Help a newbie getting into Half-Life?

[KSG]

I'm new to the series and got here via Portal. Now I want to catch up but I'm confused about what to buy.

The correct order of the games was easy enough to Google. But what are the decision-making differences between Half-Life and Half-Life Source? I think one has better graphics, but one has mods, but mods mean good graphics (or Morrowind has spoiled me) and...I'm confused. And someone somewhere said that one has "better" gore than the other, which makes me wonder if maybe one version has settings or mods to turn the gore down. Is it true that the expansions are only available for one version? Do both versions handle 64-bit systems alright? Is one better about widescreen, and if so, does playing in widescreen mess up cinematic parts of the game that were designed for 4:3? (I try to Google this stuff, and just get people's silly arguments over how one random detail makes Source better or worse.)

Going back to mods, are there ones you'd recommend using on a first and possibly only play-through? Graphics, annoyance-fixers, etc..

And then, which games/expansions/episodes are really about the multiplayer? I saw that one Half-Life title is based around co-op, forget which. Is it ONLY co-op, as in, I shouldn't touch it since I never do multiplayer?

I'm pretty much in it for the story. Are there any expansions (etc.) I can skip because they aren't part of the plot?

Any other general (and spoiler-free) advice is welcome, too. Thanks for any answers you can give.

 

[Vegeta897]

Play the original Half-Life. Not source. No mods.

Anyone who tells you differently should be skewered.

Half-Life was before the days of people making tons of mods to alter or enhance the single player campaign. The mods you'd want to get after beating the original game would be totally different campaigns and map packs, like Azure Sheep, Peaces Like Us, and tons of others.

Half-Life plays fine in any resolution. There are no 'cinematics'.

 

[KSG]

Thanks for answering. So why the original? Purism, or some specific reason I'd regret choosing Source?

And by "cinematic" I didn't mean cutscenes and FMVs so much as just bits of gameplay that are meant to look a certain way. Though now that I think of it, aspect ratio can't possibly matter that much if something's already meant to look right while the player has the ability to look around. So nevermind about that.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Half-life Source doesn't offer too much more from Half-life 1. A couple extra textures and ragdolls and that is it. Half-life 1 is where it all began and how the game is meant to be played, play it vanilla and you can't go wrong. Then move onto Opposing Force and Blueshift. Although these games are old, they have been patched to work on the newest OS (including 64bit, Steam will force the -32bit mode automatically). So make sure you get Steam versions.

Then Half-life 2, Half-life 2 Lost Coast (for fun), Episode 1, Episode 2. You do not need any enhancing mods like Vegeta said but you can get more content from mods if you're interested. Play all those first before you move onto that, so you know what you want more of. There are enough mods across these games to sink the Mary Rose ten times over.

 

[ríomhaire]

Hey there. Just so you have a complete list the games in the Half-Life series are:

Half-Life
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Blue Shift

These three all take place during the same period of time from different perspectives on the Black Mesa Incident. Half-Life was made by Valve and Blue Shift and Opposing Force were expansion packs made by Gearbox. There is also Half-Life: Decay which was a co-op section developed by Gearbox that was originally only part of the Playstation 2 port of the game, but has since been moved to the PC as a mod. Valve have made no objections to this so it's probably fine to download. The mod version allows you to play singleplayer or co-op, but you must switch between both characters to play on you own and if one dies it's game over.

If you click this link while Steam is open it will install the "HD pack" versions of the Half-Life models for you to use. These originally came with Blue-Shift. They're higher-detail than the original models but personally I don't really like the chance in styles. Installing this also disables all other custom models. Click this link to unistall them.

There is also the Super Definition pack. This is a mod that contains the models from the Playstation 2 port. They're the same style as the HD pack ones so again I don't personally like them, but they're the highest detail official models available. As I said earlier installing the HD pack through Steam disables other custom models so this pack won't work if you have that installed.



The story follows on from Half-Life in the following order:
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Epsiode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two


We're still waiting on news of Episode Three.



There are also two demos that have areas and gameplay not in the main game. The first is Half-Life's demo; Half-Life: Uplink and a tech demo Valve made between Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One called Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (I think you need to own Half-Life 2 to install it). Both are very short (being demos) but contain areas not featured in the two games (I believe they are both cut areas that were repurposed).

 

[Wanted Bob]

My personal opinion is to pick the original HL over the source version. Partly for purist reasons, partly because I always found the ragdolls kinda didnt fit with the rest of the game.

 

[Escaep]

Play the series backwards and you'll save humanity.

 

[Kyzr]

Make sure you play opposing force and blue shift, as they explain what happened to black mesa and provide background on who Barney is,
respectively.

Also, I've recently been forced to buy and play half life source due to the original half life not working for some wonderful reason, and its not nearly as good.

 

[KSG]

Seems like there's a consensus on original vs Source. That's good, I thought it was going to be complicated figuring out which to get. Thanks everyone, I'm way less confused now. And especially to ríomhaire, for the very complete answer. Now I'm off to Steam to go buy some games.

 

[kupocake]

How are you with FPS games from before the turn of the millennium? If you find Half-Life hard to get into, there's really no shame in skipping forward to Half-Life 2. The first game was an absolute revelation on release, but it tends to dwell on certain scenes and ways of doing things for far too long. It also has a rather antiquated damage system, where some of the later regular enemies will shake off four shotgun shells to the chest... the problem is less that this makes it difficult, more that it occasionally get quite tedious.

And for the love of god, find the quick-save key and use it. I grew up on that era of games, but I still go back and play them and forget that there are very few autosaves!

 

[ríomhaire]

To build on kupo's advice above, the revolver is your best friend later in the game. One headshot to dispatch all human-sized enemies and two to take out the large troops.

 

[Sam Raven]

Best thing about Half Life 1 is that you don't need to worry about tactical headshots that much. Even a hit to the enemy soldier's backpack will cause it to bleed.

 

[Gman]

Hey there. Just so you have a complete list the games in the Half-Life series are:

Half-Life
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Blue Shift

These three all take place during the same period of time from different perspectives on the Black Mesa Incident. Half-Life was made by Valve and Blue Shift and Opposing Force were expansion packs made by Gearbox. There is also Half-Life: Decay which was a co-op section developed by Gearbox that was originally only part of the Playstation 2 port of the game, but has since been moved to the PC as a mod. Valve have made no objections to this so it's probably fine to download. The mod version allows you to play singleplayer or co-op, but you must switch between both characters to play on you own and if one dies it's game over.

If you click this link while Steam is open it will install the "HD pack" versions of the Half-Life models for you to use. These originally came with Blue-Shift. They're higher-detail than the original models but personally I don't really like the chance in styles. Installing this also disables all other custom models. Click this link to unistall them.

There is also the Super Definition pack. This is a mod that contains the models from the Playstation 2 port. They're the same style as the HD pack ones so again I don't personally like them, but they're the highest detail official models available. As I said earlier installing the HD pack through Steam disables other custom models so this pack won't work if you have that installed.



The story follows on from Half-Life in the following order:
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Epsiode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two


We're still waiting on news of Episode Three.



There are also two demos that have areas and gameplay not in the main game. The first is Half-Life's demo; Half-Life: Uplink and a tech demo Valve made between Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One called Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (I think you need to own Half-Life 2 to install it). Both are very short (being demos) but contain areas not featured in the two games (I believe they are both cut areas that were repurposed).

Very well HL history reply.

Half Life:Source is Half Life with the source engine.Meaning,Better graphics,Ragdolls and renhanced textures.Half Life is where it all started and is more better to me.Either one is fine.HL:S or HL it's both the same except for graphics and ragdolls.

 

[Vegeta897]

What re-enhanced textures?

The only thing 'better' about the graphics is some reflections, lighting, and AA.

 

[Gman]

Exactly.

 

[Tyro76]

Havent played the first Half Life.

I haven't played half life (but I reccomend doing it vanilla. Freeman's mind showed me alot about that) Played the Half life 2 series (On Xbox... computer is crud) And I reccomend NO MODS for it. Plays well enough on its own.

 

[Higlac]

Played the Half life 2 series (On Xbox... computer is crud)

Heathen.

Also, I played HL: S, it works fine and will give you the general story. You'll miss things from blue shift and opposing force though.

 

[Ennui]

Play Half-Life, not Half-Life: Source. They are virtually identical, but HL:S was essentially just an experiment to port a game from the HL1 engine (Goldsrc) to HL2 engine (Source) and there are some weird little niggles with it here and there. The AI acts kind of wonky in some situations, some of the scripted behavior doesn't work 100 percent right, etc. It's playable but considering that the only advantages are ragdolls, improved water textures and slightly better lighting I strongly recommend you go with the original HL instead.

Higlac... this is not "normal":

Neither is this:

Hilarious though.

Play Half-Life, there are some graphics mods but honestly it's good as it is... the game has aged very well for a shooter that's all of 13 years old now. I still play though it once every couple of years. Opposing Force and Blue Shift are both good, but not as good as HL, and not really that important as far as storyline goes. After that you have HL2, Episode 1, and Episode 2, and then you get to wait along with the rest of us for Episode 3 / HL3.\

There are TONS of good multiplayer and singleplayer mods for HL1 as well.