It's taken long enough, but via lots of nagging and prompting from fellow Valve employees I've finally got round to getting MINERVA, the Half-Life 2 mod which got me a job at Valve, up on to Steam. It was originally released in late 2007 to pretty much universal acclaim, but now there's a super-fancy Director's Cut edition with tweaked visuals, bug fixes, better puzzles and all kinds of subtle improvements. Nothing hugely new, just old stuff tidied and polished for this re-release.
Expect the usual single-player shooting and puzzles, a healthy dose of mystery and plenty of on-screen dialogue from the unseen Minerva, who guides (and insults) you on your journey through a vast Combine underground facility.
It requires Half-Life 2: Episode One as a base - but once you've got that, the mod adds quite a few hours of free, arguably Valve-quality gaming.
MINERVA: Metastasis on Steam - download and install here!
This version officially replaces any previous versions you might have lying around - huge thanks to Tom Edwards for his Officially Unofficial patch which was used as a base for this updated edition. This release also includes the French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian and Spanish language packs kindly provided by LocWorks - just have your Steam client's language set to whichever you prefer and you will automatically get a fully localised version of MINERVA to play through. While I'm at it, I'll also thank Joseph Toscano for the fantastic MINERVA soundtrack, as well as the many and varied Valve employees who helped me out with this slightly unexpected re-release.
Thanks for playing!
Thanks for such amazing update :)
Yay!
Woha, didn't expect this. I was hoping for it to release on steam one day, but now even a DC, nice!
I'll definitely give it another play.
Thanks!
Congrats man This mod is one of my most favorite mods for my most favorite game ever ! =) I played it singe, I played it as coop and I will play it as steam powered again !
i have never played this but what makes this game good is it a story or custom content or both
Just play it, it's really an experience.
Yes! This is GREAT!
YAHOOO!!11
I'm totally giving this another playthrough, great mod!
Awesome! I'll give it another go.
Can anyone tell me how the steam version is different though? Has it been extended or changed at all?
There's some more details here: Hylobatidae.org
Nothing particularly dramatic or noticeable, just subtle improvements throughout.
Someplace else should be bundled with it also, that would be cool! Oh, can't wait for 'Out Of Time', curious how that advances :D..
I always thought the levels seemed well put together, and the deliberate progression of weapons had more skill testing than regular Half-Life 2, but the story was rather lackluster at best... I actually grew to resent Minerva and pretty much just kept playing to see what new ideas were going to be thrown in the for the gameplay.
Hey, I guess I should then just go and replay it!
it does surprice me quit a bit that you had time to do this, even with the ehlp of valve employees.
thought you guys would be working like crazy on HL3, (don't think valve will trow another not apriciated episode at us, lol).
so, again, does quit surprice me quit a bit.
Leon
i thought this mod has been out on steam before....weird?
Great to see this on Steam. I enjoyed it a great deal when I first played it :)
Absolutely one of the best hl2 sp mods. Had a blast playing it felt like it's new full game bec. of so many maps to play and cool puzzles.
Cool! I can't wait until it gets coop-able with Synergy mod.
Been one of my top 10 for years. The recognition alone is good to see.
This is great news. It's been so long since I played the mod so it will be nice to return to it on Steam ^^
Not available on Linux :(
bestow upon us the sequel "out of time"
The soundtrack link is Musicbyjt.com.