History of Half-Life (1998 - 2020)

crowbars headcrabs Black Mesa the g-man even if you're a casual gamer you've probably heard these terms used together before if not because of the ground breaking experiences that are a part of but because of the years of speculation regarding the experiences that have yet to come so for today's video in celebration of the upcoming release of half-life Alex I want to share with you the complete history of one of gaming's most influential series of all time half-life [Music] half-life is a series of first-person video games developed by valve software they Center primarily around a man named Gordon Freeman whose PhD in theoretical physics and unusual proficiency with a crowbar make him the ideal candidate for fighting back against a seemingly unstoppable alien invasion the series has influenced countless shooter games with its uniquely narrative-driven experience and is directly responsible for valves of rise in popularity throughout the 2000s resulting in the creation of several successful spin-off franchises along with the Steam desktop client that is mostly defined PC gaming for the past decade so what exactly about this first-person shooter game has earned it its legendary status among the industry and why has it taken valve 13 years to finally release a new entry to help break it all down let's take it all the way back to the creation of valve itself in 1996 two software developers Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington left their jobs at Microsoft to form their own private game development studio called valve software the pair were inspired heavily by the success of ed software's quake and were convinced that they could make an even more narrative focused shooter experience this was of course not a common goal of game designers in the mid-90s and it proved to be an especially risky investment especially considering the commercial shortcomings of games like System Shock but valve didn't shy away from the idea and hired writer Marc Laidlaw to construct the game's plot Laidlaw inspired heavily by Stephen King's the mist and an old 1960s science fiction show pieced together ideas for a game set in a secret government facility under siege by bizarre otherworldly creatures but rather than just have the player run through each stage guns blazing valve wanted to have the player feel connected with the world with friendly companions that would communicate with the player directly and provide meaningful context for the action to help make this world a reality valve acquired a license to use the quake engine and then made several tweaks to it in order to allow for advanced artificial intelligence according to gabe newell the changes made were substantial leaving barely any of the original quake code intact and the engine would later be referred to as gold source in order to differentiate itself from future iterations of Valve's primary game engine as development continued into 1997 the project ran into some major roadblocks the first was the search for a publisher to help distribute the game with games like doom and quake dominating the scene it was difficult to convince anyone that a shooter with any form of dialogue would be received well by audiences Sierra entertainment having previously missed out on an opportunity to publish doom were eager to jump on board and the game was set to release in September of the same year but as the team near the deadline many felt that the game simply wasn't fun to play the levels were dull and lacked any sort of distinct flow and the artificial intelligence failed to live up to expectations recognizing that the game simply wouldn't be worth releasing in its weak state valve made a costly decision and delayed the game by an entire year they then took a small group of individuals from each department and had them essentially build one big super level that contained all of the coolest moments and mechanics built so far this approach proved to be extremely helpful allowing each section lead to have a benchmark from what made a level interesting and fun to play the studio then formed something that valve referred to as a cabal that would meet four times a week as a sort of brainstorming session to bounce ideas off each other this changed the atmosphere in the studio dramatically allowing for more creative expression and unique ideas to come forth something that would prove to be a critical component in the developer success by 1998 the team had a solid direction moving forward with things like environment being given an extra amount of attention to help differentiate itself from the sea of other shooters valve showed off their project at the Electronic Entertainment Expo to an overwhelmingly positive response the game was looking good with only a few months left before release but then valve ran into another devastating roadblock with a critical technical error nearly wiping out all of their work thankfully with only two months to spare they were able to scrounge together fragments of the code from everyone's computer in the office essentially piecing the project back together and in November of 1998 valve finally unleashed half-life and changed the gaming scene forever in the original half-life players assume the role of gordon freeman a renowned physicist who was given a job at a top-secret government research site called black mesa black mesa is a massive underground facility filled with the top minds all working on several highly confidential projects one day as freeman is using his advanced degree to press buttons and push carts around something goes terribly wrong resulting in what the scientists refer to as a resonance cascade opening portals between earth and an alien dimension called Xen interdimensional monsters like headcrabs and vortigaunts then begin attacking the Black Mesa staff forcing Gordon to spring into action beating everything down with his trusty crowbar but as Gordon begins to make his way topside it becomes clear that the government intends to cover up the incident and instructs military forces to begin cleansing the site adding an interesting twist to the narrative throughout the players journey they're also followed by a mysterious seemingly I'm the present man in a blue suit commonly referred to as the g-man whose identity and purpose in the narrative still remains a mystery to this day hoplites story may seem basic and cliche by today's standards but in 1998 it was basically unheard of to have any sort of meaningful connection with the world or its characters in a shooter game other games like System Shock had done it before but not quite to this degree characters will actually recognize the player shouting at Gordon's name and bringing up casual conversation to help expand on the backstory in some instances characters can be recruited to follow the player around either assisting with a locked door or even helping in combat the AI is also responsible for helping to explain the game rules with scripted sequences of AI being killed by new threats giving players a hint on how to avoid meeting the same fate [Music] these techniques coupled with the excellent level layouts help to make Black Mesa feel like a genuinely real place the locals what players explore basic amenities like offices labs and rest areas along with things like the electric transit system waste management area and the bordering cliff sides all these story elements and environments combine to make half-light a remarkably immersive experience but of course that's only half of the equation as halflife and its core is still a first-person shooter after a lengthy narrative sequence sets the stage for the action players are thrown into a gauntlet of increasingly more challenging encounters with enemies involving quick strafing maneuvers and as much firepower as possible like most shooters pairs are slowly introduced to new weapons throughout the game starting with basic firearms like a pistol shotgun and an mp5 and eventually being equipped with more powerful armaments like the rocket launcher Gauss gun and the experimental gluon gun the players are snow is riped with variety each offering their own unique benefits for players to take advantage of depending on the situation to go along with these weapons or a diverse selection of enemies both human and alien players start off fighting weaker enemies like the iconic headcrabs and their subsequent zombie hosts but will soon be met with more powerful adversaries like intelligent government commandos assassins alien grunts and the towering guards half-white also mixes up the gameplay loop by incorporating some white puzzle solving and platforming sequences these are arguably not the game's strongest assets especially the late Zen based stages but they succeed in mixing up the monotony of shooting alien baddies for hours on end once players complete the game's single-player experience they can also jump online into the hectic 32 player competitive deathmatch complete with a set of character models to choose from and unique maps based around the Black Mesa facility overall half-light greatly exceeded Valve's expectations with sales more than doubling their initial estimates in a cheap high critical acclaim across the gaming scene with sites like IGN calling it the definitive singleplayer FPS game audiences everywhere embraced the game's deeply immersive environments and a part of the game for trying to do something different with non-stop shooting galleries being mixed with more thoughtful world building and puzzle solving half life help to put valve on the map as a serious contender in the industry and has been the source of inspiration for countless games since many of which have been derived directly from its own code including fan made mods like counter-strike Team Fortress and day of defeat with valves newfound success the studio turned their attention to the next major step both for half-life and their brand identity as valve dwelled way on their next project they reached out to gearbox software to work on various ports and expansions for half-life the first expansion called opposing force gives players a chance to experience the events of the Black Mesa incident from a soldier's perspective the players character named Adrienne Shepard is part of the response team responsible for wiping any trace of the alien invasion along with its witnesses but after crash-landing and being forced to survive against waves of alien foes things take a turn for the worst as a new race of aliens enter the scene and complicate matters further this expansion helps to fill in the gaps at the end of the original game while also introducing new questions adding even more to the overarching plot from a game perspective opposing force place mostly the same though players can now interact with a few friendly soldiers in unique ways with NPCs like medics able to heal the player and engineers that will help clear obstructions in doorways after the positive reception to opposing force gearbox began working on a special Sega Dreamcast part of the original half-life complete with an exclusive story expansion that would feature a playable black mesas security guard but only a month before the game was set to release the port was cancelled by Sierra entertainment and the new expansion instead released again for the PC along with an additional high-definition model pack that increased the quality of the character models in the base game the expansion named blue shift is a lot like opposing force and that players control another witness to the Black Mesa incident a security officer named Barney Calhoun the story helps to explain how some of the characters managed to escape the facility but it's otherwise a much less remarkable addition to the experience it features a less weapon variety less enemies and fails to introduce anything really different to the formula Gearbox's final expansion beliefs in 2001 this time exclusively for the PlayStation 2 as part of a new port of the original game unlike the other two expansions decay features a unique two-player co-op campaign with two female scientists that once again were witnesses to the Black Mesa incident the game can be played in split-screen we're in a sort of asynchronous single-player Meriden where the player is forced to press a button to swap back and forth between dr. Greene and dr. cross a complete objective separately this version of half-life along with this unique co-op expansion where bed with familiar praise from gaming journalists though many noted that the new decay mode wasn't quite as interesting as the past two expansions as it straight away from its that a bit too much in favor for more puzzle oriented game play after gearbox wrapped up work on their final expansion attention turned back to valve who had been steadily working on the future of their game engine architecture their new engine referred to as source was built to be more modular allowing for periodic updates to gradually improve its capabilities but this design would require continuous updates on the client side so valve simultaneously worked on building the foundation of what would later become the Steam desktop application in the early 2000s gamers were not on board with the idea of installing a separate update distribution program games after all were typically installed using physical disks and updated manually through patches listed on each developer's website but Gabe Newell sought to do away with this outdated concept and stepped away from game development in order to focus his time more exclusively to this new venture the client was unsurprisingly not popular upon release with many citing technical issues and accusing it of hogging resources but valve remained determined and thus steam was born as a team of engineers worked on fine-tuning their new distribution method the core development team at valve continued to work on development of the source engine with an increased emphasis on advanced character facial manipulation and the incorporation of Havoc's physics software both of which would serve to once again raise the bar for the industry with these new tools at their disposal the next half-life would undergo years of development early concepts had the player traveling across planets fighting aliens but this was later scrapped in favor of unique Eastern European City under martial law by a ruthless force of humanoid alien overlords just like with the original game the development teams utilized cabal's to brainstorm unique and interesting concepts and constructed a new prototype map that would help paint a clearer picture of how the new source tools could be used to create engaging scenarios as development continued Gabe Newell would periodically be shown samples of the project offering suggestions and ways to improve on the formula but he wasn't quite as involved as he used to be by 2003 nearly four years since work had begun valve was finally ready to show off the progress and heretic gameplay traveler to be shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo the height for the game was through the roof while it wasn't quite as visually impressive as stage competitors like Doom 3 half way to still manage to steal the show with its groundbreaking physics manipulation and its unprecedented attention to environmental detail city 17 looked to be a real place to explore deep with history and intrigue and the gameplay shown was incredible with many questioning whether valve was showing fake scripted sequences in the months following its reveal the hyper half-life 2 mounted significantly fans were growing impatient and the late 2003 release date was coming up fast then only a week before its release Gabe Newell made the devastating announcement that half-life 2 would need to be delayed this disappointment was followed soon after by a major data theft of vows unfinished work resulting in a leak of both the code for the source engine and an incomplete version of the game itself morale hit an all-time low moving into 2004 as hours were increased for staff and development costs stacked higher by March the game was finally in a more playable state and the team spent the remainder of their time fine-tuning the experience as the new 2004 release date approached valve began to market the game more than ever and even agreed to have a third party develop a side-scrolling platformer based on the half-life universe half-life 2 was on track to become a major hit and valve knew it seeing it as a major opportunity to really push their new desktop client using the source engine they simultaneously built new versions of fan paper games including counter-strike day of defeat and a disappointing port of half-life these titles along with half-life 2 served as the first major incentive to install steam and in October of 2004 valve finally released the highly anticipated half-life 2 half-life 2 takes place several years after the events of the original game with gordon freeman finally awakening from stasis and departing a train into an Eastern European style city called city 17 that is ruled by a new race of aliens called the combine as Freeman explores more of the city it becomes clear that during his stasis the combine have conquered the planet and have forced the remaining human survivors into submission while there's some familiar elements from the original game like portals n creatures in the HEV suit half-life 2 feels like a drastically different experience the world is rich with detail with tons of scripted sequences to expand upon the lore along with plenty of environmental storytelling opportunities the beautiful Eastern European countryside contrasts heavily with the harsh metal combine structures creating a setting unlike any other in videogames at the time but it's the characters that really steal the show with much more expressive animations and personality than in the past I better hurry characters from the Black Mesa incident return including Barney Calhoun dr. kleiner and Eli the latter two of which were never really introduced before they're also joined by series newcomers like Alex Vance and her pet robot dog both of which give the game a refreshing amount of personality it's a very ambitious story something that's also reflected in the design of its gameplay players are no longer restricted to the narrow halls of a government facility but can now explore a much larger environment filled with alternate paths and secret loot stashes while the game is still very much linear there's a sense of exploration and discovery this time around assist it even further by the inclusion of large vehicle sections that players can have complete control over but quite possibly the biggest change to half-life 2's gameplay is how it incorporates physics into the action almost everything not nailed down can be interacted with in the sequel either by picking it up and walking around with it or by means of the new gravity gun that can pick up even larger objects and blast them away with tremendous force half-life 2's physics allow for much more interesting puzzle designs like needing to account for buoyancy or weight displacement in order to reach new paths players can even manipulate the world's physics to defeat enemies either by blasting them with heavy objects or causing debris to crash down on top of them and while it's tempting to play around with the physics as much as possible players will still need to wield more conventional weapons like pistols shotguns assault rifles and of course Gordon's trusty crowbar good luck out there buddy weapons now all feature an alternate fire allowing for even more varied approaches to enemy encounters the enemies have also seen a few tweaks the primary enemies face throughout the game or the combine the mostly militaristic infantry force that are often backed up by powerful alien vehicles and flying drones other enemies include the new insectoid ant lion creatures that serve as more of a neutral combatant and the return of the head crabs some of which have evolved to be even more deadly and aggressive half-life 2 was a massive success exceeding fan expectations it released to a glowing critical response without words like games by and the New York Times giving it their highest scores many praised the game for its beautiful storytelling components and more interesting characters while others applauded valve for their genius implementation of physics into the gameplay design and while this certainly helped to strengthen the half-life series the most important outcome of the sequel success was how it impacted Valve's new Steam client with the help of counter-strike source day of defeat source and now half-life 2 steam was off at a running start and valve finally had the freedom to expand their brand significantly they began welcoming other game developers to distribute their games on the steam store taking a sizeable percentage of the sales and quickly became the undisputed champion of the digital PC game marketplace meanwhile software engineers at valve also continued to build upon the source engine enhancing things like character facial animations artificial intelligence and implementing new HDR wedding effects to showcase these effects valve released half-life 2 Lost Coast of demo using old script material for half-life 2 this along with the release of a standalone deathmatch mode help to hold fans over as they waited anxiously for a follow-up to half-life twos major cliffhanger in 2006 valve explained how they plan on handling half life's ambitious narrative moving forward rather than keeping fans waiting for several years at a time fans could now expect a trilogy of episodes released roughly 6 to 8 months apart from each other along with additional episodes created by third-party developers like Junction point and Arkane Studios the first episode released in 2006 and takes place directly after the events of half-life 2 with Gordon and Alex need to escape the ruins of the collapsing Citadel unlike the base game episode 1 features a much more focused narrative experience scripted events play a bigger role in the layout in the AI especially Alex now react more directly to the player's actions while not as lengthy as the base game episode 1 was still well received by fans many praised it for its more interesting story and solid gameplay design and its next cliffhanger kept players wanting more to help streamline efforts valve simultaneously had a separate team working on the development of episode 2 that again would pick up directly after the events of the past adventure episode 2 kicks off with Gordon and Alex having just survived a massive train wreck and centers on the pair traveling the neighbouring countryside as they attempt to reach a resistance base called white forest episode 2 adds even more to the half-life series with a major story revelation new enemies like the combine hunters and advisors and an epic showdown with several more Striders recognizing its significance valve also packaged episode 2 with two more unique projects a sequel to team fortress and a new spin-off puzzle series set in the half-life universe called portal this package called the orange box was hugely successful especially the surprise hit portal that valve initially planned as an experimental project with its success valve recognized the potential of diversifying its portfolio and continued to expand with additional portal content like first slice and still alive with constant updates to counter-strike and Team Fortress 2 both of which developed a massive following the orange box also came packaged with a teaser for a new game developed by Turtle Rock Studios but even with all the new hype and attention that valves side projects were garnering fans of half-life were still left in shock after the cliffhanger at the end of episode 2 hopeful that episode 3 would provide a satisfying closure but that closure never came rise and shine mr. Freeman rise and shine December 2007 that's when episode 3 was supposed to release that was the month players would be able to explore the ruins of the borealis trapped in the Arctic ice but December came and went with complete silence according to an interview with Doug Lombardi a marketing director of red valve episode 3 was delayed a year and put blame on new experiences like left 4 dead and Team Fortress 2 for pulling focus away but then the weight rolled into 2009 with fake leaks starting to emerge causing significant market confusion and fan frustration this frustration reached a fevered pitch in 2009 when instead of information on the future of half-life valve instead decided to announce a sequel to left 4 dead only a year after its original game released written petitions and protests began to emerge as fans demanded information from valve but valve remained silent KP Newell finally broke that silence in early 2010 bringing up a few ideas regarding introducing more psychological horror but a few months later valve did it again and announced a sequel to a different property this time portal by 2011 hope for a conclusion to the story began to fade as both Lombardi and co-writer Chet Faliszek stated that they had nothing to share regarding half-life throughout the course of the 2010s half-life 3 started to turn into a sort of urban legend fans started to find hints and everything valve did piecing together numbers in hopes of finding a shred of evidence of what to expect fake t-shirts were made fake websites started to crop and jokes about valve failing to count to three started to become commonplace even games that were once criticized for occupying valves development time like left 4 dead and portal are now in the same boat with fans of each series waiting desperately for news on a new entry following the success of steam valve had seemingly begun to move into more of an administrative role with game development becoming a low priority the additional episodes Gabe Newell had promised back in 2006 had also fallen through the first was a prequel created by junction point studios that would have shown how the zombie infested town of Ravenholm had initially fallen apart it would have featured a new magnet based weapon along with more backstory for father Grigori a character featured briefly in the base game but this project would never see the light of day and the studio was eventually purchased by Disney to create the platformer Epic Mickey in 2011 another data theft occurred this time at idose interactive among the files stolen were CBS that suggested the team of developers from Arkane studios had been collaborating with valve to create a separate half-life episode this episode given the working name returned to Raven home would have seen players travel back to the zombie infested town after the events of half-life 2 story the project was in development for only a short while around the same time that valve was working on episodes 1 & 2 but it was also cancelled this time out of fear that the material would have been redundant and uninteresting valve subsequently shifted their focus even more towards other projects the released games like an updated counter-strike called global Offensive and dota 2 but information regarding half-life remained non-existent in 2016 lead writer of half-life Marc Laidlaw left valve after an internal disagreement and decided to turn his focus into writing his own stories instead a year later Laidlaw helped to ease the pain half vice mysterious disappearance had caused fans by releasing a cryptic summary of episode threes narrative it details the journey players would have taken to the Arctic to find the wrecked remains of the borealis trapped in a glacier constantly faced shifting through time to avoid interfering with any of Valve's future plans with the property the entire three-page document voices distinct names and locations with nonsense ones including le vaunt instead of Eli Vance and the Hyperborea instead of the borealis and while it's not technically canon this was the initial intention for the final episode of half-life 2 and with that bittersweet reveal it seemed as though all hope was lost for the legendary franchise however this turned out to not be the case throughout the mid 2010 dad was working on ways to innovate with the half-life formula one of half-life's most defining features after all was how it transcended industry norms and what better way to do so today then to make the ultimate killer application for the emerging interest in virtual reality valve worked closely with a tech company called HTC to develop the HTC vive allowing them to familiarize themselves with the software and technology to help showcase their efforts they designed a sort of demo reel called the lab with one demo in particular being part of a larger project involving half-life finally in November of 2019 valve revealed the VR exclusive half-life Alex the final entry so far in the half-life series half-life alex is a prologue to half-life 2 and follows side character Alex advance as she fights against combine forces in city 17 based on the trailer shown players will need to make use of their VR headsets to manipulate the environment directly both for dealing with enemies and solving puzzles the game's announcement has since driven up sales for VR headsets but we'll have to wait and see if Alex will finally be virtual reality's first truly killer app and whether like its predecessors it will change the scape of gaming forever and you can expect a full coverage of half-life Alex including comparisons and a detailed review next month that is assuming valve manages to meet their deadline and doesn't go sound for another decade crowbars headcrabs Black Mesa and the g-man now you have the full story what started as an opportunity to build a narrative driven experience has exploded into one of gaming's most revered gaming icons half-life represents more than just a fun shooter experience with an interesting story it helps to signify the start of a new era in the first-person shooter genre the original game popularized the idea of implementing story into the shooting formula with rocket launchers and machine guns being coupled together with unique locations and characters half-life 2 expanded upon these concepts while also incorporating advanced technologies like physics more seamlessly into the gameplay and also helped to jumpstart steam and here we are in 2020 with half-life Alex aiming to conquer the vr space which if history is any indication could very much end up being the case so what do you guys think is half-life Alex the next step for the series or Rory is still holding out hope for half-life 3 let me know in the comments section if you want to see more documentaries like this one please consider becoming a member of my patreon you'll get early access to videos behind the scenes content and with enough support that can start to scale back some of the ads so you can have an uninterrupted experience if you want more details be sure to check the link in my description also I want to give a special shout-out to kung fu hot dog for being a Goldmember patron your support is greatly appreciated and of course if you want to continue to see these documentaries comparisons and reviews don't forget to Like and subscribe for more videos posted every week [Music]

Channel: Nick930

Views: 310,383

Keywords: Half Life, Half-Life, HalfLife, Episode One, Episode Two, Episode Three, Alyx, Vance, Gordon, Freeman, The G-Man, History, Retrospective, Documentary, Valve, Steam, Development, Story, Gameplay, Features, Review, Impressions, Summary, Full, Analysis, Fan, Favorite, Best, Mod, professional, High Quality, Half-Life 2, Half Life 3, Concept, Art, Borealis, Comparison, Early

Id: 0qTGFy-KzSw

Length: 31min 50sec (1910 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 24 2020