A rather generic: “You are sent in to some base to do some thing”.
It’s not exactly Black Mesa but it looks like it.
Take your time and look everywhere.
Basic Details
- Title: Unknown Faction
- File Name: hl1-sp-unknown-faction-v2.7z
- Original File Name: uf2.zip
- Size : 8.61Mb
- Author: Unknown
- Date Released: 21 January 2003
PlanetPhillip Download Servers
Installation Instructions
- Copy the uf folder into your Half-Life folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Unnown Faction should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Help page.
Screenshots
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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I do not know how there are no comments for this mod so curious, it is a rare and interesting mod. Little fighting but many puzzles and quite original.
I am trying to be fair with my recommendation and more than any other 100SDoN map I am curious to hear what PP readers think of this.
To be honest I hated it and spent too long noclipping through it. The reason was that more often than not I could figure out where to go and what to do.
I found the beginning with the HEV suit impossible, which put me in a bad mood.
The rest was just a jumble of levels with very mixed quality. I am sure that I played less than half of the maps, but it gets to the point where you just want to give up.
The mod NEEDS a walkthrough.
You may have more luck and fun than I did, which is why I gave it a MAYBE instead of an AVOID IT!
Pity, was this could have been interesting.
I’m stuck on the area that is shown in screenshot 32
I’ve tried everything and I can’t find where to go, even with noclip (the first time I’ve used it in this mod) so any help would be appreciated.
This mod is hard.
Have you tried the door, up by the ceiling turret? Not sure if that’s where you need to go.
[spoiler]You need to find the scientist in the canteen and bring him to the retinal scanner. He will open a door to the room with button that opens the elevator. Use the elevator to go to lower floor and find Barney, bring him in the elevator and go back up, then bring him to the big metal doors and he will open them. Go through the doors and the next map will load.[/spoiler]
Thanks EmoLevelDesigner, I would have never thought to do that. Unfortunately for me, there was a problem and I ended up having to spawn a Barney.
A very good idea but badly made.
I’ll be honest, I gave up during that section with the tram. my reason for giving up was because of the gamebreaking glitches. First of all, like what I said earlier ITT [spoiler]I had to spawn a Barney because the one below would get stuck when the lift reached the top.[/spoiler] Also during one of the maps not too far from that one [spoiler]there is another lift which has two boxes, and pushing them off the wrong side requires you to noclip up to the top.[/spoiler] I also noticed that the wall signs were not actually stuck to the wall.
After I had encountered these two problems I just gave up because I knew another area requiring me to cheat was going to happen. This was a really good idea for a mod but the execution of it was terrible.
“Avoid It!” unless you like mods where you have to cheat because you encounter glitches.
The story of this mod tells that 25 secret agents were sent to Black Mesa to take experimental weapons. We play as one of them. The mod starts with interesting but protracted truck ride. The truck eventually crash and we enter the complex.
In the storage the detail is minimal, the textures are stretched. The door to the elevator control room opens in your direction, so you need to quickly move back after using it. That’s why I recommend to simply go down without the elevator, especially considering that the elevator is slow. Then we’ll have to use crates as shields from turrets.
It is easy to miss the suit. Later there will be the corridor with radiation which looks like it’s possible to complete it without losing health, but it’s not possible.
Then there’s a boring and uninteresting labyrinth. It’s good that it’s not possible to get lost there.
Then there are some puzzles where we have to turn valves, try to use scanners and buttons, if we can’t do it ourselves, we search for scientists and guards and ask them to help.
There’s a quite interesting train ride (screenshots 41-44).
We fight soldiers only at first, so when we meet monsters, it’s an unusual feeling.
The tunnels with ichtyosaurs are a strange place. When I made it to the room with black lift, I pressed the button and the lift ascended, but the doors in the room didn’t open. Then I descended the lift and tried to jump down before it ascends. I managed to do it. After that, I saw a cutscene where the camera was on the lift and turned in different directions. It’s not possible to understand the meaning of this. But I completed the tunnels eventually. [spoiler]There’s a grate that opens if you use it [/spoiler]
Eventually I found myself in some boring labyrinths. You won’t be able to complete the lower floor without cheats if you won’t save the Barney from furnace fire. There are also some bug with scripts which may teleport you inside Barney or scientist when he is going to use scanner or button.
I liked the new train prefab on l3h1 map very much.
On the next level it’s possible to make the train ride right through the conveyor.
Then there’s another labyrinth which involves journey above the ceiling and fights with ninjas.
It’s just a typical too protracted mod, the only difference is that it contains some original ideas, difficult puzzles, and the way to progress is not obvious. You might advance far only to find yourself in dead end. This mod can be recommended only to players who like very hard puzzles.
I’m not saying this has bugs, but I’ve just called Rentokill!
The truck ride at the beginning should have been a clue, I nearly went to sleep before it finished. Looking at the screenshots I assume I’ve made it about half way but I can’t (don’t want to) continue. If I hadn’t learnt to use cheats a few weeks ago I probably would have spent 5 minutes after the truck ride and ditched it (not given up, there’s a difference).
To use the style of Edmund Blackadder “it’s more buggy than a buggy thing”.
I presume Phillip gave up early in this mod too because the last screenshot was nowhere near the end of the game. Only about 1/3 of the mod.
Also I forgot to mention this before (your comment just reminded me) that you can jump out of both the ride at the beginning and the tram during the outside section towards the end of the mod. This is obviously not meant to happen on either occasion.
This mod is far from being polished but there were enough interesting puzzles and locations for me to say that I enjoyed this one, somewhat.
The main focus of the mod is exploration and puzzle solving, usually both combined. I found that nearly all the puzzles involved opening various doors in order to move further into the complex but I thought there was enough variety in the solutions that it didn’t seem too repetitive. There were also plenty of enemies scattered about so that you don’t become too bored hunting for buttons or security guards.
I think the biggest problem with some of the puzzles was that the solution was very obtuse. I sometimes would be searching for a button that turned out to be a slightly different wall texture, with little indication that it was in fact a button the needed to be pressed. Other times, I would find a button, press it and then I would need to search around to see what it had actually done, only to find that it had done something undesirable. I think that better indications of what I need to find and where to find it would help tremendously, as well giving the player a better indication of what they have just done when they press random buttons they happen upon.
Another big problem was that once I had solved a fairly complex puzzle, I would then need to back track through four to five maps to an obscure door that I had ignored. Again, a clear indication that a particular locked door will be opened or has opened when I do something else would save the player from wandering around lost.
Overall, I felt the puzzles were entertaining and I felt pretty good once I had worked out what needed to be done.
But as much as I enjoyed the multi-tiered puzzles, I felt that the inconsistency with the level design quality detracted from the overall feel. Some areas were intricately detailed, while others we left as wide open spaces and felt really bland. I would say that on average the mapping level is mediocre to poor.
The inconsistencies also stretched to the conventions used through the mod. Things like vent covers were breakable in some parts while in others using the cover would open it. So I felt extremely confused in certain sections, only to find that the way I originally thought was the way out was in fact true but it hadn’t worked because I was trying to break the hatch instead of opening it.
There were also plenty of bugs that I encounter that required the use of noclip or reload of a past save. There are plenty of autosaves that might help if you get stuck but even some of those were bugged.
The most annoying one was with the lifts. Every time I went down a lift I would get stuck in the floor and then I would need to noclip out. I found that if you jump while the lift goes down you can sometimes avoid getting stuck but it’s best if it didn’t occur in the first place.
In the end, I found that there were so many faults that it almost cancelled out any fun I may have had.
For those that are impatient/ don’t have time or don’t enjoy solving obtuse multi-layered puzzles, I would give this one a wide berth. However, if you can put up with lacklustre mapping and don’t mind feeling lost for large portions of time as well as enjoy a bit of thinking and odd bits of combat, then you might enjoy this one.
Perhaps there has never been a struggle to complete a Half-Life mod as epic as the case of Unq vs. Unknown Faction. It was a lengthy struggle, through unmarked buttons that did who-knows-what, to buttons that look nothing like buttons so that I ended up pressing “use” on every section of wall that stood out from its surroundings. Through broken scientist and Barney scripts, to an underwater section with 4 ichthyosaurs. Through all 30 mind-numbing maps.
The good aspect of this pack is the puzzle design, with some caveats. It does mix things up well, with some clever puzzles. Two examples I liked were the lowering of the radioactive liquid so that your train could proceed, and the satchel charge planted in the hallway that forces you to kill the assassin behind the door with the tau cannon to prevent her from blowing you up. But by and large the puzzles are frustrating exercises in patience and button-hunting.
There are many negatives to this pack but the major one is simply its length. It probably should have been 75% smaller, and it would have a chance at being enjoyable. Also, polish is totally lacking and there are just poor design and puzzle decisions made throughout.
It was a complete grind to finish this pack, and even then I was forced to cheat through obviously broken scripts and events. Whether it’s the author or Steam to blame for things being broken, it doesn’t matter in the end. Don’t play this.
Ok so here we have at last! my last review for the 100 DoN in PP!!! YAY!! 🙂 altough is sadly a bad terrible review too 🙁
This is only for real adict hardcore HL Highest hectic maps and mods fans, I mean this mod was for sure the longest in the 100 DoN and I could say this was even so much more annoying than Assault in Roswell mod, this mod was real strugle, so hectic and complicated as u can imagine, is the kind of mod that makes the player claim for noclip at almost 80 percent along the gameplay!!, so u can imagine that, here the backtracking resource and my most hated ennemy in hl layouts is used almost offensively in excess!!!, and therefore that ruins the gameplay COMPLETELY!!, plus that we have to add that we have plenety of doors and buttons not clearly indicated, and dead end paths more than 3 times!!!!, so that just suck!.
I ended this mod just by mere luck, using noclip, in many parts,not at the end, but i’d say eventhough there were some interesting parts like the aqua maps with those dam’ichantosaurs, this mod is not worthy at all, I tought to rate it as Think Twice while I was writing this lines, but thinkin it really well im going to give it a serious AVOID IT!!!, I mean Rogat is a baby sitin” job compared to this mod mess we have here, so is the longest and also the most unworthy mod in this 100 DoN, I mean this mod have all the things and formulas for disaster that I hate and I can imagine for a mod, so thats it is the longest and the worse mod for the 100 DoN, so unless u are a sadistic masochist and love to torture your brain real bad, u can play this terrible mod, and only I wish u luck, so u can find the tank at the last map that get ur gamer ass out of there and forget this terrible mod for ever.
Sorry but I seriously don’t like it at all my beloved HL soulfriends!!!!!
Uff..what a weird mod! I will neglect the story here now as it’s not really important.
There are some good puzzles and a few new design features but all in all it’s just boring.
The negatives easily surpass the positives here, just see below..
Pro’s:
-Long playtime (~2 hours)
-Some quite good puzzles (but not all are logical)
-Some good mapping, layouts – also outdoor areas
-A few nice scripts
-Tram rides
-Quite many weapons (but not that much combat, except for the last third)
Con’s:
-No fun at all, maybe except for the first third
-Bugs (elevator, scripts, graphics, etc.)
-Neglectable story
-Dead ends
-No HEV at start (you have to avoid turrets before getting it)
-Some ridicilous and / or illogical triggers / puzzles / enemy placement / etc.
-Mostly boring level design
-Less combat in total
LOL, I spent about 3 days for playing this mod on hard, but I finally managed to find a way to solve all puzzles and bypass all bugs 😀 . So I give this mod 3 stars because some parts were interesting, although the mapping in overall is very poor and there are a lot of places to get stuck.
By the way, there is a name of creator in the final of the mod – MurF.
I’m the author of this mod. I’m very surprised to see that people are still playing it years later! It was a high school project that I made while learning 3D graphics and it certainly did need more polishing. Without proper testing, there are areas that can require a restart if the button multisources get activated in a different order. I also didn’t understand the concept of resolution so the custom textures used on the signs are very low-res. (12-8 pixels high in some cases) Since the signs are largely unreadable, puzzles become hard for the wrong reasons. The level design gets more complicated towards the end of the mod because, in the beginning, I just didn’t know any better.
With help from the 69th vlatitude, I was able to learn the design in WorldCraft and proceed into a career for game arts. During college I drew up plans to redo this and eliminate a lot of the bugs and redundant areas, but never had the time.
There are some scripted behaviors for the monsters that might have been removed on the HD update of Half-Life and Steam.
Thank you for suffering through it though. It was an amazing learning experience for me and it wouldn’t have happened if Valve didn’t include WorldCraft on the disk.
Mike Forbes
What the hell. What is this mod.
In the beginning, we are on a van and the story is explained to us. Though, the sky is textureless and I could easily jump off the window. Not a good sign.
Then, the van crashes and we have to escape a turret. I didn’t find the HEV suit and after a while, I come to a door where there’s a button to lower a platform. The door wouldn’t open. Then, I COULD ACTUALLY PRESS THE BUTTON FROM THE GLASS. NO JOKING. I gave up after this point.
It looks like a decent mod, but is unfortunately not that good.
Think Twice.
Some puzzles took to long for me to solve. That made it boring for me and I stopped playing. The concept is very interesting, but the execution isn’t that polished.