A masterpiece that is ahead of it's time. Only took me like twenty minutes to beat, but in those twenty minutes I also ate a sandwich and some biscuits, which made me enjoy myself. I eventually stopped paying attention to the game and just ate and ate. Then I went to the toilet and when I came back I found that I forgot to pause the game and I had died. Then I alt tabbed out of the game and watched an episode of House of Cards, checked my email, then came back to the game. Then I shot a thing and won the game. I then got up out of my seat, walked to the end of my room, then walked back and sat down again. Also my right shoulder was a bit itchy.

Tl;dr 500/4 It's OK -IGN

Half Life:Before is an emotional journey of pain, laughs and tears. This game is really amazing and here's why.

The game opens up with a cutscene, something we've always wanted in a Half Life game, and despite a big ♥♥♥ cutscene, we get no insight on what our goal is, who our main character is, what purpose he has in the Half Life universe, this is good because it makes the game more cinematic.
As we progress through the cargo ship which is the only level in the whole game, we fight our way through vortigaunts... but wait! Isn't this game supposed to be taking place before the first Half Life? Well it is you dumb ♥♥♥♥, those vortigaunts are there to pad the game out so we can experience more of this masterpiece. But we venture further on through a poorly designed level to reach an easy elevator puzzle which I wish I could dwell on but that was way too complex that even writing more about it would hurt my brain too much for me to pass out.
We then climb up the ladder and come face to face with a group of... enemy soldiers? Why are they here? How the hell should I know like I said this game is way more inticrated than you might expect. So we still get no explanation, again making it more enduring and cinematic. After we defeat three enemy soldiers we then come across an NPC. Who is he exactly? He doesn't explain himself, but in theory this stays consistent with the game's convuluted tone which is great.
We then backtrack all the way to the other side of the boat again and come across more enemy soldiers and monsters who magically teleported onto the boat. After we defeat them easily like every other enemy in the game we have to take a leap of faith.
The boss battle is easily the best part of the game, another cutscene takes place showing us something that could've easily been seen by the player in a control state. He chases us around in a massive circle with an awkward idle animation. We defeat him without breaking a sweat and the game ends, and I'm not ♥♥♥♥ing around when I say this, but the effort has all been put in the end credits, I'm not ♥♥♥♥ing joking.

Also the game has typos.

10/10

What the f*ck just happened?

Oh god, I knew this was gonna be bad from the reviews, but nothing could have prepared me for this.

It starts out OK enough, the camera starts in the captain's area of this nice looking cargo boat (well nice looking for HL1 anyway) in the middle of the Nonspecific Ocean, with Gman looking out towards the helipad. Fine, helipad on a cargo boat, little weird, but artistic license, right? And then once the camera gets to the helipad, you see a Zombie, a headcrab, and a bloody soldier leaning on the rail (presumably the former two wrecked him something fierce). It all looks like the soldier's gonna get up and be your player character, right? WRONG. Your player character is a guy in an HEV suit, who literally lightning bolts into existence like he's Zeus onto the helipad. Already starting to lose credibility.

The guns aren't anything mentionable, just standard HL1 weapons. And as near as I can tell, standard HL1 enemies too. There's probably supposed to be another level or something where they introduce something, but get this - about five minutes into the first level, I reach a complete dead end. I've searched the entire damn level up to that point, there is absolutely no way I can advance. I can't crowbar my way around, I can't push a box and jump somewhere, there's NOTHING.

However, what I could get through of this first level played exactly like those "kil al da bad guys" missions I made when I was six. Medkits every four feet, a bunch of quasi random enemies in a room, a wide complement of weapons before I've had time to sneeze, and I could see each obstacle coming from a mile away. This is something I'd introduce to a small child to get their opinion on FPS games, not something I'd play as a 20-something looking for a good time.

Short version: NO.
Longer version: NOOOOOOO NONONONONONO NOOONO NO.

A 15-minute non-canon demonstration on how HL1 would have been were it developed by modern gaming developers.
-Linear to a T
-Zero suspence
-Scripted cutscenes
-Laughably bad shoot-at-it-til-it-dies boss which is an amalgamation of the final boss of HL1 + a barnacle that hovers around with no animation.
Not bad, not good, but a quick little dish of mediocrity if you need to kill 15-20 minutes.
Recommended for passing my time.