Great set pieces, great enemies and a great setting in the smashed-up Black Mesa Research Facility. The storyline and its twists are genuinely well handled. It's been said a million times in a million reviews, for instance, that you end up fighting US Special Forces sent to kill you and your co-workers. But the way this is revealed to the player - turning a stairwell corner to see a scientist gladly running up to his Marine "saviour", only to be brutally murdered in a hail of gunfire - is genuinely shocking the first time round. You really feel involved in this storyline. Half-Life has excellent use of music, sound and superb AI to create a genuinely creepy atmosphere. At times it's honestly difficult to continue playing; the fact that you're armed is often no comfort at all when it comes to going round THAT corner, or going though THAT door - and that's the mark of a truly scary game, in my opinion. The voice acting makes a big difference, too. The security guards and scientists could have been disposable drones - instead they're convincingly your workmates, your friends even, there to help and be protected. And, man, do they make some awful sounds when you screw up and get them killed - you almost feel guilty... Over time it will be superceded by newer and more complex games - the superb Deus Ex, in particular, has definitely put Half-Life in the shade in terms of narrative, atmosphere and involvement. But that takes nothing away from Half-Life's status as an all-time classic.
