Snowdrop Escape – Winter Mod for Half Life 2

Half Life 2 pleases players for almost two decades. After the release from the developers themselves, two episodes were released. However, the game only gained popularity thanks to the community, which during the existence of the game made a dozen if not hundreds of mods. The most popular are probably Synergy, which allows you to go through the game and episodes in the cooperative. Garry’s Mod – a crazy sandbox with thousands of its addons and Black Mesa – remake of the first Half Life. The last two has grown to such a scale that they have become independent projects. But in this article we will talk about another fashion that transfers to snow and Russia.

General impressions, details and jambs

The mod itself begins in the spirit of the original – we are nowhere to appear in the cold waters of the Barents Sea. A couple of minutes we can shy away and study the base and from that moment our adventure begins. After introductory information on our assignment, not quite ordinary detail is revealed and they tell us that we will act against the famous resistance. And at the same time the alliance forces will be also hostile. The question arises – for which side we will act? If you were interested in Loro, then most likely you know that the games of the series Half Life And Portal occur in one universe. Here on the side of the latter we will perform.

In its structure and intensity, the mod resembles that chapter HL2 when you need to ride a crossed area on the bugges, periodically interrupting a small and medium -sized battles. With the exception of the last chapter. It is carried out by irony with the help of transport, but it has the most saturated, in terms of action, content.

Since the mod takes the basis of another game, it will be a lot to know. Nevertheless, the developers did not leave everything by default. In addition to the most obvious that the place of action has changed, there are new objects, mechanics and weapons.

Some of course raises questions, but more on that later.

The duration of the passage will be individual. It took me about 6 hours to get to the final credits, but in general, the volume of the mod is approximately the same as any of the two existing episodes.

The most important thing that you need to constantly remember if you still decide to play is that not professionals have done the mod and you need to treat some things with understanding. Of course, not with such an understanding, when, buying a game for a full AAA, an artificially stretched grind and donates will be inside, because „Well, the cost of development has increased”.

In addition, it is free by itself, but I need Steim’s version of Half Life 2 and I’m not sure whether it can be limited to or will be a pack from the game and episodes itself, because it is the Half Life 2 Episode 2 that is indicated in fashion.

But in general, even for free fashion, there are not good things straight.

I don’t know how it will be in the future, but at the time of writing the article, this is why the mod begins:

It makes no sense to talk about quality, both in the technical and emotional part. And this situation is more strange, the presence of other dialogs that are recorded and sound in every sense normally: normally:

Despite the fact that this is at the very https://onlinepoker247.co.uk/betway-casino/ beginning, it is worth saying about this so that you do not think that the whole mod is such. Although the quality of dialogs is mediocre and others have “not mandatory” NPSs on the first location:

Without leaving far from the first location, there are shortcomings that make themselves felt throughout the game – doors. 75 percent doors, open on the player, thereby slowing down. And in some cases, also clamping, since, by a strange coincidence, almost all of these 75 percent fall on narrow corridors and had to even load a couple of times:

The following, more subjectively, for example, I liked it: Corgeimple, not much redistributed much from the corridor action towards mysteries. No, technically and literally this is the same corridor. However, in some locations, this corridor developed to the labyrinth and even acquired verticality. Here is for example one of the locations

Having come to this place, we will have possible ways to the right and left. It will not work to go left because of the hot steam, so we go to the right. There, after a short battle with the help of a grandfather’s three -line, it is necessary to guess the desired valve to get rid of the steam. After that, a ventilation hole opens and not simple with one entrance and output, but diluted into three rooms, one of which will be painfully familiar. And after the restoration of all, a dead end may occur, since two rooms end themselves, and the third closes with the corridor where we turned off the steam. How then to advance? And you can advance if you remove from the battery from the spotlight so that the phosphorus label manifests itself. Is this not a miracle of game design? (Within the framework of the Source engine of course).

And it seems to me that it benefited the fashion, since he took the basis of another game, he was able to bring something new, although in fact it is all the same engine and mechanics. In one place, this system fails, but I will touch it further.

In general, probably all the features of the fashion cannot be called unambiguously good or bad. Because on the one hand, the development is limited to the capabilities of the engine, and on the other, even if everything is technically made acceptable, then in general it will look so -so. And one of these most ambiguous things in fashion is katsen. Technically, they are absent in Valv games, with very rare exceptions, for example, at the end of Portal 2. And to see them, in a classical sense, with a fixed camera and cash (kinematographic stripes), is quite strange and not even pleasant, by how limited by the fusion of default animations that are in Half Life 2:

The point of no return

And then we got to the point of no return. Since the mod itself is not particularly large, to tell about it voluminous, but at the same time it will not work to maintain the charm of an independent study. Therefore, if you have a desire to play a mod, then it is worth the remaining parts of the blog will return after passing. Since then I will affect spoilers, I forget that the mod is free and we start working with what is.

Right at the beginning, from the same source “everything arrived” we have a negligent man. And by coincidence, for a long time, I am trying to study 3D animation. And I overcame the moment when the statics that should be dynamic is very striking me very much. Because in 3D, even if the character should be in one place and position, he should have at least a respiratory animation. And here is a mannequin and not one:

And as I wrote earlier, the mod is oversaturated with such things, which on the one hand seem to be normally made and to some extent will even improve the concept and gameplay of the second Half Life . But at the same time, it is so incomprehensible, absurd and alien, like from the point of view of the series, let the fans forgive me. And in terms of game design.

Again, not far away from the start: as, we remember, the main character is a supergulator, a special operative receives a task where he will definitely encounter the enemy forces, goes to him without weapons. In order for the plot to happen:

With the weapon itself is also not in order, although this side of the fashion is as controversial as possible. There are, both really useful things and rudiments. For example, the antidote has become a separate subject and it must be introduced independently. Cool – yes. But 95% of the time when it is really in use ends in the first 30-40 minutes, as soon as the first weapon appears:

There is a PDA into which the main character makes notes, which, according to the idea, should immerse more in the game. Cool – yes. But all notes about what just happened. Literally. Not more, not less:

Arsenal himself underwent changes, became more diverse, but the most interesting thing – acquired mechanics of interception. Although the battles are pushed to the second, if not the third plan, but it is still interesting that even in this form you can not be a walking arsenal. Cool – yes. But looking at the whole arsenal. Excluding hand weapons, items, and modifiers we get 12 guns per 4 slots.

While in Half Life – 8 units per 4 slots. And if you look closely, then, firstly, they are distributed according to the principle of action, so that the player when changing the weapon visually understands where it is and where to switch. And secondly, it is completely autonomous from each other. It would seem that such a standard thing, but you can’t say about it.

Returning to the arsenal in fashion, we can notice that the pistol from the slot 2 and PP from the slot 3 use the same ammunition. And if you have both of these weapons with you, then in fact using one barrel will be used at once both. The same applies to a shotgun and cut. Plus, as I said everything was mixed in porridge, and in the heat of the battle you can very much see that there is no weapon that you lifted literally 10 minutes ago. The third slot is still tolerant, since the cardinal difference between all trunks, a cosmetic muffler, a sight and an under -barrel grenade launcher. But the fourth slot is both a point rifle at a medium-long distance, and a shotgun for a close, automatic rifle for a middle distance and RPG. And all this is equivalent to your inventory.

And in terms of dissonances that will arise with a high probability, so there is a segment in fashion where the “wrong” choice of weapons affects the speed of passage. This happens in the last chapter. Driving on a snowmobile, there will be a two -sequentary segment with opponents. The first part consists of a half -cream of machine gunners and blocks, and the second – of two types of ground mines and armored personnel carriers. Resembles a scene from Half Life 2, where on an air boat we call in a small pocket where there are two armored personnel carriers.

But unlike the original, it is necessary to kill an armored personnel carrier in fashion, since he nourishes a power field that does not let us further. So, if you have not before armed with an automaton with an under -barrel grenade launcher, RPG and/or grenades, you will have to at least return to the barricades from the first part, since there is the desired automatic. And in the first passage I got stuck there for 20 minutes, overloading and thinking that I did the wrong place. After I released a video review, they wrote to me in the comments that this armored personnel carrier can just be pushed and to my surprise is really the case. But either because of a small number of lives, or from common sense, I did not even think about raising an armored car, which are more than my snowmobile every ten. You can also undermine an armored car C4, but also, due to common sense, I would not rush to the tank, if only to blow it up. At the same time, the charge lies in a protected room, along with another machine gun with an under -barrel grenade launcher, so I think that explosives do not make sense at all.

And since we reached a dubious gamemel, I will complete the topic with a shift in the focus towards the puzzle. In general, I remain my own and I like it that there were more riddles, but there was one moment when I am stuck capital.

The first moment, approximately in the middle. When we find ourselves in the laboratory in which we need to get on the assignment, almost all the rooms are locked in it. Some rooms can be opened with a blue key-card. Here for clarity the laboratory itself.

1 – key -card place;2 – kitchen, where the overgrown window;3 – place of canister, which must be brought to the kitchen and set fire.

So there is one where you can get through the window from another adjacent room. But here is not a task. The window itself was overgrown with a web and the adjacent plate hints how to act, and besides, the overgrown window has already met earlier. However, in order to crank all this, it is necessary to bring the canister from almost the other end of the laboratory. At the sight of above, this seems simple, but in reality it can take a decent time before you can guess what can interact with.

And another bonus, as a whole, is generally a logical-fiber study of the level:

Russia is not for Half Life?

And the last moment, which for some can be a straight fundamental pretext and argument to the game or vice versa, get away from this as far as possible – this is the place of action that was transferred to Russia. I have an ambiguous opinion on this score.

First about the good. Oddly enough, but the image of the Soviet Union whose „heritage” can still observe so far, personally, I personally cause mixed feelings. Moreover, I myself have never lived there myself. I partly consider myself a creative person and I can be inspired and imbued with almost any source, even such a lamp-bearer. And in this case, it seems to me, two stars came together: a gloomy for a randomly-willed scoop with alien totalitarianism Half Life. And therefore almost all interior decorations look very good.