Half-Life goes noir in this mod that will see you take on the criminal underworld

The tale of Half-Life and its impact on the first-person shooter genre is something that will undoubtedly live on forever. It’s often considered one of the greatest video games of all time, up there with the likes of GoldenEye 007 on Nintendo 64, the original Doom, and Halo 3.

And thanks to the modding community, I get to keep talking about the game. In this instance, there’s an upcoming mod that should appeal to fans of Cyberpunk 2077 or Deus Ex. Created by user Guild of Inventors over on ModDB, The Last Goodbye fully converts Half-Life into a neo-noir game with a Dick Tracy lean.

I’ll let the creator enlighten you as to what it’s about:

In the shadowy fairy tale metropolis of Prava, the gun-for-hire Lucille – better known on the streets as The Banshee – takes a job from enigmatic entrepreneur Ark McLean. Her target: Bullseye, the deadliest gangster in town. On her travels through the criminal underworld, she meets all manner of friends and foes, with plenty of action and intrigue along the way.

Tee-hee! I said “Dick”

In case you don’t know, Dick Tracy is a fictional detective from an old comic strip and movie, featuring strong noir vibes.

While The Last Goodbye is not out yet – and there’s no current release date – the above video gives a nice roundup of how development is going. We get to see the current build of it in action, which includes some story elements and voice acting.

As of December 2024, Guild of Inventors says the mod is in a “solid late beta stage of development.” It’s technically playable, but “certainly not complete.” I’m heartily impressed with how it looks so far. You can sort of tell that it will play and possibly feel a bit like Half-Life – it being made in the Gold Source engine – but with this unique take on Valve’s classic FPS.

Look, it’s pretty simple. If you like the look of this one, you’d do well to keep an eye on it. I, for one, am always taken in by the efforts of the modding community. Gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling in my tummy space. Anyway, if you want to keep up with progress on The last Goodbye, you can check out the developer’s Twitter/X, Bluesky, or YouTube channel.