Wasteland Half-Life is a multiplayer mod based in a shattered world. Nuclear fire has scarred the earth and the survivors fight over the scraps of what was once their civilization. Some have formed gangs and tribes to better survive the harsh world their great-grandparents left them, while some have waited in sealed underground Vaults for the radiation, viruses, and mutagens unleashed so many years ago to fade. Inspired by such varied sources as Fallout 1 and 2, the Mad Max movies, John Woo's movies, and even medieval Europe, Wasteland Half-Life brings fast-paced, down-and-dirty action to an genre whose potential for violent conflict has been very overlooked.
This clip dates back to 2002, one of the numerous prime years of the Half-Life 1 modding era. It shows some rough gameplay for one particularly (in)famous mod known as Wasteland Half-Life, a long forgotten mod that never quite managed to wrap up its development process, but nonetheless produced no less than three distinct releases, including Wasteland Half-Life beta 1, WHL beta 2, and The Wastes release candidate 1.
Alas, each of those eras was punctuated by protracted periods of inactivity. As other mods evolved, Wasteland kept rebuilding its own minutae, team members rotated in and out due to cutthroat personal dynamics, and essentially the mod itself languished between releases, only to be released in always-incomplete forms after each fundamental recreation of the mod.
Lest we look upon this scornfully with the benefit of hindsight, let us not forget that some of the levels depicted in this video were marvels of Half-Life 1 mapmaking at the time. They offered tremendous, open spaces while still delivering adequate r_speeds ( the critical metric of a Half-Life 1 map's rendering speed, which can hurt gameplay when they climb too high ).
Still, some aspects are distinctively hokey: the grey-background 3DSMax renders of weapon models and lone 3rd person models shooting off into the distance at nothing at all are telltale signs of the very things that made Half-Life 1 modding so compelling at that time: it offers an honest glimpse at the game development process as undertaken by an audience of folks who might not otherwise have thought to make a game at all, and who don't have the good sense to hide their roughs. It's very charming!
It's a truly intriguing if esoteric corner of Half-Life 1 mod-making history, and a tale that may one day be told in full.
Finally, please note that I did not create this video and do not claim any ownership over it. It was most likely posted on the Wasteland Half-Life frontpage, or else on the forums, back in 2002.