# Half Life (game) question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 1, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267 "2003-12-01T15:02:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ottoerotic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ottoerotic)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/1 "2003-12-01T15:02:57Z")
Not sure what area video games fall into, I guess you could call them artistic creations, but i need a factual answer, and this seems to be the place for one. I’m trying to decide which half-life game to buy for my gaming brother for christmas. I figured it would be a simple matter, but a quick visit to [GameFaqs.com](http://GameFaqs.com) revealed several choices.
Half-Life
Half-Life Platinum
Half-Life 2
Half-Life: Azure Sheep
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life: Counter-Strike
Half-Life: Desert Crisis
Half-Life: Earth’s Special Forces
Half-Life: Existence
Half-Life: Firearms
Half-Life: Front Line Force
Half-Life: Natural Selection
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Ricochet
Half-Life: Science and Industry
Half-Life: The Opera
Half-Life: They Hunger
Needless to say I’m stunned and confused by my range of choices.
Now from looking at the limited descriptions of the games, and googling some, it appears that some of these may be multi-player only, or expansions of one game. So, my question is, would anyone familiar with the series be able to help me out with a brief description of the games i.e. what side you’re playing as in each game, which ones came before the others, and which ones are multi-player only/expansions.
Thanks in advance, from both me and my brother.
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### Author:  [@d12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d12)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/2 "2003-12-01T15:11:10Z")
Half-Life — Regular Half Life
Half-Life Platinum ---- Not sure but I think its like a collectors addition
Half-Life 2 — Not Released yet?
Half-Life: Blue Shift — You play a security guard named Barney
Half-Life: Opposing Force — You play the soldiers comming to kill Gordon
Online “Mods” for Half Life.
Half-Life: Ricochet
Half-Life: Science and Industry
Half-Life: The Opera
Half-Life: They Hunger
Half-Life: Counter-Strike
Half-Life: Desert Crisis
Half-Life: Earth’s Special Forces
Half-Life: Existence
Half-Life: Firearms
Half-Life: Front Line Force
Half-Life: Natural Selection
Half-Life: Azure Sheep
---
### Author:  [@jatfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jatfield)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/3 "2003-12-01T15:17:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by d12 \*
> \*\*
> Half-Life 2 — Not Released yet?
> \*\*
And won’t be released until at least next April.
Did the brother specifically ask for HL? It’s been out for quite some time now, and if he’s really into gaming he most likely already has it.
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### Author:  [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/4 "2003-12-01T15:19:04Z")
So there you have it…you really only have 4 versions of the game and Half Life 2 which isn’t out until April I believe.
IMHO it’s worth getting him something else (Call of Duty for example) and wait until 2004 for Half Life 2.
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### Author:  [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/5 "2003-12-01T15:23:53Z")
Well, if you’re looking for a less expensive game that will provide a ton of online fun, it’s hard NOT to recommend “Half Life.” IIRC, you can pick up the original or the Game of the Year Edition for something around $20, and it’s provided literally YEARS of fun for me.
I’d certainly recommend it for purchase, if for no other reason than it’ll make the plotline of Half Life 2 make more sense.
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### Author:  [@silverfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silverfish)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/6 "2003-12-01T15:34:53Z")
I’ll elaborate a bit on d12’s answer. Half Life is the original game. Half Life Platinum appears to be the original game but with extras.
Half Life 2 was due out, but some people decided to release the source code over the internet, or something like that, so I think it’s now due out some time next year.
Blue Shift and Opposing force are add-ons, with different perspectively on the same events as the original. These require Half Life, and are commercial expansions, you can buy them seperately, but it seems the platinum pack includes them. I remember Opposing Force being a good game, although fairly short compared to the original.
I think the rest are free add-ons, again requiring the original half life to run. Counter-strike is a multiplayer mod, with a fair emphasis on realism, with a number of scenarios pitting terrorists against anti-terrorists, with the terrorists taking hostages, or trying to set bombs, and stuff like that. It seems to be a free download for the PC, and I think there are plans to make a commercial stand-alone version, but I’m not sure what the situation is with that.
They Hunger is a single-player add on, again I think it’s a free download. It’s basically a horror story, with zombies, and I think it’s rather a good one.
I think if you want to get half-life, then probably the platinum pack or something like that that includes the original game, along with Opposing force and Blue Shift. Getting a pack with Counterstrike and Team Fortress (a team based multiplayer game) might be worth it too, to avoid having to download them. You can probably pick up one of these packs fairly cheaply.
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### Author:  [@PhilAlex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhilAlex)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/7 "2003-12-01T16:18:17Z")
Half Life Platinum has Half Life, Opposing Force, Counterstrike and Team fortress.
the last two are multi player. and extremely addictive.
Half life 1 is fantastic. I didn’t like Opposing Force, for some reason. Never played blue shift.
Other First Person Shooters you might like are THIEF, THIEF The METAL AGE. Very good as well, but not as Mainstream
Just a note: HL gets a little weird near the end.
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### Author:  [@InquisitiveIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InquisitiveIdiot)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/8 "2003-12-01T16:54:41Z")
Buy him Half-Life, then point him to Natural Selection (free download). He can probably find his own way from there.
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### Author:  [@d12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d12)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/9 "2003-12-01T20:09:16Z")
Don’t bother buying any of these at all:
Half-Life: Ricochet
Half-Life: Science and Industry
Half-Life: The Opera
Half-Life: They Hunger
Half-Life: Counter-Strike
Half-Life: Desert Crisis
Half-Life: Earth’s Special Forces
Half-Life: Existence
Half-Life: Firearms
Half-Life: Front Line Force
Half-Life: Natural Selection
Half-Life: Azure Sheep
They’re all availiable for FREE if you purchase the original half life. Just look around for the respective websites.
I agree that it might be best to just buy something like Call Of Duty or Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (a mod for half life that is now a standalone) because Half Life is becomming a very “elitist” game online and just wait for Half Life 2 to come out.
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### Author:  [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-game-question/216267/10 "2003-12-01T23:19:25Z")
If you’re really lookin’ to go nuts, I’d recommend the Platinum Pack, followed by Blue Shift.
Blue Shift INCLUDES the Opposing Force mod, as well as a graphics upgrade that improves the original HL models.
This leaves you with THREE single-player games –
HALF-LIFE: The story of Gordon Freeman and the day the Black Mesa Research project went horribly wrong…
HALF-LIFE: OPPOSING FORCE: The story of one of the soldiers the government sent to Black Mesa the day things went wrong…
HALF-LIFE: BLUE SHIFT: The story of Barney The Security Guard, one of the supporting characters in Half-Life, the day things went wrong…
…and HALF-LIFE: TEAM FORTRESS and HALF-LIFE: COUNTERSTRIKE, two of the best online multiplayer shooters ever made.
Y’can’t go wrong. And I think you can get ALL this stuff now for under fifty bucks, total.