Reviews - DarkShift

For the first mod ever made without having anyone to tell you what to do or where to go in Source modding,

that was a pretty damn interesting showcase.

Interesting and medium-sized mod which gives us a slightly changed episode of Black Mesa. It's a clever mix of classic fights and puzzles, with a clear storyline.

The main interest is the work on the sounds and textures, it feels like finding a yet unknown/hidden part of Black Mesa.

The nightmare of the HL fans since 1998, for the oldest ones, like myself, is being forced each day to wait endlessly, waiting for the next episode that will never come officially, and hoping here and there, every 2 to 5 to 10 years, some fans will developed some VALVe-quality unofficial sequels.

This is what happens with EZ2, of course EZ was, in the end, a "rough draft" of what is EZ2, a story-driven "opposing force" mod that goes well beyond what we could have hoped and expected from a free mod, having assimilated every HL experience from HL1 to HL Alyx, with the spin-off franchises of PORTAL, going beyond being an "Opposing Force" HL2/Ep2 mod, it's in fact the "opposing force" of the Episode 3 that never came.

From APC sequences to command a squad, from the depths of old derelict Aperture bases to the final parts of a location never supposed to be reached, from epic battles against herd and swarms of enemies to the most epic final boss battle you would expect on Source 1,

this mod but in fact more a free game, goes nuts and puts you everything you could have hoped for, for such a project.

Besides that, the dev's have followed what VALVe put us these last years, and decided to give Bad Cop a "voice", such as Alyx in HLA, and in the end it gave him more depth and interest, and that whole Wilson companion makes it an unexpected story of complex story and redemption, it reminded me of what we had with Joel and Ellie in TLOU or with Chell and GLADOS in Portal 2, the Little Sisters in Bioshock etc.

Really, "worth the wait", in the heavens of the top 10 mods of all time with ECHOES, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, etc. the VALVE-like ones which skyrocketed every expectation

When you think you have seen EVERYTHING… eh, no, there is still some other new ways of modding HL1; to see.
Congrat’s it was short but fun as hell

2022 opens with a 13 year old developed GoldSrc mod which puts you in a 10 hour gameplay adventure, which is overall the little brother of Opposing Force, or Azure Sheep, but more in the likes of a prodigal son "Valve-quality" like.

Putting you in the boots of another HECU sent to clean up Black Mesa, you are in for a very story-driven quest to track Gordon Freeman and then try to find your way out of this mess when everything goes wrong.

The maps are very well developed and enhanced in the Spirit of Half-Life style, or echoes, with a much more detailed Xen, numerous developed outdoor maps, with various fights taking place against usual foes which range from HL1 standard enemies, humans or aliens, new re-skinned headcrab zombies, Op For's Race X monsters, and even cut content monsters.

The challenges are numerous and you can often use several buddies be it soldiers, medics, or engineers to help you along, but also guards or scientists from BM and escort missions are done well without being irritating, beta testing must have been good with this one.

The highlights of this mod are really the easter eggs or encounters with HL classic characters, especially the chapter "Birefringence", the shortest one of all, but it's really 5 minutes of fracturing your eyes and your brain.

this isn't really a mod, more a 5 minute globally uneventful atmospheric map in an opressive context, I would like to see that expanded and improved because there is really the basics of something more, something greater...

Around 8 hours of gameplay, this was "worth the wait".

we go from a heavily scripted beginning with 2 buddies, to a lonely adventure around Delta complex fighting dozens and dozens of aliens and Marines, with some puzzles here and there.

The mod is basically done in 4 chapters,

chapter 1 which is around 1 hour from the intro to the first tram ride/escape,
chapter 2 took me around 3 hours and is probably as long as HL1 itself in terms of length, we are mostly alone and gather many weapons.
Chapter 3 is shorter, around 1h30 - 2 hours, and focused more on the rescue and accompaniement of Diana, a custom made scientist which reminded me a lot of Barnette from Azure Sheep. However, she isn't such a burden as the latter.

Chapter 4 is Xen, and it is a VALVe's Xen 2.0 with its qualities and its flaws, exacerbated.

Points of interest are the skyboxes, be it in Black Mesa or in Xen, it gives such an opressive atmosphere, from grey skies with moving clouds, rain, or a Milky Way among the stars... associated with an immersive OST.

I can also say that it is once again what we could be expect from a "one man army" working for so long in a hour-long and decade-to-be-developed, reminding me of what I've seen with Residual Life/Point/Agent, Leon/SPY maps, etc...

the clever use of Diana Hayes, this Delta female scientist, made the whole adventure a pleasant journey, up to the end, it was the Valve-like companion such as Alyx, or once again, Barnette (Azure Sheep).

About the difficulty, there are a few parts which are a bit "die and retry", but I want to highlight the fact that on each map, you have plenty of "secret" places, paths, usually alt. ways where you can find plenty of health and ammo, enought to hold against the numerous enemies.

Overall, this was good, this is a loose adaptation of HL1 storyline in a "purple" setting, which uses classics settings, enemies, to give new challenges to veteran players, when it ends I wanted to have more.

This is the second time in a year that "Uplink" got a remake edition, after the already great Uplinked.

What is Uplink anyways? A demo, but also a cut level of HL final retail release, which features some regular parts of the final game, but also its own unique animation, props, settings.

For some of us, it was also our first step in the HL universe, before getting the retail version.

SIGNAL Lost, for what it is, is a mix between HL "Alpha" (the 1997 version of the game which was re-done several times by mod teams, the latest being "Absolute Zero" on which the dev of SL, worked before it shut down) and Uplink, with a little "surreal" setting which can reminds us of the desperate feeling of the Hopelessness mod series, but also the great HL Echoes.

It features several battles in large places, use its own set of mechanics and push the GoldSrc to its limits with the Xash3D technology.

As such, it is an interesting adventure revisiting smartly the good old experience that was Uplink, with the bizarre/goofy setting of HL Alpha.

A "play as Rebel" HL2 mod that goes far beyond my expectations I've built since playing the demo years ago.

It has it all, good story and narrative, animation/lip sync/voice acting, clever and various use of battles, puzzles, squads/companions, even cars/vehicles, new enemies, new gameplay tactics with the electrohacks and the power suit, etc...

This can clearly go on par with the greatests, Underhell, Entropy Zero, it has it all.

And once again, it was developed by a "one man army", what's with all those geniuses making mods worthy of being retail games??

Unless we get one day a Brutal Portal, this is the best the community could offer in Valve-quality Portal mods, the « missing link » of the franchise.