Once upon a time, Gabe Newell was just a former Microsoft employee who had founded a small game studio and was helping build a new sci-fi FPS. That game, Half-Life, would soon become an industry-shaking success story and launch the true legacy of Steam god GabeN, but it didn't pop up out of nowhere. No, Half-Life had a notable list of influences that Newell revealed back in 1998, including the one and only Super Mario 64.
"The three games that had the biggest impact on Half-Life were Ultima Underworld, Mario 64, and Resident Evil 2," Newell said in an interview for the December 1998 issue of Next Generation magazine. "Ultima Underworld was so much more of an immersive experience than the other first-person shooters. Resident Evil 2 really inspired us to take the creepiness and horror in Half-Life seriously, without giving in to the temptation to be campy about it."
