You wake up in a dark alley, not knowing anything. What has happened anyway? You struggle after the truth and answers.
Answers you want to know in the darkness and fear, which makes your heartbeat race like violent blows against your head.
Where do “they” come from? What has happened? Are you just turning insane?
The time is up; you can’t stay there reading your sms’s forever. It’s time to head out and find the answers. Cry of Fear is a single player modification of Half-Life 1 which brings you the horror you’ve always been afraid of.
It’s a total conversion of Half-Life 1, which means it uses NO Half-Life 1 content or other people’s files. It’s all made exclusively by the developers.
It also uses new gaming styles that you will rarely find in Half-Life mods, such as advanced cutscenes and other stuff that will be revealed at a later date.
This was October 2022’s Classic of the Month mod.
- Title: Cry of Fear
- Author: Team Psykskallar
- Date Released: 22 February 2012
- The PP blue download button will redirect you to the Steam store, where you can install the free Cry of Fear mod directly into your account via Steam.
- Find the “Play Cry of Fear” box on the Steam page, click on the green PLAY GAME button and follow the prompts.
- After installation, the mod can be launched from the Library tab.
Install into your Steam Account [4.23GB]
The playthrough below is part of the Classic of the Month Event, run by Don AKA Unq.
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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410Overall
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2Today
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154365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 5 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 4 Hours, 27 Mins
Shortest: 2 Hours, 45 Mins by Turpow
Longest: 6 Hours, 30 Mins by ꒌ РΔТΔРΣ 14 ꒌ
Total Time Played: 22 Hours, 15 Mins
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
I’ll add a PP download in the next couple of weeks and hopefully find time to play and review it!
This mod rocks! I’m amazed it took this look for PP to review/suggest it.
I loved this mod.Its a bit weird at times but thats the point lol.The characters are some of the strangest I have seen and the graphics are really good for the HL1 engine.Different endings gives you a reason to replay also
Nice mod, but there’s one thing that disappoints me: Your Steam needs to be set to English to make you able to save.
You are supposed to use the launcher to run this mod.Saves are done ingame while playing.You will find a save point before any real action starts.They are VHS tapes just laying on the ground or on a table etc.The first one is a ways into the game
+Fantastic graphics, considering the engine
+Great attention to detail
+Fun survival horror mechanics
+Scary as hell
-Iffy voice acting, including a quiet, muffled character (Keep those subtitles on!)
-Seems unstable on a lot of systems (judging by the forums and my own personal experiences)
Heads up to those who don’t know:
-You need to use the Launcher App every time to prevent crashing (Also, don’t forget to use it to update to 1.1!)
-If you have framerate issues in outdoor areas, turn off your light.
-As of version 1.1, Certain monsters still make the mod crash if you shoot them while dual wielding. If you crash at an enemy, try to fight it without dual wielding.
Overall, this is one of my favorite mods. Probably my #1 favorite Half-Life mod.
It’s actually possible to play this without using the launcher. UCL, Universal Content Launcher, can be used to play the game without any of the errors others have encountered, at least that’s the experience I had. Because I actually had an issue with the launcher itself.
I wanted to do it as a place-holder review but I will expand a bit more.
The “problem” with Cry of Fear is that it’s really not like other mods. Not only PP mods because it’s a TC. But all the other mods. Even other TC’s.
In fact, I felt more like playing an indie game being free. It’s too good to even be a mod, in fact, the GoldSrc is beyond recognition, it’s long, has a solo mod, many endings, a good replay value, and even a co-op mode fully working with its own paths and ending.
Of course, the list of the donators is really wrong and I think RumpeL and his friends have gained enough money to cover the hard work.
Personnally, I’ve been (a little) involved in this mod “conception” as part of the translation team (in French in my case), this was the first time I did this, and now I’ll be doing it for the CUBE mod and perhaps Underhell chapter 1.
Other than that, what to say about COF?? Besides it’s the “best” TC you could ever see on HL1, and it is superior to 90% of the mod productions?
POINT 1 : OLD SCHOOL LIKE OLD SCHOOL
Be ready for some features like you never saw since the old times of Resident Evil :
-No free-saves. Only checkpoint with tape recorders.
As you’ll see rapidly, there will be some platforms sequences, sometimes incredibly difficult, and starting from the beginning will gratify you of some FUUUUUUU- moments.
Inventory : forget about wearing 20 weapons with secondary fire.
In COF, you’ll have a limited inventory… first 6 places… and some “unmovable” objects, such as your phone, and some key items.
There’ll be many moments where you’ll be forced to drop a beloved weapon found, to get a key item, because you just can’t go without lights in this world, you know.
Miscelleanous old school things :
-“old school” boss fights.
-lack of ammo.
-constant feeling of vulnerability.
POINT 2 : CRY OF FEAR? OR HEADACHE OF OPRESSIVITY?
Nightmare House 2 was really scary. Auto-scare system and screamers did the job well. But the more you advanced, the more you felt like John Rambo vs. the Exorcist.
COF… Besides the infamous introduction and some sequences here and there (more “surprising” than terrifying), you will not be scared. I mean, really not.
But, unlike NH2, you’ll neither feel gradually transforming in a super-warrior blowing the hell out of armies of monsters.
COF is… opressive… From the beginning to the end, because you’ll neither understand what’s going on until the end. Because no Swat Team is going to help you. Because you’ll just jump from Charybde to Scylla. The only peaceful moments, so to speak, will be some of the great cutscenes seen. Because of the darkness… the music… the monsters… and other recurring elements… You’ll always feel as being lost on a forest, naked and bruised, hearing howlings coming from nowhere… And that’s it.
That feeling won’t leave you.
POINT 3 : BLOWING THE GOLDSRC TO HEAVENLY HEIGHTS :
Is this GoldSrc any more? Uh. This work with the lights is so wonderful… Fires, lamps, flares… LIGHTNING is EVERYTHING… I was really shocked to see it as this point.
But that’s not the only thing : Remember those videos of this fan doing dynamic body movements with Gordon in HL and HL2, mirroring… Mirror’s Edge?
You’ll see the same here : you’ll see Simon’s arms swimming under water, his arms grabbing ladders and ascending… And that’s not the only things.
Other than that, how about the character designs, facial sync, lip sync, incredible and varied monsters… Just wonderful.
POINT 4 : NEVER GET THE PLAYER BORED. NEVER.
Cry of Fear is 8 chapters long. About 6t to 8 hours. But you can count 3 hours only for the infamous chapter 4.
COF’ll never get you bored : From various enemies, each one having his own attacks and specificities (from melee monsters to “psychic” ones, and also with some invincible creatures…)… But also, puzzles. Various puzzles, some of them will make you scratch your head…
Chapters 1 to 3 will push you throughout discovering the whole city… You’ll gradually discover clues on how this whole mess is going, complete various objectives, reading some notes, finding more and more weapons and ammo…
Chapter 4 is very special… As you’ll see, the city is designed as a “sandbox”, “open world”…. Chapter 4 is about finding some items throughout all the areas you’ve visited, but as you’ll rapidly see, cleaning the streets of the monsters before only brought some more, and they’re more dangerous!!
Chapter 5 is a dream in HL mod’s I never expected to see since I saw “that” in the 2nd level of Soldier of Fortune… If you know what I mean… Another clue?? The incoming DLC of 1187…
The grand final throughout chapters 6 to 8 will make you travel through a classic land of horror movies/games, then… another classic land!! And finally, an unexpected, really unexpected final level where the tone of the game will completly change as the “truth” is uncovered…
POINT 5 : THINK YOU’vE FINISHED IT?? THINK TWICE!!
Like AoM DC, COF gets also several endings.
2 obvious choices will be presented to the player throughout the mod, and from what you did, this will mark the four endings.
There are 3 more endings one from another mode unlocked when you finish the game… one when you finish the co-op… and another one…
So, you get a total of 7 endings!!!
And you think it’ll be too hard to see them all, because restarting from the beginning and re-do the mod will be too hard?? Don’t worry!! You’ll see that finishing the game once will unlock some weapons and… hoodies…
CONCLUSION :
Why have you not download it yet?? Already 100.000 downloads and the moddb page is going to surpass in number of views, the BMS page.
Cry of Fear is a really good experience. The only flaws being some parts being “too similar” to some of AoM DC (oh wait… Is that really a flaw?).
Hail to the modding world!!
Yeah I also felt the same, I thought taht many times as I was playing it!
Yeah as I saiid i’m not an expert but any average player as me can see that in this mod.
Let’s hope Phillip’s computer can handle this mod without memory-related crashing issues! (my computer can’t)
After hearing about the save system I have no desire to play it, although I will try it, but if I have any trouble with it, I won’t even waste my time. Playing mods should be fun, right?
I havent heard of a save problems until here by that person.You cant use f6 to save is all and that because the mod doesnt allow it.You wait till you get to the tape recorder to save.Once action starts there are enough around to get by without having to retrace many steps from the save
Aside from that..Phillips PC is probably better than mine (old laptop) and it ran it fine.Even my older one ran it fine.
you’re missing my point. I didn’t really say that the save system is crap. It’s really part of the fun.
There are three platform sequences (the construction planks during chapter 4, the beginning of chapter 6, and the road to the end boss in chapter 8) which would have been… less challenging if we’ve got free saves.
Difficulty can be fun. But I really think some people will get quickly frustrated by this mechanism not seen since… many years ago. See it as stepping back from the current casualisation of modern games…
It’s not fun if it crashes every hour or so. Maybe my computer is just bad
You can save it with the console:
example: save 1 and load 1
it worked out well
Oh, that’s good news. Just need to finish Rexaura and G-String and then I’ll start on it.
Great Half-Life mod, one of the best available. A great successor to Afraid of Monsters.
One thing that really stuck out to me, that wouldn’t normally is how great the guns looks. The model for the pistol just looks amazing to me.
The only kinda gripe I had with it was the backtracking which there is a bit of.
Overall, just an excellent mod, which I really recommend.
Yeah I definietely agree, a great succesor of the also great AoM!!
Glad to see you up and about Phillip,,
Hell boys I was dying for this post and it’s discussion here in PP.com I don’t know why it didn’t take so long maybe the good Phillip was out of combat for some days.
But well back to the point, my review of this work will stay in a solid Personal Favourite, why? well is hard to find just ONE reason because this mod is actually awsome and great, but in my opinion one of the most solid reasons is the one stick to the powerful emotional feeling any person has when play this mod. And I mean as I remember from the beggining of the mod you almost inmediately start to have a kind of “conection” with Simon the main character in the mod, from there on you will be deeper and deeper in the great story and some of the “Desiscions” you will find in the course of the maps will be crussial for the ending plot, which also adds an important replayabilty value to it.
I have 2 favourites sections in this mod, the first is when you met “Sussy” in the apartens rooftops in front of “Wespets Gardens”, there happens probably one of the most powerful and bests cutscenes done for any HL mod, I mean you have to see it for yourself or remember that cut scene in order to know what I mean, that part is crazy oozes quality, and the artistic conection is great well done, when you talk with “Sussy” and then look at the stars in that dark threating sky, there’s like a calm in the middle of the nightmere Simon is living, then well that happen and you have to be very focused in what ur doing next, because an important desiscion to tke will happen after the sad tragedy….
The second part that I liked the most is just related to the mapping, I LOVED and I mean I really loved the whole mapping part when you have to make your way through the Subways stations, I mean I loved that part because maybe I love subway sistems in real life, and I think that’s a perfect real location for many hl maps and mods, i’d love to see some mapping competition related just to the Subway stations thematic, like a “subway-fight ville”. The whole maps in there are great and perfectly done, and well at the end of that section u actually have to get on board to a Subway train and await for ur destiny.
Then I have to get to the point of any HORROR mod, yeh and taht’s it i’ll talk about the point of every halloween’s eve, THE HORROR.
The horrorific parts in this mod, almost never ends, I mean it, I just didn’t dear to play this mod in the 10 hours it took me to end it, with 100% of my room lights off and with headphones, no, no, no, I even played it at night just with the TV turned on and only speakers sound, call me a pussy but I just won’t probably dear to play this all dark and in my lonley room, the freakin monsters are just the best available in any horror mod, the sounds are just terrificly great with almost comparable to a pure professional retail game, the scary parts never let you rest, if u are in a dark hallway or a dark room I better be ready for a well scare any time, oh, and if u hear a chainsaw along some crazy shit yelling, I tell u don’t waste your prescious time looking BACK, JUST RUN FORREST RUN!!!!!!.
The gameplay is also important in this mod, at the begining was a kind of desesperate and frustrating experence to me, especialy because of the saves system and not quick saves at all, so be advised for that, then, after u found the first saving point ( usable tape-recorders) the game really starts like after the first 7 minutes of it, and there’s also where u can manage the weaponery and equipment system, which is also kind of difficult because u have to acces to it and manage at ur own risk the necessary pickable objects to solve more than 3 puzzles and manage ur melee and fire wapons also. About the wapons I loved them, but I wish more ammo would be available, but well aslo remember u are fighting against psycopathical delussion monsters in the head of a 18 YO guy so u won’t need a tank to beat an army presicely, i’d love a weapon with endless ammo as in AoMDC as a gift at the end of the mod, I don’t know as a gift for completing the 3 official endings or so.
Well I think i’ve typed all my toughts about this great mod, maybe and is obvious you may find some bugs in this mod, and taht could be annoying, but this project wouldn’t be bugs free so be advised about that, I experienced some mod crashing freezze in some mapping transsitions, but nothing deadly to stop me continuing playing till the end, I solve them restarting the mod and taking good care of my gameplay saves. I hope the bugs some day will be solved with further update verssions.
Oh also as i’m not a thecnical map expert in HL as Unq, or the same Phillip, I just can say as a gamer that the Gold Source engine is used and well taken to the limit in here, the effects and textures are great, also the inovative creation in this mod is amazing, and sure is really well done in the technical part.
Finally just go on and play it, this one to me took me more than 10 hrs in gameplay so be advised that if it’s not as long as the G-String mod you will be very bussy in every single map of this mod soving puzzles and killing freaks, so go on, takle ur time be brave if u dare, and play it!!.
Funny you mentioned “G-String”, the most amazing mod I have ever played, as “Cry of Fear” feels a lot like it in play. But this is so much darker and oppressive and just plain frightening! The sound effects along induce a feeling of unease; you think there is something terrible around every corner, !! pause for effect !!. Only to find that there usually is!
This mod is horrible! It keeps drawing me in to its dark web of terror!
Someone please tell me that there is some light in this mod, daylight even?
Oh wait, I hear a chainsaw!!!!!!.
Okay, I can’t even get this mod to run on good old retail HL1 without Steam! I needed to download and install .NET 4.0 first, but still the mod launcher always crashes and can’t find updates too. If I try to start the mod from inside HL1 as usual I get a strange error message saying that the mod doesn’t support any video mode except OpenGL. How can this be in the first place? If I switch to OpenGL it starts but then stops with the error message TrackerUI.dll invalid. I’ve never had problems with HL1 mods before. That’s not a good way to release a HL1 project!
Indeed you MUST have the Steam version of HL1 and that could be a problem. You can get it for free by tipping your retail CD-key in Steam.
In my case it don’t work cause I have a secondhand copy and the CD-key is already attached to a Steam account. I don’t know why there’s no WON version of this mod.
Oh and when you remove the mod, don’t forget to remove the included .dll too because it break your WON HL1 (OpenGL will not work)
“Indeed you MUST have the Steam version of HL1…”
That sucks big time and is a no go for me…
“Oh and when you remove the mod, don’t forget to remove the included .dll too because it break your WON HL1 (OpenGL will not work)”
I was already wondering about that error, so the mod did even break my normal HL1 installation? I found the offending file and removed it, but what an impudence for a mod to do something like this to my setup!!!
Quick question… does anybody know how to enable noclip? I’m stuck in the [spoiler]bit where you have to jump your way out of the train car before it falls and kills you[/spoiler].
Very well-made mod, but I do loathe jumping puzzles in an fps, and it strikes me as an arbitrary decision by the developers to kill all console commands.
Noclip is supposed to be disabled, but I’ve seen posts on the Cry of Fear forum saying people have gotten it working by binding it to a key and mashing said key repeatedly.
How exactly do you uninstall this mod? It seems to have put items in different places on my system, and I can’t find an uninstaller
I’ll add a new comment and “proper review” when I finish but I want to add this:
Thank god, he went away from the AoM:DC pitch-blackness. We have well lit-areas, thus making me not rage 30 mins into the mod and quit it.
Anyone else having any memory related issues playing this? (after 30 min or so it crashes complaining that it doesn’t have enough memory…)
Cry of Fear a a unique blend of 2 of my favorite survival action horror games, and is great fun to play late at night in a dark room. It feels very polished and complete with features like the custom launcher with the updater built into the mod, the quality of everything is just phenominal, and the storyline topped off with the great voice acting really makes this mod a statement of how professional team psyskaller is, this mod is definitely a must play.
Check out my Video Review on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAxkG-NDf3o
the more advance hl1 mods such as COF requires steam version of hl1 to work smoother with much less crashes.
Here’s some few tips I got from other players…
Save anywhere…in the console type…
save “savename”
To load a save simply hit the console and type…
load “savename”
So you just have to be creative on naming your save files for easy access.
I named mine in numbers depending what chapter I’m at.
Sometimes I bind it for easy quick save.
example…
bind f5 “save ch1-01”
I made it to the first vhs tape. The mod reminds me of invasion (the french mod) and black ops. I will post when I finish, looks like a good time ahead. I wonder if I need to get a “top up” card for my cell and call Gordon. no, wait not Gordon, Alex. snicker.
Patch 1.2 is coming soon, and the devs are removing the console save cheat. If you really can’t resist doing this, you would have to not update the mod.
I can’t even get it to launch…is it a multiplayer mod or single player…that bit’s not clear…
Shame upon you. Do you think I would post an MP mod here? Anyway, it’s definitely SP.
lol, I did wonder…maybe it’s because it wont load up and seems to wander off looking for a server or something…anyway, it won’t play here at this end…I’m living in Bulgaria now, moved from UK in January…’broadband” is really slow…actually the dongle is faster, but it took me 23 hours to download it…I wonder if there is a fix out there ? I’m running XP on this “puter, Vista on the laptop…I’ve tried loading from the launcher and also from steam direct…but still nowt happens…
Not a simple install!
Well I finally got to start this mod after a couple of days PC stuff!
First was “Half Life” which I had two copies of, but thanks to helpful comments I realized I needed the “Steam” version. So, as instructed I went to my ” Steam” window menu, selected games, activate a game on steam, put in my CD product code and marvelled as it started to download. For the first time I had “Half Life” on “Steam”!
Well I had to indulge in a couple of hours nostalgic gameplay!
Day two and I installed “Cry of Fear” as per instructions. It would not launch from the desktop unless I had frame network something 4! So I installed from the windows update, and then installed the numerous new updates for my new frame network 4 programme. I then double clicked the launcher and bingo! But still not there yet! I checked for updates and waited while the 1.2 patch downloaded and installed itself. Lastly I set up the options and launched the game.
I got to say this mod has amazing visuals and sound and all on the Half-Life 1 game engine! I am utterly amazed. It has a quirky nature and a good story element building. So far I have had no problems using the tape recorders as save points, even though I am rather an avid user of the quicksave! That camera section early on was weird, novel and damn scary! This is good stuff and worth the hassle loading it already!
will this work on hl2
No.
3-hour download. Played for less than an hour. Bored to death with a gillion locked doors and zombies. Room to room nothingness. I’m trying to get to the 4th floor. It’s so tedious back and forth, up and down, stupid notes. Frustrating does not equal entertaining. Mercifully, the game finally crashed and I uninstalled it. I thought the controls were awkward. What’s the point of using the phone for a flashlight? Just give me a flashlight. Couldn’t toggle weapons with mouse wheel. If a door is locked, it’s locked. I get it. You don’t have to come up with a dozen different reasons why it won’t open. I don’t like the game reloading every time I go thru a door. And no quicksave! The horror! I’ll go back to playing ‘they Hunger’. Now THAT’s a good HL1 mod!
Day & night difference between this mod & they hunger. For those who can handle more than a beginner MOD (like they hunger) this MOD is SPECTACULAR!! It has atmosphere & graphics I dint” know were possible on H1 engine.
Does not run for me.
Same here, even after installing the required 4.0 NET framework thingie and trying different settings such as resolution, color depth etc. 🙁
Even tried on two different comps O.o
Well, I really wanted to like this a lot more than I did. To me this is one of those that some will really enjoy and some will not. Overall I found it to be quite frustrating and at times exceedingly tedious. The things I did not like most were the endless doorways and backtracking and the lack of quicksave or even console save after the 1.2 update. I updated it before reading what the update did or I would have never done it. I got so frustrated during the train escape that I almost uninstalled…but luckily I was able to load the next map in the console and just skip it. I’m not impressed with spaces so tight that you practically have to be counting pixels when you move to find the only exact spot that you can finally fit through, but by then the timer runs out and you die…over and over and over etc. etc. Personally, I do not find having to repeatedly replay every annoying minute from the last checkpoint save even the slightest bit challenging or exciting. I’ll bet that if the player were given the choice whether or not to implement the quicksave function that even the people who say not having it is great gameplay would still secretly use it!!!! I finally just gave up with the whole thing when almost to the end I was facing another impossibly hard jumping area…then I went to youtube and looked at many different walkthroughs just to see how it finally ended but the funny thing is I could not find even a single video that gave the same ending as the one I got….Ah the heck with it. I hope you enjoy it more than me………….
I’m just droping by to see how has been the reviews and discussion about this mod, in this important space PP.com is for the mod-gamer community, and I can say I am really surprised, not even 10 complete recomendations we have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know this mod involves hectic gameplay, but i’m afraid is kind of abandoned here in PP.com, this is a mod that deserve a good discussion because is indeed one of the most important horror mods ever built in HL, and I mean i’m not intending worship this mod or anything like that, I just would love to hear more voices about what they feel about this whole outstanding work.
I really hope Philip himself would finish it some day, because to be honest I eagerly wait to see his toughts about this, so I ask you Phillip that someday you could give us your recomendation to this project, also an intreview with rumpel and teammates would be really great to put this kind of forsaken mod here in PP back in the relevant discussion.
Besides CoF haven’t finished the time it was released, I mean, is a constant almost stand-alone game that gets updates and new DLC available evry few months! which make us think about how a mod can really came into something biger than just a mere little mod itself…
The point is there is still so much to discuss about this and frankly PP.com is a great web site to do it, I mean just like happened with the G-String mod, I think CoF deserves a deeper discussion in here about the many things this work represents for the comunity and the modders also..
Hi! I’m a little late in the news but I finally read about this mod today. I guess I’m getting older and a little slower! ( LoL )
From all the info. I’ve gathered so far this afternoon, this appears to be one “AMAZING” piece of work and it just happens to be the kind of game I enjoy playing. I am presently downloading it with Desura and I do intend to play it to the end at which time I will be able to post my comments and join the discussions.
In the meantime Hec, I agree with your comments above and I will return with my own experiences after playing it through.
Have a nice day!
I am finding this to be so utterly frustrating. I’ve had to resort to “googling” for clues, as for example, if you haven’t found whatever clue you’re supposed to to open a locked door, you can’t simply back off it, but have to restart from the beginning, which for the first couple of times is ok, but the third or fourth is simply enough to scream “quicksave??!!! Please!!”
It looks brilliant, and is atmospheric and everything else that has been written about it, but I can’t play more than an hour or so at a time, and plainly and simply do not want to have to go back to the beginning every single time to try to find my way through, just because my real life has got in the way. I am not going to leave my PC on overnight just to keep my place in a game, no really I’m not.
All the “PF”s this has, and all the enthusiasm out there for it is so far stopping me from just deleting the folder and calling a day, but if it hadn’t taken hours to download I might have deleted it already….I’m just saying….
Any new advice people?
The previous posts have shown how to save w/o the tape recorders. Use teh console to save the game i.e. save “name of game”, load “name of game”
I spent about 15 minutes trying to back off of a door lock puzzle about 15 minutes into the game. Came here for a hint and see Gypsy Jim had the same problem and could only solve it by starting over. Very frustrating, but at least I know now…give it one more try and do NOT try a door lock puzzle without a sure lock code.
I wanted to like this mod. This game is far from perfect and I can’t fathom how it won these many awards. Monster design and mapping was decent. The gameplay is absolutely awful and clunky. The visuals are quite impressive, for the most part. They’ve done some very impressive things with the engine, it’s just a shame the game itself isn’t that good. This mod tries hard but fails to be original. This game isn’t really scary, all it is is just jump scares. The Story is another thing that drags it down, it’s too emo and makes absolutely no sense. The only reason why it’s so popular is because people are sheep who can’t speak for themselves, and don’t realize that this is a sub par game. This game does not deserve the praise it gets. If you want a good Half Life horror mod, download Afraid of Monsters or They Hunger.
Manually
Easy
2 Hours, 45 Minutes
Wow! I think you’re really unfair and rough when you say this man… I mean, I understand many don’t like this stand alone TC; but that does not make “sheep” to the people who genuinely like it.
Besides I think this TC takes the “conceptual” development to higher levels, than the old classic HL1 mods.
We have to understand that this TC is barely comparable to any other regular HL1 mod, so you just can’t judge it with the same rod that you judge the rest of the regular HL1 mods…
If the gameplay is rough, is because the whole TC aims to be absolutely different to any hl1 regular classic mod.
This is only to name a few things that have come to mind having played through all of Cry Of Fear several times.
Pros:
1. Advertising:This is perhaps one of the most crucial points in my opinion if you want your product to become more well known. The Cry Of Fear development team really did a good job at that by creating several videos high-lighting their modification.
2. Boss Fights:That was an a feature I personally enjoyed. It helped to cut away from having to fight the same enemies for too long.
3. Easter Eggs:Plenty of different things trinkets to find through-out the modification. A new sweater or a random note.
4. Voice-Acting:Everyone involved in the story had their own voice-actor. That’s uncommon in most modifications for Half-Life.
5. Community Involvement:This is one of the few mods that has been created where the mod developers have allowed members of the mod community to create their own campaigns and add them to them to their own mod.
6. Alternative Endings:A great excuse to play through the mod again, but with a twist.
7. Single-Player/Multi-Player:This is always a good thing to add to a mod since you have more then just one option. You can even play Single-Player on Co-Operative mode, you probably won’t survive very long.
8. A Mod That Every Ethnicity Can Enjoy:I felt this was also one of the main things that allowed Cry Of Fear to gain as much attention as it did. They so far have, English, French, German, Swedish and Russian subtitles.
More people are likely to play a mod if they can understand it.
Neutral:
1. Puzzles:I felt as though there could have been more puzzles, but it was probably best only a few were adding to keep the main focus of what the mod is about without over-shadowing it.
2. Storyline:It almost felt as though it was left out to be blank. We know what was going on, but as for the “Why” not sure. I feel that perhaps this was done intentionally in the sense that “The Player” could create his own conclusion on what he or she thinks the storyline is.
Kind of like filing in the blanks to a puzzle and to help push the player forward to try to figure out if the mod had it’s own meaning or if you were to determine that yourself.
3. Boss Fights:There was enough, but would have liked at least 2 more.
Cons:
1. Atmosphere:Don’t get me wrong I love Cry Of Fear, but it’s hard to ignore the incredibly dark atmosphere that doesn’t change through-out the mod. I wish that could have been altered a little bit more just for a change of scenery.
Also by dark I don’t mean depressing I mean more as in “I can’t see anything many of the levels all look like this”.
2. Alternative Endings:Not that I don’t like this approach, but having to play through the entire mod several different times and kill the same monsters as well as go through the same events can be tiresome.
Not much of a change in that sense unfortunately.
Cry of Fear may have lots of bugs and glitches but it is still a well made free to play mod. It has an atmosphere that reminds me of older horror titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill etc.
+Atmosphere is really good.
+Gameplay mechanics are good.
+Story is interesting.
+Graphics are really good (for GoldSRC).
+There are custom campaigns (they are not as good as the main one though).
+That one Sawrunner thing…
-Monsters can clip through corners of the walls or solid parts around the doorways.
-You can’t move faster on stairs. You just stumble when you try to run.
-There are some game breaking glitches but most of them are rare and effects of one of those in the main campaign can be easily minimized or prevented by using all save slots to save in an order.
Just use all the save slots to save in an order and you will be fine…
Cry of Fear may have lots of bugs and glitches but it is still a well made free to play mod. It has an atmosphere that reminds me of older horror titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill etc.
+Atmosphere is really good.
+Gameplay mechanics are good.
+Story is interesting and has multiple endings depending on what you choose to do in some parts of the story.
+Graphics are really good. (For GoldSRC).
+Includes a co-op mode up to 4 players with a new campaign that is connected to main one. (You need to find somebody to play it, if you want. Servers section is empty.)
+There are custom/alternative singleplayer/co-op campaigns. (They are not as good as the main one though. Except Manhunt.)
+A challenge for hardcore players that unlock after finishing your first run. (Doctor Mode)
+Neat collectibles to change the way you look or play. (You can collect them on the 1st run but they unlock after you finish the game. After that you don’t need to collect them again but you need to finish the main story everytime you reinstall the game.)
+That one Sawrunner thing…
-Monsters can clip through corners of the walls or solid parts around the doorways.
-You can’t move faster on stairs. You just stumble when you try to run.
-There are some game breaking glitches but most of them are rare and effects of one of those in the main campaign can be easily minimized or prevented by using all save slots to save in an order.
Just use all the save slots to save in an order and you will be fine…
Great ambience and it actually is scary. Has some bugs and issues tho.
Manually
Medium
3 Hours
I mean, of course you have to play this. You already know that. But in case you didn’t know I’m telling you now. I’d say it’s more of a must play for horror fans than it is for goldsrc enjoyers. The story is kind of just silly angst without much more going for it, everything that exists in the game simply exists for the purpose of scaring the player rather than for, u kno, being part of a wider, more complex narrative. Just a heads up for anyone who might grow annoyed by those aspects as they play. Other than that I find it to be one of the scariest games I’ve played as well as having a remarkably expressive display of mechanics. In fact the mechanics add a lot to the scariness of the whole deal, something surprisingly scarce in horror games. Can’t go wrong with this 1
Cry of Fear is a high quality Half-Life mod with great atmosphere but you’re probably wondering why I gave this a “think twice”.
Cry of Fear (CoF) suffers from horrible gameplay, infuriating inventory management and occasionally confusing map design. CoF can also be down right unfair at times and you can easily soft lock yourself. The game focuses mainly on melee combat where its almost impossible not to take damage, you will find yourself constantly on the verge of death and instant kills are guaranteed. I understand the game is supposed to be a survival horror nightmare but it honestly becomes ridiculous and it gets in the way of enjoyment. The story takes its self very seriously and its kinda cringe. I’m a big fan of Silent Hill and survival horror but CoF just isn’t well designed.
This mod is stunning at first and a lot of work obviously went into it but the gameplay is really awful and it wears you down to a point to where it becomes a huge chore to finish.
Manually
Medium
4 Hours
Wow… Hands down the best Gold Source game that has ever been created! People at Valve could’ve never dreamed that their engine was capable of being pushed to these limits!
Gameplay was innovative, story was awesome, atmosphere was unforgettable and level design was genius! I wanted to make a more detailed description on what this game offers, but this is in a leauge so far away from standard HL mods that it deserves a full on professional game review, something that currently I am not capable of delivering.
Only thing that I want to point out is that this game, even with unbelievable amout of effort put into it, is totally free! You can just download it on Steam and play it, without a single buck spent.
You’ll also get a bonus single-player campaign and multiple co-op campaigns, all of them being fully polished! Other than that, the game has a lot of unlockables, making replay value of it pretty high!
And again, all that is for free! These developers definitely deserve more donations, which you should thoroughly consider after playing this!
Definitely a must try!
Manually
Medium
6 Hours, 30 Minutes
Team Psykskallar already had experience creating a horror mod for Half-Life in the form of Afraid of Monsters and most of it was shooting monsters, but with the release of Cry of Fear they reduced the shooting moments and increased the horror component along with immersion in the mind of the protagonist who is going crazy (or already gone). Very Good
Manually
Medium
6 Hours