Experience Half-Life 2 like never before. Return to City 17, held within the iron grip of the Combine and the Consul. Reunite with old friends, and enemies. Traverse vicious canals, make new allies, and brave the horrors of the Quarrytown. Immerse yourself in a revitalised combat system featuring old arsenals made new again, with added features to raise the bar in gameplay. You've been waiting for quite some time, now. It's time to climb aboard.
This feels like a mod that released too soon. I hope everyone goes back to this chapter and really gives it a overhaul. Anyways, I'll bullet point my criticisms and praises for this mod to keep it simple:
-The model to map fidelity is really off. It feels like Half-Life 1 with super HD weapons that don't match the world they're in.
-The level design is lacking in areas with overly big areas to walk around in but with nothing to do so it just takes up your time.
-Some key areas are just out of order and feel weirdly stitched in, and don't serve a purpose anymore. The manhack arcade is a great example.
-The gun play isn't very diverse but it's satisfying. Dark Interval doesn't want you to have weapons which is lame so props for doing that.
-The overall journey is a bit boring. The maps really aren't eye candy so I'm not really enjoying the long walks.
-The voice acting is a mixed bag. Gman is great while Barney isn't. I'd work on that.
-Gordon has giant sleeves.
Anyways, I'm not about to attack this mod like everyone seems to be doing pretty ironically given their track records with mod release quality. Best of luck with future releases!
This mod gets an unnecessarily bad rap.
Everything past the opening sequence (from Gman's intro speech to the teleport scene in Kleiner's lab) is GLORIOUS, in my humble opinion.
The gameplay and firefights with the metropolice are incredibly fun and well thought-out. The weapons feel punchier and deadlier than their release version counterparts, and the models don't look half bad either.
I dare say I enjoyed the combat sequences in this MUCH more than I did the combat sequences in release Half-Life 2. Which is really saying something, considering that release HL2 was already a masterpiece as it is.
The art style is beautiful and much more pleasing to me than the release version of HL2. The developers did an amazing job at recreating the Beta style.
That's one thing about the beta art style that's so eerie and magical, that fact that it somehow manages to be more bleak and depressing whilst being VERY colorful and vibrant. The off-whites, grays, blacks and blues of the release art style are replaced with deep reds, greens, and yellows.
Quaint Eastern-European buildings are replaced with huge looming American architecture. Skyscrapers, factories and corporate complexes all loom overhead, jutting into the sky, making you feel incredibly small and inconsequential (exactly the way the Combine want you to feel).
The overall atmosphere is haunting, beautiful, and palpable. And this mod does a great job replicating this in near Valve-quality past the opening sequence.
The HEV suit also looks amazing, as do the other custom assets and models (besides the manhacks, which look cool on the up-close renders but in-game look like they don't even have blades attached to them at all).
Those are all the reasons I love this mod. But of course, there are always negatives, especially in beta (no, I mean beta as in the early version of a mod, not Beta HL2).
The opening sequence was rough, really rough.
The largest issues with the opening sequence are both the level design, and the length.
The level design in the opening sequence is really weird. It's very difficult to tell where to go, and there are many pathways and doors that look perfectly accessible but are not. There are a lot of times where the level design doesn't even make sense (i.e. at one point you're supposed to run TOWARD a metrocop during a raid / slaughter).
There are many things that lead you to believe you're going the right way (aka lighting hints, events that funnel the player into certain corridors etc.) but many times they are misleading, and the real "way out" or true path is in a really awkward or strange place.
The atmosphere didn't really kick in for me during the opening sequence, I think I was probably too focused on the confusing layout to pay attention. Many of these level design flaws are absent from the rest of the demo though, as everything past Kleiner's lab played like a dream for me.
The opening sequence is EXTREMELY long (and uneventful). I'm not sure if the original Beta was supposed to be like that and they were just being true to source material or what. Point is; it was too long.
In the amount of time it takes you to get from the trainstation to the teleport at Kleiner's lab, you could have made it to the end of Red Letter Day in the original HL2. This coupled with the poor level design makes it kinda frustrating to play through, and not very immersive.
But like I said, don't let this deter you from the rest of the game. Everything past the opening sequence is really really enjoyable.
The voice acting, for the most part, was mediocre. I'm sure these voice lines aren't final anyways, but it's worth noting.
The Gman's intro speech was meh, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't that great either. IMHO they should have gotten JapaneseBushBaby to do him.
I know that sometimes Beta mods use existing voice lines recorded by Valve that were recovered from the Beta leak so I'm not entirely sure what's custom and what's original material, but I'll give an overview of the voice acting anyways.
Barney definitely needs some work. Pretty sure he said "Garden" instead of "Gordon" multiple times during his intro. His voice is too deep and he doesn't have enough whine. He's missing a couple mannerisms as well.
Kleiner is spot-on, so much so that I had trouble telling if the voice acting was custom or the aforementioned leaked voice lines. No complaints here.
Mossman was almost as good as Kleiner, but was a little monotone during the teleport incident sequence.
I saw some of the other reviews saying that the graphics weren't good, but I honestly don't know what they're talking about. It looked great in my eyes (save for a few spots in the opening sequence that had some janky lighting issues). I definitely think there were a few spots that looked a little more dated than release HL2, but that just gave it more atmosphere for me.
All in all I enjoyed my time with this mod and I wish the developers best of luck! Don't give up!
I think the main problem I had was the intro before kleiners, some were good but the rest was just stale with citizens not doing anything at all, but damn once **** goes down it goes down really good, the gunplay, models (make a pack for vanilla half life 2 ;V), environment works fine fine, I think this mod compared to the other (beta related mods) should focus on action and set pieces.
Make more little details to the environment, to make the intro better maybe add more dialogue for citizens and a little quest-puzzles and a chase sequence
Music awesome keep it going baby it was fitting with that half life vibe, voice acting was good some people don't like barney but he was fine at the end not as good as the others but OK.
Overall it was Good I think a solid 8.5 FOR NOW, because i know it will only get better.
Edit: It got a lot better xD
This is a review of the first chapter release.
I've gotta be honest, everything from the introduction until you get the crowbar kinda blows. While the maps are pretty good to look at, they are a pain to navigate. It really feels like I'm just fumbling around, somehow going in the 'right' direction, but it never FEELS right. It's like I'm going through a Beta amusement park rather than an actual world that's lived in. Same goes with the NPCs, they just don't feel like they're present.
But everything after Kleiner's Lab is absolutely 99% top-notch. The new weapon models and animations, the level design and enemy placement, all of it clciks just right. The combat feels great and the levels designed around it DO make sense. The narrative aspect... not so much, but it definitely was fun.
I also wanna give props to whoever's making the soundtrack. These tunes are very faithful to that industrial Kelly Bailey style while sprinkling some sounds of their own.
You guys are on the right track and I hope I see more.
I gotta say, RTBR is very consistent at being hit or miss.
Levels can go from really pretty to Timmy's 20th GMod map with ok lighting, certain levels can look incredibly flat due to textures and models used within them. Overall level design is either very good in one map or just ok in another which makes the AI be incredibly dumb most of the time.
The mod suffers from difficulty spikes aswell which are ******* horrible.
Voice acting is mostly ok to bad, depending on the lines written and the delivery of them, doesn't help when NPCs do not match the lines spoken when it comes to body language and overall emotions, lot of issues where they are talking to another but are looking at you because??? or they won't face you despite talking to you, instead just trying to look at you with their backs turned.
Barney is whatever, it's alright.
Consul sounds like a generic villain, no charisma at all.
Eli can't stop talking about how old he is but otherwise most of the lines and delivery is fine.
Alyx can be fine but become incredibly annoying depending on the situation/map.
Grigori is peak, no faults there as far as I can tell, very good impression and line delivery.
Gunplay feels good, nice punchy animations, vfx and sfx. Alternate fire modes are thought out decently well but that's really it. However the inclusion of NPC weapons like the Annabelle and the Alyx Gun is good on paper but execution ******* sucks, "here is my weapon Gordon, use it while I leave myself completely defenseless and call out to you 20 times because there are too many enemies to manage as they just keep spawning." Gee thanks Grigori.
The assets do not mesh well at all, everything looks either stupidly cartoony and rubbery or dipped in oil, sometimes very crude looking aswell. There's a few that look fine but the majority suffers alot. (Not to mention the fact that the mod uses vanilla and other source game assets that just contribute to it since they did not finish making and swapping everything out.)
Overall the mod feels like it's just going through a checklist and staying as close as possible to the events of HL2 but under the skin of the "beta."
The rating I'm leaving is very generous as there is some good in this but otherwise is very overshadowed by the bad. I'll probably update the review as the Divisions release but I'm not holding my breath.
I noticed that in the beginning level, if you make the mistake of bumping into the last citizen in the line waiting to pass through the security checkpoint, it will bug the game and you will not be able to pass through, unless you restart the level. However, the weapon models textures and animations are well fleshed out and sound much better. Keep up the good work.
First of all, people are harsh, WAY too harsh to this mod. The comments I have read on various discord servers regarding this mod were pathetic most of the time. To everyone who is involved in this project, only listen to constructive criticism and do not be discouraged by the nitpickers' opinions. On to the review:
The demo was fine, but it lacks lots and lots of polish. I think this is why the mod has a mediocre rating as the date I am writing this review. It has things going for it for sure, but there are also some weird design choices, I think it would be best if I focused more on those alongside the things I enjoyed:
1- The maps are fine design-wise but not really fun to play. Sometimes the way you are supposed to go is a bit vague, sometimes they have questionable scripted sequences. Generally, there is too much walking around without purpose.
2- Some remodels are both unnecessary and bad. The headcrab looks especially bad, it should be called fatcrab. G-man is another unnecessary remodel, the suit just looks wrong. I don't see the reason behind these changes?
3- Viewmodels are pretty good, models, animations etc. but HEV arms are way too big.
4- I really loved the fact that the weapons pack a punch. It is a good change after HL2's peashooters. My only criticism is that there is no reason to have two melee weapons. As far as I know, the team is not planning to re-introduce the weapon dropping mechanic, it just makes the inventory more cluttered. I am fine with multiple weapons of the same type but it would be better if every weapon had a purpose. It is just a slower but more damaging crowbar and that doesn't sound too exciting. Will there be multiple SMGs similar to this as well?
I could go on with much more detail like how the APC doesn't have rotating wheels or Kleiner has his eyes open while he is injured or how the cremator doesn't have sounds etc. but, as I have said, the majority of this mod's problems are due to lack of polish.
Give it a good overhaul and I think it will be one of the better remembered leak / beta mods.
First of all I would like to say that I really do appreciate the amount of work that you all have put into this mod so far. I believe your team has correctly captured the desired dark atmosphere that the original vision for Half Life 2 had, and I solemnly enjoyed the weapon models and and weapon animations. something else I also noticed was the subtle, yet substantial graphical updates that was made for the character models, they were minute enough to not deviate too far from the planned aesthetic. Now, most of the problems I noticed were in the begging parts of Chapter one. I feel as if there was too much walking, and some of the spaces were far too large, and barren. also the metro cops' stun stick is a bit comical. It looks like a laser sword toy that you might buy a child, I think the only change that needs to be made is the bulkiness of it, and perhaps dull, or nullify the bright colors emanating from it. Over all, this is a good mod, dents and scratches should be expected within the beginning stages, so don't take the rougher critics to heart! after review of this mod I believe Palpatine says my concluding thoughts best! "We will watch your career with great interest!" - Phantom Menace.
I originally gave the very first release a 5/10 because it felt quite amateurishly put together at the time. I'm pleased to say this project has come a *long* way. The maps, models, animations, everything you can think of has been drastically improved. Lots of HL2's fundamental mechanics have been tweaked to give a more enjoyable experience too!
In my original review I compared it a lot to Dark Interval, saying how I was hoping it would eventually reach a similar quality and I'm happy to say that indeed it has! Maps are gorgeous to look at, gunplay is fun, pacing is substantially improved.
For the first hour you wander around and look at stuff, but there's so many little moments, easter eggs and scripted sequences to keep you interested and make you feel the world is really alive. (I replayed it multiple times and kept discovering new stuff that you could miss if you weren't looking at the right time)
Then you shoot stuff for the next 2-4 hours.. it's a decently lengthy campaign.
Gunplay is very satisfying *especially* with the new 'draw-frame' system, something all mods should implement it's that good.
One of my criticisms that still holds is that I feel Barney's lines aren't delivered very well. And it's clear (at least to me) that the dialogue in Kleiner's lab is Valve's original script while other dialogues are by the devs and feels less refined by comparison.. but you can chalk these up to me just nit-picking. It's not a big deal.
(Holy hell Grigori's lines and VA is awesome tho!)
Though the biggest thing I dislike is that the gravity gun doesn't seem to have the draw-frames that all other weapons utilize, so it's really annoying to use the gravity gun, because it feels like Freeman has a little war flashback every single time you pull out the gravity gun, so you're stuck holding it for a second before you're allowed to actually use it. It's noticeable since none of the other weapons have this issue.
Anyways, it's really enjoyable to me seeing games get refined and improved as time goes on so I'm really excited to see how Div. 3 will expand the campaign as well as any other possible improvements might get implemented to the base game!
My rating is closer to a 7.5 for the overall experience but I really admire the impressive amount of effort that went into this mod.
(Btw the Alyx gun has no right to be THAT good. Best weapon I ever used in a Source mod. Also plz delete the entirety of Ravenholm k tnx.)
This is one of the best Half Life 2 mods, especially if you are into beta aesthetics and story. Everything looks really professional and well made.
All weapons are remodeled, they look very nice and crisp. Characters are remodeled to fit the beta story (all hail the Consul!). The atmosphere is very beta like.
Gunplay is very exciting, fighting Civil Protection and Cremators is really, really fun.
Division 1 was great, and what I have seen from division 2 promises to be even better!
Raising the Bar: Redux is shaping to be the best HL 2 mod ever, and I think it could very well become one once it is completely finished.
Highest recommendation!