This very normal Half-Life mod lets you play as 'queen of spacetime' Max Caulfield, and it's convinced me that the next Life is Strange should be a full-on boomer shooter

Max Caulfield wallops a headcrab zombie with a crowbar in Half-Life is Strange. — (Image credit: Valve, ThePriceFielder)

I've always thought Half-Life didn't have enough teenagers in it. I mean, what's an underground research facility for if not navigating the relationship challenges of adolescence? It is, frankly, shocking that Valve so flagrantly neglected this demographic in its depiction of alien invasions and military coverups. I demand justice! I demand action! I demand Max Caulfield!

Fortunately, modder ThePriceFielder has picked up the baton Valve dropped, increasing the number of young adults in Half-Life from zero to one. Half-Life is Strange switches out Gordon Freeman as its protagonist for the lead character of the first series of Life is Strange, as well as Life is Strange: Double Exposure and the recently released Life is Strange: Reunion.

"Half-Life is Strange lets you play Half-Life as the queen of spacetime herself and use her rewind powers," writes ThePriceFielder on the mod's ModDB page. No further explanation is provided, and I suppose none is required. Max Caulfield is, essentially, Generation Z's G-Man, so who's to say she wouldn't rock up to the resonance cascade and dispatch headcrab zombies with a crowbar and unconvincing slang?

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While ThePriceFielder doesn't provide much in the way of a description, there is a video of Half-Life is Strange in action. The various clips that comprise the video show Max using her powers to manipulate combat scenarios. In one clip, we see a scientist dash down a staircase before being shot by marines in a standard Half-Life sequence. But then, Max intervenes and time skips backward, letting her eliminate the squaddies before the boffin dashes to his death.

[NO SPOILERS] Half-Life is Strange: playable Max Caulfield mod with working time rewind from r/lifeisstrange

Some interactable objects are highlighted with Life is Strange's distinctive chalk-sketch tooltips, which blend surprisingly well with Half-Life's lo-fi visuals. Alongside her powers, Max can also wield all the weapons that Gordon can. There's a scene later in the trailer where Max murks a pair of marines before saying "Don't mess with Max, bitches," thus justifying this entire endeavour in a five-second clip, and making a compelling case for the next Life is Strange being a no-holds-barred boomer shooter.

Half-Life is Strange is still very much a work-in-progress, with no release date as yet. But I'm already sold on the concept. In the meantime, you could check out some other excellent Half-Life mods, such as a mod that lets you definitively rescue Half-Life scientists, or the hugely ambitious total conversion, Diffusion, which has now replaced its AI voices with proper actors.

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Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.