Well...this game still holds up. Thoughts I've had so far, in no particular order:

1. Viktor Antonov is fantastic. City 17's art direction is still amazing to this day. I don't think there has been anything quite like it since. Ok, maybe Dishonored.

2. Gordon Freeman's muteness. I still believe this to be of huge benefit to the story of the game, rather than just a old game trope. It allows you to be protagonist in a way that most games don't these days. If i can be pretentious for a second. There's no risk of ludonarrative dissonance when your character isn't spewing out sentences that you would never utter or sentiments that clash with your play style. His thoughts are your thoughts. If you think what is happening is ridiculous, futile and crazy, then so does he. You are the one free man and he is you.

3. Silence. This games does down time like no other. OK the physics puzzles might be a tad tedious, but what better way to appreciate the action when it's so effectively juxtaposed against the lack of it. So many games these days forget this. Dial it up to 11 all you want, but give the player some damn context in between the gunfire and explosions.

4. Alyx is still one of the best female characters in any video game I have played. Strong, wise, honorable and doesn't need protecting. Also, she actually knows more about the world you're in than you do, so you can't helping looking to her for advice. When she says "we don't go to ravenholm", then you know it's somewhere you don't want to be. Also, she's obviously an attractive girl but shows very little skin; imagine that. It's unfortunate that I can only think of one other example of a strong female character in a video game and that's Jade from Beyond Good and Evil. Hopefully I've just missed some games.

5. Story telling from the first person view point. I forgot this game entirely relies on relaying the story to you from the first person angle. No cutscenes required. You are Freeman, so why would the camera cut away? I think it's actually quite brave to tell a story this way, when the developer has so little agency over where the player is looking. You could easily miss half the scripted events just by looking in the wrong direction. No wonder dev's would rather take the camera off you and force you to look where they want. Also, I'd actually forgotten that not a single second passes for Freeman without you witnessing it. I remember now that Ep1 starts the very moment this games finishes. Very clever stuff.

Ok, ramble over. I've had a little too much to whiskey, but I've really enjoyed picking up this classic again. Cheers for the idea!