EmpPenguin19

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Anything and everything that has been said about Half Life and its influence on video games in general, as well as the FPS genre and narratives in games has already been said, printed, shared, spoken, and said again to such an extent that anyone who knows anything about games will have the mere name stapled to the interior of their skull. My personal take, however, is much of the same. It's good. Quite simply put. There are, however, spots that attract the ire of even the most die-hard fans, such as Residue Processing, Surface Tension, and Xen. I personally don't mind Residue Processing, I find Surface Tension to be tolerable (with ungodly amounts of quicksaves and loads), and Xen is Xen. It's a good game if you have an analytical eye and a good sense of retrospect when it comes to the history of games. If you don't, well, at least you have the Tau Cannon.

An "Orwellian" game wherein the entirety is just clicking through layers upon layers of fictitious web browsers, sifting endlessly for something quite literally highlighted for you. I'd be more forgiving to it, if it actually had, y'know, using cameras and surveillance equipment to spy on/ listen in to people. Instead, that aspect is relegated to cutscenes. I suppose if one had the time, energy, and storage space on their computer, they COULD go through this game, though it plays like a classic TellTale Games story, just without any of the graphical intrigue or charm. It does have this semi-low poly look to it, and while the UI is very basic, it tends to be pleasing to look at.