Xul

0 comments by Xul on Oct 24th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

Although Half-Life 1/2 modscene is alive and well, there's something it's ultimately lacking: abundance of horror-themed releases. Ever since the original They Hunger trilogy was completed, there have been very few mods that could live up to it in terms of atmosphere, level design and length of gameplay experience. Realistic (as of 2001) environments, balanced weapons and eerie soundtrack utilizing the game's cd tracks as well as looped radio music added to the pure terror, as did the audio diaries recorded by inhabitants of a town overrun by monsters. Interactivity was also groundbreaking, considering the fact that TH was a free mod made for a 1998 game. Words cannot give the feeling of terror when one of your bullets hit a lightbulb, leaving you alone in the darkness with fleshhungry zombies. Same went for shards of glass lying on the floor, cracking loud when stepped on in the least appropriate moment.It would be unjust to ommit the few horror projects for HL1, though. Heart Of Evil (recently remade), Mistake (and the sequel, Mistake-1) and surprisingly spooky Afraid Of Monsters also left a lasting impression that this mod genre is not dead. There is also BrainBread, a multiplayer mod excelling in splatterific action that provided me many hours of online carnage, and Zombie Panic that has its source version already, also a pretty good mod. However, with my opinion, only Heart Of Evil (even the original) and Afraid Of Monsters can be a match for They Hunger, the earlier one in terms of pure carnage, the latter even beats TH's atmosphere hands down. I might be biased though, as I am an avid Silent Hill player.Of course I might be mistaken, if you know about any other horror modifications for Half-Life 1 or 2, please name them in your comment. I mean mods that are released, I am aware of a few HL 1 and 2 horror mods that are in development. I keep thumbs up for Rumpel and Resident Evil: Twilight team especially.I'm itching to get my hands on some new horror mods for these games, and as of now, I'm still waiting for a scratch.