Half-Life 1998

About

Half-Life came out on November 19, 1998 for PC, then for Linux and Mac on February 14, 2013. On Steam, 97% of 118,300 player reviews are positive (Overwhelmingly Positive). 1,033 people are playing it on Steam right now, with a peak of 1,258 in the last 30 days. It is Verified on Steam Deck. The main story takes about 7 hours, doing everything about 19 hours.

Half-Life is a 1998 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Studios for Windows. It was Valve's debut product and the first game in the Half-Life series. The player assumes the role of Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who must escape from the Black Mesa Research Facility after it is overrun by aliens following a disastrous scientific experiment. Its gameplay consists of diverse combat, exploration and puzzles.

Story

Dr. Gordon Freeman arrives late for work at 8:47 am in the Black Mesa Research Facility, using the advanced Black Mesa tram system that leads through the facility. He arrives at the Anomalous Materials Lab, his work place, and he is informed by the security officer that the scientists have a special experiment today, so he goes to the locker room and puts on the hazard suit. He goes to the lab's lower levels, and arrives at the Anti-Mass Chamber, where he is instructed that the specimen to be used that day is the rarest and also the most unstable specimen. He is tasked with pushing the specimen into the scanning beam of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer for analysis. However as soon as he pushes it, it explodes, and creates a sudden catastrophe called a "resonance cascade", opening a portal between Earth and a dimension called Xen. Freeman is apparently teleported to an alien planet and catches glimpses of various alien lifeforms, including a circle of Vortigaunts, shortly before blacking out.

What is happening now

Half-Life remains a foundational first-person shooter that blends combat, environmental puzzles, and narrative-driven adventure across its sci-fi setting. Originally released in 1998, the game has maintained a presence in gaming culture and modding communities for over two decades. Recently, a developer has undertaken a native port of Half-Life to PlayStation 1, framing the project as neither an emulator nor a demake. The creator has reached out to Valve regarding the effort, stating plans to release the project publicly if no response arrives within a month. This represents an unconventional effort to bring the classic title to hardware from its original era, though the outcome remains dependent on Valve's position on the initiative.