Half-Life 1 or Half-Life 1 Anthology

[Survivr]

I am going to buy Half-Life 1 via steam so I can get up-to-date on the plot before playing Half-Life 2, but I was wondering if it is worth it to buy Half-Life 1 Anthology or just Half-Life 1. Any help, please?

 

[tschumann]

What's in the Half-Life Anthology?

 

[kupocake]

What's in the Half-Life Anthology?

HL, TFC, Opposing Force, Blue-Shift. Basically everything that old retail buyers of HL1 got when Steam first opened, minus CS 1.6.

'For a few dollars more', Clint Eastwood got less. Opposing Force and Blue Shift don't add anything that Valve can't write out of the series at a later date (or anything much at all), but they were good enough when Half-Life left you begging for more.

Only thing is, whether Half-Life will actually leave you begging for more ten and a half years since release. The realist in me says that you've probably played a good portion of the games that built upon, or at least plain aped Half-Life, so I doubt you will.

And when you see Residue Processing, tell him I said 'F*** You'

 

[coheedswicked]

id just go with half-life. i still play hl1 sometimes... not so much with Opposing Force or Blue-Shift

 

[swan_song1973]

clearly the anthology. look at the value!

 

[flamingdts]

clearly the anthology. look at the value!

Replay value is probably not worth it.

Blue shift and Opposing force were big hits because Half Life's ending left players begging for more depth in the stories.

That being said, you never know if Valve will throw in Gearbox ideas in their future half life games. Blue Shift does not contradict the story of Half Life, but is more of a demo since the game is the shortest of all and contains the least weapons (no high-tech weapons) Opposing force does contradict the Half Life lore (alot of it in fact), but offers a lot more new contents and gameplays.

By the way, there is a free ported version of Half Life: Decay on pc for free if anyone would like to download it. Originally it was PS2 only, but community members have successfully ported it. Half Life decay is also a game that does not contradict the original half life, and if I remember Valve monitored the creation of Decay.

 

[Danimal]

That's legal and all, right?

 

[coheedswicked]

if so please post a link

 

[amaranth]

Go for it.

Opposing Force is worth playing once or twice.

 

[tesher06]

Well the Anthology because it comes with more stuff.

 

[flamingdts]

That's legal and all, right?

Perfectly legal.

The link is here for those incapable of typing several letters on google search.

http://decay.half-lifecreations.com/

 

[gFrohman]

Yeah I remember Decay being a fairly fun game; it's not as awesome as the original HL obviously but it's still worth a couple plays.

 

[tschumann]

Half Life decay is also a game that does not contradict the original half life, and if I remember Valve monitored the creation of Decay.

I don't think so. I thought Gearbox basically did as they pleased for all three expansions.
And Decay is shorter than Blue Shift.

 

[Mindshifter]

Where does OF contradicts HL? All the expensions add up rather nicely.

 

[Danimal]

Race-X LOL

 

[Mindshifter]

Well thats obvious, Race X is the first recon force of the Combine...

Ok, let the flaming BEGIN! :sniper::flame:

 

[ríomhaire]

Where does OF contradicts HL? All the expensions add up rather nicely.

There's small things. Neither Gordon, nor, Gina, nor Colette, nor Barney seeing a trace of Race-X is a bit odd. Also the Lambda complex has an entire nuclear reactor powering its teleporter, but the old labs in BS and the teleporter gun in OP4 have much smaller power supplies and can operate fine. There's also the matter of the g-man being uncharacteristicly hands-on for a lot of OP4. There's also the fact that the assassins attack the soldiers OP4, yet there are assassins and soldiers (the ones who capture Gordon) in adjoining rooms next to each other in HL who don't seem to be bothering each other.

 

[Mindshifter]

There's small things. Neither Gordon, nor, Gina, nor Colette, nor Barney seeing a trace of Race-X is a bit odd. Also the Lambda complex has an entire nuclear reactor powering its teleporter, but the old labs in BS and the teleporter gun in OP4 have much smaller power supplies and can operate fine. There's also the matter of the g-man being uncharacteristicly hands-on for a lot of OP4. There's also the fact that the assassins attack the soldiers OP4, yet there are assassins and soldiers (the ones who capture Gordon) in adjoining rooms next to each other in HL who don't seem to be bothering each other.

1) The reason why neither of those people see Race X because the OF timeline begins later. Race X begin pouring in after Gordons trip to Xen.
2) The reactor is a bit silly but a acceptable plothole for the sake of gameplay.
3) What do you mean with the G-man hands on?
4) The blackops and soldiers are rather strange, yes.

Just my thoughts.

 

[gFrohman]

1) The reason why neither of those people see Race X because the OF timeline begins later. Race X begin pouring in after Gordons trip to Xen.
2) The reactor is a bit silly but a acceptable plothole for the sake of gameplay.
3) What do you mean with the G-man hands on?
4) The blackops and soldiers are rather strange, yes.

Just my thoughts.

1) True.
2) The old lab in BS uses "the old technology" which is different than Lambda Core - this is explainable in my opinion. The portal gun in OP4 is outta luck though.
3) The G-Man is seen later on to be able to interact with the world (he leans on a railing in the missile silo in EP2

Spoiler

when Alyx is being revived by the Vorts in the mine

). In terms of the nuke in OP4, I suppose it's assumed that G-Man reactivates the nuke because it looks as thought he messes with it just after you disarm it, but who knows - we never really saw what came of that. Another Black Op could have come through, saw the nuke, and rearmed. We just don't know, since Adrian didn't hang out long enough to see what happened.
4) This is an inconsistency - the only explanation to get out of it would be to say that the Black Ops in HL were different Black Ops from OP4, but that's a little too far-fetched.