Thanks for watching our documentary on the legacy of Half-Life! Before you ask, yes we have a number of break-out videos coming from this. We'll have a longer chat with Scott Smith about the history of Counter-Strike, a chat with Geoff about The Game Awards, Cory about God of War and a few more. Look out for those over the coming weeks. We also have a 40-minute behind-the-scenes feature available for Patrons and Channel Subscribers so if you want to watch that and help fund more docs like these, check out our Patreon: patreon.com/noclip - Thanks again for watching. Make sure to hit that like button, subscribe, spam your friends and tell your gran! (Caption inbound. We ordered them a week ago, still waiting. I guess this video was long.)
Man Geoff Keighley has a mean poker face. He said in the 'behind Closed Doors at Valve' video that he's been aware of project Alyx for a couple years now meaning that he would have known about it at the time of making this documentary.
When he said he dreams of GabeN coming out with the crowbar at the VGA's or that they didn't have a hi res G-man to use......might be his best acting to date. Although it is a bit telling when he says "what would half life 3 even be at this point," he doesn't mention VR when listing out possibilities, Danny brings it up
50:30 back when I was playing Half Life, I went to get my wisdom teeth taken out The surgeon was Dr. Freeman (didn't notice the name, when I was awake); coming out of the anesthesia, I hear the concerned voice of the nurse "Tim, doctor Freeman needs you to wake up!" I thought I was dreaming, and didn't want it to end
Thank you for doing this documentary. I was 8 when i came home from school one day to see my dad playing this new game on our family computer. From that day on my life changed. I couldnt stop talking about it at school. I used to draw new map outlines in my notebook and come home to create them in Hammer editor. When i was 15 i emailed Gabe about a "mod making book" for HL2 that was rumored to be released but never was. Another employee at valve answered my mail and asked for my adress. A few weeks later i got a package from valve with two half-life shirts in it, signed by Gabe Newell himself. Im 28 now and I still have them today.
omfgstfuandgtfo I can relate to this a lot. I was probably the same age when I noticed my dad playing half life on the family PC, and I never looked back
my Big Brother never let me play half life 1. Still haven't play it as an adult because I forget the whole thing and it wasn't sold on CD anymore, maybe I pick it up from Steam now XD
hearing Randy Pitchford talking about how Valve was exploiting them and proceeded to say “we would never do that to any developer” makes me feel like i just drank a gallon of grease
Hey, I'm Robert Yang, I'm in this documentary. Some additional engine politics talk / commentary: It's cool to see Gearbox's side of the story, and the lack of support / communication with Valve is pretty telling but also not unusual -- it's a lot of work to maintain a game engine and support your licensees, that's part of the reason why id Software got out of the engine licensing business, their heart just wasn't really in it. Yet both Half-Life's were driven a lot by their game engine technology, and now in 2018/2019 Valve can't scale to match the usability or feature-set of Unity or Unreal anymore -- while also pushing a VR ecosystem, while also running Steam, while also etc. etc. Project Borealis moving to UE4 is also very telling; Source 2 has technically been available for tinkering (in DOTA2) for years, but at this point, even diehard Valve fans have given up on it, and Valve themselves are using Unity a lot... Really, the only big tech advantage that Valve has left is their VR expertise, which definitely fuels the Half-Life VR rumors, it's basically the best way to rescue the VR game industry at this point.
do you think valve was even allowed to charge people a license for the source engine? i mean, with goldsrc being a heavily modified version of quake, and source an extension of that, where do they get off charging others and not paying iD?
Go to Robert's channel if the idea of his commentary over playing games, including the Half-Lifes, interests you. Some cool insight into a variety of aspects of level design over there.
@@DiiGiiTAL Dude, everyone is using Unity now, it's the industry standard engine #1. People choose Unreal or Godot or something else only when Unity does not satisfy them for one reason or another. Unreal has a lot of strengths but I don't see it really compete with Unity in any foreseeable future as a mainstream go-to game engine.
I was playing Half Life 2 at a friends house. I got to a puzzle where you're supposed to open a door by going around it and removing a plank that's stuck on the back with the gravity gun. After a few minutes running back and forth without figuring out the solution, I decided to throw something at the door with the gravity gun. The door moved, slightly.. I kept running back and forth grabbing a few more things, and then started to throw them at the door. When I ran out of stuff, I'd just hit the door with the gun's alt fire. Meanwhile, my friend laughed at my inability to solve the puzzle. The door started to swing wildly until it violently opened, the plank flying into the distance behind it. Then we both said "THAT WAS AWESOME", albeit for different reasons. I'ts been 14 years, but I'll never forget that moment.
Kevin Miles I remember when I was a kid, I played The Orange Box. It was the happiest moment of my life when I got that game for the 360 for Christmas and I remember how terrified I was back in 2007, a little 7 year old kid, of ravenholm. It genuinely terrified me to no end but I remember when I beat it and I got outside the mine shaft back into city 17 and I remember the immense amount of pride I had for overcoming my fear and beating a level that seemed unbeatable. I’ve never had that experience since. And now that I’m an adult, and I have more real world fears to deal with, ravenholm almost feels trivial to me when I play it again. I miss Half-Life...I miss valve.
@@8milestudio Firstly, dat username. Secondly, dude, I remember seeing there was an achievement on the Orange Box for not letting either of the guys die in the mine defense sequence right as I was getting there, so I saved. I can't tell you how many times I had to reload that save but by gawd, I pulled that shit off. I had never felt that sense of pride in a single achievement up to that point, and rarely since. And it wasn't just for the achievement. Valve had a great way of really building the characters for the players that care to pay close attention, and the two guys in the mine had some excellent banter throughout the level, And then, during the defense sequence, they do callouts to you and each other with their own quirky twists, and when one dies the other reacts in a way that really hits you. I'm really glad I watched this video tonight.
Danthony Dwyretano here, the internets busiest gaming documentary maker. Lookin' like he's about to give half life a strong 9 to a light 10 in that yellow flannel.
He was probably under a NDA from Valve to not tell anyone under threat of lawsuit. Plenty of companies do it so that no one can take the piss out of their official announcements, so I'm not surprised if that's the case.
Notice he glances to the left a lot, this is a common tell that he's making stuff up, and when he said "I don't know what form it'll be" he did a HUGE amount of blinking. He's probably been prepped for this interview and similar questions, and it's quite incredible he actually did that entire speech so fluently, but his body language is a dead giveaway.
I was born in 1987. I was 12 when I first played Half Life. I remember the excitement of playing Opposing Force... I remember starting Half Life 2 and how overwhelmed I was. We were a bunch of friends playing counter strike and other mods. I remember it all so clearly, because Half Life wasn’t just a game for me. It was THE gaming milestone of my childhood. I have so many memories and thoughts right now. Thanks for this documentary.
Yup, same here. I was born in '88 and basically had the same experience growing up, HL1 blowing my mind, spending way too much time on CS and other quality mods both official and unofficial back in the day, etc ;)
@@DeathBringer769 Wow, I feel so old! I was born in 1980 so I was 18 when Half-Life was released. I remember having to upgrade my Pentium II system with a Voodoo 3 to be able to play it. I actually bought it twice. I still have the Orange box in my closet with all of the disks.
damn. I was born in 95. started playing 1.6 in 07 just before christmas. (school break, downloaded cs and half life, they were my older brothers) and played daily for a number of years. The few groups I played with slowly broke up over time. Guys moved to console gaming, got busy with families and such. I have always periodically remembered playing 1.6. Last time I played it was hard to find one steady server.. This documentary makes me want to hop on and start the addiction all over again.
It might not have been the longest game but it was still a super fun experience. I just really hope they make a more fleshed out sequel. There’s so many things they could do
With how valve's internal structure works nowadays, it's honestly a miracle that HL:A was released at all, especially being a new entry in the Half Life franchise. I'd say it's a shame seeing valve fall from it's former glory, but after watching this and reading the final hours of HL:A, it's clear that valve's internals were always in a troubled state. The only shame is that they keep making the same mistakes they did almost 20 years ago, despite holding some of the greatest talent in the gaming industry.
Man, I'm really on the fence. I play console mostly these days, but I came reeeeal close to dropping $2k+ (CDN) to build an up to date PC and get a VR set almost entirely just to play Alyx. Had the parts picked out and everything. Like many others HL was a massive part of my childhood so I was willing to do quite a bit to get into that world again. I thought better of it finally, and spent a fraction of that instead buying a series S and a super sweet monitor (which I'm really quite happy with tbh) - very little else in VR interests me, except maybe racing sims. But when I see clips of Alyx I long to play. Real real bad.
@@SquareNoggin Yeah I had the same thoughts, until I experienced what VR has to offer lol. Now my favorite online shooter is PavlovVR and Onward. Plus if you're a horror freak like me VR has some good titles.
The character retconning in HL2 really hurts the game. Playing as Gordon Freeman in the first HL, you were able to be whatever type of character you desired. Were you the most benevolent person in Black Mesa helping every security officer and scientist to escape? Were you the most sociopathic asshole in the entire place killing every single person who stood in your path to the surface once all hell broke loose? Were you even a scientist, or were you a spy on a suicide mission in cahoots with the materials transporter sent in there to ensure that a resonance cascade opened and the military could scoop up some alien biological weapons? Will you side with the G-Man or against him? That was a huge part of the fun, but in HL2 you are just this stereotypical good guy - friend and hero to everybody - and you have absolutely no choice in the matter.
djhenyo I feel like hl2 really just does reflect your position- that ultimately that ending to hl1 HAMMERED THE CONSEQUENCES of your decision. You appear to be helping them, people who see you as their fighting spirit but is unknown of the chess master behind your back. You don't get much choices and it is linear- consequently you have to be the hero, now a mute person who does not speak-perhaps it is out of obligation of his employers.
@@djhenyo and that is my point! I'm sorry if I didn't communicate about it properly, but at this point Freeman is a god-like figure among the rebels and a puppet for G-Man. In a way, he is a contract killer that comes out when the need facilitates it. HL2's ending shows freeman locked in an indefinite state of stasis that might have continued if not for the vortigaunts. The point is, he cannot turn his backs on these people; the G-Man is a manipulator who has his own employers, so Gordon could just be acting under G-Man's orders and this comes across as narrowly linear. But I understand and fully content to your point. I loved Fallout games for that reason, especially New Vegas, that each encounter's aftermath is talked about in the game's ending. I, like you, wish there was this open-world aspect. But it seems to be impossible.
@@rumraket38 there are some chapters where I prefer the 1998 version, but anomalous materials, questionable ethics and xen are definitely waay better then the original
Wow! Amazing work. It's a shame Valve were not interested in being involved, but that, as always, was made up by the awesome work from the community. Thank you also for the mention!
nightcabbage/KillSmith here. I used to come to LambdaGen all the time but stopped checking because it seemed the site was dead. Are you spinning up again? :)
"That theres a virtual reality project centered around the Half-Life universe that may or may not still be in development" Half Life Alyx: Welp, im here now.
I spent $72 on a custom decal for my wall in the garage, it is an orange Lambda and the circle is replaced with quote, "The right man in the wrong place makes all the difference in the world Mr. Freeman" My wife was pissed. Its hard to imagine the story just died...
It's crazy we live in this time where everything is a derivative reboot of some classic American thing: DC/Marvel comic hero movies, remakes of Resident Evil 1&2, but with all the buzz across the world about Half Life, the company that owns it isn't dropping a product into a ready-made market of hungry fans who would throw their money at Valve for the next chapter.
@@AlexHand Because unlike those other companies, Valve doesn't need to do it to get money. They are perfectly fine doing their own thing as long as Steam is alive.
Jacob Shirley don’t dare to give me hope if there is none. Ok, seriously now, I am 52, statistically I have another 22 years left. Please, valve, make it happen before! 😬
Throughout the video, I've heard the developers say "I loved what we were doing" "We were having fun" "What do the customers want?". They were in an era where the passion and the community mattered.
We are at the front end of a fresh era IMO. Indie game developers have better access to their customers than before and many of them are doing pretty exciting work.
And as we know, no game developer since 1997 has had passion or cared about the community. There was tons of soulless cash grab bullshit back then, it just doesn't last in the zeitgeist, so all that remains in memories is the good.
Two disingenuous shills ignoring the obvious issues with aaa game dev and indie game dev today, here's a tip, the focus on art and the accessibility of simply made games using engines allows for those incapable of making something with complexity and programming of systems, to make something that is just standard cookie cutter garbage, there is no love for the games anymore because the people who make games either care exclusively about the money. Or they want to be an "artist" and use it as a platform to expouse some shallow ideology or show off their totally unique and special art style, instead of making something with actual substance. Those who disagree either want to be a contrarian or they are part of the issue that I'm describing. Making games easy to design makes the market flooded with effortless garbage since it's the best way to make money with no effort and it's possible to do this when it wasn't before. 99 percent of the human debris wants only to be an animal trying to profit by copying concepts that have succeeded before because their lives are simply to self perpetuate, no value or meaning.
@joeruder the only indie games I like are the complex ones like df, and foreign obscure games like lifeweb and tarkov. 99 percent of the devs today are absolute trash mindless script kiddies who can't make anything more complex than simplistic instantiated code with no complex overarching systems and object based modulation beyond the system that is provided for them with engines. I've worked with these people and all they do is take some instance and put specifically what is needed for it, without any underlying systems or allowances for growth, they make exactly what's needed and nothing more such that you can't build on it, it's the worst possible way to design games. These people are all asset creators and the companies figure they could save money by having artists be the developers too, to all of our disappointment.
These things still matter to smaller teams. The problem is that a lot of the success stories of yesteryear turned into giant traded corporations that have had their original developer CEOs retire and the board have ushered in moneymakers from other parts of the tech industry. It's sad, but this is what happens when something is in such high demand. In the 90s, there werent a lot of us playing PC games, but there was enough for these small teams to make bank on a banger. These big companies arent trying to entertain a niche audience, they want to entertain every gamer there is, which means bland gameplay that isnt exactly satisfying to any one gamer, but mainly the casuals that make up the biggest slice of the market
Not really. This is so jumpy and lacking in focus. Couldnt keep it relevant and it becomes confusing often. If you want to make a doc about counter strike just do that man. Click bait crap really.
Shout out to my dad who introduced me to this game when I was about 10. I'm now finishing up my bachelors degree in I.T. and I'm looking to break into a career in software development. This game series, which premiered a year after I was born, really did inspire me :)
I was 6 and I remember my dad playing it for the first time with family, I hid under the table when the first headcrab teleported, I remember seeing my mom turning to my dad with a concerned face when we saw a guard get torn apart by a laser, I remember trying to save the security guard on the anomalous materials entrance with my sister and actually managed to glitch out the game and had the barney stand on the platform without the threat of falling again. I finished the game alone at a much later age but i can say it was the only time that my family ever gathered around a pc and just have a genuine good time. As time went on I grew distant to them even though we lived under the same roof and videogames, as a subject, is frowned upon but I do understand why that is. This is why the half-life franchise has a place in my heart, it reminded me of a time where everything was so much simpler and innocent. i thank you for this documentary, seeing the developer side (not valve necessarily) of things does help make me accept how the franchise will eventually go and if project borealis will be the last nail to the coffin I think I'll be totally okay with it. I just wish valve would make a gesture that would bring the HL community closure that we so badly need.
Geoff is a real one for keeping a huge secret that long, and you could see he couldn't handle the torture in here AND in the video where he announces the game. He felt relieved. Such a wholesome dude lol
so interesting to watch this after Half-life: Alyx release. seeing how people were talking about the possibilities of VR and other things is hilarious now.
I had seriously never played Half Life until 2021 and this game packed more suspense, amazing story telling with bare minimum screwing with the main character, not to mention the absolutely FANTASTIC voice clips between Morgan, the scientists, guards, and military. It's nuts that a game from 1998 has more suspense and draw to it than a 2020-2021 game. WAY TO GO
Morgan Freeman, in the flesh-or, rather, in the hazard suit. I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons. Most of them were government property. As for the suit, I think you've earned it. The border-world, Xen, is in our control, for the time being, thanks to you. Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there; I am impressed. That's why I'm here, Mr. Freeman. I have recommended your services to my... employers, and they have authorized me to offer you a job. They agree with me that you have limitless potential. You've proved yourself a decisive man so I don't expect you'll have any trouble deciding what to do. If you're interested, just step into the portal and I will take that as a yes. Otherwise, well, I can offer you a battle you have no chance of winning. Rather an anticlimax after what you've just survived.
I finally played through it in 2022, but the funny thing about this is that I’ve been playing multiplayer Half-Life 1 mods on-and-off since 2002. It was actually indescribably surreal for me, suddenly being exposed to the true original context of soooo many of these very specific elements and mechanics and assets and models and sound effects that I’d deeply absorbed into my brain over literally twenty years. Just a suuuper weird but fantastically neat experience, feeling completely and intimately familiar with so much of this _thing,_ while also simultaneously discovering it as a startlingly brand new thing (that’s incredibly unique and good) at the same time. Really, really cool.
I had played Half-Life in 2001, and loved it. Years later when internet was widely available in India and I got into gaming I realised how huge a deal Half-Life really was. I then played Half-Life 2 in 2016. Thanks.
My favourite gaming moment ever was from the AI in half-life I had a few marines after me, so I ran into a room for cover, expecting them to follow me in and I’d pump a few shotgun rounds into them! Well they didn’t follow me in, instead they threw in some grenades and took me out! I’ve never experienced that since then from any other FPS !
They removed it because playtesters would get it stuck on the environment and then think they were Gordon. I swear that Valve hired the dumbest playtesters possible.
If you want something similar I suggest reading final hours of half life alyx. It was made by Geoff and goes into detail what the hell valve was doing all these years.
That's something I always see getting overlooked, which is a shame. HL used music in a way that I always respect and appreciate: as needed. It was an enhancement more than a soundtrack. Where a Doom would constantly have music playing, HL would make you wait until you launched a satellite into orbit, making an already memorable moment even more so.
Plus, what is in fact really special is that Bailey did the OST as well as the sound effects, which makes the sound design of HL remarkably consistent in its vision and atmosphere. It's not often the sound design and soundtrack are done by the same person and therefore draw from the same palette in the way that HL does.
Has any other piece of media had a character that held such an important place in the hearts of so many people, while never saying a word or who's face is invisible to the audience? Games have so much potential for storytelling goddamn.
@@zybch considering the effort they put in every other aspect of the story, i find it pretty dishonest to call the lack of a voiced protag emblematic of lazy storytelling
Really great documentary as always. Also i am a bit disagree with Robert Yang about the possible future of Half-Life 3. Yes, most of the AAA game publishers are pushing open world games or online services, BUT Doom (2016) showed that the old formula for a single player fps game still works. And also don't forget in recent years the biggest selling point for a movie or game is nostalgia... :)
@Rokor In current gaming climate and the hype and memes around HL3 - there almost no way to meet up the expectations of everyone, because HL3 has to be “the best game in the universe”.
But the game is still alive even in its absence for that exact reason. If Valve does that, the game would die, and every idea or inspiration will just seem lifeless. However, I still want a half life game from Valve, not from fans. (I'll still play the fanmade games)
They tried multiple times, but every time, they felt it wasn't good enough to live up the overhype. About one year ago, one of the main writors of Half-Life released some short story with hints implying that Valve wasn't working on it anymore. Plus all the former employees that have worked on the HL series are gone, so... welp.
@@pierreprezelin If that was the case, Valve would've stated it, if it's over they'd say so., unless they enjoy the attention they're getting from this. (Come to think about it, Valve would go in oblivion if they say half life is over)
Wrecker DeeZ laidlaw made it quite clear that they’re not working on it anymore. Not only that, he implied that they don’t care for the franchise and aren’t passionate about it like the fans Are. But I see what you mean. Why wouldn’t they just come out and say sorry we aren’t working on it? If you ask me, I think something sketchy went down during development. Something that they don’t want to speak about. It can’t be as simple as that they don’t think they can live up to hype. That’s ridiculous they’d just admit defeat. No be all shady and refuse to speak on the subject.
2000 "This adds up to 20 or 30 dollars because of all these pieces in it" 2019 "This adds up to 60 dollars because it allows you to access the server where you can buy the rest of the game for 40 dollars"
Well there were version changes to the games too. As a TFC-fan I know we got screwed, when those "hardcore CS players" complained so much, that they removed bunnyhopping for the entire engine - including TFC and Half-life. CS got a set release before some other changes happened too. And you saw that Condition Zero mess. Many old games, by the by, have game breaking moments and glitches in them too.
@@revisit8480 That’s what I don’t miss.However developers have gotten a bit lazy these days because they know they can fix everything with updates.Not to mention all the “DLC” controversies where they remove chunks of the main story in some games.
I am an original Half-Life player since the day the game was released. I ran to the store from school and got my game. When I fired it up after dinner and started playing it was an insanely strong permanent memory. I own the 33,279th copy, which obviously isn't as impressive as the first but its at the spot where it's still in the first run of games ever distributed. When i watched this documentary a few years ago it brought me to tears. I watch it every single year around Christmas time and it still brings me to tears every time. It makes me feel like I played a large part in the game that changed the gaming world forever, which we all did. Very amazing documentary. I will continue to watch every single year because this evokes such strong emotion. It nearly brings back the emotions i experienced the first time i ever played through the game. On top of all the memories I have with it and I still continue to play the game to this day. Thank you.
1:00:49 "I don't really know how much they think about the Half-Life stuff any more" Geoff you sly son of a gun. How did he keep a straight face there?
@@adambombzify I had no idea another half-life had come out until I was going through the comments the other night 😂 But that’s the same shit eatin grin I get when I have some sort of huge news
It's a small thing, but I was relieved to see you guys skip over the subject of Half-Life 2 being leaked and all. A lot of HL documentaries drag their feet over the same topics in a linear order of Valve's history. Glad you stuck to your theme of inspiration and didn't wander off.
@@olatot Hello. What I understood is that he meant every documentary focuses too much on leaks and rumors about new "half life" titles only to get cancelled or buried later. If I'm mistaken, then I apologize. Please, explain and correct me. Thank you.
@@PalaceDude u r wrong. The comment was talking about how every documentary about Half Life gets to the point where it talks about the "Half Life 2 Leak", if u don't know what i'm talking about google it. But in summary, basically the original Half Life 2 was WAY different to the one we actually know, like a few months before Half Life 2 was released some hacker leaked the ENTIRE game on the internet, most likely he almost ruined Valve and could have caused the break of the company. Valve could barely recompose after that.
@@PalaceDude EuroGamer page has a very complete summary of what happened in a written documentary, i believe it is called something like "The guy who stole Half Life"
A moment of Silence.... For those who we used to knew and waited for more than 11yrs well now 13, yet too late because their are gone and never got to see the light of day of a HL3... So I want to share a story. It was back during college, My late best friend made 2 CD-R of HL2 on Bix Video.EXE. man when I first saw those game play trailer, I honestly couldn't believe it at all that this is what the game really looks like. Unbelievable. My late best friend and I played the first game when it was fresh, we bought the box too, and Opposing force also blue shift, and yes we bought Counter-Strike too. amazing gameplay it was. Also downloaded games like They Hunger and of course our favorite, Action Half-life. These game experience will never leave our life ever. their the best time of our life next to any other daily activity like Kickball, and baseball, water gun and freeze tag. but when HL2 came out, lol shit man, he brought his PC over, and we will play it side by side, even if it wasn't Co-op or any, but later on there was death match. yeah we waited for anything, even the demo too. I've played Alyx the VR and when that ending game around. It felt like a hit in my soul. I had a picture of my late best friend and looked at it. "Well Kemill looks like this might be it. This might be HL3 we'll all be waiting for." I tell ya man, nothing hit harder than a childhood memory. Love you Kemill A. Soto 1984-2007
Thanks for sharing your story. I was too affected by HL, tho I started with Half life 2 as im born in 1997. Couldnt believe that that a game, such a Engine exists. So I played HL 1 & bought CS and then the Orange Box. Im almost 24 now
RIP that was kind & I can relate. Won't tell my similar story but I felt that. Stay blessed & game on...you'll be gaming together in heaven but til then take care. Peace...
The Half Life series and its spinoffs (CS, DOD etc) stole sooooo many hours of my 20's and 30's. Especially CS at internet cafes in 2000-2001. Now I'm 41 and my son plays HL2!
I once found a stuffed head-crab toy at a game store with my nephew. He had no idea what the hell it was. I showed him Half Life just as my dad showed me as a kid when it first came out. Good times
I wouldn't say the Half-Life series was the best games Ive ever played, but it's definitely the most nostalgic. I remember borrowing Half-Life off my brothers friend and playing it on my piece of garbage PC, but it was able to run no issue. When Half Life 2 came around, that wasn't the case. My computer was BARELY able to run it, hitting around 5 frames per second. Had to wait until the Orange Box came out on the Xbox 360 to be able to play it in all its glory. I still play the Half-Life games every couple years. Let's hope for a new Half-Life in the coming years!
I played HL2 on the original Xbox and later replayed it on the PC. Aside from a better frame rate and a few improved effects the two versions were very similar. It's a shame Valve can't dip into those very deep pockets and help fund the Unreal 4 version.
Gosh this doc was great. Such a wonderful group of committed people (including you) with such warmth and love for such a great game. Well done, yet again.
I cannot even express how revolutionary Half Life 2 and their physics engine was when it came out. It changed everything. I was in middle school at the time, and I remember everyone talking about how cool it was just shooting barrels in an empty CS:S map, and watching them tumble down a hill. It was a simple time, but the impact of that game still gives me shivers. I played Garry's Mod for years, and the kind of stuff people were building in that game, even in the early builds, was just incredible. One time I joined a server where a guy had built a functioning AT-ST walker from Star Wars that was actually walking with wires and thrusters. It was truly an incredible time to be a gamer.
Far Cry and UT2k3 both had ragdolls and rigid body physics before HL2 launched. HL2 was a good game, but its physics weren't revolutionary. Furthermore, when you're talking about "their physics engine", you're talking about a 3rd party middleware, not something specific to HL2.
I remember the leaked Doom 3 alpha in 2002 had a similar effect on me. Seeing a barrel tumble down the stairs blew my mind back then. Then of course Half-Life 2 came out and took it a lot further.
@@hughJ HL2 physics were on another level compared to those other games. They were truly life-like while in other games you stilled noticed that it's just a game physics. I'd say there are only a few games out there RIGHT NOW that have better physics than HL2.
@@hughJ No one claimed Half-Life 2 invented videogame physics. The physics in Far Cry and UT2K3 were nothing compared to Half-Life 2, and they didn't affect gameplay.
@@aolson1111 "and they didn't affect gameplay." They did in Far Cry. Barrels and logs rolling down hills that can collide with NPCs, boats floating and bouncing across water, etc.
I was born in 1987, i went to a buddies house and his older brother was playing hl and it blew my mind, i ended up getting it a few weeks later, no other game like it at its time. Down the road my firends and i bought hours at the local game store to all play counterstrike on lan a few weeks later, thats when i was born in the grind in counterstrike. I was beyond addicted, eat slept and breathed counterstrike, it was life to me. Before steam, there was WON, the online connection platform. Before i got banned(by my father cause my grades suffered), i put up some insane rounds, went 56-6 on italy, there was a website that had stats of all servers on it, i had highest kdr for a week in the world by cheesing people on oilrig. But man, the best round of counterstrike i ever had, and what i consider to be the best round of all time, i came back from the bathroom to find buy time over, i was playing dust2, i look at the players left, it was 1v9, i thought i was fucked. I ran towards bomb site b and camped near the exit the headed to T spawn, made sure my headphones were on correctly so i had the footsteps on point. A dude walks through, a few headshots before he could react, got his m4. Progressed through the tunnel and played like a bitch lol. I ended up winning the 1v9 with 2 health remaining. I got called a god by my team, got called a cheater by the other. Only if i knew at the time there was a future in esports :(
One of the things I remember playing Half-Life as a kid was that the HEV suit voice always scared me a little. Because of it emotionless and cold voice. You kow, the voice was like: Internal bleeding detected.. User death imminent!! And I was like: Why are you so chill about that?? I'm dying!!
_You kow, the voice was like: Internal bleeding detected.. User death imminent!! And I was like: Why are you so chill about that?? I'm dying!!_ Hahaha... this is an interesting perspective lol
Yes! It was kinda creepy. I use the HEV charger and Health chargers as text notifications and ring tones. And no matter where I am when those sounds go off there is always at least one person that looks up in appreciation.
Valve has always had an impact on me with their games. I grew up with them and I have an inspired indie game dev "studio". Valve will always be in a special place in my heart. This documentary is awesome. I wish to work there at valve in the future sometime.
I watched it with all my family , because the half life franchise was the one who brought us inside the "video game universe" . You did a brilliant job ,we enjoyed every minutes of it and we thank you Noclip. Love from France !
I graduated HS in '95...I fell in love with PC gaming with my parents Amiga 500 in the late '80's...but nothing compared to the moments I experienced playing both HL1 and HL2. This doc had me literally tearing up several times in heartfelt reminiscence thinking of my play-throughs. Who was I dating? What friends shared the experience with me? What shows were on TV at the time? I lived these MODS and this time with such hope before the term 'hype' even existed in the gaming world. I feel so incredibly lucky to have been a 'gamer' in a time of such influence. And yes, I'm sure gamers can say Mario was an incredible influence...but those of us who are now living through our mid-lives and prefered a M&K in our hands, know Mario has nothing on Gordon. Thank you NoClip for knocking this doc out of the park. I love all your content, but this hits more home than any other. And you definitely resonated my cascade.
Well.. I'm old school, and I'm pretty positive that enough people would buy and play a final chapter of the Half-Life saga... in order to get the closure we all want. I haven't upgraded my machines to accommodate the new modern games, and been busy doing other things really, so I'm more than happy to play anything remotely similar to HL2 in quality and style. I just want to know what happens... the ultimate question: Do we win back earth and get rid of the combines? And if so, how? I need this closure in my life... sigh. :P
Yeah the earth was conquered in 7 hours by a verb... "Combine" / or a piece of farming equipment. The Civil Protection videos are pretty funny, if you have not seen them by Ross Scott. Cyber Punk 77 looks interesting.. I hope the efforts of the volunteers doing this latest effort will be enough.
Half-Life came out when I was only 1 year old and yet my friends and I were playing it and the following sequels. And there are still more people joining the fandom going through their first playthrough today, it's legendary and HL3 would still sell
The cancellation of Hostile Takeover sounds... actually like a good thing. The mystery of the G-Man is pretty sacred, and the explanation of who or what he really is deserves the best.
I think one of the main things that was integral to the creation of Half Life was the atmosphere of the 90s in game development. It was a unique period where hardware was getting relatively powerful, for relatively cheap money. You have a few established, solid engines (Quake, obviously) and shareware created an atmosphere of sharing, community and co-operation. You have a few people that are self-taught experts that, above anything else, wanted to create a game; not make money. Consequently, you have a small company, say, less than 20 people; who are passionate...near hobbyists, rather than businessmen, that pursue a concept, not a profit. Those two dozen or so people, share and construct an artistic vision, first and foremost. And what comes from that? Confidence in the product itself. Half Life commands your attention, because it is confident in itself. It has those periods of starkness, of quiet, of reflection that simply define the game, and move it beyond anything else in the marketplace. It doesn't feel the need to grab or beg for your attention. It is what it is, because of the unique environment of its creation; because of the team. The success of Half Life and its sequels can be understood as creating the downfall of Half Life Three. It became so immensely popular; that too many people got involved in developing it, expectations were too high; the audience too broad, demands too high. Too many people involved in it dilutes the original concept that made it so special in the first place. The increasing development of AAA games and hardware remove the initial, narrow focus on atmosphere and feeling; instead shifting to 'showing off' technological capabilities, and trying to please everyone and, importantly, to turn a profit. It's very sad that HL3 will likely never exist, and as Duke Nukem Forever showed us all, it is perhaps better that it doesn't exist. It's better that the game be consigned to design legacy and history, as a profound success that couldn't be followed up, than have it be tarnished. I'm glad and lucky to have played these games in their heyday, and been part of the experience at the time and part of me is sad that it probably won't happen again...but it makes me grateful that I experienced it in the first place.
@@batidasbinaurais-binauralb180 I don’t regularly fuck with my employees livelihoods or leak secrets from my job and refuse to be held financially and legally accountable
@@batidasbinaurais-binauralb180 yeah bro. I've lost count of the number of times I've left usb sticks with porn and work secrets at weird novelty restaurants. And who hasn't physically assaulted david eddings and stolen money from their business partners to prop up other projects? People are just hating, randy isn't actually a fucking creepy monster at all
Hey Danny. I've watched all your stuff since you did a short piece on start select to do with Deus ex. I have struggled for years with my mental health and your documentaries let me escape from my head for awhile, thank you and your awesome
Also, I wanted to say it's really funny how loud you let the "People don't want single-player FPS games anymore!" argument ring in this, while also pointing out how much everyone loved Titanfall 2's story. Also, that's not to mention Doom, the Wolfenstein Renaissance, the Prey reboot, the Bioshock series, how outraged people were at Black Ops 4 not having a story, the near-universal praise the CoD: Modern Warfare trilogy storyline STILL gets, how seriously people take where the Halo story is going, and on and etc. It's an old and tattered argument that was never really true, except for like 2 years around '08...maybe. It's also a moot point. There needs not be any apologetics on the part of Valve or their supporters. I think Laura put it best when she said, "I think they very much wanted to make this game and something...stopped them." That's all that needs to be said. It was a project that hit a wall and everyone moved on without really saying anything. It happens. I'm just grateful we have an excellent community that truly cares about doing their inspiration justice, and very much look forward to playing the finished Borealis game.
"People don't want single-player FPS games anymore!" Well, sales figures and Titanfall 2 market failure prove that point. Many people are favored and nostalgic about SP games, but only small fraction is ready to buy them. And for present day Valve that cares only for money it is the big point.
No-one at Valve wanted to work on HL3, so it was kind of their fault that we never got the third episode. Also, you're absolutely right about single-player still being loved by many today (including myself).
@@BlackShadowLegion I disagree, I think the reason Call of Duty or Battlefield sell more than something like Deus Ex or Prey is because of brand value. There is a large sum of people who would buy a great single-player shooter. It's just that the market is getting smaller year by year just because of the over-saturation of multiplayer shooters and the absence of single-player ones.
What is half life though? I don't have 2 hours to find out! I bought a Valve Index and it came with a free copy of Alyx, but it won't open yet.. This is the next in some old series?. I like THE JOURNEYMAN PROJECT
Eh, I don't think it was meant as a dis. Blood is a fantastic game with a lot of unique aspects but it's fair to say the Build engine games, despite their clear advancements, were still riding Doom's coattails and not moving the genre forward in meaningful ways. Granted he could have picked something actually crappy because there was no shortage of those.
Blood and the other build engine games are more engaging than Doom. Love Doom very much and was the first PC game I ever played but Blood takes the cake tbh.
The only audio hallucinations I can ever recall having were also Half-Life related. I was obsessed with TFC for awhile and I once went camping and I could hear engineers building sentries + some other sounds.
I really appreciate your efford. As a long time Valve fan I feel like people out there care about me. There are people out there that are trying, even more than Valve is.
24:23 When Gordon hit barney with a little suck of the barnacle, he was like "This is a strange way to ask for help Gordon but this hasn't exactly been a normal day".
Seeing this kind of stuff actually makes me kind of sad. You know, how such a big and active fanbase can still celebrate and have so much passion for a game series after all these years despite the complete disdain shown by it's creators. Half Life deserved better... :(
@ davidassinvaderDOTorg. Yeah, no one likes that. But I can't really say i enjoy an amazing story ending on a massive cliffhanger that's obviously going to be continued either. Imagine if "Two Towers" was the last book Tolkien wrote. @ Jacob Gill. How would you agree? Both games was revolutionary in it's own way, not to say immensely popular.
@@JeithKarrett could not have said it better. I'm incredibly satisfied with what Half-Life has accomplished for Valve and gaming as a whole. Valve doesn't ignore it, they just don't look back. They take what they learned and keep moving to try to create something unfathomable. Simply releasing a third installment would not have had the same effect.
blood was like half life before half life, the combat made you think, and you had to react fast, it was kind of a tactical shooter with fast movement speed.
I remember going to church and haveing my friend tell me about this amazing game he had tryed. I was skepticle, since at the time i thaught i had seen it all. I played 3 min, one afternoon.... On the way home i had to have a copy. Half life changed my life. Never enjoyed a game so much, and it was not the play, it was the story! Woah Not a super hero? not a super soldier, Just a scientist trying to get out alive. the premis and story kept me invested the whole way through. Valve No matter how you may have felt about your game it changed the game, in a way developers still cant do today. I
![เปิด อาณาจักร หมื่นล้าน "สาระตั้ม" l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XE0nPF4YkQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for watching our documentary on the legacy of Half-Life! Before you ask, yes we have a number of break-out videos coming from this. We'll have a longer chat with Scott Smith about the history of Counter-Strike, a chat with Geoff about The Game Awards, Cory about God of War and a few more. Look out for those over the coming weeks. We also have a 40-minute behind-the-scenes feature available for Patrons and Channel Subscribers so if you want to watch that and help fund more docs like these, check out our Patreon: patreon.com/noclip - Thanks again for watching. Make sure to hit that like button, subscribe, spam your friends and tell your gran! (Caption inbound. We ordered them a week ago, still waiting. I guess this video was long.)
Make a documentary with Vince Zampella on Call of Duty
Can you give us an alternative to Patreon where we can support you. A number of people are moving away from it.
Half life = revolutionary boring
Thanks lot making these it personally as fan of half life 2 mean lot thank you so much no clip
So many thks no clip bring back my childhood memory 👍
Man Geoff Keighley has a mean poker face. He said in the 'behind Closed Doors at Valve' video that he's been aware of project Alyx for a couple years now meaning that he would have known about it at the time of making this documentary.
When he said he dreams of GabeN coming out with the crowbar at the VGA's or that they didn't have a hi res G-man to use......might be his best acting to date. Although it is a bit telling when he says "what would half life 3 even be at this point," he doesn't mention VR when listing out possibilities, Danny brings it up
Yea I came back just to see what he said, super interesting stuff.
Yeah that's kinda impressive
the best liar
Yeah I paid close attention to his poker face when he talked about what half life could be today! lol 😂 he knew about Half Life Alyx
This documentary is in desperate need of a sequel.
same thought, this is a kind of social pressure, but its totally fair, we need Half Life 3
Final Hours of Alyx covers so much more.
A sequel, and then wait 13 years for the VR only documentary. :)
@@Indignation6 lol this is a site
1:00:21 to think that he knew half life alyx was in development. he's an amazing liar.
The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.
So wake up, Mr. Freeman, wake up and smell the ashes.
@@randomcommenter10_ I didn't see you get on.
The way he says "difff-erence" - so creepy
@@NoclipDocs notice me senpai
Wait for ...me..
50:30 back when I was playing Half Life, I went to get my wisdom teeth taken out
The surgeon was Dr. Freeman (didn't notice the name, when I was awake); coming out of the anesthesia, I hear the concerned voice of the nurse "Tim, doctor Freeman needs you to wake up!"
I thought I was dreaming, and didn't want it to end
Did he look anything like Gordon cause if that was the case that would be even funnier
Looked nothing like him; but coming into the haze/out of unconsciousness, it was all the same
"Tim. This HEV Suit is too small for me. You'll have to take my place in the Test Chamber today."
"honey, doctor freeman wants you to wake up and smell the ashes"
LOL
Thank you for doing this documentary. I was 8 when i came home from school one day to see my dad playing this new game on our family computer. From that day on my life changed. I couldnt stop talking about it at school. I used to draw new map outlines in my notebook and come home to create them in Hammer editor. When i was 15 i emailed Gabe about a "mod making book" for HL2 that was rumored to be released but never was. Another employee at valve answered my mail and asked for my adress. A few weeks later i got a package from valve with two half-life shirts in it, signed by Gabe Newell himself. Im 28 now and I still have them today.
This made me smile so much.
That is fucking amazing 😥
omfgstfuandgtfo I can relate to this a lot. I was probably the same age when I noticed my dad playing half life on the family PC, and I never looked back
Geoff avoiding talking about VR.. He knew!
59:57
@@iplz it's not Geoff
1:01:27
1:01:49 look at that face, he definitely knew
@@emulation2369 IT is Geoff, it's spelled weird. It's not Jeff.
"I dont think my kids ever played Half-life.... I have to go home and fix that." (1:43:30)
Loving that sentence.
[Pulls out crowbar]
That’s how I’d think if I knew my kids never played half life
my Big Brother never let me play half life 1. Still haven't play it as an adult because I forget the whole thing and it wasn't sold on CD anymore, maybe I pick it up from Steam now XD
im sure the kids will love it and sit there to play for 8+ hours... Dad... HOW DO WE DEFEAT THE FLYING BABY???
Great parenting, Vince!
hearing Randy Pitchford talking about how Valve was exploiting them and proceeded to say “we would never do that to any developer” makes me feel like i just drank a gallon of grease
wait why I don’t get it
@@BahpuAgain case of living long enough to see yourself become the villain
@@scxizm I figured, but what did Randy do?
@999steB ok. let me ask the question for the third time.... what has randy done (I know nothing about him)
@999steB holy shit… I thought it would be bad but not CP bad
The term “unforeseen consequences” still sends chills down my spine
I always thought that it sounds so threatening for some reason
Especially when alyx gets possessed
FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES
That, and "Point Insertion"
Anomalous Materials, Questionable Ethics, Our Benefactors
Hey, I'm Robert Yang, I'm in this documentary. Some additional engine politics talk / commentary: It's cool to see Gearbox's side of the story, and the lack of support / communication with Valve is pretty telling but also not unusual -- it's a lot of work to maintain a game engine and support your licensees, that's part of the reason why id Software got out of the engine licensing business, their heart just wasn't really in it. Yet both Half-Life's were driven a lot by their game engine technology, and now in 2018/2019 Valve can't scale to match the usability or feature-set of Unity or Unreal anymore -- while also pushing a VR ecosystem, while also running Steam, while also etc. etc. Project Borealis moving to UE4 is also very telling; Source 2 has technically been available for tinkering (in DOTA2) for years, but at this point, even diehard Valve fans have given up on it, and Valve themselves are using Unity a lot... Really, the only big tech advantage that Valve has left is their VR expertise, which definitely fuels the Half-Life VR rumors, it's basically the best way to rescue the VR game industry at this point.
do you think valve was even allowed to charge people a license for the source engine?
i mean, with goldsrc being a heavily modified version of quake, and source an extension of that, where do they get off charging others and not paying iD?
Go to Robert's channel if the idea of his commentary over playing games, including the Half-Lifes, interests you. Some cool insight into a variety of aspects of level design over there.
First youtube comment that I've really ever read that was actually intelligible and interesting. Thank you.
Wait, Valve are using Unity... ???
@@DiiGiiTAL Dude, everyone is using Unity now, it's the industry standard engine #1. People choose Unreal or Godot or something else only when Unity does not satisfy them for one reason or another. Unreal has a lot of strengths but I don't see it really compete with Unity in any foreseeable future as a mainstream go-to game engine.
I was playing Half Life 2 at a friends house. I got to a puzzle where you're supposed to open a door by going around it and removing a plank that's stuck on the back with the gravity gun.
After a few minutes running back and forth without figuring out the solution, I decided to throw something at the door with the gravity gun.
The door moved, slightly..
I kept running back and forth grabbing a few more things, and then started to throw them at the door. When I ran out of stuff, I'd just hit the door with the gun's alt fire. Meanwhile, my friend laughed at my inability to solve the puzzle.
The door started to swing wildly until it violently opened, the plank flying into the distance behind it.
Then we both said "THAT WAS AWESOME", albeit for different reasons.
I'ts been 14 years, but I'll never forget that moment.
Nice anecdote. This brings me back 20 years, pulling all-nighter's with my best friend and encountering those little nuggets of gaming awesomeness.
Kevin Miles I remember when I was a kid, I played The Orange Box. It was the happiest moment of my life when I got that game for the 360 for Christmas and I remember how terrified I was back in 2007, a little 7 year old kid, of ravenholm. It genuinely terrified me to no end but I remember when I beat it and I got outside the mine shaft back into city 17 and I remember the immense amount of pride I had for overcoming my fear and beating a level that seemed unbeatable. I’ve never had that experience since. And now that I’m an adult, and I have more real world fears to deal with, ravenholm almost feels trivial to me when I play it again. I miss Half-Life...I miss valve.
@@8milestudio Firstly, dat username.
Secondly, dude, I remember seeing there was an achievement on the Orange Box for not letting either of the guys die in the mine defense sequence right as I was getting there, so I saved. I can't tell you how many times I had to reload that save but by gawd, I pulled that shit off. I had never felt that sense of pride in a single achievement up to that point, and rarely since. And it wasn't just for the achievement. Valve had a great way of really building the characters for the players that care to pay close attention, and the two guys in the mine had some excellent banter throughout the level, And then, during the defense sequence, they do callouts to you and each other with their own quirky twists, and when one dies the other reacts in a way that really hits you.
I'm really glad I watched this video tonight.
"The entire industry fundamentally shifted with the release of that demo..." might be the most powerful quote from a dev ever imo. Great interview.
It's astounding how they kept HL: Alyx a secret so well even through all this.
thought exactly the same
Geoff Keighley especially. He would have been writing The Final Hours of Half Life Alyx
Danthony Dwyretano here, the internets busiest gaming documentary maker. Lookin' like he's about to give half life a strong 9 to a light 10 in that yellow flannel.
....Danny is this an alt account?
I THOUGHT THE EXACT SAME THING. WE SEE THROUGH THIS CHARADE FANTANO
No country for strong tens.
I like how at 1:01:50 Jeff knows exactly that Alyx is around the corner, even smiles when saying he doesn't know.
Geoff is a really good poker player. 😁 As a producer of Game Awards he probably know most informations about new games from most studios.
"The bathroom shows you the soul of the game." - Robert Yang, professor, NYU.
"its shit..."
*runs away*
1:00:21 to think that he knew half life alyx was in development. he's an amazing liar.
Why I cam here haha. See the Geoff bits with that new information.
He was probably under a NDA from Valve to not tell anyone under threat of lawsuit. Plenty of companies do it so that no one can take the piss out of their official announcements, so I'm not surprised if that's the case.
1:01:50 His body language purely says "I know stuff you do not and I am going to keep it that way"
loved re-watching that, the man couldn't help but smirk his way through that entire answer :D
Notice he glances to the left a lot, this is a common tell that he's making stuff up, and when he said "I don't know what form it'll be" he did a HUGE amount of blinking. He's probably been prepped for this interview and similar questions, and it's quite incredible he actually did that entire speech so fluently, but his body language is a dead giveaway.
I was born in 1987. I was 12 when I first played Half Life. I remember the excitement of playing Opposing Force... I remember starting Half Life 2 and how overwhelmed I was.
We were a bunch of friends playing counter strike and other mods.
I remember it all so clearly, because Half Life wasn’t just a game for me.
It was THE gaming milestone of my childhood.
I have so many memories and thoughts right now. Thanks for this documentary.
Yup, same here. I was born in '88 and basically had the same experience growing up, HL1 blowing my mind, spending way too much time on CS and other quality mods both official and unofficial back in the day, etc ;)
@@DeathBringer769 Wow, I feel so old! I was born in 1980 so I was 18 when Half-Life was released. I remember having to upgrade my Pentium II system with a Voodoo 3 to be able to play it. I actually bought it twice. I still have the Orange box in my closet with all of the disks.
87 here too! Still playing these games today.
86 here still play 1.6 daily
damn. I was born in 95. started playing 1.6 in 07 just before christmas. (school break, downloaded cs and half life, they were my older brothers) and played daily for a number of years. The few groups I played with slowly broke up over time. Guys moved to console gaming, got busy with families and such. I have always periodically remembered playing 1.6. Last time I played it was hard to find one steady server..
This documentary makes me want to hop on and start the addiction all over again.
Alyx was so amazing, and showed ME personally that Valve still knows how to make a good SP game. It was definitely worth getting VR.
It might not have been the longest game but it was still a super fun experience. I just really hope they make a more fleshed out sequel. There’s so many things they could do
With how valve's internal structure works nowadays, it's honestly a miracle that HL:A was released at all, especially being a new entry in the Half Life franchise. I'd say it's a shame seeing valve fall from it's former glory, but after watching this and reading the final hours of HL:A, it's clear that valve's internals were always in a troubled state. The only shame is that they keep making the same mistakes they did almost 20 years ago, despite holding some of the greatest talent in the gaming industry.
@@underscore_n say more, please
Man, I'm really on the fence.
I play console mostly these days, but I came reeeeal close to dropping $2k+ (CDN) to build an up to date PC and get a VR set almost entirely just to play Alyx. Had the parts picked out and everything. Like many others HL was a massive part of my childhood so I was willing to do quite a bit to get into that world again.
I thought better of it finally, and spent a fraction of that instead buying a series S and a super sweet monitor (which I'm really quite happy with tbh) - very little else in VR interests me, except maybe racing sims.
But when I see clips of Alyx I long to play. Real real bad.
@@SquareNoggin Yeah I had the same thoughts, until I experienced what VR has to offer lol. Now my favorite online shooter is PavlovVR and Onward. Plus if you're a horror freak like me VR has some good titles.
Now... about that beer I owed ya.
Ross Mahon it’s me Gordon Barney from black Mesa sorry for the scare I had to put on a show for the cameras.
The character retconning in HL2 really hurts the game. Playing as Gordon Freeman in the first HL, you were able to be whatever type of character you desired. Were you the most benevolent person in Black Mesa helping every security officer and scientist to escape? Were you the most sociopathic asshole in the entire place killing every single person who stood in your path to the surface once all hell broke loose? Were you even a scientist, or were you a spy on a suicide mission in cahoots with the materials transporter sent in there to ensure that a resonance cascade opened and the military could scoop up some alien biological weapons? Will you side with the G-Man or against him?
That was a huge part of the fun, but in HL2 you are just this stereotypical good guy - friend and hero to everybody - and you have absolutely no choice in the matter.
djhenyo I feel like hl2 really just does reflect your position- that ultimately that ending to hl1 HAMMERED THE CONSEQUENCES of your decision. You appear to be helping them, people who see you as their fighting spirit but is unknown of the chess master behind your back. You don't get much choices and it is linear- consequently you have to be the hero, now a mute person who does not speak-perhaps it is out of obligation of his employers.
@@0Qualit Nope! In the first game you can be the most evil person in the entire story, but in HL2 there is no choice other than being the hero.
@@djhenyo and that is my point! I'm sorry if I didn't communicate about it properly, but at this point Freeman is a god-like figure among the rebels and a puppet for G-Man. In a way, he is a contract killer that comes out when the need facilitates it. HL2's ending shows freeman locked in an indefinite state of stasis that might have continued if not for the vortigaunts. The point is, he cannot turn his backs on these people; the G-Man is a manipulator who has his own employers, so Gordon could just be acting under G-Man's orders and this comes across as narrowly linear.
But I understand and fully content to your point. I loved Fallout games for that reason, especially New Vegas, that each encounter's aftermath is talked about in the game's ending. I, like you, wish there was this open-world aspect. But it seems to be impossible.
1:25:30 In retrospect to what we now know, G-Man just leaving Gordon behind and saying Alyx is my best friend now feels too real.
@magical talking pcj-600 Friendship ended with Freeman?
@Comms That one viral story set back the standing of an entire region on the Earth by centuries lol.
Man I'm So Proud of Crowbar Collective. When you play the Xen levels, you cant expect a more polished version, even if Valve themselves made it.
Xen is probably the most beautiful looking section to any game ive ever played
Complete agreement.
@@rumraket38 there are some chapters where I prefer the 1998 version, but anomalous materials, questionable ethics and xen are definitely waay better then the original
i feel ashamed to have always thought of geoff as some sort of figurehead for the game awards when in reality he's actually a super interesting guy
:O
soo true
Gotta pay the bills somehow...
...get a grip pal. Sounds like looking in the mirror should bring you shame enough
@@brianferry4592 wtf
2:01 yoyo that's me
are you a fangirl tyler?
Even namedropping you at the end.
1:39:26
WHAT IT DO,TYLENOL?
Hey Tyler,
p l a y t i t a n f a l l 2 a l r e a d y
Wow! Amazing work. It's a shame Valve were not interested in being involved, but that, as always, was made up by the awesome work from the community. Thank you also for the mention!
These documentarians should have spread some loot boxes and MTs throughout the production schedule, then Valve would have come running.
I love steam but Valve can go to hell, they've betrayed everything they stood for.
nightcabbage/KillSmith here. I used to come to LambdaGen all the time but stopped checking because it seemed the site was dead. Are you spinning up again? :)
Valve could hire a developer to do the sequel if they don't have the passion for it. They had another developer do the HF1 expansions.
I'm shocked they did not participate.
"That theres a virtual reality project centered around the Half-Life universe that may or may not still be in development"
Half Life Alyx: Welp, im here now.
"We don't play single players shooters anymore"
Doom eternal: hold my beer
@@jackrothrock8438 I like using my copy paste keys too
@@dragoxk4542 I also enjoy being some weird TH-cam comment elitist.
Yeah... nice... a woman gets to be gman’s “best friend” because a gender studies major took control of Half Life... wonderful...
@@mushyroom9569 you stupid or something ?
This is amazing work and I'm super glad that it's officially out and I can share it and show all my friends! You should be proud :D
Thank you for being a patron and helping us fund this work.
"Creativity is the art of hiding your influences" is such a good, razor-sharp quote.
Everytime I watch something Half-Life related, it becomes really hard to hold the tears back.
I feel the same. It was introduced by my best friend and couldn't thank him enough for getting me into PC gaming in general.
Everytime I watch something Half-Life related, I get really hard
I spent $72 on a custom decal for my wall in the garage, it is an orange Lambda and the circle is replaced with quote, "The right man in the wrong place makes all the difference in the world Mr. Freeman" My wife was pissed. Its hard to imagine the story just died...
You are not alone and I am a six foot Merican Man
Gay
Watching this in a post Alyx and post complete black mesa world is just...unreal
Actually it's Source ;)
@@MrSnaztastic good pun
@@MrSnaztastic very cleaver and well played
GoldSrc comment, my friend.
@@MrSnaztastic Cleverly done, Mr Freeman.
Doom did it, so can Half Life.
Black Mesa Xen should be pretty great
PREACH
Bethesda did it, does not mean Valve can.
It's crazy we live in this time where everything is a derivative reboot of some classic American thing: DC/Marvel comic hero movies, remakes of Resident Evil 1&2, but with all the buzz across the world about Half Life, the company that owns it isn't dropping a product into a ready-made market of hungry fans who would throw their money at Valve for the next chapter.
@@AlexHand Because unlike those other companies, Valve doesn't need to do it to get money. They are perfectly fine doing their own thing as long as Steam is alive.
"Can't make a bad game if you don't make any games".....VALVE
"We make games. It's just that those games are stepping stones to actually good games, and so you just gotta be patient."
Jacob Shirley don’t dare to give me hope if there is none. Ok, seriously now, I am 52, statistically I have another 22 years left. Please, valve, make it happen before! 😬
Randy Pitchford unable to make eye contact when he talks about exploitative behavior makes sense knowing what we know now.
The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.
“Greasy bastard” -Civvie-11
are you saying that you think randy is lying?
@@romeodavis1052 he IS lyingm
What?
Throughout the video, I've heard the developers say "I loved what we were doing" "We were having fun" "What do the customers want?". They were in an era where the passion and the community mattered.
We are at the front end of a fresh era IMO. Indie game developers have better access to their customers than before and many of them are doing pretty exciting work.
And as we know, no game developer since 1997 has had passion or cared about the community.
There was tons of soulless cash grab bullshit back then, it just doesn't last in the zeitgeist, so all that remains in memories is the good.
Two disingenuous shills ignoring the obvious issues with aaa game dev and indie game dev today, here's a tip, the focus on art and the accessibility of simply made games using engines allows for those incapable of making something with complexity and programming of systems, to make something that is just standard cookie cutter garbage, there is no love for the games anymore because the people who make games either care exclusively about the money. Or they want to be an "artist" and use it as a platform to expouse some shallow ideology or show off their totally unique and special art style, instead of making something with actual substance. Those who disagree either want to be a contrarian or they are part of the issue that I'm describing. Making games easy to design makes the market flooded with effortless garbage since it's the best way to make money with no effort and it's possible to do this when it wasn't before. 99 percent of the human debris wants only to be an animal trying to profit by copying concepts that have succeeded before because their lives are simply to self perpetuate, no value or meaning.
@joeruder the only indie games I like are the complex ones like df, and foreign obscure games like lifeweb and tarkov. 99 percent of the devs today are absolute trash mindless script kiddies who can't make anything more complex than simplistic instantiated code with no complex overarching systems and object based modulation beyond the system that is provided for them with engines. I've worked with these people and all they do is take some instance and put specifically what is needed for it, without any underlying systems or allowances for growth, they make exactly what's needed and nothing more such that you can't build on it, it's the worst possible way to design games. These people are all asset creators and the companies figure they could save money by having artists be the developers too, to all of our disappointment.
These things still matter to smaller teams. The problem is that a lot of the success stories of yesteryear turned into giant traded corporations that have had their original developer CEOs retire and the board have ushered in moneymakers from other parts of the tech industry. It's sad, but this is what happens when something is in such high demand. In the 90s, there werent a lot of us playing PC games, but there was enough for these small teams to make bank on a banger. These big companies arent trying to entertain a niche audience, they want to entertain every gamer there is, which means bland gameplay that isnt exactly satisfying to any one gamer, but mainly the casuals that make up the biggest slice of the market
This is just unbelievable work on every level, from production to logistics. Truly inspiring.
Thank you so much, you are too kind!
Earreaa
9L
@@spenserhudson1160 This comment made no sense to anyone hence no one replied
Not really.
This is so jumpy and lacking in focus. Couldnt keep it relevant and it becomes confusing often.
If you want to make a doc about counter strike just do that man.
Click bait crap really.
I've played Half Life for Half Life...
I rarely comment on TH-cam videos but won't pass this one. Great documentary and such a great effort to bring it to life. Just "woow" job.
Thank you!
1:47:00 Damn, that dialog at the end had deeper meaning than what I thought.
Shout out to my dad who introduced me to this game when I was about 10. I'm now finishing up my bachelors degree in I.T. and I'm looking to break into a career in software development. This game series, which premiered a year after I was born, really did inspire me :)
Keep the crowbar close!
Ever need a voice actor for a project here's one.
I T? What's that?
I was 6 and I remember my dad playing it for the first time with family, I hid under the table when the first headcrab teleported, I remember seeing my mom turning to my dad with a concerned face when we saw a guard get torn apart by a laser, I remember trying to save the security guard on the anomalous materials entrance with my sister and actually managed to glitch out the game and had the barney stand on the platform without the threat of falling again. I finished the game alone at a much later age but i can say it was the only time that my family ever gathered around a pc and just have a genuine good time. As time went on I grew distant to them even though we lived under the same roof and videogames, as a subject, is frowned upon but I do understand why that is. This is why the half-life franchise has a place in my heart, it reminded me of a time where everything was so much simpler and innocent.
i thank you for this documentary, seeing the developer side (not valve necessarily) of things does help make me accept how the franchise will eventually go and if project borealis will be the last nail to the coffin I think I'll be totally okay with it. I just wish valve would make a gesture that would bring the HL community closure that we so badly need.
"videogames, as a subject, is frowned upon but I do understand why that is"
weird to say that without explanation
"Time Dr Freeman? ... Is it really that... time again? It seems as if. You only just. Arrived..."
Is that your favorite as well? = )
This documentary is 1:47:53
47:53
53
3
The numbers, Mason! What do they mean?!
I was going to like the comment... but it has 3 likes.
@@pickmick9643 i was going to like your comment...but it has 3 likes.
@@abgmuhdfarmeezulterminator8865 i was going to like your comment... but it has 3 likes
Half-Life 3 confirmed in 2053.
A lot of this is like watching filmmakers admiring a great classic film that they all wish they had made, it's awesome to see the respect.
Geoff is a real one for keeping a huge secret that long, and you could see he couldn't handle the torture in here AND in the video where he announces the game. He felt relieved. Such a wholesome dude lol
Haha yeah, I feel bad for him actually. The pressure to hide Half Life: Alyx must be immense
i mean the franchise is HUGE. having to keep a new game of this a secret for so long is torture
Yeah. It's hard keeping a game bigger than all games "combine"d.
Totally agree. His cover at 1:00:50 is honestly super good. I bet he'd be a good poker player.
But at the end of his segment saying he doesnt know what form it will be he's got a cheesy grin going on lol@@Drummaniac17
Wow, I never realized the meta subtext of that Black Mesa dialogue bit at the very end. Brilliant
I get it too ! hahahhah
Holy crap. All these playthroughs, and now I see the subtext.
Maybe it's because it's 5 AM and I'm exhausted, but I don't get it. What's the subtext? That the experiment is the mod?
@@metatrontf More or less.
so interesting to watch this after Half-life: Alyx release. seeing how people were talking about the possibilities of VR and other things is hilarious now.
Gearbox "Things we would never do to any other developer", I think Aliens: CM team and Sega would beg to differ.
I had seriously never played Half Life until 2021 and this game packed more suspense, amazing story telling with bare minimum screwing with the main character, not to mention the absolutely FANTASTIC voice clips between Morgan, the scientists, guards, and military. It's nuts that a game from 1998 has more suspense and draw to it than a 2020-2021 game. WAY TO GO
Morgan Freeman, in the flesh-or, rather, in the hazard suit. I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons. Most of them were government property. As for the suit, I think you've earned it.
The border-world, Xen, is in our control, for the time being, thanks to you. Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there; I am impressed.
That's why I'm here, Mr. Freeman. I have recommended your services to my... employers, and they have authorized me to offer you a job. They agree with me that you have limitless potential.
You've proved yourself a decisive man so I don't expect you'll have any trouble deciding what to do. If you're interested, just step into the portal and I will take that as a yes. Otherwise, well, I can offer you a battle you have no chance of winning. Rather an anticlimax after what you've just survived.
Morgan? A hel naw man
When I first saw Nihilanth, he looked like a stiff breeze would knock him over.
Same, played it in 2019 and it wasn't "good for a 20 year old game" it was a GOOD GAME
I finally played through it in 2022, but the funny thing about this is that I’ve been playing multiplayer Half-Life 1 mods on-and-off since 2002. It was actually indescribably surreal for me, suddenly being exposed to the true original context of soooo many of these very specific elements and mechanics and assets and models and sound effects that I’d deeply absorbed into my brain over literally twenty years.
Just a suuuper weird but fantastically neat experience, feeling completely and intimately familiar with so much of this _thing,_ while also simultaneously discovering it as a startlingly brand new thing (that’s incredibly unique and good) at the same time. Really, really cool.
I had played Half-Life in 2001, and loved it. Years later when internet was widely available in India and I got into gaming I realised how huge a deal Half-Life really was. I then played Half-Life 2 in 2016. Thanks.
15:38 "Their AI wasn't that revolutionary but it was"
Makes me think of the meme "I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens"
That dude is kinda annoying tbh
@@Waff3n I don't wanna say he his but he is
My favourite gaming moment ever was from the AI in half-life I had a few marines after me, so I ran into a room for cover, expecting them to follow me in and I’d pump a few shotgun rounds into them! Well they didn’t follow me in, instead they threw in some grenades and took me out! I’ve never experienced that since then from any other FPS !
Did anyone see the Half-life cockroach meme that shows it has better AI then Cyberpunks?🤣
Has he not seen marphitmusblackimus youtube channel? The AI is still smarter than modern game AI!
1:00:07 "Or just a Vive game where you wave a crowbar around." I'll bet they saw this and removed the crowbar out of spite.
They removed it because playtesters would get it stuck on the environment and then think they were Gordon.
I swear that Valve hired the dumbest playtesters possible.
So, where's part two of this doc?
@Patricio Flores Difilipo in todash space with pennywise and Maturin the giant turtle?
You won’t get a word out of no clip about it
If you want something similar I suggest reading final hours of half life alyx. It was made by Geoff and goes into detail what the hell valve was doing all these years.
@FARISH ADRIAN BIN MOHAMMAD FIKRI Moe Half life Alyx has already been released by valve.. but you need a VR headset
@FARISH ADRIAN BIN MOHAMMAD FIKRI Moe watch the ending on Here on TH-cam, it is half life 3
CS, Half Life 2 and Battlefield 2 multiplayer on PC was the happiest gaming years for me
No mention of Kelly Bailey? The HL soundtrack is just as timeless as the game. This was fun to watch, thanks.
That's something I always see getting overlooked, which is a shame. HL used music in a way that I always respect and appreciate: as needed. It was an enhancement more than a soundtrack. Where a Doom would constantly have music playing, HL would make you wait until you launched a satellite into orbit, making an already memorable moment even more so.
WinterSoldier LTE right on dude
Plus, what is in fact really special is that Bailey did the OST as well as the sound effects, which makes the sound design of HL remarkably consistent in its vision and atmosphere. It's not often the sound design and soundtrack are done by the same person and therefore draw from the same palette in the way that HL does.
@@JimJansen91 that's awesome! The crowbar clang brings happiness the world over :)
cant seek out everyone.
I will always want a proper end to Gordon's story.
Gordon became a damn legend now just because the LACK of an ending. Not sure if we do want this story to end, and Freeman's name forgotten with it.
Well, Gertie Fremont has got her end...
Has any other piece of media had a character that held such an important place in the hearts of so many people, while never saying a word or who's face is invisible to the audience?
Games have so much potential for storytelling goddamn.
Thats not storytelling. Its being lazy or too incompetent to tell a story so you let the audience do it themselves.
@@zybch considering the effort they put in every other aspect of the story, i find it pretty dishonest to call the lack of a voiced protag emblematic of lazy storytelling
just watched valve's half life 25th anniversary documentary. so well done. i'm glad they answered your call back finally.
Really great documentary as always. Also i am a bit disagree with Robert Yang about the possible future of Half-Life 3. Yes, most of the AAA game publishers are pushing open world games or online services, BUT Doom (2016) showed that the old formula for a single player fps game still works. And also don't forget in recent years the biggest selling point for a movie or game is nostalgia... :)
Yeah Activisions are basically printing money with the crash and spyro remakes
I hope that there will not be HL3. Let’s make new games and stop milking a dead horse and let at least one franchise die with dignity.
@@3rdHalf1 dumbass alert
@Rokor In current gaming climate and the hype and memes around HL3 - there almost no way to meet up the expectations of everyone, because HL3 has to be “the best game in the universe”.
wedgeGTX And Wolfenstein
The problem isn't that there is no Half-Life 3. The problem is that Valve doesn't say "no, we are not working on it.".
But the game is still alive even in its absence for that exact reason. If Valve does that, the game would die, and every idea or inspiration will just seem lifeless. However, I still want a half life game from Valve, not from fans. (I'll still play the fanmade games)
Nah the problem is theres no half life 3
They tried multiple times, but every time, they felt it wasn't good enough to live up the overhype. About one year ago, one of the main writors of Half-Life released some short story with hints implying that Valve wasn't working on it anymore. Plus all the former employees that have worked on the HL series are gone, so... welp.
@@pierreprezelin If that was the case, Valve would've stated it, if it's over they'd say so., unless they enjoy the attention they're getting from this. (Come to think about it, Valve would go in oblivion if they say half life is over)
Wrecker DeeZ laidlaw made it quite clear that they’re not working on it anymore. Not only that, he implied that they don’t care for the franchise and aren’t passionate about it like the fans Are. But I see what you mean. Why wouldn’t they just come out and say sorry we aren’t working on it? If you ask me, I think something sketchy went down during development. Something that they don’t want to speak about. It can’t be as simple as that they don’t think they can live up to hype. That’s ridiculous they’d just admit defeat. No be all shady and refuse to speak on the subject.
2000 "This adds up to 20 or 30 dollars because of all these pieces in it"
2019 "This adds up to 60 dollars because it allows you to access the server where you can buy the rest of the game for 40 dollars"
God the parts with Randy were hard to watch, the greedy twatwaffle
Just look at how extravagant his apartment was, like a monument to his ego, gearbox really has gone downhill since then...
Bruh that was an apartment
He needs a good beat down
@@Kaarl_Mills My favorite Randy part was, "We would never do that to a developer." lololol.
Truly the golden age of video games "I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them."
1:01:53 THE FACE OF A LIAR HAHAHA i couldnt be happier lol
the only liar that we like
He knew lmao
@@Synaeresis maybe Xd
Translated blinks: HAHAHA!!! YOU FOOLS!!! YOU HAVE NO CLUE!!! ALYX IS COMING, TRUST ME!!!
arumteguh todd howard
Hail Dorito Pope.
Back in the good old days when games were actually finished upon release. I miss that.
Same ;m;
Well there were version changes to the games too.
As a TFC-fan I know we got screwed, when those "hardcore CS players" complained so much, that they removed bunnyhopping for the entire engine - including TFC and Half-life.
CS got a set release before some other changes happened too. And you saw that Condition Zero mess.
Many old games, by the by, have game breaking moments and glitches in them too.
@@revisit8480 That’s what I don’t miss.However developers have gotten a bit lazy these days because they know they can fix everything with updates.Not to mention all the “DLC” controversies where they remove chunks of the main story in some games.
Not only can they beta test for fee this way, but get you to PAY to beta test.. how long was PUBG considered early release? 5 years lol?
Unlocking cosmetics and things through achievements was fun too.
"Cling clang cling cling clang"
- Crowbar 2020
That's it, that speech really inspired me to vote for Crowbar for President. I mean, how can you argue with such eloquence, logic and poise?
Randy Pitchford unable to make eye contact when he talks about exploitative behavior makes sense knowing what we know now.
Why dose crowbar have to be so political now
@@igodgaming1705 That really makes no sense in context to the original comment. You replied to the wrong person?
Why crowbar crow
I am an original Half-Life player since the day the game was released. I ran to the store from school and got my game. When I fired it up after dinner and started playing it was an insanely strong permanent memory. I own the 33,279th copy, which obviously isn't as impressive as the first but its at the spot where it's still in the first run of games ever distributed. When i watched this documentary a few years ago it brought me to tears. I watch it every single year around Christmas time and it still brings me to tears every time. It makes me feel like I played a large part in the game that changed the gaming world forever, which we all did. Very amazing documentary. I will continue to watch every single year because this evokes such strong emotion. It nearly brings back the emotions i experienced the first time i ever played through the game. On top of all the memories I have with it and I still continue to play the game to this day.
Thank you.
i could litterally feel my HP regenerating at start
1:00:49 "I don't really know how much they think about the Half-Life stuff any more"
Geoff you sly son of a gun. How did he keep a straight face there?
He had to.
He didn’t.
@@thomasmallory1612 yeah watching this now you can totally tell he's trying to hold back as hard as possible
@@adambombzify I had no idea another half-life had come out until I was going through the comments the other night 😂 But that’s the same shit eatin grin I get when I have some sort of huge news
@@thomasmallory1612 "yeah vr or something" lol meanwhile he was literally working with valve on the game. Funny as shit
It's a small thing, but I was relieved to see you guys skip over the subject of Half-Life 2 being leaked and all. A lot of HL documentaries drag their feet over the same topics in a linear order of Valve's history. Glad you stuck to your theme of inspiration and didn't wander off.
That's exactly what I was thinking. I wouldn't have been able to stand another "Rumor" history about new half life titles. It's been beaten to death.
@@PalaceDude bruh did you even read the comment properly?
@@olatot Hello. What I understood is that he meant every documentary focuses too much on leaks and rumors about new "half life" titles only to get cancelled or buried later. If I'm mistaken, then I apologize. Please, explain and correct me. Thank you.
@@PalaceDude u r wrong. The comment was talking about how every documentary about Half Life gets to the point where it talks about the "Half Life 2 Leak", if u don't know what i'm talking about google it.
But in summary, basically the original Half Life 2 was WAY different to the one we actually know, like a few months before Half Life 2 was released some hacker leaked the ENTIRE game on the internet, most likely he almost ruined Valve and could have caused the break of the company. Valve could barely recompose after that.
@@PalaceDude EuroGamer page has a very complete summary of what happened in a written documentary, i believe it is called something like "The guy who stole Half Life"
A moment of Silence.... For those who we used to knew and waited for more than 11yrs well now 13, yet too late because their are gone and never got to see the light of day of a HL3... So I want to share a story. It was back during college, My late best friend made 2 CD-R of HL2 on Bix Video.EXE. man when I first saw those game play trailer, I honestly couldn't believe it at all that this is what the game really looks like. Unbelievable. My late best friend and I played the first game when it was fresh, we bought the box too, and Opposing force also blue shift, and yes we bought Counter-Strike too. amazing gameplay it was. Also downloaded games like They Hunger and of course our favorite, Action Half-life. These game experience will never leave our life ever. their the best time of our life next to any other daily activity like Kickball, and baseball, water gun and freeze tag. but when HL2 came out, lol shit man, he brought his PC over, and we will play it side by side, even if it wasn't Co-op or any, but later on there was death match. yeah we waited for anything, even the demo too. I've played Alyx the VR and when that ending game around. It felt like a hit in my soul. I had a picture of my late best friend and looked at it. "Well Kemill looks like this might be it. This might be HL3 we'll all be waiting for." I tell ya man, nothing hit harder than a childhood memory. Love you Kemill A. Soto 1984-2007
Thanks for sharing your story. I was too affected by HL, tho I started with Half life 2 as im born in 1997. Couldnt believe that that a game, such a Engine exists. So I played HL 1 & bought CS and then the Orange Box. Im almost 24 now
RIP that was kind & I can relate. Won't tell my similar story but I felt that. Stay blessed & game on...you'll be gaming together in heaven but til then take care. Peace...
The Half Life series and its spinoffs (CS, DOD etc) stole sooooo many hours of my 20's and 30's. Especially CS at internet cafes in 2000-2001. Now I'm 41 and my son plays HL2!
I once found a stuffed head-crab toy at a game store with my nephew. He had no idea what the hell it was. I showed him Half Life just as my dad showed me as a kid when it first came out. Good times
Fuck ..your comment made me feel so fucking old lol
I wouldn't say the Half-Life series was the best games Ive ever played, but it's definitely the most nostalgic.
I remember borrowing Half-Life off my brothers friend and playing it on my piece of garbage PC, but it was able to run no issue.
When Half Life 2 came around, that wasn't the case. My computer was BARELY able to run it, hitting around 5 frames per second. Had to wait until the Orange Box came out on the Xbox 360 to be able to play it in all its glory. I still play the Half-Life games every couple years. Let's hope for a new Half-Life in the coming years!
I played HL2 on the original Xbox and later replayed it on the PC. Aside from a better frame rate and a few improved effects the two versions were very similar. It's a shame Valve can't dip into those very deep pockets and help fund the Unreal 4 version.
I would have accepted at LEAST one advert for this, haha. Fantastic work everyone at Noclip. GG Danny.
Gosh this doc was great. Such a wonderful group of committed people (including you) with such warmth and love for such a great game. Well done, yet again.
I cannot even express how revolutionary Half Life 2 and their physics engine was when it came out. It changed everything. I was in middle school at the time, and I remember everyone talking about how cool it was just shooting barrels in an empty CS:S map, and watching them tumble down a hill. It was a simple time, but the impact of that game still gives me shivers. I played Garry's Mod for years, and the kind of stuff people were building in that game, even in the early builds, was just incredible. One time I joined a server where a guy had built a functioning AT-ST walker from Star Wars that was actually walking with wires and thrusters. It was truly an incredible time to be a gamer.
Far Cry and UT2k3 both had ragdolls and rigid body physics before HL2 launched. HL2 was a good game, but its physics weren't revolutionary. Furthermore, when you're talking about "their physics engine", you're talking about a 3rd party middleware, not something specific to HL2.
I remember the leaked Doom 3 alpha in 2002 had a similar effect on me. Seeing a barrel tumble down the stairs blew my mind back then. Then of course Half-Life 2 came out and took it a lot further.
@@hughJ HL2 physics were on another level compared to those other games. They were truly life-like while in other games you stilled noticed that it's just a game physics. I'd say there are only a few games out there RIGHT NOW that have better physics than HL2.
@@hughJ No one claimed Half-Life 2 invented videogame physics. The physics in Far Cry and UT2K3 were nothing compared to Half-Life 2, and they didn't affect gameplay.
@@aolson1111 "and they didn't affect gameplay." They did in Far Cry. Barrels and logs rolling down hills that can collide with NPCs, boats floating and bouncing across water, etc.
I was born in 1987, i went to a buddies house and his older brother was playing hl and it blew my mind, i ended up getting it a few weeks later, no other game like it at its time. Down the road my firends and i bought hours at the local game store to all play counterstrike on lan a few weeks later, thats when i was born in the grind in counterstrike. I was beyond addicted, eat slept and breathed counterstrike, it was life to me. Before steam, there was WON, the online connection platform. Before i got banned(by my father cause my grades suffered), i put up some insane rounds, went 56-6 on italy, there was a website that had stats of all servers on it, i had highest kdr for a week in the world by cheesing people on oilrig.
But man, the best round of counterstrike i ever had, and what i consider to be the best round of all time, i came back from the bathroom to find buy time over, i was playing dust2, i look at the players left, it was 1v9, i thought i was fucked. I ran towards bomb site b and camped near the exit the headed to T spawn, made sure my headphones were on correctly so i had the footsteps on point. A dude walks through, a few headshots before he could react, got his m4. Progressed through the tunnel and played like a bitch lol. I ended up winning the 1v9 with 2 health remaining. I got called a god by my team, got called a cheater by the other. Only if i knew at the time there was a future in esports :(
One of the things I remember playing Half-Life as a kid was that the HEV suit voice always scared me a little. Because of it emotionless and cold voice.
You kow, the voice was like: Internal bleeding detected.. User death imminent!!
And I was like: Why are you so chill about that?? I'm dying!!
_You kow, the voice was like: Internal bleeding detected.. User death imminent!! And I was like: Why are you so chill about that?? I'm dying!!_
Hahaha... this is an interesting perspective lol
@DangerSheep MINOR FRACTURE DETECTED
Have a very..safe..day.
Yes! It was kinda creepy. I use the HEV charger and Health chargers as text notifications and ring tones. And no matter where I am when those sounds go off there is always at least one person that looks up in appreciation.
Valve has always had an impact on me with their games. I grew up with them and I have an inspired indie game dev "studio". Valve will always be in a special place in my heart. This documentary is awesome. I wish to work there at valve in the future sometime.
I watched it with all my family , because the half life franchise was the one who brought us inside the "video game universe" . You did a brilliant job ,we enjoyed every minutes of it and we thank you Noclip. Love from France !
Anyone here after Half Life Alyx announcement?
Yup.
Yeah !
59:56
I knew I would find a comment like this
I cried a little. Looks like I gotta get a VR system...
I graduated HS in '95...I fell in love with PC gaming with my parents Amiga 500 in the late '80's...but nothing compared to the moments I experienced playing both HL1 and HL2. This doc had me literally tearing up several times in heartfelt reminiscence thinking of my play-throughs. Who was I dating? What friends shared the experience with me? What shows were on TV at the time? I lived these MODS and this time with such hope before the term 'hype' even existed in the gaming world. I feel so incredibly lucky to have been a 'gamer' in a time of such influence. And yes, I'm sure gamers can say Mario was an incredible influence...but those of us who are now living through our mid-lives and prefered a M&K in our hands, know Mario has nothing on Gordon.
Thank you NoClip for knocking this doc out of the park. I love all your content, but this hits more home than any other. And you definitely resonated my cascade.
The story of you meeting the dr kleiner va is amazing
"everyone has that game that shatters expectations of what games could be"
"pick up that can"
Well.. I'm old school, and I'm pretty positive that enough people would buy and play a final chapter of the Half-Life saga... in order to get the closure we all want. I haven't upgraded my machines to accommodate the new modern games, and been busy doing other things really, so I'm more than happy to play anything remotely similar to HL2 in quality and style. I just want to know what happens... the ultimate question: Do we win back earth and get rid of the combines? And if so, how?
I need this closure in my life... sigh. :P
Agreed. Where is gordon?
I'm the same as you, old school when it comes to gaming.
Yeah the earth was conquered in 7 hours by a verb... "Combine" / or a piece of farming equipment.
The Civil Protection videos are pretty funny, if you have not seen them by Ross Scott.
Cyber Punk 77 looks interesting..
I hope the efforts of the volunteers doing this latest effort will be enough.
Just do a google search for "marc laidlaw epistle 3" - the writer of half-life tells the story of episode 3 :)
Half-Life came out when I was only 1 year old and yet my friends and I were playing it and the following sequels. And there are still more people joining the fandom going through their first playthrough today, it's legendary and HL3 would still sell
I was 19 when started play Half-Life...now i'm 40 and still playing it.
The cancellation of Hostile Takeover sounds... actually like a good thing. The mystery of the G-Man is pretty sacred, and the explanation of who or what he really is deserves the best.
I think one of the main things that was integral to the creation of Half Life was the atmosphere of the 90s in game development. It was a unique period where hardware was getting relatively powerful, for relatively cheap money. You have a few established, solid engines (Quake, obviously) and shareware created an atmosphere of sharing, community and co-operation. You have a few people that are self-taught experts that, above anything else, wanted to create a game; not make money. Consequently, you have a small company, say, less than 20 people; who are passionate...near hobbyists, rather than businessmen, that pursue a concept, not a profit. Those two dozen or so people, share and construct an artistic vision, first and foremost. And what comes from that? Confidence in the product itself. Half Life commands your attention, because it is confident in itself. It has those periods of starkness, of quiet, of reflection that simply define the game, and move it beyond anything else in the marketplace.
It doesn't feel the need to grab or beg for your attention. It is what it is, because of the unique environment of its creation; because of the team. The success of Half Life and its sequels can be understood as creating the downfall of Half Life Three. It became so immensely popular; that too many people got involved in developing it, expectations were too high; the audience too broad, demands too high. Too many people involved in it dilutes the original concept that made it so special in the first place. The increasing development of AAA games and hardware remove the initial, narrow focus on atmosphere and feeling; instead shifting to 'showing off' technological capabilities, and trying to please everyone and, importantly, to turn a profit. It's very sad that HL3 will likely never exist, and as Duke Nukem Forever showed us all, it is perhaps better that it doesn't exist. It's better that the game be consigned to design legacy and history, as a profound success that couldn't be followed up, than have it be tarnished. I'm glad and lucky to have played these games in their heyday, and been part of the experience at the time and part of me is sad that it probably won't happen again...but it makes me grateful that I experienced it in the first place.
Gearbox "Things we would never do to any other developer", I think Aliens: CM team and Sega would beg to differ.
yea fuck randy he is such an asshole
Yeah no disrespect to Danny, but hearing Randy say all that shit about Gabe and Valve, even if it’s true, is hilarious and hypocritical.
@@THEMATTHIAS225 Who are you to judge?
@@batidasbinaurais-binauralb180 I don’t regularly fuck with my employees livelihoods or leak secrets from my job and refuse to be held financially and legally accountable
@@batidasbinaurais-binauralb180 yeah bro. I've lost count of the number of times I've left usb sticks with porn and work secrets at weird novelty restaurants.
And who hasn't physically assaulted david eddings and stolen money from their business partners to prop up other projects?
People are just hating, randy isn't actually a fucking creepy monster at all
Sounds of Half Life always make me sentimental. Such a masterpiece.
Hey Danny. I've watched all your stuff since you did a short piece on start select to do with Deus ex. I have struggled for years with my mental health and your documentaries let me escape from my head for awhile, thank you and your awesome
Also, I wanted to say it's really funny how loud you let the "People don't want single-player FPS games anymore!" argument ring in this, while also pointing out how much everyone loved Titanfall 2's story. Also, that's not to mention Doom, the Wolfenstein Renaissance, the Prey reboot, the Bioshock series, how outraged people were at Black Ops 4 not having a story, the near-universal praise the CoD: Modern Warfare trilogy storyline STILL gets, how seriously people take where the Halo story is going, and on and etc. It's an old and tattered argument that was never really true, except for like 2 years around '08...maybe. It's also a moot point. There needs not be any apologetics on the part of Valve or their supporters. I think Laura put it best when she said, "I think they very much wanted to make this game and something...stopped them." That's all that needs to be said. It was a project that hit a wall and everyone moved on without really saying anything. It happens. I'm just grateful we have an excellent community that truly cares about doing their inspiration justice, and very much look forward to playing the finished Borealis game.
Almost all the ideas that guy listed at that point in the video are the opposite of what most gamers want.
"People don't want single-player FPS games anymore!" Well, sales figures and Titanfall 2 market failure prove that point. Many people are favored and nostalgic about SP games, but only small fraction is ready to buy them. And for present day Valve that cares only for money it is the big point.
No-one at Valve wanted to work on HL3, so it was kind of their fault that we never got the third episode. Also, you're absolutely right about single-player still being loved by many today (including myself).
@@BlackShadowLegion I disagree, I think the reason Call of Duty or Battlefield sell more than something like Deus Ex or Prey is because of brand value. There is a large sum of people who would buy a great single-player shooter. It's just that the market is getting smaller year by year just because of the over-saturation of multiplayer shooters and the absence of single-player ones.
How about Dead Space, Mass Effect, Resident Evil, Deus Ex, Soma, etc, etc. People absolutely still love story driven FPS games.
Watching this again now that Half-Life: Alyx has been unveiled
Geoff Keithley be like new half life game? 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤔🤔
What is half life though? I don't have 2 hours to find out! I bought a Valve Index and it came with a free copy of Alyx, but it won't open yet.. This is the next in some old series?. I like THE JOURNEYMAN PROJECT
NextWorldVR go away
@@ye6942 Would have been easier to simply answer: "Yes". (Or to introduce someone to this thing you seem to love...) Unbelievable: A s s h o l e !
NextWorldVR you’re literally on a documentary about Valve and Half Life, and you’re acting like no one knows what half life is. Shut up
28:38 "Uninspired Doom clones"
>Shows Blood
I dont even like Blood that much and I think that was uncalled for.
dude thank you! thought the same! but i love blood.
Eh, I don't think it was meant as a dis. Blood is a fantastic game with a lot of unique aspects but it's fair to say the Build engine games, despite their clear advancements, were still riding Doom's coattails and not moving the genre forward in meaningful ways. Granted he could have picked something actually crappy because there was no shortage of those.
@@SeekerLancer Blood is a Doom clone, yes... But it is not an uninspired one for sure.
Blood and the other build engine games are more engaging than Doom. Love Doom very much and was the first PC game I ever played but Blood takes the cake tbh.
The only audio hallucinations I can ever recall having were also Half-Life related. I was obsessed with TFC for awhile and I once went camping and I could hear engineers building sentries + some other sounds.
33:33 hl3 secret cd-keys by gman
"AAAAA - AAAAA - AAAAA - AAAAA - AAAAA"
I wonder how that got there?
@@gamesergeanthd Don't "AAAAA" me. Penalty $350.
Icipher AAAAA...B
nice just spotted and managed to freeze it. looks like u got there first tho :)
Tiiimeee?
24:24
*Grabs barnacle* *licks barneys balls*
-okay, i will cover you (frustrated)
lmao
i will never be able to unsee that lmfao
The gold standard of comedic timing with NPC dialog.
I really appreciate your efford. As a long time Valve fan I feel like people out there care about me. There are people out there that are trying, even more than Valve is.
24:23 When Gordon hit barney with a little suck of the barnacle, he was like "This is a strange way to ask for help Gordon but this hasn't exactly been a normal day".
Lmaoooo 😂😂 he's like *Sluuuurp sluurp* "hello"
Seeing this kind of stuff actually makes me kind of sad. You know, how such a big and active fanbase can still celebrate and have so much passion for a game series after all these years despite the complete disdain shown by it's creators. Half Life deserved better... :(
I prefer this over slowly milking a franchise until it's just a lifeless husk of what it once was.
Gabe Newell said that half life was just one of a long list of regrets that he had made, and I am inclined to agree
@ davidassinvaderDOTorg. Yeah, no one likes that. But I can't really say i enjoy an amazing story ending on a massive cliffhanger that's obviously going to be continued either. Imagine if "Two Towers" was the last book Tolkien wrote.
@ Jacob Gill. How would you agree? Both games was revolutionary in it's own way, not to say immensely popular.
@@JeithKarrett could not have said it better. I'm incredibly satisfied with what Half-Life has accomplished for Valve and gaming as a whole. Valve doesn't ignore it, they just don't look back. They take what they learned and keep moving to try to create something unfathomable. Simply releasing a third installment would not have had the same effect.
I can't blame the devs, being honest. They don't make HL3 out of respect, not disrespect.
1:01:53 - Love how he has to push away that smile. HE KNEW.
No.
@@-Zakhiel- No?
@@WorkerAndParasyte No :/
@@-Zakhiel- non’t
apologize for showing blood when talking about "uninspired doom clones"
yeah i was like wtf, blood is the penultimate build engine game
say sike right now
blood was like half life before half life, the combat made you think, and you had to react fast, it was kind of a tactical shooter with fast movement speed.
I remember going to church and haveing my friend tell me about this amazing game he had tryed. I was skepticle, since at the time i thaught i had seen it all. I played 3 min, one afternoon.... On the way home i had to have a copy. Half life changed my life. Never enjoyed a game so much, and it was not the play, it was the story! Woah Not a super hero? not a super soldier, Just a scientist trying to get out alive.
the premis and story kept me invested the whole way through. Valve No matter how you may have felt about your game it changed the game, in a way developers still cant do today. I