Modifications for games, this is quite an interesting beast. And modifications for Half-Life are a whole different story. Among them there are some that are good, but not without flaws, like Underhell; there are controversial ones, like Cinematic Mod; and there is disgusting rubbish that is also sold for some money, like Hunt Down The Freeman. And it’s surprising to see that even today, mods are being released even for the first Half-Life, which, for a second, is already almost 20 years old. And today’s copy clearly proves that even with outdated technology and straight hands, you can make an extremely strong modification that is absolutely not a shame to play. Let’s see what the fan community brought us this time. Welcome to Half-Life: Echoes.

The Echoes modification again takes us to the ill-fated Black Mesa complex, where scientists, trying to invent a technology for moving, cause a cascading resonance, as a result of which creatures from the parallel world Xen invade our world. True, this time we will not be watching one of the main characters, but an outside observer, who is not called by name, but who was given the label “Candidate No. 12”. Like other scientists, he arrived at the complex on a regular working day, but ended up taking part in incredible events caused by Gordon Freeman. And, like other survivors in all this, the hero has one goal: to get out of the complex. This is what we will be doing for more than two hours of playthrough.

The story turned out quite in the spirit of the original, with all the pros and cons. The mute protagonist runs around the complex, shoots headcrabs, encounters the military, and endures the G-Man’s stern gaze throughout the adventure. This modification does not bring anything radically new, but it does allow you to look at the events as a whole once again, from the other side. At the same time, the modification compensates for the lack of plot with a considerable number of scripted scenes. Either an escape from Gargantua, or a shootout between guards and vertigaunts, or a large-scale military invasion, etc.d. The number of various scripted scenes is quite large, but does not interrupt the gameplay, does not pull the player out of the process and is woven in quite organically.

You will have to http://casinoskyvegas.co.uk/ run from Gargantua the entire game, but the episodes with his participation are extremely well presented.

Gameplay is still the same Half-Life, nothing new will be revealed here. All the same types of weapons, the same opponents, the same tactics. The developer, who was almost entirely involved in the modification, did not reinvent the wheel and left everything the same as it is. This can be written down as a complaint, but the author presents the gameplay in an interesting way, changing it from slow and atmospheric horror to a wildly adrenaline shooter. The first half of the mod is, as was said, almost survival horror. There are no weapons, the lighting in the complex is poor, and the player is surrounded entirely by monsters. Slowly collecting weapons, traveling around the complex becomes easier, but not safer, because.To. ammo will still drop reluctantly. But from the middle of the passage, the game begins to gain momentum, ammo is pouring in more generously, and there are more opponents.

The shootouts in the last third of the game are no less adrenaline-pumping than in any full-fledged Half-Life.

And here the second plus of this mod comes into play – the level architecture. The modification reuses some assets from the original, but all that is in the game is a completely new location. The external design is extremely pleasing, there are practically no repeating corridors, each room of the local complex is meticulously designed and looks quite convincing. Backtracking to the same places looks a little unpleasant, but the locations change after each visit, be it the influence of the Xen world or the presence of the military, which somewhat mitigates the need to return to past places. The location and combinations of opponents are pleasing. The player is never overwhelmed with “meat” and is always given enough supplies to survive any skirmish.

Of course, it didn’t turn out to be a full-fledged horror, but the atmosphere is quite depressing.

Unfortunately, the Gold Souce engine can no longer evoke anything other than a nostalgic smile, so the modification, of course, doesn’t look the best. However, even here the author of the modification managed to get out of it by adding a large number of details to the locations. The medical wing is full of all kinds of samples and dissected aliens, equipment and tools are scattered in the technical corridors, after the invasion some passages and corridors are barricaded, etc.d. Finally, in the modification we worked with lighting, so a walk along dilapidated corridors with rare working lamps, chemical. lanterns and lanterns lying near corpses creates a quite pleasant impression and builds up the atmosphere quite well. And at the same time, the modification is superbly optimized. Not a single error, not a single crash, not a single bug was noticed. The only complaint I can make is the AI ​​of my partners, but this can be attributed to the outdated engine, because.To. in the original Half-Life, party members also loved to pull tricks.

But in terms of sound, everything is practically unchanged. We added a couple of sounds, several new, third-party tracks and worked with voice acting. The author did not record his voice acting, so he used everything that was in previous games, correctly paraphrasing some of the characters. In some places it turned out well, the scientists and security guards are more than convincing, in some places it’s not so good, the military sounds very… not very good.

As a result, the modification leaves an extremely positive impression. Without changing anything radically or introducing anything new in terms of gameplay, the author of the modification did a great job on the design and architecture of the levels, tightly packed it with well-balanced gameplay and scripted scenes, and slightly ennobled the engine with good lighting to make it all look a little nicer. The duration of the modification is not very long, 2-3 hours, but perhaps it is for the better, because.To. the mod never gets boring. If you’re curious about dabbling in fan art, revisiting a favorite universe, or just something short but fun, Half-Life: Echoes comes highly recommended. If you are looking for something radically new, then Echoes will disappoint you a little, because.To. inside it’s the same Half-Life almost 20 years ago.