SDE is an authentic story modification that presents a part of the alternative universe of the Half-Life world and tells the tale of a conflict between the rebels, the Combine, and a third party, for whom you have to play.
It's really hard to sum up what I think of the mod, because in the end I didn't hate it, but so many little things bring it down bit by bit.
+ There's alot of interesting city architecture with inspired detailing, mostly in the late game. But that "secret" summer map is my favourite, with just how cozy and familiar it is
+ Most of new props look adequate and create a fresh, different look
+ The post-credits map actually was my favourite, with good use of layout (stealth is clunky, but I didn't have much trouble overall) and little mundane scenes, that left a much better impression than deep multiverse lore shenanigans.
+ Generally alot of environmental puzzles and setpieces try to be natural
+ Alot of exploration and secrets
+ Can feed baby squid
+ Music, unsurprisingly
- Russian VA is bland and monotone
- As other reviewers have said, clutter. First map has mostly static non-interactive props, but others are full of boxes, chairs, etc all getting in the way and not letting you see the interactive items you need. It's a guesswork whether a prop is useful or not. Visual noise also makes it hard to notice interaction pictograms
- Inconsistency and arbitrariness with player navigation and puzzles. Example: three doors that look the same, only one of them opens. And it's somewhere in a corner and looks like a part of background. Or: all explosive barrels in mod behave like they do in HL2, but just ONE of them is somehow special, and only leaks fuel when you shoot it? Having a different skin would be a starting point here, but there are more of things like that.
- Firefights are mostly forgettable and not set up in an interesting way, npcs often stand and ignore you for some reason. Fast zombie elevator spam and final gunship fight were the lowest points.
- Number puzzles are a smart idea in theory, but it's just alot of tedious waiting until something lines up.
- Too many one-time or underutilized things. PDA notes are useless at best, antitoxin is quickly forgotten, story twists are abrupt and lack any impact.
- Yes, vehicle scripts are hard to get right, but snowmobile is very unpleasant to drive. Even taking an unmodified airboat's vehicle script would do a better job.
Still, I hope this is a learning experience and we get to see more from the team in future.
Best mod (in HL2 universe) I've played.
There's a lot of interesting Source wizardry making this mod work. The (English) voice acting is mostly awful, there aren't really any fleshed out and interesting characters, most of the puzzles are more tedious than fun but it's still a very interesting and quirky mod that is worth your time.
P.S. Wait the end credits through
The good:
+Great level design and good attention to details such as custom animations and sounds for small things that many modders usually would ignore and put a generic func_button and call it a night.
+High quality mapping assets (models, textures and some custom sounds). Even some of original HL2 props were remade (especially the vehicle models).
+The story is interesting, has a nice twist on the HL2 universe and lore. The multiverse idea sounds like a neat concept for another mod, too bad it wasn't utilized to its full potential in this mod, besides just one level where you have VNN voicing the guy that is helping you on the radio.
The bad:
-The weapons were kinda disappointing, but for a mod it's not bad, just feels lazy when you see some weapons re-using L4D2/CS:GO weapon animations and sounds. It feels very out of place, especially with some clunky edits for reloading animations (L4D2's grenade launcher animations for Sawn-off shotgun and flaregun made me laugh when I saw them, also the non-empty reload for AK74). Well, at least modelers and animators did a good job converting them for a mod.
As for the new weapons themselves, most of them weapons were pretty much useless gimmick weapons. The only useful guns for me were M1 Garand, AK74 (with no silencer), SPAS and Grenades.
-I praised the sound design on the levels, but the general sound design for weapons and player-related sounds give a bad impression (I am looking at you, Suit-Sprint and PDA sounds), as mentioned above using CS:GO and L4D2 weapon sounds is a tasteless move, adding loud and obnoxious sounds for stuff that you will hear a lot in the game is also not a good sound design decision (the gasmask section was annoying due to looped heavy breathing sound, yeah yeah, immersion, I don't care if it's annoying).
-While some features like antidote and PDA are interesting additions to base game mechanics, they are very underused. Antidote is used only at the very beginning, later in the game it just doesn't make sense to have it in your inventory. The PDA is absolutely useless and doesn't even give you any hints for current objectives, instead it's just some cheesy dialogue (it also has super annoying ringtone sound that I had to replace with PDA notification sound from STALKER. lol).
-The puzzles themselves aren't bad, they have clever scripting and are well thought out on a technical side, I appreciate that a lot. But the player direction is a lackluster to say the least, which is very frustrating especially when you end up just running back and forth in this damned bunker for an hour spamming E on everything like a lunatic. Good thing there aren't many moments like this in the mod.
-Both of the the endings are just anti-climax on top of anti-climax. I expected more than just a trigger that shows you credits.
ITS NICE
Never quitted a mod so fast. The graphics are impressive but that's the only good thing I have to say about this mod.
Хороший мод.
Мод очень понравился, среди плюсов можно за значить:
+ Хорошо проработаньій мир, очень много действительно хороших элементов что в бункере, что на поверхности - атмосфера холодного города хорошо передана
+ Необычные в меру сложные головоломки в стиле HL2.
+ На уровнях встречается множество разных разветвлений гармонично вписывающиеся в дизайн локаций.
+ Неплохой сюжет, как для мода, точно не даст заскучать
+ Хорошая графика с хорошей оптимизацией на моей встроенной видеокарте пошла на ура.
+ Продолжительная сюжетная линия, можно назвать отдельной игрой, а не модом.
С недостатков, как по мне, местами слишком очевидные подсказки, хотя по отзывах многим головоломки показались сложноватыми.
В общем качество исполнение выше всех похвал, явный претендент на игру этого года.
Хорошо было бы хорошо увидеть игру в Стиме.
Однозначно 10/10, фанатам таких модов как Paranoia, Hatch 18 пройдет по вкусу.
Great job!
Best Mod forever!
This mod would fit my taste perfectly if it had more firefights, especially arena-like and medium-to-long range. I wish SDE's diverse arsenal was put to use more. The atmosphere is very immersive and detail level is just prominent.