Hi all,
This is not only a free mod, but a coursework submission for the University of Wales, Newport BSc in Games Development and A.I. so all your comments will help me with marking the mod! However, just to give an independent third party comment on the mod itself, remember that it is an attempt to flesh out the "Don't work for the GMan" option at the end of HL1, which was actually truly impossible originally. So, it being tough, but doable - even by me, not the most hand-to-eye capable of FPS players - should be expected.
Also, on the large number of spawns, if you choose to go slowly and only trigger spawns from each of the portals, one at a time, the number of Vorts that are attacking at any point are reduced. One challenge for the mod writer was to make use of resources as a puzzle in itself, hence the blues spawning between the healing pools and the ammo. This is often an implicit or overlooked challenge in FPS games, and sadly are not always knowable in advance; good examples of this oversight are boss fights, where it is almost impossible to know how to kill them. The placement of the pools (and to a greater extent their existence, which is compatible with the end game play in Xen shown in HL1, but absent in HL2) and the ammo should, in theory, be fairly self evident, which enables a player to know What to do.
The challenge, then, is to work on the How and feel the accomplishment of achieving it. IF (deliberately a big IF) players do not recognise the presence and interaction between the pools, blues and ammo, then this has failed. So, it would be interesting to see whether players of this mod did indeed recognise the crux points or not. Would a hint/walkthrough be required?
The developer worked for 3-4 months on this mod, mostly independently, as the final year of the course is 50% project. All assets not reused from HL1 and HL2 were created solely by him, which is a major achievement. Gameplay aspects were deliberately modest, but I enjoyed the opportunity to explore a plot line that while not cannon, fits will into the mythos of probably the best FPS story arc currently available. Another annoyingly talented student...
Dr. Mike Reddy, University of Wales, Newport
P.S. If you want details of the course, email me at mike.reddy @ newport.ac.uk (remove the spaces)
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