Half-Life, complete map, by Corinthian.

Full map large; just part 2 large.

[Josh says: holy dang, but he’s gone and done the rest of the game.  As with his Half-Life part 1 map, tumblr’s maximum size for images leaves the notes on this image pretty much unreadable, but Corinthian was kind enough to send me the images directly, so check out the “large” links above for 2000px images that are much more legible.]

Half-Life, the first eight levels, by Corinthian.

[Updated: find high-resolution version right here!  Thanks, Corinthian!]

Tbh Half Life 1 is a fairly easy game to remember, as you really only go through one room at a time, and there are no loading screens to “disconnect” you. 

…Although I find it quite easy to remember what you get attacked by in each room, and even the order of the the rooms, it’s rather harder to remember whether empty corridors and vents turn left or right, or how many times. In some cases I have conveniently twisted an unmemorable corridor so that I could keep drawing in a direction where there wasn’t some map already…

[Josh says: holy cow.  This is epic.  Corinthian, you got a higher-resolution version of this available?  Let me know, tumblr’s image size limit makes the small text pretty much unreadable even zoomed in.]

Half-Life, Black Mesa Inbound tram ride, by flaillomanz.

When Half-life first came out, my attention span was not exactly long. As such, I only remember the bits that weren’t boring to me. The tram ride was DAMN long, but I loved it.

Barney Calhoun hammering on that first door.

Larry the scientist (Well, I named him that, at least) waving at you.

That poor shmuck who got locked in a high-electricity environment.

The biggest impact on me, however, came from the helicopter, the two huge yellow robots, and the ICBM you see during the ride.

I loved this game to death, although I pity the poor fool who attempts to map out Xen from memory.

Half-Life, Crossfire, by Syndel.

An attempt at drawing Half-Life’s Crossfire. The ramps are wrong and I’m missing doorways and all sorts - it’s a quadruple level map. It’s hard to draw from the top without splitting levels so bleh! :3 Haven’t played this map since I won Planet Half-Life’s POTD contest with a picture of upside-down scientists on this map, playing Rocket Crowbar.

Half-Life 2, world map, by zompist.

I could show the individual level paths only they’d all be wavy lines like the canals.

Half-Life, Anomalous Materials / Unintended Consequences, by dogface.

Seared into my brain.

Not having had a PC with much chops as a kid, I didn’t get to play many videogames. This was the first one I ever experienced that gave me the impression I was moving around a real world that extended out beyond what I saw. That and the (for the time) eyeball-explodingly gorgeous graphics meant the immersion was damn near enough to kill my young, nerdy brain. And to me, such a stable foundation meant that Xen felt truly alien and hostile, rather than a somewhat-rushed and engine-exceeding mess as it is/was seen by more experienced eyes.

Some playthroughs have seen me go all the way to the end, some just a few levels in, but this opening sequence always feels fresh and important and portentous to me.