The Forgotten Ones is a Half Life 2 mod. A free, indie, horror mod.
It starts off with a funny car ride but you get used to it saying "Well it's indie, let's ignore that.". So as you progress through the first level you get some jump scares and at that point you realise this game isn't going to be a big deal.
The only okay aspect of this game is the environment and the WW2 weaponry.
ENVIRONMENT:
What does the environment add to the game? Nothing. There is literally nothing happening related to the environment. The map design is singular and only someparts look cool. Other than that there is nothing adding to the game design.
WEAPONRY:
What does the WW2 weaponry add to the game? Nothing. The only fun aspect is to have these variety of WW2 weapons but the shooting is so dull that you really don't enjoy them. Shooting is done this way: An enemy jumpscares you and you have 2 seconds to shoot him dead, if they reach you they cause a massive camera knocking effect which renders shooting to "good luck champ". Unless you get real lucky and land a completely lucky shot, you die from being knocked back over and over. And the gun mechanics are also stupid, you grab a machine gun and you need 10 bullets to kill a guy which takes 2 with a sniper rifle.
Aparently there was Dewpiedie reference inside the game, I did not encounter that but I did encounter the Justin Bieber reference down in the basement or something.
Dude...developer dude...look, if you are trying to be taken serious and make a gritty horror game you really shouldn't put such meymey jokes inside the game. What were you even thinking?
One thing that astonished me was the balls of the mod-makers. Apart from the memes this mod tries to take itself super seriously and even wants to compete with Cry of Fear in many aspects.
From it's storyline to environment to monster design this mod tries to be Cry of Fear so hard, and obviously fails at every aspect.
Cry of Fear release: 2012
The Forgotten Ones release: 2014
So the mod-makers played CoF and said "Hey let's make a mod like this but let's mix in nazis."
STORYLINE:
Basic storyline is this. These is a mad scientist nazi guy who does mutant/daemon experiments on holocaust victims or something. Then you traverse through his mansion grounds to find him. And when you do...nothing happens, you just kill the guy. You just kill everything you encounter. The story is super bland.
Compare it to CoF: A lone teenager is lost in a town and everything around him is odd. Horrid looking people are trying to kill him and he survives by fighting back. Later it is reveled that the entire thing was a metaphor for his internal depression and sadness. Everything in the story boils down to his final confrontation with his depression and eventual suicide.
TFO does not get any benefit from including nazis or the holocaust to the story other than neat WW2 weapons. Which I assume is ported from another game, althought I don't really know this for sure.
CoF plays the "it was all a dream" card but it plays it so well that you get hooked onto the story. And it wasn't even a reveal or anything but you become suspicious of the reality and realise that the monster in the game are metaphors for psychological problems one suffers during the gameplay. Developers even try to trick the audience into thinking that a biological apocalypse is going on. They designed the human flower solely for this purpose.
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| Human Flower gives out the impression that a bio-apocalypse is going on. |
MONSTERS:
All monster in TFO are mutants. They have two heads or bloody limbs. They are experiments that this nazi scientist made. That's it. Nothing more.
If you compare this to CoF monsters you see the blandness of TFO, every monster in CoF is a psychological fear or problem the teenager had.
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| Getting stuck in bed because of sickness/madness. |
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| Wanting to commit suicide. |
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| TFO monsters are just mutant experiments. |
It is clear that this mod has nothing on CoF, yet has the huge balls to parade as an amazing horror game while including PewPieDie and Justin Bieber references.
Even the main menu is pretentious, it says "Start the Nightmare" as if the game was actually scary. I'm cringing all over.
Oh, I forgot, it also had Necronomicon inside the game, not even a reference or anything. Apparently the nazi scientist was using necronomicon to make these monsters. You actually enter into a library where every book is a necronomicon. How original and witty, isn't it?
Final Say: Don't Bother. Play Cry of Fear instead.
DayHard is another HL2 mod. It's a comedy-goof mod. Why goof you ask? Well the premise is "Bruh, let's make a silly mod n shit, let's put in all kinda funny shit innit, ammirit?". So there you go, a goof mod.
Released back in 2008, I had the chance to play it recently. Why review old mods you ask? Absolutely no fucking reason.
This mod is competent and okay-made. It somewhat sticks to the premise and tries to be funny, yet I did not find any jokes inside that would be defined as comedy. It was more like "Let's make a silly mod and put in random weird shit inside.".
DayHard reminded me of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy a bit. In the HGtG there wasn't also a clear story or aim. It was just random funny events and phenomenon happening to the characters. Humor drove the book rather than the storyline.
With this mod however the funny aspects were quite dumb. Where HGtG is funny and witty this mod doesn't really had any funny bits that I laughed at. In fact I didn't laughed once.
Compare this mod to The Stanley Parable. I mean the original mod. TSP was a homage to HGtG in many aspects, dry and downer humour with a stingy narrative.
In a supposed comedy any lack of witty humour is a game-killer but that wasn't the only problem. Obviously the mod is filled with shittons of references but I am used to references after all these years. Don't we all see that throwback and flashes of nostalgia in all hollywood movies or games? Help me Obi-wan Kenobi, I need someone to fuck. See? We are desynthized to the whole "HAHA reference so very funneyh." thing. So the references were dull and not clever.
Lack Of Objective:
TSP had puzzles and humorous places that attracted your attention during the short gameplay. With DayHard there is literally nothing to latch onto while playing. It's just shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. I mean any FPS game is just shooting but you usually add some flavor into it somehow. In DayHard there was somekind of a story but anykind of ability to convey that story to the player was non-existent which drove me nuts. I had no care or attention to the game. And constant map freezes wasn't kind either.
At first I had hope that the jokes or the story would take over but neither was there and soon I was left in this empty map filled with enemies that I had to shoot at. Map design is a crucial part in FPS and without proper designs there really was nothing to do except shoot at things in the same bland fashion.
Running The Mod:
Running this mod was hell. At first the steam didn't saw the folder so I had to re-do it. Then the game run but it froze between the maps. I installed the patches but there were several patches that overwrote one another, so some of the patches made the game not-run while others sometimes worked. I needed to restart and save the game during the cutscenes so I had a reference point if the mod froze again. Also restarting entire maps worked if you are at the starting cutscene. How I finished this mod and how I managed to get it to run...don't ask.
Final Say: Don't Bother. Play Stanley's Parable or whatever.
