Basic Details
- Title: McBeth
- File Name: hl1-sp-mcbeth.7z
- Original File Name: mcbeth.exe
- Size : 3.91Mb
- Author: Chris McMath
- Date Released: 06 August 2000
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 2 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 2 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 44 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 25 Mins by
Longest: 1 Hours, 3 Mins by monster_urby
Total Time Played: 1 Hours, 28 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 2 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 44 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 25 Mins by
Longest: 1 Hours, 3 Mins by monster_urby
Total Time Played: 1 Hours, 28 Mins
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Difficult as hell, but I liked it anyway. It well mapped, it’s not to sadist and is short, so you’ll not suffer too much. The end and the last *AHEM* enemy are an unusual challenge, an intersting one.
3.5/5
Another one of those short, but good mods. A few creative ideas are present, for example, early on, there’s a… ‘reactive” sewer system.
However, I did notice a strange inconsistency. Some health packs grant you 10 health per pick-up, but some also give 20? Strange…
In a nutshell, nothing to brag about, but it’s still a decent, if short mod.
7/10
Hitler?!
The absence of a save feature makes this unplayable for me.
short but ok/no name or readme file.
Short mod, about 30-45 mins play.
Good environments, textures and lighting. It has a story and an ending.
Lots of cut scenes at the start. Very hard end fight.
Shawn, Saves as normal with F6 and Named save.
mel, the text file is in the install folder after you’ve installed with the exe. It’s also available from a button on the installer dialogue.
Ah I remember this mod… This was probably one of the first real good mods to get released for hl1 back then.
It has indeed a great story and the mapping considering the time it was when hl1 was still pretty new for everyone is totally fine… If you’ve never played it give it a shot. You won’t regret it.
The only negative thing for me is that it is a little hard at some locations. Some more med packs or good weapons wouldn’t have hurt. Never the less great mod.
My goodness, I’m speechless.. Sorry, I know it’s old but this time that’s no excuse, it’s just horrible!
Such a pity as it indeed began so nice, cutscene, story and then… ruining it all :/
This mod is undescribeable – in a bad way. To finish it I cheated as the difficulty is ridiculous high and there are some needed weapons missing (shotgun, magnum, maybe a #4 weapon)
I think I can say it’s in the top 3 of the worst mods I’ve played this year, and in the top 20 of the worst mods ever… guess that’s clearly enough, so save your time, do NOT play this, seriously!
Pro’s:
-Beginning (only) and story, cutscenes
-Lot action
-Some (mean) scripts
-A few, easy puzzles
-Helpful text messages until…
-(At least one) secret area(s), can’t remember if there are more than one
Con’s:
-Illogical, silly leveldesign but good lighting, some nice textures
-Outrageous difficulty —> baaaad balancing
-Short playtime
-Mean-placed or spawning / scripted enemies
-Less weapons / ammo until the very end
-Gameplay at all / odd feeling
-Falling damage
-Terrible music in intro (Oh hi, “Dance Machine” -,-)
Just avoid it!
McBeth is a relatively short Half-Life pack from first-time author Chris McMath. Overall, it is a pretty good effort, and although there were a couple of amateur mistakes, McBeth is certainly a solid episode that I enjoyed playing.
The story is related to you through in-game text (albeit full of spelling errors) throughout the maps, so I won’t detail the background here. Suffice it to say that you are a Good Guy™, and you are out to foil the plans of the Bad Guy™. In your way are a good mix of enemies, both human and alien. The combat is merely fair in McBeth; I felt only a couple of sections were even mildly challenging. If you are a skilled player, I definitely suggest playing on the difficult setting. The final battle is clever, if rather repetitive, and it is pretty challenging as well.
The map construction is good, but some of the layouts could be improved in my opinion – the flow is very linear. The architecture is decent, with the area near the end looking especially good. I was impressed, however, with the playability of all sections of McBeth – the r_speeds were good everywhere, which is never a given in first-time maps.
Another aspect of McBeth I liked was the story. Some maps have no background whatsoever, and some have engaging storylines. McBeth falls somewhere in between, but the story was logical and well-conveyed. The introductory sequence is clever as well, but with some really annoying camera work.
I don’t really have any major gripes about this map. Many of the errors I found were minor and don’t detract much from the experience. An example is the use of steam in the opening sequence – they just don’t look right, which is easily correctable in the settings used in Worldcraft for the steam sprite. Another problem I encountered was the use of invisible ‘clip’ brushes, which are essentially invisible walls that prevent the player from going into a certain area. There were at least 2 places that the player logically could have explored, except for the clip brushes preventing access. It’s not a huge error, but it detracts from the player’s immersion when such tricks are used.
I am looking forward to whatever Chris McMath produces in the future. His debut is a good episode, not without its problems, but overall fairly enjoyable. It’s short, but my advice is to give it a try.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Saturday, 28th October, 2000 by Unquenque.
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.
McBeth was an incredibly frustrating experience for me. I make it a point nowadays to play through Half-Life mods on the hardest difficulty setting and it’s often very apparent when a mod hasn’t been tested on Hard. McBeth is downright impossible on Hard.
Health kits are incredibly scarce and even when you do find one it provides a measly 5HP. I spent the majority of the mod below 50HP and was almost always out of ammo. Every single Alien Grunt in this mod is an obstacle to work around, rather than an enemy to be killed. At one point I was expected to take out three assassins with 12HP and one clip of 9mmAR ammo. I wound up using Godmode to take out the last one.
Aside from the insane difficulty, the mod doesn’t play particularly well either. Most of the levels involve incredibly tight spaces which constantly impede your movement. In addition to that, the brushwork is also a little shoddy, with multiple instances of z-fighting throughout.
Finally, a good portion of the mod is cutscenes cutscenes cutscenes, as well as text prompts in place of voice acting. You’re often getting a message from your HQ or GMan WHILST in a firefight, which means its often impossible to keep track of whatever plot may be getting shot at you.
I’ve no idea why the GMan is using a rough Hitler skin… He’s still referred to as “GMan” so that’s just odd.
Maybe think twice about this one… or at least play on Easy.
Manually
Hard
1 Hour, 3 Minutes