Half-Life: Decay
Encyclopedia
Half-Life: Decay is an expansion pack
for Valve Software's
science fiction
, first-person shooter
video game Half-Life. Developed by Gearbox Software
and published by Sierra Entertainment
, Decay was released as part of the PlayStation 2
version of Half-Life released on November 14, 2001. It is the third expansion pack for Half-Life, and like its predecessors, Decay returns to the setting and timeline of the original story, albeit portraying the story from the viewpoint of a different set of protagonist
s: two scientists working in the Black Mesa Research Facility. Decay is a cooperative multiplayer game
, designed to be played by two people working together to pass through the game's levels.
Decay was not a critical success, but was received with some positivity by journalists in the video games industry. Many reviewers felt the game was fun to play through with a friend, but that its more puzzle-orientated gameplay somewhat detracted from the overall experience. A number of reviews stated that the game simply felt little more than an extra add-on for the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life. In September 2008, a group of Ukrainian developers ported
the game to Windows
as a modification
of the PC version of Half-Life.
As is the case with the other games in the Half-Life series
, Decay is a first-person shooter
. Like the original title it is based on, Decay requires players to engage in combat with hostile non-player character
s and complete various puzzle solving tasks to advance through the game. However, Decay differs from Half-Life and its first two expansion packs, Opposing Force
and Blue Shift
, in that it is designed for cooperative multiplayer gameplay
. This requires players to work together to progress through the game's levels and complete puzzles as they arise in-game. Although intended to be played by two people in split screen
mode, Decay can still be played by a single player. In this case, the player can only control one character at a time, and can switch between the two characters quickly. When not in use, a character has sufficient artificial intelligence
to defend themselves, but otherwise does not move from where they have been left by the player.
In Half-Life, players usually fight alone and only occasionally encounter friendly non-player characters who assist them, such as security guards and scientists. While Decay still features levels where this is the case, significant sections in Decay are dedicated to working with friendly non-player characters, usually escorting them to various objectives and protecting them in firefights. An array of enemy characters from Half-Life populate the game, including alien lifeforms such as headcrab
s and Vortigaunt
s, as well as human soldiers sent in to contain the alien threat. The players have access to a limited selection of Half-Lifes weaponry to assist them in the game. Although developed after Opposing Force, no non-player characters or weapons from the earlier expansion appear in Decay.
The game is unique in the context of the Half-Life series in that it is the only game divided into separate missions, each with a specific objective to pursue, instead of consisting of a single unbroken narrative. How players perform in each mission is ranked at the conclusion of the level as a grade from "A" to "F". This score is based on each player's accuracy with weapons, the number of kills they acquired and the amount damage they sustained during the course of the mission. Should players successfully complete the game's nine missions with "A" grades on every level, they are given access to a bonus cooperative mission, in which they can play as a pair of Vortigaunts, as well as the ability to play through the PlayStation 2 version of the original Half-Life as a Vortigaunt.
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. In Half-Life, the player takes on the role of Gordon Freeman
, a scientist involved in an accident that opens an inter-dimensional portal
to the borderworld of Xen, allowing the alien creatures of Xen to attack the facility. The player guides Freeman in an attempt to escape the facility and close the portal, ultimately traveling to Xen to do so. Like the previous expansions, Decay shows the story of Half-Life from the perspective of a different set of protagonist
s. In Decay, players assume the roles of Colette Green and Gina Cross, two doctors who work in the same labs as Freeman, analyzing anomalous materials and specimens retrieved from Xen in prior teleportation
experiments. After the experiment that causes the alien invasion takes place, Green and Cross must work with two ranking members of the science team, Dr. Richard Keller and Dr. Rosenberg, to contain and stabilize the deteriorating situation in Black Mesa.
Once reunited with Keller, Cross and Green work to seal the dimensional tear to stop the invasion. The military arrive and try to remove all personnel as well as the alien force. After resetting key equipment to prevent a second dimensional rift, the two are tasked with preparing a satellite for launch. The satellite, which is launched by Freeman in Half-Life, is used in tandem with ground-based equipment to significantly weaken the effects of the resonance cascade. Keller tasks Cross and Green with activating this set of prototype equipment, a displacement beacon, which through the satellite may be able to seal the dimensional rift. However, after activating the beacon, both characters are caught up in a "harmonic reflux", a distortion caused by the rift. Despite this, Cross and Green are able to return safely and Keller congratulates them on their success.
The fate of both characters is revealed in the expansions Half-Life: Opposing Force
and Half-Life: Blue Shift
. Gina Cross' body is seen the bottom of a pool in Xen in Opposing Force and Colette Green's body is seen towards the end of Blue Shift face down surrounded by blood on a floating island in the distance.
The unlockable vortigaunt mission provides background information explaining how the orange crystals used by the rift-sealing machine in Half Life: Decay are acquired and used by the Nihilanth during the final boss battle in Half Life. The two player-controlled vortigaunts battle through marines and black ops in the underground Black Mesa complex to find the orange crystals in the back of a military van. At this point the screen fades and the mission is declared a success; it is presumed that the Nihilanth warps them back to Xen and installs the crystals in his cave.
in November 2000 with the announcement of a PlayStation 2
version of Half-Life. At the time, however, it was unclear how a cooperative version of Half-Life would be implemented; the developers, Gearbox Software
, were still experimenting with finding the most balanced amount of players to build a cooperative game around. By E3 2001, the game had acquired the title Decay, named after the scientific concept of exponential decay for consistency with the scientific names used by previous Half-Life titles. While the E3 convention only provided a demonstration of the main Half-Life PlayStation 2 game, further details were released relating to Decays premise and story, as well as confirming that the cooperative mode was to be designed for two players. The game's use of new model sets were also showcased. These new models were updated versions of Gearbox's High Definition pack for Blue Shift
, featuring higher numbers of polygons
and animation
features such as facial expressions. The enhanced models were around twice as detailed as those in the High Definition pack, which itself was of a much higher quality than the original models in Half-Life. Media updates through the months following E3 showed various screenshots and the trailer to the game. On August 18, 2001, Sierra announced that Decay was nearly complete, and would be submitted to PlayStation 2 manufacturer Sony
for verification within days. The entire Half-Life for PlayStation 2 package achieved gold status on October 30, 2001, and the game was released on November 14, 2001.
In October 2005, work was begun by a group of Ukrainian developers to port
Decay over to Windows
, as a modification
for both the old World Opponent Network
and current Steam versions of Half-Life. The port relied on the discovery of a method that allowed Decays PS2 game files to be deciphered, thereby allowing the files to be ported to Windows. The port went into the beta development stage in December 2007 and was released publicly on September 23, 2008. The port was received well by the journalists in the industry; GameSpy
site Planet Half-Life
noted that it was a shame that an official PC version of Decay never emerged, while British journalist Alec Meer stated that it was "fantastic to have this short but sweet lost Half-Life episode on PC at last, and it even has something the PS2 version didn't—online play".
, Doug Radcliffe argued that Decay was "impressive", praising the design of puzzles required players to work together, as well as the way in which the ranking system discouraged players from competing against each other. GameSpy
reviewer David Hodgson was more reserved in his views of the game; although describing it as "great fun", he noted that it could become "tedious, with one member waiting for minutes at a time, while the other scratches their head, then completes an objective". In addition, Hodgson felt that the more puzzle-orientated nature of Decay left the action elements "a little muted compared to Gordon
's single player quest". The site Allgame
described Decay as an "added bonus" for the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life, but noted that as the game was designed for two players, it significantly suffered when a single player attempts to play it by switching between two characters, a point that both GameSpy and GameSpot agreed on. In his review for IGN
, critic Doug Perry felt that Decay was "neat in its own limited way", but that it was more of a distraction from the main game, "a complementary cup of vegetable soup than a piping hot main dish of New York steak". While The Electric Playground
reviewer Steve Smith stated that the control scheme for the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life "is about the best we have seen on the PS2 or any console", he concluded that although Decay was a "nice add-on", it was "no reason to buy this port".
Expansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
for Valve Software's
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game Half-Life. Developed by Gearbox Software
Gearbox Software
Gearbox Software, LLC is an American video game development company based in Plano, Texas.-History:Gearbox Software was founded in January 1999 by five members of the content team from the defunct developer Rebel Boat Rocker: Randy Pitchford, Brian Martel, Stephen Bahl, Landon Montgomery, and Rob...
and published by Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
, Decay was released as part of the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
version of Half-Life released on November 14, 2001. It is the third expansion pack for Half-Life, and like its predecessors, Decay returns to the setting and timeline of the original story, albeit portraying the story from the viewpoint of a different set of protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s: two scientists working in the Black Mesa Research Facility. Decay is a cooperative multiplayer game
Cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates. It is distinct from other multiplayer modes, such as competitive multiplayer modes like player versus player or deathmatch...
, designed to be played by two people working together to pass through the game's levels.
Decay was not a critical success, but was received with some positivity by journalists in the video games industry. Many reviewers felt the game was fun to play through with a friend, but that its more puzzle-orientated gameplay somewhat detracted from the overall experience. A number of reviews stated that the game simply felt little more than an extra add-on for the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life. In September 2008, a group of Ukrainian developers ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
the game to Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
as a modification
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
of the PC version of Half-Life.
Gameplay
As is the case with the other games in the Half-Life series
Half-Life (series)
The Half-Life series of video games share a science fiction alternate history. Nearly all of the games are first-person shooters on the GoldSource or Source engines, and most are linear, narrative, single-player titles....
, Decay is a first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
. Like the original title it is based on, Decay requires players to engage in combat with hostile non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s and complete various puzzle solving tasks to advance through the game. However, Decay differs from Half-Life and its first two expansion packs, Opposing Force
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Opposing Force is an expansion pack for Valve Software's science fiction first-person shooter video game Half-Life. The game was developed by Gearbox Software and Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Entertainment on November 1, 1999. Opposing Force is the first expansion for...
and Blue Shift
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life: Blue Shift is an expansion pack for Valve Software's science fiction first-person shooter video game Half-Life. The game was developed by Gearbox Software with Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Entertainment on June 12, 2001...
, in that it is designed for cooperative multiplayer gameplay
Cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates. It is distinct from other multiplayer modes, such as competitive multiplayer modes like player versus player or deathmatch...
. This requires players to work together to progress through the game's levels and complete puzzles as they arise in-game. Although intended to be played by two people in split screen
Split screen (computer graphics)
Split screen is a display technique in computer graphics that consists of dividing graphics and/or text into non-movable adjacent parts, typically two or four rectangular areas. This is done in order to allow the simultaneous presentation of related graphical and textual information on a computer...
mode, Decay can still be played by a single player. In this case, the player can only control one character at a time, and can switch between the two characters quickly. When not in use, a character has sufficient artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters . The techniques used typically draw upon existing methods from the field of artificial intelligence...
to defend themselves, but otherwise does not move from where they have been left by the player.
In Half-Life, players usually fight alone and only occasionally encounter friendly non-player characters who assist them, such as security guards and scientists. While Decay still features levels where this is the case, significant sections in Decay are dedicated to working with friendly non-player characters, usually escorting them to various objectives and protecting them in firefights. An array of enemy characters from Half-Life populate the game, including alien lifeforms such as headcrab
Headcrab
A headcrab is a fictional alien parasitoid found in the Half-Life video game series created by Valve Software. They are the most numerous and arguably most iconic aliens in the series.- Overview :...
s and Vortigaunt
Vortigaunt
Vortigaunts are a fictional extra-dimensional species in the Half-Life series by Valve Corporation. In Half-Life and its three expansions, Vortigaunts are frequently encountered by the player as hostile non-player characters...
s, as well as human soldiers sent in to contain the alien threat. The players have access to a limited selection of Half-Lifes weaponry to assist them in the game. Although developed after Opposing Force, no non-player characters or weapons from the earlier expansion appear in Decay.
The game is unique in the context of the Half-Life series in that it is the only game divided into separate missions, each with a specific objective to pursue, instead of consisting of a single unbroken narrative. How players perform in each mission is ranked at the conclusion of the level as a grade from "A" to "F". This score is based on each player's accuracy with weapons, the number of kills they acquired and the amount damage they sustained during the course of the mission. Should players successfully complete the game's nine missions with "A" grades on every level, they are given access to a bonus cooperative mission, in which they can play as a pair of Vortigaunts, as well as the ability to play through the PlayStation 2 version of the original Half-Life as a Vortigaunt.
Synopsis
Setting
Decay is set in the same location and timeframe as Half-Life. Half-Life takes place at a laboratory called the Black Mesa Research Facility, situated in a remote desert in New MexicoNew Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. In Half-Life, the player takes on the role of Gordon Freeman
Gordon Freeman
Gordon Freeman is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Half-Life video game series. He is a theoretical physicist who finds himself thrust into a battle for survival against both alien and human forces. Throughout the series, Gordon must prevail in hostile situations despite...
, a scientist involved in an accident that opens an inter-dimensional portal
Multiverse
The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise all of reality.Multiverse may also refer to:-In fiction:* Multiverse , the fictional multiverse used by DC Comics...
to the borderworld of Xen, allowing the alien creatures of Xen to attack the facility. The player guides Freeman in an attempt to escape the facility and close the portal, ultimately traveling to Xen to do so. Like the previous expansions, Decay shows the story of Half-Life from the perspective of a different set of protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s. In Decay, players assume the roles of Colette Green and Gina Cross, two doctors who work in the same labs as Freeman, analyzing anomalous materials and specimens retrieved from Xen in prior teleportation
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
experiments. After the experiment that causes the alien invasion takes place, Green and Cross must work with two ranking members of the science team, Dr. Richard Keller and Dr. Rosenberg, to contain and stabilize the deteriorating situation in Black Mesa.
Plot
Decay begins with Gina Cross and Colette Green arriving at the Anomalous Materials Labs at Black Mesa and reporting to Dr. Keller, who is readying the day's analysis of an unknown specimen. Despite the objections of Dr. Rosenberg to pushing the analysis equipment beyond its design capacities, Cross and Green are assigned to assist setting up the experiment for Gordon Freeman. When Freeman inserts the specimen into the scanning beam, however, it triggers a "resonance cascade", causing mass damage to the facility and teleporting alien creatures into the base. Keller and Rosenberg agree that Black Mesa cannot deal with the situation on its own, and so decide to call for military assistance. Cross and Green escort Rosenberg to the surface, where he sends a distress signal to the military. However, the military are ordered not only to contain the situation, but to silence the base by killing its employees. Rosenberg elects to stay behind to meet with the military on arrival and Cross and Green return to Keller.Once reunited with Keller, Cross and Green work to seal the dimensional tear to stop the invasion. The military arrive and try to remove all personnel as well as the alien force. After resetting key equipment to prevent a second dimensional rift, the two are tasked with preparing a satellite for launch. The satellite, which is launched by Freeman in Half-Life, is used in tandem with ground-based equipment to significantly weaken the effects of the resonance cascade. Keller tasks Cross and Green with activating this set of prototype equipment, a displacement beacon, which through the satellite may be able to seal the dimensional rift. However, after activating the beacon, both characters are caught up in a "harmonic reflux", a distortion caused by the rift. Despite this, Cross and Green are able to return safely and Keller congratulates them on their success.
The fate of both characters is revealed in the expansions Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Opposing Force is an expansion pack for Valve Software's science fiction first-person shooter video game Half-Life. The game was developed by Gearbox Software and Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Entertainment on November 1, 1999. Opposing Force is the first expansion for...
and Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life: Blue Shift is an expansion pack for Valve Software's science fiction first-person shooter video game Half-Life. The game was developed by Gearbox Software with Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Entertainment on June 12, 2001...
. Gina Cross' body is seen the bottom of a pool in Xen in Opposing Force and Colette Green's body is seen towards the end of Blue Shift face down surrounded by blood on a floating island in the distance.
The unlockable vortigaunt mission provides background information explaining how the orange crystals used by the rift-sealing machine in Half Life: Decay are acquired and used by the Nihilanth during the final boss battle in Half Life. The two player-controlled vortigaunts battle through marines and black ops in the underground Black Mesa complex to find the orange crystals in the back of a military van. At this point the screen fades and the mission is declared a success; it is presumed that the Nihilanth warps them back to Xen and installs the crystals in his cave.
Development
A cooperative Half-Life game was first alluded to by publisher Sierra EntertainmentSierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
in November 2000 with the announcement of a PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
version of Half-Life. At the time, however, it was unclear how a cooperative version of Half-Life would be implemented; the developers, Gearbox Software
Gearbox Software
Gearbox Software, LLC is an American video game development company based in Plano, Texas.-History:Gearbox Software was founded in January 1999 by five members of the content team from the defunct developer Rebel Boat Rocker: Randy Pitchford, Brian Martel, Stephen Bahl, Landon Montgomery, and Rob...
, were still experimenting with finding the most balanced amount of players to build a cooperative game around. By E3 2001, the game had acquired the title Decay, named after the scientific concept of exponential decay for consistency with the scientific names used by previous Half-Life titles. While the E3 convention only provided a demonstration of the main Half-Life PlayStation 2 game, further details were released relating to Decays premise and story, as well as confirming that the cooperative mode was to be designed for two players. The game's use of new model sets were also showcased. These new models were updated versions of Gearbox's High Definition pack for Blue Shift
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life: Blue Shift is an expansion pack for Valve Software's science fiction first-person shooter video game Half-Life. The game was developed by Gearbox Software with Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Entertainment on June 12, 2001...
, featuring higher numbers of polygons
Polygon (computer graphics)
Polygons are used in computer graphics to compose images that are three-dimensional in appearance. Usually triangular, polygons arise when an object's surface is modeled, vertices are selected, and the object is rendered in a wire frame model. This is quicker to display than a shaded model; thus...
and animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
features such as facial expressions. The enhanced models were around twice as detailed as those in the High Definition pack, which itself was of a much higher quality than the original models in Half-Life. Media updates through the months following E3 showed various screenshots and the trailer to the game. On August 18, 2001, Sierra announced that Decay was nearly complete, and would be submitted to PlayStation 2 manufacturer Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
for verification within days. The entire Half-Life for PlayStation 2 package achieved gold status on October 30, 2001, and the game was released on November 14, 2001.
In October 2005, work was begun by a group of Ukrainian developers to port
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
Decay over to Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, as a modification
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
for both the old World Opponent Network
World Opponent Network
World Opponent Network or WON was an online gaming service, created by Sierra Games as the Sierra Internet Gaming System . WON was used by games such as Homeworld, Half-Life, Star Trek: Armada, Soldier of Fortune, Dark Reign 2, Silencer, ARC and online versions of casino games as well as early...
and current Steam versions of Half-Life. The port relied on the discovery of a method that allowed Decays PS2 game files to be deciphered, thereby allowing the files to be ported to Windows. The port went into the beta development stage in December 2007 and was released publicly on September 23, 2008. The port was received well by the journalists in the industry; GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
site Planet Half-Life
Planet Half-Life
Planet Half-Life is a gaming website owned by IGN and its subsidiary GameSpy. Maintained by a voluntary team of contributors, the site is dedicated to providing news and informes Half-Life and Half-Life 2, as well as related modifications and other Valve Software titles...
noted that it was a shame that an official PC version of Decay never emerged, while British journalist Alec Meer stated that it was "fantastic to have this short but sweet lost Half-Life episode on PC at last, and it even has something the PS2 version didn't—online play".
Critical reception
Decay received a weak but overall positive reception from the video games industry's critics. Writing for GameSpotGameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
, Doug Radcliffe argued that Decay was "impressive", praising the design of puzzles required players to work together, as well as the way in which the ranking system discouraged players from competing against each other. GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
reviewer David Hodgson was more reserved in his views of the game; although describing it as "great fun", he noted that it could become "tedious, with one member waiting for minutes at a time, while the other scratches their head, then completes an objective". In addition, Hodgson felt that the more puzzle-orientated nature of Decay left the action elements "a little muted compared to Gordon
Gordon Freeman
Gordon Freeman is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Half-Life video game series. He is a theoretical physicist who finds himself thrust into a battle for survival against both alien and human forces. Throughout the series, Gordon must prevail in hostile situations despite...
's single player quest". The site Allgame
Allgame
Allgame is a commercial database of information about arcade games, video games and console manufacturers.Allgame is owned by All Media Guide, along with Allmusic and Allmovie....
described Decay as an "added bonus" for the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life, but noted that as the game was designed for two players, it significantly suffered when a single player attempts to play it by switching between two characters, a point that both GameSpy and GameSpot agreed on. In his review for IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, critic Doug Perry felt that Decay was "neat in its own limited way", but that it was more of a distraction from the main game, "a complementary cup of vegetable soup than a piping hot main dish of New York steak". While The Electric Playground
The Electric Playground
The Electric Playground is a daily news television show on the cable TV network G4 that covers movies, TV shows, comic books, collectibles and gadgets...
reviewer Steve Smith stated that the control scheme for the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life "is about the best we have seen on the PS2 or any console", he concluded that although Decay was a "nice add-on", it was "no reason to buy this port".