Set in both the heart and outside of City 17, "The Citizen Returns" contains the final chapters of our citizen's story, as well as an updated version of Part II. The story takes place shortly after a failed assassination attempt on Dr. Breen leads to the first ever use of the Overwatch Broadcast system by The Resistance, represented by former garage owner Larry Soderstrom. The Combine forces decide to capture him and try to use his public repentance and execution as a means to appease the emergent rebellion. The Citizens of City 17 however have other ideas in mind. Larry is now a symbol for the rebellion and a key asset in a bigger plot to deal a fatal blow to the Combine and its grip on humankind...
A vast improvement over the last mod. The maps are incredible well detailed, I specifically love the casino part!
BS
I enjoyed this very much. Was it *very silly*? Yes. do I recommend it? It has it's good parts and its bad parts, the mapping is incredible, but aside from the voice acting and the characters' AI being a bit off, pretty epic, silly, and bizarre Half-Life 2 citizen experience. Not super important but it has one instant of you picking one out of three things to do and not having to do the other things, and I have not seen this kind of thing before in this was in a Half-Life game or mod. edit: I keep thinking about this mod, 9/10; it is great and pretty funny aside from its AI problems.
The Citizen 2 is an above average mod with a lot of thought and effort put into it, but could benefit from more playtesting and better scripting. Map-building is the one thing the author excels at and it truly carries this mod on its back.
This game is challenging and way harder than the first, but more importantly it made you realize that you're not Gordon Freeman. You're a regular guy who can die from a few shotgun blasts. Enemies would constantly swarm and I always felt that I was in a bad position to fight back. Minimal cover, surprise ambushes, and low health made these encounters quite difficult.
Encounters often felt unfair because enemies would stream in one after another. Easy to get overwhelmed, but also easy to cheese if you can stay at a distance to pick them off or grenade spam. Combat encounters were not well-thought out and mostly consisted of putting you in a narrow corridor or wide open area and spawn-spamming you. These firefights often had to be quick save cheesed, especially early on when you're low on ammo/health/weapons.
I will say, almost every encounter got my blood pumping and there was usually a sense of satisfaction that each win was well-deserved. It was thrilling and nerve-wracking to traipse around at low health. Very different from living life at 100/100 all the time feeling like a god.
The sooner you come to terms with the fact that you can't power trip like Gordon is when this game gets easier. It's critical that you depend on your squad. Whey they start moving in a group as the firefight starts... FOLLOW THEM. You can't take on 5-6 Combine in lockstep pouring in from the next door over.
Your squad is tough and they only really die when it's scripted, so depend on their hail of bullets when things get rocky. They also tend to lead you to weapons/health caches. Took away some of the independence of the game and the alone time segments were always too short. The hype moments (oh god you're the best soldier evarrr) pumped you up, but were pretty cheesy. Though to be fair, it does make you feel like a member of the squad instead of their leader which is, well, what's happening in the game. Not always what you want when playing a Half-Life game, though.
Which brings me to my next point: way too many squad/escort missions. I thought this game was called "The Citizen", not "The Citizens". Really messed with the pacing and the start/stop nature was jarring, often breaking the immersion. There were no cut scenes, but the lengthy dialog and unnecessary exposition basically made it feel that way.
Something that annoyed me was the scripted triggers often took too long to the point where the immersive moment wore off and I started wondering if there was something I needed to do... so I'm looking around, scouring for nooks and crannies when BOOM Larry walks over and pushes that button. Took him long enough.
Level design was pretty good and definitely one of the better parts of this mod. Forward progression was always there and felt my next move had a purpose. I did enjoy the noncanon lore expansion with the water, even if it was a bit ham-fisted. Story was meh, but better than the first game for sure. Many plot points were bungling and awkward to play out with clumsy exposition. Example is the Larry rescue and having to wait for the first guy to be executed.
Atmosphere was top notch. I really felt in the trenches with a lot on the line. Good variety of environments and colors. Very Valve-like with great world-building even though the dialog and plot points kept trying to undo that. The ice rink was also cool.
The horror section was surprising, but welcome. Enjoyed it a lot, but the enemies were lame. That absolute TANK of a zombie would've been a lot more terrifying if it didn't shamble slowly toward me while I dumped 20 shotgun shells into its chest.
I can appreciate that the vehicle sections were short and sweet and never overstayed their welcome, although I felt some were unneeded. Do I really need to climb all over timbuktu to find a battery that by all accounts shouldn't be there to power a pump to power a boat to carry 4-5 people 100 yards when I could just ferry them over 1 at a time in the jetski (I already know it can carry two people) and be done with it?
Voice acting had effort, but loads of inexperience. It killed me when the mine inhibitor rebel softly whispers "Gunshiiiiip" as certain doom is raining down upon us. Guessing she did the lines at 2am and didn't want to wake up her roommates lol. But Larry killed it. Man I could listen to him talk all day long.
Overall a good mod with a lot of room for improvement, but the core gameplay and maps are there. Just needs a little editing. I'd love to see a The Citizen: Definitive Edition that releases both games together and fixes the voice acting, combat, and pacing.
good story. it's just that the bad parts of the dialogue are a bit awkward and also purposeful, I mean when the npc's dialogue with us is over, that's the trick to what to do. and also the reduction of combine.damn is a lot
One of the best mods
A mod with incredible map design, slightly brought down by horrific voice acting and a boring plot.
This took me a while to realize, but this mod seems to also be part of the 3rd part under the name: The Citizen returns
I couldn't get this one to work, but the "citizen returns" words perfectly.
Moddb.com
Great mod. Amazing work. I really like the level atmospheres and how well it all is brought together.
A little less handholding than in the original half life 2, but i like that a lot.
Hard difficulty was perfect for me.
I noticed one small bug when Larry climbs the ropes to get use a lift at the end of the game, if you break the glass before Larry gets there, then the game soft locks.
I only wish the game would provide a shortcut to easily play the game from desktop. So you don't have to use the "create shortcut" from the steam library.
This ending ...
awesome what can i say i love the action.