BacklogCritic: "With all the quality free mods available for Half-Life 2, you would be borderline insane to waste a penny on such a broken attempt at a game. Don’t buy it, don’t even steal it – it’s not worth your time."
Wiehahn Diederichs, Gearburn writes: "Over the last few days, indie developers Royal Rudius Entertainment have received constant waves of harsh criticism following the release of their controversial title, Hunt Down the Freeman (HDTF), a first person shooter that heavily draws inspiration (and apparently a lot else) from Valve’s Half Life Universe. From claims of stolen assets to inexperienced leadership, this has to be one of the most bizarre stories I’ve researched in my career as a video game journalist."
Valve must not really care about the Half-Life brand. They’re allowing a poorly made game with stolen assets to use the Half-Life IP.
I don't really think Valve cares too much after the point that developers pay the licensing fees. According to their documentation, they're okay with you using their IPs as long as you clearly state that it's not a Valve game on your Steam page.
Regarding stolen assets, I think most of the accusations concern original work of other Half Life modders. It's my understanding that no legal action has yet been taken against Royal Ruduis entertainment (the devs). Loads of people have provided some compelling evidence, but I think it's all still up to debate at this point. I don't consider myself a hardcore Half Life expert though, so can't really speak with authority on the subject.
It certainly is a travesty that such a broken game was released though, especially considering that some people on the project did some amazing work. Almost none of it ended up in the game...
Some people were reporting assets from non-source games were ported into Hunt Down the Freeman.
