USS DarkStar Review:-
Introduction - As I sit in front of the screen I see a gigantic ship, deep in outer space, swoop past the camera, I use the term swoop loosely because the process almost takes a minute due to the size of the ship. When the camera eventually reaches the end, it pans over the ships mighty engines, burning at full thrust, and over the top to give a better view of the ship. Lights, landing bays, glass tunnels and windows suddenly reveal themselves, the camera zooms in to one of the said windows, we can make out some sort of dormitory, a security guard walks in and bangs on one of the doors, but the noise of the bang is drowned out by the sound of the blazing engines. Now anyone reading this, oblivious to the fact that it's a review for a computer game level, would think I was describing a cinematic scene from a Starwars movie, or similar high budget Hollywood movie. They'd be wrong of course because it's in fact the splendid scripted intro to Manke's new single player level pack, USS DarkStar, I'm impressed already and I haven't even started playing yet. Before I downloaded this level I heard many boast's and rash statements about this pack, claiming that it bettered any of Valve's efforts, and that it was worthy as a mission pack on it's own alongside the upcoming Opposing Force. After playing through DarkStar twice it has to be said these statements aren't far from the truth.
Playing through DS is like playing through a real movie, like an interactive movie except that's there's no FMV in site, just realtime 3D graphics. The author has made good use of cinematic cut scenes, from the flyby intro to the ending sequence, and scripted sequences such as the sound of scientists getting slaughtered as they call for help over the intercom. There's plenty more where that came from but I shouldn't spoil the surprise, this professional use of scripting really helps add to the experience moving the story along at the same time. It draws you into playing the game, so much so that you'll find yourself playing through the whole thing in one sitting, oh and did I mention that it's big! The story goes along the lines of Gordon Freeman being assigned onboard a zoological vessel in outer space in 2066. It starts off in the same vein as the original Halflife, you're late for work and as you make your way through the ship everything is rosey and all systems are go. Until everything goes wrong of course, and then begins the battle for your life as you desperately try to find a way off the ship blasting aside any escaped aliens that get in your way.
The level design is first rate, it's if though WorldCraft is Manke's second home. Glass tunnels that let you see outside the ship, open up into detailed corridors complete with all the trimmings and supporting structures you'd expect in the real ship, these then lead onto offices and labs where even the tiniest of details, such as notebooks and pens, are present. The monster play pens, complete with monsters, that allow you to walk right through them protected by an electrical force field so they can't touch you, are a great touch. However, although the levels are really detailed, at times it didn't feel like I was walking through a real spaceship in 2066, the designs tended to resemble the standard corridors and rooms you see in Halflife's underground bunker/lab type levels at times. This can be forgiven though because the authenticity and attention to detail more than makes up for it. The almost perfect monster and weapon layout is testament to how important beta testing your levels is (like DS was), the game never gets too difficult or too easy, the difficulty remains consistent throughout, and you never find yourself having to battle through parts of the game with just a crowbar because the designer forgot to leave enough ammo.
These levels are packed with innovation and originality and comical touches that put a smile on your face, for instance, when you come across your first PC Gamer magazine with 'Top 100 Games of 2066' braising the front cover, and when you come across the security guard laying down on a sofa with a beer can lying on the floor, obviously in a drunken state. Another section of the level sees Freeman shrunk down to the size of a mouse where you get to explore inside a computer system, and even destroy some of the components. And there's this brilliant bit where....oh I can't give too much away, it'll spoil the surprise. But these few examples serve to demonstrate the level of thought and imagination put into making these levels. So much more than a series of rooms where you get to shoot monsters, more of an interactive storybook.
It is difficult to fault these levels, but perhaps where they can be criticised is in their performance. Some parts of the game slow down to a crawl on all but the best machines. Maybe the beta testers were using fast machines and didn't test the levels for a decent frame rate, so that there is room to optimise the levels, however I noticed a little slow down on my PII450, 128MB, TNT2 Ultra machine running at 800x600, so I can only guess at how it will perform on slower PC's. Also DS didn't contain nearly as many of those scary underpants filling moments that are evident in Valve's efforts, moments such as monsters suddenly teleporting in from nowhere that would put you into a frenzied panic are mainly absent, I didn't find myself nervously peering around corners as much as I did in Valve's levels. But these are pretty much scrape the bottom of the barrel attempts to find faults, the fact that I'm comparing DS with Valve's levels is an honour in itself.
Conclusion -So in answer to the two questions put forward in the introduction, it is just as good as Valve's levels but doesn't better them, and this probably wouldn't make a mission pack on it's own mainly because it's not big enough, it certainly has the quality of a mission pack though. Play this one in the meantime while you wait for Opposing Force instead, it's definitely worth the download with even the slowest modems. All in all this is the best single player Halflife pack on the internet, for heavens sake Valve, give Manke a job!
Rating = 94%
Links:-
Acknowledgements -Special thanks to PC Gamer for posting USS Darkstar on their servers, for the pictures in this review and for the download link above. Also to Manke for providing us with the best SP Halflife experience yet, oh and of course Valve.
