Most people right now will be about to look across the web, find out where I live and kill me, brutally infact. Why? Because I’m about to say something which is frowned upon by nearly everyone who plays games, actually, everyone who plays games, as those who feel the same as me have already been killed.
I’m talking about Half Life 2, of course, in my opinion the worst game EVA! I hate it, its crap! There said it, now the masses will come and kill me…
At least some good came out of this absolutely awful game design, namely all the mods! YAY! These are not only free, but damn good fun, so today we’re going to take a look at Zombie Panic Source.
Zombie Panic Source
Well what can I say? Lets start by saying that my score on my steam profile was something like 0.1 and I hadn’t logged into it for so long, now its ‘Screaming Eagles’ with 10, and I have shamefully spent something like 30hrs on a steam game over 2 weeks, which is 1 complete day of my life. Usually I would start regretting this and attempt to make a time machine out of my lounge coffee table and 4 spoons. But this time it was different, something had changed, perhaps a glitch in the matrix – I was strangely satisfied with myself.
What is Zombie Panic Source? – It’s a mod for Halflife, all it requires is you have a source game installed. Its free, and damn good fun. The game essentially comes down to 2 sides, played by 1 group of people in a server. The survivors, and the Zombies. What I mean by 1 group of people is, although some poor people start off as zombies, as each suvivor is caught / killed. They become a zombie. Brilliant concept, but lets talk about it in more detail.
The Mad Dash - Although this game centralises around the core fundamentals of team work, no one wants to get caught and become ‘one of them’. So each round begins with you spawning into the level, and a mad dash to find more weapons and ammo. Fortunatley there is seemingly lots around, but in a server of 20 people that soon goes, and the ammo doesnt go a long way… Everyone then tries to stick together, and find somewhere to hold up inside, or a few silly few try and hunt and kill the zombies.
So It begins – If your like me, you’ve got some half decent weapons, not too many as you get heavy, and that slows you down. But when the round just starts, theres less zombies, is not as tense, they aren’t all chasing around using the voice chat to intimidate you, so I try my best to pick a few off early on, to try and get there number of respawns down. Sometimes this works, but often the zombies still win. I then try and get back to the other guys who have already started to baracade themselves in, usually with 1 way to escape if they get overrun (although if its got that far, there going to get split up and die anyway).
Tension – I tell you, I love a good zombie film, game, tatty merchandise, it all gets the adrenaline going when you’ve got a dozen zombies at your baracade and you’re trying to beat them off with your chair, or crow bar because you’re out of ammo. It makes me feel tense, scared a little, I love it!
Survivor – As a survivor, you usually start with one basic melee weapon and a hundgun, sometimes with just 1 clip, or half a clip reload, so you got to go find yourself more weapons. However, suvivors slow down and tire more easily when carrying more, making it harder to escape. Pressing P does drop everything but what you are holding, to help you escape. But this isnt ideal. You can bash / push some objects in the game to make baracades. This is done by either hitting it with a melee weapon, or pressing H to holster your weapon and right click on it to move it, it takes a few seconds to recharge to do it again. Suvivors have standard 100HP and are best to keep together, share ammo, and only fire when the zombies are close they will try and get you to waste your ammo by staying out of range & remember they can recover health, you cant without medi packs. Don’t forget to use your flashlight with F, and turn it off if you are trying to hide!
Zombie – You’re going to end up being one of these a lot of the time, especially when your new to the game. You have 200HP, unless the server is modded & 250HP if you are the Alpha Zombie – being the Alpha, gives you 10% chance infect the survivors, if you do, don’t bother to kill them, let them go mingle and change into a zombie later hehe. You can use zombie vision with F, which helps you see better in the dark. You don’t move that quickly, but you can lunge using the shift key, though a problem with that is it doesnt recharge untill you start hittin a survivor, so use it wisely. Try and waste the surivors ammo if they are held up in a room, your health recharges over time (it does speed up recharging if your patient). Be sneaky as a zombie, and try and attack in groups. Prey on those who seperate from the suvivor pack, it gives your team an extra spawn, and they join the zombie ranks.
Other Game Modes – There are some brilliant objective game modes which are great, the thing to remember is the zombies never run out of spawns, its unlimited, so try and complete the objectives as quickly as possible to win.
Negatives – It can get a little boring and repetitive, and if you get a game where everyone runs around and doesnt work together, the novelity will wear off pretty quick. Zombies do seem to win a lot, but usually thats because the survivors arent working together, so be sure to find a decent server, and use your voice chat.
Well I think thats about it, I cant wait for the valve game Left 4 Dead! Out November 4th 2008.
Cheers
Wuup
