so, for the past year i've been playing half-life on and off. generally, my experience with valve games up to this point has been through youtube videos. i remember watching a LOT of g-mod gameplay, especially from venturiantale. so, the first valve produced game i purchased was g-mod! at this point, it was 2019, and i didn't have a lot of friends that had the shared my taste of video games.
anyways, about half-life 1. i had a ton of fun! it's safe to say that it has become one of the best games i have played yet. i think, aside from being a, heh,"Nostalgiabro" and liking it aesthetically, i also really enjoyed the gameplay. sure, a lot of the times i would struggle with the movement and my game logic generally is on par with that of darksydephil, so i'd rely on the walkthrough a lot. but, i really like fps games where you mindlessly shoot things. pro tip, though, you should not mindlessly play half-life. i think i must have skipped through a lot of the story cause i'd accidentally skip guard/scientist dialog or just run into things unprepared. i'll tell you, i don't think i've utilized saving as much as i did while i was playing half-life. around the end, for every ledge i managed to jump on in the nihilanth boss fight i would have to save otherwise i'd have to do it all over again when i immediately fell down. it was a fun fight anyways! i didn't realize i had to shoot the crystals like you would fighting the enderdragon until it kept looping me back to that one area with the gargantua (DSP skill level). i didn't like xen as much as i liked the black mesa levels BUT i did enjoy the fact that it reminded me of the ghostworld in ghostbusters: the video game.
floating platforms in a strange interdimensional space with enemies that have bullets (or are books) that chase you? traveling from portal to portal? i wonder if there was any inspiration there. and don't tell me either versions of azetlor wouldn't blend in here at all.
