Incline Half Life and Half Life 2 - List of recommended modifications and mini campaigns

[Don Peste]

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

 

[DraQ]

There are right and wrong ways to suddenly just drop dragon protagonists into random, unsuspecting games.

The right way is something like this:


The author seems to be some sort of and a rare positive case of "modders gonna mod".

 

[Siveon]

Considering there's a lot of platforming in Half Life, it's not an entirely bad fit. Plus it's really accurate to Spyro games, so you have to give them credit for accuracy.

With the right level design you can make a fun 3D platformer with the mod too, the modder encourages.

 

[Don Peste]

 

[Baron Dupek]

Da best HL content creator made anniverary video

your move, Volvo

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So, November 19th 2018 passes by, two people even make a post in the thread and yet no one seems to remember that it was Half-Life's 20th birthday?

 

[Wunderbar]

Valve themselves did not acknowledge that.

 

[Icewater]

Valve themselves don't remember.

 

[octavius]

Valve won't acknowledge a game not released on Steam.

 

[Baron Dupek]

They're too busy with Artifact fiasco (starter packs being useless) to care.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

 

[Morgoth]

https://www.moddb.com/mods/half-life-2-classic/downloads/ravenholm-demo

Ravenholm, now backported to Half Life 1.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

It will be interesting to replay HL with all the contect that was not included in the final version.

 

[Morgoth]

Humble reminder: Half-Life is the best FPS ever made!

 

[Morgoth]

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

https://www.moddb.com/mods/half-life-dark-matter/news/half-life-dark-matter-is-live

Dark Matter is the unofficial final chapter in the Half-Life saga. Step into the boots of Kovac, an agent of the Special Black Operations unit tasked with containing the situation after the failed experiment at the Black Mesa Research Facility. When Gordon succeeds in launching the Omega satellite delivery rocket, the government becomes concerned that the HECU failed to stop the launch, and that Freeman is a major threat to the military machine and the cleanup operation itself. Your unit is deployed in order to observe the military forces and assist when necessary. On route to your destination, your unit's helicopter is caught in a portal storm and ends up crashing somewhere in the facility. You awaken several hours later, new orders have come in, the research facility has passed the point of no return. All units are to assist in delivery of the package, the final hours of the Resonance Cascade have begun...

Fingers crossed for this mod to be released.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Since the Half Life modding scene is mostly abandoned and there are only a couple of project still in development, I decided to include Half Life 2. There is a lot of interesting projects that have been released and since I didn't finished it myself, it will be a good opportunity to make something out of it. This will be the main post for including all the updated mods that are interesting/good/etc with a short description. Next ones will try to describe them with more details.


Half Life 2 Update - Graphical enhancements and bug fixes for the base game
Mmod - Overhaul mod for HL2. Works with HL2: Update and with vanilla version, plus both episodes.


C

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Half Life: MMod

Mmod is an overhaul mod that was developed for a long time, and in the late December 2018 the version 1.0 was released. But currently after some more playtesting we have available updated release 1.2. But first to properly enjoy it, we need Half Life 2: Update.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/290930/HalfLife_2_Update/

Half Life 2: Update makes the game lighting effects more natural, there is a lot of fixes regarding the visuals and the gameplay. The reason I'm mentioning it, it's because it can be used along with MMod, since they are compatible. Sadly it's only for the HL2, and not Episodes. But both episode has the support for Mmod, which is a plus and they aged better thanks to the added graphical enhancements from Valve. The short video below will show you how vanilla look has been changed. For me, after seeing this, it was clear that I need to download it. It's not Cinematic Mod, but more faithful and respectful work of the fan, who actually know how to enhance the game without making it worse in the process. Plus, it's not really huge when it comes to size.




After installing HL2:Update we can put Mmod into our X:\Steam\steamapps\sourcemods catalogue. After restarting Steam there should be new entries. One that interest us is Half Life 2 : MMod (Half Life 2 : Update).

The first thing that we should of course do, is to see mod options, and they are divided into three sections:


Visual Settings

Spoiler

Gameplay Settings

Spoiler

Particle Effects Settings

Spoiler

For visual/particle effects settings it depends on the player how much bells and whistles does he want to attach to the updated HL2. I just went for full experience.

As for the gameplay options, I recommend better aim for Combine to be put on. They don't became godlike bots from Unreal Tournament, but it really makes a difference once you start playing. The weapons spread is interesting and should be tested, because some people don't like. For me, it made encounters more realistic and it's now more about accuracy and timing than quick emptying of mags. The flashlight option is useful, since we can force it to be powered independently from the HEV suit, just like in episodes. I recommend turning off hit markers.

Other than that, we are the masters, and the Mmod can be changed to our needs without any problems.


So we have everything installed, and finally playing the game. How does it feel?

Well, for me it felt like a more polished HL2 with added difficulty. The Combine soldiers are more accurate when it comes to aiming, but also they are way more aggressive. They love tossing grenades, when the player tries to flank them or just hides behind the cover. Also, they are moving vertically, which mean jumping up or down. We quickly change our old habits, and when we hear a group marching to our location there is a lot more respect towards the enemy. The encounters are more deadly and they can be finished quicker, but the health/armor attrition is bigger in the later parts and we need to step up our game. It's not F.E.A.R, but still it makes overall HL2 simply more fun and exciting. The resistance NPC's thankfully have been changed as well, and they are more helpful.

The weapons behavior has been changed as well, and they don't feel so underwhelming while being used. They gained "weight" and the bullets are flying all over the screen, making a satisfying sound on impact. While having added weapon spread, and enemies being more aggressive the best tactic are short bursts until emptying the magazines. The only problem for me is the shotgun, which has right now a small delay when being used. It takes some time to adapt. Sometimes you can go full Rambo mode, but it's only at the beginning. The arsenal is bigger, thanks to the ability of actually taking the mounted Combine guns from the stations and the energy weapon from our car. I didn't specially liked the latter one, since it regenerates after attaching it to the vehicle. The Combine stationary gun is cool though, I admit using it whenever I had a chance.

Graphically, it looks great. With Viktor Antonov's design we have everything submerged in more detailed lighting and enhancements that makes it even better. Many times I just was looking at the locations to see how they've been transformed. Now I would call the game Half Life 2: Enhanced Edition.


The only big problem, that I found, was with Episode 1 section. The escorting at the end, where we help resistance to catch a train, has a scripting problem and we can be eternally forced to move a group of them to the destination point. I'm not the only one having that problem, so hopefully with another version it will be fixed. Other than that, there were no problems.

Now it's the time for some screenshots and end this long introduction.

Spoiler

 

[Maggot]

After playing through Azure Sheep a year ago, I have to say it sucked compared to Blue Shift with the terrible fanfic escort sections with Gordon, Shephard, and OC donutsteel femBarney. Pulse rifle wasn't a fitting addition, slower weapon switch was just a pain in the ass, and the mod really liked putting hitscanners in open areas/long corridors. Might be misremembering things, but it just came to mind after craving to play some more HL1 SP mods and seeing the OP.

 

[Master]

The Update looks mostly good(HDR) but is worse in some parts, for example Ravenholm is much brighter with it...

 

[agentorange]

Half-Life 2: Update is garbage. The creator is pretentious and just turned everything green for no reason. There's a lot more important stuff he missed because he was too busy screwing around with the visuals and accidentally sinking buildings into the ocean than actually fixing anything that matters like he said he would. At the end of the commentary he even kind of took credit for work I did, which was funny I guess.

What did he take credit for? Just from the video I dislike how it looks like the contrast was bumped up significantly across the board in every area, it especially looks bad on Highway 17 since the washed out tones in those parts added to the sad atmosphere.

--

Also here are three single player HL2 fan campaigns that I liked:

https://www.moddb.com/mods/mission-improbable

https://www.moddb.com/mods/downfall1

https://www.moddb.com/mods/transmissions-element-120

Half-Life 2 can be a decent shooter when give good level and encounter design. Even Lost Coast was better than the base game in that regard, and these mods are all similar to that in scale and scope. It's a shame most mods focus on overly scripted or gimmicky crap.

 

[Maggot]

Finished Mission Improbable with MMod. The campaign itself was short and sweet without any NPC companion gimmick bullshit and the level design was solid. As to MMod, not sure if its a net improvement. The new effects are over the top and blinding and once you turn them off, you are stuck with just slower variants of the HL2 weapons as the reload animations are often twice as long. I had to go full popamole whenever using the crossbow because of how slow it was.
Some pics:

Spoiler

 

[Morgoth]