Half-Life: Decay is an add-on included in the PlayStation 2 port of the first-person shooter computer game Half-Life, developed by Gearbox Software and published in October of 2001. Our team is working on straight port of this game to PC! we shouldn\'t have to be doing this, but for some reason valve/ gearbox scraped decay for the pc. \"Decay PC\"\'s active development began in mid-October of 2005. Like Gearbox\'s other expansion packs Opposing Force and Blue Shift, Decay returns to the setting and timeline of the original story, but with different player characters: two female colleagues of Gordon Freeman, Dr. Gina Cross and Dr. Colette Green,who both take part in the Anomalous Materials laboratory experiment - they make preparations for the experiment under the Test Chamber such as monitoring Anti-Mass spectrometer and delivering anomalous materials to Dr. Freeman. When disaster happens both women together with their collegues Dr. Rosenberg...
Half-Life: Decay was released as a port of the PS2 version, so at the beginning it was relatively unknown among HL fans. Despite this, the mod itself is notable with an in-depth plot that crosses paths with the original HL, Opposing Force and Blue Shift and an innovative co-op gameplay that feels like a demo of an expansion of Half-Life gameplay.
Since Decay shares locations with the original HL, ambience evocates the same degree of Area 51-like in the middle of the desert. More importantly, the layout shows continuity with the surroundings of Black Mesa in relatively small maps. It also must be praised the use of custom models based on assets and lore of the original Half Life, such as the player character Gina Cross. There are also some places that connect directly to Half Life, Opposing Force or Blue Shift.
The story starts right away linked to the narrative of Half-Life, and although fast-paced and confusing at times, it got its degree of originality. Voice acting is decent (could need some subtitles though) and contributes to the immersion in the plot, although more often than not it's difficult to listen to the dialogues due to constant noises of the environment, specially at the start of each map. The fact that each chapter starts as a completely new place breaks the continuity, although the dialogues are the cohesive element between them. Easter eggs and secrets are a nice addition that open new chapters with its own story. As for the end though, it lets much to be desired.
Gameplay shares the same mechanics of the original Half-Life, but enhances it one step further by adding the co-op element. The collaboration between the two protagonists is crucial for solving puzzles and advancing in the game, even in single player. Although it may feel awkward, Decay has a feature for controlling both characters, so 2 players are not mandatory to play it. However, I highly recommend to try the co-op experience with a friend, since it gets a lot more exciting. Puzzles follow the classic HL logic, but feel innovative without being overly difficult. AI pathing sometimes get stuck, but most of the time works well considering how old is the engine. However, it must be noted that a gamebreaking bug persists at the end of chapter 5, hindering the gameplay a lot since a reset is required.
All in all, Half-Life: Decay deserves to be called an expansion of the original HL, with an adequate length, same Black Mesa environment and a story that is there for those who enjoy the Half-Life universe. However, you must be aware of gameplay issues related to single player, chapters where you may get stuck or gamebreaking bugs.
Nice
A very good official addition to the HL universe. I found it funnier in a way since I had to think my strategies differently while playing single player since I had to make sure the other player was safe (I liked to switch them from time to time and to share the available ammuntion between them) and the lack of both autosaving and quicksave made it more challenging
The bad now is that it doesn't allow you to change the difficulty and it has some CTD bugs sometimes and in the dorms mission the guard suddenly died without reason (that was really annoying). Besides those minor issues, this team made a really awesome work allowing us to play such a game. Would love to see your game at Steam some day.
A wonderful port of the console version, allowing us PC gamers to finally play it!
Good addon with cool gameplay, atmosphere, design and plot.
Decay may be a short mod, but it is sure a fun mod if you are going to play it co-op. If you are going solo well, i think you may find it rather frustrating to switch between players to run different tasks. Nice but not very well-written storyline, same all-hl1 weapons and some new improvements for the GldSource engine. I still give it a 10/10, mainly for the effort of this mod's team to bring Half Life-Decay to the PC platform!
The port on PC is too crooked, as it was intended only for split-screen consoles
Playing in two is too problematic due to the port that was with split-screen which is only for two players on one screen
And they also promote feminism in the Half-Life universe.
That is, in the rest of the Half-Life 1 add-ons you play as male characters
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good, some a.i bugs because its soo old, use hamachi for playing with friends though.
very good.