Half-Life's influence on FPS games is hard to measure. You can look at Dishonored, Titanfall 2, and 4A's Metro series, and find direct comparisons with Valve's debut shooter, but more broadly, Half-Life inspired a generation of players to become game-makers. Like Doom before it, Half-Life feels like an inflection point in PC history, and so it's only fitting that Warframe 1999, the new questline in Digital Extremes' ongoing free FPS, pay homage. Buried within the Warframe 1999 playable preview that was launched during Tennocon there is a neat nod to Gordon Freeman, Valve, and the world of Black Mesa. This is one of the most-loved modern shooters paying tribute to the past.
In Warframe 1999, you return to an alternate history version of the decade that brought us Jurassic Park and N-Sync, in an attempt to hunt down and kill the infamous Dr. Entrati. A new questline with a new setting, between missions you can return to an abandoned shopping mall to take a breath and catch up with the story. As part of Tennocon 2024, Digital Extremes has released a short playable preview that lets you explore the Höllvania Central Mall at will. It's here where the FPS game hides a loving dedication to Half-Life and its dogmatically quiet protagonist.
As spotted by a variety of Warframe players, and shared on Twitter by user 'Vaporwave_07,' among the various '90s iconography that decorates Höllvania is the original Half-Life poster and a cardboard cutout of Gordon Freeman himself.
It's a sweet tribute to one of the pioneering games of the FPS genre and the perfect signifier that yes, indeed, this is the year 1999 - while the original Half-Life landed at the tail end of 1998, the superlative expansion Opposing Force dropped just in time for Christmas the following year, so any self-respecting game store would have the banners front and center.
Check out our full Warframe 1999 guide for everything you need to know on the new questline, or maybe try some of the other best free PC games available right now.
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