Using the Half-Life: Source Fixed mod is basically mandatory if you want to still play this port for whatever reason. If you're playing this vanilla unmodded? Then yeah, this deserves the reputation it has; it's a broken worse version of the original game that has some pretty water and lighting effects that's only become more buggy and unstable as the years have gone by with engine updates that don't account for this port.
With the Fixed mod? It's a decent way to play the first Half-Life, but I still just don't know why you wouldn't use the original release. There's some nice benefits and improvements the Fixed mod offers such as resized maps that significantly reduce how many times the game stops you briefly for a quick map load and it's nice being able to have a nearly seamless experience (a lot of the game's chapters straight up fit into single maps here). Some of the redone more colorful lighting also does look quite nice since it's not being limited by GoldSource's limitations with baked lighting. Yes, the floating scientist in the game's first chapter is fixed. That one spot in Residue Processing doesn't flicker and turn into a broken visual nightmare anymore. The only bug I spotted in the brief time I tried this was that the Gonarch still seems to spit out a missing texture whenever it releases baby headcrabs at you which is still annoying, but still overall it's a major leap turning a completely broken port into one that's basically fully playable and a lot closer in faithfulness to the original release.
The thing is that even with the Fixed mod, there's still this feeling that this port needlessly complicates itself porting over an entire game from one engine to another and changes the feel of things by doing so. Movement feels very fast and snappy but in a way that feels like Half-Life 2 with sprint always being on, rather than how the original Half-Life is supposed to feel. Enemy AI seems to be dumbed down, especially with the military grunts which seem to have no idea how to account for the player moving around when it was one of their biggest strengths in the original. I don't even think I saw one throw a grenade once in the several chapters I replayed to check this out? The kind of prettier visuals is a mixed bag in of itself because this weird blend of old visuals mixed in with pretty lighting is kind of jarring in that weird sort of "community source port" way, like with cranking up the effects in something like GZDoom: it doesn't really look the way it was originally made and intended.
tbh the real reason anyone is even considering buying and installing this is if you need the assets for Garry's Mod, if that's not what you're doing then do not bother
With the Fixed mod? It's a decent way to play the first Half-Life, but I still just don't know why you wouldn't use the original release. There's some nice benefits and improvements the Fixed mod offers such as resized maps that significantly reduce how many times the game stops you briefly for a quick map load and it's nice being able to have a nearly seamless experience (a lot of the game's chapters straight up fit into single maps here). Some of the redone more colorful lighting also does look quite nice since it's not being limited by GoldSource's limitations with baked lighting. Yes, the floating scientist in the game's first chapter is fixed. That one spot in Residue Processing doesn't flicker and turn into a broken visual nightmare anymore. The only bug I spotted in the brief time I tried this was that the Gonarch still seems to spit out a missing texture whenever it releases baby headcrabs at you which is still annoying, but still overall it's a major leap turning a completely broken port into one that's basically fully playable and a lot closer in faithfulness to the original release.
The thing is that even with the Fixed mod, there's still this feeling that this port needlessly complicates itself porting over an entire game from one engine to another and changes the feel of things by doing so. Movement feels very fast and snappy but in a way that feels like Half-Life 2 with sprint always being on, rather than how the original Half-Life is supposed to feel. Enemy AI seems to be dumbed down, especially with the military grunts which seem to have no idea how to account for the player moving around when it was one of their biggest strengths in the original. I don't even think I saw one throw a grenade once in the several chapters I replayed to check this out? The kind of prettier visuals is a mixed bag in of itself because this weird blend of old visuals mixed in with pretty lighting is kind of jarring in that weird sort of "community source port" way, like with cranking up the effects in something like GZDoom: it doesn't really look the way it was originally made and intended.
tbh the real reason anyone is even considering buying and installing this is if you need the assets for Garry's Mod, if that's not what you're doing then do not bother