Valve is behind some critically and commercially successful games such as Counter-Strike, Portal and DOTA 2, but one title which shines the brightest on the studio’s portfolio is Half-Life.
Ridiculous Censorship
Censorship is commonplace these days, but Half-Life had to endure it two decades ago. To get past the stringent German content regulation laws, human characters were made to look like robots, blood was turned from red to yellow color and human enemies just sat down rather than getting blasted off to cut down on the gore.
The Half-Life franchise became a paradigm of sorts in the gaming industry when it comes to delays. The original game’s source code was leaked mid-way through development which delayed the game for quite some time, and then it took 15 long years to release a sequel. And we are still waiting for Half-Life 3…
Every one is a gamer these days, including pop stars, but Half-Life was one of the first games to gain mainstream popularity. It is adored by gamers, but there are a few celebrities who are also huge fans of the game. Oscar-winner Robin Williams professed his love for the game on multiple occasions, while Quentin Tarantino has even expressed interest in making a film based on Half-Life.
Did you know the original working title for Half-Life was ‘Quiver’? The game drew inspiration from Stephen King’s The Mist which mentioned the Arrowhead military base where scientists conducted morbid experiments, something which is central to the game itself. All said and done, we love the actual name of the franchise as it hints at the nuclear-themed setting of the game.
An abrupt opening of inter-dimensional portals, zombies tossing back the grenades thrown at them, choppers dropping too many mines are among the glitches that were left unfixed by Valve to make the game more challenging.
Of course, the game didn’t need to challenge players through glitches. The gameplay itself was quite exhilarating and the bosses and enemies made wading through the laboratory and massive arena so much fun.
Half-Life had sold eight million copies by 2004 and was followed that year by Half-Life 2. Half-Life 2 was also broken into several chapters, and you were cast as the iconic protagonist Gordon Freeman. An NVIDIA Shield-exclusive port for Android was released on the sequel’s 10th anniversary in 2014.
