A fairly substantial upgrade from the original and a great game in it's own right. It's got a lot of fun new mechanics, well-justified fanservice, a good amount of variety, and just about everything you'd want in a half life game. It does feel a tad excessive in fanservice at times, but that's fine for a mod. Compared to the first, the game is much better at conveying information to the player. I got lost much less often, although there were a few instances of poorly telegraphed environments. If you like half-life, check this out for sure.

Imagine Hunt Down the Freeman, but actually good.
This is probably the besat HL2 mod out there, boasting it's great level design and variety, well written story, charismatic characters, and improvements to base HL2 formula, and all this while being as lore friendly as possible for such an ambitious project.
You play as Bad Cop/3650's clone afyer the events of EZ1 who is tasked by the Combine to search and capture Judith Mossman, while being granted freedom of thought just for this mission, which separates the MC from all the other Combine soldiers. Which means, he can talk. Which in itself means, that now we're playing as a Build Engine era protagonist, but this time in HL2 setting.
Surprisingly enough, the idea actually works, because the 3650 is extremely fun to listen to and play as. A lot of character has been put in all of his interactions, as well as weapon animations. The story brings in a lot of unique twists which I won't spoil. I will only say that it is truly a by fans for fans project, which means it's highly recommended to play thorugh at least HL1 with all the expansions, HL2 with both episodes, and at least Portal 1 prior to going into EZ2. And also, make sure to bring Wilson along with you :)
As far as gameplay goes, it seems the devs were playing through HL2 and were taking notes about everything they didn't like, because basiclly all of mine personal issues with it are fixed here. A lot of surprises with returning foes happen, as well as brought back remotely activating explosives from HL1. The expansions are so big that calling this mod Half-Life 2: Opposing Force doesn't feel like stretch at all.
And what's the most baffling about this project is that it's absolutely FREE.
TL;DR It's good, please play it.

You could tell someone that this was an official expansion to HL2 and, as long as they don't look too hard, they'd believe you.

The newer weapons feel satisfying and creative to use to the point of one being just a general problem solver, the voice acting is good enough to fool anyone to believe this is a professional project, and the story is deep enough that there are entire branches dependent on a side character you can ignore soon after meeting.

The only gripes I can think of after playing is that there were occasional bugs with sprinting and some segments dragged on too long, but I can consider them nitpicks. The fact that this was made for free is astounding.

This game is insanely well made for a fan project, specially when compared to the original. Does it have some janky geometry that you can get stuck on forcing a reload? Yes, absolutely, but who cares! It only happened twice because I decided to go off the intended path or didn't use the intended Xen grenade. Also I forgot to take Wilson with me after the beginning of the arbeit 2 raid because the dialogue made me think i'd be able come back for him later, i think that's what the kids call a skill issue.

Would have never guessed that the best HL2 mod would get released in 2022. The story nearly feels cannon, and it really gives players a taste of that 'ol HL2 nostalgia WITH fun additions and mechanics.

Some stuff feels a hair wonky. Both from source being an ounce dated now, and the mod not shipping with 100% polish. It feels unfair to critique it compared to something the level of valve; but occasionally the gameplay hiccups (mostly collision issues) do get in the way. Also for me some of the visual effects made my brain not super happy and almost a tad motion sick.

Glad this exists, anyone who is a HL2 fan should play it - full stop.

The best mod I've ever played. Sure it's not perfect, I still get lost a lot, and the physics collision of the source engine is somewhat outdated. There is not much real innovation in this game.
But I can feel their passion, they know what HL fans want and learn everything from valve games, HL2's level design, Portal's writing, Alyx's enemy, and of course the Opposing Force elements.
And they actually tell a good and complete HL story, which is much better than Valve.
I wouldn't compare it to other games, but I do enjoy it more than Alyx.

𝟖/𝟏𝟎 - 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐝, 𝟕,𝟒 - 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞
Uh .. Probably, I will be a little biased, since the mod did not justify my high expectations, but I need to write something,
The fact is that I complete the original part too, and I consider it one of the only truly "story-based" mods for HL, and I played the ez2 demo a year or two ago, then I was simply shocked by the "raising the stakes" and trying to continue story of the original half-life 2, incredible atmosphere, beautiful mapping.
As a result, the plot part came out really one of the most suitable and well-developed among all HL modifications, I can’t deny it, the character Wilson, and everything that was invented with him is awesome, there are more jokes of the main character, in the first map a lot of dialogues recorded and you can walk around, piss off the rest of the combines, The concept with our evil twin is also cool, although in terms of text it is too stretched and poorly written (our hero did not believe him for too long).
In technical terms, everything is also incredibly done, it’s hard for me to imagine how much work was done by the author (although he was sponsored through patreon for development, but there was ridiculous money), there are a lot of beautiful places on the maps, you can stop almost every 5 minutes and take a screenshot, sometimes the author uses very beautiful iridescent effects made from some kind of particles .. or, well, I don’t even know how they are made, but they were definitely not in the original HL2 and they look very nice and bewitching.
Here is another major innovation - NPC`s can Jump! It looks a little crooked, of course, but it’s quite suitable, and the rebels with Aperture stilettos jump several meters in height, but usually they jump down from top to bottom, I have no complaints about this either, well, just arenas, where this mechanic would be fully disclosed not enough. Also, your arsenal will be replenished with a xen-grenade, a simple and ingenious invention (the effect of which the btw looks incredibly high-quality), the principle of its action - is to suck in everything living and non-living within a radius of a couple of meters away from it for a couple of seconds and, when slammed, spawn a couple of random xens -animals that can either help you in combat or attack you if you get too close to them, there is also one ingenious game design room associated with this weapon, but I don’t want to spoil it in advance. But game won’t give you anything else directly “refreshing” in terms of gameplay, the rest of the arsenal, of course, has been redesigned, even the same machine gun “sits in the hand” and shoots a little differently, but nothing cardinal, I personally didn’t have enough of this, the mod is enough long, if you don’t speed run it, it will take from 9 hours, yes, NPCs jump in arenas, but it’s not often used, but there are a lot of battles, and yes..those people who are tired of Half- Life, it is quite possible that the they tired of playing this.. and the game design of the battles was rather weak at first. Yes, here you can still command metrocops, kick with your leg instead of a crowbar, ride a combine APC, even "stealth" once (although this is done as simply as possible), but still it's more of a small cosmetic addition to the gameplay. And now I will smoothly try to formulate my feelings in relation to this mod.. A year ago I complete Thunder`s Leaves - also a full-fledged "Reimagine Hal-life experience" modification, made btw by 1 developer. And i liked him a lot more, not the whole arsenal of HL was replaced there, but there were several cardinal gameplay innovations, 1. you wore electric armor, you could charge it, you could do an electric "Super Hit", 2. you could call "airdrops "with supplies, 3. your vehicle was carrying drones capable of hacking,
but not only.. there was some kind of common style for all models and environments, some kind of general “idea” was felt and the concept was harmoniously sustained throughout the whole game, although there is also a simple plot, but he also continues hl2ep2, but this was just a local spin-off, he is not trying to be something global, finish the story with Borealis for all fans, as Entropy Zero 2 trying to do,
It seems to me that the main problem of the mod is.. it "put" too much on himself in the plot, here we have Judith Mossman and the verbatim repetition of the hl2ep2 scenes from a different angle, and the Aperture laboratory, and the intrigue with our evil clone, and almost disclosure of the whole lore of Borealis, and some indistinct drama with the fact that our character had a daughter, although the subtext is that our evil "cop" was not accepted by society because of what he is, and therefore he went to combines, well, it thought out.
But as a result, the plot in the game "collapses" under the weight of all this, at first it's cool, yes, atmospheric, bewitching,
We leave the capsule in a new suit, study the basics a little around beautiful reflections from ant nectars, then we land on the same "snow biome" expected by everyone in the 3rd HL, dynamically shooting with rebels with our mute comrads, game give us an intrigue with our clone.. but then we get into some dirty department of "Aperture Science" from the Portal, and this could be cool, but it's sooo expected, in terms of gameplay, the author offers us to solve a couple of puzzles, also with a touch of stealth, but it's all too simple, and in general this whole crossover with the Portal looks not particularly necessary and "forced", then we have rides, well, it was cool - this is a default, and, the second middle of the game - already battles in snowy locations, mixed with some secret utility rooms of Aperchure or rebels, at the end you will have a battle with an incredibly hype boss, but he was also done somehow by default, in fact, he couldn’t do anything to me normally and didn’t differ from any of the most “standard big” bosses, and, Borey - just have power to teleport someone and the combines want his strength, i.e. it is essentially just an ordinary ship, inside of which an unknown force is hidden, at the end spoiler we just blow it up, and after that it’s not bad, but “local" meeting with G-man.
.. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, maybe I don’t like the way the author makes the overall design of the “corridor locations”, they are somehow unremarkable, dirty, although again I repeat, while the lighting in many places is done incredibly beautiful.. well, rather, my "internal" claim is more to the banal development of the ideas of the hl2 plot and the locations that are too banal for such a concept, somehow.. everything turned out very Crumpled, exactly! A fitting word.. Even the first part of Entropy: Zero had a clearer concept, Although no one has yet continued the story with Borealis at least at this level of quality, so I quite admit that many "half-life" fans will really like it, and in any case, this is a good trend, in 2 years we get as many as 2 really story-driven mods, with a suitable implementation of this aspect, something modders never paid attention to before.

Subscribe on my Steam Curators page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41977550/
//
Ух.. Наверное, я буду немного необъективен, так как лично мои завышенные ожидания мод не оправдал, но написать что-то надо,
Дело в том, что я и оригинальную часть проходил, и считаю её одним из единственных действительно "story-based" модов на халфу, и в демку ez2 играл год или два назад, я тогда был просто шокирован "повышением ставок" с замахом на продолжение истории оригинального халф-лайфа, невероятной атмосферой, красивым маппингом.
По итогу, сюжетная часть вышла действительно одной из самых годных и проработанных за всю историю модификаций для хл, я не могу это отрицать, персонаж Вилсон, и всё, что с ним было придумано - это охрененно, шуток главного героя стало больше, в первой же локе записано очень много диалогов и можно ходить заколёбывать остальных комбинатов, Концепция с нашим злым двойником тоже классная, хотя и в текстовом плане слишком натянутая и плохо прописанная (наш гг слишком долго ему не верил).
В техническом плане всё тоже невероятно сделано, мне и представить сложно какой огромный объём работы был проделан автором (хотя ему и донатили через patreon на разработку, но там деньги смешные были), крч на картах очень много красивейших мест, почти каждые 5 минут можно останавливаться и делать скриншот, иногда автор использует очень красивые переливающиеся эффекты, сделанные из каких-то партиклей.. или, ну я хз даже как они сделаны, но в оригинальном хл их точно не было и выглядят они очень приятно и завораживающе.
Тут ещё главное нововведение - что нпс могут Прыгать! Немножко кривовато, конечно, выглядит, но вполне годно, причём повстанцы со шпильками Аперчур прыгают на неск метров в высоту, но обычно они наоборот спрыгивают сверху вниз, к этому у меня тоже претензий нет, ну только лишь аренок, где в полной мере это бы раскрывалось, сделано маловато.
Также ваш арсенал пополнит ксен-граната, простое и гениальное изобретение (эффект работы которого кст выглядит невероятно качественно), принцип её действия - засасывать всё живое и неживое в радиусе пару метров от себя на протяжении пару секунд и, при захлопывании, заспаунить пару рандомных ксен-животных, которые могут, как и помочь вам в бою, так и наоборот напасть на вас, если вы будете к ним слишком близко, есть также одна гениальная в геймдизайнерском плане комната, связанная с этим оружием, но не хочу спойлерить заранее.
Но вот ещё чего-нибудь прям геймплейно "освежающего" вам не дадут, остальной арсенал, конечно, переработан, даже тот же автомат немного по другому "сидит в руке" и стреляет, но ничего кардинального, мне вот лично не хватило этого, мод достаточно долгий, если не спидранить, то уйдёт на него от 9 часов, да, нпс-ы прыгают на аренках, но не то чтобы это используется прям всегда, а битв тут очень много, и всё-таки тех людей, кто устал от Халф-Лайфа, вполне возможно настигент скука от.. ну не сильно отличающегося от оригинала геймплея, увы, но такое есть, да и геймдизайн сражений поначалу выполнен достаточно слабовато. Да, тут ещё можно командовать метрокопами, бить ногой вместо монтировки, кататься на комбайновском APC, 1 раз даже дают "стелсить" (хотя это максимально простенько сделано), но всё равно это больше небольшие косметические геймплейные добавления.
И тут я плавно попытаюсь сформулировать свои чувства по отношению к этому моду.. год назад я прошёл Thunder`s Leaves - тоже полноценную "Reimagine hal-life experience" модификацию, сделанную кст всего лишь 1 русским разрабом. И вот она зашла мне гораздо больше, не то чтобы там был заменён весь арсенал хл, но было несколько кардинальных геймплейных нововведений, 1. вы носили электрическую броню, могли заряжать её, могли делать электрическую "ульту", 2. вы могли вызывать "аирдропы" с припасами, 3 ваша машина перевозила дроны, способные что-то взламывать,
но и не только.. там чувствовалась какая-то общая стилистика у всех моделей и окружения, чувствовалась какая-то общая "идея" и гармонично выдержанная на протяжении всей игры концепция что-ли, хотя там тоже простенький сюжет, но там тоже есть несколько концовок, и он также продолжает хл2еп2, но это прям локальненький спин-офф, он не пытается быть чем-то глобальным, закончить историю с Бореем для всех фанатов, как это делает Энтропи Зеро 2,
Мне кажется, что главное проблема мода вот в этом, слишком много он на себя взвалил в сюжетном плане, тут у нас и Джудит Моссман и дословное повторение сцен хл2еп2 в другом ракурсе, и лаборатории Аперчур, и интрига с нашим злым клоном, и, чуть ли не раскрытие всего лора Борея, и какая-то невнятная драма с тем, что у нашего гг была дочь, хотя подтекст о том, что нашего злого "копа" не приняло общество из-за того, какой он есть, и поэтому он пошёл к комбинам, придуман неплохо.
Но вот по итогу, сюжет в игре "обрушивается" под тяжестью всего этого, поначалу классно, да, атмосферно, завораживает,
Выходим из капсулы в новом костюмчике, немного изучаем основы в красивых отблесках от муравьиных нектаров, потом высаживаемся на тот самый всеми ожидаемый в 3 халфе "снежный биом", динамично расстреливаем повстанцев с нашими немыми братишками, нам дают интригу с клоном.. но потом мы попадаем в какой-то засранный отдел "Апечрур Сайнс" из Портала, и вроде это должно быть прикольно, но это настолько ожидаемо, геймплейно автор предлагает нам решить пару головоломок, ещё и с примесью стелса, но это всё слишком просто, и вообще весь этот кроссовер с Порталом выглядит не особо нужным и "вымученным", потом у нас покатушки, ну это было прикольно - это дефолт, и, вот вторая середина игры - уже битвы в снежных локациях, вперемешку с какими-то секретными подсобками Аперчур или повстанцев, в конце вас ждёт битва с невероятно хайповым боссом, но сделан он тоже как-то дефолтно, по сути сделать он мне нормально ничего не мог и не отличался от любого самого "стандартного большого" босса, ну и борей там просто кого то чет телепортирует генерирует и его силу хотят комбины, т.е. это по сути просто обычный корабль, внутри которого спрятана неведомая сила, в конце спойлер мы просто его взрываем, и после следует неплохая, но "локальная" встреча с г-меном.

.. Не знаю, что со мной не так, может быть мне не нравится как автор делает общий дизайн "коридорных локаций", они какие-то непримечательные, "засранные" все, хотя опять же повторюсь, при этом освещение во многих местах сделано невероятно красиво.. ну скорее моя "внутренняя" претензия больше к банальному развитию идей сюжета хл2еп2 и банальными для такой концепции локациям, как-то всё очень Скомканно получилось, вот! Подходящее слово.. Даже первая часть Entropy: Zero имела более чёткую концепцию, Хотя никто ещё не продолжал историю с Бореем хотя-бы на таком уровне качества, так что вполне допускаю, что многим "полжизненным" фанатам очень зайдёт, и в любом случае, это хорошая тенденция, за 2 года получить уже целых 2 действительно сюжетно-ориентированных мода, с годной реализацией данного аспекта, вниманию которому мододелы раньше вообще не уделяли.

Easily one of the best Half-Life 2 mods out there. I pretty much went into this one blind as I wasn't really following it's development and only played the first one a few days before the release. I was pleasantly surprised by… pretty much everything.

The combat feels very nice, returning weapons feel fresh thanks to nice new animations and sounds, and the few new ones are fun to use. The squad system, while already present in the base Half-Life 2, is much improved here and fits very well with the Combine theme. The ability to kick stuff is also nice, it makes the game faster since you don't need to switch to the crowbar or something to break crates and stuff. It's also super cool that you can use it to disarm rebels and make them surrender. Enemy-wise I really enjoyed seeing some old ones return, and seeing more Xen stuff was super neat. Level design was also cool, especially enjoyed the sections where you have to hold up against waves of enemies.

Without spoiling too much, the story integrates really well into the Half-Life 2 storyline, I especially loved visiting location showed in the previous games.

Also the bonus maps are an okay addition, I enjoyed being able to replay combat encounters with different objectives, even if admittedly some more fun than others.

wow. what a really pleasant surprise. some of the writing is a bit wonked, the pop culture references that show up from time to time can be a bittttt too goofy and cringe-inducing, and some of the acting isnt superb. but wilson is seriously good, and he is a completely optional character you can bring along that only appears a little less than midway through. a lot was keeping me from putting the game down but wilson was the primary reason, his character was VERY likable and i wanted to take him to the end of the game no matter what happened, which led to some surprising emotional beats that i thought were pretty effective.

speaking for the gameplay portion, with some tinkering this is legitimately good enough to be a full on official valve release. the level design is strong, environments are cohesive and great, the gunplay is PUNCHY and incredibly fun, and theres a really good bit of challenge to the whole experience without ever feeling too brutal. the final boss fights in particular are a huuuuuuge step up from the final boss fight in EZ1 which was not good at all. matter of fact, EVERYTHING about EZ1 is improved greatly here (minus the voice acting lol). the biggest issue would be that the friendly AI tends to get up on your ass a bit too much, and in the case of the driving section it gets REALLY annoying with the friendly hunter constantly bumping up into you and basically holding your hand everywhere. that's about it though.

in general i dont have many complaints about this at all. its a captivating and nostalgic 8hr romp with fan-service and personality, it feels very sincere and like the people behind it treated it like a true labor of love. it cost nothing, it does everything hunt down the freeman claimed it would do but better, it is THE half life 2 mod, the absolute BEST one out there. might go so far as to say this is my GOTY, it gave me that valve touch that i hadnt felt since portal 2. play it.

The first Entropy: Zero was a fun but flawed experience. This sequel is so much polished and better paced. The level design is excellent, with interesting encounters and great art direction.
They've nailed the HL aesthetic. The HL lore is used in a very interesting way. All the creatures, items and locations seem to fit well in this universe. They've added a lot of creatures from Xen compared to the original HL2 which is fun.
Combats feel more punchy than the original game, and all the new weapon animations are great. There is also a new grenade with an interesting concept.
Puzzles are also interesting but not too difficult or repetitive/annoying to solve. (Not like the 50 cable puzzles in Black Mesa Xen for example).
The writing is also surprisingly good. At first it's a bit weird to have a talking protagonist in a HL experience, but the dialogue between 3650 and Wilson is fun and touching. 3650 seems like a standard asshole character at first, but we keep learning about his struggle and feelings towards the adventure. The voice acting is also pretty good, I was surprised that it was not actors but the developers themselves.
Took me around 7 hours to finish. It even has a great soundtrack and achievements. It's mind-blowing that it's free.

ENG: Sequel to Entropy: Zero in which, after having performed his exploits in City 10, our protagonist-villain is given a mission to go and capture Judith Mossman.

As far as the artistic design is concerned, it is quite continuous with its predecessor: cold and oppressive tones. However, the location is completely different. Before it was the desolation of City 10, now it's the uncertainty and war of the Arctic.

If the original installment had stun batons and manhacks as key additions. This title does not want to be left behind, adding functions such as being able to kick, command allies, vehicle sections, stealth sections, teleporting grenades, Opposing Force enemies, etc. But the most important thing about all this is that they are nuances that feel genuine in what is the Half-Life universe. It's not adding for the sake of adding.

Entropy: Zero 2 expands and improves everything with respect to the story of its predecessor. It incorporates a backstory that gives an explanation to the psychopathic actions of our protagonist (without justifying it) and gives more play to the narrative by characters. Things that the original game lacked. All this without neglecting the environmental narrative, which is still present. It is also worth noting how great the experience feels as a whole. What if Aperture Science, what if a clone, what if a companion turret, what if Judith Mossman. All of these plots, situations and characters happen at once and at no point do they feel awkward or poorly done.

ESP: Secuela de Entropy: Zero en la que, luego de haber realizado sus hazañas en Ciudad 10, se encomienda a nuestro protagonista-villano una misión para ir a capturar a Judith Mossman.

En lo que respecta al diseño artístico, es bastante continuista con su predecesora: tonos fríos y opresivos. Sin embargo, la ubicación es completamente diferente. Antes era la desolación de la Ciudad 10, ahora es la incertidumbre y la guerra del ártico.

Si la entrega original tenía como añadido clave los bastones de aturdimiento y los manhacks. Este título no se quiere quedar atrás agregando funciones como las de poder pegar patadas, poder comandar aliados, secciones en vehículos, secciones de sigilo, granadas teletransportadoras, enemigos de Opposing Force, etc. Pero lo más importante de todo esto es que son matices que se sienten genuinos en lo que es el universo Half-Life. Para nada es agregar por agregar.

Entropy: Zero 2 amplia y mejora todo con respecto a la historia de su antecesora. Incorpora una historia de fondo que da una explicación a las acciones psicópatas de nuestro protagonista (sin justificarlo) y da más juego a la narrativa por personajes. Cosas de las que carecía el juego original. Todo esto sin descuidar la narrativa ambiental, que sigue presente. También es de recalcar lo grande que se siente la experiencia en un conjunto. Que si Aperture Science, que si un clon, que si una torreta de compañía, que si Judith Mossman. Todas estas tramas, situaciones y personajes pasan a la vez y en ningún momento si sienten incomodas o mal hechas.

A nice reminder of how Half Life 2 has forever altered gaming and an extremely impressive mod made by a small team that manages to do a few things even better than Valve originally did. Ultimately, it's more of a tight game than a mod and it has some slight bumps detracting from a perfect score, but if you're a fan of HL2, there's no doubt this is a must-try.

You don't have to play the first to dive into the second, if you were worried. Though that is probably worth trying, too, there's no question the sequel is an upgrade. Its plot is similar to the alternate campaigns for Half Life, like Opposing Force, where you're another influential character doing his own business while other important things are happening simultaneously. In this case, Gordon Freeman is escaping City 17 and you're hunting Judith Mossman. It's more important to know what's happening in not just Half Life, but the Portal series to fully appreciate what's happening in Entropy: Zero 2. The plot is loaded with tie-ins and nods, though it's somewhat lacking in any depth the original series managed to establish, and is one of the weaker part of the experience.

Gunplay is basically ripped right from HL2, added in is the MP5, which has a tight-patterned burst fire that's very useful for distance kills and full auto for when you need to rock 'n' roll on a group. There's also a Xen grenade that sucks everything near it into a portal to the god-knows-where planet, and swaps them with some aliens in return. This grenade isn't too useful for fights, as you'd just be swapping enemies for more enemies, but rather has a few fun puzzles in the game where they're necessary.

In another nod to HL2:E2, there's a "companion" to bring along with you for most of the campaign. Unlike HL2:E2's Gnome Chomsky, here Wilson will actually speak to you pretty frequently and makes many contextual remarks. If you're reading this before playing the game, bring Wilson with you the whole way, it's worth it. It's by far the better experience and clearly intended. He's not as much of a burden as that Chomsky fella.

It's fun becoming Death and just wiping out rebels as 3650. You'll like having your fellow Combine alongside you as you do the obviously morally wrong thing. The beginning part with the Portal references is a bit of a drag, but once of you get the vehicle it's pretty solid from there out. Again, if you like Half Life 2, do yourself a favor and try this out. It's a good mix of nostalgia and with a now-speaking main character on his own Combine plotline, there's enough "new" to keep it fresh. Check out Entropy: Zero 2, it's free on Steam if you own HL2!