100 Half-Life 1 Mods: page 7

Moonwalker

Moonwalker takes place in 2090 on the interplanetary space vessel with the same name. You play a researcher named Gordon Freeman, who is more a janitor than a scientist, if you would judge him by his tasks :). Your first mission is to reactivate the generators of one of the sections. After you complete it, you get a message that a crack has appeared in one of the portals. This leads to emergency evacuation of all personnel. Will you be able to escape? The story is revealed to you through messages on screens and through intermediate sequences, and in my opinion, it has more holes than Swiss cheese :).

Maps represent a very mixed experience. The architecture of the majority is satisfactory, but it could contain more details. Despite custom textures and special effects, it would be difficult to say that the visuals are above average. Then we have a tiny amount of rooms, which in my opinion are perfectly illuminated, have great selection of textures, and they also stand out as far as details are concerned. The last part is represented by visually appealing, but boring labyrinths of corridors that give the game a sense of incompleteness. The puzzles are quite diverse and include jumping challenges, finding cards, pressing buttons, backtracking, and there are also some traps you will need to avoid.

Your path to the end will be obstructed by varied Xen opponents, as well as soldiers and female assassins, which have the help of machineguns. Their numbers are generally small, so you should not have any major problem, even on Hard difficulty. Ammunition for a limited set of modified weapons is a ample for the mentioned difficulty, and there are also a lot of batteries and medical packages available. However, there are exceptions. There are quite a few brutal jumps in difficulty, which will make you reload more than you would wish. The last quarter is pure disappointment as far as the action is concerned, and I was also disappointed with the ending. I needed about 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete the modification.

Night at the Office

Night at the Office takes place at the Parcel Packages corporate building, where our hero got employed recently (play Hazard Course for introduction!). One late afternoon, when the building is almost empty, well-organized assailants break into the premises, and begin their ascent to the top of the skyscraper, taking hostages during the way. The story is full of clichés, and it somehow resembles the movie Die Hard, but I kind of liked it. You uncover it through conversations with NPCs and by eavesdropping on attackers. Too bad that the recorded speech is not of better quality ...

The game is limited to the tower, which has sixteen floors, all connected to the central staircase. You can almost freely move between the floors, as you are only limited by obstacles, locked doors and, of course, armed opponents. Therefore the game is exceptionally non-linear, but this also can cause numerous scripting bugs, so save often. The floors have different purposes, but they could be easily cut in half, as there is simply too much empty space in them. The simplicity of the maps is improved by the good choice of textures, however, the game does not impress visually. Puzzles consist of searching for access cards, some vent crawling and breaking items, but that is basically it.

The attackers consist exclusively of opponents with machine guns, which are not very well placed, but they patrol the floors. Since your health is non-renewable, you will sometimes need to sneak past patrols, at least until you get the first weapon - the axe. With it, you can sneak up on one of your opponents and get the valuable machine gun. You can still pick up a shotgun and a pistol later, but to be honest, they're pretty much superfluous. None of the weapons has a crosshair (use patch in mod folder if you wan't it), and when changing the clip, you will discard any remaining bullets that are still in it, so be careful. Interestingly, killed opponents drop a random amount of ammo. Due to the absence of health kits, it doesn't really matter at which difficulty you are playing, as you will be regularly reloading anyway. I needed about 1 hour to complete the mod.

Nuclear Winter

Nuclear Winter takes place 7 years after world wide conflict in which the united communist and Muslim forces conquered all of Asia and Europe. In 2017 this alliance successfully executed a nuclear attack on North America by using advanced cloaking technology, which was later followed by an invasion with land forces. Although North America was severely devastated in the attack, they managed to organize an armed resistance and hold off the advancing enemy. In the modification, you play a corporal named Adrian Shepherd who takes part in the resistance. The story is full of clichés, but I kind of liked it. You discover it through video sequences, conversations with NPCs, and through the activation of radio stations. Given the seriousness of the situation, the custom speech should have been less humorous, but the voice from radio stations was executed perfectly!

The levels are fairly diverse and consist of external (canyons, dam, city streets, railway, etc.) and internal areas (hydroelectric power station, military base, tower, zoo, etc.). The maps are architecturally good, with some having very nice lighting and color schemes, but in general they could contain more details and more alternate routes to break up the linearity. Unfortunately, some sections are almost completely dark, which will cause you several problems during your advancement, because the built-in night vision is useless for longer distances, and you do not have the flashlight. Links between thematic parts are otherwise quite good and give the player the feeling of a homogeneous experience. To advance, you will often have to solve creative puzzles, break parts of a map, dive, drive trains, climb ropes, and so on. Some challenges also have to be performed under time pressure, which will surely be a frustrating experience for a lot of players.

As already hinted in the story, most of your opponents will be of human origin. Most of them are special forces armed with machine guns, and a few are snipers and female assassins. Their ranks will be strengthened by heavy machinery, among which you can find machineguns, tanks and helicopters. The selection of opponents does not end here, as the author successfully integrated victims of nuclear radiation. Unlucky humans have thus become zombies, and animals from the zoo have been mutated into all kinds of monsters from Xen (LOL :). Enemy positioning is great, and they are also pretty numerous, including the start. Although the difficulty is mostly high, the game has some tremendous difficulty spikes that are annoying.

The weapon set is very diverse and includes weaponry from the Opposing Force expansion, but unfortunately, the ammunition is pretty strangely distributed. Shotgun shells are practically non-existent, while the sniper rifle, crossbow and M249 have tons of ammunition. With the exception of the aforementioned jumps in difficulty, you should not have much problems finishing the game on Medium difficulty, because the supply of medkits and batteries is pretty well calibrated. Occasionally you will also be assisted by a team of fellow fighters, with the medic being a priceless addition. I reached the end of the mod in about 2 hours of play time.

Operation Black Thunder

In Operation Black Thunder, you play a commando named Roger McAllen, who works for NASF. Your task is to restore control of the rocket launching ramp seized by the terrorist organization WOLF. Before infiltration, you will have to fight yourself to the vincinity of the launch site and destroy tactical targets, but the task will not be easy, as the opponent is well organized and armed. Your objectives are given gradually, and appear in a small window. In the latter you will sometimes also see tips, which, however, I found unnecessary. The game has a very unusual keyboard layout, which can only be overwritten at the filesystem level (download the patch).

As far as the mapping is concerned, the authors deserve all praise. The architecture is very good, full of details, side paths and hidden ways forward. During gameplay, certain parts of the levels get transformed, and you will often need to go back through the newly unlocked door or the newly created gateway. You will be wandering around in military complexes as well as in rocky canyons. In both cases, the authors have taken care of a lot of interesting puzzles and jumping challenges.

With rare exceptions, opponents are very well placed and comprise of a whole spectrum of soldiers. There are also many mechanical hazards which come mostly from the very destructive machinegun nests, but there are also plenty of tanks, snipers and rocket launchers. Often you will have to think about the situation before charging the enemies or you will face quick death. The vertical multi-layered level design makes the game pretty hard, but hiding spots are also well taken care of.

The arsenal is extremely varied and has some novel weapons. Among these you can find several types of machine guns and also knives that you can throw, too bad that the weapon slots are not standard. During the game there are quite a few moments in which you lose your weapons, but fear not, you will regain them all. Ammunition is too abundant, but the exact opposite goes for healing packages and shields. Since opponents are extremely effective, your health and shield will be always very low even on the Easy difficulty.

Because it is a total conversion of Half-Life, the game contains new models (which are really well animated), new sounds and also background music. The visual wow comes not only from the good layout of the elements, but also due to the very good lightning scheme and scripted events that contribute significantly to a good atmosphere. To complete this mod, I needed about 3 hours and a half.

Operation: Nova

In Operation: Nova, you play as a cleaner named John Skinner, who works at Black Mesa. You start the day as usual by cleaning a chemical spill, dressed in your H.E.V. suit for safety reasons. Your task quickly turns into a nightmare when the incident in the original Half-Life game occurs and Xen aliens flood the complex. You and your colleague are hiding in the toilets to stay safe until the situation resolves, but then the army storms in, and they are allergic to anyone with the H.E.V. suit. The story is quite interesting, and you discover gradually through conversations with NPCs who have nicely recorded custom speech. I also liked that the story occasionally relates to events from the original.

The levels consist of a mixture of external and internal maps, with the latter being more abundant. The maps have a good architecture with enough detail, and the impression is sometimes improved by a good choice of colors and illumination. Your way to the end is almost completely linear, but the game features many backtracking moments. As the areas are changed when you return (they are transformed or occupied by opponents), the experience is all but boring and I liked it very much. Puzzles are certainly one of the key features of this modification, as they are not only diverse, but they contain also some extremely original ones in the set. This way, you will often have to intensely think about the situation, but fear not, in the toughest of riddles, the game also gives you tips, so pay attention to texts displayed on screen and listen to NPCs.

The enemy types contain a varied mixture of Xenian and human opponents, and everything is spiced up with machine guns and aircraft. Fights are pretty demanding, due to both good opponents' positioning and scripted events. Because there are a lot of goodies and ammunition, I recommend playing on Hard for ultimate fun (and prolonged playing). The weapon selection is very limited. You get the crowbar, pistols and guns, but explosives or more exotic weapons are nowhere to be found. You can also exploit guards to help you with their guns, and you can also mount a static machine gun. It's a pity that the experience is so short. To finish the mod, I only spent around 45 minutes playing it ...

P.I.Z.D.E.C.

I did not discover what exactly the acronym P.I.Z.D.E.C. means, but the vulgar abbreviation will certainly be understandable to most of the Slavic speakers, even if they do not know Russian. The game takes place in Black Mesa in a timeline that is parallel to the one in the original. You play one of the scientists who should be Gordon Freeman judging by how NPCs address you, but on the other hand, Gordon can be seen in the initial section having a conversation with G-Man. Anyway, after a fairly long (and really boring) run through the corridors, numerous riding with lifts and painful waiting for security guards to move their behinds, an incident occurs in which you lose consciousness. When you wake up, laboratories are flooded with enemies, and the only way to survive is to get to the surface.

The maps are exclusively internal and reminiscent of those from the original, but they are sufficiently adapted so that you do not have a feeling of playing the same thing over again. With the exception of a rather tedious introduction, I liked the visual appearance of the maps. Not only because of their pretty good geometry, the layout of the elements and the textures used, but also because of the parallel scripted events that give you the feeling that you are not alone in the complex. I also liked how parts of the maps are connected to each other, because you will frequently be visiting different areas of an section via alternate paths. Often, you will need to use the crowbar to pave your way, activate a terminal, find an access card, crawl through the ventilation, guide NPCs to doors, climb ladders, do crazy jumps, swim, etc. To sum up, I could say that diversity is certainly the trump card of this mod.

The fights are seemingly pushed into the background, because of all the things that you have to do, but the reality is different. At the appropriate difficulty (Hard), you will have quite a hard time fending off a varied mix of opponents consisting of Xen creatures, soldiers and female assassins. The fights are nice because of the good layout, ambushes, and scripted surprises, but an important factor is also abundance of enemies. Opponents will mostly attack you in pairs, so you will have to use a tactical approach to survive. Since the parts in which you need to protect the NPCs are especially critical to your success, I advise you to always have at least one explosive charge in reserve. The weapon set is very modest, and consists only of the crowbar, pistol, revolver, machine gun and the shotgun, but on the other hand the ammunition is plentiful. The game also provides you with a lot of healing packages and batteries, and in critical moments you can also use scientists as health reserves. On the toughest difficulty, I beat the modification in about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Paranoia

Paranoia is a total conversion for Half-Life, in which you play a major of the Russian special forces - Spetsnatz. The story begins with the terrorists attack on the industrial complex Udarnik, located somewhere in Siberia. Together with your comrades, you get the task of eliminating terrorists and protecting civilians. Once inside the Udarnik complex, it is revealed that the real goal of the attackers was something else - the KROT bunkers which are surrounded with a dark past. The story was pretty interesting to me and will remind many of the excellent S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: SoC. You reveal the story during playing, and additional information can be read from notes.

The gameplay happens mostly within old Soviet warehouses and bunkers, which are full of tunnels and corridors. Maps are architecturally exceptional, with great detail, sophisticated illumination and extremely sharp textures. Occasionally they are so good that they almost catch up to similar themed older AAA games. It's a shame only that some parts of the sections repeat, so I frequently asked myself during the play: "Um, didn't I see that already?" Progress through the stages is mostly linear, here and there are some side routes or secrets. There are barely any puzzles.

During the first part of the game you will be attacked by terrorists, which are mostly very well positioned. They often hide behind cover, but if you do the same, they quickly toss a grenade at your position. In the second part, the game concentrates on all kinds of mutants, but since they mostly have only melee attacks, they are not really a big threat. There are almost no situations in which you would be greatly endangered, because the number of opponents is very modest. I was very happy to see that you are often accompanied by two NPC comrades, which cover your back and open doors for you.

You will be armed with a series of pistols and machine guns to deal with the enemies, and you can also use a knife and a shotgun for close combat. Grenades and rockets are also available if you require blowing things up. Some weapons have iron sights look which can be turned on with right click, others have binoculars attached to the same key. You use an armor with a built-in visor to protect you from headshots, but it limits the field of vision. A gas mask is also available, but you need to use it only a few times. The ammo is plentiful, and the same applies to static and transferable healing packages, so I recommend that you play on Hard.

The main trump card of Paranoia is not a remarkable look*, but a great atmosphere. While playing, you are constantly in contact with other fighters through the intercom, which is extremely well executed. Ambient music and sounds deep in the abandoned tunnels create such a tense atmosphere that they could be used in horror movies. It's a pity that the tension is almost completely wiped out with an unwise choice of combat music. The latter is perfect in itself, but it breaks the anxiety that the game can build so well. I needed about 2 hours to complete the mod.

* From the sdk folder, you will need to copy the opengl32.dll file into the Half-Life root folder. You will then need to set the file to Read-only mode, disconnect from the Internet, and restart Steam. When you want to play online, you need to delete the opengl32.dll file from the root folder, otherwise you might get a VAC Ban!

Peaces Like Us

Peaces Like Us takes place in an alternative universe, in which people and beings from Xen live in harmony. You play Gordon Freeman, who is employed at a research station set up on a floating island somewhere in Xen. The story begins when the station is suddenly attacked by military forces, lead by none other than the mysterious G-Man.

The map design could be divided into three parts. In the first, and largest, the classical lab architecture is very well intertwined with the Xen elements and it's also detailed enough. This part is very diverse and contains imaginative (and also frustrating) jumping challenges, alternative routes, a lot of secrets and surprises, and everything is rounded up pretty well by challenging combat against soldiers and assassins. You can bypass certain challenges with the help of your Xen friends, which is a really nice idea, I wish there was more of this. The second is a distorted alternative universe, in which the Xen creatures are suddenly enemies. The battles are pretty tough, and there is barely enough of healing packages available on Medium. Puzzles are mostly consisting of annoying jumping challenges, some of them can be solved by using knowledge gained in a short Hazard Course (target ;). The last part is just Xen jumping challenges.

The appearance of the mod is pretty nice, but it doesn't bring any new weapons, opponents or textures to the table. Interestingly, the HUD was changed in the way that numbers have become something that looks like Chinese characters. To solve the problem, rename the sprites/640hud7.spr file into e.g. sprites/640hud7.spx. I was very fond of scripted events that take place independently of your location and enrich the gaming experience. I also liked the background music which was also included in suitable places. I needed about 1 hour and a half to complete the mod.

Point of View

In Point of View you are playing a Alien Slave extraterrestrial called Xonxt. The story begins at Xen with the invasion of humans, which steal a special high-tech biological weapon called Xen Techno Biologic Sphere or XTBS. It's a floating ball that has a built-in electric attack, and it's obviously quite important to Nihilanth, as Xonxt is trying to get it back no matter what. The story is quite interesting and is narrated through thought bubbles (look at the controls), which are revealed gradually when traveling through Xen and Black Mesa. It was very commendable to me that the authors tried to explain many of the aspects of the original Half-Life in the texts, and in my opinion, they did it well.

Levels are well-made and intertwined with the original game, its expansions and Azure Sheep. It is very interesting that there are various items in the maps which Xonxt cannot pick up, but it gives the illusion that they are being used by NPCs. Xonxt is not just another dumb monster on a human killing spree, because it is able to flip switches, solve puzzles, climb ladders and crawl through ventilation shafts. The enemies are diverse and include both biological and mechanical opponents. In addition to soldiers who are armed with various firearms - including deadly miniguns, your will be challenged by machine guns, tanks and helicopters. It's a shame that the difficulty fluctuates too much, I would prefer for it to gradually increase.

Your primary weapon are the claws, which of course are only useful from close range, and an electric shock that you can charge and trigger by holding right mouse button. The trigger must be performed in a timely manner, otherwise the charge is canceled. The electroshock doesn't only damage enemies (aim in the head for greater effect), but it also heals you. During play, you will be able to collect other biological weapons from the original Half-Life and Azure Sheep, which in some cases are life savers, because the electroshock is not omnipotent.

As far as the visuals is concerned, the the biggest change is the HUD without the crosshair so some training will be needed. The game also includes custom models and sounds that we already know from Azure Sheep. Occasionally music plays in the background. To finish the story, I used around 3 hours on the Medium difficulty.

Poke646

Poke646 is a government organization founded to cover up incidents similar to the disaster in Black Mesa. When scientists intercept signals that the creatures from Xen are once again trying to attack the Earth, they try to close all portals with the help of four giant generators. The plan fails, because the teams have to leave early, and by coincidence, our hero is left back alone in a city full of aliens. You play Damien Reeves, who needs to fight himself trough to the generators and activate them to prevent a new disaster. You discover the interesting story during gameplay by reading your superiors' computer messages.

The design of the levels is exceptional, not only because of the many details, but also because of the different paths to the goal. Your playing time will be split between the streets of Nation City, the sewage, the interior of the buildings, and also a tiny bit of Xen. Routes are often not obvious, so you will have to pay attention to the surroundings. There are some locked doors that you can only open with found keys or by reading security codes. Sometimes you will need to solve a combination of puzzles to advance, and there are also jumping challenges and time-limited trials - none of them are frustrating.

Opponents include a wide range of aliens from Xen, which are later joined by soldiers and machineguns. The placement of them is very good and will provide very intense fights, which are pretty fair. There are also some surprises that are triggered by certain events.

You can confront the enemies with the help of custom weapons, which include two nailguns, a shotgun, a crossbow and a biological acid spitter that is fed with chocolates. Also interesting are explosives that are triggered by your multifunctional clock. You can familiarize with them in the Hazard Course. The ammunition is well taken care of, and the same applies to healing packages. There are no shields.

The visuals of the mod are exceptional due to high quality mapping, lighting, sharp textures and new models. Sounds, custom music, and scripted events also contribute to a good atmosphere. To complete the game I needed around 3 hours on the Medium difficulty.