The action takes place in a scientific complex, which is located somewhere in the Arctic.
In the caves, scientists have found a new form of life, which is resistant to frost and incredibly aggressive to intrusion.
The staff at the complex do not have sufficient means to counter it.
As a consequence they are forced to ask for help from the military, but the military, apparently, have their own plans for the incident.
This was February 2017’s Classic of the Month mod.
Basic Details
- Title: Arctic Incident
- Filename: hl1-sp-arctic-incident.7z
- Size : 11.6MB
- Author: XF-Alien
- Date Released: 15 November 2015
Download Options
Manual Installation Instructions
- Copy the AI folder into your …\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Arctic Incident should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
Playthrough Videos
The playthrough below is part of the Classic of the Month Event, run by Don AKA Unq.
Screenshots
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Reader Recommendations
Total Downloads
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 38 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 38 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 6 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by HalfMemes
Longest: 3 Hours by John
Total Time Played: 41 Hours, 47 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 38 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 6 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by HalfMemes
Longest: 3 Hours by John
Total Time Played: 41 Hours, 47 Mins
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HOW DID WE MISS THIS?
I’ll be streaming it in about an hour from this comment.
Awww, did I miss it?
Nope, I did Crossover first. Hoping to stream this very very soon.
The Maptap install didn’t work for me, but the other way did.
yes, I just noticed that for me too. I will change the file.
This is really quite good for a mod on the older platform. The arctic environment is well done and I liked the weaponry and enemy changes. The colors are a bit drab but that matches the setting. Puzzles are relatively easy and there is enough ammo and health kits to keep you going. I’m surprised I haven’t seen this one before. It’s well worth a play
Manually
Easy
1 Hour
I can’t get this to run, unless starting Half Life is how it starts? The tram ride for vanilla HL starts. I am using maptap.
Please uninstall and install manually. For some reason, this doesn’t yet work with MapTap.
Huh, okay 🙂 I will do that, looking forward to it.
An HL1 mod!? Color me ready!
Great mod, I enjoyed it a lot. It features a snowy environment, and changes many of the weapon and enemy skins to match the setting. For example, the soldiers wear winter armor, an ice pick replaces the crowbar, and the Vorts and controllers attacks are blue! The aliens do cold damage! Nothing feels out of place.
The author added a few weapon replacements: A white, 15 round Beretta replacing the Glock with a two-round burst alternative fire, a 20 round FN FAL replacing the MP5, and an ice pick replacing the crowbar. The FAL has its own ammo pool separate from the pistol, and feels powerful to use. Three well-placed shots to take down a Vort. Superb.
One small gripe I had was that enemies would spawn in areas that had been previously cleared after a puzzle was solved. I suppose this keeps things from getting boring, but you have no indication that they’re there (teleportation sounds and whatnot) until you stumble upon them. A minor gripe though.
Play it!
Manually
Hard
1 Hour
This was a very pleasant surprise. Up until today, I had heard absolutely nothing with regards to this mod, likely due to it’s developers sticking to Russian modding sites and communities.
A very nice, solidly built series of maps with a winter theme, jam packed with classic Half-Life gameplay. The story (shown in an intro cutscene which you can skip entirely if you’re not interested) is basic. Scientists (Shown in white HEV suits) are drilling through rock in the Arctic when they bust open one frozen chamber too many and unleash frost demons… or something. The military is hastily called in to deal with the situation and then you start playing. You’re character however, is completely anonymous. I assume you are simply one of the nameless scientists as you appear to be using the white HEV, but this is never confirmed as such. Also, the military is hostile as per usual, but this is never officially explained. In fact, once the intro is over, there is absolutely no narrative or hint of a plot whatsoever, which was a bit of a shame.
There are some minor code changes in place, that actually have quite a large impact on the way you approach combat. The pistol has a slower rate of fire, smaller magazine and a nice two shot burst alternate fire. The MP5/M4 has been replaced with what looks like an FAL Rifle, with a much smaller clip size, slower rate of fire but packs a hell of a punch. The rest of the arsenal remains fairly standard.
The enemies are your classic Xen monsters, reskinned to suit the winter theme (I say reskinned, I mean greyscaled), while the grunts sport winter combat attire.
The combat on the Hard setting was very nicely balanced. I found myself scrounging for any health and ammo I could find, often running around with nothing but 25 Health and 3 pistol rounds to my name. However, while a lot of the terrain is impressive, it can cause issues where you get stuck which can make the tense firefights downright infuriating in some instances. When you’ve gotten through several battles without taking a single hit, you can feel cheated when you get stuck on seemingly nothing and take a vort blast to the face.
The lighting throughout is pretty sterile and uninteresting, until you enter the caves around the midpoint. These areas are simply gorgeous by Goldsource standards.
Overall, this is definitely worth a playthrough, so long as you’re not expecting a deep or interesting story line.
Manually
Hard
49 Minutes
Well the screenshot caught my attention, along with the author – I recognize XF-Alien from The Gloom and from the upcoming Half-Life: Delta, from which I’ve posted a couple screenshots on Goldsource Gold.
This pack really caught me the right way – it’s short and pretty sweet. Yes, it lacks much of a story beyond the opening cutscene and the need to escape, but otherwise it was great. Nice combat, a couple new weapons that are just a bit different than standard HL ones, and a bit of a fresh look for some of the enemies to fit the Arctic theme.
The maps fit right into the Arctic setting, and the layout featured a decent amount of winding routes and a bit of backtracking to break up the otherwise linear flow. No areas blew me away, but there are a lot of nicely designed areas. My favorite was probably the pipes out over the cliff, I love areas like that in HL maps.
My main complaint: it’s too easy. At times I was at 100/100 with plenty of health and HEV chargers sitting unused. The combat is okay, but again on the easy side. I highly recommend you crank up the difficulty by one notch when you play this one. I played on Medium, and felt like I breezed through. After getting my ass handed to me on Hard when I played The Long Night yesterday for Classic of the Month, I was gun-shy to try this on Hard on first play.
In short, a nice, tight gem of a mod here. Play it.
Manually
Medium
42 Minutes
While this was definitely a very refreshing new mod, I have to disagree with anyone above that thinks it was ‘too easy’ (unq lol) – I spent at least three quarters of this mod at 10 hp or less. There were plenty of guns and ammo to spare, but everything hit me so hard that I did have to opt to god mode to finish the garg venue.
The maps were very nice, a bit dark in the underground sections though, but at least the flashlight lasted a long while each charge.
The reskinned monsters were amazing – they were definitely not just grey-scaled, those were patterns not found on any normal HL animal / monster I’ve ever seen though I’d have to give a closer look in the files to say for sure. I love the look of the headcrabs and vorts.
My main complaint aside from ‘everything hit too hard’ was ‘things respawned behind me’ after clearing areas. That’s a bad design flaw for any game, mod or otherwise. Moving forward shouldn’t also mean ‘and clearing out the guys I swore I killed on the way in’.
Still, this was a very enjoyable mod. The physics of hl1 still plague it in some ways, but by and large, exceptional fun.
Manually
Medium
45 Minutes
I agree with every other comment here, a really enjoyable little mod with a great theme! Only for my taste it was a little too long. Because there was no story or direction at all except for following the linear path, I was starting to get bored by the end and was wondering how much longer it might go on…
solid mapstructure with secrets and alternative routes. reskinned arctic hl aliens, and custom weapons. i would gave it a personal favourite rating if it had a proper story about why the aliens are all white. ill probably make a video of the hd version, which will have better models and textures.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
Loved it.
Most of the maps architecture is good looking, really fits for an arctic base made in the middle of nowhere, underground maps are pretty cool as well.
Not really much of a story outside of the intro and the summary text, but it’ll do just fine without one.
I decided to play this first on Hard and found that the pick up placements are kind-of balanced.
Though i do sometimes find myself both having too much ammo and not enough ammo, probably have something to do with the fact that the ammo capacity has been reduced a bit.
Nothing has been changed about the enemy’s behavior though, good or not depends on taste.
There’s custom weapons in this mod, with additional coding in for good measures.
A lot of the NPC models have been altered as well, with the aliens fitting in with the snowy environment and the hgrunt models entirely replaced.
Combat’s pretty fine, a good number of cover to avoid enemy fire, and i never died once thankfully (not counting the time i jumped down in the beginning area because i think there may be something down there).
Overall, a short and sweet mod.
Manually
Hard
1 Hour, 47 Minutes
@Phillip: If you missed the release of this you probably might have missed the release of Paranoia2 as well. While not labeled a Hl mod anymore it’s still using assets and file structures of Half-Life so go for it. Kinda cool mod just like the first one. 🙂
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Wow! It’s hard to believe that a mod like this has been released in 2015.
To make things short and simple : This mod is gorgeous or in another word “Amazing”.
Lets get started.
Story:
The story is rather simple and in many ways sounds similar to a rather famous movie “The Thing”. You’re an employee working in a scientific research facility in Antarctica to conduct numerous studies in the Ice. During one excavation how ever the Scientists discovered a new form of life – creatures of unknown origin. And perhaps locked inside their Ice cave undisturbed for many Millennia – but no one knows for sure.
After their discovery things started going wrong. The creatures escaped their Ice prison and started taking over your base – killing every living being inside. So your people probably called for help and soon after marines arrived. You the the player is still inside the base. With creatures lurking around every corner – you’ve got only but one goal “Escape”.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is actually very smooth. I did play it on hard and everything seemed rather balanced. The monsters were well placed there was already enough ammo and med packs to find. I felt that in the later maps the ammo drops were little sparse because I ran outta it when reaching the Gargantua other than that I had no problems throughout the mod.
Mapping:
That’s certainly one of the best parts the mod has to offer. We get to see a wonderful and logically designed research facility in the ice. I never felt that any area looked rather doll or simple in particular and that’s a good thing. In many ways though this mod still reminded me of numerous old school mods but in a good way. I think few more scripted scenes might have helped the mod but those that were present in it were more than well made.
Pro:
-Fantastic mapping
-Few riddles (find the key-find the button scenarios)
-An Intro which you can actually skip (cool)
-Fantastic monster placement
-Fair amount of ammo and health packs and med stations.
-New monster skins (of another russian hl mod called: Dark Territory see moddb)
-long playtime took me like plus one hour!
-Few little secret areas or at least harder to find places.
Contra:
-Little is known about the actual story not even your player name.
-Not many scripted sequences in use (mostly monsters walking around a corner)
-While the mod provides good mapping few more effects wouldn’t have hurt (Like broken steam pipes, flickering lights etc.) Everything felt a little to perfect and well preserved considering the chaos that originated from the Aliens and Marines.
-Only 5 Weapons to choose from (pistol, crowbar, Rifle, grenades, Bazooka)
All in all a fantastic mod and while it’s very low on story elements the actual game play and balance fit. So play it people some nice looking maps await you.
Manually
Hard
1 Hour
Well I liked this one! The whole textures and overall the whole scenario had a very powerful and truth arctic environment from the beginning to the end. The arctic facility also looked pretty well integrated to that cold snowy environment. Just like if BM were set up in the arctic.
The combat was pretty nice and in many areas was almost always fun and entertaining to have those shootouts against the arctic soldiers. Also the textures of the enemies also fitted well into the scenario.
I like the author remodel the weapons, though I quite miss the crossbow, and that those mounted MG were not able to use by the player.
Overall this mod offers a fluid and entertaining gameplay experience, the maps are quite cool and original, and it has the ok amount of combat and puzzles, though I really never had a WOW moment this mod is pretty nice to have some medium length HL1 fun.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
Everything has been said about this high enjoyable mod except one thing out of context I thing most of us suffer by the quite warn winter we are getting and playing in the snow with the sound of the footprint was quite great for me it sounds really refreshing 🙂
thanks for posting this one
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 5 Minutes
A nice setting, some solid new art and effects changes but the level design and general game play left me wanting.
To tackle the first point – The level design is extremely linear and only ever gives you the illusion of choice. Even in areas that have a circular layout to facilitate some interesting engagements with the Hgrunts end up playing the same each time due to the fact that they spot the player as soon you enter the area. There is no option to creep around and start the fight on your terms.
To further compound the issue, a lot of areas feel like they should have explorable vertical spaces or hidden areas that you can jump to but they simply do not in 90% of cases. There are a few hidden ledges (Crossbow etc) but for the most part I was spotting many areas that would have made great exploration and jumping rewards that simply weren’t there.
Now on to the second point – This one probably won’t be an issue with die hard Goldsrc modders/players but I found the game play to be very standard and “safe”. Enemies were very predictable and I never really found myself in a situation where I didn’t feel 100% in control at all times. There were no areas of the maps that really got my blood pumping or got me excited.
With that said, the new arctic art work is very cool! The reskinned weapons for the most part are cool, although I wasn’t a fan of the 20 mag in the new assault rifle. I liked the arctic attire on the Hgrunts and the slaves blue lightning! The map art work was generally very clean and lighting in most areas was moody and appropriate. There are some nice touches like the signal flares and chem lights laying on the ground that help the sense of place very well.
Manually
Medium
50 Minutes
I love this mod so much i decided to do a HD pack. This was made as another part of my “remod” projects but decided against making a new mod page on ModDB as it was too small/insignificant for it.
Anyway, here it is.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/arctic-incident/addons/arctic-incident-remod
It’s not exactly the HD mod from the news that RTSL was talking about (that to be honest i have disagreements with), but it should fill in the blanks till its release.
Some screenshots in case of doubting if its any good :
http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/HUDHealthBatteryIcon_zpsuoejocbw.jpg
http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/SnowyHEV_zpszl0nb5ae.jpg
http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/AIWeapons_zpsmubagtou.jpg
http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/Monsters_zpsrdc8v8hk.jpg
http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/Rest_zpsmriotjut.jpg
Though unfortunately, some changes had to be made to the originals for sense, or you know, my preferences reasons.
I apologize if it didn’t fit with your preferences.
– The creatures were said to come from deep inside the snow (hence the very ice-y skins and color behavior changes), this makes the AGrunt’s very metallic looking armor kinda out of place.
I thought of rigging ice crystals to them, but in practice, it was a straight out disaster (stretching/merging in animations).
The inconsistency is removed, at the cost of making AGrunts easier to battle, though i hope that is of little problem.
– I tried my best to stray far away from Xen creatures, unfortunately, lack of resources rendered me to simply using reskins and just one actual custom model.
– I made the taclight box texture from scratch, it’s my first time ever doing actual texturing so pardon the horribleness.
I did fix the odd problem of the model mixing with the ground though (forgot the name, z- something i think?), hopefully that’ll do just fine.
– I couldn’t fix the HGrunt’s problem of merging with the osprey chairs so i had to improvise, sorry if it looks atrocious.
Just an update.
The addon page for Arctic Incident : Remod seems to have refused to accept updates for some reason, so if anyone wants the latest version of the pack, here’s the new link.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/w2afsd7qddx4x48/AIHD.7z
Also, i’ve heard reports of crashes in the arctica map for some people, right after the introduction sequence.
For some reason, HL sometimes crash when it finds models that it doesn’t particularly like.
The Poltergeist replacement for the controller can be one of them.
Some people don’t crash with them, hence why i haven’t replaced them in the main link, but if you do, here’s an alternate model.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/oo6tz77mk389x54/AIAlternateController.rar
Installation is the same, just extract and overwrite, simple.
Hope it fixes things if it’s broken.
1.1 Changelog
———————-
– Replaced rifleshell.mdl to suit v_9mmar’s rifle shell better.
– Replaced v&w_9mmhandgun’s bullet texture to fit shell.mdl’s texture.
– Added simple detail texturing (needs “r_detailtextures 1”)
– Added HD Gibs models to all things that can be gibbed (hopefully, haven’t checked everywhere).
– Replaced original Remod v_crossbow to a more nicer one.
– Changed menu colors to fit various environment (sorry if it feels odd).
– Changed chemlight_pack so that it doesn’t merge with the ground.
– Finally replaced that controller sounds.
– Replaced Crystalcrab’s sounds.
– Replaced weapon sprites to ones similar to EoD’s weapon pack.
– Replaced Sentry.mdl to a better one.
– Made w_rpgammo mesh smaller (it was BLOODY HUGE!).
– Replaced w_security (keycard).
– Replaced the flashlight HUD.
– Found a new explosion sprite to replace the old one.
– Replaced muzzleflashes for all weapons, even the mounted ones.
– A couple of door sounds replaced.
– Button sounds replaced.
– Debris sounds replaced.
That is all.
I really liked this mod. Not only because of the new content and models, but also because of the well made level architecture, making it look amazing! Even if I, under certain situations would take a few hits in a rain of bees and bullets whilst going toe-to-toe against both human and alien grunts, there would still be health and armour placed out pretty much whenever I needed them.
Basically, this is a fine piece of work!
Manually
Medium
50 Minutes
Arctic Incident is one of the best Half-Life mods that I have played in a long time, if you want more Half-Life action this is it, it has some great Map Design with a good amount of hidden areas and very intuitive to navigate, the guns are pretty fun to use and the overall visual of the mod is pretty great with the new models.
The mod is pretty great and it’s clear that a lot of dedication was put into it.
Looking forward for more stuff like this from the creator.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
Short and sweet mod. The enemy retextures are very well done, the environments are beautiful and I love the weapon retextures/changes… Very well balanced for hard difficulty. Only gripe I have is the ending was a bit anti-climatic. But this is classic Half Life gameplay, through and through with some gorgeous vistas to peer at along the way. 5/5!
Manually
Hard
40 Minutes
Interesting and short challenge with an ice-oriented theme, generic enemies changed into their “frozen” brothers, it was fun and well-made.
Manually
Medium
2 Hours
This is what Half-Life mods should be more like.
The most interesting thing about this mod is the setting, unique and original, yet with the same tone as the original. Everything has that white tone, this really brings out the setting a lot.
The gameplay. This is what made this mod so popular, the thing that this mod does so well is that it feels just like the original Half-Life, while also being new and unique, the gameplay is spot on and the enemies do not feel easy to beat or too hard. The way the scenes are constructed, how it all feels like a real life arctic research facility, I wish there was more original mods like this.
Manually
Medium
2 Hours
Yes, this was an experience that I was looking for! It’s probably one of my favorite Half-Life mods around.
Combat is good. Level Design is really nice. And the snowy setting is different enough to make it feel different from the main game.
I can’t really say anything bad about this game. Just install it already! It will definitely be worth your time.
Manually
Medium
2 Hours
Why this mod is one of my personal favorites:
Atmosphere/Setting:
Typically Half-life mods are set in an underground research facility or in space/xen. This, obviously, gets bland after awhile and thus it’s nice to play a mod that has a more unique setting. As one can infer from the title, Arctic Incident takes place in the Arctic and it does a very good job of this. What I mean by this is that the mod creators obviously put a lot of time and effort into making the mod designed arctic rather than just Half-life, but in the arctic. They changed not only all the models to fit the aesthetic (including the H.E.V. and medical stations, giving them a sleek new look), but also added a bunch of new sound assets. The sound you make walking through the snow is particularly appealing and the cold wind sounds like it is actually blowing outside of the facility.
Gameplay improvements/changes:
Arctic Incident has 4 weapons which you can acquire: a pistol, an FAL, grenades, and an ice pick. While this might seem like a small arsenal, in actuality I feel that it is the perfect size for a mod of this length as it doesn’t flood the player with new weapons. Furthermore, each gun is a lot more than a re-skin. The pistol’s left trigger remains a semi-automatic fire, but the right trigger has been replaced with a burst fire mode. It also appears that the pistol damage has been buffed (most likely because it is the only other ranged weapon besides the FAL). The FAL, while one may assume it to be a re-skin of the SMG from Half-life, is actually very different. The first noticeable difference is that the FAL lacks a grenade launcher (which is a smart move since it forces the player to use the grenades). The second major difference is that the FAL is more accurate than the SMG. And the third and most important difference is that the FAL and pistol do NOT share the same ammunition type (thus incentivizing the player to use the FAL despite it being slightly less accurate than the pistol). All these changes make for better firefights with the enemies.
Level design:
Level design in this mod is really great. There are no awkward angles at which you’re engaging the enemy and there is never a lack or over abundance of challenge. There is key-hunting (like doom) which, while fun and not over-used, can become problematic because the texture for the key doesn’t stand out from the rest of the facility (I was searching one room for about 3 minutes looking for a key-card at one point). The mod also does a wonderful job of giving the player enough freedom so that they don’t feel like they’re walking through a corridor the whole time but also not so directionless that the player cannot find out where they should be going. It is in this way that I feel the mod manages to strike a balance that is rare to find in non-professionally made mods/games.
Conclusion:
I really didn’t have to write this review. There are so many other great reviews on this mod that cover what I go over. However, I enjoyed this mod so much that I felt obligated to write this review. The excellent level pacing and designed coupled with the care that went into refining the gameplay and aesthetic of the mod makes for a great experience. You should have stopped reading this review by now and started downloading the mod.
Manually
Medium
45 Minutes
Great mod
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
Arctic Incident is one of my favorite half-life 1 mods, if you’re a fan of the base game then you should check this out, it feels like a half-life game, sometimes even better than half-life 1, I will warn you that this mod doesn’t add much to gameplay, it plays just like half-life with no real new gameplay element, Make sure you play with headphones, the sound in this mod is amazing, all and all I feel this mod is great for anyone wanting to play something like half-life 1.
Manually
Medium
35 Minutes
I’ve got to admit, I played it just because the recent stream reminded me of it’s existence. I like the reskins for enemies and weapons, but what really stands out in this mod for me is the environment, I gotta say, I love snowy environments in FPS games. The only things I’d complain about are the lack of story and the mod lenght, but other than that it’s really good imo.
If I had to nitpick on anything, it’d be the keycards, I don’t really like searching for them :p
Manually
Medium
40 Minutes
Well, I tried # 1 – it worked…# 2 worked OK 2…# 3 did not.
whazzup?
good
Manually
Hard
1 Hour
Great atmosphere, every little thing on this mod is coherent with each other.
Xen enemies are white and grunts have a different model wearing snow camo, even the crowbar is snow themed.
Manually
Medium
50 Minutes
Great atmosphere, every little thing on this mod is coherent with each other.
Xen enemies are white and grunts have a different model wearing snow camo, even the crowbar is snow themed.
Not the mention the great mapping, definetely a must play.
Manually
Medium
50 Minutes
This is one of the best mods I’ve played in a long time to be honest. The only notch against it I can say is that is short, and even then, I can’t really say it weakens it. It ends in a natural way.
Other than that, the setting is original, the scripted sequences are fun, the re-textures and custom models and weapons are outstanding. It’s just overall a fun experience.
Definitely take the time to download this and play it. It is absolutely worth it!
Manually
Easy
1 Hour
This has to be one of my most favorite mods. Despite it being pretty short, I feel that the combat, pacing, and distribution of ammunition and meds is very good. You feel challenged, but never as though you’ll die as soon as you round a corner. This is all on medium, of course, but I’m guessing it’s about the same on hard. If you’re thinking of playing this, I would definitely recommend it.
Manually
Medium
50 Minutes
Review: My god is it awesome, the only problem is you get the crowbar (pickaxe) way too late but never the less it was enjoyable the ending was AMAZING and the song you picked was fitting for the ending.
Overall: Very good mod, highly recommended and best off all this is a personal favourite.
Manually
Easy
30 Minutes
Mod is constantly keeping you on your toes, conserving ammo for harder enemies can be tricky since there is limited ammo throughout the game, especially for the grunt soldiers. The enemies are kinda impressive, the abominable snow vortiguants ascending out of the snow like on an elevator is pretty badass. The abominable snow gargantuan at the end is totally badass teamed up with the big flying ballsack looking flying alien controllers.
PROS:
This game is a hit or miss, but I rate it at “Play this mofo sh!t right now!” 5 STARS
CONS:
The snow grunts are absolutely relentless! I waste all of my ammo trying to kill them, only to run out of ammo halfway through, and they kill me almost right away! Conserve ammo and use that pickaxe often!
Manually
Hard
1 Hour
Arctic Incident excels across the board: it looks good, it’s immersive, the mapping is well designed, and it’s fun.
The mod gives very little story outside of the opening cutscene, all you need to know is that it’s like Black Mesa but on a base in the Arctic. My favourite thing about this mod is the immersion and atmosphere, from start to finish you believe you’re alone in a base in the Arctic, and this is achieved by an excellent use of sound, a good use and colour of textures, and small details in the environment. A lot of the sound in this are machine drones and a howling wind but it works very well. A lot of the textures are actually just modified Half-Life ones to accommodate the new setting, this is done by adding snow and decolourising them so that they’re mostly white, grey, pale blue and black. The Xen aliens also use this colour scheme and the grunts have snow camo on.
This mod has new weapons that are similar to their Half-Life equivalents. The crowbar is replaced with an ice axe, it appears to be the same but slower but it does reinforce the idea you’re in the Arctic. The pistol has the same primary but now fires in a 2-shot burst for a secondary, it has a custom model and sound too which makes it nice to use. The rifle appears to be a straight downgrade from the mp5, it fires slower and has less than half the capacity, ammo is plentiful fortunately but where possible I preferred to use the pistol. Grenades are the same but now pickups only give you one.
There’s not a wide variety of weapons in the mods, this probably doesn’t appeal to most people but I actually kind of like it, the mod was designed around the limited use of weapons and the combat always manages to be fun. I much prefer when a mod is made around the weapons provided rather than mappers including all the HL weapons out of obligation, it provides a far more fun experience. The combat is extremely easy, I don’t remember having any trouble at all at any point. This mod should probably be played on hard.
The maps look good and they’re well designed, I particularly like the interiors of the base and the caves. There’s good attention to detail, such as glass from a smashed window covering the floor, plenty of bodies of your buddies lying around to prove that the base has been successfully occupied by the aliens. I did find this to be rather linear – not that it’s a bad thing – the mapper tries to use the illusion of choice and succeeds in several areas, however I don’t think he went far enough. I don’t have an issue with it though, I’m nitpicking, it’s just an area that could be improved upon.
I have no hesitation recommending Arctic Incident, definitely one of the better mods I’ve played for Half-Life and a must-play.
Manually
Medium
37 Minutes
Super nice mod! The snowing map is very beautiful. I like the white color of the enemies and the re-design of the weapons. The combats and small puzzles are not too hard and exciting. Nice mod!
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
Very awesome mod. Some new weapons and a new theme. This mod looks like it could have been an expansion pack for Half Life.
The levels are well-designed and had some difficult moments. My advice: Play it now.
This was great! play it!
I have a thing for “partial-conversions” – this is an arctic incident, so it follows that the aliens are blueish and have a frozen aura, and that your melee weapon is an ice axe. Play this on a hot summer day!
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 5 Minutes
This is my 2ed favourite Half-life 1 mod!
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 12 Minutes
What a great adventure.
Everything is Artic themed from aliens to grunts. Loved the crunching snow sound as I walked/ran.
A few places the puzzles were a bit challenging. Or the combat seemed a bit harder with enemys coming from both directions. But with some game play skill I was victorious.
If the team that put this together is still around. A great follow up might be returning and going deep underground to the frozen lost city of the artic aliens. Something like in HL when we got to Xen and moved through the different areas. Possibly to retrieve something for Black Masa.
I almost gave it personal favorite. A bit longer and I’d say yes.
Manually
Medium
3 Hours
I remember playing is a awhile ago and really liking
Nice and short mod, no something special in weapon just redesigns and this redesigns made good, level design not best but nice.There nothing special to say about it but its made good.
Manually
Medium
40 Minutes
The custom weapons are great and it’s one of the most balanced mods in terms of combat.
Manually
Hard
45 Minutes
It was too short and linear for my taste, but stunning atmosphere and level design of this mod compensates for everything! New weapons and enemies aren’t really that interesting by themselves, but they go really well with the rest of the game. Try this, you’ll definitely get an experience!
Manually
Hard
1 Hour
Artic Incident is… surprising
It is incredible what can be done with personalized textures and how good weapons can sound for this reason… God, listening to weapons is a delight to the sound device called the ear.
The enemies are quite well placed, as is the ammunition, and the truth is that it is appreciated.
The mod really surprised me, I loved it and I wish there were more like it
Manually
Medium
2 Hours