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Title: Half-Life
Released: November 1998
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Half-Life Walkthrough
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The indelible mark Valve's first commercial release had on the videogame industry can hardly be overstated, and it is well beyond the purview of this measly overview to do such a survey of its effect and impact justice. Suffice it to say, the release of Half-Life in October 1998 changed all the rules and set the bar so high, even Valve themselves would struggle to surmount it.

Owing its existence to its forerunners, id Software's Doom (1993) and Quake (1996), Half-Life was a first-person shooter that submerged you in a world of science gone very wrong. As PhD bearing physicist Gordon Freeman, you were tasked with rescuing the Black Mesa research facility from an inter-dimensional breach – but not before making you, the player, the raison d'être of it all. Unlike most videogame protagonists up to that point, Freeman, minus the testosterone-fueled characteristics of his predecessors, was mute: a proxy to allow players to immerse themselves in the game-world in new and unprecedented ways. You were Gordon Freeman. Valve's adventure established a new paradigm in videogame storytelling.

But the game's real success was its composition; its simple and accessible shooter mechanics that opened the way for an evolving palette of unique gameplay scenarios. Some parts may ramble on much too long for some (Residue Processing, anyone?), but each encounter has a depth few games before or since have managed to master. So how best to summarise moments which rank high in the FPS's history of greatest experiences? Aliens horrors straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare and homicidal military commandos await in Black Mesa's concrete labyrinths and, as with most good things, far better that you discover it yourself.

Earning itself over 50 game of the year awards and universal critical praise, the Half-Life series would surely continue. Gearbox Software developed two expansion packs for the PC, known as Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999) and Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001), though these are considered by most fans of the series to be non-canon.

Half-Life was later ported to the PlayStation 2, which included a third expansion by Gearbox Software called Half-Life: Decay. Half-Life: Decay introduced new protagonists, allowing for two players to cooperatively explore the world of Half-Life through a different perspective.

Valve themselves would later continue the series with Half-Life 2 (2004), Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006), and Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007).