Half-Life: Source

Moderate overall intensity
Highest flag: Violence — graphic & gore
AdventureSci-fiShooter

What's in it

Violence graphic & gore
High

First-person gunfire, explosives, and a crowbar used against human soldiers and alien creatures, with blood spatter and bloody corpses.

Horror & psychological frightening
Moderate

Dark corridors, sudden monster ambushes, and human 'headcrab zombie' enemies with split-open torsos create tense, frightening moments.

Dark themes mild
Low

A botched experiment devastates a research facility, and a military cleanup force executes staff to bury the incident.

Language mild
Low

Occasional mild exclamations from scientists and guards; no strong profanity.

Who can reach your kid

What it is

Half-Life: Source is the Source-engine re-release of Valve's 1998 first-person shooter. You play a physicist trapped inside a sprawling underground research facility after an experiment tears open a portal and floods the complex with hostile aliens. Gameplay mixes gunfights, exploration, and physics-based environmental puzzles as you fight your way out. Combat is against alien organisms and later a military force, using firearms, grenades, and a crowbar; enemies bleed and leave bodies, and dark, ambush-heavy sections lean into a frightening survival atmosphere. There is no sexual content, nudity, drugs, or gambling, and this port is single-player only with no chat or purchases.

How it's framed

The story frames the player as a lone survivor reacting to a disaster, with violence presented as self-defense against monsters and armed troops. The military's attempt to silence witnesses is depicted as a grim cover-up rather than something the game endorses, and combat is treated matter-of-factly without glorification.

Details

Developer
Valve
Publisher
Valve
Released
Jun 1, 2004

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