Imagine, for a moment, that instead of playing as the bespectacled Gordon Freeman in Half-Life 2, you take on the role of a weapon-savvy nameless Counter-Terrorist/Counter-Zombieist do-gooder. And instead of sucking up bullets with your HEV suit or firing pin-point accurate shots with a weapon held at your hip, you would be very much a fleshy, vulnerable human who would need to rely on solid tactics as well as the iron sight or scope of his weapon to survive in combat.

That basic premise is what SMOD: Tactical aims to portray. Building upon the feature-rich Japanese-created “Super Mod” (SMOD), the Tactical mod lets you re-experience Half-Life 2 as a tactical shooter. Though the author is quick to point out that the majority of the credit belongs to the SMOD team for the enhancements and configurability options that it provided, and the community members who provided the new custom weapon models, the fact remains that the Tactical mod’s additions improve the gameplay enough to warrant significant praise.

When it comes to changes, the original game’s weapons have been replaced, with the new arsenal spanning the spectrum from a 1911 .45 caliber pistol to an M4 carbine with EOTech Holographic Weapon Sights and an Artic Warfare Magnum sniper rifle. Each is complete with well-modeled ironsights, fire mode options, and the G-36 even allows for a player to choose to use the included ironsights or the magnified optic. It comes as no surprise to learn that “Shakken,” one of the consultants and weapon modelers for UT’s groundbreaking tactical realism mod “Infiltration,” had a hand in this.