By Squall

[07 June 2005]
Night at the Office
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Night at the Office is a Half-Life modification puts you in the shoes of a new recruit to a facility, and one day, his employment would shake his life forever. One day, whilst talking to a co-worker, you and your co-worker hear a loud noise, which sounds much like gunfire...

The elevator located behind your co-worker opens, and inside is another co-worker of yours, bleeding from gunshot wounds. He utters a cryptic warning and dies. From here, it's all up to you

The graphics are what you would expect from an aged game like Half-Life, good, but not spectacular. They would be great if this mod would released around Half-Life's release, but in 2005, it's nothing compared to games like Far Cry and Half-Life 2. The models have decent polygon count, and look pretty good. Again, the rating would be higher if this game was released near the time of Half-Life's release.

This mod is really fun, albeit short. It's a blast while it lasts, however. It gives you reason to play through multiple times, as there is multiple endings. No worries, I won't spoil any of them for you. The storyline is very good, and gets heart racing at times. This game, sadly, has a short supply of weapons, limiting you to 5 or 6 different weapons. They're a bit generic, too. The usual melee weapon, pistol, flashlight, shotgun, and assault rifle. The reloading system is different than the one found in Half-Life, as it goes by clips and not by individual bullets. Meaning, don't reload until your clip is low or out of bullets. Also, this mod has another way of choosing weapons. The player cycles through them with the 1 key, as seen below.

Flashlight - It isn't really a weapon, but by pressing 'Attack1,' it turns off and on.

Axe - Your basic melee weapon, really. Attack1 swings. Good, if you don't have any other gun or are out of ammo.

Pistol - The same pistol in Half-Life, but the enhanced version found in Half-Life's High Definition pack. Works the same, basically.

AK-47 (Assault Rifle) - The best gun in the game, especially at long distance. It is totally automatic, meaning it's a bullet chomper. Watch your ammo.

Shotgun - Last but not least, the shotgun. As always, only use this at short distance. The max load it has is two shells, so you might want to save this for one-on-one or one-on-two battles, as it has a long reload.

This is where this mod shines, as all of the new voices used in the storyline are new. Some are bad, but most are great. The ones that shine the most out of the bunch are those from Casey Mongillo (also known as Zidane to GTAGaming fans.) There's even new sounds for walking on the carpet! It's decent, but the fact that it's so deep as to make new sounds for walking on carpet is astonishing. One disappointment, however, is that all of the sounds for reloading and shooting for weapons are recycled from Half-Life, which is a let-down considering the majority of the rest of the sounds are new and good.

In conclusion, this mod is worth a download. Sure, it's short. Sure, it has a short amount of weaponry. But it's one mod that'll keep you playing till the end.