Reviews - beyond_ltd

In Afraid of Monsters: Director's Cut you embody David Leatherhoff, a guy who is addicted to a new painkiller. Seeking for help you arrive at the hospital, but once you step into bathroom, another bottle of pills awaits. When will it all stop? AoM: DC features around 2 hours of gameplay time, custom sountrack, enemies, weapons and alot more. The game also features four endings, and once you have completed them all, the reward awaits. Are you brave enough to get it?

Xen-Warrior is another "POV" mod, this time putting you in the shoes of Alien Grunt - Warrior 1865, who is tasked to help Xen creatures fight the human enemies in Black Mesa Research Facility after the Resonance Cascade. The mod does not interfere with the originals, so it creates a nice fan-canon. The mod lets you revisit already seen areas from the originals as well as access a few new ones! Sadly, the mod is way too short, so you won't be visiting alot of those, as you can complete the mod in just around 30 minutes, if you spend your time exploring. Xen-Warrior also has a few bugs, but it shouldn't be a problem for the most part.

Sweet Half-Life is a classic Half-Life mod, bringing a bit of comedy elements to the franchice. You play as Black Mesa Research Facility's Warehouse Manager McGinley. This is your special day, as you're the one to bring the Xen crystal for preparation before the test. Not long after the incident happens and you're on your own, trying to escape the Black Mesa Research Facility, but neither Xen creatures nor the H.E.C.U. soldiers are your main problem, there's something else...
The level design is quite simple, yet nothing too bad and it also gives you the classic Half-Life feeling. The lenght is also good, you can get around 3 hours of gameplay. Not only that, but you also have two different pathes and two different ending, which is a nice touch. Custom weapons and enemies are a nice touch as well. Sadly, the voice acting is quite lacking, you only get to hear is maybe two or three times in the game, and even then it's not the top quality. All in all, the game should be worth your time and, while it may be non-canon, it's still a sweet way to experience something new and alternative.

Half-Life: Residual Point is Expansion Pack type of mod, where you play as one of "Clean Suit" scientists. Once you start it up, you get begin the game either by choosing Training or choosing the difficulty setting. Both modes has different storylines and gameplay.

The "Training" mode plays in the very similar way to the original game - you start in the tram, then you get in your suit and procceed to the experiment, which involves you pushing the sample. This part is what makes it a non-canon mod, because we all know what caused the Ressonance Cascade. After the experiment fails, you have to take one of the two portals, offering you different paths to complete the game.

The "Classic" mode is a bit different and more lore friendly. After getting in the suit, you are about to be teleported to the location where your work has to begin, but things goes wrong and Xen creatures starts teleporting into facility. Your goal is to escape the facility while also solving various puzzles and choosing different patches to complete the game.
The level design is great, but not everywhere. Quite alot of places are copies of the existing levels from Half-Life, Blue Shift and Opposing Force, which can be really irritating at times. The custom made areas are alot better! While it does not give you any new weapons, it features a few new enemies - Fast Headcrabs, Stronger Vortigaunts, Baby Ichthyosaurs, zombified, but still capable of using weapons, H.E.C.U. soldiers and a new models of Black Ops. Each of the modes takes 3-7 hours to complete depending on difficuty, style of playing and the paths you'd taken. It is a must play for any Half-Life fan!

Return to Black Mesa Research Facility once more, this time, as security guard Brad and experience alternate story of Half-Life. Starting your day as usual you find yourself in the center of chaos and who else if not you is there to save the day? The mod features 40 different maps and at least 2 hours of gameplay. The level design is amazing, almost making you forget that this is just a mod and not an official expansion pack like Blue Shift or Opposing Force. As the matter of fact, Black Guard is a mix of both! Custom models and new soundtrack also fits nicely! Sadly, not everything is so great. To begin with, the English is nowhere near good, even if you do install the path it is still hard to understand, on the other hand, what else would you expect, it was made by Chinese! Another thing, while the mod features quite a big levels, most of the time they are only for item fetching. You may encounter a few crashes here and there, at least I did, but once you get trough them, the game is really great!

Last-Life is Expansion Pack type of mod. You start your day by arriving at Black Mesa Research Facility via tram. Sadly, thinks doesn't go as planned and the chaos breaks down in the facility. Once you find your H.E.V. suit you start your way out step by step, visiting previously unseen areas of Black Mesa. Last-Life is filled with puzzles and hidden caches, so keep an eye out! The mod has 49 levels total plus the custom training level, all professionally made, with a few bugs here and there present. Custom pistol model is also present, sadly, you are going to run into problems with the hand models, with some of them being SD, HD or Opposing Force ones. You are also going to encounter a few bugs and glitches, which is why I would recommend you having a multiple save points made if you don't want to be cheating. Another complain would be, that while it's not stated anywhere, science personel as well as H.E.C.U. calls you Gordon Freeman. Overall, this is a decent mod with a decent level design and decent lenght.

You are playing as a construction worker and your goal is to escape the Black Mesa Research Facility. In your journey you are facing both, the Xen creatures as well as H.E.C.U. soldiers, even Black Ops are trying to stop you. Lone worker against all the evil to save his life, will you succeed?
Before you play the game, you have to understand that this is GlitchyMerz's first mod, so don't expect professionally made content. Most of the time you are navigating trough similar looking rooms and coridors while fighting against enemies. The enviroment is not as detailed as you would expect either. There is no music or custom weapons/enemies, but there are a few props that I believe are custom, as well as Conditinion Zero sounds, which adds something new. The ending is... Well, there isn't really any ending, once you reach the outside, the game throws you back to the menu. Now, speaking about good things, I really liked the way games becomes harder as you progress, the pickups are scathered around the place nicely as well. What this mod needs is a bit of story telling, nicer and more unique enviroments as well as better polished ending.