a random whim possessed me to replay this game a couple days ago and i'm so glad it did. i'm a big fan of diamonds in the rough, and this is such a great example of that... the combat mechanics are unintuitive and severely punishing, the platforming is floaty, the plot is esoteric and convoluted, and if you wander even slightly off the intended path everything starts to look like a cheap asset flip.

but like with other diamonds in the rough, you get out what you put in. it can take a lot of good faith and effort, but the reward can be spectacular - cinematic kung-fu fights under frozen waterfalls, creative and original worldbuilding, creating traps for guards with well-placed bodies, writing holes that compel and inspire the imagination rather than break immersion... it's a clear passion project of a game, and i adore it for that, warts and all. an odd, idiosyncratic kind of masterpiece, which might be the most special kind of masterpiece of all

Diamond in the rough. A kind of outsider piece, as if the modder hadn't actually played Half-Life at all, nor learned any basics of level or encounter design. And yet it's super compelling, I think because of the phenomenal atmosphere - the music and sound design is wonderfully fitting and the visual presentation of these gargantuan levels inspired feelings of alienation I've not felt in a long time from a video game. In Portal, there's the framing of Aperture Science and "testing" that contextualises the surreal, enormous levels, but even this game's repeated visits to some sci-fi hub area don't explain a thing. When a piece of a gigantic machine fell down and destroyed half of a (huge) room I was in, it was a really powerful feeling of smallness. You understand nothing and you're tiny and weak, but you're pushing ahead anyway.

It's not very fun gameplay-wise, with annoying encounter design that spams a lot of enemies in wide open areas with no cover, but given the intensely vibes-based design that comes across, and the unexplainability of almost everything, godmoding or noclipping to progress feels thematically justifiable. The environments and atmosphere are the attraction here, and to my mind they're unlike anything else I've seen in a fangame/mod, so go in for those and don't worry about the shooting or puzzles.