Hunt Down the Freeman

Hunt Down the Freeman
Developer(s)	Royal Rudius Entertainment Operation Whiskey Freedom (M3SA Build)
Publisher(s)	Royal Rudius Entertainment
Director(s)	Berkan Denizyaran
Composer(s)	Paul Humphrey
Engine	Source
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	February 24, 2018
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Hunt Down the Freeman is a 2018 first-person shooter video game. Developed by Royal Rudius Entertainment, it is an independently developed unofficial installment to the Half-Life franchise.

The game was released to a negative reception, receiving criticism for its numerous bugs, perceived poor design, and allegations of copyright infringement.

Gameplay

Hunt Down the Freeman is a single-player first-person shooter in which players take control of Sergeant Mitchell Shephard. The game features similar mechanics to other games within the Half-Life series, while differing in the type of weapons used. Uniquely, it uses a parkour mechanic, which the player can use to scale pipes, crates, and other large objects.

Plot

USMC Sergeant Mitchell Shephard (Mick Lauer), brother of Adrian Shephard, is sent to Black Mesa as part of the HECU to cover up the recent resonance cascade and quell the resulting alien invasion. Following some heavy combat, Mitchell is attacked and severely injured by a crowbar-wielding man in an orange suit, whom he believes to be Gordon Freeman. Mitchell dies from his wounds in a hospital but is brought back to life by the G-Man after promising to kill Freeman. Waking up, Mitchell finds the hospital overrun by zombies. Nick (a National Guard soldier) rescues Mitchell from the zombies and reveals to Mitchell that there is an ongoing alien invasion. He tells him to meet colonel cue and gives him a radio. On his way, Mitchell meets a Black Ops member Adam, getting into an argument with him. After arguing, Mitchell reluctantly agrees to work with him under the agreement that they would part ways later. Learning that Earth has surrendered to the Combine, Mitchell and other soldiers flee New Mexico. Still, on their way, they are attacked by the Combine. The Combine kills everyone except Nick, Adam, and Mitchell. The three meet up with the rangers, and rescue survivors, and recruit them. After getting on the sea, the Combine attacks them, killing Roosevelt, the captain. After his death, Mitchell becomes captain of the ship, reorganizing into a private army on a series of offshore platforms.

Three years later, Mitchell travels to City 9, also known as New Alaska, and discovers a factory full of enslaved children. Under the factory administrator Boris' permission, he rescues them and brings them to his outpost. Seventeen years after that, Mitchell, instructed by the G-Man, travels to City 17 to kill Gordon Freeman. Together with Adam, Shephard joins forces with the Combine and participates in several events also depicted in Half-Life 2. After almost meeting Freeman, Mitchell gets captured by the Resistance. Later, Boris's daughter, Sasha, an undercover Combine spy in the Resistance, rescues Mitchell and reveals that the G-Man made a deal with Boris. Mitchell asks her what the deal was, but before she can tell him, Adam shoots her in the head and tells Mitchell to run, compromising their position to the Resistance. While fleeing the Resistance, Adam closes the gate behind him, and Mitchell assumes he did it to fight off the Resistance. However, Adam reveals that this was never about Freeman. He tells Mitchell that he will find the answers to his questions if he keeps going. Mitchell confronts the G-Man about this, who reveals that he was never on Mitchell's side and that the man in the orange suit who attacked him in Black Mesa was really Adam, who had a deal with the G-Man. This was done so Boris would split the Combine's forces and create an easier path for Freeman. Boris mistakenly believes it was Mitchell who killed his daughter Sasha. He orders the Combine to turn on Mitchell and try to kill him, but he escapes and returns to the offshore base. Finding that Adam has assumed control of his army, Mitchell executes him. He then commands his forces to sail for the Borealis research vessel stranded in the Arctic.

Development and release

Hunt Down the Freeman began as a modification for Half-Life 2. The game was initially pitched for crowdfunding through Indiegogo with a goal of US$100,000, though only US$12 was raised. Despite this, development on Hunt Down the Freeman commenced, and a demo of the game was released in 2016. Following the game's full release in 2018, achievements were added a year later.

Reception

Hunt Down the Freeman received a poor critical reception. Rock Paper Shotgun expressed that the game's ideas "seem nice on paper but are executed poorly", citing several haphazard gameplay functions and storyline moments. PC Gamer described the experience akin to "an unfinished mod project with rudimentary level design", stating that they doubted even planned bug fixes "would make up for the general quality of the FPS levels I played", although they were impressed by the quality and tone of its initial cutscenes.

The game was panned by players, with hundreds of negative reviews and critical Let's Play videos across YouTube, including continued accusations of copyright infringement. The game's developers denied these allegations, claiming that all assets were used with permission. However, they admitted that the game had numerous technical issues, attributing them to an incomplete build being released to the public by accident. They also suggested in another statement that its release was intentionally rushed to counter the already negative reputation the game had received from the community. One of the developers claimed that they and several other employees were not adequately paid for their work, with some receiving substantially less money and others receiving no payment at all. They further described the whole development process as poorly coordinated and "kind of a clusterfuck".

External links

• Official website (archived)