Reviews - G String

A huge amount of work.Very impressive.

At first let me tell you that I review the 1.0 version here.

This mod is one single masterpiece. It takes a place now in my hall of fame hl2 mod list in my head, I wish I could give it a 10, I really wish, but sadly there are some flaws which makes it impossible todo so for me.

The good things:
This mod does have a straight out amazing atmosphere. Everything fits, the level design is impressive to revolutioning. You walk over house roofs then down to the canals to get back into a house to cross the ravine over a broken vent shaft, myo where are you taking me next?! The level design is one of the best, not only does the level designer understand how make linear ways look everything else than linear, she also understands to make the world around realistic, there are often just empty rooms whith nothing in it, and that is great. Also there is a lot of detailed work, you can see stuff lying around everywhere, and every passage looks yet different than the one before. The textures, soundtrack and sounds are also extremely well done and together with the level design it makes places really 'feel' like being real.
Every level designer out there could watch this and pretty sure learn a thing or too from it, simply fantastic.
The fights are okay, ranging from easy to hard to frustratign, but overall they nearly never seem to be unfair and you ever fight accross a great variation of combat areas.
The story is okay but could have told better, sometimes it is hard to understand the (great) voice actors and to follow the story, you often forget what you are actually doing there.

The bad thing:
The few bugs are not really the problem, but the problem is the sometimes pretty unlogic ways and some extremely unlogic situations.
You often have no goddamn clue of where to walk on, I only made it from habing hundreds of hours experience with such mods. And often you die without knowing what happened, my favourite are the flower pots which crush on your head and instantly kill you.

Excellent art direction and aesthetics, but plays very badly; the level design has absolutely no hints for the player, which becomes frustrating extremely quickly.

I don't care if it's meant to be "realistic"; realism doesn't mean fun.

This mod is obviously a labor of love and a gargantuan effort for one person to undertake. It's also one of the best single player mods I've ever played.

I truly enjoyed the visual appearance and cityscape that this person crafted.

Like others have said, while the level conception is brilliant, the level design can be lacking. The fact that the developer has to point out how to pass the first level in the game in the game description says it all. (Why would anyone put a keycard on the outside ledge of a window?) I wouldn't be able to pass most levels without the walkthrough posted on YouTube.

I got so frustrated last night that I uninstalled the game. Today I'm going to reinstall because I want to see all the levels and experience the game.

Summary:
Pros:
+ Amazing level visualization and conception
+ Amazing effort by a single person
+ Voice acting, however little of it there may be
+ Interesting story

Cons:
- "Widescreen" view presentation (black bars on top and bottom of screen seem to be there for effect, but don't add anything)
- Level design needs work. Difficult to find the path to the next level, and when I find a path, it seems like I'm cheating the game or doing something that wasn't allowed
- Bad collision detection in some parts. Inconsistent destructibility of boarded up things, windows, etc. Couldn't walk through a door that I opened one time
- "Not sure I can fix the fireball usage related crash"
- "Glare" effect makes some areas unviewable

Neutral:
* Story and message are, in my opinion, highly farfetched and paranoid. However, this is often how SciFi is used as a tool to scare/remind us to prevent going down a foolish path.
* The game could have gone without so much offensive language. Half Life 2 was just as eery and didn't need to say "****" and "bitch" and "****" constantly.

SUGGESTION TO THE DEVELOPER:
There are plenty of competent people out there that loved this game and I would highly recommend enlisting some help in ironing out issues

This review is of version 1.0 as-is.

Positive aspects:
+ Partially excellent voice acting
+ A LOT of new content
+ Mostly good music
+ Mostly great atmosphere
+ Mostly good mapping, very fitting maps and very atmospheric
+ Interesting moral choice(s) to make
+ New, creative "enemies": You deal with more than your typical soldier or monster in this game: often the environment itself is hazardous
+ A big interesting story, questioning our morality
+ There is a good mix of fighting, puzzles and "relaxing" moments
+ There are some very challenging, yet fun combat areas with fitting music

Negative aspects:
- Partially very robotic/emotionless voice acting
- It is difficult to hear people talk (Their audio files are too quiet in comparison to the game sounds)
- There are some areas where the music feels slightly out of place
- Sometimes "blocky" mapping, lacking detail in some areas
- There are some rooms/areas which seem somewhat pointless, as they are often entirely empty
- There are too few hints to help the player find his way, sometimes I even thought there was no solution, or it was hidden too well
- There is a lot of inconsistency in enemy behavior
- Difficult start: No real hints on how to use the powers correctly (despite them being essential to survival early game)
- No iron sights or crosshair: This makes using firearms difficult
- VERY often there are objects in the way of movement, doors and books on the floor tend to block movement entirely and jumping barely helps (making them not collide with the player would have helped a great deal. I was busy looking at the floor, trying to navigate around objects more than I could focus on the great atmosphere and vistas)
- The "smoke-vision" effect you get from throwing fireballs is very blinding
- The sound for rockets is VERY annoying
- Linear leveldesign
- A bit nit-picky: The animation for the hammer looks a bit awkward (swinging it from below)

I wish I had more characters allowed so I could give more details..

I'm not done with this mod yet. However, I feel like I've played enough to offer a complete opinion (and I wish I had more text characters with which to give it.) This mod is incredible; incredibly made, incredibly flawed.

Made: I adore the atmosphere; so much that I can scarcely quantify my adoration with an explanation. I adore how eeriely uncanny and plausible the vast vistas of desolation and future decay feels. I adore how it bravely wears its politics on its sleeve without actually shoving it in your face, a masterstroke of subtlety. Nothing feels grafted into this world, a world where the machinations of progress itself feel grafted onto every aspect of human life, and often for the worse. I adore this sense of danger and mystery you've so deftly crafted; words cannot describe how I felt, walking onto a ruined street and being genuinely fearful for what lay ahead, from the strange and terrifying things I would face to the sheer dessication the path ahead promised. I adore how unique this has been.

Flawed: The story is practically nonexistent and, when it's there, shockingly opaque. C-zom has more eloquently summed up my misgivings. Strangely, I don't really care, although this mod is in painful, desperate need of subtitles. I don't understand half of what any of the characters say. The shooter sequences are staggeringly inefficient and clumsy (dealing with the Combine-stand ins was almost never fun. Those robots, though? Golden. Amazing. Terrifying.) I feel like I have to do a puzzle every five seconds, for all the obstacles and obtuse paths you shove in our way. Again, that last point is not always a bad thing; I enjoy having to think on my feet. Sometimes.

Any other mod would receive at least a 7 for the above flaws, if it were a normal HL2 mod. But this is not normal: it's something special, horrifying, and ultimately unique, and for that it deserves a 9. Well done.

great mod i ve seen done by only a single dude, this is marvelous and profound... immerssive. impressive. this is a whole new universe.

This piece of modding is - simply - unique.
Afeter so many years of pc playing (only top quality mod obviously),
well I just can say...masterpiece.
Chapeaux - M'inchino!
riki from italy Medioevo

This game is a revelation; it is the most amazingly complex environment to wander through and is quite a challenge on all levels. This version, (1.0) has an almost otherworldly electronic view of a decidedly rundown city, richly textured and festooned with graffiti and billboards. A capitalist vision turned nightmare!
You are lost in this city, but don’t worry, you are very wanted!
Massive vistas and climbing feats abound amid some very violent combat, where the lack of a crosshair makes combat hard, but not impossible. Even I have managed to get quite far!
This game has constantly delivered new and exciting imagery and sound with every new location, it’s simply amazing. In fact some of the environments are so detailed I have been forced to check the “YouTube” walkthroughs a couple of times to find an exit, when I realised I had already found it but another thing caught my eye and distracted me. I do like to wander and this is the game I have often dreamed of playing.
Now I will set about finishing it, although it has already been good enough to earn a very deserved 10/10 from me and I’m still less than halfway through!

I saw a robot with the Guy Fawkes mask from “V for Vendetta”. It was so surreal!

Part Two:

Well I have now finished this epic cyberpunk mod and I must say I takes me back to the day I first saw “Blade Runner” at the cinemas back in 1982. Then, as now with this mod, it blew me away with such new, interesting visuals and sound. Neon lights, rain and decay make for some magic moments in this mod. Yes I think this mod must be played, it is brilliant and thought provoking.

You should really be proud of yourself for this, as far as dystopian scenery and in-game atmosphere goes, you might as well have written the book. The environs live and breathe an atmosphere of oppression, desolation, and past calamity. They are fully engaging, and many times I've caught myself being distracted from the game by how much depth and detail was put into the world you've created. I only wish the gameplay matched how great this mod looks.

For the majority of the levels, it feels like you did either very little playtesting, or simply wanted it to be confusing. There were many parts where I was impeded because I missed something obvious that you placed far too inconspicuously. Another issue of note is the player characters weapon animations. The hammers animation is awful, it looks like instead of hitting with it, you just recoil with the hammer; it makes no sense at all. The psychic powers are a nice plot device, but ultimately feel largely underwhelming, as I always seemed to favor the usage of firearms every time. The plot was also hard to follow in some parts, and really left me direly wanting to know what was going on, and you need some goddamn subtitles. Seriously, your characters are really hard to hear.

In conclusion, this mod feels like you have your image in mind, but you forgot everyone else doesn't. The world you've created is just fantastic, a real joy to behold; but from the standpoint of the player, it's confusing, hard to navigate, and it's seldom clear where you're going. Both in terms of the plot, and in the level itself. Ultimately though, with a little bit of gumption and some tolerance, any player can tough through the rough patches in your mod, and hopefully enjoy all the work you put in.

-Aaoral