100 Half-Life 1 Mods: page 8

Dav Sub

Dav Sub is a direct continuation of the Dav Train mod. In the latter, you managed to avoid G-Man's evil plan of erasing your memory by escaping with the Osprey air carrier. During your escape, an attack helicopter begins to track your aircraft and damages it critically. You survive the crash, but you are now stranded on enemy territory and will have to find an alternative mean of transportation that will allow you to escape.

The map design follows the recipe from the predecessor and upgrades it, offering a much more interesting gaming experience. Architecture is again good with quite a few details, but unfortunately, the maps still contain unrealistic long and curved corridors, which are somewhat claustrophobically narrow. There are a lot more side paths and alternative paths to the goal, which give the impression of nonlinearity. As in the predecessor, there are virtually no puzzles. There are quite a few occasions in which you will need to find a keycard to unlock a door. When you back track, maps can change, and new enemies appear. I thought the included flooded levels improve the experience, but they could be made much more interesting. I also liked numerous very well executed scripted events, which enrich the gameplay.

The way to your destination will again be hindered by combinations of soldiers, female assassins and various monsters from Xen. The positioning and abundance are again very good, with the cherry on the cake being hard fights inside the submarine. It's a pity that the pace of the action fluctuates too much. The weapon set is more diverse this time, but it is still limited to human ones. Ammunition and healing packages / batteries are numerous enough to play on Medium, but I do not recommend a higher difficulty due to the challenge inside the submarine.

The visuals of the game mostly do not stand out, but I liked that the background music was sometimes switched on. I spent about 1 hour and a half of gameplay to complete the game.

If the game crashes in the hlsub2 map, the solution is to find out in which direction you need to look to trigger a crash, and then simply don't look there at next reload :P.

Instinct

Instinct takes place immediately after Gordon Freeman (you) chose certain death. To his great fortune a defect occurred in the teleporter, and he got teleported straight back to Black Mesa. Unfortunately, things took a turn to the worse here. Due to Nihilanth's death, the remaining creatures from Xen migrated to Earth, the soldiers are still not planning to get out, and in about 12 hours the whole complex will be turned to dust. Will you be able to escape? You can read the whole interesting introduction in the Readme.txt file.

I liked the architecture of the maps because of the various details and loved the parts in which human and Xen elements mix as it's done very good. Parts of maps are perfectly connected, and can often be accessed by several alternative routes, which allow a tactical approach to solving the situation. Non-linearity is also enhanced by side paths and secrets which contain many goodies. There are no real puzzles in the game, but there are many jumping challenges, which later become even more entertaining because of the use of the long jump module.

During your path through Black Mesa you will encounter both Xenian opponents as well as soldiers. In the first group, practically all the monsters from the original are found. Most memorable are the Headcrabs, which are unfortunately too numerous, and negatively impact the experience. A wide range of army troops with machine guns and shotguns are complemented by static machineguns which are either automatic or controlled by humans. Opponent positioning is excellent and is responsible for very good fights, additionally, there are also some situations in which different factions are fighting for survival. Weapon set is a limited selection from the original, and the ammo for the firearms is ample. Often, you can also take advantage of explosive barrels, which are quite densely placed in the surroundings. The mod is more conservative in regards to medical packages and batteries, but you will probably have no problems completing it on Medium.

The visuals of the game raise mixed feelings. On the one hand, the maps are attractive because of good architecture and gameplay is enriched by  interesting scripted events, but on the other hand everything is simply too gray. However, it should be acknowledged that the colorful elements provide for excellent contrast in some areas. There is no background music, but I really liked the background sounds, which create a very good ambience. The end of the game is never triggered, since you can still play after killing Gonarch, even if there is nothing more to do. I spent about 1 hour to finish the mod.

Hidden Evil

The game takes place in an alternative timeline, which begins when Gordon Freeman is killed by Alien Grunts in Black Mesa. With the help of technology, you are resurrected. Additionally, scientists found alien DNA on your body and decided to create their own version of Alien Grunts from it. The creatures created in this way become your allies in the fight against terrorism, and they are also able to communicate with you (all fans of the Alien series will quickly recognize where the inspiration comes from). In one of the missions against terrorists you are captured, and thus need to escape and destroy the facilities that produce chemical weapons on your path to freedom. The tasks are given to you during gameplay, and you get additional ones from your extraterrestrial friends.

The set of levels consists of external and internal maps, which are quite diverse. The visual impression is satisfactory, mostly due to the use of variable textures, but it has to be mentioned, that they could be often placed much better. The details are relatively modest, and the same applies to architecture. The visual impression is slightly corrected by the numerous scripted events and some external maps, which I liked for some unknown reason. Playing takes place mostly in a linear way, but there are parts where you can finish your goals in any order. The set of gaming mechanics is fairly varied and introduces welcome gaps between the fights. In addition to activating switches, destroying machines, driving with trains, finding hidden paths forward and protecting the NPCs, you will have to undergo a number of skill challenges, often under time pressure. I spent a lot of time searching for goodies, especially for the H.E.V. suit, which is located at the very beginning of the game (in the second stage).

The opponent ranks consist of a small portion of mostly powerful creatures from Xen, who often get involved in spectacular battles with terrorists, and most of them will attack you on sight. Although Alien Grunts should be friendly, you will soon find out that you can't rely on this fact. There are also crazed Grunts among them, and this can not be detected until they attack you. The vast majority of the remaining opponents consist of all types of soldiers, which are armed to the teeth, and often have the support of machineguns, artillery, female assassins and even helicopters. Their numbers are very high in almost every map, and in some levels they will also continuously spawn out of the thin air (very disturbing), so some areas will look like slaughterhouses after brutal battles. There are a lot of ambushes, and soldiers are not afraid to throw grenades and launch explosives. Your arsenal is extremely varied and largely unchanged from the original, the absence of the crossbow zoom stands out the most. Although ammunition and healing packages / batteries are abundant, you will have a lot of problems at any difficulty above Easy, because it certainly looks like the game hates you. At this difficulty, I managed to finish the game in about 2 hours.

Idol Hunt

Idol Hunt takes place in the ruins of an ancient civilization, located somewhere in the South American Andes. In their experiments Black Mesa researchers discovered a mysterious energy signal coming from the ruins and sent a research team there to check it out. A few days after setting up the base, contact with the group was lost, and the administrator has appointed you, Gordon Freeman, to investigate what happened. The story is full of clichés, but I thought it was pretty interesting. I liked the fact that information about objects or events was displayed during my exploration. but it is a pity that this was not more abundant. In particular, I would like to find out why the ruins are full of aliens and what are the soldiers doing there.

The visual impression is appropriate for the age of the ruins and is nicely done. The things that contribute the most to the visuals are the use of high-quality textures, proper lighting and the elements themselves. There are also modern items lying in the levels, which were left behind by the research group during the exploration. Your journey will take you through temples, you will swim in the caves, climb the ladders and enjoy the fresh air. All this means a quite varied experience, but it's pretty much fully linear. Because of the setting, I expected some secrets or alternative secret passages, but I was very disappointed to not find anything. The game contains quite a few puzzles that involve activation of switches, search for objects as well as some jumping trials.

During your advancement through the ruins, you will be hindered by a pretty modest set of enemies. Among the beings of Xen, the most prominent are Headcrabs and Vortigaunts, the human forces are mostly represented by soldiers. Factions are constantly fighting, which can be used to save on health and / or ammunition. This avoidance is almost necessary, since the weaponry is very limited, and ammunition and goodies are fairly rare. There are also some surprises where enemies storm a place, but the most difficult situations are those in which you must hide from the Gargantua and at the same time solve puzzles. For these reasons, I advise you to play on Medium difficulty, at which you'll spend about 45 minutes to complete the mod.

Timeline 1

In the Timeline series, you play Gordon Freeman, who is enlisted by G-Man in order to resolve an incident caused by a renegade fraction of Marines. The latter use a time teleporter to travel to the past and help the German Reich win the Second World War. I recommend that you read the background of the story before starting the game (readme.txt), because it is not so well explained during the gameplay. But I must say that the idea seemed very good to me.

Maps are architecturally very basic, initial levels have barely any details, but the situation improves during gameplay, which is commendable. The various parts of the map are interconnected, and there are also some possibilities of non-linear approach. The paths forward are often well hidden, there are also some puzzles. Traveling through time means that you will see diverse venues in which ancient architecture is well intertwined with modern one. I would like to warn you that you should save regularly, as there are time limited surprised, also, one of the bugs I encountered was that an opened door closed itself permanently, because I did not enter through it quickly enough.

You will be mostly attacked by military grunts, which will be sometimes joined by assassins and machineguns. The monsters from Xen are scarce, and when you will be able to fight them, you will see that their set is limited. Fights can be difficult, because the enemies are plentiful and well-placed, also, in certain parts of the game there is a severe lack of medkits and batteries. Your arsenal consists of a limited array of weapons from the original Half-Life, but thankfully, you do not have to worry about ammunition, as there is tons of it - also explosive charges.

Visually, I was not impressed at the beginning, but my experience improved later on. There are several scripted events that contribute to a good atmosphere. I finished the game on the Medium difficulty in about 1 hour and 45 minutes .

Underground

Underground takes place after the events in the original. You play Gordon Freeman, who is sent to explore bunkers in the northern part of Black Mesa. During your visit, the deactivation of the safety system causes a serious error in one of the reactors, causing the destruction of certain parts of the complex. Your escape will not be easy, as the bunkers are full of Xen monsters, and the soldiers are also there to clean everything up. The enemy selection is very varied, as it involves virtually all opponents from the original. Additionally, you will also fight against machineguns, tanks and helicopters. The positioning of the opponents is good, and in some places excellent. Additional drama is caused by situations requiring rapid decision. During the game you will be gradually picking up all the weapons from the original. The ammo is enough for the Hard difficulty, and the same goes for healing packages and batteries.

The starting maps do not impress. The corridors and passageways are claustrophobically narrow, most of the rooms are tiny, and there is too much crawling in the vents full of Headcrabs. The visuals of the game are not bad, but the lightning is too dark. The situation improves considerably in the last third of the game, as most of the disadvantages of the previous sections are corrected. Maps are more complex and more open, possibly due to the inclusion of a long jump module. You will spend most of the play time inside, but there are also some outside areas, and a tiny Xen section. Although the game seems quite diverse, there are practically no puzzles. Due to the almost complete linearity of the levels, you won't need to think a lot how to advance. The thing that stands out are the jumping challenges at the end. I spent about 1 hour and 15 minutes of play time to complete the mod. Do not forget to play the very interesting Hazard Course, which also includes a fun mini-game.

Deliverance

Deliverance takes place after the events in the Half-Life: Uplink demo. By aligning the antennas you've contacted the outside world and found out that the government wants to mask the Black Mesa incident as a terrorist attack. You have also learned that the army has captured two of your colleagues and that they are forcing them to develop a super weapon based on the Black Mesa research. Your task is to infiltrate the complex and save those scientists.

Maps take inspiration from the original, but they are well-adapted so you do not feel like you are playing something already seen. Architecture is good, quite diverse and contains many details. The only exception are certain empty and boring corridors and stairs, which can ruin the good impression. The maps are well connected to each other, and you will often have to make a detour to get to the destination, and sometimes even back track. There are also some secrets where you can find goodies and secret weapons. Gameplay is quite diverse, because you must solve interesting puzzles and overcome some jumping challenges. The key part of the game is certainly accompanying two scientists to their rescue.

Most of the enemies come from all kinds of soldiers who often have the aid of machineguns, and at the beginning, even a tank and a helicopter. The Xen creatures are somewhat rare, and mostly involved in fights with soldiers. The most memorable types of Xen enemies are the Headcrabs, which will surprise you numerous times and, of course, the annoying Snarks. Opponent positioning is good, and there are also some sneaky surprises. The difficulty curve is not good in my opinion, because the overwhelmingly difficult game start is followed by a fairly easy middle, with tons of ammunition and health kits. Later, almost at the end, the difficulty increases slightly again. If you manage to get through the beginning, you'll definitely enjoy the game more on Hard than on Medium. Another minor problem with the game were the scientists, which were responsible for some frustrating moments. In some cases they can be left behind, but sometimes I had to become a human shield to absorb the damage, and this did not make me happy.

The visuals of the game do not stand out too much, but the scripted events are extremely well executed. If you overlook some rude surprises, you will definitely love them, as they greatly enrich the game and give the feeling that the complex lives and something is happening in it constantly. I also loved the modified speech. I needed around 1 hour and a half to complete the game, and completing both endings. The idea of the split is interesting, but I did not like the execution. The maps for the endings were taken from original, the difficulty difference was too big, and the harder of them was bad (sad).

Assault on Roswell

Assault on Roswell takes place in Roswell somewhere in the US. You are playing a British secret agent sent to the base to investigate the outbreak of a mysterious virus, which may even be of extraterrestrial origin. In order to increase the effectiveness of infiltration, our character is disguised as gorden (this is what the text says, lol :) and even undergoes plastic surgery.

The level design is one of the key weak points of this mod. The maps (especially at the beginning) consist of simple and almost empty rectangular boxes that are connected with long and boring corridors or shafts. In addition to the dull emptiness, the impression is made worse by the monotone textures on the walls, and design mistakes. Occasionally, you may get stuck without the possibility of a return, so save regularly. The quality of the created levels increases with the time, so the ending levels are pretty decent. The way forward is occasionally well hidden, but in many cases you will need to activate a switch somewhere and return a long way back - very annoying. Maps also contain secrets and traps.

On the way to the end you will encounter opponents already known from the original, which are well placed in some places and represent an interesting challenge, but in other cases the authors have exaggerated their numbers a bit. The weapon list has not undergone significant changes, but the way you get them differs from other modifications. You will have to find them in the level, otherwise you might have to do a long walk back. Ammunition and healing packages are just right, but they are found in unusual fragile objects such as, for example, boxes that look like explosive charges.

The appearance of the game progressively improves during play, but it is never pretty. The elements are mostly placed without some sense of aesthetics, the height and size ratios are wrong, everything is made very crude. Occasionally the music background is switched on, but the moments are not always appropriate. On the Medium difficulty, I finished the game in about 2 hours.

The Xeno Project 2

The Xeno Project 2 is a direct sequel to the precursor, in which you managed to escape the Xen base by using a rocket. Your journey through the universe did not last long, as you encountered G-Man's spacecraft (looks suspiciously similar to the Star Destroyer from Star Wars), which captured you with its tractor beam. The secret conspiracy of scientists (who adore Xena) allows you to escape from your cell, but the escape will definitely not be easy. Unlike the predecessor, the second part has a very interesting story. You discover it through video sequences and conversations with NPCs that have satisfactory recorded custom speech.

In the first part of the series, we had a mixture of external and internal maps, but in the second part the balance was completely shifted to internal ones. The latter did not impress me in the predecessor, but in this part their quality has increased a lot. Excellent architecture is blended in with a good layout of elements and an exceptional combination of colors and lighting. Many scripted events also contribute to a very good visual impression. The maps are well connected to each other, partly because of alternative routes, which, as in the predecessor, are copies of each other, and there are also quite a lot of secrets. The variety of puzzles is pretty modest, because most of them consist of pressing buttons / switches, but there are quite a few jumping challenges (even in lower gravity environments), all this is further enhanced by traps.

The set of opponents is more modest compared to the predecessor, but still very varied. In the first part you will be mostly attacked by soldiers of all kinds, and here and there they will get the help of machineguns and female assasins. In the second part the Xen monsters prevail. Fortunately, the latter are sufficiently numerous to not slow down the pace of the action. Thus, the fighting is very tough, not only because of the enemy numbers, but also their good positioning and brutal ambushes. Your weaponry is pretty good as it contains almost all weapons from the original, and ammunition is sufficient. A small shock may be the start, in which you must survive without H.E.V suit, but there are enough treats around to get you through it. The goodies are numerous enough for the difficulty of Medium, but due to the ambushes, I would recommend Hard only to the most persistent players. I completed the game in about 1 hour of play time.

Infinite Rift

Infinite Rift takes place about 3 days after the incident in the Black Mesa complex. The military forces led by a villain nicknamed The Administrator took control over the complex and are now killing everyone who stands in their way. One of the survivors is dr. Larry Hoot, who manages to get in touch with our hero, Gordon Freeman. Together, they plan on how to spoil administrator's plans and destroy a mysterious device called Infinite Rift. I liked the story very much. It is revealed during gameplay with help of communication with Larry.

Although the modification takes place in Black Mesa, the game does not reminisce too much on the original, as the style is quite unique. Maps do not architecturally impress initially, because they are made pretty rough.  but the picture quickly changes after the transition into the world with a mixture of Xen and human elements. The overlapping of the elements between the maps is excellent in this part, and the colorful illumination also impresses. In general, maps are very well connected, there is some button pushing, back tracking, and non-linear elements. In the puzzle list, you will also find parts in which you need to stay hidden and not touch the sensors, which is very well done, but its unfortunately really short.

You will encounter a vast array of opponents from the original, which includes all human and almost all Xenian opponents. Their positioning and abundance are mostly good, and there are also some scripting surprises. The fights are not limited to progression only, but also include other interesting elements. One of the gaming segments, for example, requires from you to defend a certain area while enemies storm your position. The very good pace of the action from the first part is slowed down considerably in the last third, as the focus shifts on jumping challenges. Too bad, this decision disappointed me quite a bit. To fight your way to the end you will be able to use a limited arsenal from the original. Amounts of ammunition and goodies are just right for better players to complete the mod on Hard difficulty. To achieve this, you will spend about 1 hour and 15 minutes playing the mod.