Play Half Life Online Free

About Half Life

Half-Life is the game that made shooters tell stories. Valve released it in 1998, and instead of levels separated by menus, it dropped you into Black Mesa as Gordon Freeman, a physicist in a hazard suit, and never once took the camera away from you. The famous tram ride at the start, the resonance cascade, the crowbar, the headcrabs and the soldiers sent to clean up — all of it plays out in first person, continuously.

This page runs a browser port of the original. It's a 1998 game, so it runs comfortably in a tab, and it holds up: the pacing, the level design and the enemy AI were decades ahead of their time.

How to play Half Life

Move

W A S D

Look

Mouse (click the game to capture the cursor)

Fire / alt fire

Left click / right click

Jump

Space

Crouch

Ctrl

Use

E

Weapons

1–5 or scroll

Flashlight

F

1. Follow the facility through its chapters; there are no level-select menus.
2. Use the crowbar on crates and vents — supplies and paths are often hidden.
3. Save often; the game expects it.
4. Solve the environmental puzzles — jumping, stacking and using switches — as much as fighting.

Half Life tips

• Crouch-jump (crouch while jumping) to reach ledges that look too high. It's essential in several chapters.
• The crowbar is a real weapon against headcrabs; save ammo.
• Marines flank and use grenades — fight them from cover, not in the open.
• Listen. The audio tells you what's coming long before you see it.

Half Life — questions