Half-Life: Urbicide mod

Colossal Cave: Reimagined By Roberta Williams is the new title of the 1975 text adventure remake. Diving into flatscreen and VR to leverage new technology, it's a revision four decades hence and headed by the founders of Sierra Entertainment itself. Whilst we wait for this piece of gaming history to come back to our screens, here's five mods for other classic Sierra Entertainment-published titles!

Half-Life: Urbicide

By Forsete

Half-Life: Urbicide is a 11 map singleplayer modification for Half-Life set during the Xen invasion of Earth sometime during the events of Half-Life. You play as Bruce, a warehouse supervisor, who, during the alien invasion together with a colleague, gets stuck inside one of the warehouse buildings. Bruce's fiancé, Rebecca, is not far from his location and decides to go and get her. It may surprise some newer Half-Life fans to know the original was in fact published externally by Sierra Entertainment, in a time before Steam, and remains one of the most influential titles ever published by the company.

SEF First Responders

By beppe_goodoldrebel

SEF First Responders is built on the idea of a realistic and cinematic gameplay modification of Swat Elite Force. New 3D models for weapons, equipment and environment combined with realistic sounds, weapon handling, slower pace gameplay and AI tweaks to make SWAT 4 feel more "heavy" and "dangerous" than any other SWAT 4 experience you had before. Geared heavily around team play and careful planning, this mod is for the hardcore fans that have already mastered the title and want another way to have their good planning rewarded, and bad planning punished.

DIE HARD: Improved Edition

By ReiKaz316

Here's an interesting fact - Die Hard Nakatomi Plaza originally kicked off as a Half-Life mod, developed by fans of the action movie classic as a total conversion. Channelling lots of the spirit of the movie, the quality of the project got the attention of Fox who, in one of the lesser known "hiring modders" deals in gaming, funded the team to wrap up a commercial title on the LithTech engine instead. Now, modding comes full circle, as modders return to the finished product to tighten it up and bring it again to fans anew.

Slipstream: The Price of Freedom

By Xenolith Games

Experience a chaotic combat simulator that has you thinking twice about strategy. Weapon damage is random. Ships move randomly to avoid weapon fire. These are just a few examples of what you’ll find in The Price of Freedom. This is nothing like Homeworld, this is an extremely fast-paced multiplayer arena that keep the stakes high and takes the gameplay to a whole new level.

Diablo: The Hell 2

By Mordor_XP

The Hell 2 is a total overhaul HD mod, second generation mod after classic The Hell. It gives more variety (monsters, items, spells, boss monsters, unique items, item & environment colors), new character classes, increases replay value, and adds new gameplay features. An improved engine helps modernise the game considerably, with better support on newer systems and monitors, as well as being chock full of new content that will get any Diablo fanatic raring to go.

Spelunking

Colossal Cave Adventure is the name of the 1975 Sierra Entertainment text adventure game that saw players digging around under the earth in search of treasure, monsters, and fame. Now, in 2022, almost four decades after its initial release, a new title by Sierra Entertainment's very founders is being released titled Colossal Cave - Reimagined by Roberta Williams. Aiming at retelling and reimagining the expectedly quite basic premise of the original, it's a title that the oldest of old school gamers might well be looking forward to. Originally known as Colossal Cave Adventure 3D, the new title makes it clearer this is a total reimagining, not simply a follow-up.

Digging Deep

Colossal Cave - Reimagined By Roberta Williams is aiming at a release in late 2022, launching at $39.99 USD/£33.55 GBP on PC, Mac, and most curiously, the Meta Quest 2 VR headset. It'll be an interesting journey to chronicle, from minimalist text adventure to cutting-edge VR experience.