The rest of the mod is split into two distinct halves. It’s a clever inversion of Half-Life’s opening sequence, having your introduction end where Half-Life’s starts. Things come to a head when you board a train to head to another part of the facility and a hulking Gargantua monster appears and wreaks havoc in the station, trapping you in the train with several other scientists. At first, they dismiss these events as some overambitious experiment (which is technically correct) but then grow more concerned as the tremors become more violent and the facility’s infrastructure less stable. As you explore, the scientists and guards around you comment on these strange anomalies, with the mod cleverly re-purposing dialogue from the original Half-Life games to create new conversations. Then tremors begin running through the ground, becoming gradually more violent as you proceed deeper into the facility. It starts with the flickering of lights, and electrical equipment not functioning properly. Unlike Half-Life, which places you at the centre of events, the Cascade in Echoes happens much more gradually. It isn’t long before the disaster occurs. The mod commences in a cavernous underground car-park before letting you out into a massive open area where some of Black Mesa’s scientists laze around admiring the view, presumably chatting about clever science stuff, such as how they’re definitely not going to open a portal to a hostile alien dimension today. But these maps are much, much larger and more elaborate than anything you see in vanilla Half-Life. The mod comprises around twenty odd “maps”, which is to say areas separated by loading screens. As with Half-Life, you must fight for your life in increasingly intense and dramatic situations, all while the G-Man observes your progress from shadowy corners and elevated gantries. Players assume the role of Candidate Twelve, who, like Gordon Freeman, is another seemingly normal individual on his way to work, when the Resonance Cascade forces him to do what it takes to survive. The mod is created by first-time designer James Cockburn, who has spent the last four years working on it. It’s an idea that was kicked off by Half-Life’s two expansions, Opposing Force and Blue Shift, while the Half-Life modding tool Worldcraft lends itself naturally to bolting on additional stories in the Black Mesa facility.Įchoes takes things to another level, however. Awaiting further instructions.Half-Life: Echoes is the latest in a long tradition of Half-Life fan creations geared at retelling the Black Mesa disaster from alternative perspectives. Puzzles are scarce, ammo, armour and health are even scarcer, only a handful of weapons are available (the crowbar, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle Crowbar, Berreta 92FS and grenades), SPAS-12 are the only weapons available for the vast majority of the game, with more lethal weapons such as the M16, Crossbow and various explosives only appearing in the final chapters), and the general atmosphere is much darker and more oppressive, with higher amounts of and darkness than the main game. * SurvivalHorror: The mod is much more horror-based than the main game. ** When starting a new game, the difficulty select screen states to "Select criteria for evaluation", with the available options being "Relaxed" (Easy), "Conventional" (Normal) and "Stringent" (Hard). ** The device is most apparent in the game's main and pause menus, where many of the menu options have been renamed accordingly: "Resume Observation" (Resume Game), "Begin Observation" (New Game), "Retrieve Data" (Load Game), "Archive Data" (Save Game), "Alter Parameters" (Options), and "Terminate Session" (Quit). * FramingDevice: The game as a whole is framed from the perspective of one of the G-Man's candidate evaluations, with the game affording observational remarks at both the start and end of the game, while the chapter names are listed as "Sequences". * CrowbarCombatant: The Crowbar reappears as the main signature melee weapon of the game. *** Dr Richard Keller can also be seen a little further into the chapter, waving at Candidate #12 from an elevator before the doors close. You don't see their faces or bodies, but you do see their feet from under the cubicle doors, and they will make a voice line when you first touch the doors. ** If you enter the woman's restroom in the first chapter before the resonance cascade, you can find ''Half-Life: Decay'' protagonists Gina Cross and Colette Green in the toilets.
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