I lasted for quite a while without it, making my way through Lambda Core and restarting the reactor, but as I died for the 452nd time making my way up through teleporters, and eventually being transported to the alien world of Xen, it wasn’t fun any more. I was saving almost every five seconds, and dying as regularly. I have no idea how I would have completed the game without cheating; I feel that the more toxic side of the Internet would be shouting at this point that I shouldn’t have the enjoyment of completing it unless I GOT GUD. That wasn’t going to happen.
Enjoyment of completing it? Yes, especially since once I’d turned on God mode I abandoned my overly cautious approach and ran at enemies with abandon. Big hunter-type aliens? Shotgun! Smaller green electricity aliens? Shotgun! Very big spider with obvious glowing suspended stomach? Shotgun!
The game still wasn’t easy. The platforming was still not precise enough to do what I wanted every time, so I found myself falling into pits or off the side of a cliff; this time I didn’t die, though, I just sat there choking in the acid fumes, or landing on an invisible platform way beyond the game’s usual physics box, until I reloaded the last save. One particular section had me very confused for a long time until I realised that you had to jump on top of (what I presumed were deadly) alien aircraft that were traversing the level. The move to Xen meant that I was no longer playing through a coherent whole level bound by geography, but rather a number of small arenas connected by teleporters. The wonder of the game was significantly diminished.
And then the final boss, who threw out teleporters to get rid of me, which took me to places where I had to undertake more annoying platforming to get back; I didn’t cheat to get more ammo but I cam close a few times because of my ineptitude in aiming while jumping and moving. Having to jump up high, and then shoot downwards into the boss’s head, was very difficult indeed, until I realised that I could open the head then jump over on top of it, then just unload the gamma ray type gun at my feet over and over again. It was even easier when the head closed and trapped me inside, where I could continue to fire.
So, the big evil alien in Xen died, and the shady government man met me and offered me a job. Either I took the job, or he would send me off to die. Obviously I decided to take the job, but on the way to the door I managed to get stuck in the edge of the scenery and timed out, so I was teleported to many many enemies, all of whom failed to kill me because I had god mode on.
Does Half-Life hold up today? Mostly, yes; it tells its story well without the need for immersion-breaking cut-scenes and dialogue. The combat is difficult but can be overcome with some good strategy, even if the first time you enter a room it takes a bit of trial and error. Issues with controls are very much on my side rather than the fault of the game. The difficulty gets too high for me towards the end, particularly with soldiers with rocket launchers and big aliens firing bullets that can go around corners. Xen is a bit of a disappointment, moving away from a contiguous geographic location to a series of disparate rooms. I’m glad I finally got around to finishing it, even though I had to cheat to do so without getting completely bored of doing the same thing over and over.
