Heath Games' Second installment of the Horror Mod series, "Half-Rats". Taking place in July of 1883. Soundtrack courtesy of Ague. Beware, this mod is pretty much NOTHING like Half-Life.
Awesome mod, quite a few improvements and additions over the previous 'Half-Rats: A Fever Dream'
The story is pretty interesting and the maps feel a lot less linear compared to the last mod. It even has a cool little tutorial which is pretty helpful and not many mods do that. It really is one of a kind and the most work I've seen put into a Half-Life mod in the past couple years.
The enemies were pretty well designed and were indeed very difficult especially if you're standing still. It was quite a fight even on normal difficulty. The only problem with the enemies is that their idle sounds were really loud and sometimes made it hard to hear the character dialogue.
Around the beginning of the mod I wasn't doing that well and there were not as many items lying around as I would have liked, I had way too much ammo and not enough health. Later on there are items galore however and more than enough to survive.
The weapon alt fire modes were pretty cool as well, that's pretty rarely done in Half-Life mods, only problem with them is they were a bit glitchy like they kept popping in and out like an overlapping texture or something, also sometimes the shotgun's alt fire didn't work. Aside from that they were pretty good and headshots do seem to matter.
A big feature in this mod is the ability to purchase items and have them in your inventory to use at any time rather than pickups that are used immediately. This is pretty useful because you are able to manage your health much easier. You have to go around picking up cash to buy stuff though but that's fine, usually you find enough money to buy what you need. There was a glitch where I bought a cocaine lozenge or something and it charged me like $500 instead of $150 or whatever it costs. That was the only real problem with that system as aside from that it worked pretty damn well I must say.
The bosses were really fun, unique, well designed and quite a good challenge aside from being a bit trial and errory. There are some parts of the game where you'll get stuck and have no idea what to do so I think some of the puzzly things should be more obvious however most of the time as long as you listen to the character dialogue you'll know where you need to be.
The lantern is a big issue in the earlier parts of the game because its so dark even with brightness and gamma all the way up so you absolutely need it. Only problem is it runs out so fast and there isn't enough oil around. The later parts of the game aren't as dark though so you won't worry about that as much but it is quite annoying at the start.
The only other issue with the game I really found is invisible props and I'd say where they were but that would probably be a spoiler so I'll leave that out. Overall this is an absolutely great mod, has some issues and bugs but I'm sure they will be fixed and it's very well done and detailed for a half-life mod and I'm glad people are continuing to make great goldsrc mods.
I really enjoyed the inventory & shop systems. Being able to carry health restoring meat with you at all times is very efficent. I found it smart to heal yourself at the shops to full health and then buying more to use along the way forward, assuming your got enough lamp oil already.
Combat is a lot of fun and doesn't get repetitive. The reason being that Parasomnia never ceases to challenge you: Once you've gotten adjusted to a certain enemy and its attack patterns, you often find yourself facing off against a new hostility in the forthcoming maps, often in a mixed group of multiple foes. A cycle of discomfort, if I may call it so. I have metaphorically and literally been on the fence (there's some in this mod) as I have panicked, wondering what to shoot at first while being blasted from multiple directions by cavalry men... Then bitten to death by a unseen bottom-sniffer. If you were poor at target prioritization and had slow reflexes before playing the mod, you'll be better at both when you've finished it.
Parasomnia's sounds and looks differ from most other mods just as much as the predecessor does, but with the added plus of not recycling anything from it. Everything feels new and different. You find yourself wanting to take a long good look at the monsters before kicking them; which can be done when wielding the saber. When there aren't any gun toters around you can bring it out and wreak some fun havoc on the poor saps, that don't know that you may or may not be high on cocaine.
When there aren't any blaring enemies around I find the levels very ambient and atmospheric. Exploring and taking in the enviroments around you not only immerses you in the experience, but also rewards you with some hidden items and areas. Most of the maps are perfectly connected, making the town feel quite big despite some buildings being closed, and the indoor areas are very detailed. I think I played the mod for about five hours and loved it almost the entire time.
Half-Rats: Parasomnia is bigger and better than its predecessor in almost every way. I recommend playing A Fever Dream before this one however, not only so that the story can be enjoyed to its fullest, but also so that one may appreciate all the incredible effort that was put into it in a little more than a year's worth of time.
One of the best mods out there for Half Life. Incredible mapping, gameplay felt amazing, story was perfect. The sword fight near the end was one of the most epic 1on1 fights I've ever been a part of half life or not. The only issue is the lantern but I did forget to leave it off a lot so that's more my fault! Thank you so much for making this guys, you deserve the praise. All of it.
A very enjoyable mod; there's some jankyness with the goldsource engine but ultimately you go into these mods for older games with a certain understanding. Level design is detailed; perhaps my biggest complaint is the pervasive darkness which fills some levels. The amount of oil you get for your lantern really seems to dry up in the levels you need it and you end up swimming in it when you don't.
The story was a good continuation of the first Half-rats and ends pretty well; Half-rats is still an enjoyable character to play as and Half-rats himself does a really good job at voice acting. He's a far more likable protagonist than most other mods for HL.
All in all definitely recommended; I would rate it higher but there are certain elements that hold me back (Certain elements in levels aren't telegraphed well at all and I did spend a fair amount of time feeling clueless - if I'd make a suggestion it would be to ensure key items are always visible in some way...whilst not realistic there has to be SOME comprimise for the player if they're running low on oil lantern and are locked in a location with no shop)
Awesome mod. Solid gameplay and atmosphere!
Messiah of goldsrc mods 2017?
half rats the best ever!!!
Half-Rat is amazing, if you like spooky stuff like They Hunger and AOM play Half-rat! Half-Rat hold a place in my heart cause how amazing is the mod and that inspired my current career hobbies a gamedev :D
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I really, really wanted to like this mod a lot, it has a lot going for it, things I didn't think that were possible with GoldSrc, but considering it's the Source Engine's dad, then I should've been a fool for expecting less. But the game is plagued with a lot of shortcomings, lack of weapon variety, some ballbusting enemies, and a complete lack of just regular one use pickups. I get it, the inventory system is supposed to be the go to for this, but it doesn't mean you gotta go all in on it, there are games that mix up this element decently enough, so you can have the best of both worlds. I can't tell you how many BS traps I've ran into knowing full well unless I was using the coke item or had 9 Meat Pies at the ready, I was gonna get ******. I'll go into more depth when I get the chance, but as of right now, the only reason I'm rating it this highly despite the negative bias of this review is it has a lot of charm to it, and it has promise, but I can only pray the developer is working hard on something, an improvement of sorts. Could be high time to try and move to the son of GoldSrc.