10 Lengthy Video Games That Were Absolutely Obliterated By Speedrunners

As the game that launched Valve into the critical acclaim it still enjoys today, Half-Life's seminal revolution of the FPS genre was well known at release. But by offering a challenge to those willing to blast through it quickly, the game remains highly popular.

The 1998 release looks very dated from a graphical standpoint, but its finer technical details made it an incredibly viable title for speed-running. The community has uncovered numerous glitches that can aid in rapid traversal. Typically, a single run of the game would take at least eight to ten hours based on skill level, but speed-runners have accomplished some very impressive times.

Using a combination of out-of-bounds, bunny-hopping and other glitches, speed runners took Valve's title down to less than thirty minutes. Players move at such a ridiculous speed through the levels with some of the more impressive feats involving leaping down the corridors of "On a Rail" within seconds, or using explosives to launch Gordon to greater heights.

For some time, it was the user "spiderwaffle" who bested Half-Life in an hour, but this record would later be surpassed by "quadrazid" at an astonishing twenty minutes. In keeping with the original title, Half-LIfe 2 and its episodic expansions would also be broken years later.