Author’s Note:“Well, this is a small (and I mean small) add-on for Half-Quake Amen.
We had the idea to do it because we were all visiting MS and we thought some output just had to be there.
Besides, Halfquake had its one year birthday (this mini was actually meant to be released at the birthday, but we weren’t able to do that) and so it should remind all players and fans of the original Mod.”
- Title: Half-Quake: Amen: The Present
- File Name: hl1-sp-half-quake-amen-and-the-present.7z
- Size : 45.7MB
- Author: Muddasheep
- Date Released: 05 September 2003
The file contains an addon for Amen called “The Present”. It is included in the download for Half-Quake: Amen and therefore does not have its own download. The downlaod totals below are an error and can’t be removed.
- Copy the hquake2 folder into your Half-Life folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Half-Quake: Amen should now be listed in your Library tab.
- Launch Half-Quake: Amen and select Receive the Present menu item.
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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1,000Overall
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0Today
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3Last 7 days
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87365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 57 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 20 Mins by Dmitry
Longest: 2 Hours by Diclonius Limeony
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 50 Mins
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
Gameplay:
Pretty much similar to the full modification, however you play as a different character looking for the present. This time round, it’s a lot shorter but still worth a shot. Puzzles were not reused and has some new ideas which made the map worth playing through. Although there wasn’t anything too special about the map it was fairly enjoyable experience. I quite liked the stairs which was both a challenge and frustrating. The overall feel of the experience missed that of which the modification contained which was a shame, very empty feeling compared to it. There is also a jump puzzle which was very annoying but it isn’t too long at all, so losing interest in that area wasn’t so likely.
Design:
Similar again but a little more basic looking this time. Some areas however were pretty much the same level of design but overall, the structure wasn’t too fantastic. A lot more green was used than usual but nothing too special. I quite liked the design of the maze with the bars that move up and down giving a clue to the shape to be interesting. Other than that, this one missed the feeling the mod had but still has its interest structures.
Conclusion:
A short user map add-on for Half-Quake Amen. Simple design and fairly good gameplay.
Rating: 75%
How do you install it? Just add it to half-quake amen or make its own directory for it in the half-life folder?
ok. I figured out the installer. Now I am stuck at something else. It’s right after you finsh a maze with invisible walls. You start out on a small platform with the only visible thing is a pointing hand on the ceiling and a voice talking about how the world would fall apart if the sky were to open. If you get to the end of the platform your on (the side the hand is pointing to), something that looks like a large platform that is shaped like something appears on the ceiling. Although, I can’t do anything with it. Any place I go off the platform I start on kills me. Can anyone help?
I just surprised myself. Why? Because as I was moving the mouse to the “maybe” icon, it decided to go right and hit the “Play It” icon instead. Sure, I could easily change it, but you know what? Playing “The Present” was a completely different experience. How so, you say, and why do you keep putting questions in mouth?
Well, there’s little story here and normally that’s a bad thing, but when I viewed this mod as simply a dark puzzle mod, my mood changed. Sure, it’s almost exactly the same as the previous 2 mods, but somehow it does inspire dread in me.
Take away all that sadistic rhetoric and posturing and we actually have some interesting puzzles.
Seriously, if these were taken from the abstract setting we have now and into a more realistic setting instead of slamming mods like these we would have more of a universal acceptance.
Now, I know many players love them but it really seems to be either love it or hate it.
Anyway, one puzzle was hard and the last puzzle was an absolute nightmare, all those spinning cubes etc.
Anyway, put aside your hesitation and approach this as a puzzle mod, pure and simple. Yes, you will need excellent jumping and timing, but so what? We all need a little practice.
No lost sleep over this one. Go get it tiger!
This is the perfect Play it latter HQ for exellence, not quite hard, and fun, short and not overwhelming still hast the classic awful humor of mudasheep but is ok if u ask me, after this one things just got worse for HQ mods but as I said i’ll wait untill the sunrrise review comes to explain my reasons full fill.
The aero labirynth was maybe the best and most inovative part of the present deliver.
Oh and the story is sweet and as Phillip said:
the word rethoric explains pretty well why HQ got wasted and really annoying at the last mod of the saga.
My first time playing this one, and I really didn’t enjoy it.
This is easily the worst of the four mods in my opinion. It lacked many things that the other ones had. First of all the humor was incredibly poor and was one of the major reasons I loved the HQ series, secondly there was little music which really made the mod bland and boring and thirdly it was so frustrating.
At the start we have to wait for a really long time for something to happen, then we have some annoying puzzle that requires you to go along a thin white path. Overall, this probably took me 10 minutes and I didn’t enjoy that at all. Next thing worth mentioning was the path that lead to the moon, which can be seen in the main screenshot. [spoiler]As you walk down it you hear an ear splitting scream (repeated later), and as I had my volume turned up high I didn’t like it. One thing I liked about Halfquake was the way they could make something a little scary (The beginning of Halfquake: Sunrise for example) without doing anything that could potentially hurt your ears.[/spoiler] After this we get some horrible maze which is hugely frustrating, and then after that we have another short wait followed by what is quite possibly the most annoying puzzle in the Halfquake series. It has to be that or that one where you have to press those buttons to fold arms in that moving thing during HQ:S.
Also, I didn’t think this was sadist like the other ones were. I think I only died once in the entire mod, and that was from fall damage at the beginning. The ending was a huge disappointment too, and that was just more fuel for me to dislike the mod.
Overall, this mod should only be played by HQ fans.
Very short, The Present is a gift for those who enjoyed HQA. Black and white, and green, it will propose some puzzles but no combat. Sadistic steeplechases, glass labyrinth, “mind the steps”. You will have to go through all these obstacles to have a chance to reach the present.
Die it if you want more dying.
-For no reason I wanted to try this on WON but oddly it didn’t show up on the menu (HQA showed up but not The present)
-Huh. Harmless green spikes
-I’m a dragon
-wait, is that dragan? Awesome
-Hehe. Another HQA reference.
-Woah did the victim just take drugs? (patience reference :P)
-SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCEEEEE!!!
-Donnie Darko?
-You spin me right round baby…
-NOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOT THE PRESENT!
Overall: Short but Sweet
I think there’s something about that in the readme. Did you check?
Nah I just used Steam.
Sure, this short pack looks like Half-Quake: Amen, but simply put, it’s missing the cleverness and style.
For the most part, I didn’t find the puzzles in The Present to be very interesting. There are of course some tricky jumping puzzles (wouldn’t be HQ without them), and a couple of follow-the-line-exactly areas. I can’t really even call most of these puzzles, they were just tedious ways to restrict your movement. The one puzzle I thought was clever (albeit still frustrating) was the invisible maze area, where you get only glances from time to time where the dead ends are. The typical HQ humor and story are both absent too.
Half-Quake: Amen fans might enjoy this, but only if they don’t go in expecting the same originality and quality of the stuff in HQA. It just doesn’t hold up.
Body armour on, check! Tin helmet on, check! And to be absolutely clear I only played it because it is part of a PP event!!!
The first part walking the line (I preferred the Johnny Cash version) did indeed drag-on and to have it repeated in another part was really a waste of time. Mind the steps was near impossible but I did it, but the invisible maze was probably the nearest I came to changing my overall view of the series so far. After playing Amen this was just same old, same old and could just as easily been incorporated in to Amen as I sure those who enjoyed it would have liked something longer.
I can only base my opinion on two overall factors:
Did I enjoy — No
Did I have any fun – No
Well, at least you tried and thanks for that.
HAHA me too 🙂
Dont take this one too seriously, it was stomped out of the ground in a few days to celebrate the HQ anniversary with the fans. I’d call it a map pack or DLC, not really a mod or anything comparable to the original series. I also wouldnt really recommend it except if you want to call yourself a real HQ fan. Props for anyone who can find the secret haha.
Yeah it’s that short, nothing to lose here, it’s pretty solid, but nothing special either.
Manually
Hard
30 Minutes
Very Good
Manually
Medium
2 Hours
Well the Present Part is the worst part. Still you get your note. Even if it’s just a few levels. I keep dying because of you, everything is dark and I keep dying like an idiot. What’s wrong with me? Why am I constantly falling to the ground and scream out that I took damage and my body is gone? Where is my body? Only my soul remains, nothing else. Someone can find my body? What kind of joke is that?
Manually
Hard
20 Minutes