Resourceful Protagonist is a mod all about being smart and thinking before acting, you play as a regular citizen in a non-named city under combine control however things are about to take a turn for the worse and obviously you have to get out of dodge. The aim of the mod is to make an enjoyable experience that challenges me as a level designer to push myself to the edges of my experience and beyond!
This review may contain spoilers
As a small HL2 mod, this would be a passable piece. The level design is ok, monster placement is ok but it doesn't really excel at any level. It's also quite short. At this point I'd say 6/10.
But what drew me to the mod was the title. A mod where you have to be resourceful seemed really cool. In the sewers, suddenly a CP voice sounded. My expectation: CP's will patrol the area and I have to carefully sneak past them or trick them somehow. But: No CPs, I could just walk through the sewer.
Then in the prison. Armed with only a pistol and limited ammo, I encounter 3 heavy armored combine soldiers with shotguns. It's a completely unfair fight, so I imaged: now I have to be resourceful! I pile up the boxes and carefully block their views so I can sneak past and try to find an alternative route. But: no alternative route. I actually have to engage those soldiers to get past them.
Later I'm in a city. Up ahead I can see a combine outpost but it's far out. Where I'm currently at, there's a bunch of zombies which pose no immediate treat. Maybe here I have to finally be resourceful. Maybe the mapper wants me to use these zombies to distract the combine. So I lure the zombies up to the outpost waiting for the firefight. But: there's no-one there. I can just walk straight through the city and the combine outpost. There is some howling from fast zombies, but they also do not show up.
After that I just literally ran past every encounter and finished the map within minutes without firing a bullet.
I realize my review tone is quite harsh but none of my expectations were met giving the single goal of this MOD: being resourceful. Currently the maps are just empty shells of 'what could have been'. However, this can be remedied. If the maps get a visual update they are good enough to be used again. But this time: think outside of the box! Come up with at least 3 ways to beat the encounters in these maps and make sure the player has the opportunity to use those alternatives!