You don't know where you are but you know you need to get out of there.

RSS Reviews  (0 - 10 of 23)

so first off i want to say this, the modelling work, textures and animations are all amazing and impressive for goldsrc, considering they were made by one person afaik, but that's really the only positive things i can say about this mod and if it weren't for them i'd give a much lower score.

now that i got that out of the way i can talk about how (no offense) terrible the level design is, every room looks the same and the levels are needlessly huge (one map will take you at least a bit over an hour), it really says something about the levels when 80% of the time was spent wandering around trying to find critical switches that blend in with the environment.
and even if you find said switches, get ready to look for the door that it opened cause the even with a cutscene that shows the door (which is a bad sign in and of itself) you still have to figure out which room it's in because every area looks the same.
it's not all negatives though, like i said previously the texture work is REALLY good, and there were a few cool puzzles, like the elevator one, but that's really it.

the base gameplay isn't really that great either, a lot of the enemies are absolute bulletsponges and what makes it even worse is that early game combat will be using a lead pipe melee weapon which doesn't deal a lot of damage. you get a pistol later on but literally next to no ammo for it, and considering it takes 1 mag to take down a zombie, it's basically useless.
oh yeah i also played on normal difficulty, i forgot to mention that.
all this combined with the level design just really makes for a not very enjoyable experience.

that's all i really have to say. i was expecting something a lot better than that from the screenshots that the dev was posting but in the end it's really disappointing. i hope i wasn't being too harsh with this one, and i also hope that you'll take some of this feedback to improve the mod because it's really a shame to see so much effort get wasted like that.

The Negative:

1. The melee combat itself. While it does make sense whenever it comes to the very first Zombie variants that have stretchable limbs, the other enemies (specifically the other Zombie types) can still more often than not, easily hit you regardless if you've managed to dodge their attacks.

2. As a minor complaint, most of the enemies still possess stock Half-Life sounds, like the Mutated Zombie that emits omnidirectional waves while walking, emitting sounds of what a Houndeye would make.

3. While the level-design is very impressive, it is very newcomer unfriendly when first playing through it due to how very complex it is. The workaround I could think of, is creating an in-game compass that guides you to the needed destinations.

The Positive:

1. The music is very atmospheric, haunting, and can also be quite intense.

2. There are some very impressive moments, especially the jump scare. For example, even as you wander aimlessly around the levels, Zombies can start to tear through the floor tiles, the ventilation shafts, etc, in order to ambush you.

3. While there is some rooms that have the same textures repeating over and over, the textures themselves are fabulous to look at, and very futuristic.

4. The soldiers are more challenging when compared to the actual Half-Life campaign.

5. The visuals and effects are beautiful and well-made. I am not sure if this mod is made specifically on XASH, or Spirinity, or even Spirit of Half-Life, I'm not sure, but either way, it is very good stuff.

6. The various types of Zombies there are, are horrific and well-designed, each having different attacks and behavior. Some qualify as Metazombies since they don't have body horror, (in addition to micromutations) but others like the more mutated types like the ones that have the power to pulse omnidirectional energy waves, are full-on Mutant Zombies.

Each type of Zombie, at least depending on the difficulty, can range from being relatively easy to fight back, to straight up challenging and unrelenting, making use of combat sense and strategy more essential rather than brute force.

7. The weaponry can be very satisfying to use, especially this nailgun-(ish) weapon that can shoot darts at a relatively rapid rate, and it can be very useful against the assassins.

8. Depending on how you play, combat can range from being hard, to even enjoyable. Even though the AI is shared with Half-Life for a start.

Overall:

While there are things then and there that definitely needs some improvement in order for me to bring myself to rate it higher, I still had a very good time playing this mod, given its dark, sci-fi, industrial atmosphere, the music, sound, and also the combat and enemies.

Subjective Rating: Great

Explanation - This sounds self-explanatory but don't let me sell you short. Any mod with this rating has my full seal of approval and rose up above the masses. I had no regrets playing this; I had a good time. Now something about it kept it from being one of the absolute best mod experiences I've ever had, but that's not really a criticism.

I really enjoyed my time with this mod! I've yet to finish it all the way through but I enjoyed the "survival horror" gameplay (minimal resources, tough enemies), and the side-routes I had to take in a mild panic to avoid untenable odds.
Navigation was pretty straight-forward and the elephant in the room is the gorgeous new style for the environments, weapons, and enemies, all of which dripped with personality.

I'm looking forward to playing more! Keep it up!

It looks very impressive for a gldsrc game, there are some pretty cool puzzles and it was a very fun experience

10

Juks says

Agree Disagree

nice

5

The mod had a really good start but then you notice the really, really bad map design. Not trying to be hateful... but it's seriously bad. I don't even know where to start.

Everything looks the same.
I can't even say there's "levels" in this mod, it's just one giant connected maze, so I can't even describe certain parts of the mod - it all looks the same.
So many fake doors, and they all blend in the map. You just have to press E on every door you see if you want to progress, there's almost no rhyme or reason to it.
There's zero direction or logical paths. So many times I felt like I progressed through levels on accident. I click on a button, which are very hard to miss because they don't even look like buttons, and then I see a five second cutscene of some random door opening. You have no clue where this door is because again, every single location looks the same.
There are so, SO many vents and paths that lead to pointless backtracking. This is probably the worst offender.
Afraid to admit that I'm not even able to finish the mod because I have absolutely NO idea where to go, and I honestly don't have the patience to finish it. Like I said before, I don't even know how to describe where the **** I'm even at, or what the hell I'm even doing.
So for the positives, the music and the models and textures are nice, and there were a few enjoyable scares but they get predictable later.

As for the story, so far I found it disappointing. You get a quick cutscene and get thrown right into the game but nothing gets explained later, no dialogue or anything. If I knew it gets better, maybe I'll consider finishing.

Good

9

Buen mod pero no lo es lo "mejor del mundo"

This is one of the most labyrinthic backtracking mods I've ever played. Also quite lengthy. Very good graphics for the engine, but a questional level design and gameplay.

Overall it's one-of-a-kind mod and worth trying. I personaly don't regret playing it.

6

FlippedOutKyrii says

May contain spoilers Agree Disagree

A great feat from a single modder but not without a lot of fallbacks.

eXperiment starts off simple as clockwork, you arrive in an underground facility and now, find out something "Got Out" and now you gotta follow suite while fighting and evading an army of mutatating Hazmat Crews.

That's it. Even by the standards of a Half-Life mod the storytelling both in-lore and environmentally wise is very minimal. I was hoping to find scant logs here and there but even those were oddly non-existent so the idea of what is happening and where you are is either up to the player to decide or entirely not important.

Gameplay-wise, there are a lot of new weapons at the players disposal and there are a few new enemies to fight back against. Most are the melee variety and appear from every nook and cranny, meaning no place in the map is truly safe for the player to hide and mid-way they start coming at you with guns and sadly these aren't nearly as fun to fight.

From an art perspective, the levels are masterfully crafted and textured but they are astonishingly scant in rational and detail, with most levels looking the same and you never get a real sense of progression despite the fantastic shadows and lighting effects. Speaking of which, the maze-like navigation is head-ache inducing and makes zero sense for a facility unless it's trying to be the prison from the Horror Movie "Cube".

The real standout for me however, is the encroaching tension in the sound-design and fantastic music which reminded of the environmental cues in "The Suffering" soundtrack inspired by the levels the tracks played in, with most of the tunes implying heavy banging of pipes and pounding on steel doors.

Regardless, the mod still has a lot of problems that make it hard to recommend.

Firefights are astonishingly arduous and almost physically painful to endure, with your health easily depleted in a matter of seconds from a single grunt and your visuals are thrown off with every bullet, meaning just two could send you into a seizure making it nigh impossible to fight back. This is especially awful in the final leg of your escape in the last level where you have to fight off over 2 dozen Assassins!

It's also just WAY too long, with the winding maze-like levels easily trapping even the most resourceful of players and even I myself took about 8 hours to reach the end!

eXperiment is a fantastic modding achievement but unless the combat gets a bit of a patch I can't go higher then a 6. Give it a go if you are curious but be warned, it can be quite hard to navigate!