- Joined
- Mar 18, 2003
- Messages
- 17,746
- Reaction score
- 6
How to hunt down an invisible man? That's the question that Hidden: Source
revolves around. Assault rifles and shotguns are all well and good, but when the
target is only visible by a slight predator-style ripple in the air, even the
most hardened Special Forces troopers will have problems.[br]
[br]
[br]
Somewhere deep within a corporate lab complex, a team of British scientists have
succeeded in making a human being completely invisible. But driven insane by
constant and painful experiments, tweaking, probing, genetic manipulation and
brain-boiling drugs, the homicidal Subject 617 has escaped, killing his
tormentors and fleeing the lab, armed only with a sharp knife and a bag full of
pipe bombs. Now the I.R.I.S. corporate spooks are closing the net, determined to
erase all evidence. Subject 617, otherwise known as The Hidden, must evade his
would-be captors, hunting them down one by one.[br]
[br]
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[br]
A brilliant idea - and in practise, it provides a beautiful alternative to
traditional deathmatch, Counter-Strike and large-scale battles. Playing as the
I.R.I.S. team, armed with a sub-machinegun or pump-action shotgun, your mission
is to hunt down the Hidden - randomly selected at the beginning of the match.
Whoever manages to kill the Hidden becomes him next round; if Subject 617
manages to eliminate the entire team, he wins. A tight time limit means the
Hidden can never stay still for long. Tension-fuelled gameplay ensues, as the
soldiers must stick together and use teamwork, always on the lookout for the
telltale shimmer in the air.[br]
[br]
[br]
Roving the corridors and hallways, you'll feel the clench of fear in the pit of
your stomach - an attack could come from anywhere at any time. This is the
tensest thing on the Source engine, and at some points it literally made me jump
- my 13-year old American comrade suddenly being thrown against the wall, his
girlish screams echoing over voice comm., his blood spattering the bare concrete
wall. Back-pedalling frantically, liberally spraying bullets and fear musk at
the wobbly heat-haze thing coming towards you. And as 617, you view the world
through a burning rose-tinted miasma. Your knife seems at first ineffective
until you realise you can use the 'pig-sticker' move - a 3-second charge up
culminating in a one-hit-kill-stab. Soon you'll be pre-emptively whacking the
button, waiting, using the 'pounce' key to leap right into the face of your
prey, just as the pig-sticker finishes charging, pushing a foot of cold steel
between his eyes.[br]
[br]
The character models aren't brilliant, but the mapping is exceptional -
well-textured and well-designed, littered with objects for the unwary Hidden to
bump into and alert I.R.I.S. to his presence. While it's possible to camp
certain areas, there's always a way for the Hidden to sneak up behind you. A mix
of large open areas and winding corridors keeps play varied and even when it
does stagnate into a campathon, the time limit forces either the Hidden or
I.R.I.S. to make a move eventually. Great touches like the steam vents on the
train yard map that spew heat haze from the floor, looking exactly like the
Hidden's effect, really enhance the experience. Also, kudos for the first decent
level set entirely in a sewer I have ever seen.[br]
[br]
<table align="right" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" >
<tr>
<td >
</td>
</tr>
</table>
So far, so glowing; but now for the bad points. Hidden: Source is littered
with bugs, from the voices of the dead being audible to still-living players
(allowing spectators to tip I.R.I.S. off about the location of their quarry) to
random crashes during loading. This latter problem is an enormous pain - 50% of
the time, an obscure memory error will occur just as you think its finished
loading, booting you out of the game and sometimes forcing you to reset. If this
release is supposed to be less buggy than the last, then I'm glad I didn't ever
play the original version. Oh yes, and doors close too quickly, damn it. [br]
[br]
That said, the crawling glitches don't come anywhere near ruining the game: in
fact, some of them are quite comical - once, as the Hidden, I found myself
spawning at the I.R.I.S. start point and proceeded to go crazy with a knife,
getting shot rather quickly in the process. Or the time when no Hidden was
selected, causing the I.R.I.S. team to engage in a desperate mass suicide to end
the round. Or the time when I discovered that spectators can spray their logos,
pasting a large skull picture on a wall right in front of two marines (scared
them to death). [br]
[br]
Another huge problem is scarcity of servers - while playing for review, there
were two - yes, two - servers in the world (plus one private one that required a
password). Not only that, but at times these are criminally un-populated - and
unfortunately, a Hidden game isn't fun unless there's at least five people. It's
a real shame, considering how great this mod is and how much it deserves to be
played. Luckily there is a way to solve this problem - yes, you guessed it. Get
out there and play already.[br]
[br]
In the end, despite the bugs, Hidden: Source is a mod everyone should play at
least once. It's a brilliantly different idea that eschews action-orientated
antics for stealth and tension-based gameplay. Frantic, predator-style action
and tense corridor stalking occasionally let down by random crashes - but still
well worth a download. Just don't blame me if you develop acute paranoia.
revolves around. Assault rifles and shotguns are all well and good, but when the
target is only visible by a slight predator-style ripple in the air, even the
most hardened Special Forces troopers will have problems.[br]
[br]
[br]
Somewhere deep within a corporate lab complex, a team of British scientists have
succeeded in making a human being completely invisible. But driven insane by
constant and painful experiments, tweaking, probing, genetic manipulation and
brain-boiling drugs, the homicidal Subject 617 has escaped, killing his
tormentors and fleeing the lab, armed only with a sharp knife and a bag full of
pipe bombs. Now the I.R.I.S. corporate spooks are closing the net, determined to
erase all evidence. Subject 617, otherwise known as The Hidden, must evade his
would-be captors, hunting them down one by one.[br]
[br]
<table align="left" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" >
<tr>
<td >
</td></tr>
</table>
[br]
A brilliant idea - and in practise, it provides a beautiful alternative to
traditional deathmatch, Counter-Strike and large-scale battles. Playing as the
I.R.I.S. team, armed with a sub-machinegun or pump-action shotgun, your mission
is to hunt down the Hidden - randomly selected at the beginning of the match.
Whoever manages to kill the Hidden becomes him next round; if Subject 617
manages to eliminate the entire team, he wins. A tight time limit means the
Hidden can never stay still for long. Tension-fuelled gameplay ensues, as the
soldiers must stick together and use teamwork, always on the lookout for the
telltale shimmer in the air.[br]
[br]
[br]
Roving the corridors and hallways, you'll feel the clench of fear in the pit of
your stomach - an attack could come from anywhere at any time. This is the
tensest thing on the Source engine, and at some points it literally made me jump
- my 13-year old American comrade suddenly being thrown against the wall, his
girlish screams echoing over voice comm., his blood spattering the bare concrete
wall. Back-pedalling frantically, liberally spraying bullets and fear musk at
the wobbly heat-haze thing coming towards you. And as 617, you view the world
through a burning rose-tinted miasma. Your knife seems at first ineffective
until you realise you can use the 'pig-sticker' move - a 3-second charge up
culminating in a one-hit-kill-stab. Soon you'll be pre-emptively whacking the
button, waiting, using the 'pounce' key to leap right into the face of your
prey, just as the pig-sticker finishes charging, pushing a foot of cold steel
between his eyes.[br]
[br]
The character models aren't brilliant, but the mapping is exceptional -
well-textured and well-designed, littered with objects for the unwary Hidden to
bump into and alert I.R.I.S. to his presence. While it's possible to camp
certain areas, there's always a way for the Hidden to sneak up behind you. A mix
of large open areas and winding corridors keeps play varied and even when it
does stagnate into a campathon, the time limit forces either the Hidden or
I.R.I.S. to make a move eventually. Great touches like the steam vents on the
train yard map that spew heat haze from the floor, looking exactly like the
Hidden's effect, really enhance the experience. Also, kudos for the first decent
level set entirely in a sewer I have ever seen.[br]
[br]
<table align="right" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" >
<tr>
<td >
</td></tr>
</table>
So far, so glowing; but now for the bad points. Hidden: Source is littered
with bugs, from the voices of the dead being audible to still-living players
(allowing spectators to tip I.R.I.S. off about the location of their quarry) to
random crashes during loading. This latter problem is an enormous pain - 50% of
the time, an obscure memory error will occur just as you think its finished
loading, booting you out of the game and sometimes forcing you to reset. If this
release is supposed to be less buggy than the last, then I'm glad I didn't ever
play the original version. Oh yes, and doors close too quickly, damn it. [br]
[br]
That said, the crawling glitches don't come anywhere near ruining the game: in
fact, some of them are quite comical - once, as the Hidden, I found myself
spawning at the I.R.I.S. start point and proceeded to go crazy with a knife,
getting shot rather quickly in the process. Or the time when no Hidden was
selected, causing the I.R.I.S. team to engage in a desperate mass suicide to end
the round. Or the time when I discovered that spectators can spray their logos,
pasting a large skull picture on a wall right in front of two marines (scared
them to death). [br]
[br]
Another huge problem is scarcity of servers - while playing for review, there
were two - yes, two - servers in the world (plus one private one that required a
password). Not only that, but at times these are criminally un-populated - and
unfortunately, a Hidden game isn't fun unless there's at least five people. It's
a real shame, considering how great this mod is and how much it deserves to be
played. Luckily there is a way to solve this problem - yes, you guessed it. Get
out there and play already.[br]
[br]
In the end, despite the bugs, Hidden: Source is a mod everyone should play at
least once. It's a brilliantly different idea that eschews action-orientated
antics for stealth and tension-based gameplay. Frantic, predator-style action
and tense corridor stalking occasionally let down by random crashes - but still
well worth a download. Just don't blame me if you develop acute paranoia.
