Half Life Age Rating
In the Half Life series, you are a scientist who is removed from a stasis and forced to fight against an alien government by a mysterious employer. The violence is just alien blood and zombies. There are a few jumpscares here and there, but other than that it is not scary. One thing though are the dead bodies, however they are not there to be gross; they're there to convey how evil this empire is. If your kid is still afraid of the bogeyman, it's not for them.Also, there are many positive roll models- the main character, Gordon, and various allies and sidekick Alyx Vance, are all focused on liberty for humans. I remember watching my dad play this game when it first came out and I was still in grade school; and while I don't remember being disturbed by it, that's only because I didn't see the whole thing.Violence: plenty of gunfights between human combatants, with successful hits producing large plumes of blood, and cries of pain. Most of the enemies the player fights are Storm Trooper-esque soldiers covered from head to toe in dark body armor, which slightly diminishes the effect of the violence.
Still, the allied forces the player fights alongside are normal looking humans, and they are subjected to the same kind of violence. Attacks leave bloody wounds on characters where they were hit, which not only makes the violence feel more realistic, but can also lead to some grisly looking scenes which were completely unscripted. (I.E, an ally who was hit in the head during a battle now has a bloody gash covering one side of their face, but they still make eye contact with the player when talking to them, forcing you to stare at it).
Several encounters can result in people being set on fire. The player does battle with several types of hostile aliens, which all produce yellow blood when injured. Some of these alien enemies are enormous insects, which can be blown to pieces. The most upsetting type of enemy the player encounters are zombies, who come in several deformed varieties. The most common type has torn open torsos, which expose their lungs and intestinal systems. Others variants are either bloated with dark black skin, or simply no skin at all, revealing their muscular systems.
Zombies can be sliced in half, sometimes their torsos will keep moving.Several environments are littered with mostly burned dead bodies.Upsetting/Scary themes:The Game is set in a dystopian future where an alien force has occupied earth and established a totalitarian regime. In the opening chapters of the game, we see several examples of their cruelty, their human peacekeepers are portrayed interrogating, beating, and generally abusing the populace, emulating atrocities seen in real dictatorships. Citizens are portrayed as being in emotional agony, some sequences depict oppressed citizens crying and begging for this torment to end.
In a few scenes we see people screaming for help at the sight of the murder or abuse of their loved ones.One specific portion of the game is set in a zombie infested city, with hoards of the creatures attacking the player constantly. The aforementioned zombies will scream 'Oh God' over and over again when set on fire, implying their humanity is still there, and feeling all of the pain you give them.Positive messages/role models: The story portrays a rebellion against an oppressive government, with strong themes of human spirit and passion overpowering greed and corruption. Intelligence is praised, with many of the game's heroes, including the player being former scientists who use their knowledge to solve the problems they are faced with. The cast is somewhat diverse, with several African American and female Main characters. I have been playing Half-Life and its series for years.
I find its an amazing storyline, amazing well thought out characters and enemies. Its not at all over sexual or violent. Yes there is blood and death in the game but nothing like alot of these other FPS games portray. Yea there are dead bodies in the game but there are in other games as well and you don't see people getting all butthurt about it. I suggest if your child over 13 is scared over these game series its time to sit them down and explain its NOT real. Really tired of Half-Life getting such a bad rap! Largely identical to Half Life 1s gameplay but with more physics based gameplay and level variety and grander scope.
So in other words great. No room or encounter in any level feels the same at all (save for the end game but its justified in context). So many twists in gameplay are constantly come into play and it all feels terrific and intense while moving at a crisp pace save for an overlong boat chase segment.
Not a good story like many people say. Its just a basic messianic fight the aliens story with zero character development for its 2 dimensional albiet loveable characters. Zombies feel forced but they make for some very fun gameplay. Now the worldbuilding, atmospheric immersion, and point to point plot is very engaging. Even if its not quite as natural or taut as HL1.Gameplay is not extrordinarily gory but has quite alot of blood splat on walls depending in weapon when fighting combine. Google cast app for laptop.
Many environments have bloody, gory, rotting, deformed bodies lying around. Zombies are hideous and gory looking. Zombies wail disturbingly when on fire. They can be cut in half and decapitated.
Ravenholm has gruesome imagery abound. Very dated graphics.
1 or 2 very easy to miss f words, one of which is cut off by crash on PC version (audible in Orange Box).
Half Life 2 Age Rating Uk
So what are we waiting for? Cue the intro!As with all Rewind Reviews, Half-Life will undergo a review process through the eyes of a modern critic. No nostalgia glasses, no excuses, no rationalizing hardware limitations, and no sparing myself from angry fans and readers. Nothing will excuse the game from anything that we - as modern gamers - would expect to see in the genre today.Now let's play with some anomalous materials and cause a resonance cascade so we can whack headcrabs with a crowbar in Half-Life for PC! The PlotNOTE: For the sake of this review, Half-Life 2 's retcons will not be applied to the base material. If you want to complain about this, do so in the comments.
This is a Rewind Review, and all games are studied as if they had been released now as-is.For those who have never heard of the series, Half-Life is a first-person shooter based in a science facility known as Black Mesa. Players assume the role of Gordon Freeman (above), a character who has the personality of a plank of wood with a weapon hot-glued to it. I suppose it is to be expected of a silent protagonist, but even Link had his moments of being a person.
Heck, the game itself admits that he's a rather lame character on paper when the intro states the following about his profile:SUBJECT: Gordon Freeman - Male, age 27EDUCATION: Ph.D., MIT, Theoretical PhysicsPOSITION: Research AssociateASSIGNMENT: Anomalous Materials LaboratoryClearance: Level 3ADMINISTRATIVE SPONSOR: ClassifiedDISASTER RESPONSE PRIORITY: DiscretionaryWhat does the above tell us about Gordon Freeman? Well, he's a well educated man. That's about it. The rest virtually confirms that Gordon is a nobody in terms of his position at Black Mesa. Despite his education, he's barely got a high-level clearance (as the game states there are at least 10 levels of research clearance), and in the case of a disaster he's on 'discretionary' status - meaning he could be left for dead and no one would care.
Half Life Examples
Essentially speaking, you play as a nobody in the grand scheme of things.The story begins on this charming note, then proceeds to take you through what I can assume is a routine thing at Black Mesa. You get your HEV suit on, you go to the lab, and you basically push buttons for people. What isn't routine, however, is the anomalous material that you are told to push into the reactor. I'm not entirely sure what the workplace safety standards surrounding pushing a trolley into a giant beam are, but I'm pretty sure they aren't what it's like in Half-Life.Considering the fact that the trolley pretty much slingshots into the core when you interact with it, I can't imagine the experiments at Black Mesa qualify under the term 'safe working conditions'That said, this event is responsible for the events that take place for the rest of the game. After a brief moment of cut-to-black flashes, as well as brief moments of being transported to Xen, Gordon wakes up - I assume - to see that Black Mesa has been completely and utterly destroyed. Almost everyone is dead, and the place is a complete mess after the resonance cascade happened.After one of the scientists asks you to find help on the surface, you spend most of the game running around trying to get there. Seriously, that's all there is to the story.