The Specialists Mod for Half-Life The Specialists Beta 2.0 Review review

[page=The Specialists Beta 2.0 review]
There is currently quite a few "action" oriented mods popping up around the place (Action Half Life, Urban Terror), but The Specialists has
to be one of the best of the lot. It has a huge arsenal of weapons to your disposal, amazing acrobatic tricks to perform, and just all out
brillient gameplay to top it all off.

The GraphicsWhen I first saw the weapon models in The Specialists, I thought I would never see such detailed and well done models ever in a Half Life
mod. They are suburbly done, and the rich detail which they possess brings out great life to them. The player models are clear and simple,
not to overally detailed. The maps look nice, and are also detailed. But this does have a downside to it, and in some maps, there is alot of
doors that do not open. But there are some small, but great additions to the maps. For example, in ts_lobby (Which is a map based on the
lobby scene from The Matrix), the tiles on the pilliars in the actual lobby break apart and fall off. But this is restricted to only the tiles at
body level. This is of course a restriction imposed by the now getting old Half Life engine. The textures are nice, and there's a lot been
made for certain parts of certain maps. They're nothing special though, and fairly standard. When considered all over, the graphical
element of The Specialists is excellent!

The Sound FXThe Sound FX in The Specialists is down right classic, bringing in real Hollywood sounding noises. Each different sound has a great "punch"
to it. Its great to be in the middle of a firefight, and hear these amazing sounds pumping through your speakers. Not much else to
comment on in this catagorie though, as not many other sounds apart from weapon ones did I pick up.

The GameplayWith "action" mods, gameplay is a high priority. The whole point of an action mod is to give you the feel of being in an intense action
sequence like from a movie. The Specialists has a huge amount of weapons included, each one different from the other. You can run
around with a pistol, get up close with a shotgun, fire off from a distance with a rifle, or just plain have a gun fight with a sub-machine
gun. There are numerous pick ups that a scattered around the different maps as well. These range from Infinte Ammo, to Slow Motion.
They are all time restricted, so you'll only be able to use the pickup for a maxium of 5 seconds. The various acrobatic tricks that are
included in The Specialists are all very fun, and playing the 3rd Person View gives you a great look into what your really doing. One of
the coolest looking tricks that is there is the bullet dodge. This can only be used in slow motion. Some of the many other tricks that you
can do to escape the other players are really fun to do, such as flips. Weapons are obtained by a buy system in The Specialists. But you
must becareful of what you buy, as the weight of all the weapons can stop you from doing certain maneuvers. There are 4 different
upgrades you can get for your weapons, but not all weapons can take all the upgrades. The upgrades are laser sight, scope, torch, and
silencer. The upgrades don't make a great deal of difference to gameplay, because it gets so frantic at times, that you totally forget
about them. The maps that are included in The Specialists have great gameplay, and there is nice big open ones which are great for
snipers, and small tight ones good for action with a sub-machine gun or a rifle. Most of the gameplay is Deathmatch, but teamplay was
included. It isn't a focus in The Specialists though, so it isn't really a good point of The Specialists. One of the best bits about The
Specialists is that it has Half Life first in it (I think), it is included with bots. The use all the power ups and dodging techniques perfectly,
and are great for people who don't get a good connection online.

Final WordThe Specialists is a great action mod for the person who likes deathmatch, but wants something extremely different from the standard.
It comes with a load of weapons, maps, and best of all, fun.

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