McHoff H. McChrist
4" Member
Anyone else tried this yet?
Free mod (requiring HL2), released on Valve a few days ago.
It's basically a new version of an old mod, and it's nicely polished. It's not at Valve levels of polish, and it does depend on who you end up playing with, but I've had some very enjoyable games over the weekend.
Anyway, for people who haven't played the original, you play a survivor in a zombie apocalypse situation. One player is chosen at random to play the zombie king (25% more HP and 10% chance to infect humans on attack), and on big games, there may be more people starting as zombie.
The humans run around grabbing any equipment they can find (not too much, mind you; then more you carry, the slower you travel), try and find each other, start barricading themselves in a room, or just hide under a desk and start crying.
The zombies, well, do zombie stuff. In objective games zombies have unlimited spawns, you just have to kill the humans before they put the blue key in the blue door and GET TO DA CHOPPA etc. In survival games, the zombies have limited respawns, and the humans either have to kill all the zombies, or survive until the timer runs out.
If any of you do play it, you press G to drop the item selected, T to drop the ammo. V to cycle through ammo types, and B to change the amount. P = PANIC. You drop everything except the weapon you're holding, so that you can run faster than zombies.
It's a good idea to travel as light as possible, though ammo's scarce, so grab what you can. I usually ditch melee weapons straight away, as melee with a half-way decent zombie is suicide, unless you're just finishing them off.
Communication is key (even if it's just to make zombie jokes, or scream when a zombie jumps through a window into your face), and be generous with spare ammo - you wont survive alone.
Ok then, weak points:
I have to say, I'm sure the HL2 engine is capable of better fog effects than this, though. On the one foggy map I've seen, it's about the level of Hexen, just a wall of gray.
Another, more annoying element I don't like, is the confusion in the objective maps. They're a great idea, and can work really well if you get a group who knows what they're doing, but they often don't. The instructions are only displayed on the loading screen (sometimes impossible to read due to bright background), and one line of text flashes up briefly showing the next objective at the start, and after subsequent objectives.
It could really do with, say, a map, or even a way of reading the objectives in-game. It works okay once you've learnt the map, but that starting period is an exercise in frustration, especially if you're with a group who're similarly newbyish. Sure, you can have fun killing zombies, but it's essentially an unwinnable survival game then.
Oh, and the lack of an obvious timer for survival games is a little annoying. Not to mention that I've had a couple of games where the one human and one zombie left have spent several minutes wandering around looking for each other, until the game ended. Rather frustrating, when you have 20+ other people sitting there forced to spectate.
Anyway, I love it. It wont have the longevity of a more polished game like TF2 or CoD4, but it'll certainly work as a stop-gap until Left For Dead is released in a month or two.
I suspect that's one of the reasons Valve is releasing this mod; to wet people's appetites. Consider me salivating.
Hrm, I was just going to ask if anyone else had tried it, how did it turn into a full-on review?
Free mod (requiring HL2), released on Valve a few days ago.
It's basically a new version of an old mod, and it's nicely polished. It's not at Valve levels of polish, and it does depend on who you end up playing with, but I've had some very enjoyable games over the weekend.
Anyway, for people who haven't played the original, you play a survivor in a zombie apocalypse situation. One player is chosen at random to play the zombie king (25% more HP and 10% chance to infect humans on attack), and on big games, there may be more people starting as zombie.
The humans run around grabbing any equipment they can find (not too much, mind you; then more you carry, the slower you travel), try and find each other, start barricading themselves in a room, or just hide under a desk and start crying.
The zombies, well, do zombie stuff. In objective games zombies have unlimited spawns, you just have to kill the humans before they put the blue key in the blue door and GET TO DA CHOPPA etc. In survival games, the zombies have limited respawns, and the humans either have to kill all the zombies, or survive until the timer runs out.
If any of you do play it, you press G to drop the item selected, T to drop the ammo. V to cycle through ammo types, and B to change the amount. P = PANIC. You drop everything except the weapon you're holding, so that you can run faster than zombies.
It's a good idea to travel as light as possible, though ammo's scarce, so grab what you can. I usually ditch melee weapons straight away, as melee with a half-way decent zombie is suicide, unless you're just finishing them off.
Communication is key (even if it's just to make zombie jokes, or scream when a zombie jumps through a window into your face), and be generous with spare ammo - you wont survive alone.
Ok then, weak points:
I have to say, I'm sure the HL2 engine is capable of better fog effects than this, though. On the one foggy map I've seen, it's about the level of Hexen, just a wall of gray.
Another, more annoying element I don't like, is the confusion in the objective maps. They're a great idea, and can work really well if you get a group who knows what they're doing, but they often don't. The instructions are only displayed on the loading screen (sometimes impossible to read due to bright background), and one line of text flashes up briefly showing the next objective at the start, and after subsequent objectives.
It could really do with, say, a map, or even a way of reading the objectives in-game. It works okay once you've learnt the map, but that starting period is an exercise in frustration, especially if you're with a group who're similarly newbyish. Sure, you can have fun killing zombies, but it's essentially an unwinnable survival game then.
Oh, and the lack of an obvious timer for survival games is a little annoying. Not to mention that I've had a couple of games where the one human and one zombie left have spent several minutes wandering around looking for each other, until the game ended. Rather frustrating, when you have 20+ other people sitting there forced to spectate.
Anyway, I love it. It wont have the longevity of a more polished game like TF2 or CoD4, but it'll certainly work as a stop-gap until Left For Dead is released in a month or two.
I suspect that's one of the reasons Valve is releasing this mod; to wet people's appetites. Consider me salivating.
Hrm, I was just going to ask if anyone else had tried it, how did it turn into a full-on review?
