Reviews - EmoLevelDesigner

Mod Review on Apr 9th, 2012

Under a suspicious name which looks like it was chosen to get some undeserved attention we find very complex Half-Life 2 mod.

The design, the atmosphere, everything is totally new, all textures and models were also replaced. You will visit a lot of various places.

The gameplay contains very challenging environmental puzzles, where we have to carefully explore the place to find a way to advance. They are all solveable, just require some time to think.

The battles were made more challenging due to lack of armor and silent grenades without lights. Some battles were so hard that I had to resort to taking medkits from the console, and entering the console before I die was challenging.

Having all weapons under one button is a strange design decision: that's not convenient (maybe the author is a big fan of mouse wheel?). Also, it would be great to have options to turn off film grain and black bars. And subtitles would help a lot.

The weapon models are new, but the reload animations show the author's limited skills: the weapon goes down, and then back up with full clip. Thankfully, the author came up with some nice ideas which are possible to realise even with her limited skills, so some reload animations are pleasing to look at.

The police/crowd control acts very similar to combine from HL2, but there are also new enemies: funny robots "nanny", which are usually found in the mud for some reason, there are also non-android dangerous robots.

Some encounters with resistance members made me happy: warm colours, pleasing song plays. It's really a great idea to make them this way.

The odd ending leaves too many questions: what was real and what was not?

Overall, this is a big release worth playing, top-notch mod. An adventure in the city that you've never seen before. Maybe you will enjoy this new atmosphere a lot, maybe you'll be unable to understand and feel it, but nevertheless, this is a big event in Half-Life 2 modding history and I recommend to try this mod.

Mod Review on Sep 15th, 2011 - 3 people agree
This review may contain spoilers

The beginning of this mod is unusual - we ride in the prisoner pod through some Combine buildings. Then we see a window and understand that we are in the Citadel.

A story twist - and we are resting on the sofa in the comfortable flat, but there's no time for resting, because CPs are getting close, so we have to retreat to the old church.

The design is excellent. We are in some unknown city, and while in general everything is very similar to Half-Life 2, there are many unique details. The elements of Half-Life 2 are skillfully combined with originality. There are some admirable little details which are a little scary: we hear hits in the door, open it, and - phew! - the CP's are knocking into another door, not ours! We break the wooden door and see a zombie on the other side who helped us break it.

It's too bad that the new dialogues don't have subtitles: it's hard to understand them, especially when speech is drowned by loud sounds.

There is some originality in the gameplay, too. The battle with antlion guard is something that I've never seen before.

In the end we'll have a glimpse on fantastic original location. I hope we'll be able to run, jump and swim there in the future.

This mod has many familiar things, but they are done differently, so it's definitely worth playing.

Mod Review on Aug 30th, 2011 - 1 person agrees

Eclipse is an excellent mod. New gameplay, new content, new world, beautiful graphics, spectacular cutscenes.

Mod Review on Aug 2nd, 2011

My favourite mod. Very fun gameplay, excellent music which fits exceptionally well, original level design, various locations. Unusual controls make the first playthrough very thrilling, but the health and armor are enough to keep it from being frustrating.