Introduction
Azure Sheep is a single player mod for Half-Life. You play one of the security guards that is on duty in one of the entrances of the Black Mesa facility. When the chaos starts you realise that Kate, your colleague, code name Azure Sheep, is in the complex and in big danger. You decide to rescue her!
The Story
Barney is a security guard, well Barney at the moment is just Barney, or, well, Just Barney, because with all the recent mess at Black Mesa he can’t remember his name. Just Barney didn’t want to be a security guard but, you know life.
However, he had a secret dream, he was writing a novel and…but well that is another story. Barney has another dream: to become a hero and rescue a princess, nothing more. Now, when the big mess occurred, he was in the first security post of Black Mesa and a colleague of him, Kate, (codename Azure Sheep) seems to be trapped in. Barney will go and try to rescue her, what an occasion…
This was July 2016’s Classic of the Month mod.
- 51 maps
- A new training course: see the home of Barneys
- Girls! In Black Mesa
- Amazing storyline
- New gameplay: you have to rescue your girlfriend Kate
- Be back in the old Black Mesa areas and play them from a different point of view
- See a lot of new areas you have never seen
- Girls! In Black Mesa
- Meet Gordon and Adrian and interact with them
- New Weapons and one Healing-tool
- New Enemies
- New Allies with brand new voices
- New models, new animations for the old ones.
- New Sounds
- New Graphics
- Title: Azure Sheep
- File Name: hl1-sp-azure-sheep.7z
- Original File Name: azure-sheep.exe
- Size : 26.78MB
- Author: The Azure Sheep Team
- Date Released: 31 August 2001
Main mod installer:
Download mod to your HDD [26.8MB]
Steam Patch installer:
Download patch to your HDD [1.2MB]
- Extract the azuresheep folder either to your \SteamApps\[username]\half-life or \SteamApps\common\half-life folder (whichever is relevant to your particular Steam installation).
- Extract and run the asheepsteam.exe updater and locate either your \SteamApps\[username]\half-life\azuresheep or \SteamApps\common\half-life\azuresheep folder when prompted.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Half-Life: Azure Sheep should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
The playthrough below is part of the Classic of the Month Event, run by Don AKA Unq.
Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010
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17,289Overall
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6Today
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26Last 7 days
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118Last 30 days
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1,476365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 21 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 4 Hours, 57 Mins
Shortest: 2 Hours, 30 Mins by WisePerson
Longest: 10 Hours by Zekiran
Total Time Played: 103 Hours, 53 Mins
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
my only complaint is that towards the end there is an elevator to bring Kate up to the top to escape.
Unfortantly she blows up before she can get off. If she doesn’t blow up, I end up detonating. There’s something wrong with the game or maybe its my computer but sometimes elevators kill the player. This final part of the game, however, the elevator kills Kate. While you can get to the end of the game still you can’t actually beat it with Kate splattered all over the walls :-/
i beat it fine…
I never got the problem with Kate on that lift.
This mod is one of my all-time favorites, and makes a set with Point of View (the stories meet at several points). I just replayed it. Play this one, then POV immediately afterwards. Or alternate playing both.
this is the best mod I have ever seen
I agree.
also can you get this link to go straite to the download because I can not get it on there home page so if you can that will be graet because when had to get somthing for my computer it all messt up on me and I whant to play this best mod ever thanks mate.
I’ve added a direct link for both the main file and the Steam Patch. If you require the language files then you will have to visit their site.
thanks mate
can you tell me where I can get the new New high definition models for world items, weapons and monsters from if that is not a problem please.
i have got a site where you can get the updated hl models
http://ambientimpact.hl-improvement.com/downloads_player.htm
copy it if you want you can also have a look
it also has the Azure Sheep people update too it is cool have a look phil
its under Romka’s Models it will be a .rar
file but just cange into a .mdl
can you tell me the 2 new mods phil please
You guys should definetly see what i’ve done with my Half-Life & AZ-SH
They are so beautiful sound a graphic wise!!!!
I don’t understand you question Wart.
This is the Blue Shift that wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I loved HL:Blue Shift, especially with the Hi-Def pack, which made the small price even better. Back to the mod. You star as one of the Barney guards that is on post at one of the entrances of the Black Mesa facility. When the chaos starts, you remember that Kate, your collegue, is in the complex and in big danger. So, being the manly man, you decide to go rescue her. You’ll tour new parts of Black Mesa, see Gordon and his sweet ride, and above all, have fun playing the mod.
The new content that is included is nice. New voice acting, models and a good story all add up to a good mod. The only problem I had was that I felt it could’ve been shorter, and that constantly keeping Kate out of trouble proved to be a small nuisance. But alas, thats just me. Another problem, some of the download links don’t work at the site, but thats ok, because FilePlanet has it! You just might have to wait in line! Woo-hoo!
Good: Nicely made; good new content; story is great
Bad: I thought it dragged on a bit; must keep Kate alive
Rating: 5/5
sorry which one and I will tell you
On level “where r u Kate?.” has any one had a problem with the door not opening at the bottom of all those flights of stairs just after the turrets in the medium security labs im pretty sure its not in the game and I cant get the console up to use noclip either. it makes an opening sound but stays firmly shut and just keeps grinding away as if its jammed or something
usually means you’v left a corpse on the other side of the door earlier, either backtrack if possible & destroy it, or try grenades against the door at floor level sometimes works.
I have the same problem wiyh the door. Don´t know what to do.
In refference to #1 post I have the same problem with Kate on the elevator! She askes you if your sure this is the right way?? There is no other way out! Is there a fix or what???? Is this the end of the game?? Help!!!!!!!
It is not the end of the game.
You will know the end without mistake when you see it 🙂
As for that particular problem, I played the mod twice, but cannot remember a problem there.
On the other hand, there are several locations where Barney has to be separated from Kate for a while, to find open a path which she can take.
Just use “sv_gravity” to make Kate walk off the elevator.
just finished the mod. wow, what a great game. I hope the developers make some more.
i shure was glad to have kate, you know I did need her help. hehe.
En el capitulo “Let’s Get Out of Here: ” te puedes olvidar a kate atras y tras saltar encima del ventilador no podras vovler a por ella y quedas atrapado… grrrrr EN EL PENULTIMO CAPITULO Y TE QUEDAS JODIDO.
Translation of comment #29:
In the Level called “Let’s Get Out of Here” it’s possible to leave Kate behind and after jumping over the fan you won’t be able to go back for her and you get stuck. Grrrr In the penultimate level and you are f**ked.
I have a problem with the final area. I’ve killed all of the enemies and shot down both helicopters, but it still says “kill all enemies” next to the truck. I’ve tried bringing Kate with me, not bringing her with me, going back and killing the enemies from earlier areas, blowing up their bodies, and a lot more. I even made sure to count, while killing them, that I killed all 12 soldiers and the 2 helicopters. But it always says “kill all enemies” when I try to enter the truck. What am I doing wrong?
I just went through that part to refresh my memory and I only counted 11 but maybe one vanished.Did you kill the dude on the roof just before you enter the bombed out building where the choppers show up?
This is my favourite level of all time of all games. I wish I could remember it in more detail.
You Steam folder must be HUGE andyb! You seem to have all the maps and mods permanently installed.
I have a couple of mods installed.Steam folder is about 55 gig now since I cleaned out a bunch of stupid type mods that have no play value
Call me stupid, but I don’t get it installed.
I have HL1 source, downloaded from steam, and perhaps the installation-folder is the secret?
I tried to install it to…
“h:\valve\steam\steamapps\ragnar_gf\half-life source”, and the files appear in…
“h:\valve\steam\steamapps\ragnar_gf\half-life source\asheep\*.*”
But: No icon, nothing. Stupid me?
No need, it’s not stupidity just a simple misunderstanding.
This mod was made for Half-Life not Half-life Source. The same is true for all mods unless specifically noted.
Come to think of it I don’t think I have ever seen a mod that works with HL: Source
Take the files out of *.* and put them in the asheep folder and restart steam.I cant say this would work but it cant hurt to try.
andyb: lol – I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt, for sure, so far you’re right, and thank you… 🙂
planetphilip: Thank you for enlightening me! 🙂
This is going to go against what everybody else has been saying, but in my eyes, this mod never quite lived up to Point of View. The mod’s lead level designer, DAV, has a very distinctive style that involves lots of cramped, labrynthine areas that get repetitive fairly quickly. I think the main reason I didn’t like this mod as much was the gameplay mechanic that involved leading Kate around. I’ve always preferred to go it alone.
The voice acting is well above the standard set by other mods, which is clearly something to be thankful for. In addition, a new assault rifle and handgun are attained in a small Xen “breather” area (which is very well-designed, coincidentally). These are two of the most bitchin weapons I have ever played around with. Finally, I appreciate the way in which the storyline of this mod overlaps with that of Point of View in many places.
Overall, I thought this was a good mod, but the earth didn’t move for me when I played it like it did for POV.
Hmmm. Not too far into the mod I met up with a female Barney. She kept getting herself shot so I figured the game must be meant to play that way. Was that Kate?
If so, oops, since I’ve gone on a few levels since then.
Btw, I’m not finding Azure Sheep all that interesting. A lot of corridor, then a minor firefight, then a lot more corridor. It’s just not that interesting.
I’ve played several more levels since my previous comment and I’m finding Azure Sheep very disappointing. The AI for “fellow travellers” in HL was never very good, but since everyone but you was dispensible, it really didn’t matter. Here, having to keep Kate alive, “never very good” becomes “really very awful.” Trying to extend friendly AI to a full-length mod is the error here. It’s like deciding that you want to compete as a drag racer and therefore you’re going to soup up your… Ford Pinto! It’s just not going to work out well.
My favorite mod of all time. HUGE GAME will keep you busy for hours or even days. Tons of new extras. Amazing story that ties in with the original Half-life throughout levels. (My favorite was going through the areas seen by Gordon during the tram ride. Level design was great in almost all, but WHAT I HATED THE MOST WAS THE REPEATED LOCKED DOORS. There would be a hallway boring as hell besides around 10 doors that all made the latch lock sound. Otherwise amazing mod.
OH REALLY
I can’t get it installed for some reason. I installed it in the steam/steamapps/bloodroke/half-life folder, and installed the steam patch there, but it won’t appear in steam, and I have no clue why. Can anyone help me out?
You’ve restarted steam, right ? And you got hl installed ?(maybe dumb question, but you never know)
If so, try enter steam/steamapps/bloodroke/half-life and look if the Azure Sheep folder really is there. I think the folder is called asheep or something.
Hope I helped.
Experienced the same problem like Ben and others
here: Kate was killed by the elevator – everytime I tried.
There was also a door that did not open but noclip was helpful. I played the HQ Version of this mod with NoSteam HL1 ver. 1110.
I remember years ago I played this mod with no
problems. Probably its the HQ-Version or updatet
DLL-Files in HL that leads to this bugs.
Back then in 2001 Azure Sheep impressed me more than now on a replay. Sure,this mod provides plenty of maps and long playtime. It shows some good ideas and interesting locations but I share the opinion with geekofalltrades about all those cramped, labrynthine areas that get repetitive fairly quickly.
Also tends the mapper to overstretch textures which results in very blurry images in some places. The gameplay is okay and the difficulty in “normal” is soft with plenty of health and ammo avail.
Compared to the actual standart in HL-Mapping this mod lacks detail and a lively appeal. Its more old-fashioned mapped.
However Azure Sheep entertains and is recommended for beginners.
There are two problems here. One of which I have addressed in the Hi-Def post. First, the door that won’t open. Grab your pool cue and whack the floor just in front of the bottom right corner until you see a blood splash. One to six hits clear the door and it slides open. Second, don’t worry about leaving Kate behind at the fan. You will come across her again, waiting, later.
Back again. What’s happened to the Hi Def post?! Proof of Freeman has disappeared as well. Anyway, I really enjoyed this. Kate is great company to have along. “Oh yes, Barney” and the “Gordon” threading is a nice addition that works here. Forget all the Doom3 and now BioShock players. Go retro! This is a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable mod with few faults of any significance. Look out for other mods by DAV. Download, play, enjoy.
And, I forgot to mention, Pulse Rifles! This mod has got Pulse Rifles! From Aliens! With sound effects and everything! What more do you need to know.
i have a problem and it says the first level is missing can u help me out plz 🙂
This mod was ok, there were som cool parts but you ruind Gordon and Adrian by giving them rely g*y voices
PS Hi Barn
Just replayed this one. The mod has many good points and very few bad, but the main thing is the great graphic design in the later levels. Thoroughly enjoyable to look at and play.
storyline is cool
but, madness level design and overflow weapon and stupid(or hate) kate isn’t good
a few huge mod, I think,
if u ‘real” HL1 singleplayer, must play this!
good : new npc, weapon, cool story
bad : simple and random (way) level design
unknown npc (pink slave, another force)
and
Kate’s stupid Ai
but, it’s all good (or cool) experience
(10/6)
This is a top quality game with a good story line and well stage combat encounters, coupled with a good balance of gameplay the mod flows without bugs but maybe a bit weak on puzzles.
The original story was like this:
Barney is a security guard, well Barney at the moment is just Barney, or, well, Just Barney, because with all the recent mess at Black Mesa he can’t remember his name 😉 . Just Barney didn’t want to be a security guard but, you know life. However, he had a secret dream, he was writing a novel and…but well that is another story. Barney has another dream: to become a hero and rescue a princess, nothing more. Now, when the big mess occurred, he was in the first security post of Black Mesa and a colleague of him, Kate, (codename Azure Sheep) seems to be trapped in. Barney will go and try to rescue her, what an occasion…
The point being..? You wrote exactly what The Story (after Introduction) says. Well, with an extra smiley.
Really good mod for Half-Life! I met Gordon Freeman…really cool^^! Better than Blue Shift!
GREAT MOD, worth Playing and Better than Blue shift. Blueshift has some nicer graphics but the gameplay is SHORT very SHORT, this mod adds more to the game and MORE of the BLACK MESA complex!
Plus there is an Elite team that may be under the control of the G Man that fights these ET problems. 😉
What I did WAS open up his Pak files and Replace the old Models with the NEW ones from Blueshift, The only ones I couldnt replace were the Female mdoels which are better detail than the original Barney but not as good as the HI Def back barneys. I wanted to replace wiith Otis model, but no go. But Changing the Models put it VERY close to Blue Shift quality now.
I recommend this mod and I recommend adding the Blue shift HiDef pack so you can enjoy this mod with better human models.
Did you tried Super Definition Azure Sheep- Half-Life also on this site
here is the download link http://files.filefront.com/Super+Definition+Azure+Sheep/;3851269;/fileinfo.html
The models with this pack are great even better than with Blue Shift HIDef pack
I like this mod, Really good story and weapons. I liked this more than blue shift.
Great game.This really is better then Blue Shift. It played flawless and it was very professional looking all the way through it. The story was good and you have a really nice looking female companion named Kate to gp through most of the game with you. She’s a decent fighter and easy on the eyes. More games should add women to them. Makes it interesting having someone to look out for.She does get in the way at times but I was happy to have her along most the time, She’s a good shot. This gane is only 45 mb long but seems much longer. It took me quite a while to finish. I had to resort to the walkthrough a few times and had to add some extra wepons at times but other then that it was just right. Good job and I would say this is in the top 5 of all HL games. It’s right below Poke 646 and Someplace Else. It’s really good!
this is a small problem, but the target sights on my machine gun is a very pale blue. In a fire fight or light area, it can’t be seen and it’s hard to aim, so I am dying more often than I’d like. Any cheat to brighten up the target sights?
Carolyn
You should be able to revert to the original HL crosshairs by opening the asheep/pak0.pak file with a program like PakExplorer and deleting the /sprites/crosshairs.spr file, or you could replace it with the same file from some other mod or from a site like this one.
Hi Gilfrarry..wow! Thanks a million. This is why I love this game…such great talent applied to having fun..did it and it worked!
I recall playing this mod shortly after its release. I greatly enjoyed it, even the sections when you had to escort an AI companion around! The combat sequences were well-constructed, although I also recall that many of the hallways and tunnels seemed purposeless and redundant. Still, the bottom line is that this is a well-constructed and fun mod to play!
The Following review first appeared on Hangar16.com and is reproduced here with the author’s permission. For more information about the re-publication of Hangar16’s reviews, please see this Forum thread.
Reviewer: SilverSorrow
Note: I didn’t beta-test this mod, though El Jefe DarkWolf did; also, his co-Jefe JennWolf is the voice of Barniel. I had nothing to do with the development of this mod (although I did play the pre-release beta for previewing purposes… thanks to Starfox for doing the Preview, thus leaving me space and time to fret over how I’m going to add actual content to this review), so in essence, my opinions are based on my own experiences playing through the final version for the first time. I have not been influenced by others, nor the huge amounts of cash transferred into my Swiss bank account. Thank you, and see you in Maui.**
[** Put your own “lei” joke here. Also, this has nothing to do with it, but if a hula dancer’s every movement tells a story, imagine what she’s saying if she flips you off. It can’t be very nice.]
Abstract:
Richard Jeni theorized that women, because of various strange female behaviorisms, came from a different planet. I now know what planet that was: Mercury. Because how can a person born on Earth sit in a hot room and still insist that she’s freezing? Not only have they come with the cure for baldness***, they’ve also come in search of moisture, as he has claimed… which explains their origins. Mercury has a serious lack of moisture, that’s a given. So they come to this blue-green ball and interact with the only life-form present, Adam. Now, Adam’s just minding his own business, naming animals, getting an all-over tan, etc., when here comes this spacecraft crammed with a bevy of disingenuous beauties. Now, this is all new to him… he’s thinking, “Uh… heh… WOW!” And they elected one of their own, Eve 9783-73-7KE, to do the horizontal Macarena with the poor sap. Their plan: “We can mate with this man, and the male children will be our slaves!” It took some doing, since Adam was indeed a bit smarter than we are today. But Eve 9783-73-7KE made him a nice fruit pie with ingredients she found in a tree (the “Tree of Realizing You’re Naked And Covered With Unsightly Hair And Pimples, In Addition To Knowledge, Whatever THAT Is“) with all kinds of “KEEP OUT!” signs around it. He didn’t realize it until he had the second helping, then his IQ dropped to today’s average, which is about 90, (with dips into the 60-range where the discussion of breasts is rampant), plus he realized that he was, in fact, naked.
[*** You’ve probably seen the Rogaine commercials where women are talking about losing their hair; it’s a blind, intended to throw us men off the trail of truth. Be not fooled by their lies and trickery!]
So, their stooge rendered stupid and clad in animal skins, Eve 9783-73-7KE mates the hell out of him, producing several zillion kids; the males of this union were married off to the alien women, and the girls were made privy to the secret. All went well, until one stupid kid killed his brother over corn futures, or something, and then wars and other stuff happened. However, women have stayed in the background, watching, waiting, pulling the strings and watching the puppet-men dance. This is where we stand today.
It’s just a theory, but you never know. Hey, I like ’em, anyway.
Basics:
R_speeds: Good; no real slowdowns that I experienced.
New Models/Skins/Etc.: It’s amazing how these things can get out of control, isn’t it? A definite yes.
Gameplay: Heh heh heh. Play it.
Story?
**** You… oops. Screwed it up again, didn’t I? No, you’re Barney B. Barney. Waitaminit… “Barney Barney Barney”?? That’s right. When you were a child, you were awful. Your mother would have to call you like this: Barney. Barney! BARNEY! And it just stuck.
[**** And you thought I wouldn’t get to use that gag twice. It makes no sense in this context, but the hell with it.]
Okay, okay. The truth: your name is Barney, and your last name really isn’t important. You’ve forgotten it anyway, what with all the shenanigans and goings-on since the “incident” happened. What *is* important, is that the object of your deepest desires (or whatever passes for deep desires in us males), Kate, code-named “Azure Sheep”, was trapped in Black Mesa when the Shiite hit the fan, and now you finally get to rescue someone instead of being Gordon “I Get A Hazard Suit And You Don’t Nyah Nyah Nyah” Freeman’s cannon fodder. And the trials will be worth it (I think)… Kate is hot!
Onward!
Where to start? At the beginning, of course! First off, “Go For A Walk” and get acquainted with who you are and what you’re doing. Don’t forget to stop by the arcade and take a look at the games. Heh heh heh. An interesting twist on the ho-hum Hazard Course. When that’s over with, go ahead and start a new game… it’s okay, it won’t bite you. As you gear up and finally reach your post, you’ll see an old acquaintance arrive for work (nice car, man), and then probably stand in one place and/or fill out some forms. This isn’t made clear, as the magic of “Meanwhile/Later” transports you to the time where things actually happen. This is very important… otherwise, you’d get bored and end up watching “Walker, Texas Ranger”*****, and we can’t have that, can we?
[***** From the theme song: “When you’re in Texas, look behind you / Because that’s where the Ranger’s gonna be.” Does anyone else find that frightening? Just what the hell is going on in Texas, anyway??]
So anyway, you’ll be wonderfully immersed in the Black Mesa snafu… albeit not at ground zero, but what does it matter when there are these stupid-looking things shooting green lightning at you? Abandon your post and start looking for Kate, Marine–er… whatever you are! Because Kate, I’d like to mention again, is hot. Now that your priorities are set, let’s find something to blast holes in those jerks. Well… for the moment, you’re going to have to rely on Ol” Betsy and Ol” Splinter, which is what you call your Glock and the pool cue you find, respectively. You also call your various body parts specific names as well. You’re very weird. However, once this is all said and done, you’d like to introduce Kate to Ol” Daniel, which is what you call your [CENSORED]. No, really, Ol” Daniel is your cat. He likes sitting in laps. One time while sitting in your lap, he got spooked and almost did some serious hurt to Ol” Mr. Johnson and the Juice Crew, which is *really* what you call your [CENSORED].******
[****** Many thanks to Scatterbrain for that one. We have passed beyond the bounds of a PG rating.]
But primal urges aside, it won’t be too long before you find Ol” Pumper, which is what you call your shotgun, and not your [CENSORED], thankfully. While you’re here, wandering around, you might as well resign yourself to becoming accustomed to being ambushed by Vorts. This will be a common theme in this mod, to the point where I was even hesitant to go to the bathroom for fear of being ambushed on the way. I must say that it became a little tiresome, but what the hell… it’s free, right? Right.
At first, you have just 100% health. The 15% of HEV juice is gone quickly (why it’s there in the first place is beyond me), so you will have to be very, VERY careful until you can get — yes, you will be able to wear one — an HEV suit, which is available roughly one-third of the way through. Or is it halfway through? Anyway, Barney wears a blue HEV, which is much more aesthetic than that stinking orange monstrosity. Let’s hope Valve tries something in HL2 that doesn’t make me feel like an armored pumpkin. The idea of Barney getting an HEV suit is patently brilliant… and until you get it, you cannot pick up batteries or use the HEV charger to augment your energy. So again, you’ll have to watch it until then. Health isn’t in any great abundance, but it isn’t completely absent, either. For my part, due to combats I stayed at about 50-60% health. I knew you could use the soda machines to get health, but I had no idea I’d be using them so much… anyway, it keeps you on your toes. After acquiring the HEV, I stayed very close to 100% health at all times, full charge. It might help to mention that I’m also very careful and save often. Too often, some might say, but I’ve since had them silenced. Their blood may call out from the ground to the Heavens for revenge, but God likes me more than He does them. So there.
This brings me to combat in general. You’ll be facing normal Grunts, aliens, Special Forces Grunts, more aliens, modified aliens (“but modified by whom?” is your question), and Apaches, who are finally pissed off enough to take to their helicopters and rain fire, rockets and the wrath of Great Spirit upon your minimum-wage ass. Or am I thinking of something else? Anyway, combats are fairly nasty to your well-being until you get your HEV, and then nothing hurts quite so much anymore. One minor complaint is that the weapon crosshairs sometimes get lost, and you really can’t afford to have that happen. At times you’ll be faced with a lot of Grunts, or a handful of aliens. Switching weapons takes a little longer than usual… I guess that’s realism, baby. It makes you think before you go charging in like a pit bull with diarrhea (such colorful similes, I know). And also, ambushed by Vorts. Repeatedly. Between these combats, you’ll be running along corridors.
The Corridor Crawl will be a familiar experience to those who have played DAV’s maps; big rooms connected by twisting corridors. Not that that’s a bad thing necessarily, but I was starting to get disoriented and dizzy by the time I had finished. Maybe it was just my sinuses. However, the maps are well-detailed and nicely appointed, with nice touches of realism — crates, barrels, corpses — to round out your entertainment value. The architecture here reflects the many aspects of Black Mesa quite well; in addition to finding new places to shoot things, you’ll also visit a couple of places that will seem familiar. You’ll also have the interesting opportunity to see the “old” Black Mesa complex. In a contemplative sense, if you put all of the various maps that depict Black Mesa together in a real-world simulation, I think we could cover North Dakota. Anyway, you should find plenty to see and do on your sight-seeing tour of Black Mesa.
And what things to see! The new models are excellent. Some are reskins of existing Valve or “Net-available models, but even those fit in quite well. Toadman’s work is top-notch — his toad weapon looks great; Sven Patrick’s re-texturing of Scarecrow’s “Aliens” M-41A (the original version is what I’ve been using for months now) is just beautiful… I may keep this for myself. In the second half of the mod, there’s a Beretta you can scavenge off a dead Special Forces Grunt (more on them later) in addition to the M-41A, and eventually you can grab an iron bar. More weapons are available in the second part than in the first, so persevere. Besides new weapons, there are a couple of new annoyances to your usual stolid equanimity — rats and Archer fish. These guys have taken a normally benign model and an unused one and turned them into real threats to your sanity, if not your health. The aforementioned toad can be either an ally or an enemy… be careful when you see one. Then there are the all-new Magenta Slaves, which are Vorts with red — or magenta, if you will — lightning attacks; the Panther — you’ll only face one, thankfully — is big, powerful and blessedly stupid.
[Side Note: Not that I’m the type of person who usually does this (uh-huh), but I clipped through the shower door (in their version of the Hazard Course) with the girl behind it. I was curious as to whether they would actually include a nude model in the pack (since such things are as common as a handshake now)… to my surprise… well, YOU clip through the shower, if you’re so ding-dang interested…]
As for the humans violently opposed to your continued existence, you’ll run into the standard Grunt, and then their evil counterparts, the Special Forces Grunts. Their camo is more ominous, and they’re better at making you hurt and bleed and cry. At one point, the Grunts will become your allies, in a way — you cannot “use” them to make them follow you — but you’re better off leaving them be…they’re busy enough killing the Special Forces guys and aliens as it is. This is the point where you’ll encounter an old friend from OpFor…and he’s “use”ful, too. Don’t let him die (until after he’s helped you)! And speaking of old friends, isn’t that Gordon? Yes, it is! Hey, Gordon! Why does Gordon have an accent? And Adrian has one, too?? I knew it!! They both have a library of phrases, and hearing Gordon yell “Die, you…thing!” was an interesting phenomenon… oh, and don’t let him die, either. Your other allies are Barniel the female security guard, a construction worker named Gus, your co-Barneys of course, the ubiquitous scientists, and Kate. And, by the way, Kate is hot.
Kate, of course, is your object and your help. You cannot get out of this without her… which means you need to keep her alive. An interesting addition to your otherwise destructive arsenal is a health kit which you can use to monitor Kate’s health, and also to heal her should she need it. Following my usual method of stashing a vital friendly in a safe place — this is where DAV’s corridors are extremely useful — then clearing out the area, grabbing the AI and progressing (never leaving her more than a map behind, mind you!), I was able to keep her very healthy. Some people have experienced problems with Kate disappearing, etc., so I can only recommend that you leave her in a very safe place, then have her follow you before changing maps; sometimes a map changes just beyond a door she opens, which is perfectly fine. Clear out the map and then come back for her. In an audio sense, Kate’s voice is pleasant, mostly… meaning, I didn’t want to kill her when she opened her mouth to say something. In fact, when she asked me if I had seen “that… that thing with only one big eye”, I almost fell out of my chair, laughing.
So much for keeping this review PG.
Moving on… the sounds and voice acting. There are a lot of new sounds here… all very well done. Barniel, voiced by our very own JennWolf, is believable. What I mean to say is, she doesn’t affect a horribly arch British accent, rounding out her vowels and giving the impression that she’s only a security guard until she can marry rich nobility. I HATE that. So a voice with a familiar accent is welcome; not grating or annoying. Of course, I realize that she has the ear of my immediate superior, but that doesn’t make a whit of difference. Nope. Please don’t have me killed. I’ll reprise my comments on Gordon and Adrian’s accents: interesting. There. I never imagined Gordon to have an accent… but it fits, in some previously unthought-of way. I like it!
The Inevitable Comparison
So what’s left? I’ve tried to find a way around it, but I keep making comparisons between Azure Sheep and Blue Shift. So someone may ask: is Azure Sheep REALLY better than Blue Shift? My answer would have to be an unqualified “maybe”. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, with one edging out the other in one category, and the other winning another hands down; if taking the larger view, it’s unfair to measure an amateur mod by the work of industry professionals, but when taken piece by piece, one may have distinct advantages over the other. For instance, models: while BS stuck to the confines of the HL universe and produced very little that was new, AS has tons of new, interesting models.
Then there’s story: while Barney was performing just a marginal role in BS, AS was pushing in a new direction, with a brand new angle to the whole story. Certainly not canonical, but at least different. Going hand-in-hand with story are the maps: AS, in comparison, perhaps lacks the cohesiveness and tight mapping of BS and the Gearbox team; Gearbox, being closer to Valve in relations, may have a better idea of what Black Mesa looks like thematically. DAV doesn’t do a bad job in comparison, but it seemed as if a few maps were padding, in a way… the Corridor Crawl *is* a DAV trademark, after all (although, the way I put it sounds worse than it actually is!). However, a lot more of the familiar Black Mesa locations were revisited in AS, and a lot more effort was put into making the maps interesting to look at… for example, the “old” Black Mesa facility, and so on. So AS has the advantage here.
And what about the voice acting? While BS may have had professionals to do its new characters, its Dr. Rosenberg *still* reminded me of the filmstrip guy from World History in high school (“India might be a kind of archipelago — except that it *isn’t* — carrying much-needed Bubonic Plague to the interior.”); AS’s new voices on the other hand, sound real, in a basic way. I would try to describe that, but I’d fail miserably, or at least confuse myself further.
On an ambivalent note, combats are tougher than in BS, which was kind of like a sight-seeing tour on easy. To quote James Garner, “Well… that could be either good OR bad…“
A major issue with just about every single individual on this planet who played BS was its length: BS is infamously short, shorter even than some mods… it’s about as short as an evening with Herv Villechaize, to put it in a weird way. AS, to its advantage, is rather lengthy, and by extension provides more gameplay for the much cheaper price of free. (I’m still kind of mad about that $35 price tag.) All things considered, I’d say AS was the winner here. If BS was perhaps three times longer, they’d probably be about even in my estimation.
To return to the merits of AS, I’d have to say that I enjoyed playing it. The new characters, models, locations, etc. all made the download — and the wait — worthwhile.
Summary?
A great piece of work. Bravissimo to the Azure Sheep team! And did I mention that Kate was hot? She is. Saucy security wench… kicking me in the groin… it was great!
Rating? 5 out of 5.
Annoyance Rating: 4 out of 10. [various bugs happening to other people; a little difficult, even on “easy”; perhaps too many Vort ambushes]
This is probably one of the best HL mods out there. Some points were confusing, with multiple paths to the extent where either one will take you for a good five minutes before you realise whether it’s the right way or not. This was frustrating at point, particularly in the first few maps.
The mechanic of escorting people through black mesa was fresh and interesting, even though the NPCs were pretty useless and I just ended up telling them to wait while I cleared out all the enemies, then bringing them through, section at a time.
One little bug that did annoy me on the last level, was a poorly placed switch at the top of an elevator, which caused anyone who went up it without moving forward a bit first to instagib.
Overall, the map was fun, which is what really matters. I recommend it!
Excuse me… Gordon, but I’m rather disappointed now 🙁
What’s wrong guys?? I didn’t liked that mod as I was playing it a month ago,
it’s only running and running, kill 2 thingies, running running.. seeing most of the known HL areas and a lil bit more, sorry but that’s boring, also many bugs, like getting stuck (clipping)
The level design also is strange, some I liked very much and wished Valve would have included them into their original game, but then many are just boring and cheap :/
Sorry, this is no fun to me, so you really have to think twice imo!
Training Course :-
Only one word for the training course… SUPERB!!!
Training course mapping is seriously good and there is lot to explore. All those corridors can get you mighty confused. The training course if you explore it fully will take a half-hour of your time :D. It depicts a lot of realism.
Move around a bit and you’ll get your first glance of Kate and the ominous G-Man. There is a bug here – the G-Man clips a bit while walking through a door.
Also be sure to play the training course and explore it properly. It is an introduction to the first few maps of main gameplay.
Main Game :-
Mapping is really good with nice texturing and architecture. It is a bit monotonous though. Most of the areas in the first half of the map are old black mesa ones. Also the most repetitive part throughout the mapping is DAV’s winding corridors which really make my head spin around. Sometimes I feel whether sly old DAV just copies the winding corridors and pastes them into other maps with different textures X}. There is lot of backtracking which really irritates me >:(. Most of the alternate paths end up in dead ends where the player has no other option but to turn back. Also there is an inconsistency – since most Black Mesa sections are old ones, the area where the we first encounter Barney as the guy hammering at the door in Half-Life which is later shown again in Blue-Shift has been completely changed. Instead of the lobby with the security guard there is an enclave containing barrel drums and winding corridors. BTW, this is one of the “back-track” areas. Another map where we meet Freeman is also changed – there is no crack in the upper wall in the original HL. There is another area which we later on encounter in the game where an Osprey is sending down soldiers which we have to kill. Apparently it is there just for time-pass. If you skip this area, you’ll just miss a few health and battery packs and ammo. Further on, we find an area where the aliens are kept in cages. This is a nice area though there are lots of necessary doors here. There are nice intro and exit sequences. Both the intro and outro feel realistic.
Gameplay is good and fun. The combat feels tough without the HEV Suit but improves later on with the HEV Suit. Admit it – YOU NEED ONE! The Vortiguant ambushes are too frequent – so frequent in fact to the point of boredness. Whenever you see a long corridor, or an empty open area, be prepared for a vortigaunt ambush -.-!. It follows the HL style of going over an alternate route to complete a job enabling you to go through the ‘main” route like turning on power for the Rail Car Ride which has a nasty ending >:D. About Kate, Gordon, Adrian. Well shoving them around is a pain in the neck but nevertheless something new. Adrian and Gordon should be provided with at least the MP5/M16. About the Xen part of the gameplay, it is small and one of the maps just feature jumping around but the other map is better. We first get the M41A and Beretta there. It’s one of the nicest maps in the game. In the last part of gameplay, “The Last Step”, we have to shoot down 4 apaches. The RPG ammo provided is not enough for the Hard skill level. Had to use “impulse 101″. Regarding puzzles, there are no clever puzzles here. In fact not even simple puzzles. The G-Man here has been shown as the definite enemy. That’s fine with me though I prefer the G-Man as more of a neutral character albeit a slightly malicious one >:D.
There are nice innovations like female Security Officers, Blue HEV Suit for ole” Barney. It has a nice storyline. The new stuff like weapons, enemies just appear in the ending point of the MOD. Also the scientists and Gus have been given minimal roles. We don’t even require their use. But then they add to the realism. The Kate Healer is an ingenious add-on. The Panther is really cool but there is an easy trick to kill it without even facing it’s attack even once :D. I find the assassins more difficult than panther ;p. I’m really disappointed in the new guns. The models are nice but they aren’t something different, the feel just like the old ones. Even the new enemies are just older ones with different skins and with much harder strength and damage values. BTW, the poolstick must be really sturdy because we are able to kill thick-skinned zombies with it and break metal vents with it O_O.
There is a Super-Definition version of it too with really better player models and weapon models. My only problem here is the SD version suit is orange coloured instead of the original blue. Also in the exit sequence we can see the old models of Barnes and Kate instead of the newer ones even though the credits sequence just after the exit sequence have the SD models.
Summary :-
1] Pros :-
1. Nice storyline.
2. Cool new stuff.
3. Nice gameplay.
4. Good mapping.
5. Good cutscenes.
6. Some hilarious moments.
2] Cons :-
1. Repetitive mapping and combat.
2. Lots of backtracking.
3. Most of the new stuff is just edited old stuff.
Blue Shift Vs. Azure Sheep :-
It must have been the most discussed topic of the millennium back then XD.
If you have the money, Blue-Shift is definitely worth playing. Even though Azure Sheep has newer stuff, most of it is just a modification of older stuff.
Cost – AS is free whereas BS isn’t! Go for AS first and then BS if you wish and have the extra money! There is no arguing against free :D.
Mapping – BS, I feel, has definitely better mapping than AS but AS mapping is also really good. BS layout is better than AS though but that is only because the Gearbox Team is closely connected with the HL team and know the layout of Mesa and Xen better than the AS team who are newer to the job.
Gameplay – BS combat is harder than AS. BS has more intelligent puzzles with newer pre-HL2 super physics. AS is just walking around killing people and using human assets. I don’t remember even a simple puzzle here. Also AS has quite a lot of backtracking. But BS lacks a plot whereas AS has a nice plot. Both BS and AS lack the “final combat” that is combat with an ultimate alien superbeing.
New Stuff – BS has nothing new except a Blue HUD -.-. AS on the other hand is feature filled. SD version of AS has better models. Gearbox should have added something better than the HD pack for BS. BS should have been something like OpFor. BS was basically a rushed job and the Gearbox team had nearly stretched the engine to the limit of it’s capabilites though. But Gearbox consists of highly professional game artists whereas AS as made by new artists but it still outshines BS in many ways.
Size – AS is about twice the size of BS in terms of gameplay. You would end playing BS at the time where you find the HEV suit in AS. AS has about 9.30 Hrs. of gameplay for a 44 MB download. [72 MB for SD version.] BS, on the other hand has about 4 Hrs. of gameplay and it’s size is around 120 MB compressed. [Don’t remember exact size.]
In the end, each one has his own feelings about both the games. I would recommend all to play both. Personally, I like both equally and can’t make a proper choice.
Azure Sheep has elements from Half-Life, Opposing Force, and Blue Shift, influences from notable movies like Independence Day (1997), The Matrix (1999), and Saving Private Ryan (1999), and a story taking on a new angle of the Black Mesa events. Thus exists a great concept, but the execution is less than stellar.
Gameplay is an interesting take on the traditional HL style by creating a rescue-escort situation that at first glance might imply brisk pacing. The execution of this pace, however, is somewhat inconsistent – the tying events with those from Half-Life and Opposing Force seem to offset the timing and will probably confuse anyone. But it is very nice indeed (nostalgic, even) to revisit key areas from those games and relive favorite moments. Speaking of moments, they’re delivered in spades in the combat. The variety of setups guarantees something new every so often, ranging from averting dodgy auto-turrets (ceiling and free-standing), reliving a remake of the airfield battle from Surface Tension, and slipping through a bombed-out building full of Marines with an Apache circling overhead. Some set-pieces, however, prove to be more difficult than probably should be necessary.
While the combat itself is fun and interesting, level design fails to impress. More than 50% of the mod consists of crawling through often poorly textured & boring hallways and simplistic areas, although there is the occasional moment of brilliance every once in a while. But the level design is too inconsistent for enjoyment of it to last any real length of time. Then too there’s the obvious attempt towards nonlinearity, but in places it goes too far to actually be frustrating. Finally, the story starts out promisingly but way too quickly falls by the wayside, failing to build up a sense of drama and address issues like why the G-Man is in here and what he’s up to with Kate.
Kate herself is modeled decently, but it’s obvious she’s based on the Barney model and not the female assassin model, because her intrinsic figure isn’t very feminine, and it makes it rather distracting because once she’s “rescued,” she needs a lot of looking after to get to the end. The voice actor for Kate did some good work, but the dialog lines themselves are somewhat uninspired. Having to escort Kate across several chapters can become a chore but if anything at least it provides a new pace for a change. How this change in pace is perceived ultimately depends on player preference (this reviewer didn’t much care for it).
Ultimately the playing value to Azure Sheep is hinged on a question – who’s willing to put up with 6-7 hours of largely uninspired level design and voice acting? Sure, there are lots of nice and neat ideas in here, including some unexpected interaction with Gordon Freeman and Cpl. Adrian Shephard, but ideas alone can’t carry gameplay. If the effect of the compelling first half-hour recurred consistently and the length drastically reduced for cohesion, then this mod would be a must-play. As it stands, it’s simply a disappointing, mediocre release and reminiscent of the HLSP maps of 1999 in its level design.
P.S. Azure Sheep may be free and quite long at that, but it’s not nearly as cohesive as Blue Shift.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Monday, 8th October, 2001 by Calyst.
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.
I was surprised to play this amazing mod knowing that it was made by a small amateur team. The level design is very professional, especially the Barney’s house, the bombed out buildings at the ending and the Black Mesa Inbound. Some parts were badly made, for example the “Liquids” chapter, and there was some very long corridors that didn’t make any sense. The new weapons/enemies were very cool, especially the Archers and the Panthereye. Visiting Black Mesa Inbound was a very nice touch. There were some parts where you could fight with Shepard and Gordon but they were very short but cool. The ending was nice, and you will take an Alien Slave called Xonxt in your car as seen in Point of View, another mod of the same team. Another bad thing was Kate’s AI, but it’s Valve’s fault if the AI is buggy.
Manually
Easy
4 Hours, 15 Minutes
In my efforts to go around and play some of the original Half Life mods, I’m really surprised I hadn’t seen this until now. I don’t know whether I played the ‘super definition” version, I may try and install that pack found elsewhere and take a look at it.
This mod, like several others I’ve played from HL1 recently, did suffer from several bad issues here and there which made me have to reload or noclip due to not having an event go off as it was supposed to. The first scene in fact was broken: the helicopter that is supposed to fly overhead and crash to open the door you’re in while you’re at your post, *didn’t crash*. I stood around for a good half hour waiting for something to happen, before heading off to youtube to look up a walkthrough. Saw that there was a problem, and had to reload a couple times and start over until it worked. There was another issue similar to this in the Lambda lab area where you’re supposed to jump into a portal ball but *I could not see the portal*. It was THERE, but it had not visually appeared to me.
Anyway- This mod was very fun. A lot longer than Blue Shift but half of that was because of the endless and unnecessary hallways. While the mapping was overall quite fun and entertaining, that was the weakest part of this mod for me: endless hallways that were unmarked and made NO sense at all.
I understand that Black Mesa is meant to be a large facility, however ANY facility is going to have *markings* on every door, every hallway, and particularly where there are security issues they will have very clearly marked paths. I got lost a LOT in just about every level. While having Kate follow me around, I was glad for the company, because at least she occasionally talked to me… I was ready to talk to the walls.
Most of the fighting was challenging at the LEAST – and too hard at worst. I played on Easy, and even then I spent a goodly amount of time after and during almost every firefight running for my life with 2 HP left. There were times when I had the “health kit” as key 1 – but couldn’t do anything at all with it. Were you supposed to be able to use it on Kate or yourself? I never found out how, if that was the case. She wound up limping around for half the game, dragging her bad leg… unless she was running, at which point she was fine 😀
The female voice acting was great, the males…. um… not so great. Obviously, not English-speaking actors mean very heavy accented speech on two overtly American characters (Gordon and Adrian) and that was both immersion breaking and pretty funny. I’m not sure how their appearances did much for the game overall, aside from ‘look it’s Gordon, and there’s Adrian!” and when Ashep opens one door for you. I could probably have lived with purely dialog from HL1, OP4 and Blue Shift for any interaction with the canon characters, but they were still kind of fun to see.
(Particularly Gordon at the start. 😀 )
Overall though, this was an excellent mod and well worth playing through even if you find errors. They weren’t as bad as a few of the others from this era that I’ve been playing. While there were certainly some ‘scratching my head” moments of confusion, it was a ton of fun.
Manually
Easy
10 Hours
I really like that mod for new weapons and enemies. Storyline is simple but interesting. I recommend it!
The best mod by far!! It’s big, it’s exiting, has a great storyline, and is comparable with the original half life games. Of course, the woman you end up with will slow you down, and say stupid things. All you have to do is ask her to stay somewhere safe, fight your way ahead, and then fetch her when the work is done. Much like real life ? It’s called half life, you know…:) Only the shooting is fantasy…LOL
But seriously, this is a mustplay game ! Enjoy…
almost forgot, I played the hard setting, I always play the hard setting, it’s not very difficult, but it takes a bit longer, that’s all.
Just played this as a Classic of the Month mod. Yes, I’d still consider it a classic Half-Life mod – but it’s not a must play, and in fact it has a lot of issues that almost made me say Maybe for my recommendation.
When Azure Sheep came out in 2001, many people claimed it was a better version of Blue Shift. But in my book longer does not equal better. I said it several times during my stream – what Azure Sheep needs the most is some judicious editing. The mod is 52 maps long, but would have been much tighter and so much better of an experience at half that size.
There were some nice surprises with a couple new weapons and new enemies. The panthereye was cool although I think a bigger arena to fight it would have been an improvement. And I could never make out what the difference between the standard vortigaunts and the magenta vorts was – perhaps just cosmetic.
The maps are reasonably attractive, and for the most part this does feel like Black Mesa. But so very much of this mod is made up of boring and identical-look corridors with tons of locked doors and dead ends. It really wears on you and by the end I was feeling really frustrated.
About half of the mod is essentially a giant escort mission once you’ve found your buddy Kate. Thankfully you’re given a special health pack so you can monitor her health and heal her to keep her alive. That said, it’s still the old Half-Life AI at work, so she can get stuck in places and of course run past you right into combat. Good luck.
Azure Sheep could have been one of the best, but too much of it is padding and filler. It’s bloated and it suffers for diluting the experience that could have been.
Manually
Medium
4 Hours, 15 Minutes
It starts good, but in the end (for me) its getting worse. I not found enough rocket (bcs i am noob), i survived the game with 2 HP! Not the best, finish once, play HL Blue Shift.
Manually
Medium
7 Hours
VERY BEST PATCH E V E R ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Maze-like corridors are boring and the gameplay is filled with moments that require you to, for example, take falling damage (even if you don’t have much health to spare), in exchange giving you a gunfight. Medkits are met too rarely, and for the first half of the mod you can’t pick up bateries. In addition, weapons change is so slow that I’ve been killed by marines each minute.
Back to level design, some of the areas are taken from original Half-Life. Most like this type of “references”, but for me it gets really annoying and feels forced. If there was any reason to make this, other than just to make the mod longer…
After you find Kate and the suit, you finally get to use chargers and bateries, but you also have to carry the girl around, at least she’s pretty good at fighting. You can no longer use melee weapons, which makes destroying crates really annoying, but you also start finding “new guns”, which are just reskins of already known ones, you even get to use 2 same working pistols and 2 same working smgs (all 4 use the same ammo), so that’s not really any variety. Same goes for “new” enemies, safe for the panthereye boss.
Overall, boring, empty levels and frustrating gameplay made this mod hardly enjoyable to me.
Longer doesn’t always mean better.
Manually
Medium
3 Hours
Good mod, one of my most favorite, new weapons, I took to.
Kate is good colleague, I did not have no problems with her.
Manually
Hard
2 Hours, 39 Minutes
New weapons I took, the new characters as well.
As is made clear on the Welcome page, your recommendation image has been removed as your text review is too short. Please see the Recommendation section of the About page for more information.
I want to preface this by saying that I used the patch from the ModDB page to make the mod work on the Steam release of Half-Life, which I believe could be the reason why I’m having the problem listed below.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t like this mod. For a stupid reason, yes, but it’s a reason that really irked me.
It started out promising, and it stayed promising for most of the game. The levels were nicely designed, and everything was nicely balanced.
Then the last few maps kicked in. I’m not a huge fan of Kate, somewhat because whenever I killed an enemy, she claims she killed it, but more importantly because she always went after every single enemy in the map. Considering that you need to keep her alive, this got annoying pretty fast.
The last 2 maps in particular really frustrated me for two reasons: One, for some reason Kate tries to shoot down a helicopter with a pistol. A PISTOL. And she doesn’t stop trying, so she keeps getting killed, which leads to two, it’s entirely possible to have too little RPG ammo left and too little health to risk looking for more, not to mention Kate’s tendency to die. I had to use the console to beat the game, and keep in mind I was playing on easy mode.
However, most of the game is pretty great, so I’d still recommend it. Just make sure you can take down that helicopter.
Manually
Easy
2 Hours, 30 Minutes
This is in my top 5 best Half Life mods. It’s adventurous . I really enjoyed playing it. It’s hard on end , but i manage do pass it. End is good. YOU MUST PLAY IT!
Manually
Medium
4 Hours, 30 Minutes
This is in my top 5 best Half Life mods. It’s adventurous . I really enjoyed playing it. It’s hard on end , but i manage do pass it. End is good. YOU MUST PLAY IT!
Manually
Medium
5 Hours
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve played this mod, really. And yet somehow, I’ve never reviewed it for this site. So I fired it up again just for that purpose. If you don’t want to read the rest, my bottom line is this: play it, it’s worth the bit of jank it has with age.
I practically consider Azure Sheep another expansion to Half-Life. It’s what Blue Shift should have been. It has it all: neat new characters and weapons, tie ins to the storyline of Half-Life and Opposing Force, it tells an interesting story without even really having much exposition, and it avoids letting certain persistent game mechanics (like having an NPC follow you for a good portion) from getting too old too fast.
It has its problems. It hasn’t aged well in some regards. The default models today are not… great. That’s fixable though, with some quality model replacements that are floating out there on Moddb and Game Banana. It can have some bugs too. I’ve had some inexplicable crashes to desktop that I could never determine the cause of, but weren’t persistent. And the voice acting, well… it’s voice acting in a Half-Life mod. It’s always gonna be hit or miss.
ALL THAT BEING SAID. This mod is worth it all. It’s challenging (especially for the first half) without feeling it’s difficult for the sake of being difficult, and it rewards you for sticking with it. It’s a piece of Half-Life history and nostalgia at this point, so if you haven’t played it, you really should at least once. Give it a try!
Manually
Medium
6 Hours
OK, so, I have recently played AS. And I have to say, although I usually don’t replay almost any game or mod I play, this time I did it because I recently played the Azure Sheep version for the Black Mesa Game. That source developing based on the original AS is so far really great, and I recommend you to try it! (https://www.moddb.com/mods/black-mesa-azure-sheep), or at least check it out.
Now, after saying the main motivation that led me to replay again this mod, I can say that I possibly played it back then between 2007 and 2009, so did it again felt like I was playing a totally different mod. But all in all, it immediately feels like a really good classic mod.
And in my opinion, this is a really great classic mod, because it’s maybe one of the first mods ever to play nice with the own Half-Life universe story arc. And you know, possibly in those early 2000’nds years when the mod came out was just mind-blowing to see Gordon Freeman fighting by your side and even talking! Also you find and fight along Adrian Shepard near the end of the mod, and is also taken by the Vortigaunts, which is another WOW and mind-blowing moment.
I guess the total success of this mod is basically that explores the possibility to explode in a great manner to Barney Calhoun as a relevant character in the game. And also the story of basically meeting with Kate to escape BM is a simple but delightfully executed plot in the mod. And also if you think the whole AS mod even can have a sequel based now on the HL2 Universe, it would be fantastic that some developers just do AS2 set in that Combine invaded-earth scenario, maybe having Barny in fetch for Kate again after the events of Episode 1? Imagine that, would be like a fantastic mod, even because we don’t know too much of what happened to Barney after the City 17 train-escape at the end of Episode 1. So this is maybe what I love about Azure Sheep, I loved the fact that playing this mod is almost like playing a stand-alone game, with just lots of possibilities to develop a whole story-arc on its own.
Now about the mapping and technical aspects of the mod, I can only say that anyone that plays this one must be aware that you’re about to play a very early mod. Even it was one of the first mods released in the HL1 modding community. So it’s absolutely normal that some maps feel boxy or just done with very plain textures and at some points, that huge BM facility feels kind of empty. But despite that, combat always feels exciting, as the enemies are well placed into the maps, and some times they can even take you by surprise, so some strategic combat is required. I love that from the beginning of the mod until the end, you always have a very dynamic mod, regarding combat times. So that makes it a very entertaining mod to play even here in the heart of the year 2019!
The new enemies that this mod introduced, the chum-toad and that other weird fish, were nice additions to this mod. And also those cool special forces new enemies were really cool to face, without forgetting of the red electric beam new monster-boss you face when you have to rescue Kate after she is captured by the G-Man. And all in all, those G-Man sightings were very well placed in the whole progress of the mod itself, even the whole training part of the mod is pretty well done! Because in there you can actually explore the BM setting where Barney works and even, prove its skills as a security guard in Black Mesa!
Maybe my only complaints about this mod are about the scarce ammo and health you may face at some points in the maps, for example, I was totally out of RPG ammo when I had to fight those 2 final enemy choppers at the very ending arena, a thing which was kind of annoying because that forced me to cheat in order to escape with Kate by my side.
In conclussion, this is by the facts: a solid classic must play mod. Its totally worthy even in this year 2019, and if you try it you won’t get disappointed. And for that reason is not less to say that if you call yourself a totally HL Expert then you must have to play this one.
Manually
Medium
5 Hours
OK, so, I have recently played AS. And I have to say, although I usually don’t replay almost any game or mod I play, this time I did it because I recently played the Azure Sheep version for the Black Mesa Game. That source developing based on the original AS is so far really great, and I recommend you to try it! Check it out on MOD DB.
Now, after saying the main motivation that led me to replay again this mod, I can say that I possibly played it back then between 2007 and 2009, so did it again felt like I was playing a totally different mod. But all in all, it immediately feels like a really good classic mod.
And in my opinion, this is a really great classic mod, because it’s maybe one of the first mods ever to play nice with the own Half-Life universe story arc. And you know, possibly in those early 2000’nds years when the mod came out was just mind-blowing to see Gordon Freeman fighting by your side and even talking! Also, you find and fight along Adrian Shepard near the end of the mod, and is also taken by the Vortigaunts, which is another WOW and mind-blowing moment.
I guess the total success of this mod is basically that explores the possibility to explode in a great manner to Barney Calhoun as a relevant character in the game. And also the story of basically meeting with Kate to escape BM is a simple but delightfully executed plot in the mod. And also if you think the whole AS mod even can have a sequel based now on the HL2 Universe, it would be fantastic that some developers just do AS2 set in that Combine invaded-earth scenario, maybe having Barny in fetch for Kate again after the events of Episode 1? Imagine that, would be like a fantastic mod, even because we don’t know too much of what happened to Barney after the City 17 train-escape at the end of Episode 1. So this is maybe what I love about Azure Sheep, I loved the fact that playing this mod is almost like playing a stand-alone game, with just lots of possibilities to develop a whole story-arc on its own.
Now about the mapping and technical aspects of the mod, I can only say that anyone that plays this one must be aware that you’re about to play a very early mod. Even it was one of the first mods released in the HL1 modding community. So it’s absolutely normal that some maps feel boxy or just done with very plain textures and at some points, that huge BM facility feels kind of empty. But despite that, combat always feels exciting, as the enemies are well placed into the maps, and some times they can even take you by surprise, so some strategic combat is required. I love that from the beginning of the mod until the end, you always have a very dynamic mod, regarding combat times. So that makes it a very entertaining mod to play even here in the heart of the year 2019!
The new enemies that this mod introduced, the chum-toad and that other weird fish, were nice additions to this mod. And also those cool special forces new enemies were really cool to face, without forgetting of the red electric beam new monster-boss you face when you have to rescue Kate after she is captured by the G-Man. And all in all, those G-Man sightings were very well placed in the whole progress of the mod itself, even the whole training part of the mod is pretty well done! Because in there you can actually explore the BM setting where Barney works and even, prove its skills as a security guard in Black Mesa!
Maybe my only complaints about this mod are about the scarce ammo and health you may face at some points in the maps, for example, I was totally out of RPG ammo when I had to fight those 2 final enemy choppers at the very ending arena, a thing which was kind of annoying because that forced me to cheat in order to escape with Kate by my side.
In conclusion, this is by the facts: a solid classic must play the mod. Its totally worthy even in this year 2019, and if you try it you won’t get disappointed. And for that reason is not less to say that if you call yourself a totally HL Expert then you must have to play this one.
Manually
Medium
5 Hours
Azure Sheep follows a security guard trying to reunite with his love/girlfriend security guard Kate after the Resonance Cascade. You’re a Barney searching for a female Barney.
Level design is alright, but sometimes I feel like the layout is very maze-like. There are too many turns and corners which make the layout sometimes confusing. On some occasions, there are even some whole new maps dedicated only to show dead ends. Although, I have to give the mod a kudos for showing which “metal doors” can be opened, the one that looks like jail doors.
The weapons are same as the original, but your melee weapon is a pool cue instead of a crowbar for the first part. However, I miss it for the first time and I thought this mod doesn’t have a melee weapon. I’m not sure if I have to blame my idiocy or the mod. There’s also the Beretta (if you’re using the Ultra HD addon, it is the Beretta with white slide), the Chumtoads (acts like Snarks), and the Pulse Rifle (ripped straight out of Aliens). All of them are a stronger version of their counterpart, this means the moment you get your hands on them, the lesser variants are obsolete.
Storyline itself kind of steers into “self-insert” territory. You encounter Gordon and Shepard during the game. You don’t meet Barney Calhoun as Azure Sheep was developed before, and released a few months after, Blue Shift’s release. The plot is filled with inconsistencies with the canon. When you meet Gordon at the spot where a Barney gets shot by an assassin, for example. (I legit thought I was toasted.) You don’t get shot and when Gordon supposedly get knocked out, he just disappears. You meet Shepard in the Lambda complex, right after Shepard saw Gordon go into Xen, and there’s no sign of any Black Ops soldiers or Race X for the rest of the mod. I was scratching my head in confusion as the mod doesn’t even claim that it’s an alternate universe.
After you join up with Kate, the mod turns into a very long escort mission. Kate feels like a load instead of a helpful NPC like Alyx. The medkits to heal her are found very late in the campaign, and her weapon is a puny pistol. At least you can tell her to stay put and pick her up after the coast is clear.
There are a few new enemies here like the “Special Ops”, who are the grunts that use the Pulse Rifle and Beretta 92. I guess they’re stand-ins for the male Black Ops, maybe. A few cut enemies are added and one of them is a boss. (A bit too easy to defeat when you figured out its pattern) I find it weird to have rats as a new enemy, because…. why? There are also these pink Vortigaunts, whose purpose and reason are left unanswered by the end of the mod.
I also had to use cheats on two occasions. The first occasion was when the only door I needed to progress didn’t open, but instead keep making opening and closing sounds rapidly. Second, when I was fighting the last two helicopters at the end of the mod, there were no rockets to be found at all.
The Ultra HD addon is good, although the HD models for female Barney and Kate are a bit too much of fanservice for me.
Azure Sheep is a decent mod, through and through. I don’t’ feel like it’s a “better Blue Shift” like some people claimed it to be.
Manually
Medium
4 Hours, 30 Minutes
This is probably the first mod I ever installed for Half-Life way back when, so it’s definitely a classic that I have fond memories of. I can’t say it’s aged too well, however. The level design relies a lot on maze like corridors, and the whole mod ends up being an escort mission halfway through, with all the annoyances that comes with Half-Life’s ai.
This mod also changes the behavior of weapon switching, for some reason. When you switch weapons, an animation of putting the gun away will play before you actually switch to and are able to use a new weapon. This ended up being really annoying, since being able to quickly switch weapons is critical with Half-Life’s combat, and this decision results in the combat being slowed down considerably for the worse.
All that being said though, it’s still a part of Half-Life modding history, and is well worth it to see how far we’ve come. Additionally, like most pre-HL2 mods, the author tries to expand on Black Mesa and the Half-Life story as a whole, and their headcanon is pretty funny to go back to knowing what the series has explained since.
The creativity in this mod is off the charts but get ready for some loooooooong hallways. The game feels a lot like the creators’ wishes upon the original game: playing as a regular security guard, having some company in your journey, making the lab not only large in size but also functionally so the player will sometimes actually get lost trying to navigate it, direct (even if silly) interactions with the characters from the other games. It has that walking simulator-ish flow where you’re allowed to visit places simply to roam around Black Mesa.
This is a fun and challenging mod but There is one game braking bug I found that ruined the Experience.
I was playing through this mod when Kate randomly disappeared without a trace, I backtracked all the way to the area with the Scientists in Test tubes and she was nowhere to be found. And because she is necessary to open certain doors, that means that I was softlocked and because Half life 1 has no Chapter select feature I would either have to start the mod from the beginning or noclip through the door’s, I picked the latter.
I did enjoy what I saw before that happened. but if you play this mod, quicksave often so you don’t get softlocked like me.
Manually
Medium
3 Hours
I just hate the level design in this game, everything is big and empty there are a lot of dead ends that lead to nothing, the main gimmick isn’t really interesting, I think this mod doesn’t bring anything new (even though it probably did at the time) and didn’t age well.
Manually
Easy
4 Hours
a classic mod, but it really needs to lay off on the empty corridors. Flat, long, empty hallways plague the level design, and having to drag Kate around is finicky especially with her janky modified Barney AI which was clearly not designed for escort missions
Manually
Medium
4 Hours, 30 Minutes
If you’re someone who plays this mod in 2023, probably your keyboard is ready to be hit. AI in the mod is SO AWFUL I can’t get Kate through the door I can’t move she doesn’t move, she’s making silly conversations In short, WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF BARNEY
Manually
Medium
7 Hours, 34 Minutes
I can see why there is a lot of love for this mod, packed with fun ideas from cameos to special weaponry and back again.
If I were to put my finger on how the mod feels to play I would say that it was like playing half-life inside a Goldeneye 64 map. There are some similarities in the style of how secrets and detours have been tucked into the nooks and crannies.
Will be liked best by those who enjoy exploring maps and trying to pry open tidbits the developer put together. Like a bit of an environmental hidden object picture puzzle in a sense.
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I enjoyed the mapping, aside from being slightly quiet at some points I felt a sense of atmosphere which I appreciated. Winding paths and hidden enemy encounters are scattered throughout. At some points perhaps even in frustrating locations with no payoff.
The major flaws I would say are linked to some of the greatest strengths. The secrets and alternate paths sometimes get in the way of experiencing the mod. My first time through I accidentally skipped getting a melee weapon and had to open every box by shooting it. That run was a lot less fun than my second where I did find the pool cue.
Two runs you ask? Yes, I got stuck. There is a mounted gun on the bottom of the emergency glass box. Meant to be used like a turret, but can’t be seen by the player from the vantage point where they use it so I didn’t know it was there. Tried to get the AI to do it for me and they died before culling the crowd. Tried again to see if it had broken and I was meant to have a gun.
In that instant, two complaints converged. 1. Possible to miss essential things with no way to tell you’ve missed them. 2. Too many Vorts, their lightning does big damage even on easy and I was very tired of failing to dodge it because I am a wee bit trash.
Third complaint, I could not follow the story and didn’t know how I knew what I knew other than I had seen a non-sequitur cut-scene showing me someone who I did not know in a place I had never before seen.
You also NEED to know you can walk into an npc to “push” them. Not with physics but after a moment they will react by turning and walking the way you “pushed” them.
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Engaging mapping that gets progressively better as the mod goes on. Fun cameos too and the custom voice acting has a charming mod vibe to it. Worth trying if the feeling of exploration appeals to you.
Manually
Easy
6 Hours
This has some bugs but otherwise good mod.
When I try to download the patch my PC alerts me of a possible security hazard. Apparently the patch only has http and not https connection for download.
Changed the link, thanks.
While the mod may be considered a classic among older fans of Half-Life as well as having a generally good reputation in the modding community I’m gonna throw in my two cents and say that it’s not really all that great.
My reasons on why I think that:
– The maps and level layouts after you’ve gotten the HEV suit feels incredibly cramped and frankly boring. It’s just nonstop corridors everywhere with doors scattered around, making it really hard to tell where exactly you’re supposed to go.
– It’s incredibly easy to miss some fairly essential items on a first run. When you first start the mod you’re supposed to gain a pool cue as a melee weapon which I had only gotten by randomly wandering around the living quarters only to pick it up. I’ve heard from other people that they completely missed it without even knowing it, as well as the metal bar you can have as a melee after you resupply yourself after gaining the HEV suit.
– There are also a couple of unfair or unbalanced enemy encounters as well, such as having to fight multiple assassins while still not having the HEV suit as well as Vortigaunts quite literally teleporting on top of you as you cross through an open section of the map.
– The sections of the mod where you have to escort Kate is also incredibly tedious. We all know just how much people LOVE escorting Rosenburg in Blue Shift, now take that and make it last way longer than 10 minutes. It’s incredibly annoying to have to run back multiple corridors just to get Kate back with you again.
– Finally, although I’m a huge nut for Half-Life’s lore I can let the somewhat broken canon of the mod slide. Being a mod made by fans of the game I don’t really think it’s completely necessary to make it line up with the canon. However, if it bothers you you might want to reconsider from playing the mod.
There’s no doubt that Azure Sheep is definitely a mod with a lot of effort put into it seeing as there’s a somewhat coherent main story, interesting concepts such as not giving you a HEV suit right away as well as good voice acting for the time, but to me it just hasn’t aged very well compared to mods nowadays. Definitely think twice before you start playing this mod.
It’s a mod that likes to combine different styles
The compound was created as a police departmernt and the idea is taken from Blue Shift. When we get to the bridge, it is where Half-Life starts with its planes, cars, troops, Gordon Freeman and so on. He also designed an area where Gordon Freeman is capured and showing how he ended up in a trash room, he was actually unconscious. Then we have another area from Half-Life, it is the starting rooms from the initial chapter. I don’t think he posted all of the rooms, but some of them. It would be nice he uses them all. Whatever. We actually see the armor tank two times, the third time it appears protecting his spec ops, what an area. It’s like suddenly the difficulty goes too up. Invisible assassins, they kind of very resistant to bullets while invisible. Then he created a gap that is optional to jump and end up in a room blocked from both side and if you fall to the middle, you don’t come back. He designed so many locked doors, it’s like multiplying normal amount of doors x 4. The crossbow on Hard is quite useless, that’s sad. The Hive weapon, absolutely useless on Hard. Now the good part comes in, Kate. On Medium difficulty she’s kind resistant to vortgaunts, but if there’re too many shooting at once, she dies. One Bullsquid tail attack kills Kate on sight. All plasma guns vs Kate, are quite dangerous. So she’s useful, but in some situations, she just can die often. Well, on Hard, if Kate is hit by someone, her health depletes so quickly to the point it’s best to have her back, so back, so she doesn’t even see enemies to attack to. Sometimes she charges and suicides herself in front of your eyes. Clearly this game is designed for easy. About weapons, Plasma Rifle has a very nice AR launcher. It has the best grenade launcher, it flies almost stright to the objective even better than normal AR. Common grenades are very short in arch way flight. Revolver is still the best gun on Hard next to MP-5. Ichtyosaurs has to be fought inside the water, there’s no way to get to the sides. They quite absorbs a lot of ammunition. As well, the boss is actually of vortgaunt, he crawls in the middle of the room and he has tremendous amount of health on hard. Ichthyosaur and the boss, on Hard can deplete all of your ammo. And after the boss, more troops come in with 2 assassin and invisible, wow, with low ammo you have to fight all those. Boss lightning is quite fast since we play on Hard, so if you make some mistakes you should say game over here pal. Well, we recover ourselves step by step and the final area is even more harder. Too many trenched enemies all around, one mistake and you are destroyed to peaces! Imagine you look to the right and he fires you from the left, how much health you can lose from that mistake. Choppers has also the same problem, certain positions gives advantage, others, simple allow the chopper kill you like a meat in the middle of the field mined with dozens of troops. On Hard we have to destroy at least two choppers with AR grenades from MP-5 and Plasma Rifle because there’s not enough rockets to blow them all down.
Manually
Hard
3 Hours, 40 Minutes