Последние обзоры Audax Tenebra

After the 25th anniversary update it's only fitting I finally updated my review to be actually something that wasn't a copypasta for this masterpiece of a game. Imo this one is THE GOAT of the franchise.

Gameplay is pretty much like every boomer shooter back then: fast, frenetic, non-stop action. I rly like how fast and "slippery" Gordon is, rly gives an extra boost like it is some sort of Hack'n'Slash. I rly missed this in the sequels. Not to mention the headbobbing they added back from the retail release which gives even more a sense of speed which the sequels never had. The guns are iconic, the MP5 is just satisfying to shoot on HECU marines, the Shotgun is delicious on Vortigaunts and zombies, one hit kill crowbar on headcrabs is just genius design imo because it let's you know some weapons are better than others even if it is the "boring" starting weapon. Overall the gameplay rly doesnt lack here.

Atmosphere is incredible and way better than most of Half-Life 2 imo. The dark industrial hallways mixed with that late 90s offices complexes and early 2000s sci-fi labs, the bright, saturated, sunny sky reminding you that this was supposed to be just another day of work, which contrasts with the battlefield that becomes Black Mesa, unknown to the rest of the world. It pretty much reminds me of the good old days at school, like innocence died here. I am a bit biased tho, I have a huge nostalgia for this game because it was one of the first 3 FPS games I ever played, and the first game I ever bought here on Steam (all because I got curious about this extra game that came with my CS 1.6 install back then lol).

The story is basic obviously, but it is done fantastically imo. This is one of the few games where the story happens without a single cutscene taking control out of you (I mean there's kinda one but you're supposed to be semi unconscious and being dragged way by soldiers so it kinda doesn't count). This was obivously a big thing back then, the story wasn't just an excuse for you to kill things, it was your main goal and the NPCs you talked to would inform you on the current plan to escape the facility or your next objective.

This was also one of the first if not the first game to not have between-levels screens. The whole game can be completed in one sitting without looking at any screen other than the menu screen. Every section is connected to the other in the map. We take this for granted now but back then it was rly revolutionizing. Only third person games kinda had this and even then, not to this extent. Mid-level loading screens can be a bit annoying but with modern hardware they're nearly invisible, I'm rly only talking about this because I rly love this game, otherwise I would pretty much treat it like I did on my Half-Life 2 review.

The graphics aren't modern obviously, it doesnt have any raytracing or Ultra 4K HDR 8K textures, but it is good enough and the atmosphere rly makes up for it. The rise of engines like Unreal Engine and the lazyness of modern devs made every modern game pretty much look the same generic realistic crap, they forgot how important art style can be on a game.

The Steam version has a few pretty major issues that downgrade the experience tho. First of all, Valve lied on the patch notes, the default Gamma is still 2.5, which is horrible for modern displays because this game was made for CRT back then and it relies A LOT on deep, gritty shadows, pretty much like a 90s edgy comic book. To solve this you can either:

• Install the WON version, configure the way it's meant to be there and copy the settings to the Steam version
  
  
• Or just grab my settings that I use on my 1440p, very well calibrated, monitor. All you have to do is open the console and type:
  
  
  1. "gamma 1.8"
     
  2. and "brightness 0.5".
  
  If it looks too dark that's because you actually NEED the flashlight now or your monitor is incorrectly calibrated.

Also, do not forget to use the original models, thankfully Valve defaults the game to using the OG models which are the correct way of playing the game.

There's also texture filtering which you can disable if you want but it isn't the intended way of playing the game.
You see, back then, texture filtering was what Ray Tracing is now. It was THE new thing and everyone wanted enabled on their game, only PCs without 3D accelerated hardware wouldn't use texture filtering. The marketing images used texture filtering, the OG box images used texture filtering and it was a major selling point for the game. Nowadays people created this weird fixation with pixelated graphics for old games but it never was this way for 3D games. Even the PS1 had some sort of texture filtering. It was rly only "peasants" that had to run games on Software mode.

Overall one of the best games ever made by humanity imo, and the peak of videogame storytelling, not in the form of the actual story ofc, after all, we have things like RDR2 and Nier Automata. But in the form of how it tells you the story, something not even the sequels accomplished, which is NEVER taking control out of the player. Every part of game is pretty much interactable, even the last cutscene with G-Man you can still walk around. Instead of cutscenes we have script triggers for stuff to happen in front of us after a certain point which is something totally exclusive to videogames.

This is what every FPS should strive to be