The story covers the time from the arrival of soldiers to the nuclear explosion in Black Mesa Research Facility. 5 hours of gameplay, 34 maps totally. The working title was "Soldier's Adventures".
Be advised: I was Beta-Tester.
A brilliantly executed mod that knows to convince on so many levels. The amount of time given to this modification clearly shows. Expect to see many amazing maps that are well decorated and logically constructed all together, but it won't stop here: We will also get to explore familiar areas we've seen in the various official Hl1 titles such as Op4, BS and Decay itself. But also new places like a never before seen beautifully constructed XEN Environment that no other Hl1 mod before ever accomplished creating in such a manner.
Balancing wise is this mod so well balanced that you won't have any trouble accepting the world you've been thrown into. Everything fits just fine.
With an insane amount of 10 hours play time we also get to see plenty of new npcs that are adding up just nicely into the official Half-Life Lore.
Pro:
-Texts, PDA, Custom Voices
-Well balanced
-Well designed levels
-New NPCs
-10 hours play time
-Enhanced pathfinding
-Squad recruitment function
-Good story with a twist
Contra:
-On rare cases unclear where to go to next
-Not written in best English
-Sometimes a little barren especially during the earlier maps. But it gets a lot fresher later on.
Guys play it now. I'd like to thank the Hazard Team for sticking with their mod project for over 14 years of development time. That time and the love given clearly shows. Go and play it now people you won't regret it!
2022 opens with a 13 year old developed GoldSrc mod which puts you in a 10 hour gameplay adventure, which is overall the little brother of Opposing Force, or Azure Sheep, but more in the likes of a prodigal son "Valve-quality" like.
Putting you in the boots of another HECU sent to clean up Black Mesa, you are in for a very story-driven quest to track Gordon Freeman and then try to find your way out of this mess when everything goes wrong.
The maps are very well developed and enhanced in the Spirit of Half-Life style, or echoes, with a much more detailed Xen, numerous developed outdoor maps, with various fights taking place against usual foes which range from HL1 standard enemies, humans or aliens, new re-skinned headcrab zombies, Op For's Race X monsters, and even cut content monsters.
The challenges are numerous and you can often use several buddies be it soldiers, medics, or engineers to help you along, but also guards or scientists from BM and escort missions are done well without being irritating, beta testing must have been good with this one.
The highlights of this mod are really the easter eggs or encounters with HL classic characters, especially the chapter "Birefringence", the shortest one of all, but it's really 5 minutes of fracturing your eyes and your brain.
Really good mod. Feels like OpFor, but sometimes better. Very good design of levels, high detailed environment and very interesting locations.
Also that squad based mechanics and improved AI is really good.
But mod have some gameplay troubles, so 9\10
Very fun and well made mod, you can really see that they put a LOT of effort into it.
Core gameplay is just like the classic HL and OPF, which is not bad at all! It includes interesting features, like a better squad tracking system that shows how many allies are following you, their health and even their "faction".
Story was good. It is not AMAZING, but it serves its purpose. Every little detail and reference also add depth to it. Not gonna lie, the ending really got me, I hated and loved it!
Voice Acting wasn't that bad, I didn't mind the accent, but the acting itself could be better. I'm just nitpicking here, well done to the VA! I enjoyed it!
Maps are huge and kinda pretty, with a very cool and classic vibe. The bad thing is that you can get a bit lost sometimes, there are too many corridors and alternative paths, although it wasn't a big problem for me, it can get annoying.
There's a lot of cool moments from the other expansions that will put a big smile on your face! Expect some fan service right there!
I didn't like how some headcrabs were placed to surprise you in a way that you won't avoid the damage. Also snarks, they should be nerfed a bit.
I enjoyed the combat sections, they were challenging, but sometimes a little unfair. Some boss battles happened into closed areas, which didn't help too much.
For example, Gonarch, after dying three or four times, frustrated, I realized I could just use the pillars to make her spin around and shoot her to hell. Samething with Gargantua, just stay on a spot and shoot it down. They just weren't so fun to fight as in Half-Life.
There is a map where you need to use a cannon to destroy a gate, and if you played Opposing Force, you know how annoying it's to control that cannon. You should do like Echoes and just leave it positioned with a button to press. It's not a super complex puzzle, so I don't see any problems making it easier to use.
I saw few bugs, like a door damaging you, or some wrong textures on the walls, but I guess they already know that and will fix on the next update.
Overall, I really recommend this mod, it's really worth it!
~This review is based on version 1.0
I haven't played OP4 in years but somehow my muscle memory still worked and I gotta say I got a bit scr**** by the switched positions of some weapons. I would have preferred if they stayed in their OG slots.
Other than that this mod is absolutely amazing and I couldn't be happier.
The code improvements over the basic OP4 are really great and make the player's life way simpler. For example the ability to see the health of squad mates is really nice (and being able to heal them is even better). So is the ability to use the cleaner Counter-Strike night vision.
The map design of the mod is amazing. It's well thought out, looks great and offers some nice easter eggs. The maps look almost as if they were actual unused official OP4 maps made by Gearbox.
The custom story is great too. It's definetely way more polished than stories of other mods we've seen over the years.
One more awesome thing is the option to replay OP4 maps using this mod as a base. I haven't encountered any issues so far doing exactly this. Everything worked smooth and without hiccups.
-Edit: Maybe not entirely without hiccups but still playable for the most part.
Overall, I rate this as the best mod since Echoes. It was well worth the wait. Thank you, guys!
Looks good, you can see that they worked on the mod.
I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much and ended up being pleasantly surprised, it's one of the best mods I've played in the last few years of the saga in general, and that's saying a lot. Very good work.
If this was a seperate game. I'd pay for it. Period
Why Overcharged is getting hype, but this mod gets 0 hype...
Also, working great on linux.(Mint 20.3)
this release has made me incredibly happy. i can not express my absurd amount of gratitude for releasing something of this caliber and quality. it's like when i first got the expansions all over again as a wee lad. i logged into my years old ModDB account JUST to give my appreciation.
i took notes while playing the game, simply because i was so overwhelmed with things to appreciate. i had no idea it was going to end up being SIX HOURS of QUALITY content! for FREE! this will be something i replay for years to come. here are some simplified highlights, and a few critiques i had.
//
+ no artstyle clashing custom assets
+ new enemy variants, and slight reworks in behavior
+ feels like a proper expansion piece in the established half-life world
+ revisit familiar locations in black mesa, most notably Decay, other expansions, even segments from DM maps with organic feeling and fresh application from an hgrunt's perspective. doesn't overstay it's welcome
+ cameos from two of the most based women at black mesa, and other expansion stars
+ impressive attention to detail in things like usable soda machines (+1 hp each if you're struggling), brush texture mapping, rooms very rarely feel empty or like they wouldn't be used.
+ tasteful use of the original soundtracks
+ the return of swingable ropes
+ seriously the mapping is gorgeous
+ consistenly rewards player exploration
+ npcs companions do not slog the pacing
+ easily missed csaual scripted sequences breathe life into the traditional black mesa coridors
+ brand new snark friend!
+ what an ending!
- the voice acting is 'the best they could do'. the writing is obviously a mod, but it get's all of it's shenanigans out early. i really appreciate the effort though. do not let this deter!
- game likes to spawn shi on you, or put headcrabs around corners constantly, but is pretty much always is overgearing you for the encounters anyway.
- difficulty curve with the [SPOILER] spawn spam is sorta abusrd. not a problem for anyone who plays these games, but i imagine this has the potential to hurt a lot of player's sense of pace.
//