Arsenal
One of the elements that has made Half-Life such a perennial favorite for Mod makers is that the weapons are great. Based on real guns (with some interesting exceptions) and well balanced, Valve succeeded in coming up with an arsenal that appealed to players of all different stripes. Most weapons also have an alternate fire mode, giving them more versatility and adding an element of strategy -- not to mention making deathmatch that much harder to predict. ("So he's got an MP-5 … will he fill me with bullets or launch a grenade?")

No One Lives Forever also has real-world weapons, most of them not half bad, but the lack of a secondary fire makes them vastly less adaptable. Silencers and scopes can be added to some guns -- a nice touch -- and there's the added bonus of different kinds of ammunition, like phosphorous rounds and dum-dums. On top of that is a lineup of nutty props like a barrette-turned-poison dagger. But while the gimmicky weapons are "wacky" in their way, they aren't actually all that useful ... I found that I never really used items like exploding lipstick and sleeping gas perfume unless it was actually required by the mission objectives. In deathmatches, the campy extras are almost completely useless, with the notable exception of the briefcase, NOLF's nutty answer to the rocket launcher. The weapons are well-suited for the single-player game they were designed for, but don't fare well in the multiplayer arena.

Result: Half-Life wins easily with a nice balance of weaponry and the all-important secondary fire.

Impact
Half-Life was the biggest thing to hit shooters since Wolfenstein 3D. It changed the way people approached games, and made players expect more from the medium; unfortunately, few games have actually delivered. No One Lives Forever takes the ground that Half-Life broke and builds a big, fancy skyscraper on it, with wall-to-wall carpeting, an indoor-outdoor pool and a 20-person jacuzzi … but it won't be remembered as a pioneering game.

Result: Half-Life was truly groundbreaking; No One Lives Forever just finally lives up to its predecessor's promise. No contest: Half-Life by a landslide.

Next page: The multiplayer game and our final verdict …