In Halfquake your purpose is to get killed in most ridiculous ways for the sole purpose of entertaining your spectators. You might get weapons to fight your way through, but you will never be able to escape. You're not here to win. You are here to die. Halfquake Trilogy combines the Half-Life modifications Halfquake (2001), Halfquake Amen (2002) and Halfquake Sunrise (2010), each part having its own distinct style.
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You are here to die...
"You are here to be punished"
The entire Halfquake trilogy is a product of its time above all else, and I think it's entirely too easy for newer players to write this entire trilogy off for a number of reasons. It's a good example of “If you don't like me at my worst, then you can't handle me at my best.” Though, that isn't to say I can't understand why people would be scared off by Halfquake. This whole trilogy remains almost unfairly hard throughout, which is in line with the themes of sadism that the trilogy dabbles in. Released in April 2001, this Half-Life mod predates something like the cult classic freeware title 'I Wanna Be The Guy' by a 6-ish year margin. It's from a whole different culture & era of the internet and content creation altogether. While this shouldn't totally exonerate it from criticism altogether, I do think it should affect how we view these titles. The first mod was released almost two & a half years after Half-Life as the brainchild of a dev small team of friends. A feat when compared to in short: This impressive display of modding prowess deserves attention.
That being said, Halfquake 1 is probably my least favorite of the trilogy. Though in spite of this, I won't say I hate it. They were gaining their footing with full-scale modding in Half-Life. Being the least artistic of the trilogy, the first game feels very safe in regard to its visuals. It rarely ever scrapes the tip of extravagance like later entries. That being said, I would suggest checking out the original release for the first halfquake game on ModDB for the original soundtrack there. Its use of copyrighted material is a gift that keeps on giving. All of it did get replaced well enough in the Steam release. I feel like something got lost in the process. Halfquake 1 wore its influences on its shoulder, plus its complete experience. Which I consider a rarity among its kind (Half-Life mods).
The visuals of each entry in the trilogy are a spectacle to behold. Amen alone deserves every right to be a cult classic the most of the three installments. Its simplistic black & white environments give the whole game an edgy art-house vibe, and it shows the growth of the creators. The first Halfquake is bare-bones by comparison. The original soundtracks are all exceptional. Amen's especially stands out to me as a personal favorite. The gameplay feels more involved than it was with the previous title. The set pieces sprinkled throughout felt truly memorable. Between the puzzles and combat encounters, I felt as if I were playing a true cult classic. Halfquake Amen is absolutely my favorite in the trilogy. A concept I have to highlight is 'Patience', where the game forces you to wait for 15-ish minutes for the level transition while giving you full control of your character, and in their defense they give you a heads up pretty far in advance towards the start of the game. So by the time I came by that section, I felt prepared for it. I might even consider the wait a breather from all the sadistic, puzzle-solving action. Speaking of, I quite enjoyed a majority of the combat moments here. This game gave me a new appreciation for Half-Life's crossbow. I never actually noticed the model for that weapon actually bent when you reload it.
That is the hallmark of a good game mod. It should give you an appreciation for the source material. A good mod ought to extenuate the strengths of a good game, be it the smaller or major details! And I'll repeat myself again and say I think that Halfquake gets written off a lot due to its difficulty, but it is a solid game on its own. The save scumming can be a little annoying at times, but with as fast as quick-saving & quick-loading can be, I'd hardly consider it as intrusive as newer games make it out to be. It takes less than a second to quick-save and a little more than a second to quick-load. And if you can't overlook that type of gameplay, then you'll filter yourself out of some great experiences.
In spite of all the praise I give the first two installments, the third installment, Sunrise, is where the grace I'll give these games reaches its absolute limit. It was the only title I was unable to complete, as I found myself finally succumbing to the difficulty. However, this is more because of the design philosophy of Sunrise. Both Halfquake 1 and Amen were faster-paced and broke up the puzzle-solving with combat encounters. However, it seems like Sunrise has nothing of the sort. I'll give the aesthetic its due. Sunrise is a very nice-looking game if a bit on the drier side. The puzzle designs and layouts were intuitive, and I felt pretty involved with the process. This was a very intense game at its best. I felt the tension of each dangerous trap I had to navigate my way out of. However, this game felt the most claustrophobic of the three titles. Half-Life's fast and tight movement was not meant for this kind of level design. It lent itself more to the style of gameplay found in the first two titles. Halfquake 1 & Amen were looser games that allowed for freer movement from start to finish. With Sunrise, the corridors were so tight I found the intense movement to be more of a detriment to the navigation than anything. Additionally, Halfquake Sunrise's lack of combat gave me a lot less patience to deal with the puzzles. The constant tension lacked a substantial pay-off, and I understand one of the core concepts of Halfquake as a series is sadism, but I feel like the exploration peaked with Amen.
Of the three games, if I had to pick one as an absolute must-play, it would be Amen. It's such a well-put-together project, and it feels like the peak of the dev team's talent when it comes to Half-Life modding. The emptiness and message that life itself is sadistic above all else came off as heartfelt. It's among my top 10 games of all time.
>)
The entire Halfquake trilogy is a product of its time above all else, and I think it's entirely too easy for newer players to write this entire trilogy off for a number of reasons. It's a good example of “If you don't like me at my worst, then you can't handle me at my best.” Though, that isn't to say I can't understand why people would be scared off by Halfquake. This whole trilogy remains almost unfairly hard throughout, which is in line with the themes of sadism that the trilogy dabbles in. Released in April 2001, this Half-Life mod predates something like the cult classic freeware title 'I Wanna Be The Guy' by a 6-ish year margin. It's from a whole different culture & era of the internet and content creation altogether. While this shouldn't totally exonerate it from criticism altogether, I do think it should affect how we view these titles. The first mod was released almost two & a half years after Half-Life as the brainchild of a dev small team of friends. A feat when compared to in short: This impressive display of modding prowess deserves attention.
That being said, Halfquake 1 is probably my least favorite of the trilogy. Though in spite of this, I won't say I hate it. They were gaining their footing with full-scale modding in Half-Life. Being the least artistic of the trilogy, the first game feels very safe in regard to its visuals. It rarely ever scrapes the tip of extravagance like later entries. That being said, I would suggest checking out the original release for the first halfquake game on ModDB for the original soundtrack there. Its use of copyrighted material is a gift that keeps on giving. All of it did get replaced well enough in the Steam release. I feel like something got lost in the process. Halfquake 1 wore its influences on its shoulder, plus its complete experience. Which I consider a rarity among its kind (Half-Life mods).
The visuals of each entry in the trilogy are a spectacle to behold. Amen alone deserves every right to be a cult classic the most of the three installments. Its simplistic black & white environments give the whole game an edgy art-house vibe, and it shows the growth of the creators. The first Halfquake is bare-bones by comparison. The original soundtracks are all exceptional. Amen's especially stands out to me as a personal favorite. The gameplay feels more involved than it was with the previous title. The set pieces sprinkled throughout felt truly memorable. Between the puzzles and combat encounters, I felt as if I were playing a true cult classic. Halfquake Amen is absolutely my favorite in the trilogy. A concept I have to highlight is 'Patience', where the game forces you to wait for 15-ish minutes for the level transition while giving you full control of your character, and in their defense they give you a heads up pretty far in advance towards the start of the game. So by the time I came by that section, I felt prepared for it. I might even consider the wait a breather from all the sadistic, puzzle-solving action. Speaking of, I quite enjoyed a majority of the combat moments here. This game gave me a new appreciation for Half-Life's crossbow. I never actually noticed the model for that weapon actually bent when you reload it.
That is the hallmark of a good game mod. It should give you an appreciation for the source material. A good mod ought to extenuate the strengths of a good game, be it the smaller or major details! And I'll repeat myself again and say I think that Halfquake gets written off a lot due to its difficulty, but it is a solid game on its own. The save scumming can be a little annoying at times, but with as fast as quick-saving & quick-loading can be, I'd hardly consider it as intrusive as newer games make it out to be. It takes less than a second to quick-save and a little more than a second to quick-load. And if you can't overlook that type of gameplay, then you'll filter yourself out of some great experiences.
In spite of all the praise I give the first two installments, the third installment, Sunrise, is where the grace I'll give these games reaches its absolute limit. It was the only title I was unable to complete, as I found myself finally succumbing to the difficulty. However, this is more because of the design philosophy of Sunrise. Both Halfquake 1 and Amen were faster-paced and broke up the puzzle-solving with combat encounters. However, it seems like Sunrise has nothing of the sort. I'll give the aesthetic its due. Sunrise is a very nice-looking game if a bit on the drier side. The puzzle designs and layouts were intuitive, and I felt pretty involved with the process. This was a very intense game at its best. I felt the tension of each dangerous trap I had to navigate my way out of. However, this game felt the most claustrophobic of the three titles. Half-Life's fast and tight movement was not meant for this kind of level design. It lent itself more to the style of gameplay found in the first two titles. Halfquake 1 & Amen were looser games that allowed for freer movement from start to finish. With Sunrise, the corridors were so tight I found the intense movement to be more of a detriment to the navigation than anything. Additionally, Halfquake Sunrise's lack of combat gave me a lot less patience to deal with the puzzles. The constant tension lacked a substantial pay-off, and I understand one of the core concepts of Halfquake as a series is sadism, but I feel like the exploration peaked with Amen.
Of the three games, if I had to pick one as an absolute must-play, it would be Amen. It's such a well-put-together project, and it feels like the peak of the dev team's talent when it comes to Half-Life modding. The emptiness and message that life itself is sadistic above all else came off as heartfelt. It's among my top 10 games of all time.
>)
Ah yes, challenge. Didn't know it meant getting killed by a thing you couldn't predict coming, loading a save, avoiding the said thing, only to die again from another unpredictable thing, repeating the process. Such game design, such mapping prowess!
But seriously, I have no clue how this was allowed on Steam. There is not a single good thing about this mod, it looks and plays like ass, even it's idea of texture work is taking existing HL textures and drawing with MSPaint on top of them.
Oh, and the title is literal clickbait. No, it's not related to Quake in any way other than GoldSrc engine, it's named like that to confuse you that it is.
But seriously, I have no clue how this was allowed on Steam. There is not a single good thing about this mod, it looks and plays like ass, even it's idea of texture work is taking existing HL textures and drawing with MSPaint on top of them.
Oh, and the title is literal clickbait. No, it's not related to Quake in any way other than GoldSrc engine, it's named like that to confuse you that it is.
7,3/10
Concept is interesting. Also surprising that game on hl1 engine has achievements! We are waiting for a remake on Source!)
Concept is interesting. Also surprising that game on hl1 engine has achievements! We are waiting for a remake on Source!)