I don’t know about you, but Half-Life the first was, at the time, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best game I had played. The AI was great to battle against, there was an honest-to-god story, there were surprises and twists and traps, and the graphics and especially audio design put me squarely in the game. I’m also a sucker for science fiction when it’s treated anywhere above the first-grade level (requires suspension of disbelief = ok, completely inane = no thanks), and for dark secretive things that you must discover. Without making a comparison, Half-Life 2 had all the same elements, with the addition of a slightly more sober and solid plot, and some absolutely astounding scripted action and facial animation. I was hooked on HL2 from the start. So now the crazy Orange Box is out, and I have a hard time not being excited, especially about the brain-fscking puzzle game Portal. (Check out Aperture Laboratories’ page – the password is “portal”).
But if you haven’t picked up the box yet, or if you did and you just now got HL2: Episode 1 for the first time, you simply must play Minerva, a three-chapter user-created mod (free!) for HL2: Episode 1. It was created over two and a half years by Adam Foster. I just finished playing it, and I’m absolutely amazed. I was on the edge of my seat for the duration (around 5 hours, about the same length as Episode 1). The level design is absolutely top-notch. The action is incredibly intense. The puzzles are challenging. Without giving anything away, parts of it definitely stir up foreboding, fear, desperation, intrigue. It’s a story tangential to Half-Life 2, and you do not play Dr. Freeman, and you do not have the gravity gun, which I rather liked. The experience is completely gripping, just like the best of Half-Life. So enough said. Try this mod now! You won’t regret it!
UPDATE: I miss my companion cube ;(
dork!