Reviews - Phaota

Beautifully done redo of the original game. It's a blast to play with great humor and tons of action.

One of the best mods available for HL2. The new Steam Director's Cut Version is simple amazing in story, gameplay and visuals. Some of the architectural ideas in various locations are stunning, especially the big reveal done by the Power Core later in the game. Wow! That was awesome. If you are going to start playing mods for HL2, I'd recommend beginning with this one. You won't be disappointed.

Finally finished playing the second part of the game series and was totally blown away. It's similar in style to the less superior "F.E.A.R." game that came out at the same time in 2005, though this mod is way better, both in graphics, story, gameplay and startling situations. I thought the first game, which is the prologue to NH2, was great. NH2 was even better all around. Loved the nod to George Romero in calling the crazy scientist by his last name. There are some seriously inventive ideas in this mod, like the bit where you are crawling through an air vent that is constantly shifting directions and the super long semi-slow movement hallway scenes, plus all the wonderful location settings. I definitely rank this among the best of the HL2 mods, if not the best period.

An enjoyable mod with a couple of hiccups. Story-wise, it moved along smoothly and the locations were nicely done, especially the new areas not seen in HL2 like the theater and ending auditorium building. The voice-acting is okay, but not great. Seems most of the people involved didn't give it their all in the emotions and acting department, especially the squad leader in the end. His monotone, emotionless voice was really bad. I'm not an actor, but I could have done way better than that. I kept wanting to yell out, "Come on, man! Give it some gusto!" Escaping the apartments in the beginning was impossible without turning on "notarget". Even crouched down and moving slowly against the wall, the Combine soldier always spotted me, even though he shouldn't, especially wearing a mask like they do, which would kill all peripheral vision. The only other problem error was getting out of the train station. There is absolutely no way anyone could run through and survive a swarm of Manhacks of that size. I must have lured at least 30 down the stairs into the station loading area to destroy them and there were still countless ones buzzing around up in the area I needed to go through. In the end, I had to turn on "God Mode" to make my run, and even then, it was hard going since they were slamming me from all directions, impeding my forward movement a lot. I also did not understand the need to go up and ring the bell tower in the church in order to move forward in the mission. That would just let the Overwatch know the rebels whereabouts. All in all, it was a fun mod, but those two areas and the lack of enthusiasm in the voice acting brings the score down.

Overall, the gameplay is well done with interesting environmental constructs to go through. The only two issues I had were the overly long load screens (this is probably due to a LOT of unnecessary background textures loading that the player never sees) and the confusing fight with the Hunter near the end. In that situation, I did not know what to do in order to get past the mill cabin after defeating the Hunter since there are two walls on each side. I haven't played that area again, so I can only assume you are meant to lead the Hunter to the long wood wall and have it either blow a hole in it or ram it for the same effect. I had to "noclip" through the wall during my game since it wouldn't break for me. Other than these issues, the mod was a nice story addition and enjoyable to play.

Absolutely superb remake of the original classic Half-Life. A must play. I actually found it more enjoyable than HL2. My only complaint is that there will be a second part. Be prepared for a "To Be Continued" ending. Unfortunately, Valve has put the modders on a non-disclosure agreement about what is going on with the second half of the game and it is really annoying not knowing the current status. I don't see a reason for the NDA. Developer news is always good and helps strengthen fan support.

"Black Mesa" is an amazing redo of the classic Half-Life game. But, it was missing a large element of the gameplay towards the end and this mod puts it all back in place perfectly. The creator did a superb job of making the areas look seamless to that of BM's appearance, so much so that it flows smoothly from the original to this mod and out of it without a problem. If you are going to play "Black Mesa", I highly recommend installing this mod in the process so that you have a complete game.