Reviews - SolidFake

Great mod,

the mapping is really awesome and there are a lot of great areas where you stand still in awe. My favourite part got to the spooky forest, which was done really well and kept the atmosphere perfectly. The story is fast but still great considering how much they pack into such a short mod, it is suprising, the narration is done well, the npc animations fit (except that "let's do it" armswing ^^) and the presentation of it is really good.

The reason why I don't give 10 is because of the combine combat, the mapper didn't use the full potential of them, most of the time they are just rushing. 90% when there is a door you can be sure that combines will rush through it any second now. But this rushlike combat kinda gives the mod it's own feel, which was probably the intention of the author, I can't say, I can only say that I feel tactical combat against combines much better than getting rushed by 5 combines door after door.
The zombie chapters were absolutely fantastic though. It is strange, how the author makes them so well compared to the rather weak combine combat.
The puzzle are also really good, nothing big here but all of them are solid and logical. Also the item placement is quite good, and the last level (train) was pretty fun and gave you a good feeling. Though I hoped the end fight would have been a bit more challenging?

There are also some small bugs, translation problems and an overusage or bloom, but these are minor problems.

Great mod, perfect if you want some small fast half life action which still carries a good story line.

probably the only suicide terrorist simulation out there

it asks many many question by giving you a simple choice of pressing a button;
if you have the power to kill, who do you care for and who not? Are civil casualties neccesary? Who are the 'bad' guys? Or, after all, is there a 'good' and a 'bad'?

For sure it would need plenty of polish, akward animations, no real interaction between humans and too fast running text screens, but for what it tries to achieve it is more than enough.

Amazing mod.

Good level design, amazing story and narration (even with subtitles!) and genuine gameplay with great horror moments make this one of the best mods ever created.

Fantastic

The mod is sadly very, very short, and also throws you straight into the pit with too little introduction to slowly increasing horror scenes in ym opinion, which probably was because of how short it is in general.

The ambience is not bad, but could need a lot of work. Like hearing the crows at the beginning was nice, but it would have been even nicer to actually see some flying away.

The level design is okay, but sometimes looks very "wacky". At the beginning you feel like a giant from how the terrain is build up, and the cave don't feature much diversity.

The horror moments are okay, some extremely overused yet effective ones and some innovative ones.

The 'puzzles' were a disappointment, you can't really call pressing a button or removing a stone a puzzle imo.

Yet, with more episodes and a highly increased playlenght this might become something better.

At first let me tell you that I review the 1.0 version here.

This mod is one single masterpiece. It takes a place now in my hall of fame hl2 mod list in my head, I wish I could give it a 10, I really wish, but sadly there are some flaws which makes it impossible todo so for me.

The good things:
This mod does have a straight out amazing atmosphere. Everything fits, the level design is impressive to revolutioning. You walk over house roofs then down to the canals to get back into a house to cross the ravine over a broken vent shaft, myo where are you taking me next?! The level design is one of the best, not only does the level designer understand how make linear ways look everything else than linear, she also understands to make the world around realistic, there are often just empty rooms whith nothing in it, and that is great. Also there is a lot of detailed work, you can see stuff lying around everywhere, and every passage looks yet different than the one before. The textures, soundtrack and sounds are also extremely well done and together with the level design it makes places really 'feel' like being real.
Every level designer out there could watch this and pretty sure learn a thing or too from it, simply fantastic.
The fights are okay, ranging from easy to hard to frustratign, but overall they nearly never seem to be unfair and you ever fight accross a great variation of combat areas.
The story is okay but could have told better, sometimes it is hard to understand the (great) voice actors and to follow the story, you often forget what you are actually doing there.

The bad thing:
The few bugs are not really the problem, but the problem is the sometimes pretty unlogic ways and some extremely unlogic situations.
You often have no goddamn clue of where to walk on, I only made it from habing hundreds of hours experience with such mods. And often you die without knowing what happened, my favourite are the flower pots which crush on your head and instantly kill you.

Seriously, I had my hopes high for this mod from watching a lot of videos, screenshots and reading many reviews.

Before I start, let me say quickly that I played already houndreds of half life 2 mods, and I am a hobby level designer myself, so if you can't agree with my opinion, then it is not because I don't know any better but probably just because you like such mods which doesn't count for me.

I heard that the mod is hard, but even a hard game needs to balanced in terms of combat, health placement, weapons and so on.
At first, the enemy placement is probably one of the worst I have seen so far. It feels that enemies were just placed randomly after the levels were created, without giving a single thought about combat. You meet a big room with a good half a dozen of enemies in it, you have absolutely no place to hide or guard yourself, only a big wide corridor that leads into a big empty room. Combine that to the amount of dmg even a single enemy can do, it is simply put bad game design.
Oh, and not to forget that to make it even more random, enemies are placed behind you, unlocked doors misteriously open to unleash soldiers, and the most annoying thing, enemies teleport in front and behind you in the worst situations possible, like when you are in a fight with soldiers at the moment.
And holy crap, I already thought that this was the worst part until I came to the tunnel with the railway tracks. The level designers just made a big (but good looking, giving them that) area and put A HUNDREDS OF ZOMBIES in it. Really? Is that your opinion of exciting combat? That was when I ultimately said to myself, okay, I am going to uninstall this prime example of horrible design, review it and untrack it then.
And that guy who walks with you, he either dies in a second by getting stuck somewhere or annoys the **** out of you with bugging out.
This mod is a railshooter with neat looking maps and models randomly thrown into it, but with nearly no effort put into gameplay.

An absolute masterpiece for the community we have here!

The mod starts calm, with a nice escape scene but quickly starts to get fully flexible.
The mapping is excellent, not very often that you see such a polished mapping in a mod, all areas where visually extremely attracting (especially the last level, I was just WOW), the lighting and the texturing is perfect and all the different areas are fit together in a nice and steady way.
The gameplay was interesting, while you miss some certain weapons, like the RA or grenades, it was very enjoyful, which is mostly cause of the very good enemy placement and some small scripted scenes. Also the areas in which you are fight are very interesting. Then end battle was really nice and I loved that little guy ^^
The puzzles were all very clear and intuitive, never had the feeling of having no clue about where to go, but also was never disappointed by too easy puzzles.
The music appears not often, but is well done. Only I missed a music part where you have to wait for the garage door to open up and defend against the coming screamers.

All in all, perfectly polished, perfectly playable and especially perfectly enjoyable mod, everyone should play it.

An absolute masterpiece for the source engine!

It might be cause hl2 adventure mods are very scarce among these days, but that mod baffled me away.
The details, architecture and textures are all stunning and fit together really nicely.
The story is well written and the topic of it still some sort of nichè, even amongst scifi plots.
The puzzles are all very logic and if you don't come to a result, you are often given tips by the helpful computer.
All the characters have an unique personality, which makes them very realistic, and the voiceacting is also well done.
The sound fits well to all scenarios and souns like scifi music should sound.

For some people it may be a tad too easy, others will miss the complete absence of shooting (which I liked also very much about that mod, enough of bambam ;) ), but for this being such a well polished adventure for the hl2 engine, it is already worth a statue.

Also still loving the slight humor added to it, and the hints of other mods of the author (<3 jailbreak).
What do I get for finding all ducks?

nothing more to say than this is one of the must play games for everyone out there
amazing freedom, suberb story and gameplay, and for it's time great visuals

a classic, never forgotten

amazing parody!
playable, funny but short
but still a pearl for deus ex