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Invasion
Review by TheAwake, January 19th 2004, 00:43:30
Introduction:
Well heres another review of a well done Half-Life Mod, which is called Invasion. Actually, the first thing that comes to my mind, is that this mod is made by a french modding team. The whole mod is defintitly affected by the home country of it's developers, and believe me, you'll notice it. The setup dialog is completely in french, and also the menu after the first run. You can switch between 4 (!) languages but there are still some menu elements displayed in french. Besides that, all sound files are of course in (guess what) french. That means you will have to read subtitles while the scientists talk to you. Since I can talk french, I understood most things, but you might have some troubles if you cant understand that language.

But nevertheless, this seems to belong to that country (Ahh, vous êtez un cheateur ^^) so I'll go on with the game itself. The setting is right after the Gman gives you the choice of what to do (at the end of half-Life), but actually some scientist rescue you from the Gman's evil plans. Now you're in the action again, new interface, new weapons and some other additional changes which make the old engine look better once more. For example Human Grunts have a flashlight now (very useful for aiming at them)

Gameplay:
Well the new weapons look nice, and most of them are quite useful. The new sniperrifle soon became my best friend, though there was not very much ammo for it. Also the new hostile npcs (including a RPG Grunt) can be very hurtfull. Besides that, the mod features a long scene where you can control a tank and blow some hostile buildings and grunts away. This is much fun! The story is not very unusual, and the level design is nice, and the riddles are really tough. So...Not much to say in this part. I'd call it a solid mod. Its nicely done, you'll need your time to complete it, and it is not the usual "Oh grunts again, well some headshots and they're gone"

Graphics:
The new weapons look really good, and the new enemies are also well done. The leveldesign varies, but it doesnt "leave" the original HL athmosphere, so you'll feel at home all the time. The architecture is also well done, and sometimes you'll really have to use her, for example at one point where you'll have to climb up on the fassade of a huge house to avoid being seen by the security cameras (see screenshot).

Sound:
Well besides the french dialogues ^^ there were not many changes. Of course the new guns also have new sounds, and propably the team replaced some Half-Life sounds, but I didnt notice it while playing the mod, so I wouldnt call the sound changes "outstanding".
BUT theres also music (which I dont count as "sound"), and that is (though it is quite loud) kinda nice and suitable. Of course not as much as in HQA, but its much tough, so...another positive aspect.

Summary:
Summing up, the mod is well done and offers many hours of nice gaming. Its a very serious and realistic story, and well...let me say we could argue about the ending.
note: Since the mod developers had the outstanding idea to disable the cheats (actually entering "god" into the console causes the game to quit), all screenshots included in this review are taken from the mod's site, because I really didnt want to complete the mod again, just for being able to review it. I think they went too far with that step. I mean..its a SP Mod so you cant harm other players with cheating. And the ones who cheat just ruin their game.

Mon dieu, c'est une invasion!^^
Overall Rating:
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 9
Sound: 7
----------------
Total: 8


Light the torch

My new friend

Burn, Baby, Burn!

Da tank, yo!

A GODDAMMIN riddlesite^^

Links:
>The Mod's homepage
>A walktrough made by Hangar16.com (I also had to use it sometimes)
Rating:
How readers rate this Review: 8.57/10 (7 votes)
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