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Half-Life Source is developed by Valve and released in 2004.
This is the Source Engine port of the first Half-Life,
originally using the GoldSrc engine and released in 1998.
Half-Life is a masterpiece of the FPS genre,
unanimously acclaimed by players and the specialized press.
You can also read my review of Valve's first game here.
Half-Life Source was billed as a remastered version of the 1998 title,
with updated graphics and improved physics.
If HL:S is fun to play, just like the original game that is great,
however, things need to be clarified from the start:
the Source Engine brings anecdotal new features to Half-Life,
and the game is riddled with an incalculable amount of bugs,
especially since the 2013 SteamPipe update.
Let's say that Half-Life Source is not inherently bad,
but it's clearly not the best version of Half-Life 1 either.
I'm going to do my best to try to explain in detail,
what makes Half-Life Source such an unique game.
The graphics are unchanged with identical textures,
but slightly brighter than the original GoldSrc maps,
due to the new light effects provided by the Source engine. Despite this, many places are quite dark and dull.
Half-Life 2's skybox system provides a little more realism, compared to the simple pixelated sky textures of the past.
Those of the "Surface Tension" levels are quite pretty, especially in the "c2a5a" map of "Surface Tension" (the cliff, with the Valve Theme).
The water is much more detailed as well, but contrasts with the game's outdated graphics.
NPCs have ragdoll physics when they die.
If this is supposed to be more realistic, thanks to the Havok physics engine,
this often gives rise to funny situations because of the angular models of the characters.
Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to explode corpses.
Too bad for those like me who love to stain all the places they visit with blood...
The characters, the creature, the H.E.V Suit,
and the weapon models are more detailed with high-resolution textures.
They resemble the models from the High Definition Pack that came with Blue Shift and those from the PS2 version, both created by Gearbox Software.
But what many don't know is that Valve chose unofficial models for HL:S from a fan-made mod, called "High Definition Source" created by a man named Denisov in 2006...
The movements are clumsy, as are the fights.
Some weapons suffer from exaggerated recoil, like the Beretta pistol and the M16.
The C4 throw has a ridiculously low range, making this explosive almost useless.
We actually pick up the Snarks themselves rather than their nest.
Apache Helicopters fire the same rockets as Half-Life 2's APCs and Hunter-Choppers.
The impact effects are different, and change depending on the surface you shoot at.
This Source version of Half-Life is famous for its plethora of bugs and problems of all kinds.
Here are the many mperfections that I noticed while playing…
Several sounds are missing, such as reloading certain weapons, or scripted sounds.
The music reboots after each loading of "Black Mesa Inbound".
Others are cut off because of level transitions, for example in "We've Got Hostiles" or "On a Rail"! There are spawn bugs, like items floating, and a scientist levitating above his chair in the "c1a0b" map ("Anomalous Materials"). When I play the game in French, the voices of the H.E.C.U. Soldiers. remain in English, except in a few scripts in "On A Rail".
In this same chapter, in the map "c2a2g", the sniper entrenched high up is harmless, he does'nt shoot.
NPCs constantly repeat themselves when injured,
while others are as mute as Gordon Freeman.
In the maps "c1a4i" ("Blast Pit"), "c2a5x" ("Surface Tension") and "c4a1b" ("Interloper"), Tentacles are harmless.
The electrified water of "c1a4f" from "Blast Pit" is invisible.
The Barnacles' tongue is not displayed correctly in some rooms, you can get trapped if you are incautious.
The "c2a4c" level of "Residue Processing" has terrible bright, colorful and psychedelic display bugs (see here and there), worthy of an acid trip.
On Xen, when Gonarch spits his whitish substance onto the ground, a large black square texture appears.
Even though I've already encountered the bug where Gonarch stays on his web despite receiving damage, I didn't get it while writing this review.
In short, the list of bugs is endless, and I may have forgotten to note some…
And I consider myself lucky enough not to have suffered certain bugs that I read or saw on the internet...
So, is Half-Life Source a bad game?
Of course not, but its quality is clearly lower than its predecessor.
The game is often mocked, even ridiculed, by fans of the franchise.
The improvements made by the Source Engine are minor and only noticeable to veterans of the original game.
On the other hand, the bugs are legion and don't pay homage to either Half-Life or the Half-Life 2 engine.
For a large number of players, Half-Life Source turns out to be a port without much ambition on a new engine.
However, it is useful to Garry's Mod players thanks to its assets, and it's the same thing for Counter-Strike Source.
I was able to launch all the Half-Life Source maps in Counter-Strike Global Offensive, in my "CS:GO x HL1" project (see here and there).
If it is true that the classic Half-Life at GoldSrc is undoubtedly the best version,
HL:S remains relatively pleasant to play and still has a certain charm.
You can have fun looking for little differences and bugs everywhere, if you feel like a beta tester.
But there is no point hoping for a possible future patch, the last big update dates back to 2013,
and it's this one which broke a good number of things in the game.
Worse still, Valve delisted the game during Half-Life's 25th anniversary, recognizing the original game as the definitive version.
So prefer the original Half-Life from 1998, cult in every way possible and technically impeccable.
Half-Life Source is nevertheless an interesting element of Valve's history, a game to be appreciated for its true value.
Keep in mind if you play it that it'is just a simple port from one engine to another.
It's not really a Remaster, and even less a Remake.
If you ever want to play a truly modernized version of Half-Life,
the talented and passionate developers of Crowbar Collective have created the excellent Black Mesa,
an excellent remake respecting the awesome original game while bringing a lot of great new features.
You can by the way read my review of Black Mesa here.