Opposing Force is a good game. I don't think it's as good as Half Life, but I do think it's good. I find the story of the HECU - a bunch of (mostly) young soldiers sent into a hellhole without ever being told what they were getting into, and their struggle to survive the Black Mesa incident. - very compelling. I also liked most of the gameplay. But there are definitely some areas with not-so-obvious solutions, especially compared to Half Life. On my first playthrough I got stuck in a few areas, but I've played the game again since then and comparatively breezed through it since I remembered the solutions I struggled to figure out before. I acknowledge the possibility that I'm just dumb, but at the same time, on my first playthrough of Half Life, I didn't really get lost at all, so I think my getting lost must also be attributed to some difference in game design. Some of the weapons are weird but I still like them, although grappling with the Barnacle Grapple can be somewhat frustrating at times. But overall, I would still say this game is quite fun. Not as good as Half Life, but definitely still a worthy entry in the series I would say. Although apparently Valve would disagree if their ignoring of everything introduced in this game is anything to go by.

Oh, and also, the hard mode in this game is true to its name. At least for me it was.

This mod has a good atmosphere and a few good combat moments, and I will compliment it for giving almost every door a use whereas every other Half-Life mod just kinda throws random locked doors in any given hallway as set dressing. Outside of that, there's a lot of issues. For one, visibility (or rather lack thereof) is not a fun gameplay mechanic. The game puts you in tons of pitch black hallways that you have to navigate with the shitty GoldSrc flashlight (I turned on fullbright in some parts because it was just so annoying to figure out where to go), and later on even starts putting transparent enemies in them, making it really difficult to parse out how many of them are where they are. Later on the game even just starts turning some enemies invisible, which is just an awful and completely baffling decision that makes those parts a complete nightmare without turning on godmode. Speaking of nightmares, this game isn't scary - at least not for me. It startled me a few times with some sudden enemy appearances, but there's a substantive difference between startling and scary. I've played Half-Life a dozen times and as much as I love it, its enemies do not particularly instill fear in me, which is a problem for Afraid of Monsters because every enemy is just a reskinned Half-Life enemy. Fear of the unknown is an important element of horror, and I just won't be scared by enemies that I know so well. It ultimately became a chore running up to and away from zombies so I could stab them between their attack animations. This mod has some good elements, but it's ultimately very troubled and makes for an at times frustrating experience.

A very fun Portal experience. The puzzles are good and I like the new elements they introduce. The level design is very good - there is very little chance of the player becoming hopelessly lost and having no idea where to go, which a lot of fan-made projects have the habit of falling into. This game feels very good and very professional. Its story is fine - nothing particularly earth-shattering by any means, but perfectly acceptable. I would say this is absolutely worth a play if you are into Portal, or just Valve games in general.

When I started this mod, I had no context for it. After I played it, I learned that it's highly regarded as a well-known early Half-Life mod. And that came as a surprise to me, because in my experience this is a steaming pile of dogshit. Dragging Kate along with you is so annoying, not just because the follower mechanics are broken and buggy (although they are), but because she will constantly run into the middle combat and get herself killed, which is a fail state. It is so frustrating to fail because the AI was being an idiot, through no fault of your own. But the biggest fault of this mod is the god awful level design - just endless winding corridors full of locked doors, with no clear direction on where to go and what to do. And it doesn't even look good visually! I guess you should play this mod if you want to experience the early history of Half-Life modding, but there are way better early mods and you should know what you're getting yourself into with this one.

I think most people's issue with this mod will be the combat, but actually, I would say the combat is my favorite part of this mod. I liked mastering the gameplay loop of ducking behind cover, charging your attack, and then popping out of cover to deal damage and recover health. It's challenging in a way that I actually like. The problem with this mod is the level design - there are so, so many times where the game does not communicate what you're meant to do at all. And the new sphere enemies are just not fun to fight, they suck.

I want to like Blue Shift more than I do, but it's honestly just eh. The puzzles are pretty stupid, especially in Power Struggle. The ending chapter is so, so very boring. And overall the game is quite short, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but Opposing Force having a longer campaign that is also more fun is definitely a mark against Blue Shift. I want to like this game, and I guess I would say I do, but I don't think it's particularly good or fun especially when compared to Opposing Force and obviously Half Life.