Raising the Bar Redux is a Half-Life 2 Beta fan's dream come true. Not only does it revive the classic and gritty art style we never got to experience, but it melds into the story and progression of retail HL2. Honestly, if you are a Half-Life 2 fan, I cannot recommend this enough.

I see many people saying that the game struggles with guiding the player, but I honestly never had any issues with the level design and I think it actually improves on some chapters like Water Hazard.

The combat loop is exceptional as all HL2 experiences are however with new weapons that are exclusive to certain areas, it gives it much more dynamic combat scenarios than any HL2 mod ever.

It is not perfect, it is an incomplete game and essentially a beta, so the performance is pretty bad. The opening has some bad performance when exploring City 17 but it mostly goes away... then you get to the 2nd half of Ravenholm and the framerate tanks even worse. While there are only 2 of the 7 Divs released, it's a chunky 4-5 hour campaign that leaves you begging for more. This is going to be something truly special if it gets completed.

Reviewed on Apr 06, 2024


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