Trouble in Terrorist Town

Trouble in Terrorist Town is a mod for Garry’s Mod, with Traitor terrorists hiding amongst Innocent terrorists.  Yes, a mod within a mod, and “innocent” terrorists.. x)

A friend invited me along last night, and I found that while the idea is simple, actually figuring out who is who, and knowing quite what to do, isn’t so easy.. though it is rather exciting when playing as a Traitor! 🙂

Roles are set by the game at the beginning of each round, with a few players being assigned to the Traitor team and the rest to the Innocent team. Traitors can see each other and plot against the Innocent team; their job is to kill off the Innocent team without being caught.  Innocent players don’t know which players are Traitors, and have to rely on what information they can find on corpses.. such as that player’s last words, or the weapon used to kill them.  There are also Detectives amongst the Innocent team.. they have additional information-gathering abilities, though beyond that, I didn’t quite make out.

The first few minutes were just confusing.. I managed to land a Traitor role, but erring on the side of caution I waited a while before attempting to kill anyone, hiding up in a tower where I tried to push somebody off the side of the building, fluffed it, but somehow managed to avoid suspicion.. that time.

Once dead, you can’t communicate, which would have come in handy as I was killed in a tunnel just after calling out who I was with.  Player deaths aren’t announced until somebody discovers the body, so a possibly useful clue.. the name of the player I was with.. went unused that time.

Left 4 Dead 2 – Cold Stream

Cold Stream is a new campaign created by modder Matthew Lourdelet, who previously created the 2 Evil Eyes campaign.

Having received some well-deserved support from Valve, this became available for players to beta test last night.

I got round to playing it this morning.  We first spawned in the stream itself..  I thought this was a very pretty location with the rushing water and trees..

We decided this first part of the map could maybe have done with a few more pointers on direction, as once you’ve headed into the trees it’s fairly easy to lose your sense of direction..

We also wandered in and out of a small building before realising we were supposed to jump out of the first floor window to carry on.. maybe if this window had been broken it would have given us a clue, but as it was it looked like a recipe for fall damage.  Minor points, though.. and they didn’t hold us up for long 🙂

In the second map, we emerged in a tunnel full of rushing water.  A minor complaint here was the lack of sound for the water.. noticeable in the tunnel where you’d expect to really hear it.  I think it was around here that we started talking about how cool it would be if the water were to push you along, as it certainly looked fast-flowing..

I think the foggy lighting here would be great cover when playing as the Infected.. 🙂

Towards the end of this level we were nearly wiped out by a sneak-attacking tank, who incapacitated most of the team with a massive rock which came crashing down onto the group.  We hadn’t even picked up the bots by the time he got to us, and after I threw the bile on him, he sent me flying past the still-incapped Ellis..

The bile brought enough zombies to kill him off, and we carried on through a building and back into a tunnel full of water.

This time, there was a push behind the water!  Straight ahead there appeared to be a drop to the death, but we headed right and down a set of stairs with more water flowing down them.  I was rather pleased with this bit 😉

On the third level we were surprised with an explosion, sending cars and trucks flying and leaving a large hole on the bridge we were crossing!

I liked how this changed the map right before us, but wonder how this feels in Versus mode.. whether the infected get trapped here, or whether it allows insta-kills over the edge.  I need more friends who still want to play this game 😉

We had noticed a witch crying, and before the explosion I had been looking for her, hoping to beat The Undoer to the kill 😉

She turned out to be standing on a surface below the bridge, with no way up.  I noticed that this bug has been mentioned on the Steam forum dedicated to Cold Stream, along with the bug we got at the beginning of the Finale level..

That’s me, spawned on the outside of the safe room.. oops.

Using the radio in the safe room starts a cutscene with what we assumed was a rescue helicopter that crashes down into the trees.. all which needs some kind of voice acting as it just feels a bit strange.  After this, we were free to run out to look for the helicopter, or an alternative rescue..

A little further along, I thought the game had crashed when everything seemed to stick.. then we realised it was just a slow-motion effect.  At the time this seemed rather impressive, but I’m now thinking it should maybe have been left out.  In games like Homefront and Call of Duty, slow-motion is used to allow you to respond quickly to a threat.. here, it just seems to be used to add to the explosion, and after the second play-through I think this would be more of an annoying delay than something to be impressed by.

For the rescue, again, hindsight comes in..

Presumably attracted by the fire and smoke from the wreckage of the first helicopter, a second helicopter was waiting to rescue us.  I think this should have been the other way round, with us having to wait and hold out against a horde.. this would have been more challenging.  Instead, we almost discovered the ladder by chance, and with the common infected piling on Ellis and Rochelle, we were free to run up the ladder to safety.

Having run through this campaign though, I realised quite how much I miss playing the game.. the adrenaline rush, the need for really close co-operation.. the awesome feeling when you and your friends survive despite the AI director being harsh.. 🙁

Korsakovia

An experimental mod about madness and the end of the world, designed to mess with your mind..

The main character, Christopher, is a psychiatric patient suffering from Korsakoff’s syndrome.  He believes that the world has ended.
Dr Grayson is the consultant neurologist at the hospital where he was brought in after an apparent failed suicide attempt..

So, what is the end of the world like?

After an initial wander around a deserted and rather grim hospital, I encounter black clouds which come screaming towards me, while unarmed, I look for a way out.  As they hit, the cracking sound and the flash of bright light feels like I’m being hit myself.

Posters with disfigured, burned hands, commandments to get rid of the eyes.. which is exactly what Christopher has done..

Damage is indicated by cracks in the corners of the screen.  The television is a recurring theme throughout the experience.

The sounds: static hissing, beeping, and heavy breathing.. creepy sounds rising in pitch and volume added to the feeling of dread.. especially during the unarmed sections, in which the only way of saving yourself is to run.

Doors opening by themselves after I was unable to open them and had stepped away..

Blood smears and burned bodies litter the various corridors and broken rooms, mounds of debris spinning like a whirlwind in another room, as well as crackling electricity, sometimes purely visual, and other times an impassable barrier.

Through all this, the script between doctor and patient triggers as you progress through the levels, an explanation of what Christopher has done to himself and why, and what he is (you are) seeing in this world.

In each section, you are unarmed until you find the crowbar, the only weapon you’ll get, and then only after you’ve been through some places you’d have really liked to have it.  Once you have the crowbar, you can kill the black clouds as they attack.  The ones you can see, at least.. there are a few bugs in this game, one of which is the airborne version of these enemies becoming invisible.

Levels are designed to confuse; in the warehouse section there were so many crates it looked as though the escape would be by climbing.  In reality, only one crate was needed, and that was to place under a broken ladder in order to reach it.

Progressing through the game, things become weirder as you leave the hospital and warehouse areas for the tenements.  Collapsed floors, fires, and burned bodies abound..

Floating pieces of concrete making a path to a door floating in the darkness..

As time passes, Dr Grayson starts to integrate herself into the delusion, starting with dreams of the warehouse, dreams of being dropped from a great height into water..

Levels become even more uncomfortable.  I’m in a warehouse again, but the floor is at an angle, and controls don’t work the usual way; trying to turn results in the view tilting and even climbing onto crates to avoid the black smoke enemies becomes a challenge.

I can see why people find Korsakovia unpleasant to play.  Screeching static and whistling noises are at times painfully loud, and tilted views encourage motion sickness; the calm voices talking about removing and eating eyes, and the posters with burned fingers and more, all add up to a disturbing experience – which is exactly what The Chinese Room were after.

If you want to see for yourself, the mod can be downloaded here.  Requires Half Life 2: Episode 2.