Recent reviews by The Rewinder

Absolute work of art, no one can say anything otherwise.

For a mod, this is extremely extremely solid stuff. In fact, calling it a mod is such an understatement. I spent 9hrs beating this thing, so it's basically pretty much a full game in its own right.

The story to this game and the writing is general is pretty decent, but I don't think it really holds a candle to Valve/Half-Life storytelling though. It's serviceable though, and I enjoyed it a lot, and that's all you can really ask for a fan mod.

Gameplay wise this mod really really shines. This was fun to play through start until the end moreorless. The game improves a lot on the base Half-Life 2 gunplay, introducing the new combine elite pistol that is actually not useless and very practical in a lot of applications throughout the game and I found myself going back to the weapon a lot. Not to mention, the weapons that are just base Half-Life 2 weapons have been reanimated and redone in order to add extra oomph and fun to them.

My favourite addition in general was the Xen Relay grenades which I found quite insane on my first playthrough. Just seeing it suck everything out and spit Xen enemies right back at me was awesome to me.

The mod definitely explores the connection between the Half-Life and Portal universes. Am I a fan of this link in general as an idea? Not really, but Valve made it a thing despite the games being completely tonally different and different in general. But the mod definitely made a good attempt at actually making the connection less loose and grounding the worlds together.

Overall, very good stuff, will never forget Wilson again.

Legendary FPS for it's time, and still holds up very well today. Of course, it is kind of a product of its time - but you can show this to most people who never have touched the Half-Life series before and they would probably have a blast with it.

The base game is simply phenomenal. The episodes are decent but don't have the same feeling as the base game...if you've played the base game, there's more Half-Life 2 for you.

Anyway, not going to write an essay. Play it!

This is a pretty decent, okay shooter.

Although this entry into F.E.A.R. series shows it has become a shadow of its former self. Every time I booted F.E.A.R. 2 up I ended up just wanting to play F.E.A.R 1. F.E.A.R. 1 is a very special and fun shooter with amazing AI, great level design and interactivity with the environment and a decent story + intro to follow on.

On the other hand, F.E.A.R. 2 is a lot less satisfying to play, as the oomph that made the combat and melee so special in F.E.A.R. 1 is missing. I think one of the most important things to touch on why this is - is due to the sound design. The shotgun sounds awful and in general weapons just don't feel that satisfying to use. The napalm canon is an absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥ joke in this game, whoever came up with it needs the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sacking. Also the way the weapons are modelled in this game take a more sci-fi approach which I'm not really a fan of whereas F.E.A.R. 1s weapons were more realistic (even the fictional guns). The F.E.A.R. 2 guns are still based off real weapons but the similarities are much harder to notice...then you have the pulse weapon which feels like its out of a completely different game. Additionally, the slow-mo doesn't feel that great as well because everything else is lacking in the way grenades and weapons work. Seeing a grenade detonate on impact on an enemy in F.E.A.R. 1 while in slow-mo made my dopamine receptors surge with activity.

To an extent, I guess the combat in the game is what you make of it and how you approach it (its a combat system that will be as enjoyable as you let it to be) - but I still don't think it can reach the enjoyment of F.E.A.R. 1s combat. There are some additions I really enjoyed to the combat, such as being able to cook your grenades before throwing them. Furthermore, there's also more types of grenades as well which added to the gameplay such as shock and incendiary grenades. However, unlike its predecessor, grenades do not detonate on impact anymore which harms my enjoyment of using the grenades.

One of my own personal gripes with the gameplay is the removal of leaning. I used leaning a lot in F.E.A.R., and to see it get removed in favour of crappy mechanics such as flipping over tables was a bit irritating to me. However, it's hard to find a balance when trying to cater towards PC and Console gaming at the same time during development...which probably shouldn't have been done. 😅

The best part of the game for me was easily the part where you're in a mech suit and fighting off dozens and dozens of other mechs and enemies, it was badass af.

The enemies in this game have less memorable chatter and I feel the level design is generally worse off for them in this game, there were times in this game where the enemies were incredibly stupid because they were confused about who to fight or where to go to. F.E.A.R. 1s map design allowed for big enough areas to give enemies different areas to attack from; the environment would often allow multiple pathways to come from which allowed enemies to come from any direction. F.E.A.R. 2 on the other hand is much more linear with less pathways which limits the amount of actions enemies could actually partake in in a given moment.

Graphics wise, the game is great. I think it looks very good for the time and it still holds up well today even! Textures are better, characters models are more detailed etc.

The game has a much darker tone than the original along with its writing. The games go for completely different aesthetics in a way which kind of disconnects them and you have to remind yourself this is F.E.A.R... Much like the original, the story is nothing to write home about, but the ending is incredibly messed up so enjoy it when you get around to it which feels like its going into degen fanfiction territory. 🤣 It's a shame that they were going to take a more anthology approach to the stories of the F.E.A.R. games in regards to making different stories and scenarios for each game and using different F.E.A.R. squads but they have to continue the Alma saga which has already been dulled out and made pretty boring by the end of F.E.A.R. 1.

To conclude, I feel like this game is overhated because everyone hates on it and its combat. Sure F.E.A.R. 1 is significantly better and I just daydreamed thinking about it while playing this, but this game does have its moments and is a pretty polished shooter in its own right with its own fun to be had. If you going into it comparing it to F.E.A.R. 1, you're not going to have a fun experience from the get go. I'd say give it a go if you get it cheap or you got the bundle of all the games for super cheap which is common to get deals like that.

TL;DR - Good game in it's own right, ain't no F.E.A.R. but it can be a pretty fun and decent shooter on its own.

Well, I'm hurt.

Not because the game is extremely upsetting and well written that it affects me that way, but because of how poorly done it ended up being.

The missed potential here is off the charts. After seeing the cut content and where they were going to go with the original story (being much darker in tone), the disappointment I feel when seeing what could have been is insane. This could have been better than season 1 and even leave an impact just as good, if not greater than season 1s.

Play this if you're going to play the other seasons after this one, that's it.

Well, what a horrifically depressing game.

I played this game for the first time recently, and I got to say, I'm incredibly impressed with how well it holds itself up. As a shooter, it's aged incredibly well and the gameplay is very fun. The AI and level design is done very well. Admittedly, I got my ass beat a couple of times and had to bump down the difficulty but overall had a great experience.

The story is pretty decent (nothing to rave about but it has its moments - the intro for instance which really sticks with you) and the world is pretty immersive. The atmosphere of this game is pulled off incredibly well and the use of world building through phone messages and laptops really adds to the experience as well.

If you get this game for cheap, I definitely recommend a playthrough. You won't regret it.

David Cage

Wasn't really for me, but I'm glad I only paid £13.99. I'm not a major major Harry Potter fan so the novelty of the graphics wore off after some hours.

The gameplay feels kind of soulless and the side quests are repetitive and boring. Most the experience I had playing the game felt like I was forcing myself to play it because I was just simply quite bored.

Story wise seemed okay but honestly pretty forgettable with moustache twirling villains.

Get this on a good sale if you're a big Harry Potter fan. Otherwise, don't bother.

w a n k