HybridLogic

Residual Point

To be honest, I should have finished this review a long time ago. I played this Half Life 1 mod back in October now and the only thing that's jogged my memory recently is the screenshots I put up on Flickr. And it isn't fair, because this is actually a pretty damn good mod with a lot going for it.

Residual Point is a kind of reimagining of the original Half Life 1 story, following the same overall storyline and plot elements. You begin on a tram journey, participate in a disastrous experiment and ultimately face off in Xen with the big, bad alien baddies. All of the set pieces feel slightly familiar yet bigger and better with a few new enemies and areas thrown in.

There were a few downsides, some of the battles bordered on near suicide with enemies quite literally filling the screen, pushing the aging HL engine to its limits at points. The ending also felt rather stunted. Rather than have a final battle with the Nihilanth, you just sort of jump through a teleporter and finish, definitely anticlimactic.

Having said that the rest of the game is brilliant. There isn't much new in terms of level design, more of a mishmash of HL and its sequels, but it works and you never get the feeling of just battling on for the sake of it. Confrontations are often reminiscent of previous games simply with more enemies, for example two Gonarchs to fight at once (the big spider things), vortigaunts teleporting in front and behind of you and an overall feel of a high quality polish to the whole thing. It took about six hours to complete overall, so definitely one of the longer mods released.

If you're looking for a bit more of the same for Half Life 1 then check out Residual Point, it's definitely worth it. The best place to learn more is probably PlanetPhillip, with a helpful walkthrough now posted.

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