When I put my hand up to review Synthesis of Corruption (secretly, I think Cody was avoiding YET ANOTHER “scary” game), I jokingly remarked that I was ready to play a Half-Life clone.
And since Gabe is still trying to get over his fear of the number 3, this will suffice!
Little did I know at the time how right I would be, for better or for worse (for worse, really).
Oddly enough, the game’s introduction reminded me of something completely different instead of Valve’s 1998 hit.
As the red-lit skyscrapers of Modern City (the game’s setting) brightened through the crimson smog of the polluted air, I was immediately taken back to the Los Angeles of Blade Runner, and that iconic opening sequence.
As you start your shift at the labs as Ned Ace – a brilliant but tardy scientist – you realise that something has gone terribly wrong.
Contamination in the labs has been “breached”, white lab coats are running around with crabs on their head, and it’s up to you to save the world from untold destruction.
Close enough. Rise and shine, Mr Freeman. Rise and shine.
You move through a floor of destroyed office cubicles as evil-looking projectors are projecting evil-looking images on tables, on corpses, on damn near any surface it can!
As you navigate through the messy rooms, trying to find a way out, you notice a vent behind some crates.
Carefully removing the cover, you crawl your way through to the other side of the door and meet your first enemy: a headcrab.
It is nothing short of amazing how faithfully the feeling of Half-Life 1 has been recreated in this game, from a small team in a completely different game engine, no less.
From the way rooms are navigated, either by platforming and using vents or breaking windows to bypass doors, to the enemies that behave exactly like their inspired counterparts, to the weapon selection in the game.
Mix in some resource scarcity and puzzle solving that is more reminiscent of Resident Evil (and those classic low-end fuzzy graphics), and you create an atmosphere that at times feels genuinely tense and requires a tactical approach, especially considering that even the headcrab does not go down from a single blow (except if said blow comes from a 12-gauge).
If this were a tech demo or the result of a game engine’s tutorial on an FPS horror, it would receive full marks.
But this is neither of these.
It is important to remember that this is still a product listed on Steam, a full game. As such, it must be judged fully.
With that in mind, it becomes truly difficult if the nature of this game is inspiration or imitation.
It was cool to see how the game used the same approach to solve a locked door, or that the introductory enemies were like the shambling zombies of Black Mesa.
But when the game dived into a government conspiracy and an alternate dimension like Xen, I was just waiting for the G-Man to whisk me away (lo and behold, what do you think happens at the end of this game?)
There is no punishment for borrowing ideas from other games if you are willing to bring your own original ones to the table.
Saints Row spawned an entire series by being a “GTA clone”. Fortnite dominated the world while being sued by the PUBG developers for ideas they deemed stolen.
Those two games, however, kept that following because they were innovative enough and could stand on their own two feet.
Take away the Half-Life elements from this game, and I dare not think if it even keeps its own head.
It also does not help that the game plays slightly worse than a nearly 30-year-old classic.
While I do like the idea of scarcer ammo and tougher enemies, the movement in this game just feels sluggish compared to Half-Life.
The melee combat is also quite clumsy, and frequently I am missing enemies that I feel like I should clearly be slicing in half with my blunt axe.
Shooting is fine, but you ideally want to stockpile ammo for the more difficult enemies, so you are always compelled to go back to swinging when facing headcrabs or zombies, frustrating the experience further.
The game does at least offer a pretty coherent (if derivative) narrative and an overarching story over all their games.
While I enjoyed my romp in this unofficial 28th-year anniversary edition of Half-Life, I will stick to my classic Orange Box version, thank you very much!
