Thrill-EX

Ever since Half-Life was released, several mods have attempted to recreate the look and feel of its early test versions. Using the handful of screenshots and videos released up until 1997 (when Valve wiped the slate clean and began almost from scratch, unhappy with the results so far), they've tried to painstakingly build the game that would have been originally released. Some people just find the atmosphere of the early alphas and betas captivating. Not me, I'll confess. I think they looked horrible.

One such mod was Thrill, which was released at the end of 2025, only for it to be deleted days later, its author promptly disappearing without a trace. Luckily, the team of developers that had helped him all along still had access to the source code, and they chose to publish their own version, patching some stuff in the process. And that's the story of how Thrill-EX came to fruition.

I must admit that I approached it without much hopes, treating it as a curiosity. My first thought was that it amounted to a grayer, blockier version of Half-Life that strived to be Quake more than HL. But I ended up completing it, feeling a strange fascination as the hours went by (it's by no means short, offering almost as much content as the base game). And it seemed to improve progressively past the midpoint.

There are things that may bemuse you, like the fact that some maps are carbon copies of the ones you know well (Residue Processing comes to mind), while others are unprecedented, fresh for you to explore. In the middle ground you've got some levels that vary the layout greatly while still giving you a strong déjà vu. All in all, they're something to experience, to see how your brain takes it in. And I hope you still keep somewhere the reflexes, the hand-eye coordination and the spatial reasoning that you used to play games in the 1990s, because this one's a son of its time. No fancy HUD to walk you through it.

My first taste of gameplay wasn't very convincing. The crowbar feels sluggish and clumsy, making it a worse weapon than it should. The very despised headcrabs are now more agile, moving almost like the Facehuggers from Alien. Changing weapons is slow and you may accidentally fire the previous one before the transition is completed. Climbing ladders looks and sounds like you are getting an exorcism.

And talking about exorcisms, the scientists look in dire need of one. You only need to stare at their faces to understand that much. What were they thinking?

But the gunplay turned out to be acceptable, gratifying even at times, such as when battling the Marines. Seeing how well the move and react, or blasting them several feet back with the shotgun never ceased to make me rejoice. The new AR, despite having a smaller magazine, behaved better than expected. The revolver, on the other hand, lost its edge; it takes ages for it to shoot.

The mod also brings back discarded enemies, and many are dangerous (the Panther Eye) or plainly annoying (the Stukabats). Others, like the Archer fish creature, meet both conditions, and they should've been intensely rationed in the underwater segments. As they stand right now, they can be absolutely incensing. Coupled with other gameplay inconsistencies and the unavoidable bugs, that prevents Thrill-EX from shining up to the 8 it aspires to. Nor does the unfinished ending help that.

Perhaps I'm being to harsh with a product that kept me hooked for several hours with no charge. Underneath the new (or old?) skin, it's still Half-Life, with its strengths and weaknesses. Play it yourself and decide.

Playing

ModDB.