Introduction
This review is way overdue, sitting in my to-do list for too long. Despite the fact I reinstalled the game just to give this one a spin upon its release. Unlike most levels released for Quake 3 that go for the expected multiplayer gameplay, this one is a singleplayer experience. Yes, you heard that right. Singleplayer. Your goal won’t be fighting against any foes this time however, but to solve several puzzles and to search the interior for ten secret switches scatter across the fortress to complete your quest.

Review
It’s very rare to see a singleplayer level released for Quake 3, the last I remember playing being The Dark Conjunction. As such, it was a nice surprise, especially since I personally enjoy puzzle based gameplay. The author has provided notes on how the map is intended to be played, which can be found by following the download link. The puzzle aspect is usually performed by pressing nearby switches in a particular sequence, whether it’s getting the correct timing or pushing them in a certain order to solve whatever the puzzle may be. The puzzles themselves may not seem very special, but considering the game they were made for, the simplism works wonders here. The overall objective is to solve these puzzles to allow further access into the fortress. This then allows you more areas to find those hidden skull switches required to complete the level. There were plenty of times that had me stuck wondering what I was doing wrong, but visuals cues can be found with some careful inspection.

There’s a golden rule that seems to be forgotten at times which will apply a lot throughout the halls of this fortress. That rule is to look above you. There were several moments during my playthrough I forget about doing this, causing me to roam around lost as to what I should be doing next, otherwise the gameplay will become a much more smoother ride. The switches are made to stand out a little more amongst the other details, whether it’s a lever, skull face or wooden block with red rings painted on it. The latter two are cleverly hidden, placed in spots you wouldn’t think to look in other levels. Having some experience with typical Quake secret switches can also help here, using similar patterns here and there.

There is an amazing attention to detail, from the overall design to all the smaller stuff going on such as the arrangement of books, anything related to electronics and minor damage throughout the building. From the moment you start and gaze at the lovely scene within the portal, up until the area the map finishes, there is a consistence with quality and style that sticks with the experience. The level uses a mixture of wood and brick to create a large fortress on top of a mountain, with many angular and hexagonal shaped rooms. There is plenty of height differences and floors to access to add variety to the layout, and many windows to check the view outside making the level feel much more vast. The texturing and choices made for a colour scheme really brings the level to life, added together with the warm, well lit locations and the clean level construction, composes each overall scene into lovely eye candy.

Conclusion
Provides a simple puzzle based singlepayer experience, although there may be times you’ll get stuck, visual cues will help put you back on track. Level design is amazing, great work on the texturing, lighting and construction with a good attention to detail and polish.

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Introduction
What happens if you were to ignore the events that took place in the sequels to Half Life as if they never happened? What happens if Freeman was never put into a long stasis at the end of the game, only to return to Black Mesa once more, to witness the events that take place after his long slumber? One answer to those questions is explored in this ten level journey, where Freeman’s fate has been reversed.

Review
The mod starts off with a short camera sequence, flying through a small part of the Black Mesa facility, showing off some dead bodies, a bit of blood, while explaining some background information prior to Freeman teleporting into a corridor. This very scene could have started off by showing what happens, rather than telling it, might have made it a little more interesting. When you finally take control of Freeman, you’re unarmed. But never fear, the crowbar is conveniently a few steps away. The combat throughout each level is pretty standard, but I couldn’t help feel it was a little dull. Part of that might be my own bias however, since I’ve been finding the general combat in the Half Life series lacking in terms of fun lately. There is a nice change from having the usual headcrab waiting to jump for you in a ventilation shaft, time and time again. This mod seemed to avoid that. There were very little headcrabs surprisingly, mostly resorting to alien slaves and human grunts. There was never a problem in the ammo department, plenty around and stuff to pick from dead soldiers. On the other hand, you got a majority of you health and armour from the supply units, the first being quite a distance away, but nothing too troublesome.

The general gameplay doesn’t really involve much, which consists of you running from area to area to find switches to push or a vent you can access to get to new locations. There are four specific sections, starting from Black Mesa, then a city, some military base and a space fortress, each one designed to fit it’s specific theme and has that clean style that Mikko uses from his Duke levels. The overall design is decent with some neat looking areas, which follows through with a simplistic, Valve-like presentation. But the quality does unfortunately suffer some problems from time to time. There are a few minor issues present such as, a lack of door lip causing z-fighting during the early stages, an elevator interior with no switch to indicate how it would be used and a swing door that would clip through the wall. With those aside, many of the rooms that you’ll access will look either empty or the walls are too flat making them feel boxy. Several corridors or large rooms with little in the way of interesting visuals and rely too much on simple objects as detail. And then you come across better locations. The city location is possibly one of those sections, both during day and night. And while the space fortress is a neat finale with a fitting choice of textures, the initial gameplay at hand is very lacking and anti-climatic, where all you do is push a switch here, a switch there, add a few more and polish it off with a tiny fight at the end.

Conclusion
The quality suffers here and there in terms gameplay and design, but there are some good looking areas and the experience is decent, if a little dull at times.

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Introduction
It’s been quite a long time since I last played through the previous halfquake titles, the second becoming one of my favourite releases for Half Life. The representation through style, atmosphere and its own soundtrack was a refreshing change. Then out comes this third instalment, perking my interests to jump right back into the sadistic world of halfquake once more. The insanity returns.

Review
You will once again take your role as another victim, to hopelessly navigate through the structure of the halfquake institute, whose sole purpose is to simply entertain. And die at the end. This instalment of the halfquake series is much more focused on the aspects of puzzle solving intertwined with many of the traps spread across each level. And there’s a lot of variation in the initial design of each puzzle that keeps the experience fresh, from logic to jumping puzzles. The latter will probably become your main source of nightmares, if not for the engines annoying habits. You even get a choice of routes here and there. But death is inevitable! I found myself liking a majority of the puzzles, there’s some clever stuff there for Half Life standards, such as the music puzzle. Unlike the previous titles of halfquake, there is very little in terms of action and practically no enemies to fight against this time around. As a whole however, the experience found throughout Sunrise is a lot more balanced and polished compared to the previous titles. Though I still forget how much life insurance I had to take out.

I recognise the halfquake series for its overall style present in each of the titles. The first started it off with the theme of sadistic traps and dangers inspired from Quake. Amen further pushes this by creating a fresh visual style and representation through the simplistic nature of textures and level design. It had atmosphere, created through a small soundtrack of its own and comes complete with satire humour. Sunrise brings many elements back. The general visual theme this time makes use of simple, grayscale textures and a level design with a detailed yet clean construction. Even those who have played through the previous two will find some nice surprises later on. Lighting however seemed to be very dark, at least on my CRT, I had to resort to forcing the gamma higher through the driver control panel.

One of the bigger aspects that create the atmosphere and mood in Sunrise is the soundtrack, complete with a mix of lyrical and instrumental through piano, acoustic guitar and others. This was a big part of Amen I enjoyed and continues to do an even better job in Sunrise. I even came across one of the best and most hilarious loading sequences I have ever encountered. The title music, ‘Eye of the Storm’ really sets the overall mood quite well, although being a simplistic tune. ‘Madvertize’ is quite an ironic piece, a somewhat relaxing listening experience. Despite having some different composers, every track blends quite well with the halfquake world and mood. The OST is available for download on the official site if you feel like checking it out.

The creation of mood doesn’t just end there either, as each level is packed with several ambient sounds, almost as if stuff is crawling through the walls or some odd things are taking place elsewhere, echoing through the walls of the institute. Even general sounds of the doors opening or mechanics slamming about can add a threatening vibe, which really kept me tense at all moments, thinking that something is going to poke and prod me at any moment. Half the time I felt like I was really there, desperately trying to time a certain puzzle correctly so my legs didn’t turn into paper. The satire conversations between the workers can be pretty amusing too, even dropping hints how exactly the other titles link up to Sunrise and how the institute works. The atmosphere and tone really hasn’t changed too much from Amen, but I do miss the moments you got to go ‘outdoors’. So as a whole, the main complex that Sunrise takes place in feels more claustrophobic, many tight spaces with sharp objects millimetres from your eyes.

Conclusion
Sunrise is a success in that it continues to do what I loved about halfquake amen, and expanding on it with a much better soundtrack and more polished gameplay and level design. The lack of fighting really helps keep a focus on the puzzles and traps, which I favour a lot more. Despite dying a lot, I did have more fun trying to solve each of the areas than avoiding enemy attacks. Overall, a nicer balance and lots of variety.

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Award

Introduction
Not heard from Sam since I turned down the Edridge job as too risky. Now I’m low on funds and have no choice. A gem called the Heart of Lone Salvation which they say brings good luck – but only once. Sounds foolish but who cares? Worth a fortune on the thieves’ market if I can get inside Edridge Hall – and Lord Edridge is very wealthy. Sam knew him from the old days as a common lifter who made good when he found the Heart. It’s a beautiful night – dank, cold; fog’s rolling in; maybe Edridge’s luck is about to run out.

Gameplay
I haven’t played TDM for a short while, and with the release of v1.01 not long ago, I decided to jump back in with this one. Putting aside some of my problems with the AI, I rather enjoyed almost every moment of this mission, taking it slow and thoroughly searching every room I came across. There are a couple of alternate routes, some scenarios to use item manipulation and a lot of secrets. 13 of them! There’s plenty of space for you to move around, places to hide such as the shelving units and enough dark corners to scurry into. Even in those long corridors that appear to be well lit. I didn’t have too much trouble, enough to complete the optional ghosting objective and only twice I needed to use a water arrow to grab loot. The corridors however on the lower floor was shaped like a big, long square, which made the initial sneaking too similar on all sides; some variation in shape would have really spiced up the stealth when turning those corners. Despite this, the gameplay remains interesting, reading up on the various notes you come across and learning some dirty secrets going on in the manor. The additional quests you receive as you progress deeper keeps the immersion lasting that much more and the nifty mechanics shown when stealing the Heart has some promise for what furture releases may bring to us.

Design
The visuals are mostly mixed throughout the mission while using a simplistic approach to architecture. The lower areas of the manor represent the servant quarters quite nicely with the dirtier brickwork and darker lighting. The upper floor, however, consists of richly furnished and more colourful rooms with brighter lighting. Though there are some problems with the texturing. The mission mostly uses that large grey brick texture as the basic layer for the manor, but this got very repetitive and rather dull after a short while. The main hall itself is possibly the weakest room of the whole mission because of this. It’s very large but rather bare. There are some really good looking places however such as; the grand looking bathing suite adjacent to the Lady’s room; the area to steal the Heart, mixing nature with the indoors, adding a bizarre tone; the cellar with some neat choices for lighting; and the damp, foggy streets you start at creating a first impressing atmosphere.

Conclusion
The mission is immersive with a lot to do and plenty of secrets to look out for, but the visuals are rather mixed from good looking areas to average texturing.

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