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Welcome to Half-Life 2: Genetic Variation, a Half-Life 2 mod created by The Genetic Variation Team.

Story

Half-Life 2: Genetic Variation is the spiritual successor to Half-Life: Zombie Edition and takes various inspirations from the original mod, such as the use of Headcrabs as weapons and transformations. Unlike the original, which had no story, this mod will be as long, if not, longer than the HL2 campaign. You play as a Headcrab, but not an ordinary Headcrab. The Combine have developed a fairly recent technology and a way to increase the mutation process of a Zombie. Doing so creates a new form of Zombie, known as the Overnome, which is a very strong and aggressive Zombie. The Combine are looking for more Headcrab test subjects to create these new modified Headcrabs. In need of subjects, they incidentally find you and capture you. The Combine transport you to special labs to create more of the Headcrabs. However, the Combine made one huge mistake when modifying you specifically without even knowing. This simple mistake was a huge increase of Synth A.I. compared to other Headcrabs, which received very little and thus, creates a very sentient Headcrab, under Specimen name, TR-8R. Your story becomes unknown until you meet a special someone.

Inspiration

Originally, I was a co-leader to a project called the TF2 Polishing Project. The Project was aimed at fixing what was broken in TF2 and updating anything out of date. A few months after the project, #trigger_hurt and I were discussing a possible idea for an HL2 Zombie mod after I had watched a video of Half-Life: Zombie Edition. The idea at first, was pretty simple; playing as a random type of Zombie in the HL2 universe. We thought that idea was really, too simplistic, so I started writing in my notebook for some possible concept for the then, unnamed mod. Eventually, my notebook pages become full and I started to come up with names for the mod. The names I came up with weren't very good, so I decided to come up with a title similar to the expansion pack names from the original Half-Life. I went to Wikipedia to search up some scientific terms and I came across, Genetic Variation. The name was perfect for the idea, especially with the Headcrab - Zombie relationship. That moment is when the real development started and we started to come up with unique ideas to differentiate it from other mods out there. At this point, I retired from the PP to focus on this mod and that is how GV was born. In order, next was Sabre-aN, whom I met commenting on his Zombie mod, Dragara, whom I met on Facepunch, Nocona-chan, whom I met on Synergy about a year and a half ago, Nonhuman, Allen Scott and then Pidgey!. It goes straightforward from there. I noticed a Half-Life 2: Zombie Edition was listed on ModDB after I had put GV on here. I took a look at it and it appeared that it was left dead in the tracks and some of the people waiting for that mod, moved to this page.

Features different from HL2

  • Various animations that the Rebels and Combine Soldier's use will be reanimated to either look better or to be more accurate. One example of this is the third person AR2 reload, which was recycled from the Beta O.I.C.W. animations. This would be changed to where the NPC actually removes and attaches a clip. Weapons will also feature clip/mag ejection, so it falls on the ground and adds to the realism. Progress: 0%
  • Several A.I. changes will be needed to this mod to suit the additions and removal of certain things. Progress: 15℅
  • The Fast Zombie and Zombine will have proper idle animations, as in-game, they don't have moving idle animations. Progress: 0%
  • View model weapons will be meshed and they will be changed to World models, so they look a lot more better in the world, instead of that low-poly mesh. (I'm talking to you .357 Magnum) Progress: 10%
  • The game will use the L4D/CS:GO C model system, as the Zombie you play as will have different arm models based on which host you jump on. This system is more efficient than TF2's version, as the hands will be on the same skeleton. Progress: 0% (However, it's really easy to implement.)
  • Parallax occlusion mapping will be a feature, however, due to it being a very expensive thing to use in Source, it will be used lightly on things like bricks, while Normal maps will be used for things like tiles. Progress: 20%
  • Parallax corrected cubemaps to make the reflections look a lot more accurate and better in general. Progress: 0%
  • An edited "lightmappedgeneric" shader to look better on World textures. Progress: 100%
  • A squad system meant for Zombies. You can have up to four zombies, but the types of Zombies you can have are limited. You can have 1 Overnome, 1 Poison Zombie, 2 Fast Zombies & 4 Classic Zombies. Progress: 0%
  • Houndeyes & Bullsquids. Progress: 80%
  • Combine Sniper NPC with entirely new AI. Progress: 35%
  • Full usage of IK rigs. Progress: 0%
  • New Combine aesthetics. Progress: 0%
  • Shaders from the now defunct, open-source mod, City 17: Episode 1. Included are Parallax Occlusion mapping, Minnaert cloth shader, Subsurface Scattering, Sun Shafts and many more. Progress: 50%
  • Improved Citizen faces + 4 from the HL2 Theft + multiple custom ones. Progress: 3%

Developers

Playtesters

Special thanks to:

  • Combine (Overnome voices)

Interested in becoming a playtester for the future? Message us on Steam with the links on our developer names. We're also looking for mappers. If you're interested in that position, contact us too.

Make sure to join the Genetic Variation Steam group: Steam Group

Join the Discord to talk about things related to GV and other things: Discord Server

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The latest and newest news for Genetic Variation finally comes, after a few months of waiting. I'm sure a lot of you we're waiting for something soon, so here we are, showing you new things... Anyway, let's get on with the progress.

Animations

This is probably something you guys have been waiting for, for a while now, animations. Our good animator, #trigger_hurt has just started to work on some new animations for our recently mentioned Combine Sniper NPC. I must alert you that some animations may look unfinished, as the polishing for them usually comes last in the book. Have a look:

Crouch Firing


Stand Firing


Unfinished Reload (You can probably tell)


Running (Looks faster than it is because the camera is focused on the Soldier)


Stand Ready to Crouch


That's all the animations for now. As stated above, they're still in need of polishing. Now that you've seen them, tell me what you think of them. We appreciate all the feedback we can get. Also, the Standard Soldier model is temporary until we make our own custom mesh and texture, Next up on our list is a video of something. This video is a little brief, but I think you might like it.

New Features


That's the Game Instructor, as seen in other Valve titles, such as CS:GO, Left 4 Dead and Portal 2. We plan on using those very wisely. It's mainly meant to help the player figure out what to do in certain situations, as some of the things we have planned may need it. Another thing we have successfully implemented is this.

Mag Eject


A video would've served better, but we'll serve one up later. What you're seeing here is something that was already implemented into CS:GO. This would be dynamic Magazine Ejection. If you're don't know what that is, let me explain. If a weapon has a magazine, we can then set it up to do this and once it's done, after an enemy reload, the magazine will fall onto the floor as a separate model. The model spawns in after a certain point in the animation, so you wouldn't notice anything that would "ruin" the experience. The model disappears after a while, as well, to save on performance, of course. We also did get some aiming working for the Combine Snipers. Well, sorta.

Sniper


Overnome

Alright, we have a very early sculpt of the Overnome and that is pretty much the only model we can show you right now, while we work on more, so, here you go.

Overnome Sculpt WIP 3


As you can see, it's in dire need of a wheelchair, or just proper arms and legs. Jokes aside, getting the whole anatomy and body down is a tough task, so it's not bad that it looks like this. Every model has to start somewhere.

Alright, I believe that's it for now. I leave you with one parting gift. An image.

Deformed


This happened during our initial testing of the Magazine Ejection. Its since the been fixed, of course. Just thought I'd share some developer shenanigans.

We should have more content to show very soon. I'm sorry we haven't been active in the months, but we're working on it. I just wanted to say that.

Now, that's all. Stay tuned for more updates in the future.

Genetic Variation Article #7: Zombies, Progress & Livestream

Genetic Variation Article #7: Zombies, Progress & Livestream

News 13 comments

7th article for Genetic Variation showcasing some of Sabrean's Zombies, #trigger_hurt's model work and some unfinished Citizen faces.

Genetic Variation Article #6: Houndeyes, Bullsquids & Logos

Genetic Variation Article #6: Houndeyes, Bullsquids & Logos

News 10 comments

Another bi-weekly issue of our articles. This one specifically goes over Houndeyes, Bullsquids and our new early logo, plus a new song.

Genetic Variation Article #5: Undefined Entity and WIP stuff

Genetic Variation Article #5: Undefined Entity and WIP stuff

News 5 comments

This week, we've finally finished our main theme song and we have a little bit of things to show you. Take a look.

Genetic Variation Article #4: More music and Misc

Genetic Variation Article #4: More music and Misc

News 3 comments

It's that time of the week again, the week to showcase some stuff. Not much, but hope you like anything you see.

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 103)
GrontOq
GrontOq

At least it had cool concept art

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SPAS-1
SPAS-1

Why is the mod dead?

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TheScoutwhocriedSpy Creator
TheScoutwhocriedSpy

Yeah, the mod is dead. Has been for 3 years almost.

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bilesnipe
bilesnipe

3 YEARS

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Nocona-Chan
Nocona-Chan

Thanks everyone who had interest in the mod! Unfortunately major life changes for over half the team including myself throughout 2016-2017 forced a stop of development for the game. It is currently indefinitely postponed. Only limited content is complete right now.

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CorpsePartyFan
CorpsePartyFan

does anyone atleast have a demo?

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Guest
Guest

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MechanicOrga
MechanicOrga

This mod's been discontinued?? Aw no!! This actually looked decent and stood out from other mods! :c

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Guest
Guest

Is this mod dead? ):

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CW3D
CW3D

rip

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