valves utter reluctance to update or shut down this game is actually dangerous. the pornographic sprays and signs were pretty funny at first but all the racist shit and the real pedophiles spreading illegal images around makes this impossible to enjoy anymore. the game itself, though fun, is broken and unbalanced, which would be excusable if the community wasnt so fucking horrible. you have to cherry pick servers just to avoid half this shit and theres still the issue with bots constantly joining games and often times ruining everything. not worth it anymore, this game needs to die.

unreal horrific imagery, astoundingly ingenious game design, watertight perfectly crafted punishing gunplay, absurdly high skill ceiling, helped with an accessible and inviting tutorial and a fantastic ranking system that makes it instantly addictive to want to grow and get better at the game....

i would go on more about the way this game is designed - from the 4d 360 degree proximity warnings that flash on your screen, to the way enemies move and behave in a way that is contingent with everything else in the game, to sound cues and movement tricks and metas and tricks that can be learned with frequent play - but ill be honest, im not good at talking about that shit. the game design here is too complicatedly crafted for me to explain, but trust me this game is absolutely perfect when it comes to killing you fairly and killing you often.

from just a technical standpoint this is absolutely everything i want in a fps game mechanically speaking. while there's no story or real function of the game beyond "shoot the fuck out of everything as fast as possible", it doesnt need it at all.

and no theres no way in hell im beating this i could not even beat devil daggers these games are way too hard for me.

broken buggy mess. the story is great and interesting with lots of unique characters and strong writing, but the combat is atrocious, the quests are boring fetch quest nonsense, world design makes traversal an unnecessary slog, and the constant bugs and black screen soft locks and crashes make this un-fucking-bearable.

im still in chapter 1 in but i think i might shelve the game until further notice, its just not fun at all and the only thing keeping me invested is the story, which should say a lot about the world here. if im still dragging myself along a D- RPG experience for the sake of just the story itself then it's probably worth noting, but at this rate i might just look up a recap to spare myself this fucking nightmare.

wow. what a really pleasant surprise. some of the writing is a bit wonked, the pop culture references that show up from time to time can be a bittttt too goofy and cringe-inducing, and some of the acting isnt superb. but wilson is seriously good, and he is a completely optional character you can bring along that only appears a little less than midway through. a lot was keeping me from putting the game down but wilson was the primary reason, his character was VERY likable and i wanted to take him to the end of the game no matter what happened, which led to some surprising emotional beats that i thought were pretty effective.

speaking for the gameplay portion, with some tinkering this is legitimately good enough to be a full on official valve release. the level design is strong, environments are cohesive and great, the gunplay is PUNCHY and incredibly fun, and theres a really good bit of challenge to the whole experience without ever feeling too brutal. the final boss fights in particular are a huuuuuuge step up from the final boss fight in EZ1 which was not good at all. matter of fact, EVERYTHING about EZ1 is improved greatly here (minus the voice acting lol). the biggest issue would be that the friendly AI tends to get up on your ass a bit too much, and in the case of the driving section it gets REALLY annoying with the friendly hunter constantly bumping up into you and basically holding your hand everywhere. that's about it though.

in general i dont have many complaints about this at all. its a captivating and nostalgic 8hr romp with fan-service and personality, it feels very sincere and like the people behind it treated it like a true labor of love. it cost nothing, it does everything hunt down the freeman claimed it would do but better, it is THE half life 2 mod, the absolute BEST one out there. might go so far as to say this is my GOTY, it gave me that valve touch that i hadnt felt since portal 2. play it.

it's not done yet but this is still absolutely worth its $20 pricetag, even though the game has about 3 hours of campaign right now it's still worth every penny and the amount of time you're going to be putting in trying to p-rank runs and 100% the game is more than worth it. this has the craziest fucking combat ive seen in any shooter, the game deservedly markets itself as being a hybrid of devil may cry and quake because beyond the shooter exterior is a refreshing and ridiculously dynamic combo fighter with a CRAZY high skill ceiling, and the further you get into the game the better you get because you cannot get far in the game (on high difficulties at least) without busting your ass for it.

also the boss battles are simply fucking divine. for being an unfinished game i know that it's a bit too soon to have full opinions on the game, but based on what ive seen so far, i can see this topping doom eternal for favorite shooters of the past decade.