Half-Life eXperiment

eXperiment is a survival-horror shooter on the Half-Life engine with a fantastic atmosphere, but somewhat irritating gameplay. You find yourself in a huge, deserted research complex, and all that remains is to feel like a small cog in a huge and frightening system.

Let's start with the visuals — it's simply very beautiful. Everything is designed in a dark sci-fi style, textures, models, animations — made with soul. It's especially impressive that most of the modification was apparently made by one person — and you can feel it: proper attention was paid to every detail, and thanks to this, everything looks very good.

However, the elegance of the visual style contrasts with navigation. All levels seem to be cut from the same template — one corridor looks like another, buttons and levers you need to find can easily blend into the surroundings. More than once you feel like you're lost in a maze where the only salvation might be pressing the "Use" button at random.

Combat is also not for the faint-hearted. Often enemies are real bullet sponges, especially at the beginning when all you have is a crowbar. This makes the first hours before firearms appear quite unpleasant: even one zombie causes big problems.

Nevertheless, there are truly memorable scenes — for example, the elevator ride or sudden moments when enemies break through from under the floor and ventilation shafts. The visual atmosphere successfully combines with the musical accompaniment, which intensifies the tension.

At later stages, the feeling of the levels changes: there's already a sense that this isn't just a modification, but almost an independent survival-horror world. And this feeling wasn't deceptive — the developer is working on a game of the same name in this world, whose page you can find on Steam.

Stylish sci-fi interiors, frightening enemies, unexpected ambushes — all this creates a truly tense atmosphere. However, hopes for a story are deceptive. No explanations of what's happening, no story — just you, monsters, and the desire not to die.

In short, eXperiment is a visually impressive mod with a strong atmosphere, but not without flaws: confusing navigation, questionable combat balance, and practically complete absence of a storyline.