Plenty of head crabs, zombies, crack zombies and those other things that throw black spiders at you. It’s a great time waster!.. Hard to make jumps, some swimming and running like hell. But into what?… Download it and find out….
NOTE:
Play this alone in the dark… 3 am is good..lol

Review:
The Island, by Stalk3r, was a nice surprise. Here’s the idea: you’re stuck on an island infested with zombies and headcrabs. You need to escape. Better find some guns and ammo cause you’re in for a helluva fight. While not overwhelmingly difficult, you will be tested, as there are not only the standard zombies and headcrabs, but plenty of fast zombies, fast headcrabs, poisonous headcrabs, and everyone’s favorite hulking creature, the poisonous headcrab host zombie. You’ll come across a few courageous humans with whom you can fight with, but for the most part, you are on your own.

You start out with the standard crowbar and HK pistol. If you look around some more, you can find the Magnum revolver in the first map too. All of the human weapons used in Half-Life 2 are available to you in The Island, that is, the crowbar, HK pistol, Magnum revolver, shotgun, HK MP7, grenades, and the rocket launcher. No Combine assault rifle or gravity gun for you.

Moving on to the maps, this is where I think you’ll really admire the work put in. Since you are on an island, it can be tough to get the horizon to look decent. The way Stalk3r manipulated the land, water, and skyboxes make it look realistic, adding a lot of depth and character to the maps. You will fight mostly outside (about 90% of the time), but there are some indoor conflicts that you must slog through. Speaking of fighting, you will be doing a lot of it. Like I mentioned earlier in the review, you will be killing all sorts of headcrabs and zombies, so make sure you have plenty of ammo and grenades and health, because you’ll need it. Oh, and make sure you have the Quick Load key within reach, because you will be pressing it often enough.

All that being said, I do have some gripes. One, there isn’t any real new content (textures, models, etc…) that I could tell. The skybox might be custom, but I’m not sure. Another problem that seems to be affecting many of these early mods, is the length. I understand that its difficult to make a mod, but The Island is relatively short. But then again, it is free, so I can’t compain too much. Plus, its a lot of fun. Finally, a negative by-product of the quick loading maps is the fact that the maps are somewhat small compared to other Half-Life 2 mod maps. But its the price you pay for having quick load times.

All things considered, The Island does not disappoint. I certainly recommend it, and I hope you get clicking and downloading so you can start whipping and skull blowing.

Design:
Outside areas are well lit with some good structure to the rocks, ground and other small details such as vents. However, the corridors are all the same, look flat and need a major usage of the flash light which affects gameplay too much. Some light could have helped, even if there would have been a little. Other locations that have a big industrial feel to them such as some sort of cargo place, a garage and a dock where the ending it. Most of these places use props to detail them but still some fine structure and texturing to help make it look better.

Conclusion:
Some tiresome zombie action but with some good design throughout.

Rating: 70%

fun in its own right, but pales in comparison with the original.