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.