Set in both the heart and outside of City 17, "The Citizen Returns" contains the final chapters of our citizen's story, as well as an updated version of Part II. The story takes place shortly after a failed assassination attempt on Dr. Breen leads to the first ever use of the Overwatch Broadcast system by The Resistance, represented by former garage owner Larry Soderstrom. The Combine forces decide to capture him and try to use his public repentance and execution as a means to appease the emergent rebellion. The Citizens of City 17 however have other ideas in mind. Larry is now a symbol for the rebellion and a key asset in a bigger plot to deal a fatal blow to the Combine and its grip on humankind...
I really enjoyed this mod, and it's a great example of good design overall. In particular, I like the small details put into this mod that makes it stand out in a positively quirky and memorable light.
The character of Larry will be a staple of this mod as the no-nonsense yet laid-back leader of a good majority of the mod. I highly recommend playing the first The Citizen first before playing this just so you can get Larry's full character.
This mod also serves as an interesting example of choices and consequences, where the player has more than one possible choice with particular situations, and the fact that NPCs react to certain things that the player does makes the consequences all the more enjoyable. Much like Random Quest from the same author, some sections of this have replay value and it's worth making a couple manual saves here and there to try all sorts of different paths.
That aside, the combat is a little sparse at points. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but most times there's not even enough time for the combat music to even play when it's suddenly halted due to lack of more enemies.
Puzzle design isn't particularly strong either as even the most challenging puzzle is hard due to physics issues than the actual puzzle being difficult. Others have complained about getting stuck at parts. I found it to be too easy, honestly.
Despite the large arsenal the player gets, I wouldn't consider this a run and gun mod. It's better than that, but it's not as focused on making large combat scenes as it is on character scenes.