Comments - C.S.Madisun

I was wrong about the arms - I thought you had a mix of LD and HD, but I double-checked and they're all LD. My mistake.

I don't have many, if any, kind things to say about Episode 1.

Getting it running in the first place was not pleasant (file flagged by AntiVirus software, awful Xash'd version of HL that wouldn't run), and when I did get it going it turned out this was a pretty low quality mod that had no reason to be released stand-alone - it could easily have been a typical HL mod and would have reduced the filesize by about 75%.

As for the mod itself... levels are VERY basic, feeling unconnected and visually unimpressive (to say nothing of the misaligned or missing textures), and I had absolutely no idea what any of the locations were supposed to be.

The new weapons and NPCs aren't super great, but more importantly they weren't implemented properly - most weapons have animations that don't properly synch up and/or incorrect sounds (the MP5 reloading sounds like a shotgun!). Enemies are no better, with beta models mixed in with the LD ones and clashing quite a bit.

Speaking of, the combat isn't all that fun either. This is one of those mods where your inventory is reset every level (get used to hearing the HEV start-up speech) so ammo isn't a concern at all - you'll just shoot everything with your pistol/machine gun from a distance and not really engage with any of the enemies, since you'll get more ammo after the level change... and even if you do get up close and personal with the baddies, you won't care since your health will get reset as well, so who cares if you're in the red all the time - it won't be for long!

The whole thing is bland, uninteresting and dull. 20 minutes of utterly wasted potential.

filesystem_stdio.dll got flagged by my AntiVirus software, and when I tried to run the mod anyway, it gave me a rather vicious error message.

I eventually got it working by taking the valve directory, renaming it to "black_arctic" and putting it into my normal Xash'd version of Half-Life.

Well there's not that many enemies, and most people playing Half-Life know how to deal with headcrabs and zombies without taking much - if any - damage, so the mod so far feels pretty unbalanced.

Rewatch monster_urby's video playthrough and see how much damage he takes. His videos are actually a REALLY useful way of getting feedback.

The mod's really not all that hard - why would you add MORE health/HEV batteries?

I noticed the ladder in the cabin as well, but you can get up by just jumping on the bits of wood. Not sure if that was intentional or not. :)

I'm playing through the "bonus chapter" right now, and it's great. The whole mod is, frankly. An excellent re-working in ways that enhance the original without deviating too much (except for the volcano section).

Wonderful work! I look forward to when you eventually release Episodes 2 & 3, because if they're as good as your work on Episode 1, we're gonna have something very, VERY special.

Yes. It works.

OK. So on PC, all of Half-Life's essential files are in a folder called 'valve'. That's where all the original game's models, sounds and such go.

The structure looks something like:
Half-Life\valve\sounds

The way you've got both of your mods set up, they ALSO go into that folder. And if you want them to work on PC, they absolutely CANNOT do that, as they'll overwrite the original files and you should never, EVER do that.

Instead, they need to go into a different folder with a unique name which can be loaded as a mod.

For example:
Half-Life\MetalSlugSFX\sounds

You'll also need a liblist.gam file in that directory, in order for Half-Life to properly load your mod. That's pretty straightforward to do - just copy the one from the valve directory, pop it in your MetalSlugSFX folder, open it in Notepad and change the mod name.

There's a video made by another modder that's actually really useful, as he goes through all the steps you need to make a working PC mod. Give it a watch: Youtube.com

As the author deleted all the previous comments (pro-tip: don't do that without a VERY good reason, it makes you look like you can't take criticism), I'll explain what exactly this mod is: another mess-up mod.

There's new models that are of mixed quality, and the music is all replaced with various stuff from a variety of different sources (I recognised at least one from an N64 game). Additionally, all the dialogue has been translated to Spanish... which makes sense, since the author's Spanish as well.

Additionally, this mod does NOT work on Windows - only on Android. The author hasn't made that super clear, so bear this in mind. Trying to install this on PC will result in you overwriting a bunch of essential Half-Life system files.

I'm not personally a fan of the changes, but compared to many other mess-up mods of this type, this is by far one of the better ones.

Oh, trust me, I'm trying to air-strafe, but combined with everything else it's hard to keep track of all these mechanics.

This is an incredibly cool idea executed in a way that left me feeling consistently frustrated.

The way it works is that when you press jump against a wall, you'll spring off in the direction you're facing. This means that in order to do a proper series of wall jumps, you need to make sure you're looking AWAY from the wall that you're jumping from.

This results in you often not being sure that you're actually against the wall you need to jump off, or being unable to keep track of the multiple ways you need to be facing during longer series of jumps.

Because of these (no doubt hard-coded into the engine) limitations, this started off being AMAZING but very quickly started getting frustrating, and the more complicated the jumping sequences, the more maddening things became. I'm glad this was only one map long, because had there been more, I'd have probably started throwing things against the wall!

As I said up front, it's a neat idea, and as an added move in another mod (or just in the original game!), this would work wonders. But when it comes to complicated platforming, I think the limitations of the mechanic will wear out people's patience pretty quickly.

I'd say it's far more than a demo at this point! It took me a couple of hours to get through, which is more than some full games these days :p

Well, this continues to be truly excellent. Chapter 4 (which was all new to me) is every bit as good - if not better - than what came before, and this is shaping up to be an absolutely fantastic experience.

Not to nit-pick, but I found a misaligned texture - Steamcommunity.com
It's next to the red light in the top-left of the screenshot. Incredibly minor, but I did notice it!

Also, a question: at one point you watch a conversation between a scientist and a helmeted HEV suited person in an elevator. That's clearly from another mod, but which one?

It's a shame this ends as abruptly as it does, because I was actually really enjoying it. There's some solid and well sign-posted level design, the new voices are fun and it's all pretty great.

That's map, singular. But you're right - they included everything BUT the bsp file, so this is literally unplayable.

I remember playing this years ago, so wondered why it suddenly popped up as a 'new' release... until I looked over at the release date and understood this was basically a re-upload.

As for what it is? Well, it's a Russian mod that ends up being a very tedious and boring experience, due largely to the muted colour scheme that's been used - the screenshots haven't been turned black & white, that's just how the mod looks, and it's not great for prolonged periods of time!

Not that this mod is particularly long. I suspect it'll last people about half an hour, despite the occasionally confusing level design. There's only 8 maps to it, and the combat isn't especially challenging, so you'll blast through this relatively quickly.

So it's not a fantastic experience, but it's certainly a different one.

Gave this a quick look and to be perfectly honest, there's not really much to this.

Leaving aside the fact pretty much everyone making a mod will know about liblist files, most Half-Life mods won't need to worry about dll files(and if people are editing those files, they'll already know to include the modified ones with their mod), so there's not much point in including those here.

Once you take the liblist file and the dlls out of the equation, there's not really anything left beyond the folder structure, which is something anyone can find out with a few seconds of Googling... or by simply looking at any other mod.

Ultimately, while I respect the idea, I'm not sure this is actually going to be much use to anyone.

You've essentially included the mod twice in the download!

There's the main Half-Life-Crushing-depths folder, but inside that is another Half-Life-Crushing-depths folder that's got a lot of redundant files. You'll want to watch out for that going forward - it makes the download bigger than it needs to be.

As for the map that's playable... this is pretty good. It certainly looks impressive.

Ah, the true Postal experience I've been craving. Wonderful!

Added to the review section. I always forget to do that, so thanks for the reminder. :)

What's changed with this version? v9 seemed pretty final to me.

Having now been able to finish this without cheating (appreciate the constant updates!), I can say this is equal parts hair-pullingly frustrating and ingeniously-designed challenge.

The author clearly prioritised making the maps fun to play over aesthetics, and as a result this is a rather plotless romp through 5 maps (plus an ending map) that's designed to test the skills of the player above all else. Want puzzles? This mod's got 'em. Want platforming challenges? This mod's got 'em. Want a series of tightly-timed buttons you need to press with absolutely no room for errors? Boy howdy, has this mod got THAT.

Even knowing what to do, this mod will take you quite a while to get through, and while I think I admire the map design more than I enjoy it, I can safely say the author is pretty good at this.

I haven't finished it yet - that's why I say it's not short. The first map alone had me running around for 20 minutes or so!

Also, I got stuck on the switch puzzle. Is there something I'm missing in regards to which ones I'm supposed to press? I saw the numbers behind the door, but I can't figure out what they corelate to.

There is NOTHING short about this.

Much appreciated.

.exe files can often get flagged as 'suspicious' by anti-virus software or certain browsers when you try to download them, so people tend to prefer rars/zips.

Another great patch - the thing with the helmets is a real positive that should help with the high enemy count on higher difficulties.

Just so you know - most people don't like exe files for Half-Life mods.

exe files often get flagged by anti-virus software (or Chrome - and I should know, it happened for me).

Excellent - glad you were able to get this out so quickly.