Reviews - TheBreadMan

This mod is suffering from Many flaws, but the Biggest flaw is that Stealth Is Nonexistant. I am playing on Not hardcore-AI, which makes it significantly Harder, it is almost Impossible to do certain things because the AI already has this Super-Awareness of you At All Times. I was attacking the Merc base, ehich is extremely hard as it is, but All of them knew Exactly where I was... at Midnight when it is Pitch Black, and in fog, And in heavy fog. You fire a shot from 75 yards with a suppressor, he dies, then Boom Here they All come, firing at your Exact Spot, throwing grenades like quarterbacks between your feet, and as you drop 1 some other guy is firing at you from 120 yards getting perfect headshots. How? How did that guy Know where I was? How did they see me! It's Impossible. Period. The AI was MASSIVELY Hyperscaled to the point of Complete Nonsense. You can't use skill because they just know your every move the instant you make a sound, can get shot with impossible spots cross-map, and then they just narrow in like you have a Gigantic Red Arrow on their hud that says "Player - Kill." Nonsense, Stupid, and Unrealistic in Every way. You' think in an "immersive" mod they'd realize that making AI Unrealistic and Hyper-aware is not only not-immersive, but in Fact Unimmersive.

this is an excellent 2-part mod, but a bit too much teleport spawning right in front of your face and back. However, there are some Amazing levels in this mod, especially in this episode utilizing some Great lighting mechanics and flashlight charge, and some really excellent fights between factions that result in an Amazing final run. This is lower rating because there is just not enough health around and you literally can pass through a hazard suit and just... not wear it? Was it too small? who knows, but the game seems like it was designed for this as there was Barely any energy anyway. Also, there just wasn't enough innovation with weapon variety. I mean almost the entire time through Both with just the Basic Guns? This gets Old Fast, and why not any armor like on the barneys? this all doesn't make sense. However, even with Escape 1 being more of a 6/10, Escape 2 makes the whole 2-part episode a really nice and solid 6-hour experience on Hard and is overall very well done with some nice remodelling for the grunts and black ops.
Definitely worth a full-playthrough even though being slightly repetitive and short even including Escape 1.

This is my Favorite half-Life mod that I've played, and I've played Escape1+2, Residual Point, Hazardous Materials, and more. This Should have been the Blue-Shift release and it would have been Much better received as there are some amazing maps, great fights, balanced for Hard and there is enough for a great player while not being overly scarce, and many more positive points for this Great mod!
However, there are some points that Suck, such as at the end you have to kill all enemies... but it spawns like 5 helicopters that are immune to bullets and there is Not Enough dps to take them all down. Also, Kate may be useful, but Often and Frequently Runs off and Dies, Forcing a restart for anything bigger than a headcrab. Also, too many times the Barney's just say "I'm staying here so go on Get boy!" This was underutilized considering how you already Have A Companion Following You Everywhere, so the maps Must be utilized for this already! A big deficit here.
So, Definitely worth a play because it is one of the best factually and the best I've seen and played (at least for Hard as is really the only true way to appreciate Half Life).

The entire thing is excellent in combat and everything... except ON EASY (Max normal, explained later in Updated Review), there are a few areas that are complete Crap, such as the trial-and-error electrical junction "puzzle" that getting close kill you Immediately without Any warning (there is a funny easter egg here), and then Later in the game it becomes Impossible. Totally Stupid. In zk03e you are expected to kill over 10 marines with No MP5 grenades, No mines, No Health Or Energy, all while being chased by dozens of super head crabs! It is an absolute unbalanced Mess here, combining it with dozens of super-headcrab sections (which would have been awesome) and bombs that you have to just sprint through or die Instantly. Is this a hard challenge or anything? NO, because it is Impossible on Hard. Unbalanced, ridiculous, and absolutely Stupid here. The beginning levels were great with the occasional hard part, forcing the player to scrounge resources and plan their attacks, and most every area was fair overall; However, this outrageous and Infuriating section brought it down a Whole 2 points for me. Is it cool? No. Is it challenging? No. It is just a ridiculous luck-based Impossible Scenario that gives you No resources or even health in the rooms! I checked and there is Nothing in there! Kill over 10 marines that have MP5GL grenades flying at you, grenades everywhere, no heavy weapons, no health or energy anywhere, and it is just a shame that this entire level was so badly designed because if I submitted this review Without playing this level, I would have given it an 8 or 9. With this, this area is Bad. Bad balance, Bad designed, and Infuriating. What was he expecting us to play this on? Easy? Because Easy is Stupid. Hard mode is how to play Half Life, but this Entire Level just Screams "I balanced this for easy" and it is just a shame. So good Before this, and then this level.
UPDATED REVIEW: Play this on Easy, because this is what it is Clearly made for. Hard is Impossible, and completely stupid. Every level after the above listed (and really 2 before) are just Spawn-Spam Massive Battles... All Against you. The visuals are Amazing, Great level design, Great battles, great scale... but all for Easy. Hard is a trolling, constant wave of spawn-spam where it teleports 5-10 enemies On Top of you in narrow hallways, forcing you to just MP5 and Rocket Launcher spam because the Only way to survive is to just spam grenades and pray you hit your target before the next 3 enemies teleport in anywhere and everywhere. there is not enough health to survive even though there are hundreds of health on the last levels. No alliances with marines, everything just wants you dead, and everything does Huge damage so if you don't just spam the explosives, You Die. it is a ridiculous, absurd, moronic drag, Constantly dying, Constantly being cheated, trolled, and right when you think you won, guess what? 10 teleport on top of you, right next to you, all around you. PLAY ON EASY, or believe me you will be ******. I am one of the Best players in Half Life, and if I am saying this, then you are either an AI playing this and predicting everything down to the last molecule, or you are going to die Over and Over again feeling Cheated and Trolled every time. If you play on Easy, MAX Normal, then enjoy. Hard? Forget It.
UPDATED REVIEW: The game is still Not optimized for Hard and a complete Disaster for Hard-mode balancing with enemies spawning in everywhere cheating you for a death; however, the game is so FKN Awesome that I have to raise it by 1 point overall from before because it is so cool that even on Hard I was just running from a helicopter as the teams were fighting and man it was so atmospheric and I got Mad lucky (even with extreme high skill on my part) and it was just amazing the sounds and the situation and Everything. So for Hard mode 5/10 where if the game was balanced for Hard and Not Easy then man it is just great.
Last Update: after beating it on Hard, the game is Amazing.. except for that it Has No Ending (as of 1.5). It is strange that after the Entire Experience, over 8 hours or so for me or something on Hard of course, that there is no ending/escape/fight/miniboss/NOTHING. Just ends immediately and you expect a picture of trollface to pop on screen. I was going to raise to 6 because even though Hard is stupid unbalanced the game is still Amazing and one of the best out there Period; however, because the game was never finished in any way even though there were multiple deleted levels and even a secret level that All could have been used as a final escape, it sits at a solid 5/10 for me as Hard is an unbalanced disaster and there is no ending. Still, this game is worth a check out but, again, Forget Hard. Half the game on this difficulty is next to impossible and is complete trial-and-error teleport trash. I'd Definitely play this again on Normal however as it is Very high-quality overall.

This wonderful series of events in a brilliant and truly unique world that feels as though it lives and breathes as even the best video games in history have still failed to achieve, such as Half-Life, Quake 2, HaloCE, Bioshock, and CoD4. This game's world isn't original in it's form, but is absolutely unique in its execution of what it is: a very realistic science-fiction world about unexplained scientific phenomenon and mutation. The weather effects, the random events of mutants attacking each other, random Russian fire-fights that you can hear and see bullets flying around cross-map, faction warfare and being able to have unique story lines with each faction at one's leisure, upgrading and weight systems creating a challenging and tech-reinforced game-play experience that every time you die in the game is your own mistake as not being in the right position, not having the right weapon, not having the right tech, etc, and even when you have the best of everything and think you're a super-boss you get hit with a G-R by a Monolith sniper and you're dead, or maybe it was a zombie with a RPD or even a SPAZ shotty. Whether running in the dark with a flashlight or walking over-encumbered in a lightning storm surrounded by deadly anomalies, dangerous mutants, anarchists, and bandits, the fact is that this game is hands-down one of the greatest open-world games for single-player made to date, and will probably be that way for a long time coming.
Call of Chernobyl takes everything great about all the games and combines it into a fair and open-world rp/rpg that allows the player to explore the entire world and whether be a part of something or not in a world much larger than the player's character is, at least at the start and 100 saves later. This mod was truly needed in every respect because this game has and had so much potential, but continuous and crippling flaws made each subsequent game a less-than-excellent experience, regardless of how unique the game-feel was.

However, even though Call of Chernobyl is a great combination of every great aspect of the STALKER series, the fact is that this mod is just riddled with bugs, crashes, reloading, and random-save-load deaths. The game-play is flawless and excellent on the highest level, but not being able to finish mission after mission, being locked out of areas because doors don't open or things don't activate properly, spawning on an autosave in an un-escape-able elevator or level, and traveling with companions is impossible because the moment another faction sees them then they kill your companion to death for no reason other than an armor-color. This mod was Absolutely Necessary for one of the greatest all-world experiences ever produced, but because of the constant and unending bugs, glitches, and critical game-ending breaks that seem to happen level-to-level just makes this 10/10 experience and overall 8/10, I'd even go to 7.5 but that isn't an option here because of the voting system so I rounded up.
I love this mod, and will play it for a long time, and remember it fondly for the rest of my life, and recommend it to people I talk to on a conversation that is appropriate to such an occasion. But without a full game-test and bug-fix, it just cannot be a mainstream thing and can never be treated with a fully hardcore attitude. I mean really, there is an Ironman mode where Every Save Deletes After Death, And You Die Instantly On Loading A Save File. Weak.

This is of 11/2016 and can change, but really, it needs a lot of work guys, with respect of this great work already.