Reviews - boredgunner

I can't believe that this was the mod produced by the team that played every mod. True Stalker exchanges gameplay for, "Walk linearly to point A and then a cutscene takes over, then walk to point B and then another cutscene" as if it's The Last of Us. Completely neutered A-Life, very little side quests, it's a dead world that revolves entirely around the player, there's just very little actual gameplay once the mod gets going.

To top it off, the writing is childish and nonsensical. It takes inspiration from MCU of all things and has a Marvel supervillain with unexplained teleportation abilities, who likes to teleport behind people and KO them. You get KO'd and abducted or arrested countless times in this mod, because the writers don't know how to carry a narrative. Characters often don't act rationally or believably, and True Stalker spends a lot of time making stupid ghost stories canon. That's right, ghosts.

It's long, predictable, childish, and unintelligent. I thought Lost Alpha was poorly written, but True Stalker takes things to a new level. To think these were two of the most anticipated S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mods ever. This mod does not live up to a name; it's nothing like any version of stalker ever envisioned by GSC, it takes more after modern cinematic console games. True Stalker sadly offers nothing whatsoever.

The definitive way to play Quake. Builds upon Quake 1.5 which is often overlooked for no good reason, and adds countless improvements sharing the same design philosophies as GMDXv9, Unreal Evolution, and Turok 2 Plus - all from the same creator. These are designed to provide actual challenge via improved AI, new enemies, and more brutal enemy encounters. No mindless hordes here though.

The end result is: the best of Quake 1.5 (new enemies, levels, secrets, visual enhancements) with an improved arsenal with new functionality, improved AI (as in better movement and decision making), greatly improved and more challenging encounters, and a new Nightmare+ mode which you must play. One of the best things about Nightmare+ is having to deal with the vengeful spirits of some enemies.

The new Reiver enemy is one of the best ever designed enemies for any action game. Ogres are much improved, when fighting Death Knights you'll now fear the possibility of encountering a Warlord, Vores are better than ever, and there are many other fantastic additions to the roster that make combat much more diverse, challenging and thoughtful.

Quake was a great game but not nearly enough of a challenge even on Nightmare mode, bordering on mindless. Combat+ on Nightmare+ mode elevates the game into truly all time great status. Now if only we could get a Combat+ mod for Arcane Dimensions one day...

One of the best mods ever made for any game at this point. Basically a Quake expansion with some of the best levels in Quake history and top notch art design. The visuals of some of the levels will blow your mind, and the combination of great functional level design and this quality of art design is a real treat.

Now if only someone were to add Quake 1.5 and Quake Combat Plus improvements to this, and get it all working on vkQuake-RT. That would be the ultimate Quake.

Loser

10/10 for Planescape: Toilet, Vampire: The Masquerade and Deus Ex all in one game

This mod transforms BF2 into one of the GOAT PvP shooters. Not the most polished mod ever but it does something brilliant that no other mod does.

Ashes 2063 is one of those rare total conversion mods that, from start to finish, consistently demonstrates professional production quality. If you played it without knowing what it is, there's no indication that it's a mod. You'd think it was New Blood Interactive's masterpiece or some classic you somehow missed.

The above describes both episodes, but Ashes is better than just that. Episode 1 is already one of the very best Doom total conversion mods ever made, being designed around 3D gameplay whereas many TCs are designed around the original game's 2D gameplay (no vertical mouse movement). This is the main benefit of Ashes being designed for GZDoom.

Not only is episode 1 one of the very best Doom TCs, it is also better than the vast majority of 1990s FPS games even. Not the best of the best, but better than most.

Then there's Afterglow, episode 2. This is among the best of the very best of FPS. GOAT tier, especially in the level design category. I'm completely blown away by how good Afterglow is.

Once again, modders have embarrassed game studios. The only thing holding back Ashes is the fact that it's a Doom TC, which means AI and enemy movement is very limited and simplistic, so you'll never get the same kind of engaging combat as DOOM Eternal or Unreal, but that's a given.

This is basically a regressed GMDX that undoes many of its improvements and lacks the improvements of GMDX version RSD, which is the real version 10. Play vRSD instead!

One of the best overhaul mods ever made for any game.

A bit more interesting than the first but both are surprisingly well made horror mods.