The plot takes place in a scientific complex, which is located somewhere in the Arctic. Scientists have found a new agressive form of life in the caves. Can you leave this area?
This was a surprise release, and what a release!
Gameplay was classic Half-Life, and the environments played to the strengths of the original's gameplay. All the fire-fights and ambushes were staged fantastically. The puzzles were straightforward, and not once did I get lost. The only puzzle grievance I had was the box puzzle, as it was possible to move the box far into the mines, away from where you were meant to use it. Perhaps a small ledge could stop this box from being taken away from the intended area?
Although all the enemies were from the original game, the ice theme re-skins and effects really made everything feel fresh! The sound of the wind and excellent custom textures brought this area to life. The weapons were modified versions of the normal Half-Life arsenal, but each weapon felt rebalanced enough to appear new. The pistol was much more powerful and was my weapon of choice for the campaign!
The story is very thin, but enough to set the scene. The environment and setting however are unique and work very well with the engine. I would like to see more from this author! Highly recommended :)
This was a very pleasant surprise. Up until today, I had heard absolutely nothing with regards to this mod, likely due to it’s developers sticking to Russian modding sites and communities.
A very nice, solidly built series of maps with a winter theme, jam packed with classic Half-Life gameplay. The story (shown in an intro cutscene which you can skip entirely if you’re not interested) is basic. Scientists (Shown in white HEV suits) are drilling through rock in the Arctic when they bust open one frozen chamber too many and unleash frost demons… or something. The military is hastily called in to deal with the situation and then you start playing. You’re character however, is completely anonymous. I assume you are simply one of the nameless scientists as you appear to be using the white HEV, but this is never confirmed as such. Also, the military is hostile as per usual, but this is never officially explained. In fact, once the intro is over, there is absolutely no narrative or hint of a plot whatsoever, which was a bit of a shame.
There are some minor code changes in place, that actually have quite a large impact on the way you approach combat. The pistol has a slower rate of fire, smaller magazine and a nice two shot burst alternate fire. The MP5/M4 has been replaced with what looks like an FAL Rifle, with a much smaller clip size, slower rate of fire but packs a hell of a punch. The rest of the arsenal remains fairly standard.
The enemies are your classic Xen monsters, reskinned to suit the winter theme (I say reskinned, I mean greyscaled), while the grunts sport winter combat attire.
The combat on the Hard setting was very nicely balanced. I found myself scrounging for any health and ammo I could find, often running around with nothing but 25 Health and 3 pistol rounds to my name. However, while a lot of the terrain is impressive, it can cause issues where you get stuck which can make the tense firefights downright infuriating in some instances. When you’ve gotten through several battles without taking a single hit, you can feel cheated when you get stuck on seemingly nothing and take a vort blast to the face.
The lighting throughout is pretty sterile and uninteresting, until you enter the caves around the midpoint. These areas are simply gorgeous by Goldsource standards.
Overall, this is definitely worth a playthrough, so long as you’re not expecting a deep or interesting story line.
Loved it.
Most of the maps architecture is good looking, really fits for an arctic base made in the middle of nowhere, underground maps are pretty cool as well.
Not really much of a story outside of the intro and the summary text, but it’ll do just fine without one.
I decided to play this first on Hard and found that the pick up placements are kind-of balanced.
Though i do sometimes find myself both having too much ammo and not enough ammo, probably have something to do with the fact that the ammo capacity has been reduced a bit.
Nothing has been changed about the enemy’s behavior though, good or not depends on taste.
There’s custom weapons in this mod, with additional coding in for good measures.
A lot of the NPC models have been altered as well, with the aliens fitting in with the snowy environment and the hgrunt models entirely replaced.
Combat’s pretty fine, a good number of cover to avoid enemy fire, and i never died once thankfully (not counting the time i jumped down in the beginning area because i think there may be something down there).
Overall, a short and sweet mod.
Pretty fun, to play at least :)
Really liked the level design, it is really well-made. The gameplay was decent, you can easily find guns, healthkits and ammos, the puzzles weren't confusing and can easily be solved. However the only thing that missing was some soundtracks. Also could use little more action, i would like to see some tanks shooting us or a big alien battle might be cool. To be honest i expected to this to be a long mod but this was okay.
Very good mod. I like the new Assault Rifle. you will definitely like it too!
This mod was well designed and overall pretty enjoyable, it's good to see that the Half-Life modding community still has some life left in it. While enjoyable it is short, very short. Hopefully this concept gets expanded on.
A pretty solid mod,Took me 23 minutes to finish it in my first playthrough I give this mod a 9/10.
* great level design.
* nice custom weapons, but there's few of them.
* gameplay was good, at times felt like the original half-life, one thing that bothered me is that the mod threw as much enemies as possible at the end.
* the puzzles were pretty nice.
* you can barely see ticked options in the mod's menus.
* some headcrab and barnacle placements were a bit annoying.
* mod actually uses MP3s for music instead of doing the poor quality in-map music!
* takes about 35 minutes to complete.
great short mod, with an arctic environment
awesome maps