Station 51 is a single player mod for Half-Life 2: Episode 2. You are on the run from the Combine closing in on your outpost. Can you escape?
I was pretty impressed at the start. The mod jumps right into the action with snipers, combine, dropships, etc. No tedious learning curve, since MOD-players are experienced players. The good design puts monsters below you, under you and make them flank left and right.
After that the MOD sadly starts to decline. Before the zombie part you have to shoot the energy ball to unlock the door. There is no reason for that advanced security to be there and what makes it even more strange is that the gravity gun is on the floor right in front of it. Why not just make a regular door then? If you add gameplay elements, they need to be functional.
The placement of the zombies wasn't very good either. You just slice your way through them without any interesting fights. Also, the combine placement gets more predictable after a while. It's you versus 5 combine soldiers, then restock and do the same thing over again in a different place. There should be more variation. Let players use gameplay elements! I wanted to bring some of the surviving rebels along with me but you immediately block off all ways to do that. The same goes for the hopper mines. They can really influence the battles, but you made sure that bringing them along is a tedious job. Reward innovative players instead of punishing them for not following your predetermined paths.
Visually it's pretty well done but the design also becomes more blocky and repetitive after a while. It felt rushed to me. The ending is probably the best example: Pushing a button to blow up some device and then teleport to an unknown location. It's quite an anti-climax and it doesn't make sense. During the entire game I had no idea what my objective was.
More variation would make this MOD a lot better. Remove some of the combat phases and add puzzles, story elements and nice sequences instead. I experienced severe combat fatigue while playing this. Down-time to relax en enjoy the design is just as important as combat.
It's a short mod but damn if it isn't done to the highest standard. Level design is quite great and gameplay is classic HL2 mod gameplay even when it comes from a bit more modern a mod. My only sort of complaint stems from gameplay being maybe a little bit too easy, but hey, it's great for some people. Overall, the mod didn't feel like a waste of time, much of opposite, and I'm grateful for it. Now go play it! And learn some mapping tips if you're a mod designer.
Set in the HL2 universe, this is a typical combine killer mod. It is pretty difficult in some places.
Generic mapping, although pretty good, hoards of non-stop enemies, not much of a story, no good puzzles, but still fun enough.
7/10 good fighting experience not without flaws, can be tedious sometimes.
Needs more unavoidable fight situations.
I mean I won most of the fights by corner ninja method - stay out of battle area if possible and shoot behind a corner. Good example is a small cabin with glass windows in a first fight - I just waited for Combine soldiers to go up a ramp and meet my buckshot into face.
Needs more calm moments in between fights.
I mean come on this non stop action is not good for HL based mod. Good example is a first hunter battle - casual players will probably ragequit at this point. Where is exploration moments?
Needs more reason in map building.
I had a feeling of playing series of rooms connected together. I discovered rebel soldiers in Combine locked area (?). I discovered gravity gun occasionally just to remove an energy barrier and later discovered there was no containment for zombies from other side at all.
A really fun and enjoyable experience. Very good job on this!
The mod is old but still fun
Pretty nice combat. The repelling soldiers in the middle of a helicopter fight was fresh and intense. Though sometimes combat felt a little too single file at times as they poured out a door and into my rain of bullets.
Great ambushes. I love and hate how the game puts you in precarious positions with minimal cover to start a gunfight, forcing the player to run and think at the same time to establish a foothold. Throw in some shooting and living and baby you've got a stew.
Was a little buggy with getting stuck on stuff (really? I get stuck running over a box in the airboat?).
I love the Overwatch announcements... such a great atmospheric effect. Would've been nice if the lines were mixed up a bit instead of slamming you with the flavor of the day ad nauseum.
This mod is extremely combat heavy. Almost no puzzles and minimal platforming with only the most basic of plot lines. This review will therefore have a heavy focus on combat execution.
Liberal use of shotgunner Combine and great flanking, although it often felt overdone. Sure, you got me. Care to vary things up? However, it proved challenging and rewarding. I enjoyed saving before encounters to replay them a few times and discover exactly how the author wants me to approach these scenarios so I can feel like a badass.
Zombie combat was less than impressive, though. You can't just flood an area with zombies and expect it to be fun. Raise the stakes. Killing zombies is a lot easier than killing Combine, so you need to approach zombie combat a little differently. The author tried with sneak attacks, but they often felt a bit too scripted, like when you mow down a whole room full of zombies through a doorway, then enter and suddenly there's a zombie jumping your *** from the right. You're telling me he was just waiting there knowing I was just around the corner? I mean, the rest of the zombies in that room knew where I was.
Vertical combat was challenging, but sometimes felt cheap and overused because enemies would appear "randomly" in an almost too perfect ambush. Valve never relied on vertical combat to be challenging.
Nice Combine on Xen combat. Very Half-Life 1.
Gravity gun combat felt a little forced and unnatural. It either consisted of repeatedly smashing enemies with barrels or noticing explosive barrels after the fact. Once you discover grenade baiting, encounters become a little too easy. HL2 does a great job with making the gravity gun feel useful with organic combat that subtly encourages and rewards its use without penalizing mistakes or feeling like you have to over-rely on the thing. This game it's either mind-numbingly obvious so you don't waste ammo on zombies, or disadvantageous when swarmed by Combine soldiers.
Every combat scenario has to be grand and lengthy. Pacing can be tedious or boring at times. Instead of mixing up combat difficulty and variety, we're just slammed over and over with the author's best hits. Can be exhausting at times, but also thrilling. A nice demonstration of how combat can be used and even highlights where Valve can improve.
Game does a nice job of forcing the player out of cover, but I wish it would hint a little more obviously at the arena or flanking paths. Often times I finish an encounter and only then discover that awesome route I could've taken to get the drop.
Music! Combat and music go hand in hand with Half-Life. Where's my music?!
A rather one-dimensional mod, but still engaging and fun as long as you like combat. If you liked Spherical Nightmares, you'll enjoy this.
Too many Hunters! Too many enemies! Endless spawn enemies just caused mod boring.
Good normal mod
Начальная часть 1 карты просто офигенно выглядит, а дальше в маппинге нет ничего необычного, если бы весь мод был сделан в стиле того места, где мод начинается, было бы офигенно, но нет, жаль, так это обычный мод без сюжета.
Englisgh(bad):
The initial(opening) part of map 1 looks awesome, and then there is nothing unusual in the mapping, if the whole mod were made in the style of the place where the mod starts, it would be awesome, but no, it's a pity, this is a regular mod without a plot.