Dissolution is a science fiction, single-player mod for Half-Life 2 that mixes adventure and action game-play. Set in the year 2089, in a universe dominated by a mega corporate entity, Xterrier, the player awakes in a hidden lab to the voice of the mysterious Wilson. Guided by Wilson, the player must make their way through the ravaged Xterrier 581c colony, making use of any and all resources they can get their hands on in order to survive, all the while attempting to piece together the events leading to the colony's collapse and their own identity.
This review may contain spoilers
Quite a good attempt for most of the designed layed onto one man's shoulders. The story was good but I did get lost here and there. One's thing for sure though is that when I heared the logs about Goldman's memory being erased by William and me waking up with no clue what is going on made me subicious.
There are a few things that bother me though such as the way NPCs were used in massive mobs attacking the player. This might of worked if you had a buddy but just hammering one guy that can be easily killed after a few gunshots just makes me panic when I see a simple civilian. There was a point that I had to fight off 8-10 guys with 35 health on Easy... maybe it's just me. At least the telepathic crow felt right because I just whipped my shotgun out immediatly and blew it's head off when I felt its presence. That's how scared I was of that thing.
Speaking of crows, the first time you enter the crow infested labs with all the crazy illusions worked really well. I'm curious though why there wasn't any other areas with crows that had similar illusions. Then again, that would give away the unexpected feeling when going around the corner and there's one right there.
The environment felt really packed and somewhat artificial (yes, man-made structures I get but the rock walls in the train tunnels... could be more rounder on the corners using subdivide) but there was some exploration which somewhat helped overlook it. Too bad I couldn't shoot out the windows to get into a locked room.
The music/ambience seemed to be missing in a lot of places and where there was music it could of been looped... which I'm not sure its that easy to do with Hammer but I'm learning.
Overall, a fairly good mod that can give you a few good scares now and again. Just don't expect the locals to play nicely with you since they love to rush you.