AFTER WAR & PATIENT ZERO (more Half-life videos)

After going through a few more videos, here are two more short films (and one bonus) made by fans set in the excellent Half-Life universe. Both are excellent, but very different in execution. I would even argue that one of them is more on the artistic spectrum, while the other is direct in what it set out to depict – a brutal combat scenario between the resistance and the Combine foot soldiers. Enough of me babble, let’s get into it.

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LZ – Sparrow

Got into the mood for some Half-Life action, since the universe Valve created is cool and fascinating – especially from a military sci-fi viewpoint. It also has clear horror elements sprinkled on top, when you consider the zombies, mind sucking aliens and general despair of humanity being on the brink of extermination. Everything to make it as fun as possible in what I would call a good time all around. Well, unless you are one of the characters stuck in this world, like the soldiers in LZ – Sparrow.

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Enoch : Children of Fate – Demo Impressions

How about a dystopian noir cyber-thriller point & click game in the style of the excellent graphic adventure, Technobabylon? Now, Enoch: Children of Fate is not made by the same developer, but the visual style and the moody atmosphere is very similar. And that’s an excellent thing. The demo isn’t long. However, my time spent with it was enough to hook me into the mood for an atmospheric detective story. So, it was a sad thing when the demo finally ended.

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Homefront – Korean Rage

Must be hard doing rebel stuff with your eyes covered

Homefront is Kaos Studios‘ second and final game. After the disappointing release of Homefront, THQ at the time decided to axe them. Another studio and brand are dead, in a sea of publishers looking for that sweet Call of Duty 4 money. This is a tale old as religion. Instead of focusing on what made their game good, they decided to chase trends, which in the end proved to be a futile endeavor. However, the game is not all bad, the campaign is entertaining at times, but long gone is the cool futuristic setting. Now, it’s set in a more contemporary setting with some light sci-fi stuff. Just like Frontlines: Fuel of War, Homefront has a strong multiplayer focus, but unlike Frontlines: Fuel of War, it never grabbed me as that game. It feels way too much like CoD. It also comes with added XP, leveling, and soldier kit upgrades – stuff that I don’t enjoy in an online shooter since it makes the immersion and balancing absolutely dreadful.

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Rain of Reflections: Set Free – No Child Policy

Just your regular corporate PMCs patrolling

Rain of Reflections is a point & click adventure game with combat in turn-based mode. It was released by the Swedish developer studio Lionbite Games back in 2019. It was supposed to be a three-chapter thing, but thanks to low interest, the game got unfortunately abandoned. So we only got chapter one, which of course has the game ending on a major unresolved cliffhanger. I have owned this title for a while now, I think I got it for one euro or something ridiculous like that, and I thought it might be time to give it a go regardless of the finished status. I’m not regretting that decision, the only regrettable thing here is that it wasn’t completed.

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