But are the vortigaunts really the villains? After playing Black Mesa, I'm not so sure.
The fact that the vortigaunts willingly give up their lives while the hyper-energy gluon ray fires away at them, melting away skin and bone to reveal the fleshy vortiguan organs inside, is quite a horrifying atrocity to commit against heroes or villains alike. I do wonder what Crowbars Collective is trying to say with this incredibly disturbing sequence. Vortigaunt Factory is a level I'll soon not forget, not after hearing the resounding screams of tenfold galungic vocals echoing across the factory halls. Why do they phrase you as the villain, after you save so many scientific lives? I hate seeing Gordon forced to commit such crimes against nature, but I think it fits the narrative the company is trying to tell.
But then I think about the nature of good and evil, and violence in specific. Who has the right to take another living being's life, even if that being is so far from human as if to be unrecognizable? It seems real simple to destroy the Vortigaunts in the moment, but later it starts to sink in. Slowly, over days and nights, that creeping feeling of guilt grows. Gordon killed them all. He had to.

I hate video games. I never want to play another Half Life game as long as I live. Crowbars Collective remade Half-Life to make players realize how deep the crimes against the Vortessence ran. They extended the worst part of the Zen section with dumb puzzles so Gordon would lose his cool and kill the Vortigaunts. Why?
What more does this add? Either let me be blissfully unaware of the Vortigaunt enslavement, or let me save them all. Instead, the player character is forced to be the dark grey in the middle, not evil, not good, but the mushy brain matter between.

I must say, the feeling of playing this game on a lime green Razer-brand keyboard with RGB gaming neon lamp halos has made it an absolute blast to blast through. The game was an incredible spectacle of graphical display, and it really makes me wonder what other players were missing without it. Unfortunately, the graphics don't make up for the subject matter.

Compared to the original, I'd have to say it's objectively better in every way. Especially the soundtrack and sound design. My favorite part was when the choir went Ahh eee and I knew everything was going to be okay.
I rate this game a so