Reviews - precision_bomber

I like this mod!

(I hate comparing this to Half-life: Delta, who's had similar accolades as being a mod being developed for a decade but I'd inevitably will.)

It's basically if Opposing Force actually did more with its setting, I like the entire bit of title-drop chapter "Field Intensity," it's very much in the vain of this mod's version of Surface Tension but, you're on the marine's side! You build up a sizeable amount of squad towards the end of the chapter, and I was beginning to wonder if there's an upper limit to how much people can be in your squad.
And I like the touch letting the Garg's sounds of beating the entire squad bleed through the ground as you enter the tunnels. It's a nice bit of subtle story telling of how your escape attempts will be thwarted at every step.

I immediately figured out what happened to Kevin, the moment he jabbers on about your training unfortunately-- it didn't surprise me. The impact of finding his body was lessened for that fact but, I guess it's purposefully written that way?

--

I like the fact that this mod doesn't overdo 'gotcha' moments as Half-life: Delta did. A lot of the level design is fair but some encounters need work.

It's also prey to one my gripes on spawning in Vortiguants in very inopportune places that you'll just get pelted in all directions with lightning bolts.
This mod does more do it with Houndeyes but Houndeyes are actually pretty okay (and less lethal) with these ambush set-ups because of how their pack mechanics work.

It's also got that sick pleasure of just placing Headcrabs in very bad spots.
There was one spot that Headrcrabs spawn en masse in a small room while you wait for an elevator and you really can't do anything about it while a Vort shoots you from an upper floor. Horrid.

There's an encounter with two Baby Gargs towards the end of the Xen chapter, handling the first one is fine if but a bit claustrophobic, but the second one appearing immediately after the first one's death, at the exit of the tunnel is a cheap shot, especially if you got your back turned from the exit.

Then I realize in this mod where this 'design philosophy' comes from-- Sven Co-op.

--Incoming Tangent--
Now, a lot of Sven Co-op mappers are talented and have honed their abilities in level design throughout the years but there are certain idiosyncrasies that befits the design of Sven Co-op Campaign maps.
In that they're designed to kill as many players as possible, which is fine that setting, considering the amount of total firepower that many players can produce. Unfortunately some of those principles are hard to translate to a SINGLEPLAYER experience.
--Tangent over--

This mod fortunately handles the balance of encounters better than Half-life: Delta did. (Or maybe I'm just bitter that you're not stuck with a crappy SMG that does diddly-do-nothing to a grunt unless you unload your entire mag.)

There were only a few moments where you feel like you're starved for ammo too, and those sections are usually the quieter story bits, and design does lead into nudging you to use a certain weapon- which is good that it does this.

Navigation through the maps is solid, I get lost every now and then but never too long and I do love the courtesy of showing what items you have with the TAB interface. It's small communications bits like this makes you go through your memory of the area to active search for something specific rather than something general progress.

I also really did like the QoL for Rallying/Disbanding nearby friendlies. It really does help with the gameplay flow.

Funny bits I experienced:
Both Kingpin fights are laughably cheese-able. Which kinda brings down the allure of those fights but nonetheless are okay fights. The first one is basically your circle-strafe tutorial and the second one... you can lure it into the healing pod and go at it at a specific angle, and the healing pod would out-heal the damage of the Kingpin's ranged attack. (I urge you to keep this quirk though, it's a very specific circumstance and requires you to set it up properly or it'll just melee you to death.)

The final Garg prior to the escape can be cheesed by retreating back into the hallway and throwing the explosive snarks at it.

So... it really doesn't attempt to give itself an identity beyond the fact that it's experienceing the same disaster as Black Mesa. The Delta complex might as just well be Black Mesa only that it has even less of an identity.

The SMG sucks. It's never effective in a few bursts, the soldiers armed with have immaculate aim, so you're pretty much at a disadvantage.

You get the Assault Rifle pretty early on the second chapter but you get no ammo for it up until the 60% mark. The entire second chapter is all grey walls travelling through repetitious warehouses and freight yards.

This mod likes throwing enemies in front of you, especially Vorts that you immediately have to avoid and you're taking a hit if you don't find cover, which is most of the time Vorts spawn in with the only recourse for cover is to head back the way you came, making each section a sloggy tug-of-war.

The mod also likes placing Headcrabs in the most inopportune spots which can be aggrevating when you're running around in low health looking for a med station or packs. The big medkit DOES NOT look like a Medkit from the sides.

Encountering the Marines several times in Chapter 2 is very tedious and kinda braindead, they usually have all of the good sightlines so they can eat your Armor and HP down very quickly if you don't immediately identify the shape of the arena, and more often than not, you're fighting through a door which closes on its own and pushes you around when you're near it. There's also not a lot of options with fighting them besides using your highest damaging weapon and just hoping you have enough for every single enlisted man in the room.

I like the Anti-Materiel Rifle though. I used to it to takedown an Osprey before it can spawn in Marines.

For this mods credit, this does look pretty good. But in comparison to the likes of Signal Lost and Echoes... yeah it's pretty much overshadowed by those.

With 12 years of effort unfortunately, this isn't a fun experience, it has no discernable identity and just is badly designed with its combat encounters. And gosh WHY CAN THE BULLSQUID TAKE 1 SHOT FROM THE ANTI-MATERIEL RIFLE AND LIVE?

While it does combine aspects of all technologies of the respective factions-- it does not commit to the madness.

In turn, the mod loses its luster very quickly.

You don't have to be original to be a good mod-- BUT you have to be creative at the very least. This mod doesn't do that unfortunately.

It's pretty much what a Reborn USA Boss General would be like, this is more of an addon experience than anything. And that's the crippling thing here is that it will unfortunately live in Reborn's shadow.

The only thing going for this is that it's clean-- polished.

I guess maybe this was released at the time where the big bois of modding were the likes of Rise of the Reds, Contra, or maybe even Shockwave and this mod was trying to cash in the simpler times like Reborn. But this doesn't even commit. So unfortunately I'm going to have to give this a low score.

Really great mod.

However, it for the most part a slog-fest of looking where good' ol Fresh hid the exit to an area.

Quite honestly, I never legit figured out all the puzzles- since I most bypassed them by using Speed-run techniques, eventhough I'm not speed running.

For the most part, it was fun if not a bit dragging at some points.

This mod's gimmick is okay. Its just that its not executed well.

SPAM INSTA-KILL EVERYWHERE. ugh.

[WARNING SPOILERS]
I like the mod... And finished it.

Though there was one part where there were trees and Assassins. Everytime I look at a Tree the framerate dropped.

And it was unfair in a way.

The mod isn't too 'actiony' till early late game.
Although I dreaded the parts of item gathering.

The level design is good, but it sometimes left me stumped sometimes, though I figure it out fairly quick. The mod is not really good at pointing where you wanna go next.

The part where the scientist guy died, it was sorta sad. And the train-ride ending had me on the edge of my seat.

A bit late in the review(since I made a playthrough of this a few years ago).

Anyway, I didn't expect this mod to be a Mission-based mod.
Which is kinda fun in a way but what bothered me is that the difficulty curve a the beginning needs to be adjusted.

Starting with soldiers that early? I can take it but there are just those times the game asks so much.

Finding the secret areas were also fun though. And entering the code for the training area secret and finding out whats in there was fun.

Hatchet throwing was also a neat idea, though I had accidents of using it while I was orienting myself with Training Mode(not shown on my series).
"Major Laceration Detected." Yeah, I had a laugh with that. I'm glad you guys added the detail for that.

All in all, it's a good mod. But there are times in which the game just asks too much from the player that they have to do multiple attempts(which in case my recordings) just to pass a certain area, which can be aggravating sometimes.