Scripted Sequences

     One example he showed me was a scientist being dragged up into the dripping jaws of a barnacle hanging from the ceiling. The so-called "Barney" military police character was pulling on the scientist's feet to keep the scientist from getting pulled up. What happens if you just watch? What happens if you shoot the barnacle, the scientist, or Barney? Different outcomes are possible for each action. I am not even sure it is possible to adequately describe in words the feeling that the scripted sequences add to the game. Every time I happened upon a situation going on, my adrenaline started pumping. A scientist's bloody legs being dragged into a hole in the ceiling, zombie's breaking through a wall to come after you, Barney's caught up in hand-to-hand combat with a zombie-they all make Half-Life's world seem very "alive," and very unpredictable.

     I remember strolling down a hallway and seeing a dimly lit room to the left. Inside was a scientist apparently disturbed by something. Looking closer, you see he is fighting with a head crab on the ground by kicking at it. Finally, he knocks a filing cabinet over on it and guts splatter the floor. The scientist triumphantly shakes his hand at his victory. Suddenly, another head crab leaps off the bookshelf behind him and onto his head. The scientist clutches at his head screaming, trying to extricate it from his head to no avail. He then falls face first to the floor as the headcrab goes about its business of transforming the victim into a zombie. A chill runs through you as your heart skips a beat. You realize you are in a grim place and you are no longer in the safe world you once knew. Time to say a prayer as you wonder what is waiting for you around the next corner. It makes you paranoid, but that's good. Only the paranoid will survive. Unreal came close once or twice but they did not take this effect to the maximum like Half-Life.