Introduction news - Perfection mod for Half-Life 2

We've been quiet this past week, so I thought I'd finally speak out and tell you all about our little project, Perfection.

Please note, everything here is subject to change. Nothing you read here is final.

As some of you may have guessed, Perfection is an assassination game based around the demented mind of Marshall Garson. His awful childhood due in part to his uncaring and over-ambitious parents gradually twisted his mind over the years, resulting in his current mental state. However it isn't until a series of unfortunate events occur that he becomes the demented killer that you'll come to meet in the game. As Marshall you'll be expected to fulfil his only ambition in life, to achieve a perfect kill.

The game itself is rather different compared to existing assassination games. Two reasons for this, first and foremost is the ability to pre-plan every hit by walking around the target area the evening/morning before the hit takes place. By allowing players to explore and familiarize themselves with the sandbox environment we hope to give them the forethought and tactical edge when it comes to planning a decent hit. If you need a door to be unlocked (or blocked), a weapon concealed inside a building or a bomb planted to help you on the day then you'll have the power to do so. The levels will be large enough to offer a wide range of potential approaches, while not dwarfing the player in possibilities (that's the plan anyway ^^).

Our second difference is how the player isn't limited to stealth. We're trying to implement a way of doing things where you're free to use whatever weapons are on offer but not be penalised for being unstealthy. We believe in a trade-off wherein the player taking the time to plan the hit while acting stealthily can glide out of the crime scene unhindered, whereas the player going 'rambo' will have most of the local police force to contest with (on top of existing hostiles). Whatever happens the player must escape the location without being followed.

So, about the group. Right now there are roughly 12 of us all in all, however as this is a university project (and we being university students), we're limited to what we can make at the current time what with other university modules taking up time, booze, free time, more booze etc. We won't officially begin creating levels until the next semester (along with weapons, textures etc), right now we're concentrating on getting the hefty design document done and making sure what we're planning will actually work within the source engine. When January hits, all hell will break loose (hopefully).

We'd like to thank everyone who's already taken an interest so far and extra thanks to those who've given us feedback and constructive criticism. Hopefully we'll be able to churn out something awesome. For those seeking to join us, until the final submission next Easter I'm afraid we'll have to turn you down. However! We are planning on taking this beyond the course, so once things have been cleared up with the university there's a strong possibility that we'll be looking to hire a few people to help out.

As for a release date, we will have a basic working level by the time of our final hand in (Easter), which will consist of the apartment/menu area, pre-planning stage and the hit itself. Understand that for each level we need a huge amount of events, possibilities and generic scripting which can take quite some time, not to mention actually fleshing out the large areas (in some cases indoor and outdoor areas).

In any case, if there's any questions then by all means leave comments and things! Just make sure they're nice! Psychotic killers are our specialty after all! We'll see you in the next update!

Cheers! :)