All the latest hot mods, brought to you by the mad modder himself, Ashton Mills. This month we feature mods for Crysis Wars and the venerable Half Life 2.
If there's one thing that put Crytek on the map with Far Cry and later Crysis, it was the lushly detailed forest environments as an alternative FPS battleground from the greys and browns of iD's lineup. The tropical colourful regions seemed to pop out of your screen, and it takes a bit to top that visual style.
This is something which Outcast Oasis might well succeed at. Based around the original 1999 game Outcast, by Appeal, where Navy SEAL Cutter Slade is enlisted by the military for a secret project investigating parallel universes but ends up battling to save Earth, Outcast Oasis tries to re-vitalise the original game with a new plot and in the up-to-date Crysis Wars engine.
The backdrop for the story is Adelpha, a parallel Earth with a diverse range of life and environments, perfect for showing off the Crytek Cryengine 2. However, unlike Crysis, Outcast Oasis is action adventure - there is combat, but also a lot of dialogue and problem solving elements, and as Cutter you need to visit the various zones, broker agreements, and gain allies to eventually fight the main bad dude Faé Rhan (who reminds me a little of Ming; there are some interesting parallels to Flash Gordon in the game).
There aren't many mods out for the updated Crytek engine used in Crysis Wars (and Crysis Warhead), and although just a demo of the final mod there's still an hour of gameplay to be had. It's refreshing to see a different take on story and plot for a change, not to mention some new eye candy, and the authors promise that even if you're not familiar with Outcast you'll be able to dive right in.
Although Crysis Wars is required, you don't need the full version, as the trial will also allow you to play Outcast Oasis.
Good single player half mods are hard to find, but fortunately the sheer scope of the Half Life series means there's always plenty of modders giving it a go. And every now and then, gems like this rise to the surface.
Mission Improbable sees you playing as Gordon Freeman again, on your way to help out the resistance by re-activating a listening post that went dead. Making your way up to the precipitous lighthouse is initially quite easy, but once you get to activate the listening post, it gets a heck of a lot harder as Combine turn up in numbers to join your party.
As is often the case with mods, you often get to experience creativity in level design, puzzles, and enemies that you don't get with the original game. Here the author has a done a good job integrating traditional gameplay (don't forget to follow ladders around the cliff to find hidden ammo boxes) with new ideas, such as the listening post fight with a Combine Gunship while the whole structure crumbles beneath you.
There's also a great mixture of vast, beautiful environments along with confined, dark areas where inevitably you're jumped on at [i]just[/i] the wrong moment to scare your pants off. And while you start with a crowbar, pistol and machine gun you get to pick the full arsenal of weapons as you venture into the listening post compound. Which is fortunate, because you're going to end up needing them.
The only thing that Mission Improbable lacks is length. It's a fun but short tirade back to classic Half Life 2 gameplay, and although it's titled as part one of a three-part series, the next instalment hasn't appeared in a year. Here's hoping.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012