This mod has a good atmosphere and a few good combat moments, and I will compliment it for giving almost every door a use whereas every other Half-Life mod just kinda throws random locked doors in any given hallway as set dressing. Outside of that, there's a lot of issues. For one, visibility (or rather lack thereof) is not a fun gameplay mechanic. The game puts you in tons of pitch black hallways that you have to navigate with the shitty GoldSrc flashlight (I turned on fullbright in some parts because it was just so annoying to figure out where to go), and later on even starts putting transparent enemies in them, making it really difficult to parse out how many of them are where they are. Later on the game even just starts turning some enemies invisible, which is just an awful and completely baffling decision that makes those parts a complete nightmare without turning on godmode. Speaking of nightmares, this game isn't scary - at least not for me. It startled me a few times with some sudden enemy appearances, but there's a substantive difference between startling and scary. I've played Half-Life a dozen times and as much as I love it, its enemies do not particularly instill fear in me, which is a problem for Afraid of Monsters because every enemy is just a reskinned Half-Life enemy. Fear of the unknown is an important element of horror, and I just won't be scared by enemies that I know so well. It ultimately became a chore running up to and away from zombies so I could stab them between their attack animations. This mod has some good elements, but it's ultimately very troubled and makes for an at times frustrating experience.

A truly ambitious mod that I can respect for its influence on Half-Life's modding scene, but unfortunately it's too rough around the edges for me to recommend. Where it shines is the atmosphere, and it's pretty tense if not outright scary at points, but from a game design standpoint, it just flops. The game bathes you in pitch darkness at many points and gives you only Half-Life's terrible flashlight to work with, which leaves you stumbling in the dark frustrated instead of scared. Most of the enemies are largely fine but the Alien Grunt variant is mostly invisible except for their projectiles which makes them brutally unfun to encounter. Combine that with level design that essentially amounts to switch hunting and you have a mod that is not only fairly dull but actively frustrating