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Written by admin
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Wednesday, 26 October 2011 19:33 |
Broke but looking to get in on the Halloween spirit? Keep an eye on 3-PG.com this October for E1evenRed's Halloween Horror Review series! Each week we look at a new horror-themed mod for Half Life 2 that you can play FOR FREE! So turn out the lights, turn up the volume, put away your wallet, and have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
No Escape is the shortest mod I’ve reviewed to date, and as a result there isn’t as much good or bad to say about it. It requires files from Half Life 2: Episode 2 to play, and seems to take place in a universe spun off of Half Life 2 in which the war between Combine and humanity has wrecked much of the advanced technology present on Earth, and the two forces must join together to fend off the rampant undead. You play an Anonymous Prisoner, whose cell becomes unlocked following an explosion during an undead infestation. A hardened criminal, you’ve lost too much in the war to forgive the Combine, and when word gets out they’re going to drop a nuke on the forest to stem the flow of zombies, you realize it’s time to skip town-- And God help anyone who gets in your way.
The game takes about 1-2 hours to complete, though some of this game time may arise more from difficulty than content. The story is simple, the weapons and monsters appear to be stock except for a hand axe I swear I’ve seen somewhere else. Who knows, I’m a legend in the deja-vu arena.
For what game there can be had here, I can tell you it’s at least well put together, despite an illogical game path near the beginning in which you drive all the way to the end of a road in what looks like a cannibalized Mustang just to answer a God damn phone. The game is dark and the flashlight is your best friend, and the constant barrage of howling zombies near the end is heart-pounding if not scary. The most difficult scene turned out to be the final battle, so I guess I can forgive that.
Now don’t go into this expecting a complete story. You don’t get a name, nobody wants to talk to you, and everyone is going to open fire on sight. You get an ending, but it never does suggest what your character is up to next. As always, if you want to try the game you can either download it from the main site or ModDB, FOR FREE!
Ratings are given from 1 (awful) to 5 (dead sexy).
Graphics: 3 (Source engine, mostly stock graphics. Nothing to see here, folks.)
Sound/Music: 3.5 (Mostly stock, a little custom music, but great ambient use of zombie sounds.)
Gameplay: 3.5 (Pretty straight forward, if frustratingly difficult at times. The one real puzzle in the game is basically hidden objects, and it was only due to my own stupidity that it took half an hour. Crashed twice, but that could just be me.)
Multiplayer: 0 (There is no multiplayer. Just wait, I’ll review one eventually.)
Creativity: 2 (Good work on maps. No new textures, no real story, no characters.)
Overall: 2.75/5 (It’s short and very simple, but certainly not bad. Give it a shot.)
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