- Mod Title: Combine Combat Demo
- Game: Half-Life 2
- Number of Maps: 8
- Mod Author: Team Mobenic
- Review Author: Ioann Andreev
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of mods will quickly recognize this mod as yet another one that puts us in the shoes of an Alliance soldier. However, this one stands out from the crowd. The authors have prepared for us the role not of a common soldier, but of a special type of Combine, who is sent on a mission specifically to assassinate Gordon Freeman. And here, too, not everything is so simple, and the matter is not without the participation of a "man with a briefcase."
First, I want to talk about the technical side of the mod, as the authors have done a very solid job and introduced a ton of changes and new features to the game.
Immediately after launching, a slight change in the style and color of the settings windows and main menu items is noticeable, in which a new option has been added where you can select several options related to the mod.
In the game itself, we will find a completely new HUD. You'll no longer see health and armor numbers on the screen. Instead, there are two vertical bars. There's also an icon that changes depending on whether the player is standing, walking, or running. The flashlight remains. Like running, it relies on a horizontal bar, which has a larger reserve than Freeman's suit and regenerates very quickly.
The weapons have been slightly tweaked. In addition to the pistol, machine gun, shotgun, and pulse cannon used by the Alliance, you'll find a few more:
- a metrocop baton. It's found in many mods, but here it discharges electricity when it hits, slightly increasing its lethality.
- a sniper rifle with a scope. Like the Alliance snipers, but without the blue laser beam.
- a Manhack, which can be launched and will help you fight the rebels.
In one place, you'll find dynamite that needs to be planted in the designated spot.
And finally, a few interesting features:
- pressing the T key brings up a window displaying your current missions. One of them, "Kill Freeman," hangs there the entire game.
- Occasionally, you'll encounter locations with radiation. The screen in them becomes rippled, similar to how it's implemented in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
- when zooming in, a rangefinder appears;
- there are vehicles in the game. While the airboat hasn't changed, the car has. Now it's not just any buggy, but a genuine rusty Soviet UAZ with an open top. It's a beast of a machine. That alone is worth playing this mod!
Now I'll move on to the game itself.
Unfortunately, the game itself doesn't inspire the same excitement as the mod's technical features. The beginning is very dull and drawn-out. It all begins with an uninteresting and tedious introductory video, where we float through the Citadel in a sarcophagus carried by a flying scanner. We receive our supersuit, suspiciously similar to Freeman's, grab our weapons, and set off. By train, accompanied by stalkers, we reach the rebel-held area and engage in combat. Simply move forward and kill all the civilians and zombies we encounter along the way. In some places, you'll need to press buttons, switches, and valves.
The game isn't too difficult. Along the way, you'll encounter plenty of first aid kits and health replenishment devices. And the enemies themselves don't take much damage.
You'll visit various locations—the Citadel, underground tunnels, Ravenholm, a quiet seaside town, and more. The developers have also prepared a car ride along the coast and an airboat ride through the canals. By the way, there's a funny and interesting moment here. While Freeman was pursued by a Combine helicopter in Half-Life 2, here we're pursued and fired upon by a new helicopter, piloted by several rebels!
The game's overall fun is average. As I said, the beginning is very dreary, but it gets much more interesting towards the middle. By the time you reach the UAZ, you stop regretting playing this mod and start enjoying the game, and then almost immediately we get a bummer. The mod ends, or rather, breaks off.
The authors call this creation either a Demo or a Beta (the archive file is called CombineCombat.0.1.beta.rar). I'd like to believe that the full version (if it ever makes it to release) will be more diverse and much more interesting than this Demo-Beta. And of course, I'd like to believe that we'll finally get to Freeman.
Bottom line: the mod has a lot of very interesting and original new features. However, the game itself is a "B-". However, the gameplay gradually improves from start to finish, so this mod is definitely worth playing. Well, if only because it features a Russian UAZ.
Source: hl.loess.ru