Would really like a sequel to this video touching on other mods like Portal Stories: Mel. These fan games certainly deserve more attention.

Honestly, calling B4B a "L4D fangame" seems right on the money. It's certainly about the most positive thing I could say about it.

Civvie11 covered Hunt Down the Freeman and there were two points where he had to use console commands just to finish it. The fact that console commands were necessary to finish it, is a pretty good indicator of just how bad it is. It also dethroned Postal 3 for the title of "Worst game on the Source engine".

This isn't very important, but usually when you use the "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" phrase, "The Ugly" doesn't denote the worst of the worst, it's supposed to represent stuff that's in the middle of the road, with ambiguous qualities that makes it confusing to parse, hence "ugly". The phrase comes from a movie with the same name, it's really great, you should watch it!

Entropy zero is definitely a fantastic fangame, super enjoyable for people like me who really enjoy fangames where you get to flip the script and play as the villain

Personally think that the entire fun of modding is getting the good and bad of what the community can create, cause even the bad stuff has merit. It’s worth a thousand crack life’s for a Counter Strike or Black Mesa

I feel like the ugly should be like the funny type games that are either so bad it’s good or bad on purpose(also in tgtbtu the ugly is not necessarily the villain, just and ugly character)

In Pyro's defense, how was he supposed to know this game he voiced for was gonna be shit.

As someone who patiently waited 3 years and spent over $100 preordering B4B, I can definitely tell you how disappointing it was. Barely anyone from the original Turtle Rock team worked on B4B, and it simply has none of the charm or polish L4D has. Valve always puts so many little details into their games that you barely notice until they're taken away. Back 4 Blood is the best example of this.

Really surprised you didn't bring up Portal Stories: MEL and Aperture Tag. Regardless, another excellent video!

I really don't think its fair to call out everyone who "Did video essays on how bad HDTF is" for being supposedly "greedy for a quick buck" and "making essay after essay". Besides the fact some of them were literally reviewing the game on launch, its still totally fair to make a video with your own opinion on something, considering not everyone has the same opinion, experience, or information on a game. Some of those videos werent even essay type videos, they often talked about something behind the scene beyond "Game bad." And claiming that people making vids on HDTF were bringing down the HL community by associating it with HDTF is really, Really shortsighted tbh. The general reception I see from non-HL fans is never tarnishing or making fun of the HL community in relation to HDTF. Just because you didn't like talking about HDTF doesnt mean people who did talk about it are contributing to tarnishing HL as a community, that just feels malicious to me.

"You fucked up my wallet" -Valve community to HDTF Devs

Dissapointed you didn't include Portal Stories: Mel. It's easily the best Portal mod, with insane amount of detail/polish and extremely interesting test chambers.

open fortress my beloved

1:07 Video starts THE GOOD 2:09 Black Mesa (Half-Life 1) 3:29 Codename Gordon (Half-Life 2) 4:19 Entropy : Zero (Half-Life 2) 4:54 Portal Reloaded (Portal) 5:21 Portal : The Flash Version (Portal) 6:00 Mari oh (i dunno how you spell it) (Portal) 6:14 Gang Garrison (Team Fortress 2) 6:38 Team Fortress 2 Classic (Team Fortress 2) 8:12 Open Fortress (Team Fortress 2) THE BAD 9:20 Prospekt (Half-Life 2) 11:12 Half-Life Before (Half-Life 2) 11:59 Back 4 Blood (Left 4 Dead) THE UGLY 13:01 Hunt Down The Freeman (Half-Life 2)

I cannot wait until Operation: Black Mesa comes out. A game studio called Tripmine Studios is making a remake of Blue Shift and Opposing Force and it looks exciting! It doesn't have a release date at the moment but it definitely looks like a try.

I was definitely kind of wanting to see genry's great escape from city 13, and hearing a mention of it at the end surprised me. Small note, but the game has a ton of unused content

That "good evening" at the start was very aggressive 😂

If there’s ever a sequel to this video, I’d recommend checking out the Valve fangames by Eric Ruth. There’s Team Fortress Arcade, a beat-em-up based on TF2, and Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead, an NES-styled demake of the first Left 4 Dead. They’re neat little distractions a la Codename: Freeman.

Dude, I hate HTDF as much as the next guy, but I feel like being mad at anyone who covered or made a video on it as well as people who like it ironically feels...well, petty. Your heart is in the right place, the mod's a dumpster fire with some of the scummiest development I've seen on a mod, but I don't think the voice actors or video essay creators are responsible for decisions made during development nor how HTDF released. People like myself may laugh at how abysmal the thing is, but in no way are we trying to send the message of "this is how mods should be made."

3:32 you should have mentioned that you can’t get the game anymore since valve removed it because the website for devs that is on the main menu leads you to a virus and malware site so the only way to get the game is to put a link in your browser

LETS GO

The demise of Steam Greenlight probably has more to do with Strategy First than it does with Hunt Down the Freeman. Basically, Strategy First was the very first publisher to sign a deal to put their games on Steam and that deal was incredibly short-sighted. It gave Strategy First the ability to put whatever they wanted on Steam without any oversight. When other publishers tried to give a publishing deal to a game on Greenlight, Valve stepped in and said they could do that. The game would still have to be approved via Greenlight to maintain the integrity of the system, and ensure publishers couldn't prey on small developers by offering them a terrible deal to circumvent the voting process. Problem is that Strategy First had a contract that let them do just that. Their most active years on Steam were the greenlight years, where they grabbed shovelware scam games off Greenlight and posted them directly to Steam with Valve not being able to lift a finger to stop them. Valve had to come to terms with the fact that as long as Strategy First exists, Greenlight couldn't actually work. There would always be a set of rules for everyone else, and a free pass to do whatever for Strategy First, and that would ultimately harm their relationship with the publishers and small developers that really drive Steam.

If you say “anyway, listen to this” you’re legally obligated to stop talking for a bit so we can actually hear it

Richter took a lil richter break and now richter is making richter videos where richter talks about things richter likes! Good video richter! Edit. I Would love to see a part two (with mods instead of games?). Love the new content richter

this feels weirdly targeted at Pyrocynical and I hate everything

I have a story about Prospekt. I was actually on the Discord, seeing all the previews for the Upgraded versions, and it actually seemed decent. But, I had a few nitpicks, and so my peers took it upon themselves to harass me, blowing what I said way out of proportion. When they opted to use Autism as an insult, I peace’d the fuck out. Learning that the updates wound up in some Development Hell actually gives me a sick satisfaction, finding out they got fucked over years later. Heh heh heh. I commend the people making the M3SA build of HDTF. A lot of good people got screwed making it, and I’m glad they could find some fun taking the piss out of Berkan.

Richter Overtime is really getting richer over time!

Documenting mods is this I feel is extremely important for the history for any franchise. Good stuff, Richter.

i loved 2D portal and Gang Garrison back in the day. I wish Vance was able to be released. i agree that you don't have to play back 4 blood to know it's bad

Richter I recommend making more content like this I really enjoy having a voice talk about my favorite games and how bad the mods for said game impacted the view of the community. I also just really enjoy this creative content like making a list of the best and the worst of the half-life moding community is a really good idea and I'd love to see more!

Nice video as always. Would like to see another one of these, but for cancelled fan games that had enough press and info about them (Opposing Force 2 and that one Epistle 3 mod come to mind). I'm also surprised you didn't have HL2 The Closure on this list. THAT NEEDS a video dedicated to it.

12:32 Back 4 Blood has a lot of conflicting mechanics that make it unfun to play. Enemies are poorly thought out and designed in conjunction with the maps, they can be bullet sponges, which bogs down gameplay. The characters are forgettable. The devs also bashed any potential for speed and speedrunning, which was unncessecary and regarded as a bad move. Turtle Rock does not know what they're doing and it shows.

Solid vid Richter. I didn’t know you were a texture artist!

Good video! Shame you didn't mention Minerva, it's one of the best HL2 mods I have ever played. If you haven't, you should definitely play it.

great video! i know all of these games and its nice to see someone make a video on them together

Good to see you're back Richter hope you're doing well also would Black Mesa technically count as a valve fan game?

16:22 I like the... tapersona? Is that what it would be called? Either way, it's an interesting idea that should probably get more attention (even though I am utterly hopeless at art). Love the content Richter.

Having played Entropy Zero, it is a fun romp, and the Protag Civil Protection Unit has some adequately spicy one-liners reminiscent of 90's action movies and games

there is a card/skill deck building mechanic in B4B that went really unutilized in the actual campaign missions of the game until just recently when the devs realized people didn't want to play through 40 minutes of different levels to only get half of their card decks so they finally made it to where you actually get them all from the start. Its an actually really fun mechanic with that change, I'm glad they did it as veteran difficulty is actually kinda enjoyable now.

You seriously didnt talk about "Gerny's Great Escape from City 13?" That's the best half-life mod dude, such a joke that this was uploaded without it.

Nobody: Richter overtime: post a video at 4:16am

He had such a calm attitude the entire video and then when he gets the nail gun section I lost it laughing 😂

im glad that The Stanley Parable at least made a cameo in the video. that game is so dang good. genuinely my favorite game ever even if its a bit short

I'd love to see another video going through other fan games like this

Where's Cry of Fear?

love these kinds of videos, helps me find good games to play

it been time . banger videos as usual Mr.over time .

15:08 the aliens are coming we've been compromised

I remember playing Gang Garrison 2! It was honestly so fun and was before TF2 went free to play. Massive props to the people who made it, was pretty damn faithful ngl

weird bit anti-intellectual digression at the end about how making essays on 'bad art' isn't valid or whatever while also having hdtf in the thumbnail - like if talking about this thing is so bad for the image of the community you can make the choice not to also join in on that process

I'd love to see more of the 'good' fan-games, particularly the lesser known ones. I've played and seen so many good ones, I wanna see some which I didn't know about.

Banger Video!

You should for sure do a sequel. Others have mentioned it already, but I was surprised you brought up portal and didn't bring up Portal Stories Mel. I'd also like to see Portal 2: Memories get a mention.

As someone who had a blast in Open Fortress and curious about other mods I was waiting for this kind of video!

Ayoooo!!!! I made that Open Fortress fanart !! So glad you used it for your thumbnail even more so considering you're part of OF's dev team

I remember enjoying a portal mod called "blue portals" it was a super polished portal 1 mod before portal 2 was released.

Oh wow, I remember playing Gang Garrison while my PC was outta commission and Laptop couldn't handle TF2 proper, good times...

Something I like about black mesa is how you can customize certain things using mods. For example, Crowbar Collective cut down on a rail to be much shorter, but there’s a mod that re extends the chapter to the same or longer length as the original

Holy crap! I remember seeing codenname: Gordon in one of those evoloution videos from a long time back! Never remembered the name or video thanks for bringing that back into my head

I used to play Left 4 Dead 2 back then but the reason why i quit is being buggy sometimes, i look up in Back 4 Blood on Steam and since 2021 i know it got a really bad rating. Today, i focus on Half-Life 2 and Garry's mod but i don't think i would say L4D2 is bad or worst, it's just Valve really want everything balanced or decided to keep it as a normal. But there's so many games that inspired nor created a fanmade game that i really don't know much. Snowdrop Escape is one of my favorite, thanks for making a very great explanation here Richter

Honorable mentions: Transmission Element 120, it’s one of my favorite HL mods. 1187 (Mod name), may be clunky, but it has love made into. And you forget the lost 4th brother of side scroller games… I’m of course talking about Sentry Fortress XD (it’s not that good)

It would be interesting to see a video like this about source fan games in general. Games like Underhell I feel really deserve the spotlight and analysis

Some cool ones to see for a possible sequel could be Portal: Prelude, or maybe hl2 mmod. Great video!

I love some of these so called "demakes" dearly because when I was young every computer I used had computing power lower than the machines of Apollo 11 so I couldn't run and simply didn't have many games thus I had to satisfy myself with said demakes I found online such as Gang Garrison 2 and Portal Flash version. I had lots of fun with these and they have a special place in my memory. Also Gang Garrison's easter egg introduced me to Cave Story and that's another thing that I am very thankful for.

What do you think about Portal Stories Mel and Aperture Tag?

Hey! almost at 100k. Great video BTW

I was the one guy waiting for Genry's Escape, Thank you for mentioning it.

Ah yes, Sir. Overtime of the Overclock

I knew it, I played Portal Flash version. I thought it was a dream.

Good evening. Didn't realize you provided the voice for Kevin. Well done

8:02 those flame particle effects tho 👀

Nice video! Now I got some GOOD mods to try

for context valve asked the TF2C Team to remove downloads because the game was based off the leaked source files (Which is in violation of the software services agreement). So it is less they don't care now and more they have a Hard Line Against leaked source being used.

I love that I can point at my screen and say "Hey, I know that!" at basically everything in here.

I remember an old fangame that was pretty much a top-down 8-bit conversion of L4D. I remember it being fun and having local co-op, but that's all I can really say about it.

Hunt down the freeman was truly one of the greatest games

Open fortress is so fucking good though, especially the goddamn guns.

Man seeing the cut-content for Prospekt makes me remember the other OPFOR 2 mod that sadly got canned.

I'm Impressed you didn't talk about the Hlaf-life 2 Cinematic mod. But overall very cool vid!

Hunt Down the Freeman is the Morbius of the games industry.

Your video was good but I find one flaw. I feel like in the ugly section, you had more emphasis to just bash on people who did the videos on Hunt Down The Freeman instead of the game itself, and the voice game actors. Other than that, pretty good.

I love your rage about HDTF. It was righteous and purifying, like a sword held by an angel.

The aliens are coming we've been compromised

Back 4 Blood is *absolutely* close enough to be called a fangame. It also is left severely lacking.

7:46 bars

I, along with my friend group has been steadily obsessed with Hunt Down the Freeman for over a year now. We've played all the cutscenes on discord music bots over a hundred times now that we could easily quote any line in the game

TF2C is honestly quite incredible, seeing those original high quality viewmodels again was enough to win me over, the addition of cut weapons like the nail gun and MIRV, along with the VIP gamemode and more just make it that much better. While the lack of cosmetics means your mercs have less visual flair, it helps make disguising more viable as a spy. Not having the unlockable weapons from TF2 is a bit sad (it felt weird not being able to double donk in TF2C), and speaking of weapons there's some neat little details on them. For instance, if I remember correctly the shotgun bolt actually cycles with the pump, and the pistol's slide actually moves. Shotgun shells are actually ejected onto the ground, my favorite is that many guns with detachable magazines like the pistol will actually drop empty magazines on the ground when you reload. It's a really small feature, and it doesn't have any effect on the gameplay, but it's always satisfying, and I love it whenever a game has this sort of attention to detail.

Y'know, I recall one mod that was played that had a difficulty so bad it drove a KZfaqr up a wall because of it. Aka, whatever the fuck JollyWangCore put himself through with that Roadtrip mod.

"It puts the steam in steaming pile of shit" Gotta applaud you on that one that is a good line!

6:15 I remember playing this as a kid. Loved it so much and wanted to play it 24/7 and for the past few years I've been trying to find its name again to play it, due to the fact that being a kid I'd just call it 2d tf2. Thanks so much, this reignited a lot of good memories

Will you try your hand at reviewing games made on the Golden Source/Source engine? Would love to hear your opinion on the horror classics like Cry of Fear, Afraid of Monsters, Nightmare House, and Underhell. And I would love to learn about any other gems/laughably bad games that aren't exclusively fan games.

To me Black Mesa is probably the best gaming remake of all time. It's genuinely amazing game and it's absolutely fantastic to see Valve itself acknowledge it and make it part of Half Life itself.

i got hunt down just to see how shitty is was, yeah. everytime i got to a new chapter i lost all of my weapons and had to get new ones that are on the map

weren't you playing HDTF live on your channel as part of the bet you made racing your friend on a Portal 1 speedrun?

I was genuinely waiting for you to talk about Genry's Great Escape From City 13.

0:44 Crack-Life is good

Even though I agree with what you have said, not playing the games yet complaining about them is how misinformation can potentially be spread. You say it like it's fine to bash a game without owning it. Please next time actually get the games and don't just repeat what other KZfaqrs have demonstrated

I’m honestly surprised that Underhell didn’t even get on the list, one of the best Source mods I have ever played in my life

"The aliens are coming, we've been compromised!!"