About Half-Life
Half-Life was Valve’s first game, released in November 1998 and published by Sierra. You play Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist at the Black Mesa Research Facility, on the day an experiment goes badly wrong. The accident tears open a link to the alien world of Xen, and Gordon has to fight his way out of a facility overrun by alien creatures and, before long, by the soldiers sent in to cover everything up.
The game tells its story without cutscenes. Everything happens from Gordon’s point of view while you keep control, starting with the famous tram ride into Black Mesa. That approach, along with scripted set pieces and enemy soldiers that flank and take cover, made Half-Life one of the most influential shooters of its era.
How it runs in your browser
Half-Life originally ran on GoldSrc, Valve’s heavily modified version of the Quake engine. The browser versions use Xash3D, an independent open-source engine that’s compatible with GoldSrc and can load Half-Life’s data. Community developers compiled it to WebAssembly so it runs in a browser tab. These are unofficial builds, and the game data itself still belongs to Valve.
Both hosts play directly on this page:
- pixelsuft is the default. It streams the full game’s data from its own server, so expect a large download, a couple of hundred megabytes, before the game starts.
- WebXash runs Valve’s free demo releases instead: Half-Life: Uplink, the earlier Day One demo and Half-Life Deathmatch.
Pick pixelsuft for the full campaign. WebXash is the one to try if you just want a taste of the game.
Controls and devices
You’ll need a computer with a keyboard and mouse. Half-Life uses classic first-person PC controls, and the options menu shows the key bindings and lets you change them. Click inside the game to capture the mouse, and press Esc to get your cursor back. Phones, touch screens and controllers aren’t listed as supported for either build.
Tips
Let the first download finish rather than refreshing the page partway through. Saving isn’t listed as supported, so don’t count on progress surviving a closed tab. For every other way to play the series, see our Half-Life page, and for the multiplayer mod that grew out of Half-Life, try Counter-Strike 1.6.
Is Half-Life (Xash3D web port) Free, Safe and Official?
Is this the official Half-Life?
No. These are unofficial community builds of the open-source Xash3D engine and aren’t affiliated with Valve. The official game is sold on Steam.
Do I need my own Half-Life game files?
Neither host is listed as needing them. pixelsuft streams the full game data from its own server, and WebXash runs Valve’s free demo releases.
Can I play Half-Life on a phone or Chromebook?
Neither is listed as supported. Half-Life needs a keyboard and mouse, so plan on a desktop or laptop.
