a 7 year old half life 2 mod. Some of it is executed fairly competently, but there's nothing here driving you through it. The zombies are... odd and the story is vague and generic. I thought some of the execution was kind of unintentionally funny, so I went through it, also knowing it was pretty short. It looks like this got a bit polished for a sequel, but it really doesn't have anything that good going for it. Some of the easter eggs are cute if not interesting. Most of the fun of it comes from assets available from HL2, in which case... just go play HL2

Yes, it's most reminiscent of Half-Life. I think it's almost inevitable when you use the Source engine to make a semi-adventure, semi-shooter game, it has this vibe. Though it does have some modern quirks that make you wonder if it's still Source. But overall? It's not outstanding, but it's very solid, especially for a first game, even though it doesn't try out too much. It's well-paced, locations change frequently and even the zombie story somewhat works. It does get weaker with the shooting sections becoming more frequent (darn you, warehouse levels!), but still worth playing.