Mods n' rockers

One of the biggest reasons that the PC is my favourite gaming platform has to be the availability of user-made content in the form of mods, a feature which as far as I know isn't available on consoles due to the lack of access consumers have to the hard-coding. Valve's and ID's decisions to allow gamers access to their tools with games like Doom and Half Life I think were a big step in gaming history as most companies up to then were worried about their material being stolen. But when Valve gave modders access to their tools it was so overwhelmingly received by the community that they ended up selling more games due to this. One of the great things about mods is that due to them not being restrained by the constraints commercial developers suffer (like deadlines and the need to sell units) offers modder enthusiasts the chance to take the tools of the game and go places “professional” game developers simply can't. This includes “art mods” like “Tedium” and “Dear Esther”, both good looking mods in all their beret wearing, moustache stroking glory.

I was inspired to do this little blog entry in anticipation for the next in instalments of “The Citizen” and “Human Error” both my favourite single-player mods with ties to the Half Life universe.
The original Citizen impressed me on first play-through for a number of reasons. First was the level design, seeing as it was set entirely in City 17 some areas went a long way to convey a sense of layer-upon-layer environmental complexity that's very fitting to the setting, seen especially with a flooded street that leads up to a basketball court which leads into a small underground carpark which has a large window overlooking a large underground car tunnel. All this really gave me a sense of how environments are stacked onto each other in closed quarters to give one of the best urban settings I've seen designed in a long while. The second thing that struck me about The Citizen was how much more expansive it felt than Half Life 2. Although I adored the street fighting in the latter half of Half Life 2 and I appreciate that the game wasn't wholly set in City 17 but I felt like the variety of locations was slightly limited to empty apartments and former government buildings. In The Citizen, I was impressed to see our hapless resistance fighter battle through churches, theatres, train stations, libraries and apartments which really pushed the sense of tense claustrophobia that should be aimed for when designing any self-respecting street warfare environment. All this is probably helped by the fact that one of the developers is an architecture student but none-the-less this sense of unique environment design alone makes the mod worth downloading. The only things I felt let the mod down was the limited vehicle section and the voice acting's very choppy in places but this shouldn't be enough to dismay anyone looking for a well-made Half Life 2 mod. Plus, who doesn't love a mod chock-full of easter eggs!



As for Human Error. I played the first part and was interested by the change of setting from eastern European city to small town/ university campus. Even more intriguing is the decision to place you in the boots of the civil protection officers from Half Life 2. This means many great twists in terms of story, gameplay, characters and aesthetic. For one it gives an alternate look on the gasmasked bullies you face from HL2. Your 3 closest colleagues have very unique modelling, voice acting (which is top quality may I say), animations and personal quirks which helps to give a more greyish tint to the struggle between the otherwise heroic resistance fighters and otherwise evil, evil human lackeys of the universal union. I also found myself enthralled in the troubled back-story of our protagonist. On the gameplay side, I relished the chance to play about with shiny combine toys like manhacks, APC's and smoke grenades. The inclusion of xen aliens like vortiguants and alien grunts were also a nice way to make sure the humanitarian insurgents won't be pushovers. What also impressed me was the inclusion of custom animations and models, the former being a rare sight in source mods. Also the writers deserve credit, if only for the line “Oh no, we're on the slopes of Mount Doom and we have guns. Let's get in there!” But, my only criticism of this mod being that at times during the campus sections I felt like the confusing maze of corridors got abit repetitive and frustrating to navigate.



So anyway, there you have it. My humble opinion on user-made content for videogames and why there is a whole worth of high-quality content available beyond the commercial game.