Half-Life (video game)
1998 first-person shooter video game
Half-Life is a 1998 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Studios for Windows. It was Valve's debut product and the first game in the Half-Life series. The player controls Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who must escape from the Black Mesa Research Facility after it is overrun by aliens following a disastrous scientific experiment. Its gameplay consists of combat, exploration and puzzles.
Valve was disappointed with the lack of innovation in the FPS genre and aimed to create a more immersive world. Half-Life runs on the engine GoldSrc, a heavily modified version of the Quake engine, licensed from id Software. The science fiction novelist Marc Laidlaw was hired to craft the plot and assist with design. Unlike other games at the time, the player has almost uninterrupted control of the player character; the story is mostly conveyed through scripted sequences rather than cutscenes.
Half-Life received acclaim for its graphics, gameplay and narrative and won more than 50 PC "Game of the Year" awards. It is considered one of the most influential FPS games and one of the greatest video games.
The public source identifies “Half-Life (video game)” as 1998 first-person shooter video game. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Half-Life, video and game.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Half-Life (video game)”, the useful work is to connect “1998 first-person shooter video game” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q279744. VIAF identifies the subject as 182381877. The Library of Congress control number is n99013423. None of the 9 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1998.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Half-Life (video game)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Half-Life (video game) primary sources, Half-Life (video game) archive and Half-Life research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Half-Life (video game)”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Half-Life (video game)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.