leading position to this day.
The plot constantly raises the degree of epicness. The deceptive calm of the first chapter ends when a catastrophe occurs and aggressive aliens fill "Black Mesa." Gordon goes for help to the surface and stumbles upon soldiers who arrived at the alarm signal from the base. In other games, the military would help, but here they are ordered to get rid of witnesses to the failed experiment, which is why you have to resort to defense with lethal (for soldiers) consequences. Then aliens come onto the scene, who begin to fight not only with Freeman but also with other people. And somewhere between these events, scientists and guards wander, involuntarily becoming victims of the incident.
In the midst of this chaos, the mysterious G-Man lurks – this character with a suitcase could be seen in different places throughout the entire playthrough. He watched Gordon and his actions and considered him extremely interesting — his skills would be useful to G-Man's "employers," and therefore the "bureaucrat with a briefcase" offers Freeman a deal: either he agrees to a new contract, or he dies. All this happens after the battle with the final giant boss Nihilanth, who controls the aliens, after which Gordon is marinated until the next part by G-Man's "employers" in stasis.
With each new playthrough, you notice more and more details: enemies fighting among themselves; a stealth system; monsters devouring corpses. If you seriously injure vortigaunts or kill their overseers, they stop fighting. You learn that enemies can sleep and also react to sound and smell. The madmen from Valve endowed both cockroaches running away from the light and soldiers attacking the main character with considerable intelligence.
Half-Life has another feature that only the most persistent players can discover — Valve has so thoroughly thought out or not thought out the game design of the locations that a little "cheating" makes the project even more interesting. After some time, gamers began to share new ways to navigate the game: move through levels at high speed thanks to "bunny hopping"; ignore the existence of elevators and find ways to new levels themselves; make cuts using wall and remote mines; save those scientists who could not be saved by honest means at all — and thereby break the logic of the scripts. All this has still not been fixed, but not because Valve doesn't care about their games, but because it's fun. And fun was the main component that Gabe Newell personally wanted to see in Half-Life.
Even the arsenal of weapons presented in Half-Life allows you to have fun with imagination and enthusiasm throughout the entire playthrough:
- The Glock 17 pistol allows you to understand that now you can shoot at parts of the enemy's body, and not in their direction (as it was in DOOM or Blood) — and the corpses will react to each hit. And how it all sounds!
- The shotgun is a typical workhorse for shooters of those years. If it weren't for the ability to make a double shot, it wouldn't stand out from the rest at all — but such a touch changes a lot;
- The situation with the MP5 is special — it would just be a good submachine gun if it weren't for the underbarrel grenade launcher. Blowing up a crowd with one accurately fired grenade is a satisfying feeling to the extreme! However, the MP5 gives a special charm to the crosshair, which I simply fell in love with — no one had made such crosshairs before Half-Life;
- The revolver is one of the most powerful guns in the game, for which there is not much ammo. Accurate, deadly, and therefore — according to tradition, I kept it until the very end of the playthrough;
- The situation with explosives is different. You remember its existence when you need to distract the tentacles (giant aliens, not loyal companions of Japanese cartoons), deal with snipers, or blow up two soldiers standing back to Gordon — those who have passed the game will immediately remember this moment. Otherwise — you either need to specifically set traps using wall mines, or think about how to drive all the soldiers into one crowd to blow them up. Red bugs called snarks are more memorable, which you use as live grenades — these little ones bite enemies and explode after contact with them;
- Valve is trying its best to make players believe that the crowbar is the symbol of the game. But this is not so, because most of the game you use it as a box opener. The real symbol is the tau cannon! This prototype deals high damage, and a charged shot is capable of shooting down helicopters. And it also opens up opportunities for parkour thanks to its recoil — it is so strong that in the world of Xen you can fly between islands thanks to it;
- The rocket launcher is good in itself. But you remember it thanks to the ability to aim rockets at the target using the sight — players had not seen this before Half-Life!
Half-Life: Opposing Force
This time, the player will witness the same incident, but as Adrian Shephard – a soldier from HECU, who enthusiastically shot scientists at "Black Mesa." But Shephard did not receive an order to eliminate witnesses, which made him much more heroic than his zealous comrades. The player will not be prevented from shooting the "eggheads" and guards encountered along the way, but such behavior will go against the narrative. Adrian, like Gordon, is trying to figure out what is happening in "Black Mesa" and get out of this hell.
Unlike the original, Opposing Force is designed for a more aggressive style of play. Periodically, combat comrades join Shephard, who will support with fire, open the door, and heal. The main difference is the appearance of new enemies in the face of Race X — fortunately, non-canonical.
In films, a group of trained specialists would deal with such a catastrophe. Or attention was paid to a lone hero who managed to survive and overcome. In Half-Life, all this was done by several heroes at once: employees of "Black Mesa," including Gordon Freeman; soldiers of HECU and Shephard; "black operatives," among whom are the best hired killers with their own separate tasks; two independent groups of aliens — invaders from Xen and Race X. And most importantly — all these factions did everything possible to destroy each other! As in the original Half-Life, the war between them takes place right before the player's eyes.
The protagonist's arsenal has undergone changes:
- The knife is a less fashionable version of the crowbar. Picking up a more convenient wrench finally turns it into a box opener;
- Sniper rifle: a more useful alternative to the crossbow with a tranquilizer from the original Half-Life;
- Machine gun: powerful, simple, and pleasant to use;
- Spore launcher: an alien hesotsan that needs to be fed with ammo. You will remember it for its cute design;
- Displacer: it can be aimed at an unwanted enemy and teleported far away. Or you can try your luck and teleport yourself. Where? Well... It's better to find out for yourself here;
- Shock roach — you forget about it as quickly as about the manual hive. Nothing compared to the cute snarks;
- But what is more interesting — Shephard managed to stick his hand into a barnacle! An alien that grabs prey with a long tongue. And survive! And not just stick it in the mouth, but in... Well, in another hole! Thanks to Adrian's courage, one of the first grappling hooks in the history of video games appeared in Opposing Force!
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Compared to the original and Opposing Force – the playthrough of Blue Shift takes very little time. However, the addition can deliver a unique kind of pleasure.
In the add-on, you need to play as Barney Calhoun, who is an ordinary guard at "Black Mesa." At the beginning, he, like all guards, is treated as a faceless service personnel. However, after the disaster, the opinion of the scientists changed. The former servant and object of ridicule turned into the only hope for salvation. When Barney led the scientists to the exit from the research base, they began to call him "Mr. Calhoun," which emphasized the importance of the player's achievements.
Although the arsenal was seriously cut, and G-Man does not even bother to marinate the main character, as he did with Freeman and Shephard before — Blue Shift is an excellent example of how to show the same event from different points of view.
Half-Life: Decay
A cooperative game about two employees of "Black Mesa," who with their actions paved the way for Gordon Freeman to victory. Players had to cope with tasks that require team efforts — and all this in split-screen mode.
The events of Half-Life: Decay unfold in parallel with the original game, where you control doctors Gina Cross and Colette Green, who under the guidance of Dr. Keller are trying to eliminate the consequences of the disaster in "Black Mesa." It was these heroines who delivered the test sample of the crystal that caused the cascade resonance, and after the incident, they were the first to accompany Dr. Rosenberg to the surface to call the military, not yet knowing about their order to clean up the complex. During the game, Gina and Colette not only fight off aliens and HECU soldiers, but also perform a critical task — they set up equipment to launch a satellite, which Gordon Freeman later activates, and in the final they successfully stabilize the spatial rift using a shifting beacon, preventing the complete absorption of the Earth by the world of Xen.
Half-Life: Decay turned out to be too innovative for its time. And it was also released exclusively on PlayStation 2 — this part never made it to Steam, to this day. Few people know about this game, and even fewer people have played it. But if it had been released during Portal 2, when Valve set a new standard for cooperative games — the result would have been completely different.
Black Mesa
Well, since we are still talking about the events of the first Half-Life, we cannot fail to mention its fan remake, which Valve itself recognized as canonical! This is a full-fledged new game in which many aspects of everyone's favorite Half-Life 1 have been reworked for the better, but the plot, characters, and level design have remained the same.
But most importantly, the developers heartily tweaked the difficulty — now Gordon Freeman takes damage even in those clashes where he would never have received it in the original. Even rare battles at the beginning of the story have turned into a battle not for life, but for death. Which perfectly complements the atmosphere of what is happening — our doctor of physics is not a soldier and not a trained killer, but an ordinary worker who has fallen into circumstances orchestrated by higher powers.
The arsenal has also been reworked. You can no longer use mines as a ladder; shoot down a helicopter with a tau cannon; kill a gargantua (biological alien tank) with explosives. There is less fun, as they say: "No, Gordon. Your arsenal could always only be used for its intended purpose. You have lost your mind, you cannot jump on mines like on ledges!"
However, Black Mesa is still a successful example of an ideal remake that did not break or rewrite the main events, allowed you to relive your favorite story again and experience new, incomparable emotions from it. Although not always positive for those who for decades "mocked" Half-Life as best they could, looking for new ways to have fun.
Half-Life 2
According to the plot, another faction of aliens, called the Alliance, took advantage of the incident in "Black Mesa." In just 7 hours after the invasion, the invaders enslaved the Earth and turned people's lives into hell. Reproduction was prohibited, and the desire to prolong the family was reduced by a special suppression field. Medicines were added to food, which broke people's will to resist. By the time the second part began, the Alliance had been actively pumping resources from the Earth and sending them to their worlds for 20 years. The population had to exist in conditions of constant supervision and intimidation, and some even resigned themselves to such a fate.
The game begins with Gordon Freeman being brought to his senses by G-Man in this terrible new world — in the capital of the Alliance, in City 17. Thanks to old acquaintances — Barry Calhoun, Isaac Kleiner, and Eli Vance from the first part — the hero manages to contact the Resistance, which helped launch the process of liberating the Earth from the invaders. A surprise was the appearance of vortigaunts among the resistance fighters — in the first part, they were cowardly aliens under the heel of Nihilanth, who attacked Gordon with lightning, and now they have become one with people.
The playthrough of the second part provided a new experience. In the first part, it was necessary to move along the uncomfortable corridors of "Black Mesa," which were familiar to Gordon Freeman. Now the world belongs to alien invaders. Throughout Half-Life 2, you often have to escape from them in open spaces, which involuntarily led some to attacks of agoraphobia.
In fact, there turned out to be so much space that only experienced players who used bunny hopping or other ways to speed up due to the features of the engine moved around them on their own two feet. The rest, including me, had to use transport, the segments with which turned into epic chases and shootouts — both a hovercraft and a buggy assembled from pieces of various garbage were available. On the water, Gordon was pursued by a combine helicopter of the Alliance, and on the ground – hatched antlions — giant alien insects that react to vibrations and pheromones.
And the story of Half-Life 2 can be praised for the fact that the screenwriters did not resort to the hackneyed cliché. Gordon Freeman could be blamed for all the troubles — for the fact that he caused the initial invasion or for working for G-Man. And the player, in the guise of a theoretical physicist, would have to prove to everyone that only boiled eggs are cooler than him. But instead, the emphasis was placed on the merits, thanks to which the members of the Resistance are ready to follow the doctor of science even to the next world. For the same reason, the enemies of humanity take his appearance with all seriousness, allocate many platoons for his elimination and even a whole helicopter. They know that if Gordon gets to them — his crowbar will break everything that they have been building on Earth for so long.
The second "Half-Life" struck with a picture. At the first glance at the graphics and animation of the characters, players were overwhelmed with feelings — the euphoria from the high quality of graphics and relatively modest requirements for computer power was incomparable in those days. At the moment when I saw Half-Life 2 on release, I realized — the future of the gaming industry has arrived.
This very "future" was reflected even in the fact that players faced an unprecedented problem — it was called Steam. After installation, the game required an Internet connection, registration in some "gray" application, a long download of some updates... It seems that it is not worth explaining that not everyone at that time possessed such a luxury as a stable, and most importantly, fast Internet! I had to download the released "patches" at night and make sure that the connection was stable. Otherwise, everything had to be started all over again.
Yes, the problem was solved. By acquiring... A less licensed version on a collapse or basement with the inscription "CD/DVD/MOVIES/MUSIC/GAMES." However, most of these discs were famous for a bug that stopped the work of all characters — the scripts simply refused to work. In my case, any save loading became the cause of the bug. As I remember now, Half-Life 2 had to be completed in one go, without dying!
The translation into Russian deserves a separate mention. I had a problem when passing through the terrible city of Ravenholm, where the only resident was the insane Father Grigory. In the original, Father Grigory said: "Tread lightly, for this is hallowed ground," which means "Walk carefully on sacred ground." However, the phrase was translated as "Walk calmly, for this land is sacred."
"Now this nightmare will finally end and you can relax!", I thought. At the same second, a group of fast zombies tried to bite off Gordon's Freeman from me. Truly terrifying memories!
A few years later, I acquired a license, and the localization there turned out to be much worse — the Russian translation of Half-Life 2 is generally a separate topic for conversation. There were huge pauses between the lines, apparently due to the peculiar work of the Source engine, and the acting turned out to be much worse.
But what are we all about the bad! The new arsenal is significantly different from analogues from other shooters and even from the first games in the series.
Weapons were issued in such a way that players maximally associated it with a certain segment of the game. When you look at the pistol and submachine gun, you remember the first shootouts with the civil defense of the Earth; the shotgun makes you think about Ravenholm and shooting zombies; the pulse rifle reminds you of the first meeting with combines and the beach. The revolver shoots accurately and painfully, but I again kept the cartridges for it until the very end.
The gravity gun stands apart, which picks up objects and launches them at enemies at great speed. This is another game of muscles, and an attempt to demonstrate the principle of operation of the physics of the Source engine. In fact, a developer tool that was turned into a type of weapon inside the universe, just because... It's fun! The creators did everything possible to make the player start using the gravity gun in Ravenholm – reducing the number of collectible ammunition and increasing the number of environmental objects, such as saws, red barrels, or gas cylinders. However, at one time, I stubbornly ignored it because of... Fear. After all, while you pick up an object, while you aim and launch it — a zombie can come up and attack. And it was insanely scary — the picture then struck the imagination more than any cinematic game of 2025.
And only the achievement issued for passing Ravenholm with one gravity gun made me change my mind about it — the gravity gun is one of the best weapons in the gaming industry!
The crowbar of Gordon Freeman is still considered the symbol of Half-Life among fans, but for me it was again in the outsiders. Because there is nothing better than shooting with hot rebar that nails enemies to surfaces! Nothing conveys the hatred of the resistance to alien invaders like a crossbow. And the whole meaning of Half-Life 2 is the struggle for the freedom of mankind against the invaders. And the combines nailed to the walls, all the way to Gordon Freeman to the Citadel in the center of City 17 — an excellent demonstration of the relationship between the Alliance and people!
Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Episode 2
Two additions to the second part, which position themselves as separate small games in the universe. The first episode does not stand out for its special length or saturation, however, as in the case of Blue Shift, it has its advantages. Gordon Freeman was allowed to pass it completely in the company of the charming Alyx Vance, Eli's daughter, and strengthen his connection with her. And that's worth a lot!
In Half-Life 2: Episode One, the story of Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance continues immediately after the explosion in the Citadel, from where they are rescued by vortigaunts. However, the heroes are forced to return to the unstable Citadel to slow down its destruction and give the residents of City 17 time to evacuate. After a successful escape from the city by train, at the beginning of Episode Two they crash and continue their journey to the White Grove rebel base.
Their main goal is to deliver the data stolen from the Alliance, which will help close the superportal forming over the ruins of City 17. After a difficult journey, during which Alyx receives a serious wound, they reach the base and help launch a rocket that neutralizes the portal.
And during the playthrough, the developers perfectly showed that all the efforts of Gordon and the members of the Resistance up to this point have borne fruit — the Alliance enters into the last battle with you, gathering the remnants of its forces for a suicidal attack. And at this moment you realize — you managed to harm this ruthless alien machine. All that remains now is to finish it off.
However, the second episode is famous not for its happy ending — it ends on a tragic note and the death of one of the key characters. It is also because it was on it that the whole story of Half-Life was cut short, which gave rise to the cult of the third part! Well, almost on it.
Half-Life: Alyx
One of the most important moments in Half-Life 2 is the first meeting with Alyx Vance, when she saved Gordon from a raid by the civil defense.
Alyx can be considered a reference strong female character. Her smile became the first bright memory in the gloomy City 17. During the playthrough, she showed herself to be a skilled fighter and a useful companion. She alleviates gloomy moments with her jokes, and when she is scared – she is not afraid to show weakness. Therefore, when Gordon saves Alyx, her gratitude is so pleasant — it comes from a strong person who says "thank you" as an equal.
All these qualities made her more than a worthy candidate for the role of protagonist in the new game. And Valve would not be Valve without a new breakthrough – Half-Life: Alyx set the bar for quality in the field of virtual reality. This allowed players to fully immerse themselves in the role of the heroine. With her hands, they shot combines in City 17 5 years before the events of Half-Life 2. The goal of the game was to save her kidnapped father and help set up a foothold for the return of Gordon Freeman — the legendary hero from the past, with whom the girl had not yet had time to get acquainted.
As in the case of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 – Half-Life: Alyx ends on a cool plot twist, when everyone's favorite heroine is in danger. But this game is important because, having been released after 12.5 years, it rewrote the ending of the second episode. The girl, who lost her own father at the end of the second episode, decides to conclude a contract with G-Man: he prevents this event, but Alyx becomes his new employee. After all, Dr. Freeman turned out to be unreliable, and the "employers" of the bureaucrat with a briefcase do not tolerate disobedience.
Half-Life 3?
I want to believe that I managed to convey that bit of emotion and nostalgia that is inherent in the Half-Life series.
Now you understand that the third part is so eagerly awaited not only because of the continuation of the story and the development of the universe. Each part of Half-Life stood out with something new for the industry: excellent graphics and at the same time excellent optimization even on weak systems; a breakthrough story for its time, where the main character was part of the world, and not just a killing machine; and because it was just... Fun to play any part of the series.
Actively circulating rumors about the announcement of Half-Life 3 only add fuel to the smoldering coals of hope that flicker in the hearts of fans — perhaps we will remember 2025 not only for the abundance of masterpiece games. But also as the year when a game from Valve was announced, in the name of which the number 3 appears?
Such a chance can never be ruled out... Don't you think so, Mr. Freeman?
