Reviews - Cossack-HD

Best Xen experience ever! Great level and game design there, along with cool visuals.

The rest of the game had lots of good moments, but overall pacing felt a little loose and a somehow directionless. But it was still easy to find the way forward.

The "earth" chapters felt like mix of Half-Life, CS Deleted Scenes and Poke 646, in a good way!

The arsenal is overall a positive, as are most of the animation and gameplay changes surrounding them. Each weapon has its own ammo type, so it's never a shame to dump some ammo with the SMG. M16 is with its beefier rounds was quite welcome.

This definitely goes into my personal top 5 HL1 mods.
Not entirely perfect, but giving it a 9/10 would be a shame.

It's a fantastic mod, especially for people who like Opposing Force: same spirit, more playtime, fresh ideas and well implemented QoL features.
As much as this deserves a 10/10 (especially compared to other mods), sadly there are few hitches.

Pros:
-Interesting game and level design
-(Mostly) good direction despite really sprawling levels
-Varied enemies, weaponry and situations
-Some areas look very nice, bringing best of Half-Life vibes while also pushing Gold Source to higher fidelity (and without performance problems).
-Somehow Xen is good? It's on par with Blue Shift's Xen, but has interesting mechanics and unique looking areas.
-There are cut enemies re-implemented and they are very well implemented.
-There are action packed scenes with lots of enemies
-I don't think I've seen a single flaw in geometry/brushwork despite the amount of details.
-There are almost no boring corridors, most areas feel like they have purpose.

Cons (long list of small problems):
-The first few levels are a bit stale and more confusing than the rest, even frustrating
-There is jarring contrast between the new voice acting and standard HECU voice lines
-M16 is IMO a bad taste. It doesn't make sense for MP5 to deal less damage than the pistol, let alone M16 (even if chambered in 9mm).
-Sometimes it feels like enemy placement doesn't make sense (a few groups of black ops placed between aliens, doesn't feel like they belong there).
-Some areas do overstay their welcome, and it can be unclear which door or vent is accessible -There are lights and hints that show the direction, but some areas lack them.
-The plot twist didn't really work for me (I expected something else), but it's not an important event anyway.

Will definitely replay this on hard difficulty some time later. Medium was somewhat challenging.

Only played Division 2 (2022 release).
There are only few nitpicks to critic, because the rest is nearly perfect. The game has plenty of pleasant surprises, great (slow-er and immersive) pacing, lots of old lore and cut NPCs well implemented and presented throughout.

The gameplay is just a tiny bit less streamlined than in HL2, which matches the more old-school aesthetic and overall atmosphere (more sprawling levels with LOTS of detail to take in), though I never got stuck anywhere for longer than in HL2 on first play-through.

Here are small issues I'd report on:
Few assets have higher fidelity than other nearby objects, which is jarring (certain wood crate for example).

A ladder in an early section of the game is easy to miss because it looks too similar to the background concrete/bricks. Interestingly, the issue of lacking visual hints doesn't appear later through the mod.

The revolver is easy to miss. No idea where you are supposed to pick it, and it doesn't reappear later. I found ammo for it, at 3 different spots, and then spawned the revolver itself via console.

The weapons are a bit bland. Perhaps some vertical recoil for the AKM, better first shot accuracy for MP9 and ability to ADS with the revolver could improve the situation.
You can snipe with the resolver using Z for zoom, but it's not satisfying because you can't see the ragdoll flying (need to release Z to shoot).

There should be a longer ride from last combine outpost to Eli's lab, because otherwise the entrance is just too close to the combine controlled area. A calm, scenic ride during sunset would be nice.

The phys gun "holding" loop sound is loud and distracting, more so than HL2's.

The airboat can get stuck in few awkward spots, but grenades solve it every time ;)

Bandits in cloaks are literal bullet sponges.
Weather effects seem to be randomized with each save load, some look like acid trip (black fog with sun shining)

It's not 10/10 technically, but considering it's a passion project with great emotional impact, novel game design ideas and superb atmosphere, I wouldn't give this any less, because Echoes deserves to stand out with high score.

This mod takes more modern story-telling techniques and packs them into classic Half-Life style scenes and gameplay situations. NPC interactions in such scenes are brought to whole new level. There also is cut content and concepts from Half-Life 1, integrated in very interesting ways.

The upgraded visuals are welcome, but contrast between higher detail NPCs and lower detail ones is sometimes too jarring.

The updated sounds manage to keep the classy atmosphere while sounding "fresh", but some are too loud or pitched in a weird way.

The levels are quite detailed and realistic-ish looking, but it's never (except for one place) hard to figure out where you have to go thanks to clever use of lights.

Health, armor, weapons and ammo are well placed throughout the game. There are some side areas that reward you with extra.

In my opinion, on real scale from 0 to absolute perfection this would land at 8/10

Biggest points of critique would be:
1. Poor optimization. Some areas are way too complex for Gold Source to handle without weird framepacing issues.
2. Music was too forced at places, especially in the first third of the game.
3. Some places felt "too directed" and some sequences too forced (first half of the game)
4. Too much darkness in my opinion.

I haven't played past "We've got hostiles" yet, but can say that I absolutely like it so far and will play through whole mod. Looking forward for eventual updates!

Some game design feels very uncooked and not logical. In a way it's charming and inspired by Half-Life alpha (a bit chaotic level design - it's a weird mix between Quake and Half-Life), but I think some other parts should be more logical, e.g. zombies in the offices shouldn't breach out of caves, but instead some storage rooms etc.

A few issues to iron out:
1. The box puzzle sucks, it's too complicated and too rough. The wires around the boxes prevent movement (shouldn't have collision IMO) and when you stand on the box while it stops moving upward, you get stuck in the box. So i noclip-ed out of that box, analyzed the puzzle and skipped it all together because once I realized it was timing based (aint got time to figure out button order and do parkour on those bugged boxes with wires that hinder movement). Maybe it was optional, since the levels seem to be more unlinear, but concept of optional puzzles kinda deviates from the retail's phylosophy (especially since the original had very similar puzzle and it was mandatory).

2. Getting stuck on elevator when changing level and losing health - feels like unpatched Half-Life indeed :D

3. Some levels are too big and it affects performance (stutters) - would be better to split such levels into smaller.

Feels like a proper game now, loving the hardcore!

Addictive, funny, looks great, sounds even better. Lots of possibilities for team work, lots of different tactics to chose from.

Better than average HL mod.

Pros: nice level design, attention to details in the first part of the game. The transit zone in the beginning is stunning to see on this engine.
There are some small gameplay related surprises.

Cons: reused design ideas of HL, OPFOR and BSHIFT. No clear story progression - you just wander around completely pointlessly, and then - sudden ending, as if the mod wasn't finished.

Conclusion: mod without any idea, but with great content. I usually play projects which have somewhat good idea but but execution, here I see good execution but no idea (story-wise) whatsoever. There's literally less story in this mod than in DOOM in 2/3 of the mod.