Doom, Duke Nukem, Blood, Quake, and of course Half-Life itself. There are dozens of great FPS games from the ‘90s, the timeless classics that helped shape the PC as a platform. Imagine now a kind of boomer shooter Valhalla, where the weapons, mechanics, and pyrotechnics that defined that glistening erstwhile era come finally together to fight, frag, and circle strafe for eternity. One of the greatest Half-Life mods of all time, itself inspired by the best ever Doom mod, delivers on that dream. And after years of silence, it’s finally back from the dead.
Half-Life is eternal. The FPS game that established Valve as a studio and as a creative force, it remains – even after all these years without Half-Life 3 – one of the best shooter series in all of PC history. Gordon Freeman, the Black Mesa lab, being chewed to death by Barnacles – we still have fond memories of Half-Life and its horror sci-fi world. But could it be better? A quarter of a century later, is it possible to make Half-Life feel fresh again?
You may have heard of Brutal Doom, the groundbreaking, transformative Doom mod that introduces new weapons, animations, gore effects, and essentially makes id Software’s FPS feel like an entirely new game. Brutal Half-Life goes further. It’s bloodier, louder, and adds mechanics like dual wielding, power ups, climbing, and new melee attacks, but also throws together the greatest guns from all boomer shooter history.
The Plasma Rifle from Doom. The AWP from Counter-Strike. Duke Nukem’s Glock and Chaingun Cannon. The dynamite from Blood. Quake’s rocket launcher. You can now blast through Black Mesa with all the best weapons of ‘90s shooters instantly at your disposal. Created by ‘zoonyarts,’ the second beta version of Brutal Half-Life was uploaded in 2018. There have been small patches and updates, but otherwise, the mod has seemingly been abandoned – until now. Brutal Half-Life version 3 is officially on the way. Check out the teaser below:
With a provisional and extremely Valvian release date of ‘when it’s ready,’ while we wait for Brutal Half-Life version 3, you can still get the older builds right here. If you want to replay Half-Life but with more ferocity, variety, and spectacle, this is an absolute must.
Get a serious nostalgia fix from the best old games still playable on PC, or maybe sample the best zombie games, if miss blasting those headcrab scientists.
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