8 Comments

1. piledriver

   11th April 2008 at 4:29 pm

   

   5 maps. I hour play. Environment design is varied and original and improves as the mod develops. Nice mix of puzzles, tactics and battles. Play on skill 3. Slightly easy end battle. Definitely worth a try.

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2. PlanetPhillip

   31st August 2008 at 5:42 pm

   I’ve added 14 screenshots kindly supplied by piledriver.

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3. Henutmire

   30th December 2008 at 11:00 pm

   I’m at the very last scene in the mod and I do not know what to do next. I’ve killed all the floating critters and just can’t figure out how to destroy the Nihilanth in the glass thingy. This one has me scratching my head alot.

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4. Gilfrarry

   31st December 2008 at 9:10 am

   Destroy the spinning green glassy object up in the right-hand corner.

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5. mcrip

   7th January 2009 at 5:37 pm

   

   Good designed mappack, fun for about one hour. I got stucked three times because doors din’t open completely and the railway stuck in the middle – no problem with noclip and worth a play.

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6. Technic

   14th May 2012 at 9:54 pm

   

   This 5-level mappack is fun! It has almost everything important to make it good.
   But it also lacks of many things and some things are not that well-thought out.

   The story takes us from Nihilanth to a secret lab, so then we need a new HEV suit and a weapon (but why all doors are locked?). We find our rusty friend, Dr. Crowbar 😉
   Then a little journey with some cool puzzles, scripts and nice combat starts.
   On the way to Nihilanth we visit a weapon storage, warehouse-like area, a short outdoor section and some canals and labs. And, we ride a little ship.
   If only there would be more detail. But the mapping is good. Some corridors have great architecture and lighting.

   A good point are the scripted sequences, something exlplodes, something happens.
   There is even a short cutscene with the Gman.
   After some time we carry a ridiculously amount of weapons and ammo, that’s bad balanced.
   Making the combat too easy. Some turrets and enemies can be annoying though.
   Puzzle design is nice and always logic. It can take a while to find out what to do to succeed finally. There’s no cheating necessary.

   If some more work here and there, better balancing and more puzzles, longer playtime and so on – I’d give it a “play it later” or even higher! It’s fun to play, altho it somehow looks unfinished at times.

   Pro’s:
   -Interesting story, atmosphere – also a short cutscene
   -Average combat, very easy so play on “medium” or “hard”
   -Some cool, logical puzzles
   -Some nice scripted events
   -Decent mapping, sometimes very neat architecture and lighting

   Con’s:
   -Some undetailed, empty rooms, areas
   -Balancing, combat is too easy, maybe turrets can be annoying
   -Short playtime (~10-30 mins)
   -Some design oddities
   -Minor bugs like clipping
   -Disappointing end

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7. Ten Four Reviews

   6th August 2012 at 2:54 am

   Failure picks up right before where Half-Life almost ends…the final battle with Nihilanth. Except in this version of the story, Freeman makes it back into Black Mesa, alive. Interesting take for a story, to be sure. The ending may be anti-climactic, but at least it won’t annoy (it’s more of a casual disappointment).

   Thankfully there’s little else to annoy. Level design has been executed fairly well with an amazing amount of variety in the four maps – offices, lab environments, an outdoor area. In short, a sci-tech theme that fits well with the various gameplay devices, including a few puzzles, a zipline ride in a vehicle, and some entertaining scripted sequences and triggers. Thanks to these innovations the entire map pack plays like a fresh breath of air in a tired scene where maps often stick to a one-track formula.

   A couple things are decidedly off-base, however. One being the inconsistent architecture. Generally it’s been done well, but too many areas lack sufficient detail, sometimes to the point of being visually disappointing. Fortunately these moments don’t really get in the way of gameplay, which is rather linear but there are still a number of opportunities for exploration. But the real flaw is that some enemy placement is beyond devious. For instance, exiting a tunnel into an outdoor area and being assaulted by two “hidden” Marines from behind is aggravating by far. Then there are two free-standing auto-turrets that have a sneaky elevation advantage. How about five female assassins crammed in one small room? These setups, among others, make combat borderline irritating and definitely the low point of this map pack.

   That’s not to say Failure isn’t enjoyable, because it is; it’s packed with certainly challenging combat and intuitive gameplay. Could use some polish admittedly, but this is still a decent map pack by general standards. Definitely recommended.

   Notes
   This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Thursday, 15th November, 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.

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8. Dmitry

   6th July 2024 at 4:30 pm

   

   So Nihilanth captured you. But how on earth Nihilanth is captured by scientist in the labs, I do not get. Supposedly it is a boss, it can’t be captured by destroyed. Well, someone captured and you came here destroyed one of the crystal and he is finished. Probably the easiest boss ever in Half-Life, just stand still and shoot the crystal, with enough bullets it will crack and blow up Nihilanth completly. It was never too easy.

   Installed:
   Manually

   Difficulty Played At:
   Hard

   Playtime:
   25 Minutes

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