Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Someplace Else for HL

***this review was previously available at Alejandro Mapping Center*** slightly modified


Level name: Someplace Else

Author: Adam Foster

Date of release: 9 October 2002

Size: 2 394 Ko

Number of maps: 1


website: http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/parallax/someplace-else.html

download: http://planetphillip.filecloud.com/files/file.php?user_file_id=240437 (steam version)

Story:

None

Review:

Someplace Else is the second time (first was Aftermath) that, a one map release for Half-life, really catches my attention. because the experience was brand new to me.
Three Years ago, on a cold weekend, I had a strange experience… During the afternoon in a soft dark room, I was suddenly caught by a voice coming from nowhere telling me I wouldn’t survive this kind of experience… Some flashing pictures…was it a vessel or an asteroid or perhaps a mix of both… I had pain in my head…some voice was talking to me but I could hear it…I was cold…the wind was furiously blowing…some more pictures…army soldiers killed here and there…some mysterious sound like If a Yeti was running on a steel floor…it was quite dark…I saw something…a yellow-green sphere which was whistling….more sounds were coming…some alien slaves voices…it was a nightmare…no it was .....Someplace Else.
In a few words this is a summary of the experience you’re going to go through (or try to survive). The set place has a kind of nightmare reality like in alien movie (first and second chapter). Everything is well put together: design, enemies placement, health, weapons/ammo. This is even ameliorated by some puzzles and traps you have to go through and enhanced by the script voice that is your only ‘friend’.

The design is atmospheric and really create (back in 2002) another approach from Xen world everything is really neat and enhanced by custom texture, progression is not too complicated in a not linear way with perfect balance (even if some places will be hard to get through) between gameplay and puzzles.
Since this release Adam became a really important person from HL community and even if Parallax experience was kind of abandonned (there is still a beta release available) the follow up of 'Adam's' Life 2 catches a lot of attention from the community through Minerva Trilogy a another must phave for HL2.

In conclusion: This is a must to be played through, and this time, for sure, you gonna like a Xen based map.



Playtime: 1 hours



Rating: A B C D E (93 %)



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