History YMMV / HalfLife

* CompleteMonster: Dr Wallace Breene as a minor example since he built his career selling his planet (and his people) to a pure evil alien race for pure power lust.

* ParanoiaFuel: Headcrabs are ''everywhere'', especially when they leap out at you from vents when you don't have your flashlight on. ItGotWorse when the sequel added poison and fast varieties of headcrab. An unofficial design principle for custom maps runs thus: "A headcrab in every vent is boring; a headcrab in one-fifth of the vents is terrifying."

* {{Complete Monster}}s: The Combine.
** Dr Wallace Breene as a minor example since he built his career selling his planet (and his people) to a pure evil alien race for pure power lust.

* PortingDisaster: The 2010 Mac Update. Not the Mac port itself, the concurrent update for the Windows version, which introduced numerous bugs that have never been patched (and this from the company known for patching their games ''ad nauseum'').

* MarySue: You will most likely be harshly criticized for saying this, but Gordon Freeman could arguably fit this. He is well-known, constantly showered in praise (both in and out of the game), seen by allies as moral boosting hero who instantly have faith in him and never doubt him for a second (even treating him like he is a close friend of sorts), can complete missions on his own in situations where most men would fail, even being able to beat military soldiers with no training of his own, and even being the greatest threat to a multiverse empire (again, where the military could not). Then there is that if you say anything about him (again, both in an out of game) that is not showering him in praise, you will be harshly criticized.

* SacredCow: Combined with a bit of "[[ItsPopularNowItSucks It's not as popular as Halo]], [[InvertedTrope so it ROCKS]]". Do not say ''ANYTHING'' negative about HalfLife if you don't want to be flamed with the fury of a billion suns.

* MarySue: You will most likely be harshly criticized for saying this, but Gordon Freeman could arguably fit this. He is well-known, constantly showered in praise (both in and out of the game), seen by allies as moral boosting hero who instantly have faith in him and never doubt him for a second (even treating him like he is a close friend of sorts), can complete missions on his own in situations where most men would fail, even being able to beat military soldiers with no training of his own, and even being the greatest threat to a multiverse empire (again, where the military could not). Then there is that if you say anything about him (again, both in an out of game) that is not showering praise, you will be harshly criticized.

* SacredCow: Boy is it ever.

* CrazyAwesome: Father Grigori.

The following are {{YMMV}} relating to Half-Life.
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** Ever lit a zombie on fire? No? That's why you [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel get to sleep at night.]]
* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel/HalfLife Gallons.]]

* MarySue: You will most likely be harshly criticized for saying this, but Gordon Freeman could arguably fit this. He is well-known, constantly showered in praise (both in and out of the game), seen by allies as moral boosting hero, can complete missions on his own in situations where most men would fail, even being able to beat military soldiers with no training of his own, and even being the greatest threat to a multiverse empire (again, where the military could not). Then there is that if you say anything about him (again, both in an out of game) that is not showering praise, you will be harshly criticized.

** [[spoiler:"The Alyx Vance clings to the margins." [[IGotBetter She gets better.]]]]

** As noted on the actual [[ThatOneLevel/FirstPersonShooter That One Level]] page, the [[spoiler: massive Strider battle]] at the end of Episode Two can either be this, or the BestLevelEver, depending on who you talk to. It's very much a LoveItOrHateIt moment.

The following are {{Subjectives}} relating to Half-Life.

* DudeNotFunny: According to Machinanima's History Of Valve, when the original HL2 source code was stolen, Gabe Newell was actually more upset at finding the subsequent nude mods of the female characters having sex with the scientists.

** From the original Half Life: Those goddamn Alien Grunts, 8 foot tall alien EliteMooks encountered 2/3 through the game. For starters,[[MadeOfIron they were absurdly tough]]. Getting to close to them was nearly instant death due to their extremely powerful melee attack. They never, ''ever'' stopped firing their hive hands, even while absorbing an entire clip of 9mm rounds. There was absolutely no way to hide from them, hiding behind a piece of cover or around a corner was useless because their hive hands ''track you'', and do the same damage per shot as the HECU's [=MP5=] submachine guns. They were immune to damage on the armored part of their bodies. Worst of all, they attacked in groups, and that damage adds up over time, meaning almost every encounter with them would end with you a dead and them barley scratched. The only real way to deal with them was to use an extremely powerful weapon with rare ammo (i.e. the Rocket Launcher, Gluon Gun, Magnum, or the grenade launcher), or circle strafe while firing your submachine gun or shotgun secondary fire, hoping that they miss enough shots so that they die before you do. Basically, they were [=HECU=] grunts with twice as much health and ''homing bullets''. Half Life: Source made a few changes to make them more manageable. The [=MP5=] does more damage, they are briefly stunned upon getting hit, and they no longer completely deflect damage on their armored parts. They're still toughed, just not as ridiculous as they were.