Half-Life Video Game Series (Half-Life)

The action of the games in the series Half-Life takes place in the near future. The main character of the series is Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist employed at the secret research facility Black Mesa, where during one of the failed experiments a resonance cascade is accidentally made. Its effect is to open portals to the world of Xen, inhabited by an aggressive race of aliens who are trying to make their way to Earth. The plot of the first part of the series focuses on the attempt to get out of the research complex, and Gordon's opponents are both aliens and marines, who in order to cover up the case try to get rid of witnesses. In the sequel, events unfold several years later, when humanity has lost the battle against the aliens and has been enslaved. Freeman again has to face the aliens, and the battle arena is the futuristic metropolis of City 17 serving as the enemies' command headquarters. Following the release of Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006) i Two (2007) Valve has taken water in its mouth regarding one of its most popular brands. Rumors about the formation of a sequel circulated the Internet every few years, but the departure in 2017 and 2018 of the series' top writers further cooled the fading expectations of fans. However, after 13 years we got the opportunity to play a spin-off Half Life: Alyx. The game is not a continuation of Gordon Freeman's story, but develops the plot of Alyx Vance, whom we could meet in the 2nd part of the series. The action of the title takes place between the first and second installments of the series. A sinister race of aliens from the world of Xen has conquered the planet, the survivors of humanity are locked in enclaves under the control not only of the alien civilization, but also of Earthlings collaborating with it. Under such conditions, a resistance movement is born, and one of its leading representatives is the title protagonist.

Initially, the games in the series Half-Life used the capabilities of the GoldScr engine, which was a modified version of the Quake Engine. However, a real leap in the quality of visuals was provided only by the use of much more modern Source technology, which was first used in Half-Life 2, and then also in the original game Half-Life (Half-Life: Source). With the debut of the series on VR technology, there was also a need to change the engine. The choice fell on the improved version of Source - Source 2, revealed in 2015, which has already managed to prove itself in such games as Dota 2 (via the patch Reborn), Artifact or Dota Underlords.

One of the interesting facts about the series Half-Life is the silence of the main character. In none of the games Gordon Freeman does not even utter a word, which has become the object of many popular jokes among players.

In 2020, many years of work on a fan project called Black Mesa, whose goal was to recreate the first part of the series. A group of 40 people called Crowbar Collective recreated from scratch the world of the original Half-Life, without using the game's source code.