Understanding Half-Life: Before

[@DoggyBingBong]

honestly hearing the context that it was supposed to be part of a map pack just makes so much sense.

[@randy446]

i cant wait for Half-Life: During and Half-Life: After

[@petra080171]

Also called half-life 1&2

[@penguin7017]

@Tvelok Half Life: Between During and After

[@klystron2010]

Half-Life: During is Opposing Force.

[@circleubuntu]

Half-Life: During is Half-Life: Middle of Before and After

[@champagnesupernova1839]

so the hl1 expansions and the hl2 episodes

[@Slipfox_xyz]

On the crappy game mods page you showed at the beginning of the video: "You can beat the mod by typing sv_cheats 1 into console" This is terrible criticism. Of course you can easily beat something by cheating, who knew

[@HappyMan0203]

"This is a terrible criticism." The Crappy Games Wiki in a nutshell. It's just one of those shitty user wikis with no standard for what can be submitted.

[@TheBreakingBenny]

Whoever wrote that messed up.

[@wezu4972]

You can do the exact same thing in Opposing Force

[@ENCHANTMEN_]

Yeah I also find that you can defeat almost any game by removing the CD and shredding it

[@ghhn4505]

Seems someone there took the phrase "only way to win is to not play" to heart

[@JaytheLay1]

The reason I thought everyone hated it was because it was the first Half Life Mod on Steam. And because Greenlight was such a dumpster fire at the time that it just felt like kickstarter, but only the worst get "funded" .

[@peppermillers8361]

yeah, that was one of the reasons. The VNN review (which is gone along with his other mod reviews) Tyler did for it didn't help either, I guess.

[@JaytheLay1]

@@peppermillers8361 used to respect him but yeah, did not help any.

[@DolanDuking]

It's the first greenlit mod, but not the first HL Mod on Steam; D.I.P.R.I.P, Age of Chivalry, Synergy, Zombie Panic and Minerva came out beforehand.

[@bananabuns1369]

the start just sounds really like the start of fallout 4, you get one of the most powerful weapons and powerful armor at the start and mow down one of the major animals in the fallout universe, known to be highly resilient to damage and can take half of your inventory of ammo to shoot do- annnd it gets easily killed with a few pounds of ammo. i cant really say before is bad for doing it though, it's just some random guy doing it, not a whole team that has been making games for like a decade

[@patbytes]

Ahh, I have yet to play F4 but I get what you're saying about the difficulty getting speed-bumped early on like that. Given HL:B was meant to be a part of essentially a series of mini-campaigns the pacing makes a bit more sense, totally different from a game studio's work like you also say.

[@Jebsucks]

@@patbytes In F4's case it's weird, because you get a PA practically during the tutorial and fight a Deathclaw... but it doesn't actually make the rest of the game much easier. It feels really out of place more than anything else, and is probably responsible for why they felt the need to implement a weird non-cannonical battery system for Power Armor to keep you from doing... well, the thing everybody modded the game to let them do the moment they got the chance- i.e. cosplaying a 40K Space Marine and blazing through every last scrap of 5mm ammo you can find gunning down every ugly in the wasteland while screaming into a voice changer. I can only assume they felt the need to be honest to the demos they showed off at E3 and the like that had you getting PA and fighting a Deathclaw like five minutes in, because if there's one thing consistent about Bethesda other than terrible QA, it's their decision-making being fucking *insane*.

[@peppermillers8361]

@@Jebsucks but getting batteries is easy as heck. You can even find them in ammo containers sometimes.

[@Jebsucks]

@@peppermillers8361 It's less about fusion cores being hard to find (they aren't, you can find the damn things in the basement of basically any building you enter quietly running a fuckhuge industrial generator), and more the pure *principle* of theoretically being unable to use my beloved Power Armor because I ran out of batteries.

[@0lionheart]

@@Jebsucks BGS cater for the casual crowd, who want the cool power armour from the cover but don't want to wait or work for it. Hence why it's everywhere and you never run out of fuel for it. Deathclaws were legendary for pushing your shit in back in F1/F2/NV, so taking one out felt good -- you'd overcome the strongest enemy. BGS blew it's load early making you feel badass killing one at the start of F4.. because waiting or working for that dopamine is too much for some of their audience. My theory honestly is just that Todd and others have naturally gotten older, started families, and have no time to play games anymore, so that bleeds into their games. They don't have hours and hours to sink into games, so everything has to be easy to find, easy to get. That's not a diss I get it people change, it just sucks for Fallout.

[@plazmasyt]

"generally it works nicer than before" Nicer than... Half Life Before? c:

[@patbytes]

You can't see me wink every time I say "before" in the script, but just imagine it for the full effect ;D

[@plazmasyt]

@@patbytes Hell yeah. Also, while you're here, can I ask if you're gonna do more HL1 mod analysis in future? This was actually a really fun video and I'd like to see more like it!

[@patbytes]

@@plazmasyt Thank you so much!! I would love to check out some more projects like this in the future, actually! (gold)Source mods and maps are a definite area of interest for me, and I think doing some dives into Mod DB and other places would be a lot of fun to do soon.

[@plazmasyt]

@@patbytes Well if you want suggestions, I'd say TWHL Tower 1+2, Brutal HL, HL Restored, MMod (HL2 mainly, HL1 version exists but is getting a rewrite) and Minerva: Metastasis are all worth checking out. All quite varied in execution and content, though of course you already know of the Tower packs. Still good though. c:

[@seththesheriff1275]

@@patbytes You should try C.A.G.E.D. REALLY cool mod.

[@marllebnikh4580]

He made half life 1's loast coast. Actually I admired this mod And now I knew he did it alone I salute him. Note: the whole magic is that it is a one map thing 😏

[@sandman45]

good to see i'm not the only one who likes this mod

[@Ar1AnX1x]

you are, we are just pretending to like this mod to convince you that other people like this mod to further our own diabolic agenda.

[@WTFBOOMDOOM]

I remember your profile pic from the Malcolm in the Middle intro :D (I know it's originally from an anime, but I don't remember which.)

[@screenwatcher949]

Wow why do people hate this? Looks like a neat little mod

[@shurbrrt]

it's less of a mod and more of a map. it's got some bad map design, and the final boss is... a thing.

[@patbytes]

A lot of it might have been an expectation verses reality situation, where a new Half-Life mod on Steam turning out to be 1.5 maps long with a cheesy end boss and a fistful of typos turned out to be disappointing where one would expect a full ironed-out experience. It's not the smoothest and is really a demo of an experience, but it's certainly no Hunt Down the Freeman as I've seen a few others compare.

[@screenwatcher949]

@@patbytes I really enjoy the atmosphere of the boat and the unique half-lifeness of making you go back through a previous area with new enemies. Thanks for shining a light on this!

[@TooMuchSascha]

I don't see any issue with the map itself but the fact that the music is too loud and isn't mapped to any audio channel in the settings is annoying for sure

[@patbytes]

@@TooMuchSascha Also definitely a good point! Being able to turn the music down or off would have been an asset to the mod.

[@mineland8220]

The guy shouldve released this as an individual map as opposed to a full on mod tbh, people expect a lot with the name of the product being "mod" as opposed to a small confined map that it was designed to be

[@patbytes]

Totally get that! Releasing it as a map would have helped with a lot of critical opinions on the release, I think.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

Russian HL modding is a world of its own. The only Russian mod I've played, and quite enjoyed, is Ispitatel 3.

[@chelovek-jpeg]

try HL Paranoia

[@daylineli]

russian modding in general is a universe of its own

[@joshuawilliams9247]

Half Life Delta is fantastic

[@typeable]

Nihilanth? Nah we got a baby Nihilanth that’s just a big moving Barnicle named Genmod 262

[@RocketRidge]

Certainly a bit of an unpolished mess in terms of gameplay (and especially that boss), but for one relatively simple map that takes 15 minutes to play through it seems pretty good, especially if you just want a nice map to fight a bunch of enemies on

[@TinyDeskEngineer]

"A whole different player experience" *player model is changed*

[@patbytes]

Hard to show in a couple seconds, but the mod does make you work with just the headbutt and flame and has some reworkings of HL's level design to accommodate for, well, playing as Spyro. Also I seem to sometimes write scripts without thinking of how to actually find the best footage to back up my lines. Oops!

[@mcangel5015]

@@patbytes *uncuffed handcuffs* ok, you can leave now.

[@FrameRater]

Oh yeah, here's a channel that's going places

[@Isaacfess]

Frame is here!

[@Defenestrum]

I remember this showed up in my Steam recommended games a long time ago, but I passed because I saw the bad reviews. I'm glad I know the context for it now. P.S. Nice splitscreen effect ;)

[@patbytes]

900 precious hours in MS Paint went into that splitscreen!

[@LamWarp]

Ah yes. I remember playing this "before"... Sorry.

[@itwontcomeout5678]

0:24 I love how you synced “face”

[@flippedoutkyrii]

I remember being VERY rough on my initial assessment of this mod's on launch-day in 2009 due to the pacing and obtuse design of the final bossfight. I take back my 3/10 review at the time due to brimming with the rage only a 16 year old could muster as the intro is certainly getting an A for it's forward and back gauntlet design but the sheer WAITING on behalf of the boss gulping down the magguffin everytime you die is dame near impressive in wearing down my patience even today. It ain't perfect and while If I had to give it an arbitrary number it would certainly be above a 6, it ain't as bad as steam makes it out to be.

[@dealerman5955]

even before the context of "yeah it was part of a non existent map pack from russia" it seems... fine? maybe i dont know the half life map community but it seems like a fun afternoon thing

[@fnoffer]

3:25 that intro sequence is a straight copy out of the first Metroid Prime l, heck even the music is almost the exact same. In Metroid Prime this sequence made sense because it kinda transitioned from a 3rd person perspective to a first person perspective, this was essential because the players only had 3rd person 2d sidescrolling metroid games before. Here it just looks kinda cool.

[@fnoffer]

@@half-liferforever354 Ok so first of all I said almost the exact same and I still think that. If this is truly added after the fact... My bad I didn't knew that 😉

[@curlybrace4984]

70% Negative Rating Has its own page on a shitty games wiki "It has a mixed reputation"

[@Gamerappa]

the "shitty games wiki" is full of 13 year old kids with autism who prefers edutainment games over anything else.

[@curlybrace4984]

@@Gamerappa You think "autism" is an insult, I don't think your opinion matters lol.

[@aurum316]

@@curlybrace4984 it is one tho. Kids with autism should not be allowed to have a wiki

[@curlybrace4984]

​@@aurum316 It literally doesn't matter. Go back to 4chan where your retarded insults are acceptable.

[@aurum316]

@@curlybrace4984 go back to twitter where such snowflakes and crybabies are acceptable

[@ez_skyl]

KZbin recently started recommending me underrated channels a lot (usually channels that talk about Valve games) and I'm happy that youtube is actually recommending good channels! Oh yeah, btw you earned sub mate, keep it up! :D

[@patbytes]

Thank you very much, means a ton to hear!

[@ez_skyl]

@@patbytes no problem mate :D

[@ANDY123SON]

As much as I personally dislike Half-Life: Before, I REALLY enjoyed this video! You did a great job on the research and taught me a few things I wished I'd known before making my own video on the mod. I really liked the editing too, was overall a really comfortable watch! Hope to see more videos like this from you! Subscribed :)

[@monsterurby]

Always happy to see in-depth analysis of Half-Life mods, good and bad. Also very nice to see the differences between versions. Hope to see more of this kinda content. Subbed just in case. :D

[@Chi33f33]

Great video, I've never seen this mod before but you really brought up some good points. I'm looking forward to trying it since it doesn't take that long to finish. I love your content and I'll hopefully be here in the future of your channel. Keep it up!

[@Leviathan_imo]

This is very interesting content for a peculiar mod. Nice work.

[@Agent1W]

The gibs of the little nihilanth are quite impressive. It would be something to explore if that one was the son of the big nihilanth, therefore the modder should have just tried to emulate the vanilla HL stats for it.

[@beastmangothing]

Underrated youtuber 🥺😔

[@jong4tv]

I enjoyed Half-Life Before for what it's worth. The Biggest Problem it's extremely short + It's only one Map.

[@BAIGAMING]

Man I loved these Half-Life mods, so much creativity, I can never hate them. Everybody's overly critical. Sure the plot's aren't good and there are some places that aren't so good, but it was nice to see developers' trying a new take on Half-Life.

[@peppermillers8361]

most mods for games are usually creative when mapping is involved and what you're able to do with it.

[@BEkov-kd8cf]

hope you discuss more half life mods, will keep watching em

[@AustinH7]

Honestly seems like a neat little half life experience

[@nin10dogmod90]

0:51 Hey I can see myself there!

[@WinXP_SP1]

I'm the 9th record holder. lol. Good job getting first place in US bud.

[@monsterurby]

Also, forget to say, I appreciate the little nod to TWHL Towers 1 and 2. :) It was a surprise to see a screenshot of my Tower 1 lobby appear in the middle of the video. Haha!

[@patbytes]

Thank you very much!! I quite enjoy TWHL projects and would like to give them some attention on this channel soon, actually! 👀

[@HDTFCentral]

seeing a HECU Grunt with blue camo is interesting considering this mod and Hunt Down The Freeman are the only Half-Life related projects that use them

[@woofwoof2412]

I don't remember why I subscribed to you but I don't regret it, this is really, really high quality content.

[@QuintessentialWalrus]

This kind of content is SO my shit. I'm glad you gave this mod a chance despite its bad press.

[@Fardr]

This honestly seems like a fun speed running experience.

[@Mateoski97]

I'd still sooner play this than Hunt Down The Freeman.

[@DamianCenteno]

great video, might have to play this myself now.

[@limecoveredbrick]

mapping on this mod is unironically great

[@erykzysk3330]

Bruh I was just watching your fixing source half life video again, that's timing.

[@m.r.mcguire7433]

Thank YOU! That really was FUN! MODtastic! ;)

[@itsglobe]

Im glad to see you again my friend

[@carloRX78K2]

I hope you do a review of Echoes, the ep3 of HL1 and of the iconic mods out there.

[@toodamnshergrapi4485]

Going to play it now thank u

[@thisbox]

For all the slake this small mod received over the years for not being the longest or greatest Half-Life mod, while it's not a great game, there's a lot worse with considerably higher review scores. Despite being a mod for this game on SR.C, it took me this long to remember you were a runner of Half-Life Before, being distracted by the Half-Life Source videos.

[@arirahikkala]

I played Half-Life mods and map packs back in the day when Poke 646 was considered groundbreaking. This was a really nice, tight experience IMO, with some very wonky aspects, but I could easily imagine an author with less of a sense of direction could have made it several times longer without adding any actual fun.

[@jenniferazure1421]

"Half-Life is pretty good!" Bit of an understatement but I like your laid back style.

[@patbytes]

I originally (as in like, months before the final draft you see here) had a big paragraph in that intro talking about how iconic the series and engine came to be over time, but I ended up challenging myself to sqeeze it into as few words as possible, hah!

[@claude3608]

the perfectly cut music Intro as he gets bitten by a Headcrab just Makes me got me off-guard

[@rodogate]

this guy is behind witch hunt? small world

[@Luciel_yt]

I feel bad for the creator. He only made his first mod 100% free and everybody shits on him. The map has a shit ton of details and doing that is a pain in the ass with hammer editor.

[@avert_bs]

Great video, but I just want to inform you that the crappy games wiki is not a real source of opinion, because they tend to be made by 2 people, have little to no moderation and are full of biases. Many pages are either extremely wrong or the exact same point repeated 5 times to make the game look bad. There was a moderator on that website that actually started deleting low quality pages, but he got so much hate he had to retire.

[@patbytes]

I appreciate this info! I looked at the site myself and at least for HL:B there were a lot of redundant or even just silly criticisms. This comment puts it into perspective.

[@avert_bs]

@@patbytes I'm glad that I helped! I appreciate small content creators like you that interact with their audience and are always trying to improve their content. KZbin is full of uninspired, bland and boring videos and seeing videos like yours is always delightful. Thank you.

[@avert_bs]

@@patbytes Sorry for replying so much, but I found the link to the crappy mods wiki: horridgamemods.miraheze.org/wiki/Half-Life:_Before The intresting thing is that this is the only page on the entire wiki. And it's just a archive of the page on the crappy games wiki.

hearing the story behind it makes me feel bad for the developer, such dislikeness and hate for a game that was supposed to be part of a map pack instead of its own game

[@JHorse508]

I'm in love with half life and didn't start playing until 2019 hahah

[@Creaper6]

I only liked this mod so much when I posted my review 0:53. But after watching this video, I see that I was missing some context about it. I hope those who gave it a negative review could watch this video and see if their opinion of this mod changes like mine did.

[@dopey473]

This mod may just be the most overhated thing in existence.

[@f0nszik]

I kinda like this mod cuz this shows us what happened before half life

[@danielsurvivor1372]

MFW we never got Half Life Before Directors Cut where mod maker showcases all non believers how good they are and make Before the best HL1 mod 😢

[@coffecrazy]

I love this video

[@KingRanchs]

Love your videos!!

[@AngryFERRARI]

System shock track was just about to hit, keep it up king

[@sunsetwolf7188]

What a cool video! This is so neat, this mod is so interesting :) (also, i may have commented on this before on a different video - my memory is spotty, my apologies! - but the captions are really nicely done! great work! :)

[@patbytes]

Thank you so much!! It means a lot to hear!

[@xanderw7930]

Honestly I want this to become a full mod

[@RunnJake]

Did he make this video to flex being #1 in the US? "Always has been"

[@patbytes]

Now I just have to figure out how to reliably bhop, hahah

[@wooflakes]

If the boss had animation and was a bit diff it would be better but it's pretty good as it is.

[@mastermike1177]

11:25 huh... Interesting

[@nathanthecollector429]

how do you heart so many comments? Also great video! I really liked it. It cleared up a lot.

[@patbytes]

Thank you so much! Also I generally have a lot of fun keeping up with the comments lol, so glad for the positive reception so far!

[@TotemSP2]

It appears the steam version you played in the video, was different, or more updated than the version I played almost a decade ago, which had the same menu screen, but some hold overs from the older version.

[@Jacket430]

More like this pls 🥺

[@cicadaknight3048]

Came in my pants when I heard the Deus Ex music. This channel is epic.

[@timothymckane6362]

11:25 Seeing no Ukrainian flag afterwards seems more sus in what's currently going on now.

[@slmbenkayra]

11:25 that didn't age well.

[@thedarksideofthemoonintera7787]

I can't wait for more

[@milkslayer2406]

The FitnessGram PACER Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The test is used to measure a student's aerobic capacity as part of the FitnessGram assessment. Students run back and forth as many times as they can, each lap signaled by a beep sound. The test get progressively faster as it continues until the student reaches their max lap score. The PACER Test score is combined in the FitnessGram software with scores for muscular strength, endurance, flexibility and body composition to determine whether a student is in the Healthy Fitness Zone™ or the Needs Improvement Zone.

[@Som_nobody]

Virgin Mitchell Shepard vs Chad Andrew Winners

[@dextergrif1052]

BRO I ALSO LIKE THIS MOD. It’s really dumb but I love the animations

[@highdefinitiongrapes4815]

Wonderful video!

[@DeusEversor]

with such a title, obviously people would get dissapointed and negative bomb the mod ratings :P is there even a mod that covers a sort of prelude to HL1? That idea is damn neat, covering the storyline from first accidental discovery of teleportation, and ending with the immediate aftermath of Resonance Cascade - player would see the very first incursion to xen, meeting with young Rosenberg and Eli Vance, go a few time in and out establishing a science outpost, gathering inanimate and live specimens, then suddenly something gone wrong, you're stranded, suddenly enemies start to conciously attack you, seeing your collegues decimated or zombified, you try to find a way back home... seeing the nihilanths explosion from affar, finally finding a portal back home only to discover the beginning of Combine invasion.

[@YukikoTsuki]

I remember playing it when it came out on steam... and I think it's just boss that drags it down really. The rest of the map is fine, but the boss is... it's just one of those "mod bosses" - you know how the bad kind of mod-bosses are - either they're a half-puzzle where it's "figure out what to do or die instantly" (like the final boss of the "Entropy: Zero" mod for Half Life 2 is), or they're an amalgam of existing objects or enemies. Before's boss is just the worst of both worlds - it's a Barnacle glued to a non-animated Nihilanth, and either you shoot it 'til it dies, or get instakilled by it. It's not a great fight, and it *looks* really shoddy - it being at the end of the mod probably leaves a bitter taste in most people's mouths and makes them view the whole thing more negatively than they otherwise would. When I was younger and played it, I definitely viewed it more harshly, but in the few times since then when I've thought about/remembered it, I've become more neutral/able to see the good parts of it to - it was certainly interesting to learn the history behind it through this video!... knowing it would have been part of a lost-to-time TWHL-style mod makes me a bit sad that the rest of the mod is lost to time...

[@SKLETON_7609]

Half life before was the first mod i've seen for half life 1 EVER (i was 7y.o back then)

[@aerothallji6514]

Tbh the music is kind of a banger in my opinion

[@vanjek9148]

What about understanding Half Life: After?

[@commenter_HIMIK-MAN]

Eh, if this was a level in hl tower or whateves it'd fine. I've played far worse mods.

[@racer927]

9:46 That looks like the same font Pandemic used in Battlezone II: Combat Commander.

[@anxyietoo]

I had a random thought while watching the video. What if Half-Life: Before is canon? Maybe Black Mesa/Stone are the ones responsible for the augmentations and implants that we see on the Nihilianth in the original Half-Life. That would explain how we can see some corpses in HEV suit in Xen and Nihilianth's lair. They're the scientist who died trying to bring Nihilianth to Earth with unknown technologies. But maybe I've spent too much time in quarantine, it's impossible they could fit an ultra-large multi-dimensional mind-controlling being in a cardbox box.

[@patbytes]

Maybe the "GenMod" is a failed attempt to artificially create a Nihilanth on Earth as a form of defense/research for Black Rock? 🤔

[@peppermillers8361]

the whole Nihilanth thing they did is just really weird, even for Half Life.

[@anchorbubba]

@@peppermillers8361 not that weird, gman?, advisors? father grigori?, there is much weirder stuff in half life

[@peppermillers8361]

@@anchorbubba Those things aren't even weird. Gay man is just -Black Mesa's administrator- some mysterious alien that can do whatever VALVe needs him to do to strech the story, and Grigori is just some crazy guy in sneakers that went insane. Advisors? I mean, they're floating telepathic slugs, can't say much about them. Couldn't you select something weirder like how for some reason Snarks decide to explode just from walking around? I know Black Mesa's advanced but the only way I can see it being possible if we believe that a lot of Half Life 1 and 2 mods are possible where Black Mesa has the possibilities of Time Travel.

[@anchorbubba]

@@peppermillers8361 i was joking

[@onceuponatimeonearth]

11:40 that crossbow model is pretty tho

[@evethedragon4484]

Did you, sync yourself saying face with the dude from hunt down the freeman saying 'you fucked up my face' or am i going nuts

[@patbytes]

Glad you noticed! ;D

[@JohnDoe-hs1jp]

9:10 Um, dude, that is where you insert the 'You fucked up my face' bit.

[@Mr_Sinner802]

Ah, Russian Counter-Strike mapping forum. So much nostalgia xD Made a bunch of maps and never relеased it)

[@epicmayonaiseman13yearsago8]

" e a c h w i t h n i c e c u s t o m m o d e l s " im having vietnam flashbacks of the HD texture pack

[@SUNSHINE-t-m]

great content :)

[@blehh_mae]

2:18 so they teleport you somewhere to get something to help them get to other worlds, but,, you can already do that thats how you got there wha?

[@thatonealphabarney6226]

After watching this, I feel pretty bad about my negative review!

[@thatonealphabarney6226]

Update: I don't like it, but its still a unique and weird experience, I find it fun despite this, it feels more like a So Weird It's Fun thing!

[@thecuchikiller]

When it comes out I think; "It's okey, except for that weird Nihilanth." Some years later, I can understand why is so bad.

[@xzylo451]

0:24 Kind effed up, ngl

[@N3Selina]

i genuinely enjoyed half-life: before back then

[@KelBShobra]

I can see why this would get hate but like its a pretty decent mod with all that said. There are waaaay worse put there