Did anyone actually put 10 years into it? Didn't this mod bounce from various modding groups?

You're missing the point; it's not that it's released with a price tag. It's that the product is STILL incomplete, only now with a price tag and a freash breath of air on the "it'll be finished soon" side.

I wouldn't mind paying for this, but when someone promises a free, complete package, and delivers with an incomplete product with a price tag, it's going to ruffle some feathers. Despite what you say about "supporting the dev," if the guy needed the money to survive then he wouldn't rely on a ten year in development, promised free mod as his one and only revenue stream. I like that the guy started this because he wanted to and not because he wanted money, but I'm not going to fork over money for something that has a promise of completion if there was already that promise to begin with without the financial incentive.

I played this 6 years ago :D And it was free!

Thank you.

they will most likely release a free version after its out of early access

Exactly my point. :x

Easy thing to say when you haven't spent 10 years of your life making something with no financial compensation for your enormous undetaking.

Whatever you say.

Question: "How would you feel if you put 10 years of your life into developing a remake for one of the most loved games of all time, only for people to whine at you that it's 'unfair to release it with a price'?"

Answer: "If I put 10 years of my life into developing a freely available mod for the sheer love of the game I would not attempt to extort money from people by releasing it as a standalone game for any amount of $$$."

Buying this is supporting the same business model that gets us carbon copies of Battlefield, Call of Duty, and hundreds of MMOs at ever worsening quality year after year.

Then there's people like me who jumped on the Half Life band wagon at Half Life 2 and I couldn't really get into the first Half Life game because I didn't have the nostalgia to help me get past how dated it is, but THIS. THIS right here I was able to play all the way through and I've been watching it since before they even released the free version on their site. I have no problem with paying for this once I get the money to do so. They deserve every bit of my money and then some.