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For one reason or another I managed to totally miss playing any of the Half-life series. I have the time and money now to play these games that I have heard such great things about. So what are all the Half-life games that I should play? and what order should I play them in?

I am confused of where the episodes and expansions all fit in. And what they mean by "Source" versions. Are these even part of the same series? And what about Blue Shift, Lost Coast, or Opposing Force? So many games, and I don't know where or if they fit.

Are there any in the series that I should skip, or just read the plot summary for? Can someone please give me a run-down of what I should play, in order.

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4 Answers

up vote 21 down vote accepted

The must-play Half-Life games are Half-Life 1, then Half-Life 2. The expansions and spin-offs for Half-Life 1 which were not developed by Valve are quite skippable; Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay return to the setting and events of Half-Life 1, but portray the story through the eyes of a U.S. Marine, a security guard and two scientists (since Decay is a cooperative multiplayer game), respectively.

The Source version of Half-Life 1 is, and I quote:

a digitally remastered version of the critically acclaimed and best selling PC game

Needless to say it's smoke and mirrors, there's absolutely no significant difference between the two.

My advice is to play the original Half-Life 1, then Half-Life 2, and if you'd like to extend the pleasure, sequels Episode 1 and Episode 2 for Half-Life 2 are quite good, but not as good as the two main games.

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"quite skippable", i don't think so, events that happened in Episode 2 are pretty important and will have significant impact in Episode 3 (or Half Life 3, it's up to Valve how they decide). – Tomas Voracek Jan 1 '11 at 10:16
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I strongly disagree. Episode One did not add too much, I agree there. But Episode Two is definitely important enough to make this list, and you'd need to play One to make sense of Two. Also, Blue Shift and Opposing Force are not made by Valve (by Gearbox) and are not considered canon by quite a few people. – user56 Jan 1 '11 at 20:59
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Okay I can't really disagree with that :p I've moderated my views in my original post. – Nicolas Bazire Jan 3 '11 at 9:55
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"Needless to say it's smoke and mirrors, there's absolutely no significant difference between the two" - except that it's SIGNIFICANTLY harder to move boxes around on the physics-free Half-Life engine. If you have Half-Life: Source, play that instead of the original. – Stuart P. Bentley Aug 31 '11 at 1:54
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Episode Two is a worth successor to Half-Life 2, and very significant to the story. Episode One is not as good, but it's worth the 4-5 hours to play through for the story setup. – Joren Jan 2 '12 at 18:36
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up vote 22 down vote

The HL2 episodes are not an accessory part of the story, but actual sequels. They do contain plot changing events. The same is not true for the Half Life "One" series, as far as I know.

Thus:

  1. Half Life
  2. Half Life 2
  3. Half Life 2 Episode 1
  4. Half Life 2 Episode 2

As for Portal -- it does contain some side references to corporate entities in the Half Life universe, but as it is that's more flavor than actual plot.

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+1 for leaving out Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Although they may be enjoyable in their own right, they are not at all essential to the overall storyline. – oKtosiTe Jan 3 '11 at 12:45
I just downloaded The Orange Box and got Half-Life 2, Episode 1 and 2 and Lost Coast, but no Half-Life 1. Do I miss too much when I skip HL1? Where (in your order of games) would you put Lost Coast? – Christian Ivicevic Jul 14 '12 at 17:28
FWIW, Lost Coast is totally an accessory part of the story; hardly part of the story at all, actually. It's literally just a tech demo of some High Dynamic Range effects – Ben Brocka Feb 19 at 19:04
up vote 12 down vote

The Source versions are a remake of the original games on the engine used by HL2. Half Life: Source is pretty much identical to Half Life.

The recommended playing order is pretty much the release order:

  • Half Life (Or Half Life: Source)
  • Half Life: Opposing Force
  • Half Life: Blue Shift
  • Half Life: Decay (skippable - PS2 only)
  • Half Life 2
  • Half Life 2: Episode One
  • Half Life 2: Episode Two

Half Life 2: Lost Coast is just a tech demo for graphics options that went into later Source games. If you want to be quick, you can skip everything but Half Life and Half Life 2.

Portal is also tangentially related to the Half Life plot, but isn't too important as it doesn't have much story of its own. Portal 2 may change this however.

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Definitely play Portal as well. Just for the refreshing and totally awesome gameplay. – bummzack Jan 1 '11 at 11:30
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Portal is perfect and answers all game recs. – badp♦ Jan 3 '11 at 9:59
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I don't think Opposing Force or Blue Shift need to be played in order to enjoy the whole story. – oKtosiTe Jan 3 '11 at 12:47
Seems Decay is not PS2 only. There is (or at least they are still working on) a PC port - decay.half-lifecreations.com/?content=files&sub=decay – Adam Harte Mar 21 '11 at 22:05
up vote 1 down vote

My recommendation would be:

  • Half-Life (or Half-Life: Source)
  • Half-Life 2
  • Half-Life 2 Episode 1
  • Half-Life 2 Episode 2

While the two Episodes are quite short in gameplay, they do add crucial stuff to the story that you'll need for an eventual Half Life 3 or a third Episode.

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Why would you post this answer? It isn't helpful at all, since it's almost copy of what badp said. – Olegs Jeremejevs Jan 2 '12 at 17:46

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