100 Half-Life 1 Mods: page 7

Vengeance

Vengeance takes place a few weeks after the events from the original game, when our hero, Gordon Freeman, has already recovered. G-Man wants you to visit a complex called Mipping Tax, which was built to observe the prisoners from Xen. Unfortunately, a renegade group of soldiers has infiltrated the laboratories. They want the experiments to be stopped immediately, and they already managed to take over the entire western part of the complex. Your task is to get instructions from Mr Johnson on how to proceed, but you can not find him anywhere when you arrive. The story is full of clichés and contains quite a few illogicalities. You uncover it through video sequences and text that you can read on the screen.

The map set contains both internal and external areas, in which you can find some side paths with goodies, and also some non-linear areas. Maps have generally very simple geometry with plenty of flat surfaces, also, very low ceilings stand out a lot. On the other hand, they are densely populated with NPCs, they contain plenty of static elements, and in some cases, they also have a nice color scheme. The unconvincing visual impression is also slightly corrected by scripted events and video sequences. The puzzles are practically non-existent, as you have to only push a button here or there, or do a jump challenge. Among them, there are also some bizarre things: e.g. the door does not open until you pick up the pistol ...

In the first three quarters of the mod, the gameplay is mostly passive, as opponents are very rare, but the situation in the last quarter improves a lot. In it, the number of opponents increases sharply, with more powerful beings from Xen and even a helicopter added to the mix. Even a very poor selection of weapons from the first part gets expanded so that you can successfully cope with new dangers. The amount of bullets is hardly enough, on the Medium difficulty, but the amount of healing packages and batteries is the complete opposite, as their amounts are just right. I managed to finish the game in about 1 hour.

Let me just mention that you get the H.E.V. suit after the train ride, so do not bother too much to get it right from the beginning ;).

ETC 2

ETC 2 or Earthquake Test Centre 2 is a direct sequel to the predecessor. In the former, you tried to save yourself by using a teleporter, but unfortunately, you fell right into the hands of the military forces. ETC 2 starts a few days after your capture. The creatures from Xen attack the military base in which you are imprisoned, and thus provide you with a opportunity to escape. The scarce amounts of story are uncovered to you during your progress, with the help of quite humorous conversations with the NPCs.

The design of the maps was already nice in the previous mod, and in the sequel it has extensively improved in practically all areas, making it almost perfect. The quality of design has thus become outstanding, and the same applies to complexity of the levels. The maps are far more colorful (also because of the nice selection of lightning), they contain much more detail, and they are often transformed through excellent scripting events, making your progress possible again. Because of alternative paths and many secrets, the levels give you an incredible feeling of non-linearity, which will be loved by all who love to explore. Your path will take you through very well-connected internal and external maps, and even a tiny amount of Xen. The puzzles were also considerably upgraded, as they include jumping challenges, diving, creeping through the ventilation, riding trains, door unlocking, search for hidden paths, level destruction and other things.

The set of enemies is far more varied compared to the predecessor, as you will fight against almost all enemies, known from the original Half-Life 1. You will be confronted by soldiers and female assassins, various Xen monsters, and you should also prepare for encounters with numerous machine guns and even a tank. Opponent positioning and their numbers are very good, and there are also some surprises, so you will have use tactical approach in fights. Your battles will be fought with a very wide array of weapons, from which only futuristic ones are absent. The amount of bullets is well balanced. Health kits and batteries are numerous enough to play on Medium, but more experienced players who like to explore, should play on Hard difficulty for more fun. It's only a shame that the game is relatively short, since I barely managed to accumulate a hour and a half of playing time.

Case Closed

In Case Closed, you play a janitor named Bob Dewey, who works at the Black Mesa facility. What seems like a normal working day quickly turns into a nightmare when Black Mesa is flooded by aliens from Xen. When you finally wake up after the elevator crash, your survival instinct is activated. You want to get to the surface as soon as possible, but the task will not be easy.

The maps are architecturally satisfactory, but they could contain more details here and there. The most problematic areas are certainly boring corridors with concrete texture. The mod contains both internal and external maps, amongst which I really liked the levels with a hybrid of Xen and laboratories. With the exception of events tied to switches, there seem to be no puzzles in the game, which is unfortunate. Some events that are triggered with switches are rather logical, others seem to be pretty random. Several times you need to destroy parts of the levels to progress, which is pretty well done. I also liked the many scripted events. The course of the game is almost completely linear, except for some side paths which contain goodies.

The opponents mostly consist from all kinds of military forces, but there are also a lot of different Xen monsters. Excellent placement of enemies and various sneaky surprises will give you a lot to do during your advancement, so there are barely any opportunities to catch breath. Opponents almost always appear in pairs, so you will have to use a tactical approach, especially if traps are around. In some places, you will also encounter fights between different factions that you can take advantage of. The weapon selection is standard, but it contains only human weapons. Ammunition and medkits are abundant enough for Medium difficulty, but on Hard you will need some skills to get through.

It's only a pity that the game is so short. To get to the ending (which made a strong impression on me), I only needed 1 hour of play time.

Todesangst 1

In the Todesangst intro, we discover that the mysterious G-Man is in fact subordinate to dr. Jack Newell, which is the head of the Black Mesa research and development department. After Freeman finishes off Nihilanth and Xen is seized by humans, dr. Newell wants to use the surviving creatures for his own evil purposes, but does not want to have any witnesses. The first victim of Newell's madness is G-Man himself, with our hero Gordon Freeman being next on the list. Soldiers try to finish off Gordon with the help of Headcrabs, but Gordon is tough and finishes off the monsters with his trusty crowbar. Now it's time for revenge. The story is full of cliches, but it is an interesting attempt to explain what happened after Gordon's return from Xen.

The maps are quite diverse and represent a mixture of the styles already seen in the original. You will be roaming through the corridors, crawling in the vents, try to beat jumping challenges, swimming, activating various machines, driving with trains, etc. There are also some nice traps. The design is solid, but some parts could be more detailed and consequently more memorable. Some paths on the way to the end are well hidden, but be careful when exploring, as you can get stuck in at least two places in the mod.

You will be attacked by a very limited set of enemies from the original, which are relatively well placed. The enemy lines mostly consist of soldiers, the Xen monsters are scarce and not a big threat until the end. Your arsenal is pretty limited, but there is more than enough ammo for the Medium difficulty. The amount of medkits and batteries on the other hand are just right. Occasionally, you will be able to finish off enemies with a stationary machine gun or cannon. You will also need to use them to pave your way through certain obstacles.

The visuals of the mod do not stand out, as it does not offer anything new except some new models. The key feature of the modification are certainly numerous good scripting events that greatly enrich the gameplay. In addition to them, very nice video sequences enable you to track the story which happens in parallel. In some places, background music is used, and some NPCs use custom speech. Unfortunately, the end of the game is so-so and after approximately a hour of gameplay doesn't offer a satisfactory conclusion.

U-Life

U-Life is a hybrid created by the transfer of some visual features and mechanics from the legendary Unreal, while still being Half-Life in the core. The levels consist of internal maps and have a typical Unreal touch, which is not evident only because of the use of very sharp textures from the game, but also because of general architecture and color scheme. Although the complexity of the maps could be better, the visual impression is very good, and is additionally enriched by special effects and scripted events. Maps contain quite a few alternative routes, which contribute to the impression of non-linearity, and some also have secrets with goodies. The puzzles are quite rare. Most of the time, you will need to activate a certain mechanism (door, lift), which works by hitting the area with your body.

The enemy selection is (somewhat surprisingly) copied directly from Half-Life itself, and consists of both Xenian creatures and human opponents. The placement and the abundance of the enemies are satisfactory, and there are also some ambushes - too bad that the opponents appear pretty late in the game (after the first fifth). The fights between the various factions make the gameplay more diverse and also save you some ammunition and health. The weapon set is quite modest, as it contains only a few weapons from the original, but it has to be said the ammunition is plentiful. Amounts of medkits and batteries are just right for the Medium difficulty, but careful players might also be able to complete it on Hard. The modification is not finished and ends without a warning immediately after an epic battle. It's also really short, as I barely accumulated 30 minutes of play time.

Times of Troubles

Times of Troubles takes place in an alternate timeline of the original Half-Life story. When you wanted to visit Xen via the Lambda Complex teleporter, you surprisingly landed in an unknown part of the Black Mesa complex. It seems that the scientist mixed up the coordinates. After a long time of unconsciousness, you wake up and find out that you have lost your H.E.V. suit as well as all of the weapons. The latter are gradually regained during gameplay, but the full selection is fairly modest, as there are no biological and futuristic weapons among them, as well as no crossbow, and explosives section contains only grenades. Nevertheless, the amount of ammunition is sufficient for Hard difficulty, and the same goes for healing packages and batteries.

The maps rely heavily on the designs from the original, which is not so unusual as the story happens in the same complex. Nevertheless, the author has differentiated the mod enough to make it stand out. The maps are excellent and contain a diverse and sophisticated architecture, which is complemented with good layout of elements, a suitable choice of textures and a well-chosen illumination. A great addition to the visual impression are numerous scripted events with combination of skillful editing of sounds and speech. Gameplay is very diverse and contains a mix of fighting and puzzles. You will fight against soldiers and various monsters from Xen, with the difficulty being pretty well calibrated, the only exception being a big difficulty jump at the end. The puzzles are quite interesting and include jumping challenges, searching for hidden paths forward, exploring, escorting NPCs, pushing buttons and switches, and also backtracking. Unfortunately, the mod has a big Achilles' heel in form of its length, which is only 45 minutes.

Hard

In Hard you play an agent named Jeffrey Hard, which is sent to Black Mesa disguised as Gordon Freeman to check why the facility stopped responding. Problems with the game appear immediately after the introductory sequence, as the truck does not want to drive backwards. The solution is to enter map hard1 into the console to skip the level. Fortunately, this jump will not cost you anything. Another problem are completely changed keys, so you need to reset them before playing.

The quality of the maps is extremely variable. Some of them are pretty good, with nice lighting and scripted events, others are cuboid holes without a single detail. Routes forward are often well hidden, not only through the switches / buttons that need to be pressed, but are also found in unclear places. Sometimes you will also need to go back to the already visited area, but prepare for hard fights. There are also some challenging jumping challenges present.

The game is hard and unjust, levels contain tons of soldiers, Xen monsters, machine guns, cannons, rockets, snipers and lasers. Threats are reinforced with nerve-breaking scripted events that can not be escaped unharmed. To frustrate the player further, several levels contain Snark nests with large amounts of these annoying creatures. There are no surprises about the weapons set, the amount of ammo is just right. Number of health packages and batteries is barely enough at the Easy difficulty, so I recommend frequent saving.

The appearance of the game does not impress, occasionally the music is turned on. To complete this mod, you will need about 2 hours and a half of gameplay, but this time can be extended considerably because of hidden paths.

Destination Black Mesa

In Destination Black Mesa, you play Gordon Freeman, who is instructed by G-Man to capture dr. Elia Vance. The latter is supposed to be located in the northern part of the Black Mesa, in which fierce battles between beings from Xen and human forces are still being fought 18 hours after the defeat of Nihilanth. In addition to the classical weak canon fodder, there is a bunch of Vortigaunt and Alien Slaves in the maps, which are very often involved in battles with all sorts of soldiers. Both of the types can suddenly appear in an area and surprise you: Xenians with teleportation, and soldiers abseiling from Ospreys or blowing up the doors. Fights can be quite good, as opponents often ambush you, and sometimes you will also have to run away as enemies can infinitely appear in an area. The threat is further increased by machineguns and helicopters. Your armament is very modest as far as the types of weapons are concerned, but there are many bullets and healing packages available, so that you can reach the ending at Medium difficulty without major frustrations. It will take you 1 hour and a half to do it. Unlike for other modifications, I advise playing Hazard Course only to the most persistent players, as it's brutally difficult.

Most maps are nicely designed in terms of architecture and excite with a bunch of details and good lighting. There are also some of them that leave only an average impression, but this is improved by numerous scripted events. The maps are well connected, and several times you will return to a certain area by another route and continue through a newly opened section. The puzzles are extremely diverse and interesting, and they contain a lot of skill challenges, pushing buttons, and sometimes you will also need to find a hidden way forward. Unfortunately, all of this has a few huge problems. The biggest one is that the modification relies on the original Half-Life too much. Thus, some sections are almost complete copies of original maps, but are slightly modified, and the same applies to puzzles. With a little more originality, it could be an extraordinary mod, but it gives too much of the »already seen« vibe, and I tried to reflect this on the rating summary. Another thing that bothered me, were forced explosions that can badly damage you, and paths with no return, which can fortunately be avoided by loading automatically saved games.

Blood Bath

In Blood Bath, you play an 18-year-old named Scott Day-La-Bell, which is awakened from his sleep by a strange sound. As 27 people disappeared in the last few weeks, you arm yourself with a gun and proceed to explore the apartment. Suddenly, you are blinded by an unusual flash of light which seems to put you to sleep. You wake up floating inside a tank, filled with an unknown fluid, and a few moments later, you are fighting for your life in an improvised arena. You can read the rest of the weird story (which seems to be a collage of the biggest B-movie cliches) in the Blood Bath.txt file.

The maps did not really impress me, because they look more or less quickly thrown together, there is plenty of empty space, and the details are very rare. Transitions between them are rather rough, so you do not really have the feeling that everything is going on inside a single complex. However, it must be acknowledged that the impression slightly improves because of the textures selection. Progression is mostly linear and contains fights as well as varied puzzles and jumping challenges. In order to move to the next level, you will have to fight hordes of enemies or bosses in arenas, perform clever jumps over motion detectors, turn off the alarm as soon as possible, push some boxes, be a successful swimmer, etc.

The enemies that stand out the most, are scientists with poisonous injections, which unfortunately have far too many health points and are therefore bullet sponges. I was not impressed by modified Vortigaunts, which lack the ranged attack, and the machineguns with built-in shotguns, which are really bad at hitting things. Your arsenal has also been affected by modifications, with somewhat mixed results. The thing I disliked the most, was the artificially forced delay for the next shot, which will surely also anger other players, which are accustomed to the usual behavior of weapons. Bullets and healing packages are plentiful enough for the Medium difficulty. At it, you'll complete the mod in about 45 minutes of play time.

USS Darkstar

USS Darkstar is a giant spacecraft intended for exploring the living creatures discovered during its journey through space. One day a expedition to a nearby planet returns to the vessel because one of the security guards has gotten ill. During his examination a Headcrab bursts from his chest, and causes the scientist to panic and activate a flame thrower. Due to unwisely positioned fuel containers, a powerful explosion is triggered which causes a series of technical problems on the vessel. During the chaos, prisoners from Xen escape from the cages, and take over the control of the spacecraft. The story is great and will surely be liked by fans of the Alien series.

Although the whole game takes place inside the spacecraft, the authors have nevertheless managed to create an extremely diverse experience. You will not only be limited to corridors and laboratories, but you will also ride with trains, be forced to overcome jumping challenges, jump in a zero gravity environment, and even get shrunk to a mouse size when the teleportation system fails. The maps are perfectly connected to each other, occasionally through alternative routes. There are a few places in which you have to go around the obstacle, and sometimes you will also need to backtrack. The paths forward are well hidden. There are some secrets with goodies and even bonus weapons, but there are also numerous traps.

During the game, you will be fighting exclusively against the Xen monsters which have flooded the vessel and also infected the computer system. The opponents are very well placed, and they can also surprise you behind your back. I was very fond of how the Xenians use human devices because this way they are not just cannon fodder, but show intelligence, which presents them as even more dangerous. Weapons are standard, and the amount of ammo and goodies is just right for you to enjoy the game on Medium. For experienced players I recommend Hard for the best challenge.

The game has no outstanding visual novelties, but with very detailed maps it still succeeds to create very good visuals. Its main trump card is certainly a phenomenal atmosphere, which it reaches not only with good ambient sounds, but also with fantastic scripted events. The latter make it feel like the ship lives and things happen in parallel with your advancement towards the end. To complete the modification, I spent about 2 hours and a half playing it.