Hunt Down The Freeman

This article is about a mod.

The subject was conceived by a third-party developer and is therefore deemed both non-canon and non-official. It cannot be used as a relevant source in articles on official subjects.

Hunt Down The Freeman is a fan-made spin-off game based on Half-Life 2 and both a "narrative" sequel and a spin-off of Half-Life: Opposing Force released in 2018 by Royal Rudius Entertainment.

Characters[]

Original[]

Mitchell Shephard
Adam
Nick
Colonel Cue
Larry
Captain Roosevelt
Boris
Sasha
'Boston' Joe
USA president

Derivative[]

Plot[]

Prologue[]

Mitchell Shephard, the supposed brother of Adrian Shephard, was one of the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit soldiers who was in charge of killing all the scientists at Black Mesa Research Facility after the Black Mesa Incident. While exploring the facility, he comes in contact with an HEV suit-wearing man, whom he believes to be Gordon Freeman. The man beats him with a crowbar and leaves him to die. Mitchell swears that however long it takes, he will kill Gordon, where he meets the G-Man in a hospital at Albuquerque, New Mexico. G-Man offers him a "deal", where when the time comes, he will keep his "promise." Mitchell is then placed into the Seven Hour War.

Act One[]

Mitchell wakes up in a hospital, where he runs from headcrab zombies until he is saved by two national guards. One of them, Nick, reveals to Mitchell that he is currently in Albuquerque and that an unknown alien force -the Combine- have invaded Earth. Nick instructs Mitchell to reach the underground subway where the rest of his team is. While running towards the subway and dodging Combine supersoldiers, their radio is interupted by an unknown man. Mitchell fights through a dark skyscraper until he comes face to face with Adam, a Black Ops assasin. While their meeting is tense, they agree to work together to get to the subway.

After fighting through the canals, Mitchell and Adam make it to Colonel Cue's team. Cue informs them of his plan to reach a ship known as the Avalon Vale, which he believes will be a safezone as the Combine do not have any aquatic vehicles. While discussing this, a radio message from the President informs them that world governments have surrended to the Combine, ending the Seven Hour War. Despite this, the team is still dedicated to their plan. They fight through the subways, reaching a train that they use to escape Albuquerque. While on their way to Arizona, the train is attacked and Colonel Cue is killed. Mitchell uses a minigun to fight off several gunships.

Mitchell and his team reach Arizona, meeting up with a new contigent of soldiers. They drive across the Arizona desert, fighting off Combine forces. They stop near a small town to rescue survivors. Mitchell enters a factory where he meets Boston Joe, who informs him a gas leak will kill them if they use any guns. Mitchell rescues the survivors and brings them aboard his team. When they reach the docks, they are forced to fight through Combine hordes before reaching the Avalon Vale, where they meet Captain Roosevelt. Roosevelt asks who is in charge, and Mitchell stands up. When asked who he is, Mitchell initally responds with his rank before being cut short by Roosevelt, asking for his real name. Roosevelt discusses Mitchell's name, which he believes either means he is a gift from god or god himself sent to punish him. Mitchell is visibly confused. Nick interjects saying Mitchell is cursed, as only the men ranking above him have died, leading to him taking power. An attack on the ship leads to Roosevelt's death, and Mitchell taking command. They set sail onto the seas, hopefully escaping the Combine.

Act Two[]

Act Three[]

Enemies[]

Headcrab
Zombie
Barnacle (only appears once in hospital, single individual)
Vortigaunt
Manhack
Grunt Synths
Hunter
Strider
Gunship

Controversy[]

Even prior to its release, Hunt Down The Freeman received backlash due to unsubstantiated allegations of using bots to get it through the Steam Greenlight system and reports of stolen or store-bought assets in the game.

On release, Hunt Down The Freeman received almost unanimously negative reviews for its poor conception and execution. Points of criticism included its gameplay having very little to do with the Half-Life series, its overuse of cutscenes, poor level design, and the Day 1 build containing numerous bugs that made it impossible to complete the entire game. Another point of criticism was the use of popular Youtubers for voice acting. Youtubers such as I Hate Everything, Colossal is Crazy, and Pyrocynical were among the voice actors in the game, and were primarily criticized due to being cast as American soldiers in the game despite all three being British and lacking American accents. The most controversial voice actor was Keemstar, who voiced the President during the end of the Seven Hour War on a radio announcement. Perhaps the biggest point of contention was its status as a commercial release of a Half-Life game on Valve's official storefront, despite not being an official Half-Life game itself: this was taken as a sign that the company did not care about their most famous series (even though they were working on developing the next installment at the time).

Demake[]

Despite the game's infamous status in the Half-Life community, it is receiving a Goldsrc demake, simply referred to as Hunt Down the Freeman Classic. The mod is currently in development, with four released demos, and features some weapons and enemies from the original game as well as standard Half-Life weapons and enemies. Unlike its source material, the game has been praised for its good design, direction, and enjoyability.

Trivia[]

In the game's trailer, Gordon Freeman himself (without a helmet) is seen beating Mitchell with a crowbar, however in the game "Gordon" is wearing a helmet covering his face, and is later revealed to actually be Adam.
The lead director of the project, Berkan Denizyaran, was accused of creating the game just to land himself a job at Activision.
There is a new beta called the OWF Build that aims to fix some of the gameplay issues with the game.
M3SA added a backrooms level in Act 1, chapter 2 near the first firefight.