Reviews - DragonNOR

Nice game for blowing out some frustration and the biggest horde mechanic I've ever seen in a game.

But the seemingly endless hordes of enemies get stale eventually and the game gives you few pointers as to where to go in some of the 'puzzles'.

And for the life of me I can't beat the last boss. It just can't be done the way he moves around while you charge the final weapon. The way the hoops are placed, I never get him to stand in a position where he takes damage from the final attack, then he revives all his health and there goes ten minutes into the *******.

I have never before quit a game at the end for not making the final boss. This one was the first.

A very good mod! It was everything I expected and a bit more.

The level design is arguably the mods best aspect, with voice acting and modelling following closely behind.
I can't express how much I enjoyed seeing how the game has not only been remade, but also brough to life in a way Valve never could have when the original was made. All the small scenes, even the inconsequential ones like the two scientists arguing below when you ride the tram. All these small things bring the mod to life, and I love it for it.
I also really enjoyed how the various locations had been given a purpose and logic that it missed in the original or that the original didn't get through because of the detail level required.

Voice actors were on overall ace. Sure they dropped the ball every now and then, but with the amount of work put into this, it's hard to perform 150 % all the way through. I especially like the work done by the guy who voiced the barneys, he was easily the best voice actor on the crew.

What I didn't like is the approach to the soldiers. It's been stated that they were made into over the top, cliche, B-movie jocks because they didn't want the player to sympathize with them. At the same time they were made cheesy. Cheesy enemies loose respect. Enemies without respect aren't dangerous.
On overall the voice over for the soldiers sound like a parody of the original or of any kind of voice the soldiers should've had. My mind keeps going to the flash artist EgoRaptor when he parodies marines and fanboys from various games.

I'm also not a big fan of the new zombie sounds. It sounds like the voice actor is trying his level best to strangle himself. And that is what I hear, not the zombie.

Lastly, a lot of the more emotional scenes were destroyed by the characters ragdolling. Example; The guard in the beginning reaching for the health station, then instantly ragdolling as he dies. It becomes slapstick.

All in all, awesome mod, with a few minor design faults.

A cool and interesting idea for a story, but sadly it wasn't really well executed.

The atmosphere while out in the open was very nice, but then as you start moving around you can practically count the texture squares as they tile down the hillside.

The whole motivation for the character to investigate the mines is never really established, other than being curious and being a journalist, which in itself isn't inherently a carte blanche to seek death.

Include some more backstory like; He wanted to do a story on the mines and why it lit up (maybe sensing some conspiracy). He has to break in alone because he has already tried the official channels and the authorities don't want him to go near that place.

Voiceover was somewhat mediocre. The technical quality of the clips were nice as there was no static or buzz, but there was no acting or character there at all. Give the man some life and personality so that people can start caring about what will happen to the man.

Lastly, for the next installment, pretty please make it so that you can turn off the headbobbing. I felt borderline nauseous already before reaching the first bridge.

Good luck with your next installment, you have a good story and there were moments of very tense atmosphere :)

Nice, short mod! :)

I'm not going to judge this by its length, seeing as not all mods have to be several hours worth of playtime.

The mapping was ok and there were some nice detailing put in (like the pidgeons near the end).

*SPOILERS*
When teaming up with Barney there were some minor logical flaws. For example why would he run from cover to cover when the strider was obviously busy making short work of the rebels? And when I followed him hot on his heels, he still shouted "This way Gordon!" as if I wasn't following him at all. When we reached the gate, and Barney is left on the outside, it was as if the Strider was patiently waiting for the dialogue to end even though it had a clear line of sight to Barney. Then after finishing Barney ran straight for the Strider, ignoring the cover completely, being shot to pieces as he went, which is not only unlogical but also inconsistent.

The voice acting was decent, although somewhat monotone and wooden in overall. The voice fit Barney well, but technically the acting could've been more alive. I also noticed that the volume of the voice actor was very low compared to all the other sound in the game, which should be tweaked if a patch or add is made to the mod :)

Weapon and ammo placement was a bunched up in strategic locations instead of being sprinkled through the map, which kind of broke the flow of the game instead of helping out as they all marked the beginning of a new enemy wave. Some larger caches are nice, but the item spread could've been better.

I'll try and keep this short.

Immediately I was awestruck with the level of detail this mod provided. The general thought through the mod really intruiged me and I was hoping that the mod would become a blast to play. One of the legendary HL mods that you remember for a long time and even talk about when you meet other modders.

The story too is great, but there are some logical holes that degraded an otherwise nice story. For example, [SPOILER WARNING]

After getting to egypt he says he needs to find a weapon. 20 metres later you come across a perfectly good axe standing in a piece of wood. But you're not using that, instead you have to find a combatknife that is hidden inside a sarcophagus with no hints of it being there.

And not to mention the German resistance movement being in Egypt. Not wholly impossible, but weird strange them operate in Egypt on a rumor.

I'm also not a very big fan of 'trial and error' puzzles where every error means instant death like the spiked floor.

The biggest beef I have is with the difficulty and the Voice acting.

The difficulty is so unforgiving it's one of the things that made me quit before I got to the end. I felt that in my case it wasn't worth the frustration to make it to the credits. In particular I hated the Stealth section. The viewlength of the enemy plus the blink of an eye they spend to see you made that section hell to pass.

The voice acting. For one the technical quality difference could be smaller. Almost all the microphones used were of varying quality, and the colonel in particular used a VERY bad microphone.
The main character sounds like a cheery WW2 commercial announcer with almost no emotion or development stirring behind his shell at all.
In general the voice actors sound wooden and non-immersed with their character or situation.

I know for a fact that the quality on voice actors here on moddb has increased by tenfold if this was the most professional cast you could get back then.

Voice acting was very nice, but the level design was pretty bland. It felt like a Fear clone with less story :/

Great level design, great atmosphere, great writing and great voice acting. I just wish it was longer :)