“Dissolution is a science fiction, single-player mod for Half-Life 2 that mixes adventure and action game-play. Set in the year 2089, in a universe dominated by a mega corporate entity, Xterrier, the player awakes in a hidden lab to the voice of the mysterious Wilson.
Guided by Wilson, the player must make their way through the ravaged Xterrier 581c colony, making use of any and all resources they can get their hands on in order to survive, all the while attempting to piece together the events leading to the colony’s collapse and their own identity.”
- Title: Dissolution
- File Name: hl2-sp-dissolution.7z
- Size : 256.03MB
- Author: Aaron Hutton AKA 8472
- Date Released: 05 February 2011
- Copy the disolution2011 folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Dissolution should now be listed in your Games tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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3,346Overall
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0Today
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91365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 2 Hours, 14 Mins
Shortest: 1 Hours, 5 Mins by brianthesnail
Longest: 4 Hours by Winterman
Total Time Played: 6 Hours, 41 Mins
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I’ve written and re-written this review about 4 times. Each time I try to offer a fair and balanced view of the mod. I am not going to try that any more, I’m just going to textually blurt it out in the order that my finger tips appear to get it from my brain.
I didn’t enjoy this mod. I respect the amount of time and effort that went into it but knowing how hard something is doesn’t mean I have to like it. Let’s start with the intro. The voice acting was terrible, I’m mean really bad.
Sorry but it sounded so stifled and regimented. What was actually being read wasn’t too inspiring either. A billionaire builds a holiday resort on the moon (cool so far) to get away from politics and stuff (getting less cool), a sudden something (I can’t even remember what) kills all inhabitants leaving only the holiday resort residence alive (kinda cool). 2056 blah blah blah, 2074 more blah more blah final blah.
So the mods starts and the textures are depressing. Is this the future? Hope not, looks more like a prison than a resort – Yes, I know that 581C (or whatever it’s called is not a resort). the layout and design leave much to be desired. Really, I didn’t feel that the place had any imagination. But wait, there’s bright little glowing tubes on the floor, so everything is cool – relax. Suddenly, somebody starts talking to me, from where I don’t know and being the sheep I am, I do as he says. Good boy, you deserve a pat on the head.
Off I go clicking everybody private pad that they just leave lying around and listening to their personal recordings. No password, nothing. Personal security is not important in the future – or is it, as we shall see! I’ll take a break from being mean for a moment and commend the voice acting of Wilson, you voice in the head.
Excellent work and the script is very good too, although slips up a few times with phrases that seem out of place for an English gent..”Fumble before we reach the line” for example. Anyway, back to being mean. I couldn’t quite understand why these people left their pads lying around but more important why did they record on multiple devices?
Gotta give credit to the author for trying to tell a story but didn’t really feel the story was very good. I mean, waking up on a base on another planet where everything has gone crazy, with a “mad” scientist etc, is not exactly ground breaking. I feel that when we think of stories for mods and games we end to think it has to be escape, or save the world, when often it can be something so much smaller and simpler.
The supposed twist near the end, was so obvious that I can’t believe everybody won’t guess it. But as I said, at least they tried to tell a story, which has to be respected. Time to get meaner. Can’t go any further without talking about the gameplay. Two aspects need discussing. The first is the keycard thing. I spent way too long going from room to corridor to room to corridor back to other room etc to get and sue keycards. Geez, that’s so 1990’s. It’s 2011, is that the best we could do? God I hope not. Next was the attacks. Imagine room, corridor, room, corridor for 10 minutes followed by 30 seconds of at least 5 citizens charging at you with guns.
That’s basically, the whole mod in one sentence. Why they only ever come at certain times and not all the time is a mystery. Sure, they get sent when I do something but I can’t help but be reminded of the Matrix when Mr Smith suddenly out of a bunch of doorways. I found the actual combat very difficult and I played on EASY, so goodness knows how hard it would be on HARD – not that I will ever find out. I can’t see anything particularly positive about that approach and hope it doesn’t catch on.
Oh, while my fingers remember, why is it that the mod is set 70 years in the future and half the desk have CRT monitors on them? Okay, I think I’ve run out of vitriol, let me talk about the good things. So, as much as I hated the mod, for the above reasons, I do respect what the authors have done. The idea of the crows is fantastic, although just a little silly, and no doubt inspired by the fact that the pigeon was already part of HL2. The first time they attacked I pooped my panties. To be honest I thought it was too hard but in retrospect it was very well done.
A jewel in a rather boring crown. So, here we are. I’ve been horribly mean to a group of hard working guys and they probably hate me, and I don’t blame them. But somebody has to be truthful. To many of the reviews I’ve read for this mod pat them on the back and in fact they need a kick up the jacksy. Not because the are lazy or anything but as the proverbial school report says “Could do better!”.
They have talent, but need to focus that talent in the right direction. If this were a paid game I would be highly disappointed. Yes, it’s not, but that’s no reason to lower our standards.
I recommend you play it, but I as just said to somebody over Steam Friends, “If you are not enjoying it after 30 minutes or so, stop playing because it doesn’t get any better and the ending is not worth the trouble”.
A nice try, but too many flaws. However, it’s still enjoyable.
Well, even if the kind Aaron Hutton (who had a word for each review of its mod on moddb, pretty cute IMHO) has already answered that he did not take it as an inspiration (mainly because Aaron wrote the story before Bioshock), I’ve to said it :
You could play a drinking game to the similarities between Dissolution and Bioshock and die of alcohol poisoning before the end of the mod.
An amnesic hero? Check.
Citizens driven mad by McGuffin? Check.
An official clothed as an opera singer, being very theatral? Check.
The megalomaniac C.E.O. knowing all your story? Check.
A mad scientist being responsible of the mess? Check.
And I could go on forever.
Other than that, the mod is long, and forces you to find many notes to know the story, and that is the main good point : the story.
Other than that, I will explain what you do :
In the first level, you’ll have to find keys and kill mad citizens…
and in the second level, you’ll have to find keys and kill mad citizens…
And then you encounter someone who talks a bit about the story…
And restart that in an endless loop until the (disappointing) ending, and you’ll have the mod.
However, I’ll still give it a PIL because I’ve been quite interested by the story all through the mod, this was neither too hard nor too easy, of course it is quite repetitive but the linearity didn’t bothered me so much, and facing the same corridor hundred times with the same enemies was quite a challenge sometimes.
However, this space-opera mod set in HL2 suffered months after from the release of Titan XCIX, which did what Dissolution failed to do : showing us the endless space and really making you feel inside somewhere set in the endless silent void of space.
Play it, though, this is still cool. However, as Phillip said, if you don’t enjoy it after one hour, stop it, seriously.
Btw, the cause of the mess is [spoiler] genetically modified crows who launch psychic attacks driving the people mad. I’m not kidding. And you’ll also fight some crows. [/spoiler]
And it also lacks of boss. Even an end boss. When I fought the last citizens and got to the ending, I was like “meh?” -_-
Games that have “boss” sections should be confined to the eighties where they belong,, back on my Commodore 64! No more Doctor Robotniks in 21st century game mods please!
I played this awhile ago so I am going on my memory here. I liked parts of this mod and disliked other parts. The general concept is ok, but the voice acting is not very good. I found having to look for the PDAs” everywhere annoying. I also found that I took a lot of damage and it was really hard to finish without using god mode. I did like the new enemies, especially the [spoiler]crows with telekinetic powers[/spoiler]. Definitely worth playing once but not something I would replay again
I played this through a couple of times, on easy, as Phillip has aid the combat is a trifle rough in this mod, back in Feb/March 2011.
This turned out to be a fascinating adventure game. It felt old school and I loved the story and voice acting. Listening to all those data logs reminded me so much of the wonderful “system shock II”.
The crows at first proved a nightmare and my health took a pounding until I figured out how to deal with them. The citizens proved a handful to, good at aiming and hard to kill.
The train sequence was so “Half Life” it was spooky especially with the simpler graphic style and HL sound effects!
The corridors through the aquarium were a delight both in sound and colour. It was a real shame I could not make out those tentacle creatures clearly through the thick glass.
I liked the dark, nightmarish sections adding a slice of horror to our space tale.
I thought the voice acting was great and I loved the story, although there was a lot to absorb,
This game was fun to play and explore, but hard combat made it a challenge at times, especially trying to find the crow giving me hell with its telepathic powers! And I could have done with more shotgun ammo!
So it’s a 10/10. for a wonderful conversion and a gold star for the weird notion of giving crows telepathic powers!
It was so nice to be rescued in the end!
Not as polished as the impressive “Titan XCIX”, but a good little space saga nevertheless……..
Just finished replaying this mod to see if I was still impressed. I was!
I finally figured out why the combat was so hard. The group attacking seems to always hit very hard and multiple times, so health takes a nosedive rapidly unless you’re mobile. Those pesky crows, however, have to see you when they attack with psyonic ferocity and a rapid response with the shotgun is the best defence.
The last fight I found too hard to survive unless I took the fight to my attackers by dashing down the corridor to an office and waiting for them to arrive. Slightly cowardly but it worked!
The ending was short and sharp, but realistic to the situation and story. A good ending not ruined by some absurd ” superhuman zomboid” that you have to shoot eight times in each foot, hand, arm, buttock and head before it finally becomes available to kill! As the alarms scream and the timer counts down to destruction………”AGH!”
So I still like this mod as much as the first time, and maybe just a touch more. So it stays in the blue!
Worth the effort because of the lenght and creation procces in this one I think, altough I agree in the most lacks and silly details Phillip stated.
I liked this when I played and for some reason this mod looks like an enhanced verssion of the HMS Defaience 1 and 2 mods, maybe they are from the same author’s portofolio.
The combat was silly but highly dangerous, because the npc’s are deadly if u let them atck you.
Overall I conssider the proper recomendation is a PL, because this could be perfect to play when there are few stuffs to try in moding scene.
This is another mod that could have been so much better than it turned out!
To be fair it looked OKish but looks alone don’t make up for repetitious gameplay and what’s with the damn crows. Finding a key card to open a door once or twice is fine but I lost count of the amount of cards I had to find and the constant airlock map changes. Additionally there’s a lot of enforced backtracking which is a big put off for me.
Aaron has definitely got talent, however for me this just didn’t work, it ceased being fun after about 15 minutes and I can’t really understand why I finished it.
In Phillip’s text interview, Aaron admits that the lack of early testing is something he failed to do, so hopefully his next creation will be a lot better. Had this been beta tested I’m pretty sure the repetitiveness would have been picked up on as it’s quite obvious that Aaron is capable of doing so much better.
I wonder why it took so long before it gets here at Plannetphillip. Oh well… Once again I just reposting my old review from Moddb because my opinion never changed since.
If you need a picture to define word “Boredom” you could took screenshot from this mod.
Boring intro. I had strong wish to leave game even at this point.
Sterile environments with lack of objects. You can go mental by simply living in that place.
Total lack of ambient sounds. Always silent corridors – no electric buzzing, no pipe bubbling, nothing. Oh yeah, corridors. With 90 degree turns. All way long. Simply walking around here is boring too!
Gameplay cycle from hell: speech-locked door-firefight with pack of guys-keycard-speech-firefight with pack of guys-unlocked door. Boring train ride is optional.
In-your-face shootouts. As interesting, as digging in your own nose for treasure.
If you want something about rioting colony go replay Red Faction 1. Or System Shock 2. Just don’t waste your time to play this.
2 out of 5 only for voice acting.
I too played this quite some time ago and am going on memory, which I suppose is a good thing in a way because at the very least I do remember it quite well. I enjoyed it for the most part I liked the concept and the new element of the crow but as stated here and by the author himself in the text interview the repetitiveness of it is a big downfall. I would encourage the author to continue as the talent is very much there and I appreciate the effort.
I liked it well enough, yeah it was a bit ‘samey” and old hat by todays standards…a bit buggy in places too with doors that refused to open for me, but all in all, it killed an otherwise boring hour, while waiting to go out.
In Short: The story is OK, the voice acting ranges from terrible to average. Level design is OK but environments could be better, the NPC’s function poorly and the gameplay is repetitive. Not without merit but I can’t recommend it.
In Long: This seems to be a story focused mod, that being the case I will start there, the mod starts with a long intro sequence looking out on a far away planet while the narrator tells the story (I’m going to be awkwardly avoiding spoilers for the duration of this review) the planet is orbited by a moon and a satelite and they are moving so there is something happening but the models are kind of average looking and don’t particularly relate to what the narrator is saying, the narrator tells the story (which isn’t bad but it does include some generic dramatic sounding statements that don’t actually mean anything). The voice actor has very little inflection in his voice making it hard to be immersed.
The other voice performances pretty much follow suite with some ok moments.
The story is mostly told through audio logs so the voice acting is an issue, and the audio from the logs is often hard to hear over other environmental sounds, they can also be hard to find which would make it frustrating if you were enthralled by the story, fortunately I was not so I could very happily ignore the message telling me that I had missed audio logs at the end of the level.
This is a highlight of the mod, in that it makes sure that you know what does what, what to look out for, what needs to be done and what to avoid and what you can use. There are objectives that you can check, hints to tell you about certain features you can use ect. The only downfall in this department is that sometimes the objectives and I walked past a some buttons a few times but that may have been me being unobservant.
Level design is ok, the puzzles are solid although repetative and there is some variety but it is massively let down by how the NPC’s are implemented, they will often run straight at the player with accuracy that is too good, if you pop out of cover to take a shot you are almost certainly going to be shot, so I ended up having to use cheap tactics and relied on the overpowered shotgun quite a bit.
The Environment was perfectly readable but it lacked finese there are custom models and textures but they are merely functional you will not be getting lost in the visuals of this mod. Some of the sliding doors are left to open when the player walks into them which isn’t the end of the world but openning a door by rubbing your face on it is just kind of wierd.
The music was really good quality although on one occassion it ended before the scene it was accompanying it was very enjoyable music throughout.
It’s unfortunate because the general idea behind the mod was good but the execution needed to be more refined.
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another excellent mod .. and this is the third time ive played this mod but the first time ive commented….and each time I play it the more I enjoy it
the mod itself may not be the most visually appealing,and I can understand why some gave it a maybe and a play it later
howeve personally I like it,the voice acting is impressive and the storyline is good aswell
some may say its easier to create a map with no skybox,but never the less the mapping is good and I especially like the vending machines offering you life enhancing potion whenever you need it
the npc,s are a bit of the let down …. but as least theres no zombies … and the crows can be awkward at times to shoot
overall a excellent mod and thoroughly deserves a play it now ….
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 5 Minutes
This modification could have debatably used more N.P.C.’s or Weapons, but than again it really didn’t need them. Adding too much may have over-shadowed the modification, and may not have necessarily made it better.
The game-play length of this modification was decent. It was long, so the player would feel like he or she had made the right decision downloading this modification.
It’s not too long, so it’s not incredibly repetitive, and it’s not too short either. I can definitely see a sequel for this modification.
Pros:
1.Voice Acting
2.It Has A Back Story
3.Excellent A.I. Path Finding
4.P.D.A.s To Collect For Extra Dialogue
Neutral:
1.You Don’t Get Any Armour So It’s Easy To Get Eliminated
2.You Have To Be Careful About How Much Ammunition You Use
3.This Modification Is A Lot More Difficult Then What One May First Think
Cons:
1.Weapon Animations Are A Little On The Slow Side
This is one of my favorite mods of all time! Everything about it I liked! Also, I found an awesome song because of it, Moonlight Sonata, by Beethoven. I liked the sad backstory kinda feeling it had to it. The ONLY complaint I have is that the Audio Logs could’ve been louder. Very well made recreation of the Source Engine. The voice acting’s nice, the textures, storyline, e…everything (Again).
Manually
Easy
1 Hour, 36 Minutes
First off, the story. I heard that the creator wrote the story before BioShock came out, but I cannot stop comparing it to the mod since some parts of the story bear extremely similar resemblance to BioShock. For example, a rich person who built a city in an unusual location for people to escape the World, who later imposes censorship laws on their own citizens. Another is a flamboyant artist who, before you get to see him in person, must kill enemies for him. I can’t really stop.
The gameplay is also not great. The enemies take too many bullets to kill for a mod that wants you to be tactical (as in, be careful with those hitpoints), and they usually attack in mobs who charge headfirst in your general direction. This caused me to just camp the doorway and pick them off as they pass. But after you get the shotgun, everything is almost reversed. Now you have a one-shot kill machine in your hand, every doorway camp is made significantly easier.
The level design is dull. Hallways are copy-pasted, no ambiance, not even enough props to make the place lively.
The only thing positive I can say is the crows. They rarely appear but they are a very good idea came to life, I must admit. Sadly though, its introduction is preceded by illusions to build suspense that is not used again when you encounter other crows.
Manually
Medium
4 Hours
Sterile.