Heart of Evil is a Single Player Half-Life mod that accurately and sensitively depicts the American ‘experience’ in Vietnam, right down to the laces on the zombies boots. Plot: You play in the role of Captain Percy Freeman, a Special Forces officer who is assigned the task of tracking down and assassinating the renegade Colonel Kurtz.
Things take a turn for the worse when, having set off on your mission, the higher-ups in the chain of command mysteriously decide that they want you dead, while you discover to your horror that someone has been breeding an inhuman master-race of hideous undead mutants which is now rampaging across the jungle slaughtering everything in its path. Stuck between the Viet-Cong, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the hordes of mindless zombies, with only your sidekick Barney for company and your trusty chainsaw for a weapon, your one remaining hope is to keep going deeper and deeper into enemy territory, wading through the bodies of the fallen, towards the elusive Kurtz….
The file linked to below is Steam compatible.
- Title: Heart Of Evil
- File Name: hl1-sp-heart-of-evil.7z
- Original File Name: nam-v1.02.exe
- Size : 72.4Mb
- Author: Heart of Evil Team
- Date Released: 01 January 2002
Left click to open directly in your browser if it supports that function or right click to save it to your computer.
Click on the thumbnails below to open a medium size image. WARNING: The screenshots may contain spoilers.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010
-
7,687Overall
-
5Today
-
16Last 7 days
-
98Last 30 days
-
940365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 7 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 7 Hours, 23 Mins
Shortest: 4 Hours by Dmitry
Longest: 17 Hours by ź Š ΔŠ¢ΔŠ Σ 14 ź
Total Time Played: 51 Hours, 44 Mins
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
Heart of Evil is an extensive Half-Life mod set during the Vietnam War. You play Captain Percy Freeman, assigned the task of tracking down and ‘taking out” the renegade Colonel Kurtz. Kurtz, however, isn’t too keen on the idea, and so beings a long and epic trek throughout the jungle, towns and beyond.
If you’ve played anything by Nathan Ruck before (he made two previous Half-Life mods – The Evil Thing and Little Skyscraper of Horrors for OpForce) then you’ll know that he has a wicked sense of humour, and this is evident throughout the mod. From little jokes to a hilarious plot twist at the end, you’ll have a smile on your face while blasting away the VietCong and those pesky zombies.
Yes, zombies. They’re back. And this time they’re tougher then ever. Seriously, they take a full clip to down. Thankfully you’ve also got a whole load of weapons to take them down with. My persoanl favourite? The chainsaw. Big, beefy and powerful. You’ve also got pistols, M4s and the works. Good thing too with all those enemies.
Another thing to point out is that you now have to use the “Use” key. You pick up keys, planks of wood and other various bits and pieces, as well as open doors, by facing them and pressing the use key. And just so you don’t end up running around trying to use everything, you’ll get a little message everytime something you look at something interesting. It may seem odd at first, but you’ll soon get used to it.
The maps? Excellent, thanks for asking. They feel very much like most “proper” Vietnam games, which is a huge achievement for a mod. And apart from a few visits to… OTHER… places, it draws you in and doesn’t want to let go. They’re all very well designed, although there’s one or two moments where you’ll be a little frustated as your companion gets caught in the scenery again. Nothing you’re not used to though.
In short, this is one of the best mods available for Half-Life, and is highly recommended. It’s also one of the few mods out there that has additional maps being made for it by fans, so there’s another good point for it. It’s been highly praised across the internet, so here’s another glowing recommendation for it
Play it. You won’t regret it.
I really liked this mod
Probably one of my favorite mods.
Read the license agreement carefully š
Uh what is with the training room? I could have sworn I posted this a few days ago! Anyway…its like another game! I don’t get it! I’m very confused!
I played it 4 times. 5/5
Enough? =D
Thanks for that answer but it doesnt help. Can someone explain the order to me please?
I found it to be an ok mod,although it did seem very difficult since alot of times there was no clear path to go and some entances seemed a little hard to find.
3.5/5
for the brain dean people like me there is a walkthrough available here
http://hosted.planethalflife.gamespy.com/heartofevil/walkthrougha.asp
This is one of the best. Essentially a ripoff of Apocalypse Now, but it’s done very well, as well as anyone could have done given the HL1 engine. Good models of authentic weapons of the time (the original M16, M60 GPMG, M79 “bloop”, RPG-7 etc.).
As for the purpose of the training level Heyzors, you could RTFM. That’s what I did š
Although there is a problem I had with that level; if I died while attempting it, then clicked, it would load the “boathouse” level from the regular game. I’m pretty sure this is a glitch.
Rating: 5/5 + Excellence Award
Good: Vietnam is the locale; new everything; cool story
Bad: Annoying NPC sounds; tough to fight through.
Review:
“I love the smell of Napalm in the morning. The smell, you know that gasoline smell. Smells like victory.” This mod is awesome! That quote is from Apocalypse Now, and it fits this mod well. You play in the role of Captain Percy Freeman, a Special Forces officer who is assigned the task of tracking down and assassinating the renegade Colonel Kurtz. Things take a turn for the worse when, having set off on your mission, the higher-ups in the chain of command decide they want you dead! Plus, there is a surprise enemy in this that I wont tell you about. Anyway, you start out the mission flying to your drop zone, listening to some excellent music. You get there, and it is hell, after all, it is war. So you fight through the jungle, killing villagers, Viet-Cong, the NVA, just about everything.
There are numerous secret places and alternate paths, so that should keep the replay value decently high, plus, everything is NEW! New NPCs, weapons, sprites, everything. The only bad things about this mod are the NPC sounds, as whenever you “use” them, it is a stereotypical “OOO me love you long time” type of saying. The other minus on this one is that it might be hard, but then you can just use cheats to get through. But don’t do that. Its really not that bad. Since all these quibbles are minor, I am awarding it an Excellence Award. Go get this mod!
There’s a racist component to this mod I don’t like, i.e. the idiotic caricatures of what someone who has never met a Vietnamese think they sound like when they speak English.
There is an “expansion” for this map called Heart of evil: Alamo. Should be just as good since it adds extra stuff. Not sure if it works for steam ver. though.
This looks like a good game, but its a waste of a download. The characters often won’t respond when you need them to. First time I downloaded it the two officers at the start refused to do anything apart from offer me moose meat – which I ate, then they stood there just doing nothing, so the mission couldn’t progress.
I redownloaded and reinstalled the game. This time the officers responded properly and the game carried on as normal…but then when I got to the Army base with the zombies, the Barney refused to walk through the door into the radio room. And he’s the only one who can operate the radio and continue the game.
This games just too buggy to be fun.
Have to agree, Johnny. I’ve run into the kind of bugs you mentioned, then there’s a necessary key that never materialized… I’ve just never underestood why someone would put this much effort into a mod and then not go the last 5% and thoroughly play test it.
This is an absolute must have, right up there with TheyHunger, AzureSheep, Poke646 and SweetHL. Only downside is its a bit of a maze and you’ll need to keep an eye out for keys or other equipment need to unlock the next level, lot of wandering pointlessly trying to figure out what you missed.
But great new weapons, funny, scary, just a damn good time.
Oh and read the license agreement! š good stuff.
Enjoyed HoE?
Check out HoE Enhancement Pack at http://hoe.half-lifecreations.com
We offer loads of new features and updated graphics.
Come say hi!
Editor321
I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this mod, but it is quite buggy. It’s extremely frustrating to get half way (or more) through a long mod only to have it repeatedly crash at a certain point.
Any walktroughs for this mod?
Try reading some of the other posts.
I have played more of this mod and find it to be pretty fun but I hate the voices for the citezens, they are unbaribly anoying, If you couldn’t find agood voice actor then you should have made the citezens just not talk at all. Now to play the rest of the mod š
Finished the mod, good but there was some bad voice acting here and there, and the soldier modles looked very poor.
PS the ending was quite strange and confusing
I just started this mod and I can say that it is pritty good but the zombies are pain in the ass
they have to mach energy (you need to spend
whole arsenal to kill them and when they are more then one lets we don`t talk about that)
I was playing this mod till the please where I need to go on a boat trip with Barny (Barny was on the first map back,,Aeroplane crash site,,) so when I did everything I went back for Barney and on the last map change the game always crashes I wasen`t having saves from someplace else so now I have to play it all over again
at the start of the mod,Barney does not enter the room (6 trys from the beginning) on the 7th he enters the room and leads to the helicopter but wont enter the copter. at that point I gave up . whats with this?
This mod is one of my favorites of all time. The maps are very detailed (for the time) and very lengthy, which you’ll be glad for. I would be devastated if this mod was shorter, I didn’t want it to end! The combat is intensive. You’ll find yourself right in between and torn between blasting the vietcong or the monsters shuffling towards you. Despite its dark setting, the game is refreshingly filled with dark humor. I won’t give any examples cause I don’t like spoiling this wonderful mod. Just like the classic They Hunger, this is a total conversion (and then some.) No gauss gun or strange “9mmar” here, just M16’s, machetes, and M60’s just to name a few of the dozens of weapons. Quite interestingly, there are a few levels where you can choose your own path. Again, no spoilers for you! Also, for any Apocalypse Now fans, almost every bit of this game should seem familiar to you.
As for cons, the only that really come to mind are some slightly confusing puzzles and the… sadly bad character models. Even this isn’t a problem, as the Heart of Evil Napalm Edition is almost on the way, which promises to bring every-single model and sprite up to HL2 standards (but for HL1).
In conclusion, do not hesitate to play this mod!
WARNING: Do not click “training room/hazard course.” Its not meant to train you at all, and if anything it just spoils the enemy models right away.
There’s already a Source version out, which I’m half-way through, though have found that navigating the third part to be utterly bewildering….I look forward immensely to the Napalm Edition, which I hadn’t heard of until now….
Added secondary links for the source stuff untill it gets put on the PP server.Hope phillip don’t get mad :p
#$%^
it would appear that I have run into every bug and then some. in part D1 I did not want to give up the weapons but back at the truck I waited for 30 minutes for the “eventual” vamp to break down the door. either the auther should be required to fix the #$%^& mod or it should be removed.
I seriously wanted to give this mod a better rating, but I could not, not take in consideration its annoying shortcomings.
First of all, graphically speaking there is nothing to criticize. The new textures and models absolutely engross the player in the Vietnam war universe.
However, the fact that the maps are soo much puzzling, totally ruined the rest of experience for me. The walkthrough is a requirement, unless you want to spend the next hours searching for a previously seen, but well hidden nonetheless, door that has just been unlocked.
The combat is relatively easy, but bothersome. I personally find that having to shot a full clip of shotgun shells at a zombie for it to die is rather abusive.
In the end, Heart of Evil is a well done mod, but its drawbacks prevents it from becoming one of the third-party gems of the Half-Life series.
I’ve been playing this game for just the past month and I love it! Apart from a few annoying glitches that need to be sorted out, this game is an excellent piece of work. But the problem is (as stated above) a walkthrough is essential and the old link at PlanetHalfLife.com is now dead.
So could someone please give a new valid link? i’m stuck! š
No link, but I do have the saved webpages for the walkthrough. If you still want it let me know and I’ll throw them in a zip and upload them somewhere.
Would like the walkthrough, Gilfrarry. have you uploaded it already somewhere?
Apologies for the delay.
Here is the walkthrough: PDF Heart of Evil Walkthrough.
overall a good mod, kinda buggy, needs better voice actors in a few places, and certain parts are incredibly confusing but I still had fun with this.
I just say this: “The best total converssion mod ever made for HL” the author took a really dark piece of coal, reffering to HL1 engine and textures-graphs, and just turned that into a beauty shiny diamond, play it to see what I mean and i’m sure if u like war history and vietnam thrillers then this is for u and u’re gonna love it!!!!!!
Also is pretty evident that this is my favourite mod for HL1!
Subtle lovley hint dialogue: -THE HORROR….THE HORROR-. Oh god what a classic piece!!! š
This review is the latest entry in a list of horribly late reviews by me of large, popular Half-Life packs. This time around you’ll get something even more rare than a review by me: a sincere apology. I owe one not only to Nathan Ruck, the project leader of Heart of Evil who has been gently prodding me on the forum for a review, but also to all the Half-Life single player fans out there that still enjoy loading up the packs and mods even in the face of Half-Life 2’s possible imminent release. I have promised this review for quite a long time, and I certainly should have given Heart of Evil my attention much earlier, and gotten the review of this solid mod to you faithful readers sooner.
Heart of Evil is unique among the Half-Life packs out there. Sure, it’s got new weapons, textures, models, sounds, and enemies, but that’s not what I’m getting at. It takes place in a warped version of 1968 Vietnam. Picture a mixture of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, miscellaneous other Hollywood portrayals of the Vietnam war, and zombie movies (both the classic and the cheesy). Add in some sci-fi for good measure and a healthy dose of both blatant and subtle humor and you get Heart of Evil. The end result is still something that you’ll have trouble accurately picturing until you actually play this one.
Nathan ‘foolish_mortal’ Ruck, author of The Evil Thing for HL and Little Skyscraper of Horrors for OpFor, originally released Heart of Evil in a series of episodes beginning way back in 2000. The entire pack was completed and released in September 2002, consisting of episodes A through G (some of which significantly changed as more work went into them) as well as a bonus map called Village of the Damned, available by choosing the Hazard Course option from the main menu. Be warned, though – Village of the Damned is not only pretty tough, but it also includes (and thus will spoil) just about all the enemies and weapons from the main game, so it fits much better as a bonus map played after completing Heart of Evil than an actual training map.
One of Heart of Evil’s strengths is its plot. Initially the story seems very similar to Apocalypse Now, with you as a young Captain Percy Freeman charged with finding and killing the renegade Colonel Kurtz. But thankfully the overall plot is not that straightforward and actually takes some interesting (and bizarre) turns, conveyed by characters, radio communications, and documents that you find, culminating in a rather deliciously dark ending.
Heart of Evil features a slew of new weapons, with only a couple of leftovers from Half-Life like the grenades and tripmines. My favorites were the grenade launcher, the shotgun (which you can load with 2 different types of ammo), the rocket launcher – which, unlike Half-Life’s, is unguided (but that just makes shooting down those pesky choppers much more satisfying), and of course the ideal anti-zombie weapon: the chainsaw. For the most part, the weapon models and sounds were fairly well done.
Also new are the characters, both friendlies and adversaries. For the vast majority of Heart of Evil, you have to escort and protect your buddy Barney – but this time around (thankfully) he’s much stronger, smarter, and useful than the Half-Life version, and he packs a better weapon. Despite the improvements, you’re still generally better off parking him somewhere out of the way and completing the puzzles by yourself. But you do get some welcome help from other soldiers, and you can even use commands like “attack” and “come here” to control them, although I must admit I didn’t try these so I don’t know how well they actually work.
Although the enemies are new, some are just copies of existing Half-Life enemies (but the zombies here are much, much tougher than Half-Life’s zombies). But this isn’t a drawback because the various enemies are put to good use, and the level of challenge overall is just about right. Some sections, depending on the path you take, can be pretty easy overall since for the most part you have plenty of ammo and plenty of powerful weapons, but there are still decent challenges throughout. One of the serious flaws in Heart of Evil is the quality of the character models. While some are attractive and well done, others are downright ugly which really stands out in this otherwise first-rate mod. On a positive note, the voice acting is superb for the various characters you’ll meet throughout the pack, rivaling some professional games here and there.
The gameplay in Heart of Evil is simultaneously enjoyable and frustrating, if that makes any sense. Most of the chapters are set up as a series of connected puzzles that can be approached in a number of ways. While inherently making the gameplay nonlinear, this type of design also frustrates the average player because it can be overwhelming. At first in the episodes, you don’t know what the goal is or how to progress, and you have to resort to wandering all over the intricately connected maps. In each of these complex episodes, there are hints and/or directions to guide you – the key is finding these helpful documents or conversations in the first place. You certainly have to be thorough to find a couple of the hints – I was cursing up a storm in the general direction of the designers more than once as I wandered around the sprawling maps for the umpteenth time. But the puzzles themselves are pretty clever and varied, though some are not at all intuitive. For example, some items that look to be just decoration in the map are actually useful objects that you have to take by hitting the ‘use’ key on them. However, it is helpful that whenever there is an object in front of you that you are able to use, text pops up on the screen with the name of the object.
Only a couple drawbacks keep Heart of Evil from being among the very best of Half-Life packs. Even though the general layout of the maps is solid, the architecture is very basic in many areas, and some of the textures are poor. Suffice it to say that the maps aren’t the prettiest, although you will come across some interesting and memorable sections. There are a number of vehicle ‘rides’ interspersed among the maps, mainly in the transitions between episodes. While one is entertaining (the first chopper ride, again reminiscent of Apocalypse Now), and one is intense (an armed copter bears down on you as you ride in the open bed of a truck), the bulk of them are pretty boring and really interrupt the flow of the game. I’m thinking particularly of the boat ride near the end of the game. While there is a great voiceover that helps to set the scene for the final confrontation, the boat ride itself is way too long and really puts a damper on the intensity that was built up in the previous episode.
One of the other issues with game flow is that the flow is actually up to you in most cases, since you often have to revisit areas and previously locked doors usually open to an area already visited. It’s very likely that you will find yourself wandering aimlessly wondering what to do next or what you missed. Thankfully the Heart of Evil site includes a pretty thorough (but not always easy to follow) walkthrough. The other crippling problem with the gameplay is the underground maze in episode C. The first time I played through, I could not for the life of me get the “guide” (a little helper chumtoad) to work – he kept dying when I broke his cage to let him out. So I figured, “that’s OK, I can do this maze without his stupid help.” Silly rabbit. About 15 minutes later I was still lost in the maze and had developed not only an unhealthy twitch but also an odd bloodthirst for the mapper responsible for this idea. Since in my opinion your guide is mandatory for keeping your sanity here, make absolutely sure that you use the chumtoad properly and try not to step on him. I couldn’t recreate the original problem I had on my subsequent playthroughs so I won’t hold that glitch against the authors. However, whether you use the chumtoad or not the maze is a major interruption in the game flow (though not quite ‘crippling’ as I mentioned above) since you have to follow the toad at an agonizingly slow speed.
I didn’t find any technical problems while playing, other than getting stuck a couple places as I tried to explore. And you have to be careful during the vehicle rides – get stuck in a corner, and you may get squished into oblivion when the vehicle turns. I should think that this would have been identified in beta testing, but I also suspect that some of the problem is due to the Half-Life engine itself. Many of the triggers used in the maps are irritating as well. For example, in one spot you have to set explosives that you had previously picked up. But if you aren’t in the exact trigger location, the game won’t let you set the explosives at all. The first time I played I gave up trying the explosives there since they wouldn’t set (and figured they should be used elsewhere) – it wasn’t until I checked the walkthrough that I realized that was the correct place for the explosives.
Overall Heart of Evil is a unique mod with some great (and sometimes gruesome) atmosphere, and a solid story. The twisted humor was just my style, and the interesting turns that the story and game take as you play through keep it from being just another wartime mod. I think that Heart of Evil could have been polished a lot more and that would’ve probably pushed it even with the elite Half-Life mods out there. As it is, some rough architecture, unattractive models, and the few glitches mentioned above are significant but ultimately forgivable drawbacks. The puzzles can certainly be frustrating as well, and to be honest I enjoyed this pack much more the second time I played through it. Although I already knew about the surprises and plot from my first playthrough, the frustration factor was way down because I generally remembered the puzzles and could concentrate on having fun killing those damned zombies and following the plot. Bottom line: if you haven’t already played Heart of Evil, grab it now.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Tuesday, 31st August, 2004 by Unquenque.
This review was originally posted on the Ten Four Website, which is now offline. Permission has been granted to republish the full review and more details can be found on the About page.
Probably one of my favorite mods. Wicked humor, awesome weapons, and great gameplay. The maps are open and complex, the monsters are weird and disturbing, and the weapons feel very good for a HL mod.
Yes, its buggy. The quick save/load can be your friend as a result.
Manually
Hard
6 Hours
This is first time i encountered Vietnam War theme , Horror and Sci-fi
genres all together. Really weird combination , but it’s not bad at all. This is also first “horror” mod/game i played. I never watched , played , read anything horror related before. Mod becomes creepy at fifth episode. Also hardest mod i played this far. Story is good , but ending is a little bit unreal , because humans would find a way to isolate Vietnam or something like that. Gameplay was great! Some elements were actually even better than original Half-Life. Like using a NPC to progress in game ( Barney in this case). There were other great gameplay elements too! Textures and Models were also great! But one unusual thing are models/textures for solders. Texture/Model for Barney (it’s not any big spoiler , you got him on start) looks like and U.S. soldier from that era , but other soldiers look a lot different. Overall , this is GREAT mod!!! I recommend it to anyone who loves Half-Life and Vietnam War theme. I said it’s horror , but really it’s not much scary. So if you don’t like horror i STILL recommend it!
Note: I put third genre in spoilers because it could reveal later part of the game
Manually
Hard
5 Hours
Heart of Evil takes you to the Vietnam Warā¦. with a twist! I also played the mod with the Remod addon, it takes HD models from Napalm Edition and put it in here.
You are Captain Percy Freeman whose task is to kill a renegade officer who has gone mad: Colonel Kurtz. Barney also accompanies you in your mission, with his M1911. After a while, you realize this is not Apocalypse Now, because something is definitely not right as there are zombies and aliens involved.
Your typical Half-Life weapons also get their Vietnam War skins, with some weapons getting reworked. Your pistol is the M1911, which acts as some sort of hybrid of pistol and magnum. The SMG is replaced by the M16 and the AK-47, with both of them much more accurate than their original counterpart. As the M203 didnāt exist at the time, your grenade launcher is a separate weapon: the M79. Thereās also the M60 which acts like the LMG from Opposing Force. The shotgun can be loaded with more powerful buckshot. You also have the chainsaw that is extremely useful for killing zombies, but it is found near the end of the game. It is also kind of weird to see modern tripmines here, the Remod made the tripmines look more realistic but they still have the blue lasers.
The enemies in this mod are reskins of your typical Half-Life enemies. The US and Vietcong soldiers are HECU reskins, but they appear to have much less health. I am not a fan of the modās take on tough enemies. The zombies, bullsquids, and gorillas (act like larger and tougher headcrabs) can soak up so many bullets and explosives to the point they really feel like bullet sponges. I feel like that drags the gameplay down. You also come across multiple Huey helicopters, they act as a hybrid of the Apache and Osprey.
Half of the modsā maps are āhub mapsā. They are a series of maps connected and each of them contains important items and objectives. It is fun, but when you play for a while it gets very confusing. Since every map has objectives and items on their own, it becomes confusing and you pretty much have to figure out which path is the mission objective as you have multiple tasks stacking on top of each other. Some items also require extremely keen eyes to point out. Because of that, checkpoints are really rare so you are better off quicksaving.
Your companion, Barney, is more of an annoyance since he really feels like an arbitrary ball-and-chain to drag around. His pistol is only good against the parasite aliens (headcrab reskin). Also, because if he dies the game is over you must make sure you left him in a very safe place. God helps you if youāre locked in an unending loop where heās killed over and over.
I also feel like the final segment of the game is a bit anticlimactic, but the ending is passable. But despite all of that, Heart of Evil tells of a unique story with some comedy attempts that donāt get stale quickly. (Unlike Napalm Edition.)
Manually
Medium
8 Hours
.
Manually
Medium
6 Hours, 44 Minutes
Yeah I don’t think this mod have a lot of good qualities. Controls are a mess, levels are messy without any clear indication on where to go, and the voice acting was not pretty. However the models were really cool. Too bad I didn’t enjoy it much.
As you can see, I was going slowly with this one. 17 hours I have spent soaking the experience, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed.
I downloaded this mostly for nostalgia. As you can see, I have already written about this mod a few years ago. I was 13 and in a circumstance to have pretty shitty PC at the time, so I had no other choice, but to play old games like Half-Life. Not that I have felt any shortcomings, on the other hand, I was fascinated (as I still am) by the experiences Half-Life and other old games brought me. Shortly after completing original campaign, I quickly started downloading and playing mods. I particularly liked this one more than the others, as whole feeling of it lingered for a while. It made me watch the film it was based on (Apocalypse Now), and even if I was too young to understand most of the things the film and the game had to tell, human subconscious definitely knows to recognize quality shit that is brought to it, probably for it being good at handling and understanding feelings.
5 years have passed since then, and in adolescence that definitely seems longer than that, as many things change during those years. But the thought of the film and the game and the feeling it brought used to appear from time to time. And a few days ago, I watched some YouTube video about the Apocalypse Now, and was inspired to try this mod once again. And as I have already said, I definitely wasn’t disappointed.
Now, of course, it wasn’t going to feel the same as it did the first time I played it. Half-Life gameplay, at first, didn’t feel like it aged well at all, but I quickly got used to it and started enjoying it, probably for the mod slowly becoming actually challenging.
First few chapters weren’t that much interesting, probably because they were easier than later stages, zombies having too much health being a bit annoying to go around and kill and because there was a lot of backtracking.
However, as I said, I soon got used to these things and mod getting more challenging in it’s FPS aspect, more weapons that were fun to use appearing, and narrative quickly growing more interesting made me quite enjoy the whole experience, particularly last three chapters were of note!
And of note not only for the gameplay, but for reviving the feeling of art, and bringing other philosophical aspects that I am now old enough to at least recognize, and even comprehend to some extent. What is war and what it brings, what things we may deem necessary to be done and if they even are necessary in their actuality, what qualities should we nurture in peaceful and what qualities should we nurture in troubling times, and if we should even look at human qualities in that way? Many questions it brings up, some answering on its own right and some leaving to us.
Similar things were also questioned in the film, but also in the book, Heart of Darkness, which title directly inspired the mod’s one. It is also interesting that same questions and stories have been asked by humanity for who knows how long, but probably for countless millenniums, as core human nature doesn’t seem to change (and as long as it remains that way, it’s probably for the better), and it’s interesting that each new iteration of the story builds up and references all the previous ones, but choses to adapt to popular media standards of the time.
It inspired me to watch the film and even read the book (which I hope to do, as now I have some other things on the list to watch and read).
I have already spend a lot more time writing this that than I planned at first, so overall, it remains one on the best mods I have ever played (if not being the first one on the list), and I highly recommend it to every Half-Life fan!
Yes, some things can get a bit tiring at first (walkthrough being a requirement in some parts of the story), and you probably encountering a few bugs on the way (I had to slide on a wall’s thin metal beam to a even thinner place in a wall where I could stand, so that I could to rocket jump to a roof of a house to get over it because an scripted event that would break that damn wall refused to play out for some reason), but I am pretty sure it would be an experience for you to remember (and please, don’t spend hours like me collecting 31 friendly NPCs from bunch of connected maps to make a photo of them rounded up in military fashion in a hangar, please!).
Manually
Hard
17 Hours
Playing it on Hard is kind of more interesting mod. You can waiste plenty of ammunition. The only defect of the mod is that it would be nice to have an auto-regenerative health. In some ocasions you need health. This is goos so you can use all types of weapons that way. if not you are doomed to play with certain types of weapons. Zombies are ammo eaters. don’t use shotgun on them, but machine gun, all your bullets will be waisted. And if you use shotgun, fire from distance. That way you can waiste all your ammo on Hard. There’s a lot. This mod is perfect for smooth players that have patience for long combats. It’s not bad at how they made it. I would only change auto-health mode only.
Manually
Hard
4 Hours