Release of Half-Life

Half-Life is a first-person shooter video game developed by Valve, a company founded by former Microsoft employees, and it was the studio's first product. The player takes the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist at the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico, where an experiment goes wrong and alien creatures invade through a portal, as well as military units sent to cover up the incident. It was praised for its storytelling, which was told without cutscenes from the viewpoint of the player, and for its intelligent enemies. The game won many awards and sold millions of copies. It was followed by Half-Life 2 in 2004 and spawned popular mods such as Counter-Strike.

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