You know you're in trouble when one of the best things in a game is an ON-RAILS drive through a landscape before the main action begins. Not that there's anything remotely "exceptional" about said drive...but at least it isn't INCOMPETENT, unlike the rest of the gameplay...

The first Half-Life was released in 1998. Since then, apparently, graphics have improved only slightly, and gameplay and story have worsened...A LOT. I'll put it another way: the original Half-Life remains, to this day, one of the best examples of how to make a first-person shooter "right". Whereas this latest "entry" - I'm sincerely hoping Valve had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with it, incidentally, other than allowing it on Steam - is a prime example of how to do everything "wrong".

Half-Life was a fantastically "intuitive" game. It told you only so much, then threw you into a situation, and you had to work things out for yourself...but you could certainly manage to do so, because it all instinctively made some kind of "sense". There is absolutely NOTHING intuitive in this game.

Not the mapping (um...am I SUPPOSED to be going back the way I came? And it really does look like I could EASILY hop over that fallen debris). Not the interactions with your environment (hey, waitaminute, I could'a sworn I already tried that door! And as for this elevator button, guess I'll just SPAM THE ♥♥♥♥ out of it until it responds)! Not the combat (tip with the shotgun: aim the cursor to one SIDE of the monster you're trying to hit. Oh, and your default melee weapon when you run out of ammo is your FISTS; not the AXE you just picked up)!

In all fairness to the devs, though, they don't seem to have made this with any great seriousness in mind. I mean, why the cute wicker dude in the bathtub of your apartment, and the rubber duckie in the oven? Has this series really reduced itself to cutesy post-post-modernist humour to get a cheap chuckle out of people..?

No, wait, this isn't actually a part of ANY series...IT'S JUST SOME ATROCIOUSLY POOR MOD SOMEONE HAS RELEASED ONTO STEAM. For free, thankfully...and I STILL can't bring myself to recommend it...or even FINISH the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing, for that matter...

Easily the worst thing I have ever played that is in any way, shape or form associated with the Half-Life franchise.

Verdict: 4/10.

You know you're in trouble when one of the best things in a game is an ON-RAILS drive through a landscape before the main action begins. Not that there's anything remotely "exceptional" about said drive...but at least it isn't INCOMPETENT, unlike the rest of the gameplay... The first Half-Life was released in 1998. Since then, apparently, graphics have improved only slightly, and gameplay and story have worsened...A LOT. I'll put it another way: the original Half-Life remains, to this day, one of the best examples of how to make a first-person shooter "right". Whereas this latest "entry" - I'm sincerely hoping Valve had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with it, incidentally, other than allowing it on Steam - is a prime example of how to do everything "wrong". Half-Life was a fantastically "intuitive" game. It told you only so much, then threw you into a situation, and you had to work things out for yourself...but you could certainly manage to do so, because it all instinctively made some kind of "sense". There is absolutely NOTHING intuitive in this game. Not the mapping (um...am I SUPPOSED to be going back the way I came? And it really does look like I could EASILY hop over that fallen debris). Not the interactions with your environment (hey, waitaminute, I could'a sworn I already tried that door! And as for this elevator button, guess I'll just SPAM THE FUCK out of it until it responds)! Not the combat (tip with the shotgun: aim the cursor to one SIDE of the monster you're trying to hit. Oh, and your default melee weapon when you run out of ammo is your FISTS; not the AXE you just picked up)! In all fairness to the devs, though, they don't seem to have made this with any great seriousness in mind. I mean, why the cute wicker dude in the bathtub of your apartment, and the rubber duckie in the oven? Has this series really reduced itself to cutesy post-post-modernist humour to get a cheap chuckle out of people..? No, wait, this isn't actually a part of ANY series...IT'S JUST SOME ATROCIOUSLY POOR MOD SOMEONE HAS RELEASED ONTO STEAM. For free, thankfully...and I STILL can't bring myself to recommend it...or even FINISH the fecking thing, for that matter... Easily the worst thing I have ever played that is in any way, shape or form associated with the Half-Life franchise. Verdict: 4/10.