History AwesomeMusic / HalfLife

* The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUKcAo8AriM VALVe theme song]], also known as "Hazardous Materials", is especially awesome when the extended version is played when Gordon gets his HEV Suit back in Half-Life 2.
** Its first appearance was in a psuedo-boss in Surface Tension, in which you must scale a thin cliffside while facing off against a turret, HECU, and an Apache.

* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlD5uvOt_Sw Apprehension and Evasion,]]" for when you're being chased by bullets through a train yard, armed with only a crowbar. Always just as tight, no matter how many times that one scene is played.
** Even better, it plays ''again'' when you and a swarm of antlions raid Nova Prospekt.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOS4SdqXscY Last Legs]] for the final boss battle song! AutobotsRockOut!
** Ladies and gentlemen, witness the awesomeness that is ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquer C&C]]'' music remixed with Last Legs: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6ze0CVBJHw Half Life: Last Legs (Command and Conquer remix)]].

* Not to mention the little signature Half-Life motive which appears when you regain your crowbar from Barney. Goosebumps right there.

* Speaking of the Combine Advisors, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3d1cpWmL5U Shu'ulathoi]], also from ''Half-Life 2: Episode Two'', deserves a mention. Played during the encounter with the Barn Advisor, it's creepy, unsettling and foreboding, all fitting for the first face-to-face encounter with one of the Combine's psychic alien overlords.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_c9djkr08 Military Precision]]. Bonus points for being adopted as the theme tune of ''FreemansMind''.

* The final boss theme for Opposing Force, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KkrRf3lEPY Alien Forces,]] has a lot of stopping power. The alien things have mustered a huge portal underneath Black Mesa, there's a titanic living WMD about to crawl through to our world and it hinges on you to stop it. Now put on your war face and march, Corporal. You have an alien god to punish.

* How about some [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8l81NX9X6w CP Violation?]] It's not head-rockingly awesome, but it aptly reflects how the CP units (and by extension, the trans-humans in the games) are a fusion of familiar and alien concepts.

* TwoWords: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcFdB1lTIRA Vortal Combat]] from VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 2. Not to mention it's coupled with a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DNVMxMwwqY You're Not Supposed To Be Here]], a very fitting track once you get the chopper gun mounted on your airboat. The track itself sounds like something both Kelly Bailey and [[VideoGame/NeedForSpeed Rom Di Prisco]] would compose together.

Note: ''Blue Shift'' and ''Opposing Force'''s soundtrack was replaced with Half Life's if you bought a Steam copy. Keep this in mind if you plan on making {{Justifying Edit}}s or corrections.

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OacXUzTNXo Forget About Freeman]] plays during the last big time confrontation Gordon has with the HECU, which takes place during a [[SceneryPorn gorgeous sunset overlooking the desert]], with Harrier jets being chased by Xen Mantas in a close dogfight. The song is a crescendo that starts off energetic and only gets more frantic from there, in tune with coming out of the sewer drain, picking up supplies and moving to the open area to meet up with the Marines and their fully operational [[TankGoodness M1 Abrams]], showing that [[CurbStompCushion while the military failed completely to meet their objectives in the facility and are in full retreat, they're still very much dangerous]]. This is a big example of the mod's AdaptationExpansion: the correspondent area in the original game was the bottom of a simple rocky gorge, run through with an asphalt road connecting two base doors, where the one leading to progress is guarded by two troopers and a tank that was much easier to beat. There wasn't even an aerial fight to speak of.

** Ladies and gentlemen, witness the awesomeness that is [[CommandAndConquer C&C]] music remixed with Last Legs: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6ze0CVBJHw Half Life: Last Legs (Command and Conquer remix)]].

* The short but sweet "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIGZVtjO9JQ Triage at Dawn]]."

* The short but sweet "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mHxxY-8pZk Triage at Dawn]]."

* ...And even after you're about to leave the condemned Ravenholm, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E-jZnMVvj4 Requiem for Ravenholm]] will ensure it never leaves you.

* ...And even after you're about to leave the condemned Ravenholm, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b_CxSQ3r8U Requiem for Ravenholm]] will ensure it never leaves you.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBtMCWvd2Jg Half-Life's credits theme]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN1BWqIiAp4 its remix in Half-Life 2.]] Both tracks are still fairly oddball, but actually have a somewhat jovial mood and, uniquely, human vocals. It's the perfect way to celebrate Gordon's accomplishments and cast a hopeful light on the state of humanity, which offsets the weight of each game's suspenseful and ambiguous endings.

* Neotokyo, a mod for ''Half-Life'', has some great original songs composed Ed Harrison.

* TwoWords: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcFdB1lTIRA Vortal Combat]] from VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 2. Not to mention it's coupled with a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZCM4FuI5A We've Got Hostiles]] is another track that, like Surface Tension 3, is perfect for setting the mood. When the song begins, you just know that something is waiting for you at the top of the elevator lift... then, like Blast Pit 3, the rock kicks in and you find yourself charging out into the battlefield guns blazing. This song becomes even more effective if you go into the bunker just as the song gets quiet again, because then it intensifies one more time just as soldiers start dropping into the bunker. Considering that the soundtrack of ''Black Mesa'' is ''not'' a VariableMix, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome it can be very exciting to the gamer when the music syncs up so well like that]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OacXUzTNXo Forget About Freeman]] plays during the last big time confrontation Gordon has with the HECU, which takes place during a [[SceneryPorn gorgeous sunset overlooking the desert]], with Harrier jets being chased by Xen Mantas in a close dogfight. The song is a crescendo that starts off energetic and only gets more frantic from there, in tune with coming out of the sewer drain, picking up supplies and moving to the open area to meet up with the Marines and their fully operational [[TankGoodness M1 Abrams]], showing that [[CurbStompCushion while the military failed completely to meet their objectives in the facility and are in full retreat, they're still very much dangerous]]. This is a big example of the mod's AdaptationExpansion: the correspondent area in the original game was the bottom of a simple rocky gorge, run through with an asphalt road connecting two base doors, where the one leading to progress is guarded by two troopers and a tank that was much easier to beat. There wasn't even an aerial fight to speak of.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iXfWWrwrlQ Nuclear Mission Jam]]. Which proceeds (like a few other memorable tracks) to make a return in the sequel.

* How about some [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8l81NX9X6w CP Violation?]] It's not head-rockingly awesome, but it aptly reflects how the CP units (and by extension, the trans-humans in the games) are a fusion of familiar and alien concepts.

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZCM4FuI5A We've Got Hostiles]] is another track that, like Surface Tension 3, is perfect for setting the mood. When the song begins, you just know that something is waiting for you at the top of the elevator lift... then, like Blast Pit 3, the rock kicks in and you find yourself charging out into the battlefield guns blazing. This song becomes even more effective if you go into the bunker just as the song gets quiet again, because then it intensifies one more time just as soldiers start dropping into the bunker. Considering that the soundtrack of ''Black Mesa'' is ''not'' a VariableMix, it can be very exciting to the gamer when the music syncs up so well like that.

* How about some [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-wYaIbC4OE CP Violation?]] It's not head-rockingly awesome, but it aptly reflects how the CP units (and by extension, the trans-humans in the games) are a fusion of familiar and alien concepts.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8fW_SeNm_8 The main theme]] for ''[[FanRemake Black Mesa]]''. It's very different from the usual electronic music you listen in the games, but it fits perfectly when you think how bleak Gordon's situation during the resonance cascade incident is - he doesn't know if his friends are alive, he has to fight constantly and even against those who were supposed to be the survivors' saviors, and things just get worse no matter what he does. It just pictures him having time to take a break, sit down, and think of everything that has happened, and still is.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=096CqF3kbvI Blast Pit 2]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n83E5o_3Mlo On A Rail 1]], a pair of eerie yet soothingly beautiful piano pieces.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jnFgqS5ZgM Blast Pit 3]], which is a little ''too'' good. For a part of the game where you are required to be slow and quiet, when this song kicks in, you are filled with the overwhelming urge to throw caution to the wind and run out into the blast pit bellowing a battle cry with guns blazing. The piano parts at the opening and close are both very beautiful as well.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6nywODlcfk Surface Tension 3]], which perfectly sets the mood. When it opens slowly and mysteriously, you know something is waiting for you at the end of that air vent... and once the hard rock kicks in as the Gargantua makes its entrance, you know that it's time to ''run like you've never run before''! Also made for a great soundtrack in the mod's first trailer.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaRF-rTsce4 Surface Tension 4]]. That laser tripmine room may be [[NintendoHard frustratingly difficult]], but this song makes it worth it.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZCM4FuI5A We've Got Hostiles]] is another track that, like Surface Tension 3, is perfect for setting the mood. When the song begins, you just know that something is waiting for you at the top of the elevator lift... then, like Blast Pit 3, the rock kicks in and you find yourself charging out into the battlefield guns blazing. This song becomes even more effective if you go into the bunker just as the song gets quiet again, because then it intensifies one more time just as soldiers start dropping into the bunker. Considering that the soundtrack of ''Black Mesa'' is ''not'' a VariableMix, it can be very exciting to the gamer when the music syncs up so well like that.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPOcdRDOzuk The main theme]] for ''[[FanRemake Black Mesa]]''. It's very different from the usual electronic music you listen in the games, but it fits perfectly when you think how bleak Gordon's situation during the resonance cascade incident is - he doesn't know if his friends are alive, he has to fight constantly and even against those who were supposed to be the survivors' saviors, and things just get worse no matter what he does. It just pictures him having time to take a break, sit down, and think of everything that has happened, and still is.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSnHcbbofDk The gorgeous second part of the credits]], the music that plays as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJjvyvPK9no soldiers bust in through the ceiling in Questionable Ethics]] (though you might be hearing that one [[NintendoHard over and over again...]]) and the eerie [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFKBP5hWuSA Inbound suite]] that plays on the tram ride through the facility. Joel Nielsen did a fantastic job of keeping the spirit of the music of the main series while adding some great atmosphere and some really great tunes as well. You might notice more than a bit of influence from the Halo soundtracks.