Half-Life: Echoes

for Half-Life

10th August 2018

Return to Black Mesa in this brand new mod for the 20-year old Half-Life. You think it’s just another day at work – but of course it’s that fateful day of the resonance cascade. Run, think, and shoot your way through the Black Mesa Research Facility as you’ve never seen it before, so you may live another day!

This Half-Life mod will let you experience the Black Mesa incident from a different perspective, with some insights into mysterious events which Gordon Freeman was not present for.

RE: EVALUATION
DATE: 05 / 16 / (REDACTED)
TIME: 06:30

> GG-3883 SUBMITTED FOR ANALYSIS
> SUITABLE CANDIDATES SELECTED FOR EVALUATION
> OBSERVATION OF CANDIDATE #12 AUTHORIZED

PERMISSION TO PROCEED : GRANTED
RETRIEVAL OF CANDIDATE #12's SUBMISSION: COMPLETE

This was November 2020’s Classic of the Month mod.

Author’s Notes

After 20 years of enjoying everything that the Half-Life community has had to offer, I am incredibly happy to finally release my own contribution to you all. This Half-Life mod will let you experience the Black Mesa incident from a different perspective, with some insights into mysterious events which Gordon Freeman was not present for.

This is my first real modding effort, which I began around 5 years ago. I initially had just hoped to make a short and simple campaign that I myself would enjoy, working on it sporadically over the years in my spare time. I never expected it to be as large an undertaking as it turned out to be, and I also could have never anticipated that I would get married and become a father in the time I worked on this project! It has been a long journey, but very much worth it.

This mod has been created and tested for the Windows version of Half-Life on Steam, and it is not compatible with Half-Life Source or the old WON version of Half-Life. Music is integral to this mod, and the soundtrack may not work if this is played any other way. Lastly, due to the detail in some areas, I would recommend running this on a more modern computer than what Half-Life was designed for originally.

Basic Details
  • Title: Half-Life: Echoes
  • Filename: hl1-sp-hl-echoes-1.4.7z
  • Size : 223 MB
  • Author: MrGnang
  • Date Released: 10 August 2018

Download Options

Download version 1.4 to your HDD [223MB]

Installation Instructions
  • Unzip the downloaded 7z file.
  • Copy the “echoes” folder and the cg.dll and cgGL.dll files into your “steamapps\common\half-life” folder.
  • Restart or start Steam.
  • Half-Life: Echoes should now be listed in your “Library” tab.
Awards

Echoes is a HALL of FAME entry

Playthrough Videos

The playthrough below is part of the Classic of the Month Event, run by Don AKA Unq.

Screenshots

WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.

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Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!

44 recommendations, average score: 5 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0 (what's that?)
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 45 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 45 Users

Time Taken:
Average: 4 Hours, 22 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by labrat342
Longest: 50 Hours by John
Total Time Played: 196 Hours, 31 Mins
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90 Comments

  1. Unq
    Play It Now!

    Well, Echoes has been long anticipated – at least by me. More than 4 years ago MrGnang shared the opening 1/3 or so of Echoes with me to test. I was impressed by the scale and polish of the maps, and all it did was leave me with the taste for a full-blown mod. At long last the full Echoes has been released, and it’s even better than the quick teaser I got in 2014.

    The representation of the Black Mesa Research Facility is superb, it’s right up there with Focalpoint for my favorite version of BMRF. Echoes really captures what makes Black Mesa a memorable location for me – the grandness and the scale. There are some truly breathtaking areas in Echoes, and they’re not just for show – you spend a good amount of time in these areas and you’re usually doing something (fighting, running for your life, solving puzzles, etc.).

    Echoes stands out for me because of the ‘feel’. Everything feels alive around you. The mod is chock full of awesome sequences and setpieces, and all the locations in between don’t just feel like filler material. There are some great returns to previously-visited areas and some fantastic tension set up with a couple of enemies throughout the game. Playing through again today to grab screenshots still had me smiling in a couple spots, the sequences are just that damn entertaining.

    If I had to nitpick, I would say some of the early cutscenes run a little too long for my taste. Thankfully they’re not used too much and thus don’t overstay their welcome. As a HL mapper myself I’m averse to cutscenes – although done right they are acceptable in mods. Echoes falls just short of the annoyance limit in its cutscenes, and soon you’re right into the action thankfully.

    Overall, Echoes is a finely polished experience that should absolutely not be missed. Its sharp sequences, grand level design, and how it weaves into the HL lore make it an absolute standout.

    Usual disclaimer: I tested and provided comments to MrGnang both on the early truncated alpha version and on the final release candidate.

  2. Play It Now!

    I only knew a bit about Echoes before going in, and me even knowing about the mod’s existence came about 2 weeks ago.

    However, looking at the screenshots, I saw a mod with a lot of potential, and playing through it in one long session, I can say very much that that potential is fulfilled. The story is vague, and not really important until the end, but the experience in-between is fantastic.

    Going from sneaking, running and crawling your way through the facility with little to arm yourself with, to scaling up to huge-scale battles, pushing one’s limits on what they can do.

    Some parts of this mod are hard, and I love it. Many battles towards the latter half had me surviving by the skin of my teeth. The battles are excellent, but the environments are what really sold me.

    The atmosphere, set-pieces and areas you go through are wonderfully detailed and numerous, and you can really see the progression of the situation spiral downwards as you progress, as the military begins to fail, and Xen begins to intrude into our own world, twisting corridors into fleshy caverns.

    The use of low-poly HL2 models was… interesting, to say the least, though it can look a bit unnerving at times, especially with the G-Man.

    Which leads into the story, in which I can say I don’t get fully whatsoever. Regardless, it doesn’t spoil the experience at all, just leaving me a touch confused towards the end.

    To the point, this is an excellent piece of Half-Life content, and I highly recommend it. I’d honestly even recommend this as HoF material.

  3. iI crashed on me in map 9b, i noclipped around the problem, and then it started crashing again in map 12. It crashes everytime i save teh game or i near a certain point. I gave it up then. From what is saw until then, it looks like a very good mod.

    1. The map echoes12 crashes each time I get to the hidden vent ladder or to the lift control at the end of the bridge. I tried not to hurry up there but it didn’t help me. After the tenth time I gave up.

      1. Unq

        Something for you guys to try to get around this problem: open liblist.gam in the echoes folder, and add this line at the bottom:
        edicts 2048

        Then save the file and re-start Echoes.

        1. Neither “-num_edicts 2048” nor “4096” works. I found out that the game crashes ONLY if a player breaks a sequence of the walkthrough. At the map echoes12 a player hasn’t to dive into the side vent until the main game scenario is completed. I could walk through the map only when I load autosave and start it again as I described.

          1. Sorry, you should read loaded* and started*.

      2. Roy

        The only way I could get past the echos12 map crashing was to noclip around the other side of the elevator and not trigger the autosave. I was then able to ride the elevator.

  4. Personal Favourite

    This has surpassed my expectations time and time again the longer I’ve played it.
    It’s now my favorite mod, despite being so modern in presentation and story telling in my book it’s even overtaking the classics.

    The graphics of this mod are simply unparalelled, maybe the Core or a couple of gallery maps from twhl come close but this is polished and chiseled throughout it’s entirety!
    Albeit it’s gorgeous, it’s pushing GoldSrc engine to it’s limits, and it runs like some kind of new system destroyer game, even on a top of the line system with Ryzen 7 CPU with Vega 64 GPU.

    The weapons sound punchy and are well spaced on different levels, ammo is a bit limited for gungho style playing on ‘Conventional’ difficulty. It’s the only hl1 mod I’ve had to make use of 9mm pistol’s secondary fire more often. The close encounters with aliens are all terrifying, not too fond of all the incompetech soundtracks but the intro is very good.
    Scripted sequences are masterfully done, even helping you out through triggers with the clunky
    guard & scientist AI. You will still get them stuck in corners or at doors but the hallways are large enough.
    Aside from the level geometry, there’s a lot of nice graphics to behold – lighting tricks and even animated brushes – these really make the Gargantua a lot more fearsome here than in HL1.

    6/5 Personal favorite!
    It’s a work of love, a work of art, better than Valve.

    1. lj4linux

      I thought I was the only one having kinda jerky gameplay (running Steam for Windows on Wine with Radeon R7 2GB video and a quad 1.9 GB AMD A-10 processor, 8GB RAM). Indeed a “system destroyer”… 🙂
      Valve should hire the author! All of us are still waiting for Episode Three and that kind of genius is quite rare.
      Personal favourite too.
      Mod Of The Year for sure!

  5. Personal Favourite

    As unexpected as it is, ECHOES is maybe the greatest vanilla HL1 mod of all time.

    Developed for 5 years by a “one man army”, MrGnang, a fellow HL1 and mod fan who wanted to create a mod to thank VALVe and the community for 20 years of good services, for 5 years, informations were scarce and basically it look like another “survivor in Black Mesa post Resonance Cascade” as we’ve seen countless times already, like VISITORS, CASE CLOSED, OPERATION NOVA, but also OPPOSING FORCE, BLUE SHIFT (duh), etc….

    In the end, from the teaser trailer a few weeks ago, to the first minutes of gameplay, it turned out to be an incredible experience, the ultimate project born out from 20 years of intense HL1 games and mod’s.

    First of all, it has upgraded graphics to the point of being very “Source-Like”, giant map’s in the likes of FOCAL POINT, you will visit and enjoy Black Mesa like you’ve never seen before, be in from the inside or the outside. Very interesting also, those Black Mesa rooms where Xen fauna has invaded everything, etc.

    Then, it has numerous, intense, varied, sometimes funny, sometimes scary, scripted sequences where Black Mesa has never felt that “alive”, you’ll have some buddies here and there to help you, some will live, many will die…

    And then, it has a very varied gameplay, “harder” than average of course, we’ve all 20 years of playing isn’t it? We want challenges!! But it’s not “unfair”, and it takes the shape of puzzles, more and more intense fights, with some “boss” fights where STRAFE is the rule, the final 2 chapters “ASHES” and “DUST” are a complete Pandemonium where every hostile forces, be it Xen or HECU, will get to you in a maelstrom of blood, explosions, and complete mass destruction, to the point or you won’t be able to take your breath.
    It’s not only “puzzles” nor “fights”, it’s also a “survival horror” trip where sometimes you’ll have to flee undestructible horrors, be it your ‘nemesis’, a Garg from the beginning to the end of the mod which will stalk you here and there, wreak havoc and disappear until your next battle, or that insane part with “Mr Friendly”, that cut enemy which is back here for a few thrills.

    Finally, after all of this, be it graphics, map’s, gameplay… What can I add as the cherry on the cake?
    Ah, it’s the story. The story of that BM survivor you play, in the end, you see, there is a twist for that story, you are closely followed by the Gman, you’ll see him many times, but why?

    In the end, the last chapter ECHOES answer it all From the beginning, who you are playing is… Azian Vance, Alyx Vance’s mother… In the end, her baby is taken away from BM’s nuke by Gman but she is left there to die ,

    and what was overall one of the biggest projects ever made for HL1, turned out really to be the “missing link”, the lost adventure of one of the biggest yet unseen characters of HL lore, I really wanted to cry tears of mixed joy, and sadness, for such a marvelous project to come to us after 20 years of mod’s and hundreds of projects played.

    And also, it’s full of easter eggs and links to the HL lore such as Gordon, Shephard, but also Epistle3, etc… Because, in the end, it’s the story about a battle never to be resolved, of those survivors put against an unstoppable invasion, and manipulated by an unconceivable and out-of-time-and-space character which is the Gman, the mastermind of it all, which will never be truly unterstood, nor that is the will of VALVe’s writers and dev’s, indeed.

    The greatest, simply the greatest. It turned out to be the “Episode Three” of HL1/GoldSrc story.

  6. Personal Favourite

    The most wonderful and outstanding community-made mod we always have wished for – in GoldSrc!

    Man. What should I say about this? It’s just wow. It’s amazing. It’s exciting and overwhelming good to play. The author really puts effort making every detail count in each model and texture in the mod. Everything has a little back story, a small commentary, a secret, a dedication, which makes the atmosphere more alive than ever in a video game. If this was made as an expansion back in 2003, I would freaking insta buy it. It shows how great things you can still make in an outdated Engine like GoldSrc.

    I’m surprised to see such a mod, being developed just by one guy. You rock man! You managed to collect and cut every possible voice-lines from HL1 and HL2, and mash it together in determined placed with specific NPCs on the levels. It was just amazing! The pacing is really good with a creepy atmosphere at the start as of how every Black Mesa staff would face in their way during the Resonance Cascade.

    Go play it right now. It’s worth your time!

  7. Personal Favourite

    As best i can remember, this is one of the best mods of any HL game I’ve ever played. Sure, HL2, Ep 1 and 2 brought more stunning graphics but this mod, despite being HL, isn’t that far behind.

    An excellent mod like this immerses oneself into the game like a good book. You have to stop to do other things, but can’t wait to get back into it. The game’s frustrations make us try again rather than quit out of anger at the design (like another one currently being played).

    The amount of work that went into this was astounding, a labor of love obviously. Many thanks for making this! There was no question in my mind about giving this a Personal Favorite.

  8. I cant even open the map with gauge it keeps opening the original half life instead of the mod please help (Im new to this pls dont hate me)

    1. Of course we won’t hate you. I would suggest uninstalling via Gauge and then installing manually – it’s not too hard. Gauge sometimes has trouble with some mods and this could be one of them.

      1. How do i do that? Thanks for responding (and not hating me)

        1. Full manual installation instruction are in the post. If after you have followed them, you still have trouble, get back to me.

          1. https://steamcommunity.com/id/Amsung/screenshot/946206517765036814 I was able to play it fine but then i changed one of the settings and it turned into that

            1. Which setting did you change?

              1. I think it might have been the opengl setting to change it to something else

  9. Roy
    Personal Favourite
    The Best Half-Life 1 Mod Bar None

    This one was hyped up and I was not sure about playing it. I did not want to be disappointed.

    Almost everything is great. The level of detail is wonderful. The story is wonderful. At first you are wondering who am I playing, then it doesn’t matter. Of course you find out in the end and what a twist! Now you know where Alex gets it from.

    Everywhere something is going on. Things to look at and it’s a new story to boot.

    Now Black Mesa is the best Half-Life 1 as a remake. The graphics are the best. This mod is different than that. This story is going on elsewhere in the same universe using the Gold Source engine with additions. At first I wanted better graphics like Black Mesa, but the story and layout pull you in and you forget about all of that.

    The only con was a couple of places would crash if you saved or autosave kicked in. The way I bypassed that was to noclip around the autosave trigger and come back in after it. There are probably better ways, but this worked for me.

    So there was no need for me to be worried, this mod lives up to the hype and more.

  10. I could spend minutes talking about what made this mod so great but i feel like you should experience it for yourself, wait till night, turn the lights off, put the mp3 volume to max and enjoy the fantastic atmosphere this mod has to offer.
    Oh yeah there are also spoilers for Epistle 3, so if you don’t want that skip the ending

    1. I have removed the Recommendation image as the review is too generic to represent the image. It’s also too short for 5 hours of play to have an image..

  11. I’d have given this a personal favourite….but alas, I have the same crashing problems that others seem to have…damn, I was really getting into it but after 5 attempts, I’ve given up…

    1. Wesp5

      Playing the Steam version I had no crashes except for the encounter with the guy with the shotgun in the toilet which can be avoided.

  12. Wesp5

    Indeed one of the best HL1 mods if not the best. I was only a bit dissappointing with the ending, what does it imply? Could someone explain this to me?

    1. you play as a random scientist who witness in the end what happened to Alyx Vance and her mother just before the nuke : Azian is dead and Alyx as a baby is teleported away

      1. Roy

        I thought you were playing as Azian, but now I’m not so sure.

  13. Personal Favourite

    WOW. Just WOW. I have nothing more to say other then the fact that this is my absolute favorite vanilla non-TC HL mod out there.

    I honestly have nothing negative to say about this mod. And it’s not just good because of the visuals; the mapping is EXCELLENT, everything is well designed, there are many, many awesome scripted sequences and it’s just very fun. It’s amazing what people could do with a now-20(!!) year old engine! At first, I didn’t understand the ending, but then it got to me and realized how great it actually is.

    Overall, if you like Half-Life – hell, any game ever, then TRY THIS MOD OUT.

    Bravo to MrGnang for spending countless years of his life working on this mod. I think it’s safe to say that they were definitely worth it.

  14. AI

    I’ve been playing these mods for along time, and I’ve never had one crash so much as this one!!
    I thought this was very good at the start , but as time went on —- well others have had the same issue’s! I checked my PC, no problems there, so I hope someone can come up with a solution!
    I’ve even tried clipping thru some spots to no avail! I still am looking forward to play this thru.

  15. AI

    MrGnang released v1.2 today of Echoes which seams to take care of the crashes! It plays fine now (so far) Give it a shot!!

  16. I have updated to version 1.2.

  17. Hi Phillip, thank you very much for hosting my mod on your site. This site is a fantastic resource and I am so happy someone is taking effort to host and archive all of this Half-Life content. I grew up on Half-Life mods, and played them more than most games!

    I am cross-posting the rest of this message from my page at moddb.com as a blanket statement to everyone who has commented, enjoyed, and provided feedback on my mod 🙂

    —————-

    This has all been so overwhelming, the reaction to my work has much more incredible than I could ever have anticipated.

    My intention was to make something that would reflect what Half-Life meant to me – the horror, the comedy, the action, and the realism of the world around you. Half-Life and it’s many community made mods have stuck with me my entire life since I was young and changed the way I looked at games. A lot of the feedback from you all so far seems to show that I might have made some other people remember the same feelings Half-Life brought us when it was first released.

    You are all brilliant. All the feedback, videos, reviews, comments have all meant the world to me. Thank you. I dabbled in Half-Life level editing when I was a teenager (sometime around 2000/2001), and never went back to it, but I decided to try my hand at making something worthwhile to release, around five years ago – perhaps spurred on by a lack of Episode 3. A lot has happened in this time – and releasing this marks the end of a long journey for me. The reception I have received has definitely made it all worth while.

    I have just released v1.2 – which I hope should fix the last few crashes. A couple of minor bugs may remain, but I no longer have any real time to spend on this aside from fixing issues that prevent it from working – but please do not hesitate to send any issues to me.

    On a personal note – I have something to ask. A few months ago, I became a father to the most wonderful little boy in the world. However, when he was born, we found out moments later he had an un-diagnosed heart condition which meant he would not live without immediate open heart surgery. For my wife and I, this was the hardest and most difficult time of our lives, but thanks to the incredible team at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow – he has made a full recovery after surgery and is expected to lead a normal healthy life. There is nothing that can prepare you for this kind of situation, and not everyone is as fortunate as we were.

    I would like to ask – if you enjoyed my work and have the means or the inclination – please make a donation to the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity to support these wonderful people who saved my son’s life. Donations will help save, help and enrich the lives of other children.
    http://www.glasgowchildrenshospitalcharity.org/
    https://www.justgiving.com/glasgowchildrenshospitalcharity

    Thank you, James

  18. I’m not able to download this for some reason. Every time I try, I get the “Files cannot be accessed directly” message. It only seems to happen with this file, too.

  19. Hello Phillip – I’ve added v1.3 – this fixes a major bug in v1.2!

    Thanks, James

    1. I have updated my file. I have to say I think it’s unfair of you not to release patches. Forcing people to re-download 223MB seems inconsiderate. Also, it’s a real shame that the new versions aren’t compatible with older saves. That might not be your fault, but it means people have to completely replay the mod to get the benefits of the new versions.

      1. Hi Philip – this is just how GoldSrc works. If a map is recompiled, an old save will not work correctly on the newly compiled one and will lead to more issues.
        Loading a save from a previous map may work – but I cannot guarantee it as bugs could be introduced, as some levels pass information to each other through the use of global entities.
        The safest bet is to start again and not rely on old saves.

        To add to this – introducing patches could lead to more issues and it is easier for me to release a new version entirely – besides, 223MB is not an issue in this day and age, but I understand your concerns about starting the game again. Unfortunately this is just a one man project on an old old engine, and some compromises have to be made. I hope you understand!

        James

        1. Well, if that’s the way it has to be, then that’s fine, although if you don’t, you should explain that in the readme.

          I disagree with the point about “not an issue in today’s day and age”. Some of my viewers do tell me they are still on limited bandwidth per month and there’s also the psychology effect of feeling it’s wasted time.

          One question: if I am on a map that hasn’t been updated in any of the patches *don’t know if that’s possible), could I install the new version without breaking that save?

          1. That is a valid point about bandwidth – I suppose I am just used to even minor Steam updates being in the gigabytes nowadays.

            I mark every map that has been updated in the changelogs. Technically, you may be able to load a save from a map that has not been altered. I “officially” would not endorse this on my mod page, as being a new father means I have limited time to troubleshoot anything but the most major issues at the moment, but you should be fine really.

            From your stream – which I had a quick look at, you got past the map that had the error fixed in v1.3 (echoes09b – with the friendly in the vents). You would not gain or lose anything by updating the mod for the next half of your stream. Best of luck with the rest of the mod!

            James

  20. AI

    Phillip, there must be an error with the file you have listed (223 m) I dl (13 sec) but when I use 7z it would not extract! I went to Mod DB the file size shows (255 m) and it extracts just fine! Anyway
    I tried my saves from v1.2 and they work very well with no errors! I was up late last nite and played this thru v1.2 with no probs at all! Can’t say the old saves will work for anyone else tho! MrGnang
    thank you for a fine HL mod very refreshing to play, and I found I’m still a good shot with a weapon
    just like in the military (U.S. Army)

    1. I just tested it and it downloaded for me and extracted. It’s a different size from the one on ModDB because I use different compressing settings.

  21. Personal Favourite

    Although a short experience for a project that supposedly took 5 years to complete, and a preponderance for combat in tight hallway environments, Half-Life: Echoes is packed with great attention to details… Basically a prime example of how map-making should be done today, in 2018.

    The start of the mod is rather focused on survival-horror. That is, with limited weapons, puzzle solving and unsettling environments to scare the player, which is a nice change from the usual go-in-guns-blazing SP mods. By the 2/3 part the player starts picking up more weapons and the action goes back to its usual alien-blasting self that we’re all accustomed to, sprinkled with the occasional item hunt in little side rooms.

    My main criticism of this mod would be the headcrab placement in general, which is very aggressive to the point of being unnatural, going on the verge of being predictable. The most notable parts for me if this headcrab abuse were:

    1. Crawling in a vent, and suddenly had 2 headcrabs teleport in (one to the front and one to the back of the player), ready to pounce.
    2. Landing in the middle of a cross-shaped ventilation duct and being surrounded by 4 headcrabs, one on each side.
    3. A tight dark hallway interspaced with crates, with one headcrab behind each crate (3 in total).

    You won’t rush into a room or ventilation duct ever again after playing this mod, for sure. Besides that, the enemy placement was great, and helped serve to complement the setting. I particularly liked coming face-to-face with that lone grunt in one of the restrooms (presumably wanting to escape the chaos of fighting?) after that one turret sequence.

    Several map-making oddities were also present… There was a part with a burning truck in a collapsed tunnel, but the player could pass (noclip) through it without taking any damage. Probably an oversight from the beta testers, since their first reflex is probably to not touch a flaming wreckage, but still something to note nonetheless. Another one involved going twice through a glass tube in plain view of an entire HECV armored column and none of them reacting to you or the NPC’s. I’ve found that quite weird from a storyline perspective.

    Another weak point would be the voice acting, which is a collection of patchwork HL clips. For a standard SP mod it would be considered okay, but for a set of maps of this caliber I’ve found out it stuck out like a sore thumb. But that’s just another minor nitpick from me… It doesn’t necessarily detract from the gameplay at all.

    Overall this mod is a great piece of map-making art that shouldn’t be overlooked by any self-respecting Half-Life SP fan. It’s not only a treat for the eyes of the player, but it also pays tribute to the Half-Life lore which the player has been no doubt following for twenty years now; a streak that has ended with the recent publishing of Epistle 3, the conclusion of which is re-imagined in the author’s mind and made into an ending scene as an homage to the trilogy we never got to complete (and probably never will either). So, if you want to (slightly) fill that void in your soul, definitely check this SP campaign out.

    1. An additional note concerning who you play as the protagonist:
      I don’t believe you play as Azian Vance. This is reinforced by the male view models, plus a nearby Gus commenting “You are completely wrong” when you enter the women’s restrooms in one of the intro levels. Plus, whose pile of gore was it in the closet in Alyx’s room, if not Azian’s?

    2. Did you really finish this in 1 hour?

      1. Maybe a little bit more than 2 hours, if you include the time spent watching the cutscenes and stopping to look at the level design. I don’t know exactly, since I don’t exactly clock my time played and Steam doesn’t seem to record it for HLSP mods, so it’s just a number I’ve put there off-handedly.

  22. Play It Now!

    Now, I haven’t played many HL mods, but this sure seems like one that you just have to recommend to someone who just got into Half-Life, or FPS games in fact.

    The quality of Echoes is reminiscing of the official expansion packs. Very though out map layouts, and a great attention to detail. This mod really gives Black Mesa a more humane feeling than the original. The gameplay is very tight, although there were some instances where the enemies felt a bit “spammy” really, and I had to quicksave/quickload a couple of times, but nothing out of the ordinary.

    All in all, a very good Half-Life mod which could be very well considered a late expansion.

  23. Personal Favourite

    A terrific old-school HL1 mod. Great design and voice acting throughout. I did experience the crashing in 2 sections like others have mentioned, but was able to work around that by altering the sequence that I did things.

    I’ll be replaying this one in the future for sure.

  24. Personal Favourite

    Words fail me for this. Before I say anything else, I’m just gonna say it’s amazing and play it now. This is one of the best- if not THE best -mod for Half-Life I’ve ever played But if you want more detailed reasons why, I’ll go on.

    The mapping is gorgeous. The mod maker did stuff with this old engine I didn’t think was possible. The textures are gorgeous too, used with permission from the discontinued Nightwatch mod which I think is a great way to keep the spirit of that discontinued project alive.

    The scripting of sequences, scenes, and encounters is amazing and honestly better than anything I think you can find in vanilla Half-Life or any of the expansions. The suspense was real, and with the dim lighting, the atmosphere was delightfully creepy. All the enemy encounters and fights feel well balanced and executed too.

    Overall, this feels like a love letter to Half-Life and its community and I think it does it wonderfully. It shows me how much life this twenty year old game still has and reminds me why I love it so much. My only regret is that it had to end so soon (don’t get me wrong though, it’s a good length). I’m definitely gonna be replaying again in the future, believe me.

  25. I find it too bad that this mod can’t be played on the old won version. I never use steam and don’t have a legal copy of half-life to register with them. I run a won installation with the Xash3d engine installed in it. Sure made the graphics much better than the old source engine. This game looks interesting, wish there was some way to make it work with the original version.

    1. I’m sorry, but why is it that quite a few people can’t be bothered to get the Steam version? Nowadays you can get this as cheep as 1-2$. I think it’s only natural by now that Half-Life mods only support the latest up-to-date version instead of the old WON.

  26. Play It Now!

    Half-Life Echoes is a supremely detailed mod that gives you about 4 hours worth of excellent Half-Life 1 action. The mod’s greatest accomplishment is that it feels like it convincingly fits into the world of Half-Life 1’s Black Mesa, and yet every aspect of it’s production pushes this classic environment further than in the base game. The level architecture is stunning and I’m pretty sure every single texture is new compared to what the original game has, creating something that feels extremely fresh yet very familiar at the same time.

    This devotion to keeping the flavor of Half-Life while also expanding it seeps into smaller aspects as well. There are now headcrab zombies for every type of human, which feels logically like something you’d naturally see but has always been a strange oversight even in the newer Half-Life games. There’s also a nice detail that the only armor that actually counts is the guard helmets you find lying around, since you’re not wearing an HEV suit and therefore can’t use chargers. This again feels very internally consistent and that the developers considered such things really shows you how much care and effort was put into this mod.

    If course, these details wouldn’t mean all that much if the mod wasn’t fun to play, and thankfully Echoes is very enjoyable to shoot your way through. The focus is largely on monster based combat, and the enemies are well utilized. The level design makes for some very interesting encounters and there are good combinations of enemies used to keep you on your toes. One thing I found particularly enjoyable was that the mod has several moments that mix in HECU enemies with the Xen enemies. We don’t see a ton of that crossover in the main Half-Life games and echoes creates some particularly interesting scenarios. I particularly enjoyed one area where the marines are trying to come at you, but there are several barnacles that both you and your foes have to avoid. The bits that are purely HECU do a great job of using Half-Life 1’s famously great AI and there’s tons of hiding places to pop out of and be flushed out from. I do wish there was a bit more HECU combat in general, it is a very xen alien focused mod, but really the combat is excellent.

    The mod also does an excellent job with it’s setpieces. There are several cutscenes, particularly at the beginning, and I found that some of the early stuff went on perhaps a bit too long before getting into the meat of the game, but once you’re in there is some truly brilliant stuff that elevates Echoes beyond a simple level pack. The designers clearly have a good knowledge of buildup and payoff, as there were several areas which were genuinely frightening, including one very tense segment where you’re being hunted by a certain creature and you don’t know when it’s going to pop up. Other segments, some gameplay oriented and some purely storytelling, are equally surreal and scary. My personal favorite though, had to be the very entertaining riff on the typical escort mission scenario which I found hilarious but also completely fitting.

    If I did have to gripe, I would say that there are some areas that feel a little cheap. Every now and then the game will spawn a monster behind you and they can take a cheap shot, and I didn’t really care for the bit with the snarks. There were a couple issues with getting stuck on geometry here and there, and as I mentioned before there are some pacing issues at the beginning, I felt it took a little too long to get into the actual meat of things, but I don’t think any of these are enough to bump down my rating. Half-Life Echoes is a detailed labor of love that creates some thrilling and unique scenarios. Play it now!

  27. I’d love to play this game but I’m going through hell trying to get the controls set up. I use a joystick and mouse, and it works in regular half life but in echoes I can never get strafe to work of the X axis of the joystick, it turns instead but I use mouse to turn. Y axis moves forward and back but there’s no analog control, just full speed. it sees Y as a button and I can bind it but its never analog.

    What the hell is screwing up all the key mapping?

  28. Hec
    Personal Favourite

    WOW!! Just WOW!! HL-Echoes is just an instant classic. Believe me! This piece of work it’s like returning to the HL1 Golden era! You know, this mod must be in the Pantheon of the greatest Half-Life mods of all the time! along with some great masterpieces like Sweet HL, Point of View, Azure Sheep, Focal Point, and just along every single memorable HL mod related to its plot and storyline.

    There are many things that stand out from this mod. And well basically I think it is its huge amount of symbolism it brings to the Half-Life modding and gamer community. You know, I say this because this masterpiece is launched right in time for the very undervalued 20th HL’s anniversary. You know, even GabeN ignored in a very rude way this anniversary. So I guess a creation like Echoes just shows how HL is great because of this community of modders and gamers rather and by far more than his own fat ass creator.

    I’ve always said and I probably never get tired of saying that I just love this kind of mods. Where authors just dare to tell a great story inside the whole HL story arch and just share with us inside the gameplay. This mod had many details regarding the use of the storyline that just blew my mind! Like those great cutscenes where the developer used the strangely known enemy known as the “Kingpin” or the whole way in which the G-Man just takes part in the storyline of the mod is just magnificent, that ending is just terrific! and the whole plot feels well connected from the beginning to the end, and even taking into account the events revealed by Mark Laidlaw in Epistle 3!! Wow man! this was a great, great gaming experience, and just made me remember why and how I love the whole HL universe.

    Now, about the gameplay! it was just great! Though I felt the headcrabs were quite more difficult to kill, but the whole mapping layout and design were just magnificently well done! And as Unq said, it gives it the feeling the whole BM compound portrayed there in the mod, was huge, impressive, and so full of life! With many, many details that kind of prelude the disaster was about to happen that terrible day. You know and for some reason, we can feel our main protagonist taking part in those dreadful events that occurred that black day.

    I don’t complain about the cutscenes in this mod! for me they were just perfectly done, and they have a tremendous value of getting the player into the story and the emotional environment the mod brings! We can even see our fatal end at the last moment of the mod, where BM was atomically blasted.

    You know, I personally give the genius author of this mod a great congratulation for his work! frankly, this work makes that 2018 be a great modding year for the HL community! and in my personal rating this is for me the absolutely well deserved “Mod of the Year!”.

    So if you truly love HL, its story and details then, just go and play it without hesitation!

  29. Review: Holy sh*t is it amazing , Black Mesa on another perspective, the story is amazing. The location is in another area of Black Mesa although the only problem i got was extreme 4-10 FPS on the roundabout due to having so much things , but none the less it was awesome and enjoyable.

    In the final chapter the story and the leak of Marc Laidlaw’s script for HL3 or story, was beginning to unfold that, we’re not ACTUALLY Eli’s wife we’re just a random scientist that died just like the rest. Although you can see Eli’s wife’s deformed and mangled corpse can be seen on the cabinet BEFORE you walk out of the room. (for those who didn’t understand the Candidates) Candidate #1 was Alyx as a child, Candidate #3 is Freeman, Candidate #7 is Shephard.

    This will be another of my Personal Favourite mod on this site, so I highly recommend to play this mod.

  30. Personal Favourite

    Review: Holy sh*t is it amazing , Black Mesa on another perspective, the story is amazing. The location is in another area of Black Mesa although the only problem i got was extreme 4-10 FPS on the roundabout due to having so much things , but none the less it was awesome and enjoyable.

    In the final chapter the story and the leak of Marc Laidlaw’s script for HL3 or story, was beginning to unfold that, we’re not ACTUALLY Eli’s wife we’re just a random scientist that died just like the rest. Although you can see Eli’s wife’s deformed and mangled corpse can be seen on the cabinet BEFORE you walk out of the room. (for those who didn’t understand the Candidates) Candidate #1 was Alyx as a child, Candidate #3 is Freeman, Candidate #7 is Shephard.

    This will be another of my Personal Favourite mod on this site, so I highly recommend to play this mod.

  31. Personal Favourite

    Unbelievable. This mod surpassed my expectations of what a HL1 mod could be.

    Custom art, fantastic scripted sequences that weave into the gameplay, seeing npcs get to be very expressive in their actions, memorable fights, and a sense of place and scale in the facility all combine to make you feel like you’re back at black mesa for the first time.

    The only thing is that the ending felt a bit disconnected to me, but the amazing journey to get there ensures this is one of my personal favorites.

  32. Personal Favourite

    I know it’s been forever and a day since I’ve actually popped in here and played anything. Recently I’ve been on a writing kick and have restarted my fanfic Repurposed – and using the excuse of “I need some screenshots of Black Mesa and I know some nice mods are out there” … I downloaded this.

    I am absolutely blown away. I’m going to say some critical things first, to get them out of the way, but believe me the PF recommendation is true.

    The difficulty was… I don’t even know how to describe it, way off the charts. I play HL1 on Medium, because I’ve never been able to get through it on Hard. So I played this on Medium, and let’s just say I used God mode for about 60% of it just to be able to get through some parts. The combat was *stupidly* hard in many locations, and inexplicably so. If there had been that much of a military presence in the original Half Life, I suspect most of us wouldn’t have made it through either.

    The unusual choice to have a super high def hl2 Gman among the hd hl1 scientists was a little jarring, but hey I am a massive Gman fan, so… I didn’t mind, it was just a bit off.

    Not sure when I was supposed to get a gun, but I did not find one until very far into the game. Also didn’t realize that I could duct crawl so much, until I reloaded individual maps for screenshot purposes and *found a handgun* in a duct. I know I didn’t find it in my regular play through. So I’m pretty sure I gimped myself accidentally, using only the crowbar and even that was found way later than I’d have expected, given there IS a crowbar in the intro.

    Also I did get the ‘guy in the bathroom’ crash consistently, frustratingly. A few locations like that scattered around, obviously not quite fixed by any updates, but still I got around them anyway.

    But then there’s the gushing…

    I was surprised at the slow pace of the start, but then I realized that this wasn’t just any little “shoot up black mesa” mod. It was an experience, with people going about their business and daily lives in this very realistic intro. I was extremely amused at some of the stuff I saw both in my regular play, and the wandering around some of the maps – the hilarity of things that can go wrong in that universe is perfectly portrayed. The guys in the elevators, that sudden screaming cameo of Rosenberg, the donut-scarfing security guard… excellent touches that add so much humanity.

    Sometimes I worry when a mod makes you double back and reexplore, or go on fetch missions to find things and go all the way back to a specific area. I was sort of confused on some points here because as above I got some amount of crashing in specific locations, and that I think caused an issue that led to me wandering for quite some time without understanding where to go or who to find. But in this case, the doubling back was also coupled with ‘time has passed’, and we have seen the reason things went the way they did: the military showing up, the fighting with alien troops, the degridation and collapse of the facility at large, all of these things change the maps significantly even though you know you’ve seen that part of the place just an hour ago.

    The maps are all just lovely, even given the somewhat blocky nature of HL1 mapping. Nothing too expansive, but then we’re inside a claustrophobic mesa with bottomless pits everywhere… I enjoyed the bits you could see of the surface, they’re quite nice and I woudln’t mind working there! (for a while at least. I mean, with a helicopter on hand to get the heck out in time…)

    I hadn’t noticed until reloading individual maps just how MANY Gman appearances there were – I absolutely missed most of them, I suspect, so gee gosh golly I think that means I need to replay and catch em all… 🙂 While I’m still a touch unclear as to why the use of the phallic floppy monster often nearby, it is still more Gman than most, and I’ll salute this mod for the starring role. I’d like to know where some of the dialog came from, though it’s been years since I’ve replayed Gearbox’s stuff so I might just be forgetting what all was used in those. Liked the ‘you’re not supposed to be here’ bit, a good touch.

    In the end, I was up until like 3 am last night finishing this mod, and was well rewarded. I won’t worry too much about the ending and who all was doing what, I have yet to read the leaked 3 stuff and probably won’t touch it anyway until I’m done with writing Repurposed (just to see how much I’ve channeled and how much would be quite different).

    All in all, just… this mod is amazing. A superb and lengthy, well done work. Five stars, PF, good work. Well deserved praise.

    1. Unq

      Really good to see you back! You’ve got some catching up to do on Villes and mods! 🙂

      1. Oh my gosh I know lol. Since I’m also replaying several other games to get back in the mood for writing Repurposed, they get kind of tucked between levels of Bioshock and whatnot 😀

  33. Play It Now!

    This is a fantastic mod. It is very well made, and the set pieces are excellent. However I have found a few issues with it. The mod is often very dark, which makes progression and knowing where to go rather annoying. The next significant issue is the optimisation, when i have been playing it the frame rate can jump around a lot. One very annoying place where there was a low frame rate, was in an tall elevator room section, where there were ladders. It was very annoying to use GoldSrc ladders with jumpy frame rates. Apart from those issues however it is very good.

  34. Personal Favourite

    Half-Life: Echoes is a masterpiece of the Half-Life community in recent years and it is very phenomenal from both technical and story perspectives.

    You are an unnamed scientist, only known as Candidate #12. From the menu screen and his designation, anyone familiar with Half-Life lore will know that this man is one of many people who managed to garner interest from G-Man. What made me gave this mod a perfect 10 is due to what it does to Half-Life lore.

    Echoes stretches GoldSrc to a limit, as areas are extremely vast and incredibly detailed. Despite framerate issues in some areas, I was amazed by how dedicated the creator made the appearance of Black Mesa appealing in the modern age of game industry. The catastrophe of Black Mesa is depicted as much darker and more gruesome in detail. There was a part where you stumble upon zombies eating a pile of flesh and bones, and it creeped the hell out of me. However, the Snarks scene is by far the most disturbing.

    Two cut enemies also made their appearances here: Mr. Friendly and the Kingpin. I wish they are encountered more, as they only appear in scripted sequences. I love how the creator utilizes well-known knowledge of what it’s supposed to do in Half-Life and instills fear for the players in the process.

    This mod also expands the canon lore in the right way. It explores the feud of G-Man and a certain outside force, the G-Man himself, and the facility of Black Mesa. I applaud the effort for this.

    As for gameplay, every minute of this mod seems to be polished and enjoyable. Each encounter feels entertaining and each scripted sequences are pure eye candies. In the beginning, you will be trekking for a while without any weapons and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. The buildup to get the Crowbar and the pistol feels just right. The weapons also feel punchy with their new sounds. Candidate #12, unlike Gordon, cannot carry much ammunition and must scavenge for armor rather than using batteries and chargers. The pistol, SMG/M4, and the shotgun are slightly nerfed to have correct magazine capacity.

    Echoes’ ending took me by surprise and I won’t forget it anytime soon.

    A perfect self-insert story and by far probably the best mod of all time for me.

  35. Personal Favourite
    Very Good Game But i got scared from SCP-087-B Sound Jumpscare
  36. Personal Favourite

    Now, I’m very picky at the time of playing any sort of GoldSrc mod, but Half-Life: Echoes is my absolute favorite mod. You as a scientist (not Gordon Freeman) have to escape Black Mesa, but with G-Man constantly observing you, you have to check corners constantly.

    The puzzles and combat are always good. Especially during that boss fight against the Gargantua! THAT WAS AMAZING! The comedy of the game before the Black Mesa Incident is GOLD!. There’s nothing much to say except that this mod is awesome and that I want to see a sequel. I don’t care if it is soon or not.

    My rate for this awesome mod is: 10/10. It feels like an expansion pack of Half-Life!

  37. Personal Favourite

    Echoes is, beside the mod “Black Mesa”, for me the best Half-Life-1-Mod I’ve ever played. I loved to see the never seen before areas in Black Mesa. Every second was it worth the play this mod.

  38. Personal Favourite

    Waouw what an experience 😯

    Everything was really immersing me into the gaming experience:
    – the impressive design
    – the use of texture sounds and voice acting
    – a lot of cutscenes
    – the amount of reward you can get by simply exploring
    – the well thaught but never complicated puzzle solving
    – the fact that even if the progression is quite linear until a certain moment and then a king of back tracking till the starting area .

    All in all everything was really solid is there something i could a little complain…perhaps…like a lot of mods the design and idea loose some interest in the way you reached the end. I think it could be difficult at a certain way to keep the same energy to complete the mod as to start it…

    The end could so be a little disppointing but regarding the fact that it was created by one person this is really a huge creation in all aspect of the game.

    This is part of my hall of fame mod without any hesitation

  39. Personal Favourite

    It surpassed my Expectations. For a GLDsrc game it looks very detailed and the lighting is great. It Feels like a Actual Official Half Life game with how much Work was put into it. I love it too bits and i totally recommend it to anyone who wants to play it!

  40. Play It Now!

    Italian review for Italian readers:

    Una eccellente mod single player creata da un solo utente.

    Un’ottima mod dai toni horror che, per quanto i confini temporali non siano ben definiti, inizia poco prima dell’Incidente ben noto in Black Mesa, e termina… beh, termina non vi dico quando, per evitare spoilers.

    Non dura tantissimo, ma non è neanche una demo: in 4 ore terminate la mod.
    Nessun arma nuova, non ci sono tutte le armi del gioco originale.
    Solo alcuni mostri (ma giusto 3) sono inventati, ma semplicemente sono gli zombie con varie skin. E hanno preso due mostri non utilizzati nel gioco principale.

    Le ambientazioni non sono varie, ma sono coerentissimi con il proseguire dell’avventura.
    Nessun bug riscontrato, forse giusto qualche sbavatura nel sistema della torcia, ma niente di che.

    7/10

  41. Personal Favourite

    Everything is great about Echoes: it’s gameplay, level-design, puzzles, humor, and plot.
    If it was the early 2000’s I would think that this is an official expansion pack for original Half-Life, truly.
    You absolutely should play it, if you love Half-Life.

    The only problem I encountered was the bug when you need to crank two valves on two bridges to open the door. Script just wasn’t working for me for some reason, and I had to solve it via parkouring my way on wall lamps 🙂 (which counts as breaking level-design).

  42. Personal Favourite

    Echoes, the long-awaited solo project by MrGnang, is regarded as one of the best Half-Life mods, both inside and outside of the community, and for a good reason.

    First off, Echoes obviously looks amazing, with finely crafted environments and imaginative visuals. It’s probably the best-looking GoldSrc mod I’ve ever seen. Models are also upgraded, with some models even being imported from Source (I think). Everything looks amazing, especially for GoldSrc.

    Echoes is also very strong on the gameplay front. There’s no new enemies (Mr. Friendly and Kingpin don’t really count because you don’t actually fight them), but Echoes still manages to use the default Half-Life enemies very well. Echoes is difficult, although not because of a massive amount of enemies. Instead, the difficulty is mostly from a lack of supplies. Echoes forces you to make accurate shots, as you don’t have an abundance of ammo. Overall, combined with good encounter design, Echoes presents a very fun challenge.

    Echoes leans more into the horror aspect of Half-Life 1, which is a nice change of pace. Most HL1 things don’t focus on this aspect after the first couple chapters. Echoes, however, manages to keep a tense, creepy atmosphere throughout the mod as a whole. You’re often tossed into dark areas, and many characters suffer grim fates. Monsters have scary introductions, and you even get to see Kingpin and Mr. Friendly! I always love seeing cut monsters in mods! You even managed to make snarks scary, somehow.

    This mod’s version of Black Mesa gives the facility a lot of scale that was missing from the original HL1. Echoes’ version of BM really helps establish how absolutely massive the facility is. Echoes also breathes a lot of new life into BM, with many new NPC types, such as the HEV-suited guards. There’s quite a few scripted sequences, creating the impression that the facility is a real (for lack of a better word) place with many moving parts and different people. The scripted sequences extend beyond humans, though; this mod makes gargs absolutely terrifying powerhouses.

    I only encountered a few bugs in my playthrough. The garg near the elevator ended up running away from me (that might also be the fault of the original AI, not the mod itself). Before I got the gluon gun, the dudes in the tank kept shooting at me instead of the garg (unless this was intentional).

    The only thing that disappointed me was that there was no Kingpin bossfight of any sort. I felt that the mod was building towards something like that, but it just never happened, and it left me feeling a little disappointed.

    Overall, I had a lot of fun with my time with Echoes. I found that I just couldn’t put it down during its 3 hour runtime (others might find it a bit shorter or longer, of course). If you’re interested in Half-Life mods even one bit, I suggest you play Echoes as soon as possible.

  43. Personal Favourite

    Echoes is a fantastic mod from start to finish. The fantastic set-pieces, combat arenas, and scripted sequences bring it above most other Half-Life mods.

  44. Great mod i played it a week ago and finished it and all i have to say is that the mod is awesome the ending was a little weird but overall great mod 10/10

  45. Play It Now!

    Extremely detailed and well made maps, fantastic scripted sequences, long playtime, all made by a single guy.
    A great achivement and one of the most impressive looking HL mods ever made.

  46. Personal Favourite
    It is WOW!

    played

  47. Play It Now!

    Even as someone who doesn’t like classic half life mods, this one is really amazing, everything is so well done, the level design is insane and the story is actually interesting.
    Play it, you have to.

  48. Play It Now!

    Dude when im trying to launch it it crashes.

  49. It was last year when I tore out my right shoulder. As a result I couldn’t play anything. I stopped last September at section 5 with the big boss green/red alien grunt battle.
    Playing on medium with 65 health, 5 crossbow bolts, and some shotgun shells. I could get him red but never beat him.
    I don’t like sv_cheats but even with God mode on it was a huge battle.
    Now I’ve moved to section 6 with hazard suit Barney. Shoulder held up well with tonight’s gaming session.
    Really likening this mod. Will post review when I’m done.

  50. Play It Now!

    HEADER:

    Great mod for fans of classic half life looking for a more serious and gritty take on the events of Black Mesa

    If you’ve ever wanted to experience the events of Black Mesa as a simple bystander rather than anyone special, this is the mod for you. I really liked the serious tone the mod had overall, and theres some great use of horror the entire time through. Very well made, and fits very well alongside the rest of the entries in the series.

  51. Personal Favourite

    I only play an hour or so at a setting. Plus couldn’t pick the game back up for almost a year.
    WOW and I mean WOW.
    The puzzles will get you thinking. Strategic use of weapons and tactics are required for success.
    Play it you won’t be disappointed.

    Big thank you to the development team. I really really enjoyed playing.
    So how about an Echoes 2?

  52. Personal Favourite

    One of my favorite things about modding is how old things we know become fresh, the spirit of all the effort put into a game gets life back when people add their own passion to that fire. This mod brings back the Half-Life spirit in force.

    Exploring a nook or cranny and being rewarded with an environmental story element or a hidden weapon was wonderful. The puzzle elements were well touched up and spanned appropriately across the map to give them the natural feeling Half-life excelled at. Felt happy again and again when the player returns to an area to find it changed from their last visit, makes this interpretation of Black Mesa a dynamic setting that I wanted to explore.

    I would say this stands up next to the Gearbox releases in terms of closeness to the enigma of Half-life. Takes a lot of inspiration from them too, and I like that. Very “Opposing Force” feeling.

    Pretty much a must play if you liked Half-life enough to play Blue Shift or Opposing Force.

  53. Personal Favourite

    To me, this mod is nothing short of a Half-Life expansion pack. Everything about this mod is incredible. This mod is more than just a single player adventure, it’s an experience. It does something that Half-Life did perfectly but very few mods have achieved: incredible atmosphere.

    The level design is more than just a place to be, it tells a story. From the changing environment to small details like the biohazard containment barriers, the facility feels alive and shows how the situation is progressing. It explains how the alien invasion is changing, and by the end of it I felt like I was given a glimpse into the inner workings of the mod creator’s ideas of Xen ecology.

    The cutscenes are also extremely well done. They give big glimpses into the overarching story of Half-Life while also making it obvious that you are just an observer in the story as cataclysmic events are happening over your head while you’re still stuck in the facility. Every cutscene made me feel like there were huge forces acting just out of view, taking advantage of my progress, something I felt all throughout Half-Life 2 and I never felt again until I played this mod. They’re also not intrusive or making me feel like I’m being grabbed and shot through the story, allowing use of character control and locking camera only when it was needed made the cutscenes feel more immersive and less like the game was temporarily turned into a movie. Storytelling at it’s best, both for the player’s own crawl through Black Mesa and the Half-Life universe as a whole.

    The new music is fantastic and supports the atmosphere and immersion. I found myself avoiding quicksaving until the music ended because the new music just felt so key to the experience. I’m a big sucker for great game music, and not only was this fantastic, but it meshed with Half-Life’s soundtrack perfectly.

    The gameplay was above average. The environment added some much needed spice to the combat, and I think enemy health values were adjusted. Either some of the tougher enemies got a health buff or I’ve really lost my edge for classic Half-Life. Either way, it enhanced the fighting.

    All in all, this is more than just your average Half-Life mod. It’s something to experience, not just run through guns blazing. I’ve been playing Half-Life and its mods since the GOTY release so many years ago, and this is my favorite classic Half-Life mod by a long shot. An absolute must play with the lights turned off, the sound turned up, and no distractions. Give it a try!

  54. My all time favorite mod, played it many times.
    It’s truly like an expansion pack, because it doesn’t lack anything.
    it just has everything and is the most detailed and balanced combat mod of all time.
    Play it!

  55. Personal Favourite

    My all time favorite mod, played it many times.
    It’s truly like an expansion pack, because it doesn’t lack anything.
    it just has everything and is the most detailed and balanced combat mod of all time.
    Play it!

  56. Personal Favourite

    jugalo y listo

  57. Personal Favourite

    Damn, this is what Blue Shift was supposed to be! Map quality was unbelievably high, with lots and lots of details being scattered around.

    Even though it’s made in Gold Source, I must say that game was pretty immersive, as other than maps being pretty detailed, there are also many battle scenes taking place, making you really feel the importance of events taking place during the Resonance Cascade (Xenian invasion, arrival of marines, Opposing Force’s nuclear detonation etc.).

    Not much has changed gameplay wise, but something like that is definitely not needed here.

    I have played many other mods, but I must say, out of all of them, this one is the only one that set the bar so high that it could be considered the third expansion pack. As I said, this is the Blue Shift we should’ve gotten.

  58. Play It Now!

    Amazing campaign right there. I didn’t pay attention to the level designs at first. It took me 2 playthroughs to realize I was backtracking the entire time. I love the details of those areas as you progress the game, great way to immerse the player to the Black Mesa incident.

  59. Personal Favourite

    Definitely my Top 1 Half- Life 1 mod ever. Absolute must play!

  60. Personal Favourite

    Very Good

  61. Personal Favourite

    Absolutely amazing mod. The area design is fantastic, the atmosphere of the first few areas after the resonance cascade is unmatched, even by the official game and it also looks incredible and feels incredible to play. A must play for sure.

  62. Personal Favourite

    HL: Echoes is a good mod… Halfway

    I must say that the first hour I didn’t enjoy the game at all because… IT TAKES TOO MUCH ADVANTAGE OF THE SCARE WITH LOUD SOUNDS! And I’m a hamster so I jumped out of my chair and my headphones went flying more than I care to count.

    The story is… Not very interesting, however the recycling and the atmosphere are very well done… But I still can’t get over the abrupt change in the horror aesthetic from the beginning to the end full of shots and explosions that give us

    In my opinion, it would have been much better if the game tried to be even scarier, after all it does it very well in the first hour and the moment they give us the first gun that feeling is gone (although I I kept getting scared by the headcrabs)

    A good mod for the atmosphere it generates

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