> ...If anyone's interested I'm gonna plug Half-Life which I finally got today and despite being a first person shooter features great puzzles (though so far no item manipulation) in addition to action. I think Iss plugged it a long while back and I totally second it; if you're looking for a good mental workout and don't mind a bit of action (there has yet to be anything that required a whole lot reflexes) you should check it out.
>

I don't remember plugging Half-Life here, but it wouldn't surprise me if I did. Besides the things you mentioned, Half-Life has a strong "mood" factor and plenty of tension going for it; it's one of those games that startles you into jumping out of your seat on a fairly regular basis. Alas, I stopped playing it a few months ago when I got hopelessly stuck trying to get over a simple barrier, and couldn't seem to get the cheat codes to work in order to walk through it. (I'll cheat if I absolutely have to.) One of these months I'll start it back up and beat the game.

Half-Life gets an unqualified stamp of approval from the Iss guy. It's an example of absolutely great game design.

Iss "thumbs up from the sISSkel of shoot 'em ups" achar