Half-Life is a franchise that developed between the second half of the 90s of the last century and the first five years of the new one, in what It has been the most flagrant case of abandonment of a saga of successes that its creator did not want (or could not) exploit. Now, what is the reason that currently this series starring Gordon Freeman does not have a greater number of cult titles in our santoral? Below we tell you everything.
Revive the PC or keep Half-Life?
Gabe Newell is the brain behind Valve practically since its inception, when its games came through the legendary Sierra label, created in the 80s by the famous Roberta Williams. Those were times when the shooter genre was experiencing its particular boom and the Americans did not want to miss it. His success was quickly rewarded and, as is the norm and custom of the house, they exploited the vein developing all kinds of variants from the same game. They even allowed the community to tweak the title itself to enhance it with mods and other plugins. Don't you know names like Garry's Mod (or Gmod)?
So it was time to think about a Half-Life 2, which hit stores in 2004, and he did it in a unique way that would mark the fate of the PC For the rest: Valve took the opportunity to launch its Steam digital store on the same day it was put on sale. Does it ring a bell? So controversial was the launch that many stores complained because even in the physical format of the game you needed to activate a key online, something never seen in a launch. mainstream until that moment. A whole revolution.
And from there there was silence. Just two more expansions and a thick veil fell on a franchise that was destined to be a benchmark within the shooter scene. Although the truth is that this success, that of the Steam store, is what has saved the PC from remaining a gaming platform today, so in those first moments it must have required all the efforts on the part of the studio, which From that moment on, she put aside her vein as a creator of video games and considered it secondary to spend efforts and financial resources on new projects.
Games ahead of their time
To Valve we not only owe the creation of Steam and, therefore, this transformation of the market from the physical to the digital format in a way that not even the consoles have experienced, but he was ahead of his time with the saga Half-Life. So much so that there are three aspects in which they have hardly any competition when we look at all the titles that make up the series: on the one hand their mechanics, which are original, fresh and completely innovative, with never-before-seen weapons and tools that move objects, modify them or create portals through which we can pass (hence the great Portal with GladOS), as well as the ingenuity to use physics in all of them with surprising realism. In addition to enjoying thanks to your engine Source of a graphic section that still seems current to us today.
Half-Life 2Specifically, it was a true milestone that marked the way for many studies on what the visual narrative of a shooter should be like that is not satisfied with just having extraordinary graphics. The formula for your success too it was based on mechanics and making us think to overcome certain moments story key. Obviously, most of the time we are shooting, but the gamer does not live by bullets alone: ​​we also carry crowbars, nails to hang (literally) the enemies on the walls, etc.
A list of anthology games
Below we leave you the list of the (few) games that Valve came to make of what is to date its best-known saga in history (with the permission of CSGO fans and their Team Fortress, more focused on multiplayer):
Half Life (1998)
The story of the laboratory that accidentally opens a kind of dimensional portal through which strange creatures appear that invade everything laid the first brick in a spectacular saga. The protagonist is Gordon Freeman, a scientist specializing in theoretical physics by MIT who will have to bring order to Black Mesa and control the invasion. A marvel with an extraordinary narrative section and that already offered original gameplay modes with weapons never seen in other titles with a similar theme in those days.
Over the years it saw different versions arrive, some with cooperative game modes (Opposing Force ) or a Blue Shift edition. Although the real leap came in 2004 when, to celebrate the launch of half life 2, Valve developed a kind of remake (that's what they would call it today) with graphics generated with Gabe Newell's Source engine, which came to replace the old GoldSrc, a variant of the mythical Quake Engine. Quite a milestone and an extraordinary facelift for a title that at that time was already considered a classic.
Half Life 2 (2004)
The world is subjugated by an organization called the Alliance and Gordon Freeman, two decades after the events that occurred in Half-Life, wakes up after a hibernation process. The game, working with Valve's own Sourde engine, It is a real wonder that not only improves the visual aspect of the whole, but takes it to a new dimension with extraordinarily elaborate game mechanics.
As we tell you, the key will not only be the confrontations, shots and firefights, but other parts in which we have to use our heads and physics with devices capable of modifying gravity, for example. Of that spirit of the game will be born in 2008 a kind of spin off focused only on solving puzzles, as it is Portal, although it will not be until 2011 when this idea reaches its zenith thanks to Portal 2 and that corrosive humor from GladOS, which have made this universe one of the best in the history of video games.
Half-Life 2 Episode One (2006)
With the arrival of the first expansion of hal life 2, we all rubbed our hands because we could not only see what happened to Gordon Freeman and his companion Alyx Vance once the second game was over, at the gates of the Citadel 17 of the Alliance, but also Valve kept experimenting with new mechanics and, above all, improving its extraordinary Source graphics engine. This title leaves us with some of the most beautiful settings seen in the saga and left things unfinished for a new installment that would arrive... just a year later.
Half-Life 2 Episode Two (2007)
Indeed, the fact that Valve only waited a year to delight us with the second episode gave us a glimpse that we were going to have Half-Life for a while but it was not like that. This second episode is, to this day, the last we saw of the franchise since the rumored Half Life Episode 3 it never came to market. That will remain on Valve's conscience, not having continued the saga on a regular basis, even if it was in the hands of an external study that Gabe Newell controlled. But no, with Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance fleeing for a new rebel haven, the Americans cut off any possibility of return, which killed (figuratively) millions of fans of the series around the world who were left with a span of noses.
Half-Life Alyx (2020)
After an abandonment of 13 years, Valve decided to take out of the drawer Half-Life all with try to give your steam VR a bigger boost. It happened right at the gates of the pandemic in the West, in March 2020 when Half Life Alyx It was put up for sale to narrate events that occurred between the first two games. What's more, this is the first time that Alyx Vance is the character we control, accompanied by her father Eli hers as they fight against the planetary occupation of the Alliance. This title showed the world the Source 2 graphics engine and is compatible with viewers that can be used within SteamVR. A unique opportunity to relive a Half-Life updated.
As we tell you, Half-Life It is one of the best shooter sagas in all of history but, at the same time, one of the most underutilized as well. The blame? It is surely due to a combination of circumstances and a company that found itself at the crossroads of having to choose between giving up its soul as a developer of (superb) video games, or maintaining a business that was going to mark the history of PC gaming during the following decades. What would you have done?