Recent reviews by Nii

Simply put, Meadow is a balm for the mind.

This is a review for the Steam version of this mod, the latest patch as of this review is from jan 21st, 2023

Snowdrop Escape, by Musie, Ambiabstract, Aptekarr and Pro-Bones is an intriguing, refreshing and quite different adventure through the snowy Russian countryside.

At the start of our story, the player takes on the role of a corporate thug, 6 years after the Combine invasion, the character works for a subsidiary of Aperture Science, curiously, which already prompts a lot of questions about how this arrangement came to be and what you are doing exactly. Fortunately the answers to those questions all come to the player in time, and they are some pretty creative answers, that put a very interesting twist on the Half-life formula, one that feels innovative and does not detract from the original series.

The environments in this mod are phenomenal, from the snow covered wilderness, to a mysterious underground complex to the abandoned ruins of a town that cherishes its nostalgia for the USSR, Snowdrop Escape is beautiful both in its depictions of nature, its cryptic, surrealist visuals and its mix of urban decay with historic context, I thoroughly enjoyed my time exploring this game's environments.

I also want to make note of the sound design, I actually wrote this down on a notepad because I really wanted to talk about it, the wonderful environments of Snowdrop Escape are complemented very well by the immersive ambience and intriguing soundscaping. When I was outside, the gentle sound of the wintery wind made me feel as if I could just imagine the chill hitting my face; when I was exploring the complex underground, I was greeted with the mechanical monotone of computer read outs and strange disembodied broadcasts that felt appropriately "off", foreshadowing the fantastical discoveries that lay ahead; I dealt with zombies who kept battering on doors and making a ruckus, announcing their presence before I had even seen them. Wonderful stuff.

Snowdrop Escape introduces a diverse arsenal of weapons, that will surely encourage you to try different combinations of guns on future playthroughs (you can't carry them all at once), there's something for everyone and plenty of fun little encounters to put your toys to use.

Your playtime in this mod will be split between combat and various puzzle sections, which are quite interesting and are explained pretty well, taking a page from Valve, the dev team made sure that you've gotten a good grasp on the mechanics they introduce, before challenging you with new elements and twists on the formula. The puzzles reminded me of the excellent Research & Development mod, they get your creative processes going and make you feel like you came up with some sort of MacGyver solution.

When it comes to criticisms, I have two: for the first one, I felt that at times the mod could have done a better job conveying where the player is supposed to go and what they have to do to solve a problem. Luminiscent paint can be found in many places, guiding the player and suggesting solutions to problems, but in the absence of those, you do need to pay a lot of attention to your environments and to props you'd normally dismiss as just being decoration, it took me some time to learn about the mod's use of fuses, because they didn't particularly stand out as something that was important. I also found myself stumped by a simple airlock early on because I didn't realize that *I* was the one who had to close the door, I figured I needed to press a button of some kind, so that the door would close automatically.

My second criticism is related to the main character, James Hugo, who makes his personality known through notes he writes for himself on his PDA, and through his rare interactions with other characters, I found James' PDA notes largely inconsequential to the overall story, they usually don't say anything that you can't already infer, and I wasn't particularly interested in knowing how James felt about things. At one point he talked about his balls twice in a row and that's when I decided to delete the notification sound in the game's sound folder and stopped looking at the PDA, from that point onwards I just played the game as if James was a silent protagonist. He's the kind of guy you may feel inclined to mute in a multiplayer game, with nothing important being lost in the process.

Snowdrop Escape is a very high quality mod, that takes you to places you haven't seen before, and plays like something you have not experienced yet in Half-life 2, it is definitely worth checking out, I'm excited for Swelter, another project by the team.

This is a review for version 4.0 of Entropy Zero.

Entropy: Zero is definitely one of the most fun Half-life 2 mods I've ever played, it takes the premise of being a member of the Combine, which has been explored in the past to varying degrees of success, and delivers on it with lots of authenticity, while also exceeding the mere confines of "Half-life, but as the bad guy", there's some pretty cool and refreshing gameplay segments in this game, an accquaintance of mine has described the Entropy: Zero games as "unnoficial Half-life 2 episodes" and I happen to agree with that assessment, this is pretty close to an official Valve game, it's *that* good.

It comes short of being like a Valve game in one aspect though, and it's the visual language during the final chapter of the game, without spoiling anything, I'll say that there is a gauntlet of simple puzzles that are made all the more complicated by a visual language that is not as intuitive as one would hope, I can see the visual clues that were placed by Breadman, there are parts of the puzzle that are obvious and I get them, but unfortunately there is always some other part that has me wandering around trying to figure out what I did wrong, I gave up and checked a video walkthrough on YT not once, but thrice, and I felt that all of those times I wouldn't have figured it out on my own, sometimes it was because a key piece of the puzzle was behind me and I either didn't see it or thought I was finished interacting with it, or because there was a part of the puzzle that I had not interacted with because it looked like decoration to me. Once I got past those puzzles though, I had fun with the rest of the chapter.

Entropy: Zero is a must play for any fan of Half-life 2, who's looking for a fresh addition to the series, a well polished and authentic entry, that will have them eager to play more (and fortunately for them, Entropy: Zero 2 awaits).

The gameplay and art style are clearly the main attraction when it comes to Evacuation and they kept me coming back for more, there is nothing quite like this mod out there, and I think every Half-life 2 fan should give it a try.