Comments - Chimz

Just played it. Some feedback:

1. While I know the mod is trying to depict psychological matters and literally show the character to be in a dark place, I must say: the maps are TOO dark!
Having the player find his way in a dark maze does symbolize the mental state of the character, but from a gameplay standpoint its continued use really hurts the experience.

2. Most encounters are usually placing a bunch of enemies in front of the player at the same time. You need to consider that when too many enemies can attack the player all at once, he gets overwhelmed. Try reducing the numbers or spacing them out, by which I mean instead of having to kill 5 enemies in 1 room, have 2 enemies be killed in room #1 and 2 other in room #2.

3. Adjust for difficulty changes. I started the mod on Hard Mode and quickly realized it was only balanced for Normal mode. On Hard enemies get tankier and dish out more damage which quickly ruined fights for me as I did not have enough ammo and would have to fight a bunch of tanks at once. Open the skill.cfg file of the mod and edit the values to balance this out.

Other than these, good luck.

Looks moody and interesting. Can you please share some details about the story of the mod?

I am itching for a psychological horror game/mod so this might be the powder I've need.
Locations look varied which is very nice.

Can you please provide a description of the team behind this, how long it's been in development, what you're planning to have in the final product in terms of weapons, mechanics, etc. ?

I don't really see anything special in the demo. I loved Opposing Force and am always happy to see Adrian, but this mod feels nothing more than average. Yes I know there are other content on the way and stuff, but if this Demo is a representative of what the game will feel like, then there's no point coming back in the future.

I'm gonna give some feedback hoping it will help improve some of the issues. If any other commenter disagrees with, I respect your opinion. Maybe you haven't played as many mods as me or have different standards. I just wanna see this mod improved so that's why I'm writing this and being so critical.

--Location--
It's a place where Gordon Freeman didn't explore much so it feels unique,, but there's nothing special about it like being inside the Citadel, or on the Beach where you can't step on sand or inside Ravenholm.

So yeah, while not explored in the main games, it’s still nothing special either. Take into consideration that Half-Life 2 came out in 2005 and we're in 2022 now. The world of HL2 and City 17 has been explored so much in the main games and all the mods that just being inside City 17 is no longer special. It's actually boring now! Maybe try to take the player somewhere outside, maybe even use HL2 Beta Locations.

--Weapons--
I'm glad to be seeing the Pipewrench and Desert Eagle again, but what's the point if they're nothing more than Reskins? The Pipewrench still hits as fast as the crowbar which is unrealistic and there's no ability to do a heavy attack. Why should this feel special when the only thing changed is the model?
I don't know if this is planned to be fixed, but I do know that it is necessary, because otherwise I'm just playing as Gordon Freeman, using the base HL2 weapons with some reskins that I could just download from the internet.

--Level Design--
The Level Design is average. Linear corridors everywhere. Not too far from the base game, but a little creativity would be nice.
One issue I have is that I can never be lost. There are vents and holes that you have to crawl through and instead of letting the player find them himself, every one of them is marked with a Rebel Lambda spray which makes it impossible to miss on the first look. Combine this with the linear corridor design and it's like I'm playing a Walking Simulator.

Removing the sprays, giving the player branching paths and etc. will really help out wit the design.

Item placement is weird and not for the good. Items are not placed throughout the map where it makes the player prioritize which gun to use and not. They're also not put anywhere that rewards exploration. I can't count how many times I wondered off the main path because I thought there was an item hidden somewhere, only to find nothing.

Instead the only item placement I saw was like this: You play for 5 minutes without finding anything, then you enter a room with shelves (yes actual shelves) stacked with items. Then you play for another 5 minutes without finding anything, only to then come across another room with shelves full of items. It's repetitive, uncreative and boring.

You CAN have rooms that stack the player, but not all the time. Spreading out the items throughout the map will much better as it helps with the pacing and not feeling repetitive. Putting items in rather "hidden" locations, like under stairs, behind some boxes and desk and etc. will make the player feel good when finding them, because they were not just put infront of them in a shelf. No, they had to explore and search for them and when they find something for that spent energy, it makes them feel good.

--Conclusion--
I heard a lot of good things from this mod before I came to play it for myself but now that I have, I don't see anything special. It's your Average HL2 Mod set in City 17 with the only special thing being that "we're playing as Adrian" but that doesn't feel special when everything is the same as the base game and all the other mods out there.
I would suggest trying to look at the mod as if Adrian wasn't there. If we're not playing as Adrian, then what is so special here? Nothing? Then let's make something special! So far this feels like a below average mod that is just being praised because a celebrity is starring in it.

So yeah, 4/10. It's not bad but it's not good either. Good luck to you and I wish you a smooth development process. Hope you can get some Free Beta Testers to help you out.

If you've made it this far down the comment, have a kiss :*

You need to install Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer, then also open it's Propetries, go into Betas and set it to "upcoming".
Then extract the Demo folder into your Sourcemods folder, restart steam and you can play.

Open Source SDK 2013 Singleplayer's properties through steam, go to the Beta tab and set it to "upcoming".
After it's updated it should work

Ah, understood. Thanks for the answer!

Ah, alright. Thanks for the reply.

Hi! Question, are you a one-man team or do you have other people in the development team? Also can people apply to join the development team or no, you are determined to work alone/with your current team?

Hi, is this mod still being worked on? Cause Unarigin's comment has confused me since the uploads were actually made on December 28th.