These days, the ascendant popularity of FPS games is unquestioned: they form the backbone of practically every major gaming company and, barring League of Legends, dominate the esports scene. In exchange for this popularity, it seems, the majority of FPS games have forsaken their campaign modes in favor of online multiplayer. Don’t get me wrong, some can be good, but memorable? Aside from the Doom remakes, I don’t think so. Half-Life is special, not only because it came first, but also because it still stands as one of the best campaign-focused FPS games of all time.

It’s what’s called a “boomer shooter,” because… it’s a first-person shooter primarily played by… relatively older people. There are significant differences in gameplay design. Modern first-person shooters operate under the principle of empowering the player first and foremost: picture cinematic music scores accompanied by constant dialogue, designed to make you feel like a hero (or just one very cool villain) as you risk your life to fight some foreign military or kill big scary alien things. Half-Life can be pretty similar at times, and there are a few standout scenes where the main character does something breathtaking, but for the most part it’s less thriller, more survival. The main character isn’t any mythical hero, just a normal person trying not to die (although “normal” might be pushing it).

Panic and dread are the primary emotions the game elicits through its mechanics. Health does not regenerate and ammunition is limited. The game is optimized to give just enough health and ammunition to survive, but never enough to be comfortable, and you’ll very often find yourself using your trusty crowbar rather than your gun to save ammo. That kind of tension keeps the game from ever feeling low-stakes, ensuring that every hostile encounter maintains player engagement, but it also means the game doesn’t need to focus on realistic visuals or niche game mechanics to be enjoyable: it just has to be good at the one thing it does right.

While they may look much more dated to a modern observer, the in-game environments are just as harrowing now as they were then. The game takes place in the Black Mesa Research Facility, which can best be described as Oak Ridge underground on steroids. Things go wrong, people die, and you, the main character, are left to pick up the pieces while trying not to suffer the same fate as the rest. As a result, your primary companions in that mission are industrial hallways and machinery rooms devoid of anything that doesn’t want to kill you. The tense gameplay blends with the eerie environment to set the tone, making you feel as if death lurks around every corner and that, frankly, you’re lucky to even have survived as far as you have. 

While there may be many good games on the market, truly memorable games like Half-Life are few and far between. Playing it is the kind of experience that can determine how you view an entire genre. You don’t even need to know its historical context to recognize that Half-Life forms the baseline for a modern FPS/Survival game; simply play any other game in the genre, and you’ll find yourself thinking, “This is just Half-Life, but…”