First, there are some words about how the project started and where it's aimed to:
HESK project was born out of a desire to make a Sci-Fi oriented mod, with some customization elements. I've tried to make some ZDoom mods before, but I was bounded by technical issues (Partly lack of development knowledge for this platform). Then there was a tournament in a Doom dedicated forum, which encouraged me to start another project. This time was different, because there were more clear ideas to start with, and some new knowledge about ZDoom features.
Then, a deep reading about Decorate, ACS, and some other lumps helped me to develop those unsuccessfully more complex ideas, stacked over the years.
By that time, I've consumed more games and films, and there was an expanded vision about a future game/mod. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series had a great impact on the development, and some elements from past influences (Movies, games, explained below) made HESK what is it now.
It's design is based on various films and games, such as Fifth Element (film), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (videogame series + film), Silent Hill (videogame series + first film), Fire in the Sky (film), and less specific cyberpunk and steampunk elements. Of course, this is blended into a single idea, then materialized with my own personal elements and style.
The plot it's more personal. Although there are a lots of works about outbreaks and futuristic apocalypse, and certainly some will be shared with HESK, I've taken much less from them compared with the artistic influence they had on me.
About the unique elements in the mod I can say for now, there's the most notorious one: Language. HESK it's a word to materialize a specific feeling I've had for some scenarios (The same portrayed in the mod). It has no specific translation, as happen with many other words (Such as the German word "Sehnsucht"), and it's originally written in an also personal alphabet, which blend characters from Greek, Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, along with many personal characters, based in a complex phonetic behaviour still in development.
This will be visible to players through signs, computers, files and another in-game elements which will help to the player itself to the plot understanding, and for a more deep map exploration.
By the technical side, however, there are alot of info to give. Some visible elements, such as the HUD and Gore, can be seen different in the various snapshot updates through the development. Recently, gore has been updated to fit the new Chainsaw, which needs fuel to work, and it's a more deadly (But heavy) weapon. There's a mechanical rework on every weapon in the mod, and some has been removed at the time. Visually they still are the same, but their characteristic has been enhanced, so they will be even more different between each other.
SSG it's deadly at 1 meter (Inminent death), powerful at short-mid distance, and has a moderate weight; Regular Shotgun it's less lethal than the SSG, but at mid-long range it's more powerful, and it's has a lighter weight; Chaingun has around 600 rpm and it's quite powerful, but it has too much recoil and it's the most heavy weapon in the arsenal (Limited running, jumping and movement overall); fists are faster, but the monster are tougher, so it will be a very limited weapon and it will be only useful for parkour moments; pistol it's a weak and slow weapon (But faster than the original), so it's for emergencies only; Chainsaw it's a mix between the Chaingun and the SSG, but as a melee weapon it can be only used at short distance, along with high fuel consumption; and so on...
There are now unique items which can be carried around and used whenever the player thinks convenient, such as Medicines (cure for diseases), Carriable Medkits and, perhaps the most important and rare one, Repair Kits (for damaged armor). This last will be perhaps the most desired, because if the player runs out of armor, his body will be contaminated, and he will lose health. If he's infected with a specific kind of disease, his health will be drained faster. If he's close to ground level, his health will be drainer even faster.
So, there are a lots of things to consider when someone it's playing HESK, thus making the gameplay experience unique for each player.
Things that are still to be implemented: New HD sprites for weapons and monsters, with variations for each one, which will fit specific situations; two more diseases, with different sympthoms (Which will be the only way to recognize if the player it's in fact infected); new sounds for monsters, weapons and ambience; more map, to make a full circle in the storyline; HD textures, some reworked from the original ones, some others reworked from different games, and some others originally by myself; some specific functions such as gore limiter (for customize and improve performance); and some more features to be announced.
So keep watching, because you never know what you can encounter in HESK!
Until next update. Charon from Hexagon Industries.
