Hezus
Michael joined
As long as I've been playing games I've wanted to make my own. Captivated by the possibilities of level editors, I started mapping in 1996 for Doom II. Then Half-Life came out in 98 and I was making my own Goldsource worlds. As online gaming became bigger, I found Sven Co-op in 2000 for which I made countless maps and content, including Land of Legends, which became a standalone MOD in 2009. My latest SC project (suspension) was released in 2018. Since 2008 I've picked up Source mapping and worked on maps for Resistance and Liberation and worked on a discontinued MOD called "An Open Window". In 2012 I created Uplink for Black Mesa and started a remake in 2015, which is still in development. In 2018 I revisted Half-Life with a new SP MOD called Anti-Climax, released in March 2019.
Reviews
Visually, this is game is a great achievement! Everything breaths 80's and 90's USSR style and it's full of small details. Map layouts are a bit straight-forward but still offer a realistic feeling. The engine can't hold up with today's tech, but gets close to Source, although performance and stability needs to be improved. This is really how far you can push this old cart.
And then gameplay. The AI is stale and offer no challenge even on Difficult. Some monsters just don't make any sense (huge spiders? 0_o) or where you have to crush a giant. He just redicilously runs around following you and when you finaly get to crush him under a pounder (which are there for what reason? It's not a factory..) he just disappears into small gibs. The game could have done without this 'boss fight'. Also, the infected soldiers (I guess that's what they are?) don't make any sense. The virus makes them brainless zombies, so why can they use weapons and tactics?
Also, finding certain objects is a pain in the @ss. There's a clever system indicating which items can be interacted with, but for some wierd reason certain vital items are not included in this system. And so you walk around for 15 minutes finding a certain piece of paper in a hall full of paper. Anyone found that keycard in under 10 minutes?
Story is also very thin with characters popping up all of a sudden. I press a button on a pc and suddenly a cutscene comes up and there's a surving scientist.. who's been there for 20 years? Who is she? What? Where? Then the start and end in the hospital seems like something 'borrowed' from a certain movie.
Clearly, there are some really talented people on this team. Visuals and audio are great! But the 'underground-lab-virus-outbreak-zombie-thing has been done a 100 times now. For Paranoia 3, have a sit-down and a drink and come up with something new, something fresh: story-wise and gameplay-wise. Take all you know about zombie-outbreak games and movies, then turn it around, shake it up and lets see what comes out.
I picked up the game from the Fall bundle and I must say I was very impressed. The story, the narrative mixing sadness and humor, the art style and especially the music. It really gets to you while playing and that's quite an achievement for such a simple game.
Like so many others I was really touched so I just want to go and vote 10/10. But now my reasonable self slowly returns and I notice that there is something wrong with this game: it's not a game. Gameplay-wise you basicly only walk around and activate story elements. Aside from the small (and rather easy) block puzzles, you don't really play anything.
If I had to be an honest reviewer and rate this as a game, it would be 7/10 since there simply isn't any gameplay. But I can't.. I simply can't. I still hear the echos of the beautiful piano music and recall the colour of the eyes of the cute little pixel art characters. I'm in love.. to hell with all reason! You're getting a 10 out of 10.
Now excuse me while I'm off to buy a toy platypus..
