The story takes place in Russia at the secret plant called "Object E7" or "Black Star" at the same time as the unexpected consequences at Black Mesa. G-Man was planning to organize three incidents of portal opening originally. First one - at Black Mesa Complex. Second one - at Black Star plant. The third place is unfortunately unknown. But thanks to the fact that the cascade resonator at Black Star was out of order, the planned incident didn't take place there. Object E7 is a laboratory complex researching anomalous materials and organisms. Its academic adviser is Dr.Victor Shmurghe. He has connected directly with G-Man. The protagonist is a political prisoner who was moved from a jail to Object E7. His main purpose was to test a prototype of the new protection suit H.E.V.5000. But he could escape during usual testing by chance.
Awesome!
Great mod, but the ending could be better...
I've said it many times before and I'll continue to say it until I die. The Russians are gods when it comes to Half-life modding.
The mod is very long and jam-packed with plenty of secret levels and easter eggs, not to mention plenty of action and puzzles.
It drones on after awhile and some levels vary from easy to very hard, but if you need something to do for the weekend, then just give this mod a spin, you'll be in for quite a ride :)
I played all mod and I just can say, that for the one-man's work it's perfect! Very interesting plot, very good mapping, great using of new prop-models and graphical effects, amazing using of HL soundtrack. And there are even placed some easter eggs and secret levels! For me it's one of the best HL singleplayer mods, and I know what I'm saying, because I played almost all of them. But this mod I played in one breath! Thanks for the author, it's a great step forward (first his mod was Dopusk31, if someone didn't know).
This is a mod I wanted to love because the setting, the length, and the ambition were all there, but the polish was not.
Starts strong with janky voice line scripting. Guard to prisoner: "Hey, catch me later, I'll buy you a beer."
This is a trope I see a lot in Half-Life games, but what is with the massive walls of computer terminals in common areas? Sir, this is a Wendy's. Literally a mess hall and there's 500 square feet of equipment off to the side. What is the purpose? Who is doing work on those? Like, oh gee, I'm assigned to Supercomputer 4A today. I guess I'll see you at lunch.
Kinda strange that I can wander wherever and it's like nobody's looking for an escaped convict. Just don't bash scientists over the head and you'll fly under the radar. Totally fine to smash that gigantic overhead window all over those scientists in the mess hall. Just normal E7 Black Star things.
Holy **** I am way higher than I thought. That's not a lunch room. Those are lab tables. I guess.
Pacing is... plodding, at best. Tends to drone on, making the player antsy to move to the next area.
Almost got stuck trying to find explosives. Sometimes the author goes a little overboard in keeping the path from being too obvious.
Minimal health pickups and when you do get 'em, they're nerfed! Only 10 suit power per battery?
Imaginative environments that have a Black Mesa feel, but tainted by an ugly color pallette. Puke greens, browns, and yellows are not appealing to trudge through.
Bro secret level #6 was ********. How would anybody know to throw a grenade in the middle of the floor? Come on. I was so sick and tired of this ******** and just wanted to get back to the main story that has slowly been dissolving away my attention. But I plod on.
Level design alternated between wide open and tight, claustrophobic mazes. Can get a little exhausting. There are a ton of secrets which are kind of a necessity if you hope to not run out of ammo or health. The game is more fun when you just plow straight ahead and don't try to go down every single goddamn dark alleyway, but it's easy to get survival horrored if you don't stop to stock up.
Game really needs to chill with the switchbacks.
This guy really loves his Gonomes. Turns out they're a much weaker enemy than I remember.
Scripting was a little lazy at times. Often felt like I stumbled into a sequence lying in wait. Rarely felt natural, or part of a bigger story. Like, why put an invincible soldier that triggers well after I see him. You gotta imagine playtesters immediately unloaded an entire clip at baseline. Have him run from behind cover or something so you don't just see him awkwardly chilling there, waiting for the player. And then he just... explodes?
Was there a story? I think I had to find and kill the bad man? Plot was often meandering or nonexistent. Nothing kept me pushing forward, least of all the mapping.
Combat had good variety. HECU combat especially had well-positioned enemies and vertical layering. A little (lot) heavy on the Gonomes, which the game seemed to treat as zombies.
There's a lot of content and it was an overall enjoyable experience, but it desperately needs playtesting and more colorful/interesting environments.
Another great mod from the creator of Dopusk31.
The plot is simple, escape from your prison and kill the main scientist responsible for evil experiments. On the way you'll fight aliens, turrets but mainly soldiers. The weapons are different in looks but work just the same. You have an AK74 with slightly higher damage instead of an MP5 for example. The mod isn't puzzle heavy, though sometimes you are expected to find and bring certain items to different locations like taking a gas canister to a generator to light up a sector or press buttons to activate a machine. Most of the time you'll be spending your time shooting enemies.
The mapping is very detailed, it has that classic slavic architecture with many industrial, factory sections heavy with machinery :) The variety is good too, we have labs, factories, outside arenas, cramped indoor areas, Xen sections and some nice bonus levels. Compared to Dopusk31 the locations feel much more open and fleshed out. Despite having about the same number of maps, BlackStar never feels like it overstays its welcome. The playtime is very long too, you'll spend at least two hours minimum to finish it.
Overall, this is a well put together mod that is recommended for anyone who's looking for a long adventure that takes place in a lab that isn't Black Mesa.
Clearly among the best long campaign mods for HL1.
Very well done mod that uses the backdrop of 80s Soviet Russia as it's premise. You'll find plenty of Soviet propaganda poster hanging on the walls and a strikingly detailed Russian hind gunship at the end of the story. My Hats off to the Russian half life community for injecting new life to an old gold source game with creative ideas. Absolute masterpiece.
This is probably one of the best half-life mods I have ever played.