Very, very few games have managed to nail the gist and feel of Half-Life so compellingly as ADACA has. The really interesting bit, though, is that this little-known low-poly first-person shooter – arguably Half-Life’s best copycat – has just received its Episode Three, believe it or not.
It’s fairly apparent that neither Half-Life 2: Episode 3 nor Half-Life 3 proper are on the horizon right now. While Half-Life: Alyx and the wide variety of mods and bonus materials from Valve are a good way to keep the general vibe of the franchise alive, ADACA accomplishes a similar job while still successfully eking out its own dedicated niche. The fact that it’s just received its very own Episode Three is quite funny in its own right, on top of being a compelling piece of new content.
ADACA’s campaign mode is now content-complete with Episode Three
Episode Three is, essentially, ADACA’s final big content pack. The developer, SirisTheDragon, has confirmed that their plans for ADACA’s future now consist of minor patches and hotfixes, where needed, and that players now have access to the game’s full suite of content.
In moment-to-moment gameplay, ADACA feels like a compelling mixture of Half-Life and Halo, though it certainly leans more heavily towards the former. It’s a linear, albeit free-form single-player adventure that sends the protagonist through several platoons’ worth of mind-washed soldiers, mutated monstrosities, and mysterious cultists. The atmosphere and the feel of the admittedly low-poly world of ADACA are unmistakably similar to Valve’s seminal hit, but the game has plenty of its own compelling ideas.
For example, though the three-episode campaign is plenty exciting in its own right, ADACA’s Zone Patrol mode is even more interesting. Here, the game takes more cues from games such as STALKER, tasking players with exploration, survival, and meticulous collection of resources in an increasingly hostile environment. In that sense, you’re getting two games wrapped up into one title, and as long as you can get over ADACA’s visual style, you’re in for a good time.
You can find ADACA on Steam here.
