Half-Life: Before looked promising when i saw it at the steam store but sadly in the end it didn't meet up with the expectations. The encounters on the deck were easily avoidable by just running through and it didn't challenge me much other then wonder what is going on storywise. Fights became repetitive after a while that was not a good sign either.

The ship map itself was nicely made however and in the 2 playthroughs i went through this game did not encounter any glitches that forced me to reload so when it comes to making maps the people who made this mod deserves some credit. The soundtrack this game had definitly deserves some credit for a job done right aswell, despite of the things this game lacked it created more tension in the athmosphere of the game. Enemy movement however leaves many desires, i encountered enemies who were unable to move properly around the place like they normally would but the final boss takes the grand prize for obvious reasons.

This is not a game mod i would recommend for serious playing though it is free to download (Half-Life needed) and there is absolutely no harm in trying it out for yourself and share your thoughts about it.

I give my best of luck in the future to the developers of this mod who did their best to create and publish a game mod like this. It might not be an A+ title but we all have to make a beginning somewhere.

All the best!

(s.i.e)

oh i hadn't wrote a review for it yet
it's really bad.
the game is just awful.

For starters, some 12 year old kid made a different mod, who lived in Sweden, and mainly spoke Swedish.
That mod had it's own custom models and textures, maps, enemies, so on so forth.
Own music, own sounds, and over 30 maps (I think, that game was pretty long)
It also had pretty fluent english, I never noticed a single typo.
That kid is grown up, and his name is ruMpel.
Oh and he made another modification which shouldn't be compared to this.
Like how Afraid of Monsters shouldn't be compared to this.

Some grown-up ♥♥♥♥♥♥ bag went in ♥♥♥-effort to make like, two-three maps.
It had horrible grammar (a patch had been released, mission faild).
For god's Sake, he obnoxiously advertised himself in his own game.

Obviously I don't recommend this game.

Go play Gunman Chronicles or something, IDK.
That's also a nice mod.

Ok. So. Lets imagine this was a free custom map. Nobody hates it . So then, add some custom content including a new pistol (which looks and feels worlds better than those in half life) textures for characters (or rather corpses), scripted sequences, decent music, voice acting and a second level. Now suddenly everyone hates it.

Why?

Now, I admit that some of the points are valid.

It lags. Yes, but that's because in the setting it's raining.

The amount of health kits. True, there are way to many health packs, but considering that you have to cross the deck twice, both times being attacked by the fearsome creatures of Xen, I think the developer made a fair assumtion that we would need this many.

The boss. I agree. It's crap.

The story. I don't think everyone has even thought about it.
So. You are aparently in another dimension, yet we spawn in a flash of lightning on a boat.
Does anyone remember how the xen monsters spawned? IN A FLASH OF LIGHTNING. How do you think a human would arrive? Also, the boat. Let me insert an extract from the Combine OverWiki.
"In addition to this legitimate research, several secret projects are also carried out at Black Mesa, which are deliberately left vague. A large amount of classified research is carried out, including the development of high-tech weapons and defense systems, research into extra-dimensional travel, teleportation, and the study of Xen."
So, we already know that Black mesa have been to other dimensions-is it so far fetched that black mesa have a boat in one of these dimensions?
So you travel to this dimension expecting it to be an easy collection; get the test sample and go-hence, you have no weaponry. But, you arrive and everyones dead. Xen creatures have manged to get aboard. How? we don't know You don't know Your character doesn't know nobody knows! But they are here and you have to fight them off. You eventually reach a survivor who opens the CARGO doors for you.

And before i finish, i'd like to mention a great scripted event most people have probably overlooked. As you make your way over the deck, you see the gman watching you. Then, just as you get close to the point he's at, you are distracted by some turrtes. You have to destroy them, and when you look back to where the G-man was, he's gone. That's just an example.

There is more I could mention, but multiple issues mentioned in other reviews have been cleared up now.

If we had to pay as much as a penny for this, I would agree. But we dont. ITS FREE. No price, no problem.

!!SPOILERS!! THE WHOLE PLOT IS BELOW !!SPOILERS!!
This game started off ok but got bad quite quick.
First off you get almost every weapon in the first area. Not that bad but you also face almost every single monster in the game in the same stage.
After this fight you get to the tower. In my case I was below half health. You encounter a room with 3 soldiers in it. Ok. Kill them and begin to explore the room. Now after this fight you're probably low on health. So what happens next? The room is flooded with snarks. Took me several attempts to survive.
You get through that and go into a room in which you encounter the first living other person. You get the crossbow and he opens a big door. Really thinking of Jurrasic Park. Apparently theres a big scary monster in the hanger. So we open the doors.
You are then forced to back track all the way to the begining. Which has magically been repopulated with aliens.
You eventually reach the hanger and face a really glitchy cutscene. Which is unskippable. The "big scary monster appears" which is really a reteaxtured barnicle attached to a ragdoll of the final Half Life boss.
You get into the fight and realise that you have NO weapons. They are lying around you. This means that, no matter how conservative you have been, you combat the boss with next to no ammo. The boss is not even that hard. Although if you get caught on the barnicle tounge its almost an instant kill. If you die you have to go through the cutscene again.
You kill the boss and take the crystals. End of the game. Thats it. Its meant to be backstory but its just a shoot em' up. The final boss is just a bit stronger than the rest.
The best bit of the game was probably the final, non glitchy, cutscene.

norm for mod

The game can be finished in about 5 minuites, this is something you would download off a mod website.

It is just 2 maps, thats it. The final boss dies in under 20 seconds.

I was concerned when I saw this game in the steam library having mostly bad reviews. "Hmm," I said to myself ",a Half-Life fan-made mod that has bad reviews? Surely these reviewers are too picky." Well the picky reviewers were right, Half-Life: Before was bad. It's not like, 'unplayable' bad, or the 'spit-shine-on-game-release-shelves' bad that Call Of Duty does, it's just, bad. Creashock Studios, you could have made something cool out of this 1.5 level map (the map-count being one of the problems) but you didn't. The one thing awesome about Half-Life is everything isn't given to you in the first five seconds of game-play. As said erlier, this could have been really cool, telling the story of how the Crystal that was used in the first Half-Life game was discovered, it's power, etc. etc. AND answering the question of how the Crystal was aquired (without going to any lore videos and/or articles). Also, I was confused how Mr.Winner (I now realize why he was given that name) got onto the ship to begin with, a lighting bold hit it, and Poof, he's there. The map count could have been increased, the boss could have been more than a moveless shell with a barnicle as it's wepon, and the list goes on and on. I think what was supposed to happen is they were trying to make Half-Life a (do not quote me on this) Spunk-Gargle-Wee-Wee game, like Call Of Duty. But over-all, it was bad.

This game is an insult to the Half-Life name. An incoherent story mixed with crappy level design and a play time shorter than the length of this review. I'm being nice right now.

Ever thought you'd see a bad half life game?
Well now you do.
Let's do the checklist:

Stupidly small
Stupid AI
Story not well written
No lipsyncing
Baad gramur al aruund
Final boss is easy (run and shoot at him, end of)
Easy as hell puzzles

I can go on, but i'm not wasting time on this
Half-life is great, this isn't.
Greenlight control is needed

Half-Life Before is well... REALLY REALLY short. Like mabey 15 minutes. But this doesnt take away from the fun of the game. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a good time but doesnt have much of that time to their disposal.

Why?

this mod has 2 gunskins with better textures than the rest of the guns

it's boring and is short as hell

why is it on steam, it doesn't deserve to be here.
What you are seeing in the screen shots is the full game. There is only ONE level. That's it. Boat surface , pilot room, and storage (boss battle, which is also in the pictures)

Node Graph out of Date. Rebuilding...

This game is short but pretty good. I score it around 7/10.
I loved the Pistol's new disign and sound. It was pretty much what I used that whole time. XD
So all and all, short but sweet game.

Basically, Celery of games. it took longer to install than it took to complete.


Seriously though. It isn't bad, but no way would i go to my friends and demand them to play this

Look, I can see what they were trying to do. Some people who loved Half-Life tried to mod the game and create a prequel for their favourite franchise. You can appreciate it for it's heart.

Not much else.

This Game Really sucks.

idk dude it was pretty lame

Short and definitely not sweet. I was expecting more of a story, something to get my Half life fix but ended up playing something I couldve passed on. Cutscene at the end was my favorite part

Half Life Before is a free mod for Half Life. Will you want to return to Half Life one for this mod or will you want to move on and dont look back ? In Half Life Before you play as Andrew Winner. He is a Black Mesa scientist that is dropped onto a Black Mesa vessel thats overrun with Soldiers and Aliens. Youre objective is to retrieve an artifact from the ship. So how is this mod ? This mod is awfull without a doubt. Theres not alot to say about it so ill keep it short. The game has no story what so ever. Youre dropped onto a ship and thats it. The game is literraly a reskin of Half Life and theres no diffrence in gameplay. The game is really easy and is no challenge what so ever. The game is also really short about 15 minutes. The only good thing about it is its free but thats about the only good thing i can say about it. Overall this mod is a waste of time and effort only play if youre curious about it. Otherwise just stay away. I give Half Life: Before a 3/10