Reviews - Half-Life : Residual Life mod for Half-Life

I enjoyed this mod. The areas of Black Mesa had a very classic feel to it and every room had a sense of purpose. Even the ending just felt right. No epic boss battle, the player simply slips away through an outlet pipe and vanishes from HL history. Love it.

The Cons:

- Mismatched models. Some were Low-Def, some were High-Definition and some were even Super-Definition. Personally I replaced the low poly models for a more modern look. :)

- Got lost a couple of times when it wasn't obvious that I had to back track.

This is a mod that does everything it can to be memorable, the intro of you walking up in your dorm room with personal pictures and then the tram ride... it oozes quality, like everything seems as though it belongs there and there is a lively functioning facility without you having to be there.
The unique locations I haven't seen before, a convenience store and book store. A crystal analysis area... even a new enemy which completely took me by surprise in a really good way.
The combat is great, its evenly spaced out, giving us a rest in between and giving just enough ammo with scarcity for health. Its tougher than HL1 thats for sure. In general you take more damage and theres some large versions of headcrabs I remember from a different mod that spices things up. Also for HL1 mod you take on the black ops at some point.

But what really surprises me is that you meet Barney early on and you can take him with you almost to the end of the mod (and its a long mod so thats really saying something).

My only nitpicks is the lack of puzzles but I've never been a fan of them to be honest and of course the ending, which seemed somewhat abrupt. Like there could have been something more to do, like going out onto a road and breathing a relieving sigh after going through all of that or something.
I noticed lack of music for the credits which is a good way to get people not to sit through it.

Very long awaited.
I like it.

actually just played it, amaizing mod :)
Twitch.tv
You can see my replay
10/10 only small bits that could be changed or added, if you plan on doing a final release with all bufixes, I could give you guys some ideas where I think, you should fix some stuff.

It's a good half life mod with new maps and monsters, nice mapping and modelling, the puzzle is still tradition. But the ending make me disapointed

So Residual Life is supposed to be a "remake" of Residual Point. Altered timeline or some ****. What we get is ultimately less impressive than Residual Point, but also less of a Half-Life rip-off, so there's that.

Same as in Residual Point, re-used dialog that's entirely nonsensical and nothing like any real conversation would go, but it feels nostalgic. It doesn't matter what they're saying, just that it makes you think of Half-Life and how this mod feels similar, but very much different. It's a winning formula, why not use it as your foundation!

The exposition often feels overdone. Like, yeah we get it, you're doing Half-Life things. I'm glad there's more content, but it could've used a little editing.

Very much enjoyed the "exponential cascade" reveal in the elevator. Really adds to the sense of vulnerability and hopelessness once you hear the alarm start blaring. Oh ****.

bRo that guy severed in half? Peak atmosphere.

Cavernous areas and moody lighting evoke feelings of isolation and loneliness, along with a scale of how massive BMRF is.

Didn't really care for how the game leads you to a dead end, then expects you to know to retrace your steps for longer than you'd expect to find the next path forward. There should at least be a trigger or indication that alerts the player that retracing is the correct path as opposed to jumping around the dead end area spamming E. I hate looking up a walkthrough just to find that the solution actually is in the next room that I'm standing outside of, thinking "no way the game wants me to return all the way back to here."

Male black ops are so tanky. Good thing they drop SMG grenades because they're almost a requirement when fighting these fiends.

That chase sequence with the Gargantuas was insane! Frantic and chaotic, but still lead me ahead well enough that I didn't have to die and ruin the moment.

Goddamn those fast female block ops zombies! Great enemy. Loved the enemy variety in general.

Xen area was tiresome and tedious. Too many dead ends, too many interconnected routes... it was burdensome keeping tabs on everything if you want to experience everything this game has to offer. A lot more fun when you just plow ahead and don't worry about missing areas. Though the OCD types like myself will suffer.

Black Mesa path was much better. Well-designed, but it's more Xen just isn't that fun. RL does manage to make it somewhat enjoyable with the same combat mechanics, just you can jump higher. Believable use of the zombie HECU as a fun Xen enemy. Combat in Xen was good, but the mapping was clunky and long.

Wasn't really a fan of the lever puzzles. Seemed like just trial by error, but fortunately they were easy so it wasn't frustrating.

Got a little too overboard with the multiple endings thing. Kept backtracking and eventually realized that these were two different paths and that I'd have to manually save and replay them... I pick Half-Life because it's linear and doesn't require mental map-making.

I think I liked Residual Point better because it felt more cohesive. It told a whole story with a complete adventure, whereas Residual Life could end halfway through and doesn't feel satisfying knowing you left other areas/endings on the table. I hate progressing knowing that there's an alternate path that takes me down an entirely different route.

Whereas RP was ambitious and delivered, RL feels too ambitious with too many ideas left unpolished. Still a fantastic mod with a huge amount of content and well worth a play high up there with the greats.

it can be easily a expansion for half life

As a videogame mapper/modder since 2009, I obviously analyzed this game both as a player and as a developer.
I will first add my review as a player, and then as a developer below.
The game would be a great valve-quality game, especially in the charming beginning where a "new suit" is introduced to replace the classic HEV suit found in Half-Life, with nice puzzle-solving levels, if it weren't for the incredibly huge amount of enemies scattered all over the maps, and few ammo/guns/healthkits in proportion to the incredibly hard battles, especially when it comes to hard enemies like black-ops, (which they repeat over and over during the last levels). Notable mention to this event would be the 10 vortigaunts spawning on a close-combat scenario inside the drainage pipes after beating black ops (low health) in the trainyard. Therefore, this renders the game/addon impossible to play in expert mode given the low amount of items found in the map and the large amount of enemies.
I had to play the last levels using God mode in order to fully play the game and review it.
The plot/objective is kind of confusing, since the NPC's only have HL dialogue. At first, one would think it is to reach the surface and escape, but then several puzzle games are introduced and several maps have no clear/obvious path to follow leading to frustration. Maybe adding dialogue to guide the player, or a text message indicating the next step?
I had fun playing in Black Mesa, classic style map, imagining how would the research facility be before the incident. Below I will talk more about the map(s).
DEV REVIEW: Congrats to the mapper for a high-poly, revised, AI-navigation-friendly, and complex (textures, props, func_???, triggers, etc...) map(s). I would say with no doubt those maps were made by Valve in terms of quality and complexity. Probably most resources were imported from BSHIFT/OPFOR as the trains/traintracks/etc... But still, Valve quality to me. (Have in mind, you made this years later than Valve made Half-Life using a much powerful computer)
I believe some resources you've addded were HI poly, others low poly, and others even highest poly. Might be a dev oversight but this causes a strange effect for players. As a mapper, I would provide the player with more items and indicate the right path with lights, darkening the other areas, or even restricting them by blocking their path. The maps are great, lots of hours on them I see, but quality is irrelevant if the player finds it too big and can't find the way following obvious paths. Enemies: The crazy amount of enemies that spawn on the last maps (played in Medium) will kill the player in a matter of seconds. Player must be a dedicated speedrunner, or simply use God mode in order to fully complete the game and reach the credits. I counted more than 10 enemies at once if not 20 rushing to kill the player from all angles. Notable mention: The underground train: I got attacked by: -Auto missile launcher, turret, flying aliens, female blackops, zombie soldiers, vortigaunts.... All at once in a single area of a level. You've put a lot of work on this. Have in mind what I've experienced in Residual Life. I hope it helps.

All the best,

alexandrovich

Ok mod.
Updates are so crazy that you will probably never finish this mod.

Much better experience than Residual Point which was half remake of HL1/expansions and half endless parking area, office complex, train yard transitions with zombie soldiers. However, Residual Life uses spawning vortigaunts so much that the gameplay turns into a drag again... To my best knowledge, around 4/5 of the game, the player can choose to follow entirely different path than s/he supposed to and reach the same ending. The crossplatform version I played had some weird issues that make enemies harder to kill when they are in attack sequence. I mean, a vortigaunt should die in one revolver hit regardless of the situation, not two. It's a fine mod but not the best.