Will you be a refugee, or police? That's the question "Frontiers" asks, and my response is: Neither. This laggy, boring mess was originally released back in 2008 (I believe it was...) but re-released in September 28, 2011.
STORY:
I don't feel any story or plot in this game, but apparently as a refugee you need to cross the border to Europe to find your friend, while as Police you need to stop via non-lethal methods (Killing is bad in this mod, and will take away points). Why not use immigration to avoid any bloodshed or anything like that.
"Here's the starting point for the Refugees, made from displacements, not many trees and a Half-Life 2 garbage decal."
Storywise, this doesn't live up so great so; 4 out of 10 for Story.
GRAPHICS:
It's nice for mods to use custom textures in modding, but these textures look extremely low-res. Now, considering that these are for the mountains (Hills, maybe?) but really? Why are they stretched so badly?
"Look at the dirt! Looks better than Dear Esther by Robert Briscoe! What about the water, so amazing!"
So, when it comes to textures I'll be more lenient and give it a 7 out of 10.
GAMEPLAY:
Lag. That's the first thing I experienced in this mess-terpiece. Just walking towards a truck, it lagged like crazy. I could barely move. What the hell? The reason is due to it using the old HL2 GameApp (215). Also, there's no singleplayer in it so it's a multiplayer mod all the way. Too bad no one plays this, a common problem with many multiplayer mods like Situation Outbreak, or Off Limits. Now, sometimes you'll have to climb ladders, but this is the most convoluted method of climbing ladders EVER. Instead of latching onto a ladder like in all other Source games, you have to crouch-jump while moving forward. Why would they need to do that?! Oh, because it's a BRUSH ladder! Of course, silly me! Why not a model ladder from HL2?
"Who jumps up a ladder? These refugees do, apparently..,"
If the Police catch you, you can bribe them to let you go but they could just catch you again so what's the point? Since there's no bots or any AI whatsoever, it feels more like a mappack than anything else. 6 out of 10 in Gameplay.
OVERALL:
Frontiers has some promising ideas, but execution makes it feel like a boring, laggy mappack than a multiplayer mod.
6 out of 10 Overall.
Well, thanks for reading this review. Not much, but it's my first review on this site so try to NOT be harsh! See you around! - ajle9550
Good review, I think that for 2008 the mod would've been pretty incredible but having it re-released in this state during 2011 isn't quite as stunning. A good idea but from the sound of it one that wasn't executed that well :(
i always wonder why people make a mp mod without bots, because like you said, no one is playing this one. so, why make a mod that no one is playing. with bots we still could play it without needing anyone else. this is something i see time after time and it really amazes me. why put in so much work, for nothing....
leon
There's a lot of reason behind those words, few multiplayer mods can ever amount to much due to our small community and it's really sad.
Yes, I'm pretty sure bots are hard to program, and not every mod team has the time to code it in properly or at all.
You don't need to program them, either they could use the bots from CSS or even NPCs from HL2.