Polaris and Radiator
I’ve had a few more Half Life 2 mods to play recently: The Stanley Parable, which had me in stitches, and Nightmare House 2, which had me running scared for a while.
Next on the list was the Radiator mod, which is a work-in-progress..
The series begins with Polaris, a strange short story of a couple’s strange first date in the woods, with star-gazing tasks..
This required clicking on specific stars as prompted, with a bit of a story including a little mention of Polaris being the god of dreams “who knew every mortal heart’s desire”.. rather a cheesy chat-up line 😉
The final note was of the relationship being fairly forgettable.. so when the second part of the story involves a couple in marriage therapy.. I wonder if it’s meant to be the same couple.
This part of the game was weird.. being stuck in a room full of crates and warning signs, and vague instructions to place the crate somewhere within the rows. Picking up and destroying a random crate triggered some kind of repressed memory of the couple’s life together, but it all seemed rather depressing, regarding illness, death, break-ups.
I found the first few crates easy to place, but any wrong move resulted in explosions and warnings that I wasn’t taking the therapy seriously. I started to find it rather frustrating, and having the therapist repeatedly asking the same few questions, with the player’s husband giving the same responses only added to my annoyance.. and I gave up on the mod.
I love trying out mods, and I love that there are so many, but I don’t want to be frustrated by them.
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Tags: half life 2, mods, Nightmare House 2, Polaris, Radiator, The Stanley Parable