Hunt Down The Freeman

So recently a demo and later full version of Source engine mod Hunt Down The Freeman was released after many delays on Steam. And on top of generally being trash, a great deal of drama erupted after people found out about how most of the assets were stolen from various sources. It also had an absurd pricetag of $30 (which is more expensive than Half-Life 2 itself) which was later halved to win back support.

Spoiler: Further info

a dev speaks out

(car model ripped straight out of Stalker)

this map straight-up uses textures from Black Mesa Source

using youtubers as promotional material

quality mapping

even the quicksaving is broken

what kind of character design is this

 

Smells like DigitalHomicide. My question is though if it's outright stolen content (sounds like it) or asset flipping?

 

If it were Digital Homicide there would only be a single level, and there would be no one involved except for the Romine brothers.

You have to keep in mind that Steam allowed this game to be sold.

 

There's at least 3 stolen maps. I've been on all three in GMod. Also there's 3 or 4 maps taken directly from HL2, although they were somewhat modded to fit the scenario.

 

Well, it's far from the worst thing to ever come from Steam.

What I like about this one is how the guy who made it basically just got a bunch of assets and cobbled them together to make this shooting game. However, in his mind it's perfectly alright because he "Could have made all of the maps and weapons, it was just faster to use assets instead," which I've always found funny. It's like Murderface's justification for getting songwriting royalties without doing any actual work.

-You didn't write any songs, so you don't get any royalties.
-Yes, but I could have written all those songs.
-But you didn't!
-But I could have!

 

Steam has absolutely no standards.

 

I am far from an expert on the whole situation but it looks like from everything I’ve seen the director, if you want to them that, of the game probably had some experience with HL2 moding and a massive ego saw the notorious HL2 cinematic mod and thought, hey I could make full fledged game out this, Black Mesa was somewhat successful. And then they departed on a troubled devolupment of a poorly constructed fan fiction made Frankenstein’s monster of a game that dipped into SGtMarkIV levels of stealing other peoples code. Now the stolen assets is one thing but the game itself is just really poorly made and don’t get me started on the plot and characters, John Freeman would have made a better main character then Scarface McEdgelord; you know what, just make a Half Life Full Life Consequences game and I’ll be happy.

 

Jim Sterling played it. I have to say, I'm surprised at how much attention this thing got. You'd think a terrible mod on Steam would just be ignored by the majority of people online.

 

I Hate Everything (a youtuber who did some voice acting) weighs in on things

 

Are you fucking kidding me? Sky Williams voiced the character Larry? No wonder he was annoying as shit to me.
Even worse, the game fucks up hard when trying to be tonally consistent. Nothing made sense to me in the universe of Half-Life canon. The fuck was this game and how did it fuck up so hard?

 

legit better than the actual thing

 

Damn, I know this is a terrible game, but why did it blow up the way it did? by Steam's standards, it really isn't all that bad, or at least not the worst it has to offer.

 

I thought it was "Hunt Down the Fremen" for a moment: a Dune game.

 

YOU FUCKED UP MY HOUSE

 

That's how I learned about this game's existence.

I barely played a bit of Half-Life (I should resume it someday) but am aware of its huge legacy. "Playing Counter-Strike while cracking open a cold one with the boys" and all that.

But damnnnn is the development fucked up indeed.