Recent reviews by WEEED!?!? LOL!!! XD

hard mode made me fatphobic

im not rewriting a third lengthy review lmao. i left this as a thumbs down initially, then changed to up, but now back to down. i really cant be bothered to explain why and its a big shame because i was (and to an extent still am) looking up and staying hopeful for the future of this game. but basically a lot of bad stuff you hear from other reviews is still true.

this game is the actual definition of wasted potential. so much cool stuff and cool ideas getting unbelievably bogged down by stupid stuff

HL1 has its fans, but i'm not one of them. regardless, i still decided to give BM a go, and WOW. it absolutely blew me away.

pacing and balancing have both been drastically improved compared to the original. you find weapons at a much more spaced out rate, and they all feel like part of a much more balanced kit
level design and layouts in general are SO much better in like 98% of cases. a lot of the weird puzzles and platforming have been finely tuned or outright replaced for the greater good

audio is great, the soundtrack is especially a very pleasant surprise. the voice acting is nice, and i especially like the new voices on the HECU soldiers, it makes them sound much more vulnerable in a fight for survival.
the game is also absolutely BEAUTIFUL. visuals are so good its unbelievable, especially on a 2004 game engine. the visual difference between HL2 and this is absolutely incredible. early chapters are much more moody, while later chapters are more serene and atmospheric.

the crowning jewel of changes in this game is the endgame, though. xen has been COMPLETELY overhauled, and nearly everything you play after stepping through the portal is entirely fresh. there's so much more worldbuilding, especially with the vortigaunts, and the reworked long jump makes for genuinely fun platforming and combat opportunities.
the length of the endgame being drastically longer especially helps the game's pacing, and the final boss is nowhere near as frustrating on top of being MUCH more climactic now. the place looks beautiful and the soundtrack is great; basically everything i said above applies tenfold to the final four chapters. only detractor i can mention is that the most bugs i experienced happened in xen and beyond, but they were mostly minor such as missing collision in tiny areas. its whatever.

the game is super cheap on offer which is amazing, but even if it's not on sale, BUY THIS GAME. its SO worth it, regardless of whether you enjoyed the first game, hated it, or never played it. to me this is the definitive way to experience HL1's story, especially with added context and scenes linking it to the second game, and i genuinely think it might be the best HL game ever made even if it's not official.
going for 100% achievements seems like hell, but i'll try anyway.

EXTREMELY dated. the game is remarked as a classic but its victim to some of the most questionable game design ive ever seen. i dont doubt black mesa is better, get that instead

so unnecessarily confusing and infuriating for new players. absolutely MASSIVE map download upon first launch. playerbase is one of the most toxic ive ever seen. so glad i refunded this excuse for a game LOL

UPDATE 3/6/24: the #fixtf2 movement has shown how abysmal the bot problem has grown and i fully agree with it, but i will leave my original negative review below anyway since i had more to say other than the bots. #fixtf2

after almost 3000 hours played since 2016 i think i can safely say this game has one of the worst fanbases i've ever seen. everyone is either an extremely annoying/arrogant child or teen, or the most bigoted, racist, homophobic/transphobic manchildren you'll ever meet. to me its absolutely crazy because i've played so many games with toxic fanbases, so why does this one stick out so much? probably because everyone has such a high opinion of themselves. if you claim your fanbase is "friendly and welcoming" then why do i keep running into these people? why have none of you made an effort to get rid of these people from your matches? why do you still allow lowlives like zesty jesus or zealot to have such a big platform in your community? it's one thing to be annoying, it's another to let terrible people like this get away with what they say/do.

i know it's weird to preface a negative review with complaining about the people who play it. but that's the majority of the experience you're gonna have with this game. i could name countless other issues which run rampant in this game like optimisation, poor weapon balance, questionable mechanics like random crits + bloom, and being downright horrible for new players to learn. but the number one thing that always kills my mood is the playerbase. i hop on every now and then and i'm greeted by the corniest weirdos i've ever seen mixed with people who need to be put on a watchlist.

i love this game, i really do. its so important to me and so many other people i'm sure, otherwise i wouldn't be sitting here with quadruple digits in playtime, and an inventory with expensive pixels. which is why the current state of the game itself and its fanbase upsets me so much. i want tf2 to be the best game it can be, but even if you could fix literally everything, everyone you run into will still give you hell for one reason or another.

the game may deserve another update, but the people who play it absolutely don't.
do not try and get into this game as a new player. full stop.

this entire game is a guy going "hey you know what would be cool" then putting it into his game and being right every single time

goblins are real

this is one of those rare games thats extremely hard for me to even criticise. it is absolute QUALITY, from beginning to end. episode 1 eases you into the game very nicely, while 2 and 3 really expand on the absolute wild potential of ideas.

even when you finish the main game, there are still things to do; check for secrets on every level, find the secret stages, try for under the developer times, and (god forbid) go for untouchable. there isnt some BS secret ending if you complete everything, its just there for completionists, as well as some (amusing) achievements.

dusk owes a lot to its inspirations such as doom and quake, and it fully embraces it beautifully. the art direction is great, the humour is just as you'd expect, and the tone is perfectly grungy. and the soundtrack is simply beauty to the ears, perfect "kill everything" music the game needs while also being balanced out with slower, tenser tracks for the eerie ambience.

its extremely hard to go wrong with a game like this. do yourself a favour and play through this masterpiece already.