My least enjoyable video game experience of the past few years. I liked the first part of this game, but as soon as the soldiers showed up nearly everything went downhill. The enemy placement in the back half of this game is painful, and it's especially bad when it comes to the soldiers who often sit around corners only to take multiple shotgun blasts to the head for some reason. There are multiple levels that are far longer than they have any right to be.

I found the enemy design to be largely uninspired outside of the head crab. The story, while told in an innovative way for its time, honestly isn't anything special outside of a few neat set pieces. The ending is anticlimactic. I don't really think the first half of the game and the second half, where things go full on action and get pretty campy mesh together all that well. It's all just fine at its best and actively obnoxious at its worst.

And while I recognize that this is an incredibly influential video game, and it is by all accounts a classic, must-play game, I also think it kinda blows and I never want to play it again. I've played "classic" video games that I don't think have aged all that well, but usually I can at least appreciate them and kind of enjoy them, but I really am not a fan of this one at all.