Half-Life (Series)

Half-Life: First-Person Shooter Series

Half-Life is a seminal series of first-person shooter video games developed by Valve Corporation, following Gordon Freeman as he battles alien threats and interdimensional rifts at Black Mesa research facility.

What is Half-Life (Series)?

The Half-Life series has been highly influential in the first-person shooter genre since the release of the original Half-Life in 1998. Set at the Black Mesa Research Facility, the original Half-Life introduced innovative storytelling, puzzles, and enemy AI to the FPS format. Players control Gordon Freeman, a physicist involved in an accident that opens a dimensional rift and allows alien creatures to attack the facility.

Half-Life 2, released in 2004, moved the setting to the dystopian City 17 under control of the alien Combine empire. With stunning graphics powered by Valve's Source engine, Half-Life 2 was critically acclaimed for its interactive environments, physics-based puzzles, compelling characters like Alyx Vance, and the gravity gun weapon that allowed new types of gameplay. Two episodic sequels continued the story prior to the upcoming VR-exclusive Half-Life: Alyx in 2020.

The Half-Life series pioneered storytelling in FPS games and showed how the genre could be about more than just shooting. Its puzzles, worldbuilding, graphics, AI, and expansion into VR with Half-Life: Alyx have made it one of gaming's most groundbreaking and influential franchises.

Half-Life (Series) Features

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