Hunt Down The Freeman - Just Bad Games

Note From The Team: We used Half-Life Source footage in this video because that version of the game has chapter select making it easy for us to quickly grab footage from different parts of the game world. While Half-Life Source is far better than Hunt Down the Freeman it is way worse than the original Half-Life. DO NOT WILLINGLY PLAY HALF-LIFE SOURCE. □

For those who don't know, the voice actors for this game didn't get a full script. They were given lines without context with vague direction.

"So, what did this game accomplish?" It shamed Valve into picking the series up again!

Fun Fact: There is an achievement in this game that you can unlock if you successfully refund it.

Fun fact: the director of Hunt Down the Freeman got hired by Activision. They're perfect for each other!

With regards to Half Life: Alyx. I feel they had to break the silent protagonist rule. Fans are used to Alyx being a side character with a defined personality, if she was just a blank canvas because you were playing as her, that would be jarring as heck.

To be fair as well regarding Alyx, Alyx was prior a voiced character and it would have been even more immersion breaking if she suddenly stopped talking because she was a player character.

The fact that the Full-Life Consequences-styled parody of this game is considered to be better written than the game itself speaks volumes.

I just wanna say something about black mesa: xen is by far it’s greatest strength. The team turned a bland, annoying, glorified platforming section into a breathtaking alien world filled with not just beautiful scenery but an expansion upon the lore that showed us a deeper look into the native societies of xen along with how the black mesa scientists had known about the world for far longer than they had let on. You’ve got alien villages, a black mesa research outpost, hell they even threw in zombies wearing HEV suits with the AI still active and those were legitimately creepy.

"Everything is under-baked. Like a Google Maps prototype running on a Nintendo 64." Poetry.

"You will do it for the children?" "Yes, but not for the children." Quality writing there...

Fun fact, as if there's not enough of them already: There actually was a cutscene that acknowledges the 17-year gap they mention at 28:00. According to The Cutting Room Floor, a short cutscene is left behind within the game's files. It shows the children of the factory watching as one of them takes Mitchell's hand while the factory burns down, then cuts to a screen reading "17 Years Later." TCRF states that a misspelling in the code is the only reason this cutscene never shows up.

I like the logic that you can dodge the sniper fire by stopping after you hear the shot and it somehow makes the faster than speed of sound bullet miss you

"The Freeman never even shows his face, and can we blame him?" had me in stitches

If you remember that HDtF was intended to be just an SFM movie instead of a game, the game having so many cutscenes and being so disjointed makes sense. It wasn't supposed to be playable, but the creator overextended too much and it really shows.

I will say this: Mitchell has to be one of the most petty characters in existence.

Honestly, I beat Alyx and never noticed how much she talked, mainly because it's natural hearing her talk, since she talked in every other half-life game she was in.

Drill sergeant: "the first and last words i want to hear out of your mouth are Sir, do you understand?" Soldiers: "yes sir!" Drill sergeant: *facepalms

Fun fact: the game didn't have a tutorial at first, due to the amount of complaints, they decided to update it and add that mediocre attempt of a tutorialive

Props to Ricepirate/Mick Lauer, he is giving his all voicing Mitchell, despite the terrible script. Don't feel too bad for him, he fortunately got to play Abbacchio in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, a dream job for him.