A very short romp that lasts about five minutes or so. Good effort, nonetheless.
While this mod's look, feels, and also atmosphere are pretty good pretty much all the way through (until Combine Base Finale), I will have to heavily criticise it for it's insanely BS and punishing difficulty.
Usually, you're given less than 40 armor, against usually 5+ Combine soldiers, either assisted by Hunters or Boss Enemies. Not only that, but lack of ammo for high tier weapons like Magnum, Crossbow, or stuff to throw with G-Gun, makes these encounters very annoying. You're basically forced to play like a wuss, to not lose all your HP and barely any Armor.
Lack of HEV and HP chargers is also odd, even in Combine base they are nowhere to be seen.
That being said though, I'd still recommend it, as a relatively short, and neat experience, but, play it on Normal for your own sake. I beaten mods where you get 0 Armor, and that **** was less painful.
Even tho Tiberian Sun is better but will give it a good rate.
It seems like a "my first wad" because it's a boring series of levels, which last between 5 or 6 minutes depending on how you play. Although I like the beginning of the maps and some things with a lot of potential, the other parts feel so disconnected and visually unimpressive, not to mention that they are large rooms without many enemies.
If I had to describe this mod with one word, it would be "cheesy."
Most of the blame lies with the voice acting. Teenage voice + bad mic quality + bad dialog that uses the word "man" in every sentence possible makes a bad combo. Seriously, count how many times any character says "maaaan" and elongates it like a stereotypical stoner, it's ridiculous. Towards the end, one of the characters mentions smoking some weed too maaan. These are the worst soldiers ever. I'm also so sick of hearing those bitcrushed guitar riffs over and over.
With that rant out the way, how's the story and level design? The story is whatever, yet another "every country is bad and they all attack America" story. The level design is nothing special either. The mapping is blocky and there are scaling problems, everything is massive. We used to see this issue when HL mapping was in its infancy, four years later however, it's a different story. Still, I like some set-pieces and sequences, especially the ones involving fighter jets and explosives. It's acceptable for the year but could have been much better.
This is also one of the rare mods that take place in an urban setting. I love some of the areas such as the zoo but I wish they were handled better, brushwork-wise. I also love the logic that the animals turning into creatures like alien grunts, shocktroopers or gargantuas are explained away with "must be the radiation" :) Speaking of mutants, there are a few zombie re-models, or "mutants" as the game calls it, they were a nice surprise. There's a scene that takes place in a skyscraper with helicopters and a projector, that was great too.
The mod uses Black Ops as main enemies and since they don't take extra headshot damage, the fights aren't satisfying. Shoot them in the head or foot, it's the same damage. I hate those bulletsponges, even in OP4. There are some puzzles involving explosives, specifically, pushing them to various areas and blowing them up to progress. I liked that the creator made the game end if you explode them before putting them to the place you're supposed to. You don't get stuck when you mess up.
What else? The creators love for Xena: Warrior Princess continues :) Just like in the Xeno Project (Xena Project?) there are random characters rubbing (!) posters of her affectionately while spewing nonsense. These dumb scenes still make me smile even after all these years.
Overall, I still like the creator's previous works, "The Xeno Project 1 - 2" better. This isn't a bad mod either but it feels like it got suffocated under its own ambition.
Для 2015-го года ещё более-менее
Prisoner is a interesting atmospheric mod with elements of horror.
The mod was obviously going for something a little more minimalistic and simple when it comes to the gunplay, however it still has the same "Half-Life 2" feel that essentially 99% of the mods nowadays have which isn't inherently a bad thing but it can get a little tiring.
The enemies were mostly standard Half-Life 2 zombies, however the mod team added their own zombie types which is an awesome idea.
The gameplay was lacking in many ways and mostly consisted of just walking around until you find the correct door/key/card, rinse and repeat. Between the puzzle areas sprinkle a few enemies and that's the gameplay summarized.
Visually, the mod isn't too unique however it has a fairly consistent Nova Prospekt-esque art style mixed with other Half-Life 2 like areas. Some parts of the map were poorly lit which in theory should improve the atmosphere and keep you on your toes, however considering that the enemies are the same Half-Life 2 zombies the surprise factor gets lost almost instantly, at least for me.
Even though the animations were rough, they were a very refreshing addition to the mod that you don't get to see in hl2 mods every day.
All in all, fairly solid but very short experience. While I feel like the overall idea of this mod could've been executed better, the overall experience was captured very well through these 2 maps.
Compared to the original it's definitely an improvement. The maps make more sense and feel more like places that could actually exist. The brushwork has improved too, the maps are a bit more detailed now. I liked some of the scripted sequences and ways to solve puzzles. For example you pull a lever to reverse the direction of a conveyor belt and then bring an explosive crate to it so it can slam at the wall and blow it up, allowing you to progress. I love small but fun ways of solving problems like this.
This is one of those mods that make you feel lonely. Everyone is your enemy, even the barneys. You get to help a scientist here and there but that's it, the experience is mostly a grunt shooting gallery, which is fine. The ending is pretty abrupt, not even a sequel hook or anything, just a simple ending that comes out of nowhere.
This is also one of the mods I've tinkered a bit to get more enjoyment out of it. Normally it uses Spirit of Half-Life, which is fine, but it's barely utilized here. All it does is making three barneys enemies to the player and placing a couple of dead labcoatless scientists to a room. Since the code change and the new dll makes the game ignore improvements made on the Steam version (the biggest issue being the slow turning enemies on high FPS) I've simply replaced the Spirit with regular HL. High FPS, quick enemies and all I lost were the aforementioned enemy barneys and dead scientists. I suggest you to do the same. The player will start without a suit without Spirit, which I've manually added at the start, but others can simply use console commands to get it without headaches.
Overall, just like all of demalition's mods and mappacks this is an average experience that's overhated for no reason. Get rid of the Spirit, get in, shoot some grunts and aliens and get out. Simple, fun experience for one sitting, just nothing groundbreaking.
This mod sets a golden standard for racist, offensive humor.
good but too much things, not enough fun
The cheating AI ruined it. Btw, how the hell could Joey ever get the whole Exodia set? And spam-use it all the time? Lame! So lame!This game have potential to be amazing but so far... never achieved it.
An amazing idea but the game is not good! Too many flaws. The game AI is weird and even kinda stupid. The gameplay is boring and repetitive and goes nowhere! Lot's of useless items and actions that means nothing. There would be a lot of room for improvement here but the dumb idea of those fences ruins this whole setup for good. Looks promising... it's not! Sadly, i still like this game.
This forgotten mappack can be described with one word, and that word is "ambitious." This isn't the usual disaster scenario, we're in a spaceship that discovers an abandoned escape pod floating in space, which holds parasites (headcrabs) that control their hosts. Unlike regular headcrabs however, these "madcrabs" don't stick to the head, but do something of a mind-control instead. So when our friendly ship security inspects the pod, they don't turn into shambling zombies but become regular enemy soldiers instead.
The ambition doesn't come from the premise or the setting but from the ideas instead. You have an AI guiding you via text, very cool scripted sequences and scenes, multiple endings and so on. The problem is, while the ideas are there - they almost always lack polish.
For example, a spaceship is a cool location right? It would be, but the layout is designed in a way that there's nothing interesting going on, it's nothing but corridors. 75% of this mod will be running through corridors, which you can't even use the wall-slide trick because of the curves :) The AI (which is named Skynet by the way) is nothing but text on the screen, the difference between the multiple endings is three sentences and so on. These ideas could have been handled better.
So, how's the gameplay? We're fighting with grunts and headcrabs but their health have been increased quite a bit. Have you ever seen grunts that die with three crossbows bolts on Normal? Well, get ready. It's not as bad as it's sounds though, you always have plenty of ammo for the enemies. The mapping is okay, if we ignore the boring corridors of the ship, there are some minimalistic but cool sections like the circular AI room, the cargo hold and a room with a massive cube in it. There are also some amusing scripted sequences like, disabling zero gravity and floating up with the objects around you, or opening up a spacedoor that sucks grunts and crabs trying to run the opposite direction to outer space, which then you get to experience :)
Overall, this could have been a more memorable mod with a little bit more polish and streamlining. It's still not a bad experience however and doesn't deserve being hidded away and forgotten like this.
The mod is not bad, it’s just that the mapping doesn’t look particularly expressive, as if it were from the early-mid 2000s, as if it reminded me of the maps for Sven Co-op in 2003-2008, but people it was 2016. And this mod was released at the end of 2016, it just essentially plays like maps from the early to mid 2000s.
In general, the mapping is really simple and angular and even square.
For me, this is considered a bad aspect of this mod that the maps are too simple compared to the maps for Sven Co-op from 2003-2008.
I say again that this mod was released in 2016, I’m just now tired of these cards with a simple level design.
That is, in essence, it plays like a simple mod and nothing special after that.
Positives:
- Creativity, like using entities in different ways than their intended purpose and make it look good
- Well crafted visual design in more or less every level, with only minor flaws
- Good monster encounters, when they worked properly
- Some thought put into balancing. The boss at the end dealt less damage than other monsters so you actually had a chance to beat it
- Composing your own music for the mod is a great feature and shows passion
Negatives:
- Some lamps light up very little, while moonlight lights up entire rooms with light rays. I do not understand why so many modders think moonlight work this way. It doesn't
- Story is another cliché "portal to another dimension" amnesia plot. It lacks character development so it's not easy to care about the missing wife, either
- Odd puzzle design. Like, the big gap in the floor in the servant's quarters. The solution is literally right next to the obstacle... so why even bother? When creating the acid, the note mentions "liquid salt base", but further down the note it's called "red substance". Why the inconsistency? I also had to find a bone inside the Mausoleum, but I went to find the poison gland first and found a pile of human bones right next to the old building with the poison gland inside. Why could I not pick up a bone there? Why does it have to be a specific bone inside a specific place?
- Some puzzles lack hints and are not easy to figure out. Like putting a candle next to a door to unlock it
- Boss at the end got stuck easily. On one occasion, a monster stopped moving and never moved again after hearing me once, an issue I've seen with some other custom monsters
- Almost nothing can be interacted with for some reason and the few times you can interact with something it's typically things like boxes you forgot to check "static" on, so when you move it you have a candle floating in the air. Classic beginner mistake. There are a massive amount of invisible walls everywhere too. It's okay to let players **** up and take fall damage if they choose to take the risk, you know. Some puzzles, like the candle door puzzle, would softlock players out, but you could code in some death animation from taking too much fall damage there if players fall down
- The soundtracks aren't bad per say, but some of them are used too often. One of them in particular is only 3-7 seconds long and loops over and over again. It gets annoying quickly
Minor things:
- Tinderboxes are pointless. This is the case in most mods including my own I made back in the day, but here it was even worse because the few times tinderboxes could actually be useful, the candles could not be lit
- I don't expect good voice acting for mods. My old mods are quite bad when it comes to voice acting too. However, if you want a character to speak English, try casting a native English speaker if possible. The Swedish accent makes it cringe at times
- Grammar wasn't terrible, but I would ask someone else to proofread your mod in the future as they missed some obvious issues, like using the wrong form of "its" for example
Conclusion:
The environment design looks great from a visual standpoint. There were minor issues with it, like some copy pasted bookshelves that made it look lazy, and of course the moonlight that makes no sense, but overall it was very well done.
I think this is another case of a passionate modder lacking experience with game design and as a result we have a mediocre plot and puzzles that leaves a lot to be desired. While overall I think it's an okay mod, I have to commend the massive amount of time (probably) you put into the levels. You even got yourself a music composer and other people to help you out with this. That to me shows dedication and is definitely a plus.
6/10 - Decent
Very cool concept from a very promising developer. I like that the G-Man cutscenes gave context to all the combine blasting. Very cool end boss fight also.
I think the mod just needed varied gameplay to support the gunfights, and in future I would also suggest adding an element of verticality to combat spaces to keep things interesting.
Overall very cool, looking forward to seeing what you do next!
Add option change installation location, It's targetting my mod while the original are in different partition. Please fix it, it's good tho.
The mod is ok most of the times but theres a lot of bugs and some of the new enemy ai is bad.
Oh and some of the weapons are broken
I will give 6 because it need open jk...if you manage to adapt without it or make open jk as option aside...i can review correctly.
yo why is bro so H U G E
Dude that is an insanely dangerous shooting range setup. Like this guy is doing jumping jacks 5 feet away from the bullet path.
So I think the armory glitched. I wasn't able to get any weapons so I started the mission empty-handed. I know that's classic stuff for most Half-Life mods, but not if you're sending me through bootcamp first and dropping me off in an Osprey. Unarmed? Really? I had to scavenge a pistol from a security guard. Sheesh.
Scripting is good, but the timing is off. If you had just waited another 4-5 seconds before starting the "Who is this Freeman guy?" convo, it would've been perfect. Felt forced and blurty, plus the ending didn't even sync up with the elevator.
I am so unprepared for this! What kind of soldier enters an active warzone without any weapons?!
The plot just isn't doing it for me. Way too much exposition. Walls of text. Makes this feel like a fetch quest. And the way those black ops thank me by immediately sprinting back to the safety of their little hidey hole.
Combat was basically non-existent since it was advantageous to just let your squad do all the work because you HAVE NO AMMO.
Didn't even get to see the Osprey pick me up? It's very short, but still somehow feels rushed. Like the author had much grander plans for a longer story mod and just kinda gave up after the intro. Spent more time in boot camp than the actual mission.
Bootleg Squadrog kept my attention, but that's about all it did. Starting to wonder if it's bugged from the 25th anniversary update or possibly steampipe back in the day. Or maybe it's just buggy.