alienpls | Half-Life: MMod Pt. 2
1extraterrestrials, I beg of thee
REVIEW
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Half-Life is a staple of many gaming tropes and designs that godfathers many core aspects of first person shooters. Fast-paced combat, utilizing different weapons, platforming, adapting and reacting to varying challenges, it does it all. Establishing a forefront of this capacity, you'd be hard-pressed to improve upon something many consider to be perfect. But even a timeless staple could learn a thing or two of evolving game themes and mechanics over the years. Insert Half-Life: MMod.
It's important to note as I've mentioned a fair bit that this is still Half-Life at it's core. Much of what MMod amplified seemed modest to me, nothing extravagant enough that would detract from what defines Half-Life. Like I mentioned at the end of the video, a lot of the changes are mild and subtle but noticeable enough to add flair to the experience. I really liked the fluidity to the FPS animations when moving, there was pleasant crispness to the textures of environments and weapons, more "cinematic" changes to visual/special/sound effects, etc. It's a culmination of the little things that when brought together, provides a more enticing boost to the original formula brought to fruition over 20 years ago.
At the risk of repeating myself, it's honestly surprising how small differences in gameplay can bring out a refreshing interaction to an old title. Enemies being placed differently for more unique encounters, gibbing being more expressive, humans blink and alien eyes glow, seeing your legs so you're not completely a floating camera, even elevator music. Despite the limitations at the time, I imagine people hoped this is what Half-Life: Source could've attempted to create instead of it being a glorified engine port with ragdoll mechanics being the most "memorable" thing about it.
I'm fond of many of the additions to the game but there were still gripes to be had. I'm not convinced the AI improvements really did much as at times, the enemies seemed to be the same as their vanilla counterparts or being straight up dumb (vortigaunts were notorious for this). Bugs apparently being fixed is a welcoming thought but there is still the potential to softlock (the water rising in the Lambda core can bug out and not rise enough to reach the water if you do it too quickly). Different weapon functionalities sound appealing but some were either placebo or completely unnecessary (use of stealth means very little from how area layouts are designed). Crouching not tightening your aim and being restricted to ranged weapons to deal with distance gets a little annoying after a while. Minor grievances but certainly did not take away from my overall enjoyment of the game, just something to address.
MMod is, at the end of the day, one way to enjoy Half-Life as either the vanilla version, overhauls that MMod is apart of or complete remakes like Black Mesa all offer their own flavor to what the title bestows to us l33t gam3rs. It does the best of both worlds, balancing a classic design with modern elements all packaged into one approach, adjustable options and designs to your convenient liking. The power of mods know no bounds in the PC world and it's always welcoming to see conventions being expanded upon decades after release.