Reviews - Rikersbeard

A well executed and clever puzzle and sheer hard combat mod set in an industrial look complex, where the puzzling is done and a otherword! Here you require balance and patience along with speed and grit to finish this little masterpiece.
facing combine and hunters armed with mostly your grav gun and crowbar is challenging but fun.
Good textures and lighting add the polish to this mod and the barrel cannon is a laugh, if a little tricky to load if you are impatient!

Spent 14hrs and some on this mod and loved nearly every moment. Running around the corridors from "Enterprise" was really professional looking and a nice change from standard HL2 textures, had the door chimes too. Combat was hard even on easy with 'fewer enemies' chosen and proved a rewarding challenge.
Sound and music play their parts well in this mod as do the many jump-scare moments including a hunter when you are unarmed!
The Artic zone was fantastic, with the howl of the wind and the falling snow to chill and the amazing sky effects added to the experience.
I quickly learned to like the lens flare and Leon did enjoy throwing lots of those red fairies (Manhacks) at you! But not the, oh so over numerous antlions and rocket-firing APCs!
The manga strip is interesting but I played infrequently and missed out on its coherence, but it often provided quiet respite from an arduous firefight. The last strip did make me chuckle, five rings!
Loved the new six red-eyed combine elite troopers and exploding scenery around the infamous Borealis. At long last its found!
The story is rounded off nicely in the Artic with a long movie scene where Gordon Freeman drives a Mini with the English flag on top. He also said “Woohoo!” in an earlier cut scene as he drove away in a stolen APC! I laughed at that!
Unexpectedly the mod continues from here with some mad and frenetic fighting before you are finally reunited with the grieving Alyx. But sadly Barney does not make it and the dead and deranged Dr Kliener was daddy! (Explains the glasses!)
An amazing mod full of danger, humour, a museum, a manga strip, starships, the Enterprise, complete with photon torpedoes and a very chilly frozen and sliced up Borealis! Oh and the crowbar is an adjustable wrench as if that could possibly bother anyone! Ha ha.
Deserves twenty for effect but I can only go up to ten, should be eleven!
I only came upon a couple of glitches and those did not harm gameplay in such a huge single manned effort! Wow!
I place this game between my top “G-String” and former second “Minerva Metastasis” for shear complexity and gameplay value. In short I liked it.

I give this non-combat mod a solid 9, 10 if some of those puzzles were not so baffling even when I used a walkthrough to help find the solutions!
Graphics, soundscape and music top notch and damned creepy. That siren and the change into the zombified night scene were fantastically creepy.
Epic in length and some good voice acting from the main character that we get to see in the mirrors, even the broken ones! Something a lot of mods annoyingly overlook!
All the flavour of Silent Hill in a very polished mod…

Estranged Act 1 is among the best Half Life mods around which does not feel like a HL mod! It felt similar to Underhell, being so different and story driven, but without the military aspect.
Atmosphere and sound are used to great effect, where some areas become scarier than they are because the music ramps up the tension along with the fear. However this is a very creepy game from the onset.
Puzzles are clever and not instantly obvious and require the protagonist to look around to solve any issue, except for a terminal on the 2nd floor – Marketing and Sales, where I got stuck in a terminal and had to re load a save to get past it!
Weapons and stores are handled nicely and are easy to find, but health in the cargo container warehouse is mean by comparison. Combat here is very clever and thinking is rewarded with life!
The crane had a glitch where the magnet dropped and would not come back up, but a full 360 of the crane somehow solved this and it worked normally.
A most impressive experience and I can’t wait to continue this fascinating story.
The zombies had the result of making me chuckle as I took them on. The assailant wearing mustard with black trousers reminded me of Kirk from Star Trek, the original series. (Showing one’s age)! So Kirk killing became a thing. May have got a Spock too, but a replay will tell.
Best mod ever? Maybe. Looking forward to Act 2…

I read a lot of negative stuff about this mod and was frankly not so keen to start playing, having had a world of trouble finishing “The Citizen”. Not the modder’s fault I just happened to start it during Valves first update!
I was unimpressed with the ending of “The Citizen 2” because I couldn’t get through it without cheating!
This version played smoothly, just a minor noclip to get out of the ice rink, not the first time I had to do that! I enjoyed playing it more than previously and got through the final plaza scene using the explosive option, having failed numerous times as the sniper! It was very immersive and the characters seem quite genuine. So the voice acting ‘s a little creaky to start, for the most part its great!
The final part of this mod series has the full flavour of the previous parts and follows a pretty descent storyline. There are some wicked action pieces, one quite shocking when a particularly nasty member of the antlion family is literally in-yer-face! Where I am always the one to scout ahead!
Puzzles were interesting, the battery-for-the-boat being a nice one along with the climb on a wobbly box with a wobblier blue barrel on top. I had to repeat that one!
The rebel base with the boat bay was very well designed with a multilevel spiral stair being a visual treat and easy to negotiate even carrying a battery.
The river ride out was very nice and natural feeling, curved rock formation and shimmering glassy water! I for one wouldn’t want to be sitting in the airboats trailer!
The ending was great and completed an interesting side story in the Half-Life saga with a big bang and a mine car ride! At least it’s safe to drink the water!
I had no problems with this mod and loved every minute. On the subject of NPCs I had now issuses, in fact at one point, low on ammo and health, I got lost after opening a silo door and found that my NPC comrades had killed those pesky combine for me!

Just finished part 2's multiple missions.
Sniper: This is easy if

Not a bad start. Nice use of colour. Blue sparkling water is very Tron.

The voice acting is this mod is so good it just brings those disgruntled Civil Defence guys to life. They all seem to look down on old Anders, (you the player) for some reason and I’m sure it’s not because of a few turned around cameras!
Being a Combine lackey you get to take on those alien loving terrorists with plenty of firepower, including the Combine APC!
Fun to drive and shoot freeman’s goons with gun and rocket along dark brooding streets through cars and buildings!
Then you have to earn your keep with a difficult “Keep Him Alive” shootout at the first post you stop at. I stopped playing this mod because I could not get through this section! But I did second time and remembered to save!
Weapon load out was excellent and felt more real than the usual “infinity” backpack, but the star has to be the drivable manhack.
An interestingly novel use of this former pain in my rear as an ally to take out those pesky barrier generators. Bravo!
Each section was so well designed and beautifully textured I sat in awe as I waited for the next to load. And waited and waited. Long loading times forgiven because the wait was worth it!
Bravo for including flooded sections as they appear so pretty on my monitor.
Another slice of nostalgia in a mod, only this time it was my old enemies from Xen! Even those floating big-heads and new Manta rays to bring down to earth!
My fellow cohorts were quite a laugh especially when two of them were trying to kick a door in. another clever use of the manhack as a door-blockade remover!
Now where’s that bloody hole! Ha; very sneaky!
This mod had a great ending without the usual, abhorrent “boss” fight. (Just my opinion) and I loved it all.
So I found out why Anders ghostly girlfriend was bothering him and it seems he is a complete and utter, you fill in the rest!
An amazing mod, that I’ve already played through twice and will try for a thrice tomorrow!
Sheer brilliance no wonder in got so many 2010 nominations!

I have written a review for this brilliant version of the modder’s modification of this mod on Planetphillip.com and it is too large to fit here!
Suffice to say that this version of Mission Improbable is simply outstanding in nearly all areas and is a work of art to look at and great fun to play.
The new combine base is the best designed I have ever seen and it was a joy to play. Such height and depth, a truly epic level and well worth the wait.
The final ending was both a shock and a chuckle!

This is a great Combine mod, with the player as simply N0.42, (Now that is an important number!), on a mission to kill the peoples champion, G. Freeman.
The start is nicely epic, (a Combine theme ride for the kids at Disney?), as we see number 42 processed.
His combat suit is not like the other units, so we know he is a special Combine agent.
Base layout and combat is great fun and a bit of a challenge at times, especially when the familiar rebels shout, “Combine!” and I realise that’s me!
Having to fight your way out of your own Citadel is a bit rich but there was a pleasant airboat ride in those lovely, zombie infested sewers to follow! I chose slow and gunning the second time around as my health suffered in a couple of them dark room puzzles if I was fast and reckless!
A disguised Combine chopper in enemy hands was at the start of a frustrating jump, which I failed to make continuously the first time around. The later attempt was successful at the third try!
A quick bit of “Ravenholm” style trouble led to a new, but decrepit, jeep to drive and a shiny sniper rifle. The highlight of this game was this driving and sniping road trip in a very effective storm. Great sound and visuals made it very atmospheric and the sniper scopes view was just right for taking out those pesky rebels.
Ending at the seaside the next day, because it was now sunny, I let loose some manhacks and had a ball with that Combine gun emplacement. Rebels blowing up and flying all over the place!
Then I was shelved by the G-man!
A mod of good length and great fun, I’d play just for the storm section!