Koranis
Chris joined
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Reviews
MAPS
It’s not bad and it gets better but it never shines. I’ve never stopped to say “wow” so I’ll say it’s “Average”.
GAMEPLAY
Anything that works is simply because of the game that is Half Life, which is still fun today and that gameplay hasn’t been augmented by the author in any way. On the contrary, it has been hindered by the way to frequent, way to annoying and way to amateurish 3rd person cutscenes. I understand what Leon and fans of his work say, and I respect those opinions. But this is my review, based on my experience and I must say it’s lacking. The 3rd person cutscenes are annoying as hell, they interrupt the gameplay flow and force an exposition on the player, without adding anything meaningful, in part because Source Engine simply hasn’t been made for it.
SOUND
I don’t like when a music is forced on me. The first time I heard an out of place music in this mod (taken from another game by the way) I hurried to mute the music altogether, only to find out I just couldn’t. Even if I muted it completely, the music continued on with the same volume as before. I had to quicksave and reload to make it go away. That’s shoddy.
OVERALL PRESENTATION
It is sadly a collection of out-of-topic assets slapped together, not because it had a modicum of sense (it didn’t by the way, Star Trek shuttle I’m looking at you) but because the author simply could do it, and so he did – because this was his artistic view. Fair enough, but this artistic view didn’t tell me anything, didn’t convince me, and left me uninterested.
And until now I avoided to mention the elephant in the room: the pretentious title “Episode 3”, and even if I will continue to avoid it, I will say this:
Think twice if you expect a Valve-quality Episode 3 mod. Think twice if you expect a visually coherent, well-thought-out mod contained within the Half Life 2 universe. You also must be a fan of the author’s previous work to be able to appreciate it. Tastes matter here, more than anywhere else.
I won’t say you should avoid it, but I will certainly say again that you should think twice and temper your expectations if you decide to give it a go.
