Half-Life 2 Game FLIPSIDE review

[page=FLIPSIDE Review]

Spin the world from a peaceful, sunny scene to a dark, dreary landscape. Turn innocent creatures into horrible enemies. Sound crazy? Well, it is, and it may just be crazy enough to work.

From the light side...

Thank god for University mod teams. They’re the only people we can depend on to bring us finished products of solid quality in a reasonable amount of time. Though these mods are not always heavy on length and lasting entertainment, they often present marvelously original ideas that we often don't find in other modifications. FLIPSIDE, created by students of the National Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment, is a nice display of creativity that only partially lives up to its' interesting premise.

Players are cast as Hannibal Hildorf, an escapee from a mental institution. Hildorf's mind is obviously not quite stable, as the landscape around him rapidly changes into bizarre extremes. In order to escape this madness--well, as much as any psychotic wanderer truly can--you must make your way to the end of a 2D level.

The world of FLIPSIDE is divided into two sides: the evil side and the good side. The good side is a place of grassy hills and blue skies, with cute little bunnies and bumblebees right out of a Disney movie. Now, hit the “Enter” key and you enter the Evil side. Everything becomes dark and creepy, a scene right out of a horror movie, and what was once a cute little bunny suddenly becomes an evil nurse, out to kill you.

Now, why would you even take the risk of switching to the dark side, when you could simply remain in the bright sunshine and listen to birdsong? Well, there's a catch, of course. In the evil side of FLIPSIDE, you gain two new powers: the ability to climb up walls and a willingness to attack those around you. If you stay in the nice world, you'll never get past the obstacles that block your path, forcing you to flip with a click of the Enter key.

You’ll quickly adjust to the act of changing sides. The core concept of the mod actually plays out quite nicely, though I originally doubted the translation to game play. The beginning of the game presents you with a few on-screen tips, pointing out the use for the different sides of the game world, allowing you to quickly adapt to the central game play.

What presents a problem are the controls. Like many other 2D platformer games on the PC, it really feels as though you should be playing with a gamepad. The direction keys lack the precision of an analog stick and you'll often find yourself slipping off platform edges and falling into oblivion. This gets even worse when you try to jump, as higher and higher jumps necessitate repeating the same action over and over again. This wouldn't normally be a problem, except when you land, Hildorf often stumbles forward and off the edge of the platform you were standing on.

...to the dark side.

Combat in FLIPSIDE is fairly simplistic and rather lacking. I don't expect amazing A.I. from a platformer, but the attack patterns of your enemies are way too obvious at times. After a while, you'll realize that almost any enemy can be beaten by waiting in the good side until the creature comes near, then quickly flipping the world and head-butting them to the ground.

After you've played FLIPSIDE for an extended time, though, you begin to work around these issues. Traversing the landscape slowly becomes less of a fight against the controls and more of an opportunity to observe your surroundings. You'll be tempted to kill every entity that you come across, but the urge wears off as you discover your sheer vulnerability in the dark side. The danger of the dark side becomes tangible, making you doubt your intial kill-all gaming heritage and focus your efforts on mere survival.

Then, the game ends.

The primary issue is that the game is essentially a single level. It only takes about 15 minutes to finish this mod, which is a shame, because there is a lot of room here for expansion. I'm well aware that this is due to the time constraints of a university assignment, but this proof-of-concept wets your appetite just long enough to end when you've finally come over the learning curve. We can only hope that the team will continue to work on it further, independently from the National Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment.

There is so much untapped potential in FLIPSIDE as to make it worth a look even despite its flaws. The game features a unique visual style, where characters are fluidly animated as cardboard cut-outs with no resemblance to the Half-Life 2 architecture it is built on. It is a joy to explore the world, switching back and fourth between sides and discovering everything the creators have to offer. It isn't as good as it could have been, but maybe enough support will convince the developers to make a sequel.

methulah Says: "I remember taking one look at screenshots of FLIPSIDE and deciding that I simply had to play it. I made the right decision. The game, quite simply, looks amazing. Everything about it, from the textures that look pasted onto cardboard cut-outs to the manic, false grin on the main character's face, makes FLIPSIDE infinitely more interesting to look at than the standard mods we see these days. When I first flipped the world over to see the darker perception of reality, I literally gasped out loud. It's a magic moment and one that everyone should experience."

(+) Creative concept.
(+) Idea translates nicely to game play.
(+) Great visuals.
(+) A true “Total Conversion.”

(-) Short.
(-) Frustrating Controls.
(-) Lackluster AI.