A few years ago it seemed to me that the sphere of modding on the engine Source (Half-Life 2, Portal 2…) came to their logical conclusion and the main fan projects have already been released. It turns out that there is still where to grow, and only in the last years three or four has come out many large-scale and very high-quality mods. The authors from the CIS countries also attached their hand to the development of HL2 modding, which resulted in the beginning of development Dark Interval or remakes of cult classics on the engine Black Mesa.

Today, however, I want to make out a fresh project from the Russian team in hot pursuit SDE DEV Team – "Heat". Yes, in the heading I spoke a little the essence of the modification, but I still want to talk in detail and even with the spoilers. If this does not scare you, join the discussion in the comments after reading.

Background. Snowdrop Escape

I’ll start a little from afar. For SDE DEV Team "Heat" is not the first project in the universe Half-Life 2. Two years ago, the authors presented a modification Snowdrop Escape (in honor of which the team was named), the action of which unfolds in the northern part of Russia, already covered by the unrest and dictatorship of the alliance, before the events of the sequel HL – and that is no less remarkable, the fashion Silent Escape. On behalf of a certain organization fighting both alliance and resistance, the main character, a professional mercenary James, must find an underground scientific complex and preserve until the rebels came there. Well, pick up the case with valuable knowledge.

Gameplay in SDE is typical for Half-Life: a third of the games shoot and ride at different levels at the snowmobile, boat or trolley, third we solve puzzles and another third-we look at the plot, including the Katsets and notes on the tablet of the main character. The levels filled with inscriptions in Russian and decor objects of the Soviet times, and in all kinds of references, are also shown by a certain bar of quality – in one of the locations you can find "Fortment"From the Trash Film"Green elephant", The legendary sign" hangs on the other "Rockk Ebol", And the facades and ends of many buildings adorn fictional, but so to tears similar to real, posters of beer"Point", The film" "Bratan"And groups"Kinzo". Bonus for those who know: one of the graffiti in the city part of the fashion depicts widely known in narrow circles Tom Kranis, The author of the trash card for HL2 "The dog was moved on the head".

With such a baggage of cultural references and gameplay solutions, the modification, nevertheless, suffered from the unbalanced game scenes, high complexity (up to the point that the enemy could contain a whole clip, and put you from one shot), excessive corridor and uniformity of levels and comparatively small durations (up to three or four hours). The authors tried to take some mistakes to take into account their second project, “heat”, published on June 26, 2023 straight on Steam.

"A wide steppe is spread …"

It happens that models, like other creators, often suffer "Syndrome of the second album"When new works are much worse than their debut. In the case of “heat”, despite a number of extremely obvious advantages, the situation is slightly more difficult, but about everything in order.

The key circumstance giving the project a head start over a majority of HL mods is a setting of Central Asia with related flavor and references. The first part of the plot consists of street battles, and here they tried to show the difference between the landscape of conditional Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan from ""Russian North". Despite the presence of tablets on the great and mighty, many signs are also presented in Kazakh (even in the player of the game, part of the coat of arms of Kazakhstan flashes, despite the fact that there are also inscriptions in Uzbek), at times there are assets from Snowdrop Escape, which generally complement the atmosphere of the post -Soviet steppe city City-545.

And beyond its borders, the steppe spread, where the heat is constantly, the sun, there is little grass, a lot of rocks – and Bullskvids They graze with ants. About such beauty will have to go through the main character, who, unlike the mercenary of James, an ordinary member of one of the resistance cells, and now he needs to infiltrate the so -called "Black battalion»Under control Rocks. Unpleasant news came to the rebels that the anarchists want to bring a bustle against the combines and thereby throw their own from the deflection of their "Lambda-Sanizers".

Our main character clearly did not study the https://jackpot-charm.uk/ safety precautions when moving the train, so he decides to be nominated for the Darwin Prize, jumping out of it at full speed. As a result of the fall, he damages his head, and then during travel along the steppes catching overheating in the sun. Actually, because of this, he forgets about the ultimate goal of his assignment, is introduced into the “black detachment”, accidentally imbued with his ideas (if briefly, Cheliks were able to find a way to multiply outside the zone of action of suppression fields) and soon faces “sadistic choice". Thus, they are trying to shove a gray morality to us: they say that the rebels are cool, but you know, the Rocky battalion is not so bad. However, to fully compare the sincerity of the intentions of both of them interferes ..

There is also a bonus episode in modification, which is more connected with the Portal universe and there is a character from Snowdrop Escape. It differs from the main project by the presence of a single weapon – MP5, unique opponents in yellow cloaks and … Easterrs to the only author’s project of the creators of the "heat" on the basis of the second Portal, Mind Escape. It is not very easy to find it, but who has already found it, keep in the know that "Mind Escape could be different"..

Got better, but worse

In the gameplay aspect, SDE DEV Team tried not to change their habits and filled with “heat” with typical moments like puzzles and travel trip. At the same time, street battles and more open and spacious levels were added to the equation, where you can not only fight with local bestialism of enemies, but also study every nook for any buns. As in the Snowdrop Escape, samples with supplies are again available (even such aks are given for one such!), but at the same time the arsenal of the weapon itself is noticeably expanded.

In the first fashion, we could wear only one type of each weapon (a divorce key/circular saw or machine gun/rifle), now you can safely run with a dozen familiar and unique trunks: from a pistol to a manual grenade launcher, “kalash” and a sniper rifle. The sight of her, by the way, is very … peculiar, see for yourself:

There is also an unusual device called "Magnetic pusher", Which is actually a cut version of the gravian gun and … does what is indicated in the name. However, as practice shows, there is almost no particular benefit from it. As well as from home -made lures for ant lions, which do not come in handy at all as they pass.

As for exactly GANPLYA, then weapons, its damage and recoil are felt and look quite realistic, there is also a flexible setup of shooting and reloading. I believe that she inherited from the author of the fashion Evacuation, And he, in turn, adapted to personal needs MMOD. True, this still does not save from the tactical superiority of the opponent over us in different battles. It got ridiculous: now the shotgun shoots only once, after which it follows reloading, even if the whole clip is inside. There is no dispute, this is a plus to realism, but on the field it is a guarantee of quick death from a crazy bullet.

Visually "heat" looks no worse, or even better than the predecessor. This is definitely the merit of the Central Asian setting, but the locations themselves are made extremely colorful and saturatedly. It can be seen that the authors tried to make street landscapes as realistic and logical as possible, and depict the steppes with wide and sweeping. However, all this is beating about the fact that most game situations are in battle, and there is no particular way to stare at the local beauty. And for those who, in the original HL2, spat on the chapters with a trip to the buggy and jeep, the local analogue of the pokatushki will also cause pain below the back. Moreover, native "UAZ»Has the same conflict and physics as the car from Episode Two. And all explining at the levels with pokatushki boils down to the shooting of single waves of ants and the study of hiding places with notes on the radar. If you burned from this mechanics in the original "Half", Burn here too.

I need to say something else about music. Above her, like the levels, straight puffs. It sounds very beautiful and authentic. The only problem is that at times it’s just a background or remaster of the original OST Half-Life. There is little dynamics, purely meditative music, which is pleasant to listen to in isolation from the modification, but to perceive it as a soundtrack to a hard action is difficult.

At the time of writing a review in the "heat" there is also bugs. Strange sight and shortcomings of weapons models – not the most critical. That’s when the key character cannot leave the elevator and you have to either push it out or restart the preservation, this is a serious problem. In Steam, individual players complain about periodic software of scripts, but I had nothing like that. Although the patches of the first, second and third days is possible. Any jambs of technical performance will bring to mind. Or will break everything completely.

Drama that does not work

Actually, the mysterious girl-communal girl.

And I will leave a few words about the local plot for sweet. A little higher, I described its surface tie. So, there is no particular depth. And everything is due to the fact that even though the “heat” is running slowly in six to eight hours, but the keyword “runs out". We meet important characters and literally a few meters part with them, because we need to solve puzzles. At the very beginning, a girl with an unusual hairstyle holds a briefing for us – Who is she, just a accomplice, or something more connects with the main character? If the second, then what the hell is it put in the frame of all THREE times?

Another situation is related to Rocky, which is necessary "To establish a relationship"(In Russian: neutralize). We get to it literally three levels before the finals and, in addition to the fact that he is lucky to the city of the baby from the steppe and plans to commit a sabotage in the local analogue "Nexus supervision", We are not served from either good or bad side. It is as empty and serious as possible, and somewhere and Bafoe.

Local resistance also does not cause approval or condemnation. It is simply there, and somehow empathize with its participants and micro-epizodes with them at all. Separate Crown It calls the voice acting of the characters: in Russian the votes are either monotonous or recorded through the slippers, and for some reason foreigners threw a solid cranberry, which is already cutting from their accents. But they have the quality of the record at times better.

Summing up, the next "Halfomoda»With drama and plot, everything turned out very not very. Of course, on the levels of strange moments, such as, for example, with the supply of missiles through the window upstairs, is enough to knock down the armored car. But nothing that the machine can shoot at the building once and the missiles will no longer be needed? Or a very clumsy and crumpled carrier of the assault on the Nexus from HL2, for nothing that the location is completely different and the tasks are slightly different. However, to the honor of the authors of the "heat", in a praised sequel Entropy: Zero Drama is not very better, and their holes and jambs are also in abundance.

Praising a domestic author is easier than criticizing. Especially in such a difficult time when The horsemen of the apocalypse One by one, troubles and misfortunes, And only the universal union, which people nearby call .. – And everything is like that. But personally, I still liked the "heat" than not.

I understand that heimplaino is as expedient as Snowdrop Escape, is technically lame, and it’s quite a bit of a cupkan, not allowing you to boil to local key characters. But the setting, the atmosphere, the quality of levels and visual effects, the variety of weapons and game situations look more convincing, and you must agree, not all players are so moody to gameplay in fan mods.

In addition, rarely when we have a chance to feel the beauty of not so much shootings or dialogues of local NPCs, but deserts, streets and coasts of semi -high rivers. How reverently the mappers came to the implementation of such a beautiful project, cannot be conveyed in words. And bugs, I hope they will certainly fix. Perhaps this can be finished. Play good games, do not play bad ones – and see you in new blogs!