チャノさん＠C103, 2日目、東ヒ48a on Nostr: HECU Collective (finally) released their Xen chapter, "Focal Point" for the Black ...
HECU Collective (finally) released their Xen chapter, "Focal Point" for the Black Mesa "Blue Shift" mod, which I just finished tonight.
There's a fine line between challenging and frustratingly difficult, and I think HECU may have gone a little over that line with some of the combat segment. Not having the armor component of the HEV like Freeman does in Half Life proper makes any combat more challenging, as Barney's armor is much more rare as a pickup. When they throw half a dozen Controllers backed up with Vorts and Grunts while simultaneously expecting you to do a turret/puzzle-(ish) segment to blow up a reactor core... THEN expect you to fight off a dozen more Controllers as you try to escape through the exit portal, it starts to get a bit much.
It also doesn't help that powerup placement is sometimes very poorly communicated, and the environments are designed with too much level geometry to get stuck on in areas where you're expected to run-and-gun with six bajillion enemies swarming around you. Could have benefited from some more playtesting and polish, though I can't fault them too much as they're a hobbyist mod team.
It wasn't impossible, since I could finish it, but your epic Final Battle set piece with the admittedly cool soundtrack is tarnished ever so slightly when I only ever hear ten seconds of it before I sigh in frustration and reload to try again for the 20th time.
Still, it benefits from the visual polish Crowbar Collective added to their Xen chapter, and I don't care what anybody says, I like the Xen factories on a visual/design level.
6/10, might want to show a little restraint next time.
There's a fine line between challenging and frustratingly difficult, and I think HECU may have gone a little over that line with some of the combat segment. Not having the armor component of the HEV like Freeman does in Half Life proper makes any combat more challenging, as Barney's armor is much more rare as a pickup. When they throw half a dozen Controllers backed up with Vorts and Grunts while simultaneously expecting you to do a turret/puzzle-(ish) segment to blow up a reactor core... THEN expect you to fight off a dozen more Controllers as you try to escape through the exit portal, it starts to get a bit much.
It also doesn't help that powerup placement is sometimes very poorly communicated, and the environments are designed with too much level geometry to get stuck on in areas where you're expected to run-and-gun with six bajillion enemies swarming around you. Could have benefited from some more playtesting and polish, though I can't fault them too much as they're a hobbyist mod team.
It wasn't impossible, since I could finish it, but your epic Final Battle set piece with the admittedly cool soundtrack is tarnished ever so slightly when I only ever hear ten seconds of it before I sigh in frustration and reload to try again for the 20th time.
Still, it benefits from the visual polish Crowbar Collective added to their Xen chapter, and I don't care what anybody says, I like the Xen factories on a visual/design level.
6/10, might want to show a little restraint next time.