MINERVA Review

The bitter and simple truth of this mod is that it's more coherent and enthralling than anything Valve has ever done with the Source engine.  Valve has dozens of highly trained professionals working with legions of play testers to refine and sculpt interesting levels, and what we've been handed in Half-Life 2 and Episode One are uninspired nuggets of ruthlessly linear gameplay spliced together by improbable loading areas and populated with static vistas and stale gimmicks.  MINERVA, the product of a single Limey at work in his basement, is a spirited reaction against that trend, and in grand style it shows us breathtaking level design and tense gameplay in equal and perfect measure.

The mod has been in development for two and a half years, and the last two of the four total levels were released a few days ago.  I reviewed the first chunk a long time ago, but playing the entire thing together results in such a different experience that I thought it would be best to just revisit and re-review the entire thing.

The mod begins with a hectic insertion by Combine helicopter on a tiny rocky island in the middle of what seems to be a limitless ocean.  From the first second the Combine security detail is spitting lead, and for the entire time while the player is 'topside' on the surface of the island, he is dodging grenades and trading gunfire with jack-booted thugs.  From the first second, also, the omniscient MINERVA is chatting, relaying objectives, dropping small plot hints, and disparaging the player through very old-school on-screen text messages heralded by the crack and drone of a 56k modem.

The bulk of the player's time is spent underground, investigating an old World War II bunker complex remodeled with Combine machinery and eventually plumbing the extreme depths of a vast Combine installation, which is channeling massive amounts of energy somewhere for some nefarious purpose.  On the island and in the bunker and in the complex below there is a consistent and refreshing respect of the way actual buildings look like – even though nothing we've ever seen looks quite like this.  Rooms and hallways are laid out like they're actually used for something other than the player's entertainment, and even the most fantastic caverns of steel and control rooms are grounded in something resembling logic, which means players can actually navigate the levels by intuition, rather than having to memorize the layout.

However, the fact that the areas make sense does not at all mean they aren't breathtaking.  The island is unremarkable, and the barracks beneath are claustrophobic and choked with debris, but the Combine complex below is practically one long visual feast.  Bottomless chasms open up beneath narrow glass walkways, and ominous machinery pumps away in huge rooms lit with eerie light. And the scenes aren't just for show: if you see a magnificent vista of polished, black steel and glass through a window, it isn't a one-off thing.  Chances are you'll be fighting (or running scared) down there in a few minutes. Playing in some of these spaces is truly difficult, if only because you feel like killing Combine isn't nearly as important as gawking like a stupid tourist at the incredible architecture.  Even the Citadel in Half-Life 2 looks cheap and feels boring compared to the Combine complex of MINERVA's later levels.

I will not try and spoil the story because I know some people take offense to that sort of thing, but the manner in which the story is told – through observation of the environment and the terse text messages I mentioned earlier – does the best with a small set of tools.  Through these messages the player learns about his own past in bits and pieces, understands his mission (at first he has no clue) and even figures out a bit about the mysterious thing sending him on this mission.  Things pick up in this department towards the end of the mod, when the fit hits the shan, and it's in the last hour or so of gameplay that MINERVA really falls into place.

If you haven't played MINERVA, and you own Episode One (which is required, as the mod borrows some of the props and effects used in that expansion), then you should seek out and play this incredible set of levels as soon as possible.

*Note: because this mod is essentially a finely tuned map pack we've decided to just give it an overall score.