Tangent - Half-Life 2

I really like this one even if it’s unfinished (doesn’t appears to much) and the use of sms is perfect…

Fluffy The Hamster’s Syndicated Review

Number of Maps: 1

Score: 3.5 out of 5

Annoyance Rating: 34, for convincing me to spam grenades in the corridoor, only to realize that the milk cartons on the wall are infact, not grenades.

Lighting: Bright enough.

Architecture: Decent, good in many places.

Textures: Decent

New Models/Skins/Etc.: Neigh/naught/New sounds!

Gameplay: Hot Gordon-on-Combine action. Give me a cigarette.

Story?: You might be Gordon “Only you can prevent forest fires!” Freeman. You are in the sewer, having been selectively acquisitioned by members of the Mile High club, leaving you with the familiar feeling of a lack of financial power. Somewhere above you, everyone is laughing at you and you sure know why.

Onwards:
I’m on the rooaad agaiin…

So, first thought is the immediate need to deliver physical harm to a nearby electronic device. Yes, the overseers of evil have provided you with a cell phone, which allows mysterious individuals to provide assistance to your unknowing arse. Considering that it has a sound that will remark you to retrieve the mechanical devil that lives inside your alarm clock and proceed to deliver it into the wall at 70 MPH.

The second thought is wondering what kind of amazing thumb-related super-hero that has the ability to text you in a manner that is socially and visually pleasing to read.

Anyway. One thing may get to you, and that is the co-parrant lack of surrounding buildings. Yes, you inhabit a floating university in the middle of nowhere. Regardless, the architecture starts off on somewhat of the simplistic zone once you exit the underground, but becomes somewhat more pleasing as you advance. Textures are appropriate enough. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Tangent is all about guns, and Tangent delivers the usual Leon-style Combine charges that assures that they have no understanding of military tactics what-so-ever. Cheaters should create some armed citizens to make this mod more fun to play. They’ll die by the end, but whatever. Some headcrabs and manhacks spoil the fun, but this is all about the Combine.

This is war against rootin’ tootin’ Combine, and they lack variety. There is a rather lack of shotguns and AR2s only exist near the end. I saw naught a Combine Elite, prison guard or other semi-related humanoids. This disturbing lack of variety is evident, but acceptable giving the size of the map.

Tangent makes a couple of problems. There’s a distinctive lack of assistance when it comes to destroying certain objectives. Nobody tells you that forcefields are powered by boxes (And nobody tells you to ensure that you are 30 feet away before destroying them, less you wish to become a Zombie). Nobody tells you that you must destroy the power rings of the tower. A smart person will figure it out, but a stupid person would not.

Unfortunately, the mod is both unfinished and conspicuously short. Woopda-doobe.

Summary:
Nothing good. Nothing bad. A good waste of 20 minutes.

Copyright:
This review was written by Fluffy The Hamster and first appeared on Combine Destiny and is republished by express permission.

This mod could be considered has a bit of a sleeper, that is to say, it plays a lot better then one would have imaged when considering the lack of positive posted comments here on PlanetPhillip. So, in hope of addressing a possible oversight by many readers; the following review is offered up to encouraging you the reader to give Tangent HL2 a play.

From a fairly basic start of set designs with sparse content, the mod steadily builds and improves in quality and gameplay. Whilst it never reaches the level of a classic or a top ranking mod, it does advance nicely with increasing Combine skirmishes that are both well staged and challenging. On normal setting the mod is a worthy challenge and will have you backing off in places to rethink tactics. Your encounters are limited in the main to Combine plus a few well contrived sequences involving headcrabs and attacking scanners. In one scene you get the opportunity to eliminate swarms of attacking scanners with the rocket launcher, great fun. They are a few other types of foe you will face with progress through the mod, some mechanical and one alien. I will leave these for the player to find and experience, just to add that one of these encounters is both challenging and pulse racing, one which I enjoyed playing through a few times.

Staying on the topic of Combine onslaughts, I was impressed with the way that they were deployed throughout the mod, also coupled with being hard hitting, meant that rushing into rooms and open areas resulted in a big lost of health. The balance between these battles and available health was right for me, and whilst you will not stay charged on 100% for long, there is always just enough supplies to get through if you are careful with both ammo and tactics, for me this aspect of the mod was nicely balanced.

Not much in the way of new stuff, no new weapons, skins or major architecture, what there is was well done with obvious signs of improvement as you journey through the mod. Puzzles follow the form of; shoot something-up to progress through force fields and other key points, or find a button to push. That’s enough give a ways on this point.

The player is feed with on screen text instructions, but thankfully these are only sparsely interjected throughout the game, such that I don’t think they will be too annoying to players that do not like ingame text messages. Either way, I did not find them that helpful or necessary and as time went by; I stopped bothering to read them. To me they seemed more of an added piece of indulgence by the author and did little to enrich the gameplay.

Just one last word on set design, the outside environments were admirable constructed without ever inspiring to any great heights of mapping. However, with plenty of room offered to the player to both roam and search, it was a bit disappointing that there was little to find hidden away in the depths of these sets.

- Fairly basic set design and textures to start with
- Not much new stuff
- Limited use of HL2 cast

- Well staged Combine encounters
- Challenging in places
- Good balance between damage levels, health and ammo

The only major down points to the mod is the lack of longevity and untimely ending, giving the impression that more was planned but time had run out for the author. Nevertheless, it’s well worth the download, there are far worse mods you could waste your time on.

Whilst the mod will never feature high on anyone’s ranking list, it albeit, merits a play through and your posted comments here on PlanetPhillip. So, if you are looking for an enjoyable mod that will keep your interest for 20 to 30 minutes, then this one is made for you.

As it stands we are left with another mod from a promising author that won’t be completed, a mod that should be filed under both headings; ‘Incomplete’ and ‘One hit wonders’, pity.