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.
4/10 - Agree (11) Disagree (8)
I think the most kind thing I can say for this mod is that it didn't drag on for very long. And that it was relatively inoffensive; it didn't make me sit through ten hours of Combine Soldiers and poorly scripted sequences, and that for all intents and purposes it seemed professionally designed.
In short, I see this as a wasted two years only to produce a Bioshock clone which fails in every respect where Bioshock succeeded. It makes the same attempt at an idealistic society that we saw in Bioshock, but it falls flat under a hundred metric tons of bland, featureless corridors and oft-repeated, dry, dull posters and advertisements. Bioshock succeeded on the shoulders of its fantastic art deco design philosophy and keen eye for period advertisements and sensibilities. Dissolution, on the other hand, is another bald space marine saga set in a space colony/spaceship/underground facility, coupled with a fruitless attempt at injecting personality and style.
Also emulating Bioshock is this mod's attempt at introducing a story line with a twist; the only problem being that I saw said twist coming within the first ten minutes of play. The final revelation delivered in a bland monologue by the game's "villain" felt like a perfunctory and unnecessary confirmation of what I already knew.
While we're on the subject of the story, it was uninspired and unmotivated: none of the characters had any clear motivation for what they were doing. I didn't understand Wilson's desire to conquer death, or some such rubbish, nor did I get why Bell was such a tyrant. These things were never explained adequately. And don't get me started on how lame and weak the whole crow thing was. It could have worked with more details put into the script, but honestly...
What's next? Your enemies bullrush you like overpowered lemmings, devoid of personality or feeling, or even dialogue. Complaints regarding gameplay have already been more than addressed, so I won't bother.
Wasted my time.