Hello everyone! This is Jeff at the helm again, with a special message of celebration for Metrocop’s 12th anniversary! Well, 12 since its initial inception, 2 since the relaunch if you wish to be pedantic. Mythos has put an astounding amount of work into delving the dark archives of the internet to assemble the greatest collection of Garry’s Mod comics known to man. Or, at least known to this man, but it’s a safe bet that not many other people are crazy enough to embark on such a project.

One would think I had something grand planned for this. One would be wrong! Us here at Metrocop HQ have all been getting wrapped up in the rigors of real life as of late. Luckily, I had something waiting in the wings. On our forums/Discord, I hosted a screenshot contest called Gmod Garbled Gameplay! I asked our community members to represent Garry’s Mod/Half-Life 2 as something other than a First Person Shooter. It’s easier to explain if you gander upon the following entries.

As an example entry, I created a scene of Jeff (the comic) as a 2.5D sidescroller game:

Jeff and Jerry run at Combine soliders on a 2D plane with collectable glowing newspapers around, replicating 2D Mario gameplay

George Stukas gave a Fallout 1 view of a scene from his Life Outside the Walls comic series…

Four bandits like dead in front of a wasteland survivor in an isometric view and UI replicating Fallout 1 gameplay

…and another of Half-Life 2 as a point-and-click adventure game (think Sam and Max):

The background of the image shows Alyx and Gordon in front of a gate requiring a wheel to open. The foreground has a profile picture of Alyx, her speech text, an inventory UI, and action options to replicate old point-and-click adventure games

Hunter-Spy gave us a glimpse of Half-Life 2 in the style of Silent Hill…

Gordon Freeman looks at the upper torso of a zombie cut in half by a sawblade sticking in the wall, replicating Silent Hill gameplay

…and Left 4 Dead (it’s a Valve game, close enough) in the Style of The Last Of Us:

Coach, Nick, and Rochelle aim at a Left 4 Dead Hunter who has Nick pinned on the ground replicating The Last Of Us gameplay

Dusk (Government Woman) embraced the current trend of Souls-like games with a rendition of Half-Life 2:

Gordon Freeman is equipped with a crowbar and a sawblade as a shield, facing down a Combine Strider with Dark Souls UI elements to replicate Dark Souls boss fight gameplay

Gobo merged Final Fantasy RPGs with Half-Life 2 in a series of delightful scenes:

Gordon Freeman battles Combine street forces in a scene replicating Final Fantasy battle gameplay
Gordon Freeman, Alyx, and Barney battle Combine soliders in a scene replicating Final Fantasy battle gameplay
Gordon Freeman and Alyx battle a Combine Hunter in a scene replicating Final Fantasy battle gameplay

Coralilac took us bowling, then took us to Half-Life 2 as Grand Theft Auto 4:

Gordon Freeman answers a cellphone call from Barney standing in front of a chaotic street scene to replicate Grand Theft Auto gameplay

Contest runner-up MadRat took lots of notes and sketches to bring us LA Noire in Half-Life 2, including the totally normal and human facial expressions brought to life in the subsequent GIF version:

A man holding a notebook with various notes and sketches interviews Breen with an exaggerated facial expression replicating LA Noire gameplay
A man holding a notebook with various notes and sketches interviews Breen with a rotating selection of exaggerated facial expression replicating LA Noire gameplay

Finally comes the winner of the contest, HitoshiiAFK, with a beautiful rendition of Half-Life 2 as Project Zomboid:

Gordon Freeman and Adrian Shepard battle zombified Metrocops in a 3rd person isometric angle to replicate Project Zomboid gameplay

Thanks to everyone that participated in the contest and look forward to more contests in the near future! We encourage you to check out the Metrocop forums for new community content and discussions, as well as the Discord channel for game nights and chatting!

And thanks again to Mythos for hosting this community of weirdos for so long.