CURSE mod for Half-Life 2

Ancient Egypt. One of the oldest states in the world. Homeland is perhaps the most mysterious civilization on our planet. Pyramids, Sphinx, ancient cities and temple complexes, the ancient burial monuments. ... As if we did not know much about Egypt, most of its mysteries are still unsolved, and a full history of the state is known except that the mummies, many of which still lie have not yet found inside the temples and tombs. Naturally, the Egyptian mysteries quickly became popular in film and game industry. Over time, people's interest in mummies and pyramids has come to mods. Curse, mod, developed by the popular current ad hoc system, once again sends us in the country of the Pharaohs.

In the first episode of our Curse untitled Alter-Ego sent to investigate the same unnamed necropolis. Intelligible plot narrative, unfortunately, no, so our ultimate goal can only guess.

From the modification, telling Egypt, willy-nilly waiting pyramids, sphinxes, oases and other Egyptian landmarks. As you think, realized in the first episode will not happen. However, playing the Curse, it becomes clear that this was not in the complexity of implementation of the pyramids on the Source ». Just saved the authors of the most tasty to these episodes, but now only show what they can do. And they are able to very much.

As the Curse is a "total conversion» Half-Life 2 (ie, a modification, the plot is not related to the original and uses a lot of their own models and textures) looks suitable fashion - new textures, new models, new (okay, just cosmetically-altered ) enemies, new weapons, etc. Thanks to this (though mostly the first two things) necropolis looks gorgeous: here and there are magnificent statues of pharaohs, the walls are decorated with ancient writing, around every now and then begin to flash some magical characters ... Beauty and promotes lighting (HDR, yes) that is, one might say, the foundation of the entire atmosphere. By the way, HDR is almost prettier than Episode One / Two, even despite the fact that the Curse is created based on the original Half-Life 2, in which HDR was not. Special effects here tatkzhe above all praise. By the way, among the many new textures, I want to mention, perhaps, the best texture of the sky on cursor Source. Moreover, the sky is animated (moving clouds), and the beauty of the local "skyboxes", and leaves behind Half-Life 2 with episodes, and even more so all the other published versions.

But the gameplay though, and completely outdated concept, but in the little things on the head and shoulders above all other conversion of Half-Life 2. What do we need to do? But all the same as what we did in the nineties, far back in the first parts of the Doom and Quake - run around the narrow corridor, destroy many enemies, press the buttons that open the door at the other end of the level and all in the same spirit. But how this is implemented! The very first battle sends the player's jaw with a subsequent flight proshibaniem sex - simply because of mods Half-Life 2 that never was. At first glance, everything is quite ordinary: the main character walks out in front is a hand with which he can with the help of telekinesis to push some things - no surprise, has the same property notorious gravity gun from Half-Life 2. But as soon as the enemies appear on the screen, the main character is transformed: the hand is removed from the frame on the head quickly wears a special helmet, and in the air before the player appears, attention, Magic Flying Mace! The fact that this club exactly repeats all the movements of the mouse, the gamer. That is, if you move the mouse to the right - the mace is flying to the right, move left - is flying to the left, go ahead ... Well, in general, you understand. So to fight - pushes the mouse away, then abruptly pulls it, but the direction chosen (there avtopritselivanie, yes, yes) the enemy, and voila - foe already flies to the nearest wall. And unlike, say, last year underestimated horror Alone In The Dark, which had a similar battle system in Curse it is not only better realized (much easier), but also more efficient - the enemies die quickly, and do not have a few minutes to beat a desperately some zombies on the head board in anticipation of his death.

Oppose us will of course mummies of all kinds and calibers. But these gauges are actually three: slow mummy (mutated zombies), fast mummy (a modified fast zombies) and the mummy-archer (respectively, a modified harvester). They look decent new enemies - are afraid of them, you certainly will not (alas, the animation of Half-Life 2 makes itself known), but their appearance is impressive, modelers have worked on glory. However, the special problems of the player enemies do not deliver - the aforementioned club kills any enemy with one blow, but with a peculiar avtopritselivaniem fights end before it started. Although the number of enemies is growing, and although the player forced to fight them in close quarters, difficulties in the battle is still not there. Moreover, there are enemies usually only after a player comes on a special button in the floor, so that for the next appearance of the mummies you often prepared in advance. By the way, Curse still found room for new opponents. A more accurate one, which I, perhaps, say nothing because his (her) need to see for himself.

Also in the Curse is a kind of mini-games - Search for secrets (another similarity with Doom) and the mini-game, which I call "After the ball on the track. Its essence lies in the fact that you need to manually drag a glowing ball on the small track, "hammered" in the wall (see screenshot). Do not have time dragged the ball until the end of the track for some time - get a clip round the ear and have to start all over again. These mini-games give the gameplay some variety and much of his extended (and modes, alas, short - is passed over a leisurely hour game).

Music fits perfectly into the overall atmosphere of the Egyptian Curse, but there is a problem - music is very small. This does not fully enjoy the atmosphere of ancient Egypt. But last but not least the music was based atmosphere notorious Serious Sam (there was also Egypt), one of the most atmospheric (and insane) shooters in history.

In conclusion, it should be noted such a trifle, which in any other fashion was given very little attention - captions. Seriously, this is not too important detail as titles, authors have done with such diligence with which they do not even computer games.

In Curse want to play. How can you not hate omnipresent atmosphere of solitude, long-running around the corridors, pressing buttons, and Egypt itself, a Curse to play because of this mod - a real revolution in the industry HL2-mod, this more simply nowhere to be found. I can not guarantee that you will like fashion, quite possibly the opposite course of events, but play it anyway needed. In any case, the story of an unnamed owner of the Magic Clubs only just begun - are waiting for the next episode.

Replayed Curse today (for a college essay, I might add :P)... and man, I completely forgot how awesome this mod is! It could well be the best mod I've ever played, and that isn't hyperbole.

As far as the visuals go, the overal design aesthetic is far more interesting then most major retail releases I play; the theme is beautifully implemented with great modelling/texturing, and superb lighting.

In a level design sense, the different environments are distinctive, the the re-using of levels is very well done. Sometimes I felt it was a little incoherent (i.e causing me to run around interecting with stuff randomly without any real goal in mind), but overal its great.

Oh, and the music/sound design is fkin awesome. Serious hats off to the guys in charge of that. The menu song is ace!