New Member
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2001
- Messages
- 5
- Best answers
- 0
Earth's Special Forces v. 2.0
By Seiji Tataki
First off, I'd like to apologize for the lateness of the report. Originally, I had proposed a review to be written within days of the initial release. While I did get around to playing through to game to gather the neccessary information, complications later on kept me from finishing the report. I'd also like to mention that I had originally planned on a 'rematch' as a follow up for my Earth's Special Forces vs. DragonMod Z review. In the end, I decided otherwise, due to the fact that the DMZ version was unchanged, and would give the new version of ESF an unfair advantage.
And so, I shall begin this review. The point of this, if you are wondering, is to help you understand the downs and ups of this mod, and to assist you in your decision to download it. After all, this is around a 40 megabyte download, in addition to the fact that there are miscellaneous other problems that may arise. And so, I begin.
Earth's Special Forces is a modification for the Sierra game, Half-Life. The team is aiming to convert this first person shooter into a recreation of the Dragonball Z world as according to their vision. In addition to the standard requirements of Half-Life, I would say that you should have at LEAST a 400 MHz processor, and a minimum of 128 MB RAM, with a video card with at least 32 MB of dedicated RAM. You're going to need 40 Megabytes for the actual installation file, and the final installation is roughly 85+ megabytes. Meaning, you're going to need a total of 145+ Megabytes ready at the time of installation. Though, I admit, for the amount of things that are packed into version 2.0, the 40 Megabyte installation file is incredibly small. And the final package is amazingly small, considering it's packaged with the MP3 files.
I might as well clear this obstacle first, since I'm sure many people are looking for it. Bugs. That's right. ESF has alot of bugs, but it also has alot less since it's early versions. The most common bug stems from inproper installation of the MOD itself. You must first uninstall any previous versions of ESF, via the uninstallation program included with those versions. In addition, you are going to need an FMOD.dll file, which is used for the MP3 player, which, for some reason, is missing from the installer. If you got the patch for DMZ, or use The Opera mod, this file is already there. A major bug which seemed to have sprouted up, though, is that servers are getting steadily less stable. That's right. You'll now have more crashes in the game. You might forget about the game because of this, but the bug is almost random, and has yet to hit me outside of a server which was already experiencing sever slowdown. This usually doesn't happen till about an hour or so in, or in servers which host a obscenely large number of people.
Overall graphics quality has remained constant from version to version, slowly increasing as new additions were tacked on, and minor changes were made. Alot of the attacks now use models over sprites, giving them a much smoother look. There are some problems, however. The new Goku model looks like he's on steroids. The upper torso is too large, and his shoulders are too broad. And, believe it or not, Goku has a fat face. It looks like he's gotten a beating upside the head a few many times. Though, it seems Goku is the only one that's really not quite right. The other models all look fantastic, including Vegeta and Trunks. The 'evil' skins that are used for team mode look fantastic, with 'evil' Vegeta's armor looking the best. Although I do have a minor problem with those. The need to scribble the markings on various portions of the body is a bit...unsettling. An interesting note about skins, though, is that the coloring on 'evil' Goku's GI, pants, shirt and boots look closer to the anime than that of 'good' Goku. Maybe it's just me.
Models aside, this game is breath taking. Huge levels that sprawl out to revel large areas to explore, hide in, and recover in. You'll probably want to spend time playing the different maps in single player mode just to learn every nook and cranny, and maybe even find some hidden eye candy. The ESF team outdoes themselves yet again, creating great maps. The originals are there, too, namely the Namek map, which underwent a major rehaul. The water doesn't look quite right, but it makes the map run a heck of a lot smoother. Two thumbs up, team. You should be proud of yourselves.
Now, I want to know who the heck did the menu graphics, because they're just stellar. The Majin Buu image is great, and the new text is much improved. It's also alot less confusing with the removal of the swirl. It's cleaner, it's darker (in a good sense), and alot easier to read. The buttons fit in nicely, and the menu bars are all exceptional. Maybe one day they'll have a fully animated central menu? Hey, you never know. All I have to say is kudos to you.
Gameplay is relatively untouched in ESF since the original release, as far as I can tell. Keys 1-9 are used to select the respective attacks of the DBZ character, and primary mouse button fires, with secondary mouse button with some other option. For melee moves, secondary mouse button does a kick. For KI Blast, it's a less accurate blast that fires more often. And for beam attacks, the secondary mouse button detonates the attack once it's fired, unleashing it's full fury. An option of secondary mouse that some people may NOT of noticed is that, if you hold secondary mouse while charging an attack, it stops adding energy into the attack as long as you are holding the button down. Perfect for two people wanting to have a fair power struggle battle...if there is such a thing. The attacks are so diverse, that it's often hard to find an equal attack. But they're out there.
I'm happy to report that slowdowns are ALMOST non-existant. I'm free to wander the maps once again, without extreme worry about dying two seconds into a map. However, there ARE maps that are NOT user friendly. The babidi map requires an extreme machine, as does the Kami lookout. Other than that, the maps can run for long periods of time without giving you much trouble. The balance out things, the map makers should add senzu beans to some of the other maps.
Gameplay modes have scarcely changed. It's, at the moment, a massive deathmatch, where player is pitted against player, struggling to be the most powerful. While ESF has added teams to make things a little more stable, few servers don't check friendly fire, and alot of players opt to go free-for-all style. While the dragon balls are capable of being placed in a map, they have yet to actually do anything. Without any idea of what other gameplay modes are coming, I can't really comment. But I hope they are as fun as TFC, and many other classic half-life mods.
ESF 2.0 also added a helluva lot of new things to keep the old veterans coming back. Having worked with the DMZ team, the most noticeable addition is the ability to teleport. Yes, that's right, teleport. Hitting Q(default), you character is instantly zapped a short distance in the last direction he was traveling. (If you havn't recently pressed a direction, it defaults to zapping you downward.) Perfect for last ditch efforts to escape a horrible death from an attack which was launched at you just as you catch sight. However, it sucks alot of power out of you, and you really can't do it too often unless you've killed ALOT of enemies. Which brings up the new 'experience' system. Every time you kill an enemy, you are given a new power increase depending on their power in correlation to you, as well as the amount of damage you have done to them. Meaning, if you kill a particularly powerful character, you're going to get a HUGE boost, whereas their killing you results in jack. While somewhat unfair, yet fair at the same time, the experience system has yet to provide anything other than longer lasting time in battle before you need that recharge.
Overall, ESF 2.0 is a great improvement over previous versions. With the direction that the team is going in, I'm hoping to see alot more in the future. And what a promising future it is. This is Seiji Tataki, your resident review writer, signing out.
By Seiji Tataki
First off, I'd like to apologize for the lateness of the report. Originally, I had proposed a review to be written within days of the initial release. While I did get around to playing through to game to gather the neccessary information, complications later on kept me from finishing the report. I'd also like to mention that I had originally planned on a 'rematch' as a follow up for my Earth's Special Forces vs. DragonMod Z review. In the end, I decided otherwise, due to the fact that the DMZ version was unchanged, and would give the new version of ESF an unfair advantage.
And so, I shall begin this review. The point of this, if you are wondering, is to help you understand the downs and ups of this mod, and to assist you in your decision to download it. After all, this is around a 40 megabyte download, in addition to the fact that there are miscellaneous other problems that may arise. And so, I begin.
Earth's Special Forces is a modification for the Sierra game, Half-Life. The team is aiming to convert this first person shooter into a recreation of the Dragonball Z world as according to their vision. In addition to the standard requirements of Half-Life, I would say that you should have at LEAST a 400 MHz processor, and a minimum of 128 MB RAM, with a video card with at least 32 MB of dedicated RAM. You're going to need 40 Megabytes for the actual installation file, and the final installation is roughly 85+ megabytes. Meaning, you're going to need a total of 145+ Megabytes ready at the time of installation. Though, I admit, for the amount of things that are packed into version 2.0, the 40 Megabyte installation file is incredibly small. And the final package is amazingly small, considering it's packaged with the MP3 files.
I might as well clear this obstacle first, since I'm sure many people are looking for it. Bugs. That's right. ESF has alot of bugs, but it also has alot less since it's early versions. The most common bug stems from inproper installation of the MOD itself. You must first uninstall any previous versions of ESF, via the uninstallation program included with those versions. In addition, you are going to need an FMOD.dll file, which is used for the MP3 player, which, for some reason, is missing from the installer. If you got the patch for DMZ, or use The Opera mod, this file is already there. A major bug which seemed to have sprouted up, though, is that servers are getting steadily less stable. That's right. You'll now have more crashes in the game. You might forget about the game because of this, but the bug is almost random, and has yet to hit me outside of a server which was already experiencing sever slowdown. This usually doesn't happen till about an hour or so in, or in servers which host a obscenely large number of people.
Overall graphics quality has remained constant from version to version, slowly increasing as new additions were tacked on, and minor changes were made. Alot of the attacks now use models over sprites, giving them a much smoother look. There are some problems, however. The new Goku model looks like he's on steroids. The upper torso is too large, and his shoulders are too broad. And, believe it or not, Goku has a fat face. It looks like he's gotten a beating upside the head a few many times. Though, it seems Goku is the only one that's really not quite right. The other models all look fantastic, including Vegeta and Trunks. The 'evil' skins that are used for team mode look fantastic, with 'evil' Vegeta's armor looking the best. Although I do have a minor problem with those. The need to scribble the markings on various portions of the body is a bit...unsettling. An interesting note about skins, though, is that the coloring on 'evil' Goku's GI, pants, shirt and boots look closer to the anime than that of 'good' Goku. Maybe it's just me.
Models aside, this game is breath taking. Huge levels that sprawl out to revel large areas to explore, hide in, and recover in. You'll probably want to spend time playing the different maps in single player mode just to learn every nook and cranny, and maybe even find some hidden eye candy. The ESF team outdoes themselves yet again, creating great maps. The originals are there, too, namely the Namek map, which underwent a major rehaul. The water doesn't look quite right, but it makes the map run a heck of a lot smoother. Two thumbs up, team. You should be proud of yourselves.
Now, I want to know who the heck did the menu graphics, because they're just stellar. The Majin Buu image is great, and the new text is much improved. It's also alot less confusing with the removal of the swirl. It's cleaner, it's darker (in a good sense), and alot easier to read. The buttons fit in nicely, and the menu bars are all exceptional. Maybe one day they'll have a fully animated central menu? Hey, you never know. All I have to say is kudos to you.
Gameplay is relatively untouched in ESF since the original release, as far as I can tell. Keys 1-9 are used to select the respective attacks of the DBZ character, and primary mouse button fires, with secondary mouse button with some other option. For melee moves, secondary mouse button does a kick. For KI Blast, it's a less accurate blast that fires more often. And for beam attacks, the secondary mouse button detonates the attack once it's fired, unleashing it's full fury. An option of secondary mouse that some people may NOT of noticed is that, if you hold secondary mouse while charging an attack, it stops adding energy into the attack as long as you are holding the button down. Perfect for two people wanting to have a fair power struggle battle...if there is such a thing. The attacks are so diverse, that it's often hard to find an equal attack. But they're out there.
I'm happy to report that slowdowns are ALMOST non-existant. I'm free to wander the maps once again, without extreme worry about dying two seconds into a map. However, there ARE maps that are NOT user friendly. The babidi map requires an extreme machine, as does the Kami lookout. Other than that, the maps can run for long periods of time without giving you much trouble. The balance out things, the map makers should add senzu beans to some of the other maps.
Gameplay modes have scarcely changed. It's, at the moment, a massive deathmatch, where player is pitted against player, struggling to be the most powerful. While ESF has added teams to make things a little more stable, few servers don't check friendly fire, and alot of players opt to go free-for-all style. While the dragon balls are capable of being placed in a map, they have yet to actually do anything. Without any idea of what other gameplay modes are coming, I can't really comment. But I hope they are as fun as TFC, and many other classic half-life mods.
ESF 2.0 also added a helluva lot of new things to keep the old veterans coming back. Having worked with the DMZ team, the most noticeable addition is the ability to teleport. Yes, that's right, teleport. Hitting Q(default), you character is instantly zapped a short distance in the last direction he was traveling. (If you havn't recently pressed a direction, it defaults to zapping you downward.) Perfect for last ditch efforts to escape a horrible death from an attack which was launched at you just as you catch sight. However, it sucks alot of power out of you, and you really can't do it too often unless you've killed ALOT of enemies. Which brings up the new 'experience' system. Every time you kill an enemy, you are given a new power increase depending on their power in correlation to you, as well as the amount of damage you have done to them. Meaning, if you kill a particularly powerful character, you're going to get a HUGE boost, whereas their killing you results in jack. While somewhat unfair, yet fair at the same time, the experience system has yet to provide anything other than longer lasting time in battle before you need that recharge.
Overall, ESF 2.0 is a great improvement over previous versions. With the direction that the team is going in, I'm hoping to see alot more in the future. And what a promising future it is. This is Seiji Tataki, your resident review writer, signing out.
