codename: gordon
having played most of the half-life games, i figured when i heard you can install a free 2-d half-life game codename: gordon through steam i should check it out. while i wasn’t expecting much, i still found it to be a waste of time and i ended up quitting after about a half hour.
the first issue i ran into is that configuring the controls wouldn’t let me use the number pad like i normally do. if you’re the wasd type instead of the 8462 type like me this may not be an issue, but it’s always frustrating to have options but not be able to set them how i want. even if i had been able to set the controls how i wanted, the mouse behavior still doesn’t make all that much sense. similarly to a 3-d game, the mouse controls aiming and firing. i’ve seen that work in 2-d games, but that’s in side-scrollers. since codename: gordon doesn’t scroll, it has the awkward effect of switching your aim to the opposite side as you near the edge of the screen.
the story is somewhat similar to half-life 2, which makes sense as i believe codename: gordon was essentially a free teaser for half-life 2. the graphics are pretty bad but the sounds are taken directly from half-life. the writing feels like it’s trying too hard to be funny, and thus comes across more annoying than funny. at least you have the skip dialog option. the gameplay gets old really fast and since everything but the player is confined to one screen it often makes more sense to just run past enemies rather than fight them.
with a free game there’s no price to consider whether it’s worth, but a free game can still not be worth it. codename: gordon may have had its place when half-life 2 was about to come out and some fans wanted to play something half-life related, but these days it’s not worth the time.