Half-Life Before is such a weird situation. The level itself is fine enough but that is kinda the only thing saving it. The enemies feel randomly scattered and don't seem like they were actually placed in good spots. The gimmick of having to push boxes to get to certain points isn't the worst thing ever but it feels so slow and seems like an excuse for a "puzzle." The boss fight is terrible and what makes it worse is that if you let go of your walk button for even a second, you are going to die and you'll have to rewatch the cutscene over and over until you stop dying and beat the boss. It isn't hard, but having to keep walking backwards while shooting, hoping to not bump into any walls is really tedious. Overall the game is a mess with like very few redeemable qualities. It can be beat in less than like 4 minutes so you might as well play it for yourself. Just don't expect anything good.

This is a weird one because I definitely enjoyed my time with this game on my first playthrough but looking back on it and replaying it, this game has a lot of flaws.

First chapter is a great introduction to the aftermath of Half-Life 2. This chapter and chapter 2 are incredibly nostalgic for me as these were funnily enough some of my first encounters with the Half-Life series besides Half-Life 2: Deathmatch. Replaying the game made me remember the good times and brought me back. After going into the tower everything starts to slightly go downhill. While it isn't too bad in the beginning, it becomes increasingly worse later on.

I don't have much to say about chapter 2 other than I kind of enjoyed venturing around the reactor core through the different rooms, it was pretty good.

Chapter 3 and 4 were honestly pretty underwhelming. I don't wanna sound like 'that guy' but dude why are half of these chapters and rooms in complete darkness. It makes everything annoying to go through especially because there will randomly just be hordes of zombies and the occasional Zombine and you will have no idea where they are, where they are coming from, or where to escape to. It isn't absolutely terrible, but the dark rooms makes it kind of difficult and a bit annoying to go through.

The final chapter is an absolute joke. Literally you spend like 15-20 minutes just escorting rebels into a train and it felt like it was never going to end. The final chapter is supposed to be exciting and filled with action but the entire time going through this finale I didn't feel satisfied. It felt like a chore much less than a finale.

Overall the game is fine and I can see myself going back to it every now and then much like the other games in this series, but compared to the other games, this one lacks in a lot of ways. I still recommend going through it because there are some decent parts, but don't expect a masterpiece after finishing Half-Life 2.

Clearing my Backlog Part 3: Hyrule Warriors Legends

Honestly a pretty fun time waster. Got this back in 2021 and just now decided to play it. I'm a sucker for Warriors combat so I knew I was gonna have fun with this either way. I didn't really care for the story I was just focused on the gameplay which isn't bad at all. Surprised that the 3DS doesn't really chug that much when slashing through a bunch of enemies at once, at least it doesn't for me. Overall a pretty fun time, nothing crazy but a good time waster.