June 23rd, 2016, at 8:14 p.m.
Transmissions: Element 120 caught my eye on steam. I love horror games, I love games made in source, and I love the Half-Life world. Transmissions: Element 120 fit all three descriptions and was free, so I gave it a try. Here is my review after finishing the game.
Pros of Transmissions: Element 120
The initial atmosphere is chilling and tempting. With every human instinct telling me to turn back and quit the game, the codes on the wall and ominous narration kept me playing.
Without spoiling too much of the story, codes on the wall would display hints or angsty political messages, adding a TON of atmosphere to an already immersive game. While it does play very, VERY linearly, the story and visuals distract you from design shortcomings and a bit of lazy development.
What started out as an interesting horror title turned into a story with emotional twists, an intriguing environment and, of course, startling moments. All of these factors melded together beautifully to become arguably my favourite free-to-play horror title to date.
Cons of Transmissions: Element 120
There isn’t much to talk about when it comes to shortcomings in the game, however I do have a problem with the overall gameplay. The shooting aspect of Transmissions: Element 120 is lackluster and dull, and feels more like filler than actual engaging gameplay.
Perhaps this comes from the limitations of the Source engine, or because the game would be unfortunately short without it, but I still see room for improvement and I hope the developers come up with something if they plan on making a sequel.
This isn’t much of a con per se, but I feel that the game could be MUCH better if the developers stayed away from the Half-Life franchise and story. I felt the story had huge potential as a standalone, and I would love to see what the developers could come up with sans the limitations of the Half-Life series or the Source engine.
