History VideoGame / HuntDownTheFreeman

** Enforced during the original version of Act 2, where areas of super cold will very quickly sap Mitchell of health should he stray from the (poorly-defined, if at all) main path to Boris' factory. The [=M3SA=] build did away with much of these kill barriers owing to the radically-modified map structure.

* EscortMission: One early mission sees Mitchell assuming control of a Humvee fitted with a heavy machinegun to escort a transport truck to its destination. Thankfully, the truck is invincible and the level can be completed without it.

** One of Mitchell's many followers is Nick, whose voice talent was provided by Alex of WebVideo/IHateEverything. Problem is, the character himself was supposed to be an American National Guard, albeit one of Asian ancestry according to WordOfGod[[note]]and as evident by his not-so-subtle yellowish skin[[/note]], but the voiceover provided by IHE is mostly in his natural British accent. Some of it, however, is him attempting to do an American accent, since this was originally the direction he was given; he was later told to give up on it, [[OohMeAccentsSlipping but parts of the "American" voiceover were still used in the final release anyways]].

** Captain Roosevelt is played by Colossal is Crazy, who uses his English accent despite being the character presumably being American. In this case, however, it does help sell Roosevelt as a proper OfficerAndAGentleman.

* RagnarokProofing: Despite being at sea for 20 years without coming back into port for rearm and refuel, the ''Avalon Vale'' is still as pristine-looking as the day Mitchell and co. first boarded her. And that's also not taking into account the mandatory hull maintenance that such ships have to undergo every few years of operation to repair the erosion from prolonged sea water exposure, which is a complex and lengthy process that can't be meaningfully performed while out of port.

* SpeedRun: After receiving a thorough rework, the [=M3SA=] build of the game has had much of the original version's padding shaved off and can be very quickly finished if the player know what they're doing. There is even an achievement for beating the whole campaign in under two hours, in stark contrast to the horridly bloated run time of the initial release.

* BorderPatrol: Enforced during the original version of Act 2, where areas of super cold will very quickly sap Mitchell of health should he stray from the (poorly-defined, if at all) main path to Boris' factory. The [=M3SA=] build did away with much of these kill barriers owing to the radically-modified map structure.

* BorderPatrol: Enforced during the original version of Act 2, where areas of super cold will very quickly sap Mitchell of health should he stray from the (poorly-defined, if at all) main path to Boris' factory. The M3SA build did away with much of these kill barriers owing to the radically-modified map structure.

* RagnarokProofing: Despite being at sea for 20 years without coming back into port for rearm and refuel, the ''Avalon Vale'' is still as pristine-looking as the day Mitchell and co. first boarded her.

The story places you in the shoes of a HECU Marine named Mitchell, and like the rest of the HECU, he was sent into Black Mesa to contain the Resonance Cascade incident, and like most of them, he was attacked by a figure clad in an HEV suit suspected to be Gordon Freeman himself - only, despite Freeman's best efforts, he survived the attack (though with several scars), at least long enough to be evacuated to a hospital at nearby Albuquerque. As he fades away, he sees the G-Man standing at his bedside, who reminds him of a promise he made to Freeman - "whatever it takes, whoever it takes, however long it takes, before I die, I will kill you". Impressed by his tenacity and conviction, the G-Man offers him a deal, promising him "authority, power, and time", with only one caveat - when the time comes, keep that promise and kill Freeman. Reawakening after this meeting, Mitchell finds out that the Seven Hour War has already begun, and things only get worse from there.

The game is notable for being the most high profile and elaborate original work set in the ''Half-life'' universe and for receiving a certain level of unofficial recognition from Valve. However, the game's reputation was almost immediately shattered upon release by its amateurish and infuriatingly incomprehensible level design, vast number of game-breaking bugs, tedious gameplay, and accusation of copyright infringement.

* AdaptationalBadass: [[spoiler: The G-Man has never been shown to be capable of predicting the future. In fact, the only reason why the events of the ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' episodes even happen is because the Vortigaunts throw a wrench in his plan. In this game, the G-Man can make a convoluted plan that would be impossible without complete omnipotence and knowledge of the future. See GambitRoulette below.]]

** The game also tries to paint Gordon Freeman as this, as he kills all of Mitchell's squadmates rather brutally before mercilessly smashing his face in with a crowbar for seemingly no reason at all other than to spite him. [[spoiler:Later on subverted that it actually isn't Gordon.]]

* AdaptationalWimp: In the final build of the game, Combine Hunters can still survive at least a couple mags of full auto weapons fire, but can be killed with a couple shotgun blasts. Combine gunships are also vulnerable to heavy machinegun fire such as from miniguns or turrets.

** A few of the least popular gameplay segments, such as chasing down a fleeing healthcare worker for his medikit in the hospital, the entire train level, and the snipers in Alaska, were removed from the game after an overwhelmingly negative reception on the release version.

** As an AI teammate, Adam is ''very'' fragile and ''very'' aggressive, often charging headlong into big hordes of zombies or Combine troops and buttstroking them in the face to no effect due to how close-ranged NPC combat logic are handled by the Source engine. Expectedly, this does not do well to improve his life expectancy.
** At the climax of the game, Mitchell is forced into a HoldTheLine segment for 15 minutes until Nick can come to pick him up. Despite the game making such a big deal out of setting up defences and whatnot, the Combine soldiers only funnel out from one of the two paths leading up to the player, making it really easy to pick them off using the mounted turret nearby and hold down the trigger. They also fail pathetically against auto turrets set up by Mitchell despite their overall superior firepower. The developers themselves seem to acknowledge this, as after a certain point, the game ramps up in difficulty by adding in snipers, though the ground troops are still as incompetent as ever.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Downing an entire bottle of painkillers is a free ticket to a slow and agonizing death by overdose in reality. The prescription is usually written or printed onto the label for a reason. Even then, Mitchell should have choked to death since he chomp down all the pills in one go.

** Mitchell has a rather glorious slicked-back mane of hair and a decently-grown five o'clock shadow while still in the HECU, despite the US military's mandatory buzz cut and clean shave in reality. Funnily enough, his post-timeskip character model has the buzz cut, though the five o'clock remains. Notably, neither of these seem to at all affect his use of the HECU gas mask.[[note]]The grooming regulations were put in place specifically to prevent facial hair from interfering with the seal of a gas mask, which is very important for a unit supposedly operating in hazardous environments such as the HECU, and normal hair from being long enough to be grabbed by a hostile during a fight.[[/note]] To make it even more damning, this is for once ''not'' an excuse that can be made in favor of the game taking after the original ''Half-Life'', as even the occasional Marines who didn't wear gas masks in said title and its spin-offs had their hair done short per regulation.
** Both Mitchell and Adam carry Beretta M9s with an Inox frame and inlaid wooden grip panels as their personal sidearms before the TimeSkip. While the gun itself was used in the original game's HD pack and was accurate for the Army at the time the game takes place, the correct regulation pistol has everything in either flat or anodized black, and personal customizations are not allowed. The M16 and [=MP5=] are also incorrect: while the accessory list of an M203 and ACOG are correct for the Marines, general military doesn't use full-size versions of the M16 that have both a railed upper receiver and a full-auto trigger group; meanwhile the [=MP5=] is limited to SOCOM in actual military use in America, though this is assuming the HECU isn't part of SOCOM, and even if they aren't it can be somewhat excused in that ''Half-Life'' itself [[GrandfatherClause made the same mistake]].
** The Marines and Army soldiers in the game share the same uniform, loadout and even character models, which they don't in reality. Worse yet, despite the HECU ostensibly being marines, in this game they wear ''Navy''-pattern camouflage.

** The commanding officer of the 5th Ranger Company is introduced as only "Lieutenant Harvey". While not strictly wrong, "Lieutenant" by itself is a Navy and/or Coast Guard rank. The proper Army equivalent would either be First or Second Lieutenant. Furthermore, an Army Company is usually led by a Captain or Major, not a Lieutenant. While it could be theorized that the Rangers [[YouAreInCommandNow had a senior CO who died]], if such was the case then Lt. Harvey would be instantly promoted to fill the gap in the chain of command instead of keeping his old rank.

** Several characters in the Seven-Hour War portion of the game recognize Adam on-sight as a "black op", as if black ops are one specific and well-known unit in the US military akin to the aforementioned Rangers or 1st SFOD-D. While Mitchell's case can be excused - at least one such black operative wearing similar kit to Adam tried to kill him in Black Mesa, and under the circumstances he'd have no reason to believe other human beings who were obviously not part of the Black Mesa staff trying to kill him after a failed cover-up would be anything other than another cover-up - Colonel Cue ''also'' recognizing Adam as a "black op" for no particular reason other than because he's wearing black has no reasonable explanation that [[OvertOperative would not completely defeat the purpose of black operations]].
* AssholeVictim: Sure, Mitchell got beaten nearly to death with a crowbar, and has a bunch of scars on his face to show for it. However, he '''was''' an officer in the HECU Marines, whose overall mission was to kill all the Black Mesa scientists and security guards to cover up the Resonance Cascade incident. While the game itself doesn't show Mitchell personally killing anyone at Black Mesa who isn't already headcrab-fodder (besides a masked Black Ops in the prologue cutscene, who attempted to assassinate him) he doesn't deny HECU's role when Adam states they killed more than half of all Black Mesa personnel before any Black Ops ever showed up.

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:By the end of the game, the G-Man succeeds in making Mitchell a target for the Combine so they would separate their forces from City 17. On the bright side, Gordon Freeman now has much less problems to deal with.]]

%% * BaldOfEvil:Mitchell shaves off some of his locks to give himself a buzz cut following the timeskip, and considering what he did, he fits.

* BookEnds: The end of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 3 have the protagonists on board of Avalon Vale. [[spoiler:The ending of Act 3 has Adam being killed by Mitchell in the exact same spot he stood alongside Mitchell and co during the Combine onslaught at the end of Act 1]].

* BottomlessMagazines: Mitchell gets access to a handheld minigun with infinite ammunition during the train defense.

** Subverted with Boston Joe, who initially volunteers to be this since the factory he's in has a gas leak that could be ignited by gunfire, but switches to a shotgun almost immediately after and the crowbar [[GameplayAndStorySegregation is never brought up again]].

* EasterEgg: During the first act of the game, you may run into a strange hallway which will transport you to WebOriginal/TheBackrooms, of all things.
* EnemyMine: Villainous example. Mitchell offers his men and services to the Combine in order to dismantle the Resistance and fulfill his desire of killing Gordon Freeman. For the thirty minutes it lasted, that is.

* ExactTimeToFailure: During several level transitions in Act 1, a digital timer counting the amount of time since the Seven Hour War began is shown on-screen. Once the timer hits exactly [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin seven hours,]] the President is heard announcing his decision to surrender to the Combine over the radio.

** When the G-Man promised Mitchell "authority, power, and time", he ''really'' wasn't kidding, especially about the first part. To this end, he made sure that anyone in Mitchell's posse who outranked him will get bumped off shortly after their introduction, so that in due time, he will be the one in charge by virtue of being the highest-ranking member of the group. [[spoiler: This also seems to be still in effect even after the "agreement" between the G-Man and Mitchell comes to an end since the latter manages to track down and kill Adam, who briefly usurped him as the captain of Avalon Vale.]]
** After discussing the terms of his service to the Combine, Mitchell is told by Boris to wait in his office for a few minutes while he goes off-screen to report to Dr. Breen. You are forced to wait exactly that long for him to come back so you can actually continue with the story.
* FacelessMooks: Basically any unnamed or otherwise unimportant NPC in the game wears a mask or balaclava of some kind and are virtually indistinguishable from one another, be they the National Guard, the Army Rangers, the Combine, the Resistance or Mitchell's army of orphans post-TimeSkip. The Resistance is of particular note because not a single one of them hides their face in the official games (save for Barney at the beginning of ''Half-Life 2'', but this was only for his disguise as a Civil Protection unit). Overlaps with GasMaskMooks in the cases of the Combine and Mitchell's original HECU outfit.

* FakeDifficulty: Much of the game's "difficulty" lies in the ineptitude of its design, not so much the actual challenge provided by the enemies.

** The entirety of Act 2 was seemingly made to be as time-wasting as possible, presumably in order to stretch the game time past the two-hour refund period. Much of the act is set in an enormous icy wasteland with very little of note, and [[GuideDangIt there is zero signposting to let players know where to go, so a majority of time spent would be on random wandering]]. The map is so inordinately huge that sprinting wouldn't help, and that's not mentioning how the first third of the chapter won't even let the player do that for some reason. When that's no longer an issue, the game tosses in instant-kill guard towers, [[TheAllSeeingAI aimbot snipers]], and deep freezing map barriers to drag the playtime out even further.
* FirstNameBasis: Almost everyone in the game is referred to by their first names, with Lieutenant Harvey, Captain Roosevelt and Colonel Cue possibly being the exceptions, and none of them survive two chapters past their introductions. [[spoiler: All this was done intentionally so as to set the plot up for a twist at the end of the game where Mitchell is revealed to be Adrian Shephard's brother]].

** The beginning of his plan involves his deal with [[spoiler:Adam, a Black Ops soldier. He tells Adam to wear an HEV suit and assault an individual named Mitchell with a crowbar during the Black Mesa incident.]] After that, he makes a deal with Mitchell, promising him "authority, power, and time". During the Seven Hour War, Mitchell meets Adam[[spoiler:, who is told by the G-Man to meet Mitchell at that specific location]] and has to ally with him. The G-Man then arranges things behind the scenes so that anyone Mitchell meets who is of higher authority than him will die. Because of this, Mitchell gets complete command of a tanker ship. Three years later, Mitchell has to go to Alaska and meet Boris in a Cremator factory. There, he has to bring it down and rescue all the child slaves working there, with which he will raise and mold into his personal army. Because the factory is destroyed, Boris and his daughter Sasha are left out in the cold and on the run from the Combine. The G-Man makes a deal with Boris so he'll be out of the cold and back working with the Combine in City 17.

** The second map introduces the Prone mechanic, where Mitchell must lie flat on his stomach to crawl through a doorway blocked by a barricade. Problem is, this mechanic has never appeared in any ''Half-Life'' game so far, the barricade was made up of what would otherwise be physics objects that could easily just be moved out of the way in ''Half-Life 2'' proper, the gap itself is big enough to crouch through in a typical Source game, and there was not even a tutorial for how to use it in the game's initial release, forcing many players to either look up a walkthrough or plainly quit out of frustration. And again, this is only the ''second map'' of the game!
** A few chapters later sees the player pitted against a never-ending ZergRush of Headcrab Zombies, both Fast and Standard, along with their Headcrabs while waiting for what is probably the slowest elevator in the universe. While the defence itself is not so bad, as the game is [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity oddly generous]] about the ammo and medkit placement around the arena, the main offender here is that there are ''zero'' hints as to how long the player is expected to hold out. Neither the game nor the elevator itself provides any indication of progress, causing unobservant players to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of opponents. Many players have either quit or is thoroughly bored with the game over this particular segment.

** One set piece features a [[SuspiciouslyCrackedWall seemingly cracked floor]] near the game's ''only'' box of infinite grenades. Any player with a modicum of experience would try to blow the crack up with these grenades, or to blow out the chandelier above to make it fell down. But no, as common sense is in short supply here. To progress, you need to [[ViolationOfCommonSense physically stand on a chandelier so it collapses under Mitchell's weight and crashes through the floor]].

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Enemies with firearms in this game have atrocious aim, most likely to compensate for the fact that Mitchell has roughly half as much durability as Freeman did in ''Half Life 2'' due to not having an [=HEV=] suit. The Combine alien troopers during the 7 hour war are particularly bad; the transhuman Combine Overwatch after the TimeSkip still have awful aim, but are at least slightly more skilled.

* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Most obstacles cannot be jumped or climbed over. The two-foot deep railroad track will not let you climb out. If you are intent on completing this game, the noclip console command will be your best friend.

* MajorInjuryUnderreaction [[spoiler: When Mitchell finally enacts his revenge on Adam]], the latter seems less than in pain about the multiple point-blank, large-caliber shots pumped into his stomach and knee, simply letting out various moans. One moan, in particular, is oddly... [[ImmodestOrgasm sensual]].

* MirroringFactions: Following the first timeskip, Mitchell's own view of the Seven Hour War ultimately comes down to humans not being much better than aliens who subjugated them, as he explains it to Combine collaborationist Boris:
-->'''Mitchell''': Think about it. Wasn't the main reason we were trying to go to space for decades for the resources? If we had the power to enslave them, wouldn't we? No? [[HumansAreBastards We enslave our own kind. Couldn't care less about an alien race]]. That's just nature playing out its own game. It's always been between predator and prey. That's the balance. This time, the tables are turned. They got to us before we got to them. Pulling our resources, draining the oceans, enslaving humans.

* NeverTrustATitle: Despite it being in the title and almost every piece of advertisement out there, the player does very little actual hunting of the Freeman in the game itself. About the first two-thirds of the game consists of Mitchell just going from point to point reaching the Avalon Vale and building up his army. The actual "hunting" formally starts around the point after the second TimeSkip, though in theory moreso than practice, as Mitchell is constantly [[{{Railroading}} Railroaded]] by the supporting cast to travel to yet more locations while [[RedHerring fighting enemies that have very little to do with Freeman himself]], ultimately leading up to a TwistEnding that involves neither hunting nor Freeman.
* NeverTrustATrailer: The many reveal trailers leading up to the game's release would have the player assume [[spoiler: Mitchell's attacker was Gordon Freeman himself, while in the actual game the assailant is helmeted, leaving their true identity initially ambiguous.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Mitchell turning off the claymore minefield removes the only thing preventing the zombies and later Combine troops from overwhelming the National Guards' holdout. Not that it would be of much help, as the ''entire field'' is set up to blow up in one go for even a single target wandering in, meaning that after one enemy combatant clears it out, everything else behind it can just walk through unchecked.

* NonStandardCharacterDesign: ''Everyone.'' Almost none of the character models in the entire game have the same visual design. For a great example, take a look at the scenes where the very high-quality Mitchell is talking with someone like Colonel Cue, or Sasha, who have far less detail on their faces, with the former having a fake moustache as if he'd scrawled it on with a black marker, and the latter having a big block of chiseled wood as hair.

** After visiting Nova Prospekt, Mitchell suddenly ends up in a prison cell guarded by the Resistance, despite there being absolutely no indication of them capturing him in-between these sequences (unlike how he was captured by Civil Protection and escorted to Boris in City 17).
** Mitchell, for whatever reason, knows what Borealis is and immediately orders his entire crew to head there in the ending. Even if the Combine or the Resistance [[ContinuitySnarl knew about the ship at the time]], at no point in the game is it even implied that Mitchell learned about its existence, unless it was in the part between Nova Prospekt and being imprisoned by the Resistance that the game skipped.
* PlotlineDeath: No matter how well the player handles the train defense section - even if you abuse the game's poor scripting and design by running back to the front of the train to skip the level entirely - Colonel Cue along with most of his men still ''somehow'' manage to all die by the time Mitchell and co. reach Nevada.
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Both [[spoiler:Adam]] and [[spoiler:Sasha]] are shot in the head at one point by the game's resident HandCannon. While the wounds themselves are quite graphic, the magnum rounds do very little beyond punching a hole the size of a shot glass through the victims' foreheads despite being one of the most powerful commercial handgun calibers in reality, which [[Film/MagnumForce should have blown their heads clean off]].
* RagnarokProofing: Despite being at sea for 20 years without coming back into port for rearm and refuel, the Avalon Vale is still as pristine-looking as the day Mitchell and co. first boarded her.
* RandomEventsPlot: Act 3 suffers from this. After Mitchell assaults Black Mesa East, he passes through Ravenholm, a random town, an Antlion cave, and Nova Prospekt with very little indication that he's chasing after Freeman. He then somehow gets captured offscreen by the Resistance and is brought to a prison under their control.
* RegeneratingHealth: Only during the train defense and levels that consist entirely of driving.

** The entire train defense section of Act I can be bypassed by nabbing the minigun and then ''immediately'' running back to the driver's cabin. It still wouldn't alter the resulting cutscene one bit, however.

** In the original ''Half-Life'', HEV suits are mentioned to be difficult to operate in without proper training. In this game, [[spoiler:Adam, a Black Operative, was able to steal and then use one without seemingly any preparations whatsoever.]]

* SpaceCompression: Averted; the game provides a case study on why creating smaller, easier to navigate levels rather than larger levels on a realistic scale is a good idea. The game tries to emulate large, open spaces in a realistic manner, but the problem is that there are numerous sections in the game that require the player to run for minutes on end, which doesn't make for exciting gameplay, and ultimately only seems to serve as [[FakeLongevity padding]] more than anything else. The scaling also makes many levels hard to navigate and the few guiding landmarks the game gives can get hidden by the draw distance, the dockyard being probably the worst offender in this.

** Also [[spoiler:Adam's death is so over the top it is just hilarious. Mitchell catches up to him and shoots him several times in the stomach ''with a revolver'' before finishing Adam off with a headshot and sending him over the board. Considering the caliber of the revolver that was used by Mitchell, it's surprising that Adam managed to stand up after being crippled and survive a full-blown shot in his stomach, much less three more.]]

** Mitchell's plan to get to Boris after the second time skip is needlessly complex, if not outright suicidal. Apparently, rather than being diplomatic about it and possibly trying to reason with Civil Protection officers, he decides to get there himself, getting too much unwanted attention by having a soldier of his blow himself up and getting captured. He still gets escorted to Boris, but it's pure dumb luck he wasn't executed on the spot due to resisting arrest.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Owing to how hamfisted the narrative is delivered, several characters seemingly disappeared as the plot goes along. Mitchell arrives at the Avalon Vale with Boston Joe, several other workers from his factory, and enough Rangers to fill several football teams - very few of whom are likely to die in defence of the ship. Every one of them except Mitchell himself, Adam and Nick suddenly disappear across the two subsequent time skips, the second one showing that Mitchell's army ''entirely'' comprises of the orphans rescued from the cremator factory without any hint that the Rangers or workers ever existed.

* WhiteAndGreyMorality: The central conflict appears to be this at the outset if you believe that Gordon killed Marines in Mitchell's squad in self-defence, and attacked Mitchell himself first because there was no reason to assume he would behave any differently. In turn, Mitchell refers to himself as "a villain" at one point and likely killed some unarmed Black Mesa scientists before meeting Freeman. However, he does save a group of young children from Combine slavery later on, even if he's mainly doing it to train them into his own private army.

* WholePlotReference: To ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''. Mitchell is cast as a soldier who is left on the verge of death after an attack that leaves his men dead and his face disfigured. After making his escape from a hospital under fire he seeks revenge on the perpetrator and builds up an army -- largely consisting of children he rescues from a less savory fate -- to achieve his ends, enlisting the help of two right-hand men and setting up a home base on the ocean in the meantime. To top it off, [[spoiler:the ending sees Mitchell earn his revenge by dealing a MultipleGunshotDeath to the one responsible for attacking him.]]

* ShoutOut: So many to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' that Mitchell can be seen as an {{Expy}} for Venom Snake himself. A base of operations in the middle of the sea, two devoted right-hand men, a motley crew of soldiers, orphans brought under his wing who were rescued from a less desirable fate... Mitchell already has the facial scars, he just needs an eyepatch and shrapnel lodged in his head and the nickname of Big Mitch.
** A developer has stated that the director more or less just told the cutscene team to watch ''Phantom Pain'' trailers and [[FollowTheLeader "do that"]].

The game is notable for being the most high profile and elaborate original work set in the ''Half-life'' universe and for receiving a certain level of unofficial recognition from Valve. Although, the game's reputation was almost immediately shattered upon release by its amateurish and infuriatingly incomprehensible level design, vast number of game-breaking bugs, tedious gameplay, and accusation of copyright infringement.

* DrillSergeantNasty: Drill Sergeant Garrison, Mitchell's supervising officer in his earlier days, qualifies for this, though he's tamer than most examples out there.

** One of Mitchell's many followers is Nick, whose voice talent was provided by Alex of WebVideo/IHateEverything. Problem is, the character himself was supposed to be an American National Guard, albeit one of Asian ancestry according to WordOfGod[[note]]and as evident by his not-so-subtle yellowish skin[[/note]], but the voiceover provided by IHE is mostly in his natural British accent. Some of it, however, is him attempting to do an American accent, since this was originally the direction he was given; he was later told to give up on it, [[OohMeAccentsSlipping but the "American" voiceover was still used in the final release anyways]].
** Another glaring example of this is National Guardsman Alex, who was voiced by {{WebVideo/Pyrocynical}}, whose accent is even thicker than that of IHE's despite the character being American.

** Sasha has a distinctly American accent, while her father Boris sounds appropriate for someone of Slavic origin.
** The orphans rescued by Mitchell would grow up to be identical English-accented mooks despite being raised by a Slavic man in Alaska and subsequently growing up among a crew of primarily Americans.

* [[LadyNotAppearingInThisGame Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Game]]: [[spoiler:Gordon Freeman, '''''the title character.''''']][[note]]Actually, he does appear, except in an easily missable NonStandardGameOver sequence, and even then he appears in a near-death hallucination.[[/note]]

* ObviousBeta: The game's (eventual) release on Steam was noted to have been very broken almost to the point of being entirely unplayable. Most of the touted cutscenes were missing from the release, along with clunky AI and map triggers failing to fire every now and then which is not helped by how certain graphics settings can cause the game to hard crash given its poor optimization. A Day 1 patch was hastily pushed out, which seemed to have resolved the cutscenes not playing properly, but much of the problems still remain.

** Colonel Cue's [[WeHaveReserves nonchalant attitude]] about sacrificing his men in order to complete an objective stands at odds with what he should have learned during officer training.

** Part of the plan involves [[spoiler:making a Black Ops assassin wear an HEV suit for no reason at all and specifically target one HECU unit.]]

* CurbStompBattle: The [[AlienInvasion Seven Hours' War]] is featured, and it only takes ''one'' of those hours for the Combine to wipe out most of the US military. By the time Mitchell enters the picture almost three hours in, only a small remnant of the National Guard and a single company of US Army Rangers remain.

* AnAxeToGrind: One of several melee weapons available to Mitchell is a two-handed fire axe.

* EasterEgg: During the first act of the game, you may run into a strange hallway which will transport you to [[WebOriginal/TheBackrooms The Backrooms]], of all things.

* NonIndicativeName: Despite it being in the title and almost every piece of advertisement out there, the player does very little actual hunting of the Freeman in the game itself. About the first two-thirds of the game consists of Mitchell just going from point to point reaching the Avalon Vale and building up his army. The actual "hunting" formally starts around the point after the second TimeSkip, though in theory moreso than practice, as Mitchell is constantly [[{{Railroading}} Railroaded]] by the supporting cast to travel to yet more locations while [[RedHerring fighting enemies that have very little to do with Freeman himself]], ultimately leading up to a TwistEnding that involves neither hunting nor Freeman.

* [[LadyNotAppearingInThisGame Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Game]]: [[spoiler:Gordon Freeman, '''''[[UpToEleven the title character.]]''''']][[note]]Actually, he does appear, except in an easily missable NonStandardGameOver sequence, and even then he appears in a near-death hallucination.[[/note]]

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The actor who provided the voiceover for the G-Man mispronounces Black Mesa as Black '''Messa''', with emphasis put on the letter S rather than E. As [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb3xzXyNh8I&feature=youtu.be&t=1m55s YouTuber Gggmanlives pointed out]], this is not a case of "To-mah-toes and To-may-toes", the actor simply messed up his delivery trying to replicate the G-Man's usual speech pattern. This is especially notable, as even though the G-Man in the original series was liable to placing AccentUponTheWrongSyllable, he would always pronounce Black Mesa the way it should be.

The game is notable for being the most high profile and elaborate original work set in the ''Half-life'' universe and for receiving a certain level of unofficial recognition from Valve. Although, the game's reputation was almost immediately shattered upon release by it's amateurish and infuriatingly incomprehensible level design, vast number of game-breaking bugs, tedious gameplay, and accusation of copyright infringement.

--> '''Captain Roosevelt''': That's not a curse. You made a deal with the devil. Here, you have it.

-->'''Mitchell''': Think about it. Wasn't the main reason we were trying to go to space for decades for the resources? If we had the power to enslave them, wouldn't we? No? We enslave our own kind. Couldn't care less about an alien race. That's just nature playing out its own game. It's always been between predator and prey. That's the balance. This time, the tables are turned. They got to us before we got to them. Pulling our resources, draining the oceans, enslaving humans.

* NotSoDifferentRemark:
** Mitchell accuses Adam of killing his own comrades, only for Adam to point out that he too was just following orders, much like how the HECU marines were following the orders to slaughter innocent Black Mesa personnel; he particularly notes that the HECU had already killed over half of the Black Mesa personnel by the time Adam and the other black ops arrived.
** Following the first timeskip, Mitchell's own view of the Seven Hour War ultimately comes down to humans not being much better than aliens who subjugated them, as he explains it to Combine collaborationist Boris:
-->'''Mitchell''': Think about it. Wasn't the main reason we were trying to go to space for decades for the resources? If we had the power to enslave them, wouldn't we? No? We enslave our own kind. Couldn't care less about an alien race. That's just nature playing out its own game. It's always been between predator and prey. That's the balance. This time, the tables are turned. They got to us before we got to them. Pulling our resources, draining the oceans, enslaving humans.

* EvilVersusEvil: Mitchell's own view of the Seven Hour War, as he explains it to Combine collaborationist Boris:
-->'''Mitchell''': Think about it. Wasn't the main reason we were trying to go to space for decades for the resources? If we had the power to enslave them, wouldn't we? No? We enslave our own kind. Couldn't care less about an alien race. That's just nature playing out its own game. It's always been between predator and prey. That's the balance. This time, the tables are turned. They got to us before we got to them. Pulling our resources, draining the oceans, enslaving humans.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: Mitchell accuses Adam of killing his own comrades, only for Adam to point out that he too was just following orders, much like how the HECU marines were following the orders to slaughter innocent Black Mesa personnel; he particularly notes that the HECU had already killed over half of the Black Mesa personnel by the time Adam and the other black ops arrived.

* AdaptationalWimp: In the final build of the game, Combine Hunters can still survive at least a couple mags of full auto weapons fire, but can be killed with a couple shotgun blasts.

** A few of the least popular gameplay segments, such as chasing down a fleeing healthcare worker for his medikit in the hospital and the entire train level, were removed from the game after an overwhelmingly negative reception on the release version.