HL2 Mod reviews
Reviewed by Sam Street
Having recently played a few Half Life 2 based mods I thought I'd do a little review of them on the website. Firstly I should just point out that I haven't completed Rag Doll Kung Fu yet so as to how qualified I am to review the game is questionable.
Firstly: Dystopia, a well hyped-up mod thanks to the boys at valve who seem to be promoting this as if it were one of their own developments. The game is a typical multiplayer FPS (first person shooter for those who aren't familiar with the term) set in the future (as to how far in the future, I can't remember). It sees the likes of street punks brandishing huge weapons capable of large scale destruction pitting their wits against the mercenary soldiers of the corporations that they are rebelling against.
So on the face of it it's a pretty standard idea of 2 opposing sides, shooting the s(heep) out of each other with big guns (and they do get pretty big in this one). However, there is a somewhat unconvential aspect to the game known as 'cyber space,' any side you choose has the ability to jack in to terminals and move over cyber space which is somewhat of a wierd experience the first time you do it. Your are sent to into a psychadelic world of geometric shapes all coloured in bright lights, reminiscent of Tron for those of you that have seen the film. Whilst in cyber space, you cannot use your conventional weapons, instead you fire light from your fingertips, which sounds cool but when it comes down to combat, is pretty lame really. You can also travel in any direction, and by that I mean run up walls and onto the ceiling, which at first can get pretty dis-orientating, but a genuinely original idea for any game, let alone an online multiplayer FPS.
The point of cyberspace interaction is to complete objectives, which in itself is something you don't often see in online FPS's; they usually take the guise of death-match formats of some sort. The objective completetion results in your team winning the round, and to help you do this, you can select augmentations or upgrades when selecting your class and weapons at the begining of a round. These upgrades include things like stealth, jump boosters etc... much like those found in Deus Ex for those who have played it.
All in all, Dystopia is a pretty good conversion from the tried and tested Half Life format and works on many different levels. It has an excellent visual style, less glossy than Half life's but somehow more smooth, kind of like the mat finish of computer game textures. My one qualm with the game is there has to be one is the lack of weapons: Classes only differ in their choice of primary weapons which is only 3 out of 3 classes bringing the total to only 9 primary weapons as both teams share much of the same weapons.
Onto Rag Doll Kung Fu!
Now this is a truly innovative game as far as I'm concerned, it is essentially a beat-em up for the PC (now there's something you don't see every day) done in a rather cheesy, cartoon-style fashion. First off I think I better point out, being a practioner of a martial art, I do object the mis-use of terms like Chi (one of the game's focuses) as this game does not explain the term properly, if indeed it can be explained at all. However, given the quality of the game I am willing to let it go this time. The game has a sleek visual style, completely different from anythin taken from the source engine I've seen to date. The way the game is played is by controlling the limbs and heads of your character in order to make him/her fight. For example you can move your player's hands in to the path of an attacker's fist in order to block his/her attack. In order to perform your attacks you can hold the right mouse button down on a limb and pull back and release in order to punch or kick. This seems (and in fact is) quite difficult at first but you'll get the hang of it with practice. The game is pretty difficult to be fair, even the training mode is difficult to get through as are the single player missions.
This leads me on to the multiplayer aspect of the game and a word of warning: BE CAREFUL!
If you are the type of gamer who prides him/herself on your ability to take on anyone and win then I would advise you not to go leaping blindly into the mulitplayer mode of this game. It is very difficult to master and there are people who are seriously, seriously good at this game, honestly I don't know how you can get as good at this game as some people are, trust me your ego will be scared for life is you're a particularly proud gamer.
I would highly recommend Rag Doll Kung Fu to any gamer out there who fancies something different. It has a brilliant visual style, a lot to get through, good sense of humour, and is a very well put-together game, not just a novel idea. Just tossing your character in to the air can be entertaining enough, but personally, my favourite moment of this game has to be picking up a pair of nun-chaku and hurling them around by making huge circles with the mouse, destroying everything in my path! O you do feel powerful!
Having recently played a few Half Life 2 based mods I thought I'd do a little review of them on the website. Firstly I should just point out that I haven't completed Rag Doll Kung Fu yet so as to how qualified I am to review the game is questionable.
Firstly: Dystopia, a well hyped-up mod thanks to the boys at valve who seem to be promoting this as if it were one of their own developments. The game is a typical multiplayer FPS (first person shooter for those who aren't familiar with the term) set in the future (as to how far in the future, I can't remember). It sees the likes of street punks brandishing huge weapons capable of large scale destruction pitting their wits against the mercenary soldiers of the corporations that they are rebelling against.
So on the face of it it's a pretty standard idea of 2 opposing sides, shooting the s(heep) out of each other with big guns (and they do get pretty big in this one). However, there is a somewhat unconvential aspect to the game known as 'cyber space,' any side you choose has the ability to jack in to terminals and move over cyber space which is somewhat of a wierd experience the first time you do it. Your are sent to into a psychadelic world of geometric shapes all coloured in bright lights, reminiscent of Tron for those of you that have seen the film. Whilst in cyber space, you cannot use your conventional weapons, instead you fire light from your fingertips, which sounds cool but when it comes down to combat, is pretty lame really. You can also travel in any direction, and by that I mean run up walls and onto the ceiling, which at first can get pretty dis-orientating, but a genuinely original idea for any game, let alone an online multiplayer FPS.
The point of cyberspace interaction is to complete objectives, which in itself is something you don't often see in online FPS's; they usually take the guise of death-match formats of some sort. The objective completetion results in your team winning the round, and to help you do this, you can select augmentations or upgrades when selecting your class and weapons at the begining of a round. These upgrades include things like stealth, jump boosters etc... much like those found in Deus Ex for those who have played it.
All in all, Dystopia is a pretty good conversion from the tried and tested Half Life format and works on many different levels. It has an excellent visual style, less glossy than Half life's but somehow more smooth, kind of like the mat finish of computer game textures. My one qualm with the game is there has to be one is the lack of weapons: Classes only differ in their choice of primary weapons which is only 3 out of 3 classes bringing the total to only 9 primary weapons as both teams share much of the same weapons.
Onto Rag Doll Kung Fu!
Now this is a truly innovative game as far as I'm concerned, it is essentially a beat-em up for the PC (now there's something you don't see every day) done in a rather cheesy, cartoon-style fashion. First off I think I better point out, being a practioner of a martial art, I do object the mis-use of terms like Chi (one of the game's focuses) as this game does not explain the term properly, if indeed it can be explained at all. However, given the quality of the game I am willing to let it go this time. The game has a sleek visual style, completely different from anythin taken from the source engine I've seen to date. The way the game is played is by controlling the limbs and heads of your character in order to make him/her fight. For example you can move your player's hands in to the path of an attacker's fist in order to block his/her attack. In order to perform your attacks you can hold the right mouse button down on a limb and pull back and release in order to punch or kick. This seems (and in fact is) quite difficult at first but you'll get the hang of it with practice. The game is pretty difficult to be fair, even the training mode is difficult to get through as are the single player missions.
This leads me on to the multiplayer aspect of the game and a word of warning: BE CAREFUL!
If you are the type of gamer who prides him/herself on your ability to take on anyone and win then I would advise you not to go leaping blindly into the mulitplayer mode of this game. It is very difficult to master and there are people who are seriously, seriously good at this game, honestly I don't know how you can get as good at this game as some people are, trust me your ego will be scared for life is you're a particularly proud gamer.
I would highly recommend Rag Doll Kung Fu to any gamer out there who fancies something different. It has a brilliant visual style, a lot to get through, good sense of humour, and is a very well put-together game, not just a novel idea. Just tossing your character in to the air can be entertaining enough, but personally, my favourite moment of this game has to be picking up a pair of nun-chaku and hurling them around by making huge circles with the mouse, destroying everything in my path! O you do feel powerful!
posted by Anonymous at 1/15/2006 06:17:00 pm
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