Can't push myself to finish this one. Like previous reviews before me said, the game looks pretty good, even for a source game, mostly because of the inspired art style, but the level design sucks all the fun out of it. It feels like trial and error over and over again, and the dated gunplay of the source engine doesn't feel that fun for me anymore. The telekinesis/pyrokinesis mechanics aren't that well implemented, either. It feels pointless or too awkward to use. Also, there's a problem with the game's sound not working. If you're having trouble with that, you can use GCFScape to fix it. Kinda annoying, though.

★½ – Unplayable ❌

The gameplay is good overall, it’s the classic HL2 formula, even down to the gravity gun which is repurposed as telekinesis. Pyrokinesis is a new mechanic, but it felt very contextual, and even in said contexts, it’s often hard to use. I feel like it could’ve been made into something cooler and more useful.
The gunplay feels okay, only a few weapons like the shotgun feel satisfying to use. There’s also a lack of feedback when you get hit or take damage, which sucks. I do like hearing the MC gasp for air when taking damage though, it adds to the immersion.

The environments are in my opinion the strongest suit of the game. The levels have a great aesthetic and are a pleasure to explore thanks to that, especially the rundown sections (which make up for like two thirds of the game). The source engine is put to good use, in particular to add extra interactivity with physics.
While G String does run on the source engine, it comes with its own set of assets. Almost no HL2 assets are used, which helps make the game feel fresh and contributes to world building.
The sound design is also great, your imagination often being put to work with sounds being played without showing you the source. Those range from mundane sounds to strange screams and yells. Those, as well as the frequent street fights and other environmental story telling cues, make the world feel very alive.

While the levels do look great, it’s a bit more complicated when it comes to how they play. It’s often hard to make out the path to progress, which I disliked at first, but then ended up liking. It might sound strange, but it made me feel like the main character, just exploring without feeling sure of where I was going.
It’s also worth noting that the game feels too long, which makes it suffer in other areas. For instance, there’s not enough enemy variety. The sex bots enemies are a great idea, but they do get old after a while. Also the spaceship segment at the end of the game was a very pleasant surprise, although it was quite short.

I found the story a bit hard to grasp. In a sense, the same reasoning can be applied here, where I feel closer to the MC because I’m not sure what’s going on, just as she doesn’t because her memory was wiped (IIRC?). That being said, I still feel like some more clarity would’ve helped me feel more connected to the story. I did dig the more abstract scenes though.

The OST is full of bangers and is a perfect fit, not much more to say about it.

Overall a good game, not perfect but its environments are what really make it shine to me. It’s impressive that this was mostly crafted by one person. You can feel the passion behind it.

Easily and retroactively my GotY for 2020.

What a serious labor of love. It basically plays like all the best parts of the Half Life 2 modding community and it's take on cyberpunk both wears its inspiration on its sleeve and provides a unique spin. Giving you a world that feels more bleak and grimey (and real) than really most in the genre.

Everything from the sound design, the art design, and the gunplay just feels so damn good.

The major warning I have to give is the game is pretty purposefully not nice. The odds are almost never in your favor and it asks you to constantly roll with the punches.

Maybe not for everyone, but extremely my shit.

A rare game that actually has meaning to it, though you'll have to think about that for yourself as you play because it won't be crammed down your throat or handed to you. This is complex art. And in a Source first-person shooter, of all places. Let that tell you not to discount derivative seeming art, let that encourage you to abandon notions of high and low culture or whatever pretentious shitty attitude you have about these things. I recommend people play G String. It is a wonderful game, though I have to say it is deceptively more of a platformer than a shooter in a way that might be difficult for people not used to fucking around in Source games, like Garry's Mod or anything else, people not used , or never allowed by other games, to treat virtual space in games as playground jungle gyms will have a hard time liking or even understanding. No place in G String exists like a conventional videogame level, I think, and what you'll find is a surrealist scifi interpretation of realism that doesn't make sense to the gamer brain in all of us, so expect to be lost. But don't abandon that trained gamer brain yet, because, like I said, your experience in Source games will benefit you here as each level is designed around the fun verbs of stacking physics props, hopping on verticies that don't seem like they should allow you to stand on. You will be navigating these levels like you are trying to escape out of bounds, which is fun and perverse kind of and really cool to see a developer appreciate as an authentic way to design space and movement in games. This is a high recommendation!!! One of the best of 2020 for sure and a really rare and brave game in any year I believe.

Honestly tried to stick with this one but the level design kinda sucks lol. Felt like a frustrating test of trial and error to figure out where to go in these levels, and while it's a very nice-looking game, nothing about its aesthetic really grabbed me in the way I hoped when I watched the trailer on Steam.

Also I kinda feel bad that I haven't been playing as many games lately, I was recently laid off from my job and I've been trying to put my time and energy toward my main creative efforts or looking for work. Looking to find another game that'll really spur me back into playing again.

Frustrating feelings here.

When I first launched the game the arresting visuals immediately drew me in, and was really entirely the appeal that had me signed up for this months back. The pseudo-cyberpunk like vibes that bled into decaying architecture and brutal imagery is definitely the strongest hold together the game has, at first. To the point where I said enough was enough, that was still somewhat of a constant.

Unfortunately, this game happens to be a labor of love that borrows more from Hunt Down the Freeman and low polished source mods than I could reasonably be comfortable with. That doesn't have to do with the story and VA, those are fine if a bit tiring (there's a lot of dense visuals that initially make no sense to the story alongside extremely blunt dystopian themes with not a hint of subtlety, and the dissonance makes me think negatively of what it's handling... tacky body imagery included). It has to do with the level design and generally what you're accomplishing from a moment to moment basis. At first it evokes an oppressive vibe with how you have to scout through buildings looking for the next way forward but after the 20th spot of completely lost bullshit the frame of the painting comes loose. And then it's absolutely exploded when the combat is so trashy and taking the worst parts of HL2's mechanics while infusing it with some extremely questionable decisions.

For example, there was a sniper section, and at first it was fine cuz the first one was very obviously telegraphed as it shot a robot. Then you head right to kill them, and along the way on the right there's grenades for you to do so. You throw one in, but when you keep going in that direction, it's actually a dead end with 2 not-combine who (if your luck is bad, it seems random) immediately fire at you taking off 30 hp with each shot. And off a tunnel very close to that is ANOTHER dead end but with robots instead. So you actually have to go LEFT, away from the sniper you could kill, but then there's a mine that just immediately drops on a robot as a scripted event. But you're so close when the event triggers that the mine does a shitton of damage in a way that, after testing, seems to only be avoidable if you anticipate the mine dropping on the robot ahead of time (the mine does 80 damage, it's not something you just want to take)! Then you blow up some explosive barrels and just as you walk out a sniper immediately spawns on your left and you bet your ass that it's hard to see the blue line that is their line of sight and it shoots fast and nearly unavoidable. But it's not over! After you take out the sniper in this new somewhat open area, you find that it's sort of a dead end but on the other side of the open area, not-combine will immediately fire down from where you came from with no audio cue and you just have to hope you were moving fast enough to avoid the fire. And god help you if you tried to climb the car there, because a sniper actually spawns a line of sight from the nearby window if you do and it's on the opposite direction of the not-combine, so if your fire is focused on them you're FUCKED.

This entire sequence of events was so mindnumbingly dull and pointlessly obfuscating to me that I just decided "I think I no longer have the patience for source mod crap". Which is such a shame, as I only see great things in visuals and maybe even its story coming later into the fold. But I choose not to whip myself any further. If I wanted an intentionally awful time with arresting visuals that complemented that if not gave you a headache, K&L2 seems to be the resurgent appeal for that and it's right there!!

go figure a long-time-coming source engine fps (standalone mod) would land in 2020 and dazzle my senses more than any other fps i've played in... years? i mean, i don't often play games that feel so artistically striking, lately, but this thing generously provides handpainted-looking mini locations both lush and bleak all flowing together with sound that is ALIVE. i have plenty more to play and little else to say, but i am already convinced. i'm completely bewildered by its approach to 'plot'—yet in awe, frequently mashing the screenshot key—and it's like how i felt when i first read BLAME! which... i mean, only makes sense, when one considers how even half-life 2 sometimes managed to evoke that "lost in the megastructure" vibe. and that game's dna is absolutely felt here. yet it feels fresh, and much of that freshness comes from the way finding your path forward often works, integrated into the world design in such a way that it feels natural, almost like a secret. it likely owes nearly as much to dark forces 2 as it does to its own source engine origins. not that anybody's coming to collect. this is just... peak fps, revisited and repurposed for brilliant artistic ends.

2020 was a big "cyberpunk" year for obvious reasons, but this is not a game that should be left overshadowed. if you like the genre (either: cyberpunk or fps), don't sleep on g string. it's like an ode to many of the best with its own inscrutably, vibrantly cyberpunk identity.

Technically mindblowing for what is mostly a one-person project, with arresting visuals and great music. The early levels are more effective at horror than most actual horror games and, while not fun in the slightest, the spaceship sequence may very well be the most impressive thing I've ever seen on the Source engine. There are even sections with alternate paths leading to entirely different sets of maps from each other!

G String is a clear labor of love with an unprecedented amount of effort and care put into it, but the experience ultimately feels hollow when you reach the ending in which nothing is accomplished and suddenly realize that over half the game was a sewer level. Very little of the gameplay is particularly good or memorable, even if the world design surrounding it is the polar opposite. This is an undeniably interesting piece of art from a creator with an extraordinary vision and immeasurable persistence, but not one I think many people would enjoy. Which is okay.

Remember: having one auto-turret is enough, two is a problem and three is illegal.