Baryonic Predicament is a singleplayer puzzle-action mod for Half-Life 2: Episode Two. This mod contains over an hour worth of gameplay. Created by Miigga IMPORTANT: Turns out that some Steam update has caused this mod to not appear in the Steam games list. Worry not, simply go to the "gameinfo.txt" file that comes with the mod and add a } in the end. Restart Steam and it should show up now. Baryonic Predicament was originally exclusively released on Planetphillip.

RSS Reviews  (0 - 10 of 43)

Wow, I never thought that I would enjoy a mod so much even without a story going on (I'm a storyline type of gal). Yet I couldn't stop playing it!

The puzzles were great. A good balance of difficulty. They weren't hard to figure out, but you actually had to think to get them. Also, respect for having the creativity to make so many and different from each other!

The only critique is the same as another player regarding the combat sequences. At one point I went full notarget cause wanted to focus on the puzzles and getting through the levels (but even this didn't take away from the fun).

And extra props to who made the music. I thought it went really well with the environment.

All in all, it was solid fun and I'm happy I didn't miss this mod.

8/10

8

Puzzles were unique, fun, and engaging, but they were nonsensical. There is no reason for such elaborate devices which broke the immersion somewhat, but usually after the fact, so the gameplay was generally enjoyable in the act. A bit silly in hindsight, but I liked playing it. Felt like playing SAW, with doors ominously shutting behind you.

I LOVED the ricochet puzzle! Never seen anything like that, and the whole richochet mechanism of the crossbow was always underutilized. Clever and felt natural, unlike that laser beam puzzle...

Kinda strange that supply crates magically appeared over a course of minutes when backtracking through an area. Those rebels sure do move quickly and effortlessly in the shadows despite dozens of Combine in the area. Otherwise decent re-use of maps.

Beautiful scenery.

Combat was intense and challenging. Swarmy and straight-forward, but exhilarating and rewarding. Hunters were a thrill to fight. Varied combat arenas that encouraged moving from cover to cover. It's difficult to craft a combat setup that can't be cheesed with camping, and this mod does it well.

Weapons not introduced well. When you give me the gravity gun, give me a chance to show it off and see how useful it is. Grenades? Don't just give them to me, give me a reason to use them.

Gravity gun in general felt unecessary, especially coupled with inconsistent interactibility of objects. Sparse environments limited physics-based combat.

The distant Hunter shrieking during puzzle sequences was chilling and foreboding.

Pacing felt canned but not unenjoyable. Didn't really seem to be much plot aside from bouncing around between puzzles and combat. Minimal exploration, exposition, or world-building. But an enjoyable gaming experience doesn't need to be story-driven, and this one does it with gameplay, as long as you can suspend disbelief at the wacky puzzles.

The hanging house section was excellent. A little bizarre, but atmospheric all the same. Made for some exciting combat.

Final sequence was blood-pumping and thrilling. Can feel a little drawn out and repetitive, but it really forces the player to dig deep and think on the fly, making use of cover and the environment.

Overall an enjoyable experience as long as you can suspend your disbelief.

6

When Baryonic Predicament is presenting you with puzzles, it is fairly entertaining, but when it wants you to fight, you'll often find yourself fighting wave after wave of enemies with little time to recover and barely enough ammo to last.

The level design is somewhat abstract, function over form, Miiga designed these spaces with gameplay in mind, and then decorated them so that they resemble environments, but not enough for them to feel like real places, it doesn't detract too much from the mod, but it is worth noting it, you're not going to find visually rich environments in Baryonic Predicament.

I mentioned it before, but I found the pacing to be a tad off, at one point I encountered a full squad of Combine soldiers, I was already injured because of a previous encounter with Hunters, where I had no physical objects to use as gravity gun munition against them, and I was not given the opportunity to heal properly, so I was rather injured; I dashed like mad to the wall opposite of me, where a health charger was, and replenished some of my health as the soldiers took advantage of my initial passiveness in the encounter, after I managed to fight them off, two Hunters showed up, I did not have the chance to heal, once again, so I tried to lose them in the passageways so that I could have enough time to make use of a suit charger on another wall, fortunately there were plenty of barrels around this time and I used them to dispatch the Hunters, but wouldn't you know it, after the Hunters were killed, a bunch of Metrocops rapelled through the skylight, they caught me injured and unprepared the first time around and I died, but the second I time I killed them... and then *another* squad of Combine soldiers showed up, and *another after that one!* I think you get the idea, I wish I was exaggerating and making it up, but the mod just throws all of this stuff at you like a gauntlet, and it's just rushed enough for it to be frustrating rather than exhilirating, supplies are scarce, the arrival of enemies is sudden, there is no creative edge that you can take advantage of.

If you intend on checking this one out, maybe play it on a lower difficulty than you're used to, that gauntlet of enemies is going to have you reloading your game a few times.

This is a damn good mod. Right up front there are only two things holding it back from a 10/10. The first is that the majority of the puzzles seem to exist just to be puzzles and the second is that the plot, if it exists, isn't told much at all.

Despite being just plopped into the world, the puzzles are excellent. They are fun to solve, look cool, and aren't the typical 'pull the plug' or 'seesaw' HL2 puzzles that make up most mods for the game. The level design is really solid and makes the combat a lot of fun. The combat is well balanced with just enough challenge to make things interesting, but I never died or got annoyed. The gameplay here is AWESOME, some of the best.

On a different note, I should also add that the visuals are just about the best for an HL2 mod. The lighting is great, the detail is just right, and the use of textures and decals is superb.

Not to long ago I played Agglutinaatio and thought it was absolute garbage. The creator managed to go from that to this masterpiece in less than four years and for that, serious respect, dude, incredible.

Overall one of the best mods on the site that could only benefit from puzzle context and a hint of story. An absolute must play.

10

Solid mod with excellent level design. Enemy placement and puzzles are just right. This is as good as free content gets.

Nice puzzles, very good level design.
I was interested in playing it.

10

Fun mod with beautiful design and well-tuned gameplay. Puzzles are mostly simple and few of them have more than 1-2 steps to them, but they still will probably take a few tries for you to complete. Those that are more complex made me appreciate the mod even more because I know how much scripting those required. Puzzles are followed by action arenas which are well made, neither too easy nor overwhelming, everything felt well balanced and playtested (no suprise, it was beta tested by a whole collective). Doesn't seem to follow any kind of story but instead just aims to creating fun challenge. Did I mention that level design is beautiful? Because it is quite well done, very well done if fact, and you wouldn't normally expect it from a puzzle mod; what I mean that it's not sterile and monotone like Portal, but quite the opposite. I was very pleased with observing quality level design. Good visuals, good balance, fun arenas and good pacing of action and puzzles - why not rate it 10. Go try it, it should be a fun ride.

(9/10) -- you valled your maps "silly" :))
Nevermind, it's played with pleasure!
Thank you for quality.
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Don't expect a mod with a story or meaning, this is just a really fun mod. well done puzzles and combat situations, great visuals and mapping. maybe a bit too much at a couple of fights but only had to load a few times to get it done so no big deal.