Half-Life

Half-Life is a first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Studios in 1998, following a scientist who must escape a research facility after an experiment causes a catastrophic interdimensional breach. The game was notable for embedding its story within continuous, playable scenes rather than separate non-interactive cutscenes, keeping the player in control of the protagonist throughout, an approach widely credited with changing how narrative was delivered in first-person shooter games afterward. Half-Life won more than fifty Game of the Year awards on release and is regularly cited as one of the most influential games in its genre, with commentators describing the history of first-person shooters as dividing cleanly into periods before and after its release; it also inspired a substantial body of player-made modifications, including Counter-Strike, which itself became a major commercial game.