Half-Life, Valve’s original FPS classic, isn’t short on horror. This, after all, is a game where your fellow scientists get by skull-piercing headcrabs, turned into virtual zombies. But the latest iteration of the Brutal Half-Life mod takes things to the extreme, painting Black Mesa’s walls red.
If you’ve played Half-Life, you’ll know that this shooter, one of the best FPS games of all time, has a rather high body-count. There’s a little gore, too; throw a grenade at an enemy and there’s a good chance they’ll splatter into chunks. But Brutal Half-Life V3, a free mod for Valve’s FPS, takes things to the next level, turning every encounter into a bloodbath.
In the spirit of Brutal Doom, Brutal Half-Life V3 adds an extra level of blood and guts to the game. Blast away at an enemy and you’re treated to a geyser of blood as every bullet slams into their flesh. You’ll never have to wonder if you hit them, it’ll be painfully obvious.
Gore splatters onto walls and chunks of flesh slide down their surface. Instead of generic giblets, bodies can be ripped apart by explosions, revealing enemies with gaping holes in their chests and all sorts of nastiness.
To better enable this carnage, Brutal Half-Life V3 adds in several new weapons, including the flesh-shredding mini-gun. Or if you’re a stickler for Gordon Freeman’s crowbar, skewer a hunk of gore on the end of your crowbar.
In short, it makes Half-Life very, very messy. And, thanks to its release, the game has seen a serious spike in player numbers, with gorehounds clamoring for this bloodier take on the game. In the days since its release, Half-Life has rocketed from a max of 2,000 players to well over 5,000 players, as reported by SteamDB.
So if Valve is working on a Half-Life 3, it might want to throw in a little more gore, whether that’s using headcrabs as boxing gloves, or pumelling the G-Man with his own briefcase.
You can download the Brutal Half-Life mod here and while you’re at it, here are four other single-player Half-Life mods you should install. Or if it’s more horror you’re craving, take a look at the best horror games.
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