Recent reviews by 1upD

Aperture Tag is a great concept. It's Portal Minus Portals: a Portal game in which the player never uses a Portal gun.

Overall, Aperture Tag was a fun mod for Portal 2. I really enjoyed the application of "surfing" from Counter Strike to puzzles and the creativity of the test chamber designs. The soundtrack stood out as well; it fit in perfectly with the Portal universe and it was really interesting how the soundtrack was made into part of the environment, being played from speakers within the level rather than played from "everywhere". It took me about four hours to complete, and I wouldn't complain about that length. I think it's safe to compare it to the length of the original Portal.

Aperture Tag suffers from its share of issues. Despite being sold commercially, it still has the production quality of a fan-made mod. (Albeit a well made one) I didn't like how little feedback was given though the paint gun; you can't tell which colors of gel are available and the gun doesn't even move when it shoots. I didn't really find the humor in the game very funny, though that is subjective. (I did enjoy a gag in which the testing AI core, Nigel, is always visible on a monitor in the level broadcasting from a different themed sound stage. This one visual detail had more personality than any line of dialogue in the game!)

Some of the puzzles are also problematic. Oftentimes I felt like instead of spending time actually solving puzzles, I was just working out the precise timing and movement of their execution. There was also a timed sequence at one point. I noticed there was a "skip escape" button. Is that really a button to just skip part of the level? If a level needs a button to skip, that level probably shouldn't be in the game in the first place! I actually enjoyed the timed sequence, but it did need a little extra time and a better way to convey the time remaining than through overlaid text.

Speaking of the timed sequence, it highlighted another problem I had with the game's core mechanic: the gels don't seem to conserve momentum. Maybe it was just me, but whenever I fired gel while moving forwards, it seemed to lag behind me. It made it very difficult to execute the timed sequence because I couldn't see where gels in advance of me were going.

In spite of all of its flaws, I still recommend Aperture Tag. It's a really fun concept with some interesting new environments and it really shows how brilliant Portal's puzzle design scheme is even in the absence of the titular Portal device.

I really wanted to recommend this game. When I first heard that a mod was going to be sold as a standalone game, I was kind of skeptical. There's so many other good mods, what could this one do to stand above the rest? As I read more about the game and watched Richard Seabrook's interviews, I started to get excited. It's not every day that a new Half-Life 2 episode hits the Steam store, and Prospekt looked like fun return to the series.

Where do I begin? Prospekt has a few really good ideas but they're ultimately outweighed by its glaring flaws.

I really enjoyed the level design in the opening chapter where Adrian wakes up in Nova Prospekt with no weapons. The puzzling and exploration elements were handled really well and felt like a Half-Life game. Early encounters with xen creatures and zombies were paced very well. As soon as the player runs into the Combine, everything goes wrong. The very first encounter with Combine puts you in a corner staring down a squad of soldiers, one of whom has a mounted machine gun. There is no cover in the room. I hoped that would be the last encounter like that, but unfortunately there were numerous scenes just like it in the same chapter. Mounted machine guns are everywhere and there's never any way to advance on them without leaving cover. Even in later chapters it seems like every time you're in an elevator, it will open to a firing squad. There's no where for the player to go and it just doesn't feel right.

I wanted to play the game on hard, since I'm familiar with the Half-Life series and generally find normal too easy. It became immediately obvious that this game simply is not balanced for Hard Mode. It seems the combine have been given more health than normal, and that took away the impact from all of the weapons. I wasn't prepared to have to expend multiple grenades or magnum rounds to take out a single combine, and it made a lot of the combine fights into a chore. The game got a lot better once I changed my difficulty to normal, but a lot of times I still felt like I was at an unfair disadvantage. The final fight was the worst of all. With no cover, very few health pickups, not enough ammo, and infinitely respawning enemies, I could not complete that section without cheating. In its current state, I can only recommend anyone play this game on the easiest difficulty.

Unfortunately, Combine soldiers are virtually the only enemy the player will fight. There's one or two zombie encounters but the game really needed more enemy types to change the pace. The Combine soldiers were always fun to fight thanks to Half-Life 2's brilliant AI system and enjoyable weapons. Sadly, there aren't as many weapons available to the player in Prospekt. With no new weapons, nothing like the gravity gun, and no crossbow, and with the increased health Combine are given, only some of that enjoyable gameplay is retained.

One of the selling points of the game is the trip the player takes to Xen. A lot of people complained that the Xen sequence didn't have any point, but I would counter that it isn't much different than the Xen sequences in Opposing Force, which were just a way to get from point A to point B. I really liked this sequence but I don't know if it should have been listed as a feature of the game. It only lasted about ten minutes and the player still only fights Combine soldiers. Visually, Xen looks very interesting but relies too much on fog and doesn't have enough interesting textures. I think overall I would have enjoyed that section a lot more if it had been left as a surprise rather than advertised on the Steam page. What really redeemd the Xen sequence was the soundtrack, which did an excellent job of setting the atmosphere of wonder. The soundtrack is all-new and generally very good.

Visually, I was pretty impressed by the game. At it's best, it has some very interesting environments and makes good use of improved textures and shaders. The revolver model and Combine soldiers look particularly good with the added specularity. At it's worst, it's lit strangely and just a little bit too shiny because of the improved shaders. Some of the lighting in the early game wasn't very good, with very dark rooms and no illumination on the way forward. There was a door the player needed to find to proceed in one of the earliest puzzle rooms that was completely shrouded in darkness.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the story. The opening sequence went on for far too long and I think it killed the mood it was trying to establish. I think the same story could have been introduced with just the opening shot and one or two words from the Vortigaunt. There's no need to dramtically introduce Nova Prospekt. It seems like the exposition provided wasn't sufficient to inform the character of Adrian Shepherd of his situation, seeing that his last memory was Black Mesa being destroyed and the Gman putting him in stasis. He doesn't know what the Combine are and only associates the name Gordon Freeman with a scientist he heard was killing a lot of marines. The blindingly bright particle effects that blocked the entire scene were pretty bizarre as well. Ultimately I think the game would be a lot better with a shortened intro.

The flashback voiceovers that told Adrian Shepherd's story were a good idea, but most of them seemed totally irrelevant to the events of Prospekt and didn't really seem necessary. At one point Shepherd remembers another marine telling him how to use a suit charger. I thought to myself, "Oh, this is like a tutorial on how to restore your health and armor." Looking around, I realized there was no suit charger and the flashback was completely random.

The second and third acts of the game don't feel very purposeful. The protagonist is just sort of carried along to different locations without any reason for going there. I did particularly enjoy the environment of the last third of the game. I love the idea and I'm glad it made it into the mod, even though I think it should have been established earlier in the game rather than just thrown into the story. Not only were the visuals in that section really interesting, but there was a brief timing puzzle section involving lasers that I think was really good for pacing. I wish the game would have included more puzzles.

I can't complain about the length of the game. The store page clearly states it is about the same amount of content as Half-Life 2 Episode 1, and it was definitely about that long. Especially for a one-man project like this, quality is much more important than play-time, and Prospekt was up front about that.

I think it's amazing that modders can now sell their work as full games on Steam. The story of the development of Prospekt is really inspiring and it helped encourage me to keep working on my Half-Life 2 mod in the hopes that it might go on Steam free-to-play someday. I wish the best to Richard Seabrook and hope he continues to make games independently.

However, in its current state, I can't recommend anyone buy Prospekt. The gameplay balance is all wrong, levels are set up to punish the player, and the frustration I felt at certain points just outweighed the enjoyment I got from the things I did like. Sequences like the first few fights with the Combine and the ending fight had me so frustrated I wanted to stop playing, even on the normal difficulty. I hope that the game will continue to be updated and maybe some of these flaws can be improved upon.

In summary:
Pros:
* New environments
* Overall good visual design
* New soundtrack
* Interesting first level

Cons:
* Lack of variety in weapons and enemies
* Story lacked direction
* Poor level design gives the combine soldiers an unfair advantage
* Barely playable on hard mode, frustrating on normal

I think the biggest problem with the Wilson Chronicles was that it was released on Steam while still in beta. This version is rough around the edges, but I feel like with some adjustments and improvements it could become something pretty good.

Generally, the game has a very nice aesthetic. Some models and textures are more detailed than others, but at it's best, Wilson Chronicles looks great. I did notice a lot of pretty obvious easter eggs near the beginning of the game, which I thought could have been better used as a chance to explore the protagonist as a character. There is next to no backstory given for Wilson even though his job title is quite interesting, and I feel like that's a wasted opportunity. I did really appreciate all of the visual call-backs to Half-Life.

The level design has it's ups and downs. My favorite part was probably the office section based on Office Complex. Larger fights tended to be more enjoyable, so long as you start with enough health. I really appreciated the hidden health and ammo caches when I found them, but sometimes they felt too few and far between. I think it could stand to improve from more hidden health caches. I also found that oftentimes the way forward was confusing. There was one section in which the door to proceed was the only element of a room not illuminated. If I hadn't happened to turn my flashlight on at the right moment, I could have just been stuck there. Another time, I saw a locked gate like the ones in Half-Life and Half-Life 2 and assumed I was supposed to shoot the lock to proceed, when it was just a static prop. There's a lot of props in the environment that look important - hatches in the floor, doors, valves, stairs, buttons - that don't do anything. Without a consistent visual language to clue me into what things to look at and what to ignore, I found myself occasionally stuck and frustrated.

The weapons were pretty much what one would expect from a Half-Life game, with no interesting additions or modifications. They looked good, at least. I did really like the decision to split the SMG (MP5) and Assault Rifle (M4) into two separate weapons, similar to the SMG and Pulse Rifle from Half Life 2. The Assault Rifle was a little overpowered, but playing on hard I didn't mind the extra punch. There's also a new submachine gun weapon, which I thought was a great addition, but it didn't feel different enough from the standard SMG to really make a difference. The 3D HUD effects were really nice, but the "fists" weapon is very misleading. It only works on headcrabs. It was intended only for the very first confrontations, but it just gets in the way after that. I think the game could have done without it.

The enemies were pretty faithfully recreated from Half-Life. I liked how big and scary bullsquids are made to appear. I did find something incredibly disturbing about the alien grunt. It looks like the model is the same one from Human Error. While the Human Error dev team is credited, I think it looks a little out of place. The model used in human error was designed to look feral and naked without its armor, which doesn't make sense in the context of the first Half-Life when they were armored soldiers.

The game ends abruptly with no ceremony. Since it says "to be continued", I imagine this will be fixed in an update. I hope that the update will also bring improved level design with fewer confusing props and more direction, as well as more of a focus on the backstory.

In summary:

Pros:
* Free
* Two to three hour Half-Life experience on the Source engine
* Fun and interesting enemy encounters
* (Generally) Good environment design and aesthetic

Cons:
* Confusing or misleading level design
* No backstory
* Superfluous elements
* Two new weapons don't feel new
* Assets taken from other mods

You could do a lot worse with a free game. It's not perfect, but for those fans who have already played all of the other Half-Life games, expansions, mods, and fan spin-offs ( like Black Mesa and the upcoming Prospekt) but are still itching for more Half-Life, the Wilson Chronicles can be pretty enjoyable in spite of its flaws. I will probably play the updated version if it is ever extended.