I know I promised a review of Minerva Metastasis but I feel obligated to point out to other players as to what’s a good or bad single player mod. No multiplayer so far, because the only multiplayer Source game I even bother playing is Team Fortress 2. Unfinished mods will be ignored unless their really bad. Keep in mind this will contain spoilers. I even provided links if you care to play them.
The good:
Riot Act:
Despite the Strider shooting through walls and respwaning enemies, I found this to be a rather entering experience. It shows how what a good mod should be like. My favorite part is the Gunship battle. That's all I can say sort of a full review. I look forward to the Riot Act mod team making more adventures about their original character Jamil Lee, though the team behind this may not exist anymore.
School Adventures:
This one is entreating enough to keep the player from being bored and rewards the player for their willingness to explore the School for weapons and ammo. The train glitch can be annoying but that can be fixed by downloading the patch provided. Too bad as the team seems have to have disbanded at the time of this edit.
Half Life 2 Dawn:
Moddb.com
A mod made by a bunch of collage students but that’s not necessary a bad thing (unless it’s in the bad section) Even though it’s short Half Life 2 Dawn was fun despite being a zombie shooter.
Combine Destiny:
It may use an obsolete version of the Source Engine and it’s another zombie shooter I personally found this entertaining enough to warrant multiple plays through. It really gives you the feelling that you are a member of the Combine Overwatch. Play yourself while you’re waiting for its promising sequel.
Mistake of Pythagoras:
It may have the word mistake in the title but this mod is anything but. I played this one while half asleep and it did not disappoint, this mod really shows what the Source Engine is capable of.
Minerva
Moddb.com
The best single player mod yet and the only one good enough to keep and waste precious megabytes on my computer. I'll post a real review of MINERVA: Metastasis later. Go download it and play it yourself or I shall consider you mentally ill. Infact I may even replay it again just so I won't make a lair out of myself before Adam Foster releases another chapter of Minerva.
Ravenholm:
Moddb.com
Another zombie shooter and uses an outdated version of Source however I played through multiple times before deleting it off my hard drive. It is the only mod I've played that fighting against the Combine helicopter isn't boring or arbitrary and the Combine themselves are no cake walk in this mod either but its still fun. Look forward to Lord Game’s latest mod Eye of the Storm, until then go play this!
There may be even more good mods for Source games out there but their either unfinished by the authors themselves or I don't have the time and willingness to play them but I can't just go make a list of every mod I like. If their good enough I'll let everyone out there know.
The Lighthouse:
Another mod that uses an outdated version of Half Life 2, but unlike the mods below makes up for it with good game play. The voice acting could be a bit better, but there isn't much of it anyways. So nice I played it twice. I don't have any of the games that Viktor Lundberg has made maps for, but if this is any example then they must be pretty good. I did some reserach and found out that he works for DICE, so I guess single player mod makers could learn a thing or too about what makes a game good or bad.
Bad:
Mods that showed some promise but ended up bad in the end and don't even utilize Source Engine features properly.
Gateways:
Moddb.com
Some of you may hate me for this but I personally find this one boring and confusing with only the music and graphics being any good.
The Citizen:
Planetphillip.com
Even though it had a good story and above average voice acting that isn't enough to save this from being a bad mod. It doesn't even including the Citadel in the skybox while claiming to be set inside city 17. Another thing is that it has Metrocops fighting along side Overwatch troops, only the most noobish mods would even make that oversight. The skybox now has the Citadel, but even all the easter eggs can't save it from lousy voice actors and a lame story. Even the original textures didn't stand out as well as they do in other much better mods. I find this mod vastly overrated compared to much better ones.
City 7: Toronto Conflict:
Moddb.com
There is no excuse for using an outdated version of Source when it is released after Half Life 2 Episode 2, and seems to go out of its way to ignore was fun and cool about Half Life 2 especially when player training could have been used before the final battle. Respawning enemies and scripted sequences are not fun at all during puzzles. Also the city could have been more run down like City 17 was even if it is based upon locations in real life. The only thing that prevents this mod from being terrible is the part were you are forced to sneak around a Combine base, infact that was the only thing that was fun at all.
The ugly:
Mods so bad they ignore everything good about Source Engine games, crappy artistic design, making the game hard on the normal setting, trying to make the game play like a crappy console shooter (not even similar to Halo style game play and I like the Halo games despite never owning an Xbox) or just plane awful. Don't even bother wasting your time playing these.
Jail Escape.
Moddb.com
Bad voice acting, and crappy textures for even an older Half Life 2 mod.
CrySheild:
Moddb.com
Crappy textures, poor story, arbitrary Strider battle, and made little since all together. I want that one hour and a half of my life back.
Hl2-Infiltartion:
Moddb.com
I only bothered to play the first release of this mod and properly never getting its later releases. The comic book style of story telling was really irritating, even text story telling would have been much better. That alone doesn't make this one worth playing through again.
A Frayed Stitch in Time:
Moddb.com
Once again there is no excuse for using an outdated version of Source. I know (and which many others pointed out to me) for a fact that Half Life 2 Episode 1 updates can be used on the SDK base. I found the humor at the end a bit amusing but that wasn't enough to save this one from being awful. The author of this has time to improve or join a mod team to do better.
Outpost Xen:
Moddb.com
Another terrible mod, but I know for a fact that the maker of this one can and has done better. Now we only have to wait and see if the author can make a Half Life 2 mod that has more then thirty minutes of game play.
Resistor:
Planetphillip.com
It says you play as a Metrocop but the makers didn't even bother with a custom skin for the arms. Basically everything that I complained about that makes a terrible mod in the first place. It was so bad I replayed the final chapter of Portal to wash my eyes and mind of it.
City 14:
Moddb.com
It seems to start off good at first but it soon it’s glitchy and confusing, as it’s very easy to miss the airboat. At the very least the author admits this one sucks.
Residual Error
I know I said I wouldn't make comments about unfinished mods but this one was just so bad.
It plays like a crappy console shooter, rushing enemy encampments instead of lobbing grenades behind cover is not how players were trained in Half Life 2. The makers didn't even bother to make or add a Combine skin for the arms either.(I used one I like to keep on my computer) It gives player little to no hint of where their supposed to go. Metrocops and Combine Overwatch although aligned units is never done in any Half Life game. You also fight against the Citizens, but it gives no reason as to why their allied with the Overwatch. It uses an obsolete version of Source to run, instead of Source Test which at least uses Episode 1's updates. That kind of thing is only forgivable if it was a map pack but it isn’t.Hopefully Vol 2 of Residual Error will be better. I played Team Fortress 2 to wash my mind of this horrible mod.
Power station 17.
This one though good it seems good at first, it's just another example of bad mapping that gives no cover to players while fighting Combine, the physic ammo is put in the worst places, and your supposed to get your weapons from the Overwatch instead given them like the Half Life 2 games and good mods do. The maps design itself is rather poor, as some rooms branch off into two, leaving players to ignore one completely. The map maker seems to forget that the SMG grenade exists.Overwatch Soldiers just use the SMG, he seems to have forgotten that they can also use the Shotgun and Ar2.
It was virtually impossible to finish without having to use cheats. The final annoyance is that at about half way it loops HL1_song10.mp3 over and over until you reach a certain point.
The Gunship battle is extremely annoying as well, as continually respawning Overwatch artificially inflate the difficulty to irritating levels.It's like a bad Count Strike: Source map with Combine and headcrab zombies put in it.
I played the final chapters of Half Life 2 episode 2 to delete the awfulness that was this mod out of my head.
Wall that’s it for my least of complaints about mods I hate and praising the ones I liked. I know I have no idea how hard it is to make a mod in Source. I found it easier to compare bad ones to the mods I did like playing. Even if you don't agree it’s just my opinion anyways and I’ll make no apologies for it. Though I do for my bad grammar. Now to find the will to resist the urge to play Team Fortress 2 and make that review of Metastasis.
