Reviews - J.C.D.

While I fully understand this mod is intended to be a light enhancement to FEAR, it doesn't quite feel like anything too special, and in my opinion makes a few negative changes that affect the overall game a bit too much.

First the positives:

+ New sound design is outstanding and a joy to listen to on my surround sound headphones.

+ New shaders are great and make the game's aged models and textures feel much less "plasticy" than they were before. (However there are a few flickering lights that are bugged out and now overbright.)

+ The new laser gun is quite nice and oddly, not overly unbalanced. Powerful, but not super overpowered. Only wish it wasn't limited to one drop throughout the whole game.

+ Many of the new effects are gorgeous.

+ More decals sticking around, plus being able to gib enemies easier, is welcome.

Now the negatives.

- The only AI difference I've noticed is that the Replica Soldiers seem a lot more aggressive, even on normal. This puts you feeling like you're on the backfoot a lot more than in vanilla, which I'm not sure is a good thing.

- Replica Soldiers are also MUCH more accurate, which... I'm not a fan of. They feel too aimbot-like now and this is accentuated by their increased aggression.

- New effects are gorgeous, but a bit too much at times to where it creeps into interfering with visual clarity in a battle. The new gibbing inparticular creates a really gorgeous cloud of blood that slowly falls and settles onto the ground, but this tends to leave you with difficulty seeing the enemies behind their now deceased comrade, while they continue shooting you with perfect accuracy.

- Blood decals have been changed to a much darker, kind of ugly shade of red. I don't like that, FEAR Vanilla's blood was gorgeously red and popped. :(

Overall, the mod is fine, but nothing special. If anything however it made me really appreciate the progress Gunship has made with HL2: MMod, a mod so good paired with HL2 Update that I really don't think there's a reason to play HL2 vanilla anymore. So, Gunship, you've improved a lot since this mod, keep it up! I look forward to seeing what you do with HL2 MMod down the road. :)

Even if this is simply a straight port, I could still suggest playing it over the original Half-Life simply for the little enhancements like the lighting, ragdoll physics, and improved effects.

... COULD suggest...

Simply put; Valve stopped caring about this port a long time ago. Numerous Source Engine updates have left this version of Half-Life in a severe state of disrepair because Valve simply does not make a any fixes. It's understandable why, however, as HL:S was panned from the beginning for being little more than a simple port, therefore updating Half-Life Source has remained very low on Valve's to-do list... Adn we all know how Valve Time works.

Half-Life Source was my first experience with Half-Life, and I enjoyed it. I was playing back in 2011-2012 ish before the SteamPipe update and beyond severely broke the game.

Simply put, in the current state it is in, Half-Life Source is only worth it if you have Garry's Mod and want the ragdolls and other assets for use there.

If Half-Life Source wasn't left in the severe state of disrepair it is today, I'd recommend it along the lines of "if you're going to play Half-Life, you might as well play the slightly enhanced version; Half-Life Source."

Although some may notice the assault rifle is less accurate in this version... But only in the hands of you.

Not much to say. It's a fun tech demo that you'll probably play through once or twice. Short, sure, but fun. Really nothing's wrong with it.

Source Engine still looks sexy in the midst of 2017's hyper-realistic graphics. :P

Easily the best Half-Life title out there.

A fantastic mod, aside perhaps from the extraordinarily high damage output of units and slightly skewing the balance, I would highly recommend this to any CCG player looking for a fun time. The updated unit models and textures are quite nice, while the graphical effects are amazing as well.
One note: there is a distinct lack of hotkeys for the new units, which may annoy some players. Aside from that, though, it's a very good mod overall and definitely worth a play.

Quite an incredible mod. The AI is now SUPER awesome. Not without a few hiccups, but awesome nontheless.
I would highly recommend this mod to anyone who is bored of the old AI.

This mod has so much potential... Yet so much that kind of kills a lot of that potential...

Do I like the mod? Yes, but it could be a lot more fun than it is.

The campaigns... Ohhh the campaigns. They look so sloppily put together with very little effort that it's just kinda sad tbh.

In fact the whole mod looks sloppy.

Skirmish is actually a lot of fun, though, and is probably this mod's greatest strength. The idea of all your zombie's operating on a "food" supply (the normal power generated by like a power plant) is actually quite cool and I want to see something like that done in more mods. However, again, everything looks like it thrown together with minimal effort. It's still pretty cool, but a huge let down.

Is this mod worth a try? YES. VERY YES. Unfortunately, I'd only recommend it if you are willing to deal with a lot of little stuff that can get in the way of fun.

I will definitely say though that there are quite a few bits of coding here that I think other modders should learn from, such as the melee attacks; they're awesome!

GIANT ROCK-THROWING [doesn't look very much like a] ZOMBIE FTW, THOUGH!! XD

This game has the potential to be the world's single greatest movie tie-in ever, which is saying a lot given how poor movie tie-ins games tend to be. You can tell their hearts were in it on making this game, and it shows, but unfortunately the final product reeks of being rushed and is an obvious beta.

Not all is bad. Beating the snot out of mindless badguys has its appeal, and you will find a few times when the game really makes you feel like you're kicking butt in The Matrix, and the story does do some nice tieing-in with The Matrix Reloaded, if being -very- void of the main cast (Neo? He's mentioned a lot but his literally only seen twice in the game for about 5 seconds total), and you're a die-hard Matrix fan like me you will cringe when you hear the couple peaces of diologue given by characters as key plot point or at least big points that directly contradict The Matrix Reloaded.

Long story short, the game reeks of being rushed but can be a genuinely fun time, especially near the end (but, spoilers: the final level itself is utter crap), but I'd mostly recommend this to die-hard Matrix fans who want a few extra bits of plot for The Matrix Reloaded.

The idea of the mod is solid enough: make everything dilbrately overpowered and make it all cutzy and over the top and as INSANE as possible!

I like that.

Execution of the idea is overall solid, but not without its quirks.

Namely the Scorpion Tank you gave the China Tank General has its shells coming out of its underside, which means it usually strikes the ground unless it's completely flat or is higher than its target.

Kwai's Mine Tank is awesome except for the fact that it will try to shoot through walls and buildings and through cliffs. Gets rather irritating.

Another thing, which for me doesn't affect my rating but I find worth mentioning is that the music is mixed bag IMO. But that's purely a matter of personal taste and something I can resolve by just deleting the .big file that manages to new music. :)

You also forgot to include a generals.csf file in the Possible Final Release, so I get a bunch of "MISSING:InsertStringOfWordsHere" when playing. :P

But the changes that do work work well and are pretty cool. Balance I guess isn't totally consistent but then again this strikes me as a mod that is meant to be silly and make everything overpowered and goofy.

Overall, nice work. Great mod, good fun. :)