DayHard
(Not the film) is a comedy oriented Half-Life 2 mod by MODDB user ItsyaBoiiJoey. It stars Gordon Freemans’ brother, Morgan Freeman (Not that one) who would not be out of place in a Tarantino film. Morgan and his friend Jack start the game making a daring escape from a combine raid on their apartment building, and it only gets crazier from there. It takes place in an apparent alternate universe from the main Half Life 2 story. In Day Hard's version of TheVerse, The Combine discovered on arrival that Earth wasn't a weak planet that would fall in a single day, but rather an over-the-top, World of Badass and ham fueled by action films and more than ready to stand its ground. Gordon is (as far as we can tell) still in stasis, and City 17 has yet to be founded, so one can consider Day Hard as an absurdly non-canon prequel.
Morgan is not silent during gameplay, setting him apart from most Source Mod characters, and his voice actor is okay enough that the result is good instead of cringe worthy.
The gameplay is typical Source engine with some changes. The world map is metroidvania-esque, with common locations visited several times and some backtracking required. Powerups appear randomly during combat, and there's an aspect of strategy to their use. With nearly every fight an ambush tipped against the player and every weapon doing massive damage, survival now hinges on how quickly and creatively you can end a fight. Some areas are straight up Nintendo Hard.
The universe runs of Rule of Cool, so action movie locales like hotels, nightclubs, bars and more are still running and full of patrons even as striders walk the streets and drop ships fly overhead. And rather than terror inducing multidimensional eldritch conquerors, the combine are played for laughs here, dancing in nightclubs, drinking in bars, and generally not acting like the usual ultra-space-Nazi's that we saw in the future.
Dayhard is tacky, but its fun tacky.
This game provides examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Dog, who appeared in Half-Life 2 as Alyx Vance's faithful robot companion and as an ally to Gordon Freeman and the resistance, appears working for the Combine and guards Wallace Breen's quarters near the end of the game.
- Arc Words: "What is going on!?"
- Blatant Lies: The developer commentary nodes. All of them. The very first one in the game claims the sun bleached action film style was inspired by Shakespeare.
- Comedic Sociopath: Jack, who is as unreliable as a sidekick as he is homicidal.
- Deathby Adaptation: Although it is obviously not intended to be a serious "story", Wallace Breen is killed in the final level even though this is implied to be a prequel to Half-Life 2.
- Dirty Old Man: Father Grigori. He might even have his own sex cult.
- Foreshadowing: The Doom 2 Easter Egg in the first level foreshadows the final boss fight, which is ripped straight from Doom 2.
- Hell Hotel: Complete with a Genre Shift
Bizarro Episode. - Hetero Sexual Life Partners: Jack and Morgan.
- Katanas Are Better: The first melee weapon, instead of the traditional crowbar.
- Mood Whiplash: The hotel veers back and forth between surreal horror and comedy. It's almost never both at once.
- Savedby Canon: Subverted with Dr. Wallace Breen, who is killed by Morgan in the final boss battle despite being still in charge of the Combine in Half-Life 2. Played straight with Father Grigori who survives the events of the game.
- Serious Business: Apparently for Jack, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is higher priority than helping his friend save the world.
- Shout-Out: Constantly. Some include:
- The main character of the game, Gordon Freeman's brother, is named Morgan Freeman.
- Morgan's room contains posters for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and The Matrix.
- The shirt that Morgan wears is the jersey of Italian footballer Francesco Totti. The mod creators are Italian.
- Your main sidekick throughout the game is Jack Carver from Far Cry. His room has a framed picture of Valerie Constantine.
- There's a computer playing [[{{Doom II: Hell on Earth Doom II]] in the first level. The final boss fight is also almost directly ripped from Doom II.
- One of the apartments has a framed picture of the actua] Morgan Freeman.
- Numerous shout-outs to Half-Life 2 itself, with characters and voice clips being used out of context to comedic effect.
- Spexico: Parodied by a follower character you meet at the nightclub.
