[09 May 2005]
Hostile Intent

Well this was originally suppose to be a preview for Hostile Intent 1.4 but I guess now it is more of a review than anything.

A quote from the newly included manual (manual.html):

"Hostile Intent for all intents and purposes is the thinking man's First Person Shooter. In Hostile Intent the player has to use cover wisely, conserve his ammo, work well with his teammates, use communication effectively, keep the mission at the forefront of his mind and especially keep his cool under fire.
Those of you who have not played Hostile Intent before are in for a bit of a shock. Hostile Intent, all teams being of equal skill levels, is a very hard game. A very hard game for most players initially. It takes a few times to get the hang of the game mechanics and you have to observe other players and how they act and react but you will pick it up. Everyone does.

The basic concept comes from how we have played in the Tom Clancy Rainbow Six series of games but we have a smattering of Ghost Recon too. You, the player, have to take the mission slow, steady and careful in order to complete it and stay alive. Clancy’s games have become very popular in the commercial market and they filled a much-needed niche. The same goes for Hostile Intent. We are the only team based tactical shooter in the Half Life community that takes “realism”, real tactics, believable scenarios, and honestly takes them seriously enough to bring to you, the player."

Hostile Intent has come a long way since its last version.  With well over seventy (70) changes, Hostile Intent 1.4 is the biggest and best version to date.  Now this is not a perfect mod...yet again no mods are, they have there own flaws but the HI Team acknowledges these problems and then fixes them.  When I first booted up the Beta version which was actually 1 or two minor versions from being released, I noticed that there was something different right away.  I saw in front of me a nicer looking Splash (Background), with clearer and more crisp text.  So Chris "IkusaGwai" Harris  invited me into the teams Dev server.  ...It locked up on me.  I am not sure if it was my fault or the game's because I had left something's open that I probably should not have...you can use your imagination to find out what those are...

The HI dev team has also been hard at work to add some new features to the game.  We now have four new maps to play

1. hi_efreeti
• "(TANGO) Disable the Bradleys."
• TANGO Style
• Two objectives in this map.  Both involve blowing up the tanks located on the main street
• This map can become a frag fest especially if you toss two or more smoke grenades in the street and start to fire
2. hi_downed
   • "(TANGO) Obtain the flight data recorder, secure the radio and the blueprints"
3. hi_khartoum
   • "(TANGO) Steal the keycode from the safe and unlock the conference room doors. Objectives must be completed in that order"
   • Tango objective map
   • Two ways to get to each objective
   • Can be a death trap in some areas so watch out
4. hi_basque
   • "(NATO) Defuse the bomb (in the closet), check the weapons cache (in the couch), examine the maps (in the pool table). Only 2 out of 3 of the objectives must be completed"
   • Set in the early morning / sunset

Chris also showed me some of the changes to the current maps.  Most were just texture updates with some the objectives were moved and part were re-designed

1. hi_croatia
   • Not much here but you need night vision goggles to go places in this map.
   • I have never played this map before so I could not compare it to anything
2. hi_hotel
   • Elevators are locked
   • Was a work in progress when I played it
   • Looks a lot more like a hotel now
3. hi_aurora
   • Very dark map
   • Based on an actual team members house
   • It had some clipping errors
   • A entity error when you went to prone on the banisters upstairs and then you tried to get up you would get stuck

Other changes and updates include but are not limited to

• Grenade flash
• Recoil adjustments
• Small delay to raise sights after going prone
• Observers can now have night vision
• Many new weapon models including some updates on the older ones
• Updates on a handful of other maps not listed above

Overall I was impressed with how much Hostile Intent has come since the last version and from where they started out.  They have created a small cult following (typical of any good HL mod) and have stuck true to the community by listening to suggestions and feedback on the mod.  If you have not played or have not played this mod in some time, I suggest downloading it and try it out for yourself.