It has one of the best names I've ever seen attached to a HL2 mod, and whether you use its full Die in Pain, Rest in Peace moniker or just DipRip, Exor Studios' (a small Polish modding team) newly released HL2 vehicular combat multiplayer add-on exudes craftsmanship from the top down.
With its post-apocalyptic setting and rugged, heavily armed fighting vehicles, DIPRIP has a distinct Mad Max vibe to it. The demo only features three vehicle types (each with its own armor and performance strengths) and a like number of maps to run them around in but I was immediately impressed with its graphic and visual polish. Individual vehicle skins are surprisingly intricate and the supporting village, refinery, and supermarket scenery stand up well against any of Valve's default maps (even the Orange Box stuff).
Weapon power-ups and repair icons liberally dot the landscape and some luminescent color-coding (red for missiles, yellow for mortars, blue for machine gun ammo, and green for health) makes them easy to spot from a distance. Much of the scenery -- including trees, fences, and telephone poles -- is destructible and it's easy to lose an hour or two just driving around an empty map and blowing crap up.
There's no single-player game to support this, however, so you'll have to rely on a somewhat sparse online community of DIPRIP-equipped players. I was able to find a handful of opponents during my time with the mod but only for a few hours a day and then usually on just one or two servers. (Perhaps everyone's waiting for a more finished build to flex their Road Warrior skills). The 202MB demo download currently only features Deathmatch but Exor plan to include Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Domination and Assault modes in future releases.
Despite its strikingly attractive vehicles, scenery, and pyrotechnics DIPRIP still has a major hurdle to clear if it ever hopes to compete with mainstream car combat titles like Twisted Metal and Interstate 76. The mod's driving controls (whether you use a keyboard or an analog gamepad for steering, brake, and throttle) are maddeningly over-sensitive and this inevitably leads to unintended spinouts and scenery collisions. Although the mod makers aren't completely to blame for the game's jerky "on-off switch" steering response -- vehicle control in the stock HL2 is similarly porked -- it's something they'll have to address if they ever hope to grow a sizeable fan base.
While we're waiting, however, DIPRIP's compact but entertaining demo release can still provide frustrated daily commuters with a wonderful (and safe) road rage outlet.
