NeoHalcyonV
Shared on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 18:17OK, so here's my review... in one sentence:
It's a great expansion to Orange Box.
Remember Orange Box? All those great stand-alone games that didn't really have a plot; but were damn fun, nonetheless? This is like that. The graphics are fantastic; a nice marriage between Half-Life and Team Fortress. The gameplay is repetitive at times; but I'll get deeper into that in a minute. The game itself is short and, like Halo 3, is better thought of as a decent campaign used to teach you the techniques needed for when you play multiplayer. Unfortunately, multiplayer is basically 4v4 playing of the campaign, taking turns being survivors and infected, and playing each level twice.
Now when I talk about repetitive, I mean that there isn't much to this game. For the survivors, gameplay goes something like this;
Run.
Shoot.
Run more (or maybe sneak and then run).
Shoot.
Safe-house.
Load.
Rinse.
Repeat.
When you play campaign, as a survivor, you make your way through completely interchangeable hallways, buildings, streets, sewers, hospital floors, and alleyways trying to get to a "Safe-house." The atmosphere is great, the graphics are really good; but, in all honesty, none of the levels really feel much different from the others. Instead of navigating through a house and some alleys, I’m navigating through a hospital and some hallways. Instead of sprinting across a parking-lot to find cover behind some car, I’m sprinting across train tracks to duck into a train car.
For the infected the gameplay is a bit different. You have four types of zombies. The basic attack is "claw;" but each zombie has a type-specific attack. Boomers are fat, slow, and their secondary attack is a vomit stream. It’s pretty cool; but it takes forever to recharge. On the plus side, bile attracts… them mother-fuckin’ horde. However, it’s totally awesome to sneak up behind the survivors and position yourself that when you explode you shoot bile over all of them.
There are, however, downsides to the zombies. You can't spawn too close to the survivors, you can't spawn when they can possibly see you, and the respawn time is horrendously long. By the end of my turns as infected I would spawn, attack someone, maybe dish out some decent damage, get myself killed, and then spend 30 seconds respawning. That first bit would happen in the course of about 10 seconds. There is definitely something wrong with a game when I sit for 30 seconds just to die within AT MOST 10 seconds. I’d like to see VALVE patch this. I know it’s to help keep things relatively balanced; but 30 seconds is almost an eternity.
So that's basically it. Aside from a few minor gripes, I think this is a great game. It's easy to jump into a game, it's fun, it's a little frustrating at times, and I definitely don't think it's worth $60. Maybe $40. But honestly, as a standalone game that is basically an addition to Orange Box, I'd feel frustrated paying that for the game. Don't get me wrong, it's good. It's really good. But it's not cost-of-a-normal-game good. For that, I'd need more substance and more multiplayer options.
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Comments
Submitted by NeoHalcyonV on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 09:09
Submitted by Mulchinator on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 18:53
Submitted by Falelorn on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 19:09
Submitted by naveeda on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 21:37