Reviews - PsyWarVeteran

This is a mod that tried something different and not many people noticed it. It's not perfect by any means but still worth playing regardless.

The first thing you'll notice is how the quests are handled. Basically, the PDA is useless in this mod. While everything you need to know is in the dialogs and most of the time the hints are highlighted in a different color text as to draw attention, your active quests never show up in the PDA. I enjoy figuring things out by myself, I even love the "needle-in-haystack" situations soup mods mainly use but this seems overkill to me. I'm not asking for a big shiny quest marker showing me exactly the item I need to take or who to talk to, but a reminder of the quest instead, it's what the PDA is for after all. It could have been logged as "The hunter told me to search the village" and then it's your job to find the item you need or "I should find and talk to the stalker's friend", things like that.

There are both new and edited maps from the original game. Generally, I found the maps a bit too big and empty. The creator clearly has talent and apart from some minor mapping errors like floating objects there aren't any big problems, if only they were more compact and polished. They are also not utilized well, you may have a giant, interesting map but there are only two quests attached to it.

Speaking of polish, there is a general lack of it in this mod. You can do quests before quest givers give them to you, after that they'll act like we've spoken before. The dialogs are weirdly spaced and full of typos, the ending screen is warped, normal fauna is added to the Zone, there are elk, foxes and wolves but you only see them at the beginning and never again, elk still use boar noises and so on.

Since the mod takes place fifteen years after the Zone is abandoned there is no economy, no traders, no ammo, health and other things to buy. To find them you have to look for stashes which are scattered around nicely, exploration is always welcome in STALKER mods.

All of these may make it seem like the mod is horrible but it has a certain charm. It's fun to roam around in familiar maps that have changed so much, the initial clue hunt for your brother is interesting, I really enjoyed some of the combat scenarios and so on. If you can overlook the lack of polish and like exploration, this is a mod worth playing.

First, this isn't a ten minute mod like the description says. It has six maps of varying lengths. I'd say this is more of a twenty - twenty five minute mod if you like exploration. I think the creator is underselling it :) Second, the mod is described as having the goal of keeping the HL feeling. After playing it I can say that it's not exactly like HL but definitely feels like something that very well may have been released back in the day. This is a positive in my book, I love old-school mods like this.

Despite the name, Downlink has very little to do with Uplink. The goal is the same and the starting area is reminiscent of Uplink but the similarities end there. Instead, the mod has some cool unique ideas here and there. For example, there are some fun horror sequences like discovering a hanging scientist after turning the lights on or an unexpected, semi-hidden zombie scare, it's good stuff. In one area you use a small missile to blow open a locked door, just an enjoyable little spectacle. There is also new voice acting and it's good too.

The brushwork is on the simpler side and while it's just right at the beginning, it becomes blockier with each new map besides some expections (the pipe area outside was great). Generally, outdoor areas are weaker than indoors, which is something we commonly see in HL modding scene. The reason for this is same as usual: Flat mountains and unnatural geometry. There is a general lack of polish in maps, you can send the uplink device to the surface without opening the doors first, it just clips through. You can open a hatch that has objects on top, making the door ignore it, HEV and first-aid stations are as big as people and so on. The ambient sounds are very lacking in some areas too, it's simply too quiet. All in all, the mapping isn't perfect but I enjoyed many of the sections regardless. There are also some goodies sprinkled to nooks and crannies which I always appreciate, exploration should be rewarded.

Overall, Downlink is a flawed but fun old-school mod. It's not that long and the ending is a bit abrupt, but it's definitely unexpected. If you like classic style mods, give it a go.

PS. to the developer: I found the "lovers" :)

EDIT: ModDB has removed the mod. This became the second most popular mod of the whole site under a week of release, beating 54,431 others, and they got rid of it. Are you seeing how sad and baffling things are?

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Limiting peoples options just to further an agenda is pathetic, what the hell do you think modding is for?

Sites like "Nexus Mods" will host thousands of despicable 18+ uploads and even go as far as allowing mods that sexualize children, but whenever someone changes a flag texture or edits text like this they flip out, their hypocrisy is laughable.

Some are digging their own graves in advance and they don't even realize it.

Rockstar's underrated classic, there haven't been anything close to this series ever again. The blend of stealth, action and horror grounded in reality, where the real monsters are humans, just like in real life.

This game and its sequel aren't simple, brainless shock and gore-fests, unlike many thinks. Few people seem to be able to see the spark behind Manhunt, instead of following the herd and viewing it nothing more than "that one game where you brutally murder people". Both that disdainful, blind hate and, the exact opposite, childish praise that comes only from the violence factor and nothing else, damaged and still damages the reputation of these games.

Manhunt is a series that is negatively affected both by some biased and unfair critics and unhealthy "fans" who are aware of it only because of the gore and killing. This is a great game ruined by fifteen year old edgelords, mentally ill gorefiends who should be hospitalized and "Manhunt All Executions | HD | 60FPS" bros who only care for revenue.

What you can expect from Manhunt:

- Decent stealth & action sections
- Varied levels that contain new ideas and set-pieces with varying size and quality
- Great music and sound effects
- Well written and acted dialog
- Surprisingly tame violence than what many thinks

This is a very unique stealth / action game with dark and gritty atmosphere, crafted with that usual, early Rockstar magic. Take a good look, as you will never see something like this ever again.

This is a well made little mappack. You can tell the creator knew what he was doing, alongside very pleasing brushwork there are also nice minor details everywhere. The pack takes place about six hours after the BM disaster and it really feels like we're late to the party. There are bodies everywhere and barely any friendlies left, it feels lonely for sure.

With only three maps and quality work like this there isn't much to say or critique. My only, very minor, issue is that you can kill a scientist that you need to open a door and the game doesn't end then and there, it's a potential progress stopper. Other than that, I didn't have any issues with this mappack. It's a solid, ten minutes adventure.

I always liked how older mods mostly set their plots to be about the most extreme and ambitious things and still made it all work without getting caught up in details. It was like the Wild West back in the late 90s to early to mid 2000s, people didn't care how outlandish their ideas were, they just mapped them, and we got great experiences that put fun first above everything else, while commonly doing away with everything else, quality control and coherence included.

Intolerable Threat is one of those mods. We learn that G-Man has taken over a base in Arizona and planning to go against the government with the help of his mercenaries. We, as the special agent Freeman, have to stop his plans by infiltrating the base and killing him. It's nothing we'd see nowadays: Secret bases? Agents? G-Man being anything other than that one guy who watches you from unreachable places and making deep, lore heavy remarks that makes those who are obsessed with lore and the canon of the series pull their hair out? Unthinkable :)

Even though I appreciate the fun premise, the execution hasn't been that smooth. First things first, the mapping quality is inconsistent. It starts out average, improves in some places heavily like the enemy base, starts to decline in quality rapidly in the middle, only to improve towards the end yet again. In one area you have to wait for a couple of soldiers to fight some aliens but their AI and some map issues prevent them from having a quick fight, so you wait and wait for them to shoot every alien so that the script to let you out gets triggered, it's frustrating. After that we come across a more eye-pleasing area and you notice immediately that it was created by a different person. Not because we see a character speak using text for the first time or the brushwork looks better but because the creator's name pops up immediately when the map starts! Inconsistencies like this is the result of this being made by a team of mappers, it's obvious that people with different levels of skill were involved in mapping. It sometimes feels like a map collab project and even though I like collabs, I'd be lying if I said it didn't affect the experience. This is a single mod after all, it has to have a coherent story, style and gameplay.

The mod is built on Opposing Force so it has everything the expansion brought to the table plus some new skins and sounds. The new sounds are taken from different games and it seems the creators and me have similar taste in games :) It's both jarring and funny to hear barneys and grunts howl with the voice of Blood's cultists, also, it seems we're playing as Caleb himself, just fall down from a high enough place and see :)

Overall, this is a pretty long, but like mentioned before, inconsistent experience. You may like some sections while hating others. The ending is pretty abrupt too. That "well done, the end" text comes out of nowhere and it just ends. If you're looking for a long, mostly gruntfest experience with OP4 features however, this might scratch that itch.

Instinct is somewhat of a hidden gem, if it had came out nowadays it would be praised due to its quality, however, as is, it pretty much flew under the radar of everyone. It reminds me of HL mods of today with its serious feel and vanilla style instead of a mid 2000s mod.

The biggest strength of the mappack is its levels. The mapping and brushwork is top notch, every map is full of details and good looking architecture, though it can get a bit samey at times. Despite taking place in Black Mesa again, the environments doesn't look like BM, it has a more industrial feel to it, not a minus of course, just wanted to mention it. Another thing that differs from HL is the tone of it. This is one of those mods / mappacks that feel lonely, you see a couple of friendly npcs in the first few maps and that's it. Most of the time you'll be fighting aliens and grunts in dark and gloomy areas without witnessing a scripted sequence involving barneys or scientists, hearing them talk, leading them somewhere etc.

Now, the elephant in the room: The pack is unfinished, it abruptly stops after a boss fight with Gonarch. To me this isn't a big deal, just imagine a fade to black after you kill the creature, even with a proper send off it would be an abrupt ending however. That being said, with ten maps of varying length, the experience doesn't feel that short despite the sudden end.

Overall, this is a well made mappack that doesn't have much going for it beside the high quality maps. You don't have puzzles, people to speak to or use in meaningful ways, scripted sequences that would breathe life into the game world etc. and it's unfinished on top of that. Still, I recommend people to try it at least once, there is a fun, quality mappack here despite it flaws.

Infinite Shift clearly has passion behind it but sadly it's not enough to salvage it. What we have here is a pretty barebones, blocky and clunky experience.

As mentioned, the mapping and brushwork is pretty blocky and undetailed, even for the time. At best the maps look mediocre though they are not without variety. The whole, twelve map experience feels like a retelling of HL's events while you're in a hurry. You fight with aliens, then come soldiers, the tentacle, train section, dark assassin room and finally the ending.

The mod originally needed Blue Shift to run but beside some animations of BS used in simple scripted sequences there isn't anything justifying it being based on the expansion pack. In-fact, the only thing that makes this a mod and not a mappack is the fact that hgrunts being changed into robogrunts.

Overall, this isn't a terrible experience by any means, there is fun to be had here and a few funny scenarios to witness, but there isn't anything that makes it a good mod either. Blocky design and lack of any meaningful scripted sequences combined with poor balancing makes Infinite Shift a "one and done" deal. You can try it as there are much worse out there, but I don't know if anyone would return for a second playthrough.

One of the many projects of very talented Tylak, who kept improving with each new release. Infinite Rift may very well be the best of his HL work.

What we have here is a medium length, pretty well designed mappack. The mapping and brushwork is the definition of old-school, though it would be just called regular mapping back in the day :) The maps all have the right amount of detail in every area.

The pack starts with a nice little intro cutscene and similar, brief cutscenes show up here and there in various areas too. We have a scientist friend guiding us via text messages, which is a fun idea. Beside the usual run 'n gun we have some inventive sections such as sneaking past scientist who'll run to the alarm button as soon as they see us or an area where you need to stay in a certain spot for a time as to not lose connection, all while getting attacked by soldiers, it's good stuff. The titular "Infinite Rift" machine provides some great visuals towards the end too.

Finally, this is one of the very few mods I recommend playing on Hard difficulty. Normally I dislike the bulletspongy enemies it brings but this mappack is so easy that it would balance itself. I have been playing this for years now and never once have I died nor did I walked around with less than 70% armor.

Overall, we have a very well made, fun mappack with decent playtime. I recommend this pack to everyone who's itching for a good, old-school experience.

First off, hats off to the creator for releasing this. This mod come out after twelve years of development hell, we don't commonly see something like that. That being said, how is the actual mod?

The mapping and brushwork is very impressive, it doesn't look or feel like Black Mesa, but I'd still call this an old-school styled mod. You're in a lab, there's a disaster, aliens pop up, you kill them and try to escape while doing so, the good stuff, it's pretty long too.
I don't think anyone can deny the mod looks good, but to my surprise, it was basically the only thing that was a positive for me. With "Infected" it's not about the quality of the maps, it's the little things that add up and affect the overall experience negatively. I'll go over them shortly:

- The darkness. This is the only big issue I have among all these smaller ones, the maps are very dark. Seriously, the moonlit outdoor sections are brighter than every research facility room and area. There are some outdoor maps that are so bright that without seeing the night skybox, I wouldn't know it was taking place during the night, it's bizarre. There are sections where you have too battle all black wearing assassins and black ops in the darkness, and unsurprisingly, fighting with enemies that I can barely see isn't fun.

- The gameplay doesn't have set rules. What does that mean? Think back to HL, you know instantly which crates are breakable and what is a usable button right? It's all set up nicely. In this mod some crates are sometimes breakable, other times not. Many buttons cannot be used but the mod expects you to use others, never letting you adjust to the rules, because there is none.

- Enemies are not very fun to fight against. Commonly, the enemies you'll face are bulletsponges. Black Ops, voltigores and shock troopers are abundant. Beside the "SAW + Voltigore" strategy, I never find these enemies fun to fight against. The black ops could have easily been regular grunts with proper head hitboxes.

- An electrician wearing a power vest and night vision goggles? While it's a weird decision, it's not that big of deal and definitely nothing that'll affect the score of this mod. I just wanted to mention this because there are much better ways to do this, why not start with the suit instead for example?

- The goal isn't always clear. There are moments where you go "what now?" "I pushed this button, what now?" or "I'm back into this area, what now?". Believe me, I'm not easily stumped in GoldSRC and to its credit, the mod isn't that cryptic that you search for ten minutes to figure out what to do, but I'd be lying if everything flowed nicely without issue.

- Weapon decisions. There are some weird weapons given to us that make others redundant. For example, who's going to use the revolver when you've given me the deagle? Maybe some people will prefer the revolver, I can see that, but why give me both the crowbar and the knife? Who will return to crowbar after the knife :)
It may seem like variety to some, but all it does is messing with my muscle memory while selecting weapons, especially the melee.

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These may seem like nitpicks but all of them combined do affect the experience. However, despite the issues I had with it, I enjoyed the mod. There were quality maps, some hit and miss humor and fun action towards the end. The ending is abrupt and the credits song chosen is baffling but I'm not going to criticize a mod that's twelve years in the making for its sudden ending, I'm sure the creator wanted to be done with it as soon as possible :)