ESHQ is a mod for Half-Life with its own storyline (not from Half-Life universe). Unknown government spy must steal secret files from the building called “Evil scientists headquarters”. But his job is going to be a bit more difficult and long...
What an... uh... experience?
ESHQ is up there with perhaps the longest mod's for Half-life I have ever played, rivaling even Residual Life and the Official GoldSrce Half-Life releases in their entirety in terms of longevity, it's a monumental feat of modding that could only come out of Russia.
That being said, it was also an endurance test of patience and willpower not to abandon it.
The version I played was obscenely unbalanced in terms of difficulty, with combat being a cakewalk due to the damage the M4 can dish out and how little health every enemy in the game can take, but most of the deaths come from scripting and cheap traps for newbies that ensures there was no way they could have surmounted the obstacle on the first try.
Storywise, it's unfocused and I seemed to loop around from base to city environments with no rhyme or reason. Mostly basic in terms of detailing each level is 3-4 times longer then the average half-life map and makes up for the lack of details with some pretty damn impressive scripted events and with 70+ at the mods disposal your patience will probably wear thin before you even get out of the city. Especially as there are oven a dozen times where the method of progression was just obtuse even with all the pointers and spray paint to dictate where to go.
What it really boils down to, ESHQ is almost too much of an endurance test even for seasoned Half-Life fanatics and enthusiasts and borderline unapproachable for the casual player.
Yet, it's also one of the most impressive mods I have played in terms of scope and size with events I have yet to see replicated anywhere else.
This is a hard one, as someone who collected all but 12 documents and 60 powerup vials (that don't do anything other then act as collectibles?) but suffered a gravity bug beating the Super Mario level resulting in me getting low gravity for the rest of the mod and getting softlocked out of the last map I can't deny this isn't a mod I'm gonna soon forget but just can't in anyway, shape or form recommend this to any of my friends.
Obviously the creator is open to criticism as even I have been featured in the credits, so what I would recommend is to CHOP down the size by at least half, there are a ton of superficial and filler levels that could have been jumped entirely and the obscene amount of times I've lost my weapons could be stamped out, seriously, screw that.
Of course, this is easier said then done, but I do hope the next project they partake in is MUCH smaller in size. Seriously, you guys are pro's committing to this for so many years with so many updates.
Also get rid of the instagib for dead bodies, a Beretta popping a body with one shot is just dumb.
Let's start with curious detail. ESHQ uses minimalistic, boxy, utilitarian-looking, geometrically-minimalistic aesthetics. And its clearly not because you can't make a tube non-square - in fact, those circular textures on some of the machines (teleporters and other "beamy" devices) blended with the environment so well I sometimes mistook it for an actual circle. And some of script sequences as well as level layouts and just the silent spectacle of some places were impressive.
Author made some fire and flooding levels so well I can call it genius moves. You've made working smoke - that suffocates you! - and flood that looked like water coming under great pressure! And that bit where whole section of corridor sinks in lava and you use intact part as an elevator - that's truly something. Despite simple, utilitarian looks of this mod, I've yet to see equal amount of attention to details in any other HL1 mod. And I don't mean "details" as decoration - I mean putting parts of wall that collapsed into the cave in lower section of the cave where those bits would naturally land! Or placing scratch mark from big piece of ventilation pipe being thrown down the corridor - right where they should have naturally been!
If anyone would be fooled by squares on squares that are most of the levels - heck, shame on them! This level of detailing is beyond what most mods could dream of.
Of course, there are downsides as well. Sometimes there are almost hour-long sections without any fights - not what most HL players are used to. You just go around, explore, proceed forward, do some puzzle, gather some secrets. I loved these quiet moments, but not everyone will.
Oh, and often you must do puzzle to proceed. Find what to press or key, or what to shoot and how, etc. At no point it really halted my progress, but a few times I wasted 10-15 minutes trying to figure out what the heck am I supposed to do. But not once did I use the walkthrough! Every puzzle is perfectly doable with no external clues - just be a bit more tenacious and use your brain.
Also, author isn't English-speaking. More precisely, he is definitely Russian-speaking, because when you, like me, can use both of these languages, some typical Russian-to-English translation mistakes become obvious. So, while text is good enough, and is, BTW, voice-acted (or machine-voice-acted? no idea), there are some really silly mistakes here and there.
All in all, ESHQ is like good old games - perhaps, a homage? - its does not hold your hands and half-walk itself. ESHQ makes you think, not just shoot stuff. It makes you orient yourself on the level, look around, investigate minor details - think, think, think.
And this is brilliant. I certainly could do with more HL1 mods like this beauty.
All in all, solid 8-8.5/10. Recommended to anyone not too afraid of puzzles and long-*** levels.
P.S. If we would compare this mod with any other HL mod, then indeed Residual Life has some semblance. But even more so - that Call of Ctulhu mod. Basically has the same formula: some puzzles, some levels you mostly walk through, minimalistic design. Only its minimalism wasn't, I think, a choice of style - more likely that author couldn't do better. That mod was quite junky at times.
Well balanced, if you like the style.
Graphics look good too. Well worth a play. Good thing, the DEV's always around, for help.
Having a second opinion, I would say the mod is average of course the length didn't have to be too long but its fine, the strategies are a little repetitive, the layouts do look nice though, sometimes though it's easy to get lost because button triggers are easily hidden, so at best it can be entertaining but there are problems with it, that's my second opinion on it.
I had some problems with doors but mod creator helped me fix it. The mod itself is out of original HL world which is cool change.
I 'attempted' to play this mod on several different occasions:
The first time that I installed this mod several weeks ago, I found the setup menu to be a lot more 'buggy' and complicated than the setup menu is for about any other user-made Half-life mod: For example, it takes several steps ('BACKSPACE' key then the 'RETURN' key) to 'un-map' key mappings.....and then input the preferred key mappings. Other Half-life mods require only a very quick and simple double-clicking of the mouse on a key-mapping to erase and then enter one's preferred command.
The graphics quality and/or engine used in this mod is very low quality - it utilizes worse graphics than the 'official' Half-life game. Also, there unexact percentages presets for the 'mouse sensitivity': Slider bars which enable one to EXACTLY customize mouse sensitivity to the EXACT percentage exist in other all other user-made Half-life mods that I have played, but not in THIS mod. In the options menu in 'ESHQ,' the 'mouse sensitivity slider bar' customizes mouse sensitivity to a 'close percentage' of desired mouse sensitivity...but not 'exact' mouse sensitivity as in all other mods.
When I enabled 'vertical sync' in the graphics setup menu, the game failed to initialize and a complete 'uninstallation' was necessary. However, there is no 'uninstall' feature which comes bundled with the 'ESHQ' download: The downloadable package comes with an 'install' executable but NOT an 'uninstall' executable. Hence, it is necessary to MANUALLY delete all files.
The gameplay itself was very buggy. I unintentionally placed timed bombs on several locales that I was unaware of and nearly killed myself several times. I unintentionally placed a timed bomb in the beginning of this mod near a scientist and blew him to pieces and nearly blew myself up. I didn't have a bomb on my person/in my inventory so why the heck was I supposed to know that I was going to place a bomb right on a certain place on the floor of an office? I placed the bomb on the floor just by walking over a certain area of the floor.
The combination of all of these factors meant that after no less than SEVERAL installs and manual deleting of files.....I gave up on this very buggy and very annoying mod. I will never attempt to fidget with this mod or download it ever again.
I rate ESHQ a 2 out of 10.
Good mod. Of the benefits: Interesting and long plot, good level design. Levels are very diverse
Of the minuses: sometimes it is not clear what to do.
I recommend this mod.
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Good job