Post Script Episode 1 released
The first episode of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 mod Post Script is now available to download. It should be available from here at ModDB soon, but for now, here are a couple of temporary download links.
EDIT: Download now available from ModDB, so scratch previous links.
Enjoy! Be sure to have a read of the manual, included in the .zip file, for relevant information. And if you spot any bugs, fire them over to postscriptmod[at]gmail.com.
How did the world end? It seems so long ago now. Too long ago to recall the details. It recovered, for a while. The clouds parted, the grass began to grow. Children played and music sounded. It even felt... safe. But the end was inevitable, really. And through the haze of time, we all remember one thing: it was your fault.
Post Script is an episodic narrative mod for Valve Software's Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Explore the remains of a town destroyed by its own tragedy in a collection of short, interactive vignettes. Solve environmental puzzles and uncover the mystery of how, somewhere along the line, the whole world fell out of existence completely.
Going to check this out as soon as I get home from work! Seems to be exactly what I've been thirsting for.
Cool.
Sounds like Dear Esther. Might be good. :D
I agree.
Looks interesting...
Great to hear its out, iam going to try it.
So confused... Granted, I'm going to download Episode 2 as soon as it comes out now, but I haven't the faintest idea what's going on!
I thought this was being released on Wednesday?
Oh well. :D
It was Wednesday where I live :-)
OH HO HO HO, tricky bastard. :)
It's like you read my mind and stole my game idea!
I look forward to it, downloading now.
I just got through playing the 10 minute episode. Sorry if I come off negative but you defiantly should of waited to fix some of the mapping errors you had. While playing you will notice (especially in the grass area as seen in the trailer)buildings to connect, certain buildings and structures don't have back ends to them. There are also many detail issues around town and the barn that really throw off the feel of the mod. I did however enjoy the creative storytelling that was put into play, keep working with it. If you can straighten out your mapping and take your time on the next episode it can be killer.
Also, on a side note...your sound effects were perfectly placed, I was on the edge of my chair in the sewer area waiting for ghosts or something to pop out at me..haha. I just feel as if you should expand on the horror element associated with the mod, its there but nothing is really going on with it. Good work none the less, I'm one to appreciate the development of a mod and can understand that its hard. Ill support you on the episodes to come, good luck!
I suppose my reaction is a little mixed. I don't reallu understand why some of the wall writings have internet speak, it kind of breaks the mood a bit, and the little ding for the dialogue got pretty annoying. I think some of the writing could be tightened up a bit too, but it's not bad. The tuning strings in the town were maybe a bit much, but that one is a little naggy issue.
Anyway, very good atmosphere, especially in the outdoor segments which made me feel very isolated and alone. I look forward to the next installment.
It was pretty cool, the atmosphere was PERFECT. In the sewers, I felt that someone was going to run past the other side where you're separated by a gate. If someone did, I would have shat my pants.
Glitch Report:
1. At the beginning, you can get out of the map by jumping from the car onto the wall.
2. Where you find the broken brick wall near the end, if you jump on top of it and try to jump and see over the fence, there's a badly placed fence texture on the top.
I have to agree with the above. I liked playing it and you have got the sound aspect of it down.
Bug - You can destroy a box you need to jump over the fence by jumping and crouching twice.
Tips for next time
:Remove the silly crosshair. It is easy to do and will improve the mod.
:Get a mapper to join the team or work on your mapping skills. Big open sparse areas and various prop lighting problems plague your map. It is poorly optimized in some parts dropping to 10 fps on my computer.
Finished playing, the music at the end of the mod is really out of place. It should be pretty dark...
The second puzzle was awesome, the first a bit frustrating.
Also, some places are way too dark. It was difficult for me to find the door in the sewers because there wasn't any light. For Episode 2, you should also consider a much longer play time and more things to observe/see/do. Episode 1 was way too short and there wasn't a lot to experiment with.
Also there are some ways to glimpse outside the map as you can see with the other comments.
On the other hand, I love the dialogue it really creeped me out.
Just a quick question before d/ling; can I install it if I own HL2: Episode 1, but not Episode 2?
No, the mod uses content and code from Episode 2.
Awesome! Gonna go play now!
I'm a sucker for tranquil, cryptic content, but this left a lot to be desired.
The overall level design was rather bland and lacking in detail. Since this is a mod where you take in your surroundings instead of shoot up bad guys, it is a pretty big error. Dear Esther suffered heavily from this as well.
There wasn't much to behold as far as puzzles. I immediately figured out the fenced in area was where I needed to go, so I almost entirely skipped that area. I only had to go around the corner to grab what I needed. People will easily skip dialogue and anything you spent time on making.
What I liked the most was the effects and sounds. Unfortunately that was the only thing that drew me in. These are just my subtle suggestions. Spend more time on detail and creating your atmosphere. Good sound isn't enough when the visuals are lacking. The puzzles were very simple and I didn't feel obligated to explore the entirety of the map.
I hope you keep up work on this project and I hope my suggestions will help you as well. Looking forward to future episodes.
Okay, I agree with some what of your statement. But when you say Dear Esther suffered, did you mean as in a bad mod? If you fell that way you must of played it with the sound off. Just like Dear Esther, PostScript is striving to be a story driven experence. I would agree that some of the gameplay is similar but they are two diffrent mods entirely.
I think Xendrid was referring to the visual quality of the environments, rather than criticising the overall quality of Esther, or directly comparing it to Post Script.
One of the first things I'll be working on when I start the first update is a new art pass for some of the blander areas. Hopefully this will rectify a lot of problems people have with it. As for skipping areas of the world, well, that was kind of intentional. I wanted to create something where you got out as much as you put in; where you always know where your final destination is, but have other things to do in the meantime. But maybe that too is something I'll want to have a look at too.
Thanks for the feedback!
"I think Xendrid was referring to the visual quality of the environments, rather than criticising the overall quality of Esther, or directly comparing it to Post Script."
Precisely. I only mentioned Dear Esther because of the similarity in the presentation.
"I wanted to create something where you got out as much as you put in; where you always know where your final destination is, but have other things to do in the meantime."
I never really looked at it that way. Thinking back on it, you achieved what you wanted, from me at least. I explored all of the areas with the ease of knowing where I would be heading after I was finished with my explorations. I'd like to see some more complex puzzles in future episodes though :D
Just beat it. Really awesome. Could have been longer but the story was just awesome! :D I never saw that forest level though...?
This mod could have hugely benefited from having a stronger horror element, including having a much more active haunting. You were so close to having a perfect horror element, which is mainly due to the combination of creepy sound effects and your oblivious solitude. The inclusion of a tormenting presence and some occasional poltergeist effects would have scared the crap out of me.
In addition, this mod could have hugely benefited from some voice acting. Having to read those pieces of text really sucked the atmosphere out of the scenery.
Interesting story, although it leaves more questions than answers. The different areas of the town seem to have no purpose, but it's passable for now. You should try to better yourself in terms of environmental storytelling before releasing the next episode.
Not a terrible release by any means, but it's not as thought-provoking as I had hoped it would be. Good luck in the future.
Thanks to everyone for the fantastic feedback. I've responded in more detail on the mod's page comments.
Congrats on the release, this is a must play.
Hopefully you will make Episode 2 much longer than this, because it took about 5 minutes to run through. Maps were too blank but story telling was good enough.
Good luck with the Episode 2.
This was pretty intereseting. I wonder what more you have in store for us. =) Story seems to be good.
I'll check it later.
Wasted bandwidth.
I had no idea what the christ was going on, no action and the end was.. poor? no emotions were played on at all.(Except confusion.. if thats even an emotion?) If your (unlikely) goal was to make me utterly confused then you've succeeded majorly.
I enjoyed this... Looking forward to the next episode.
I lagged like crazy in some parts, but I guess it doesn't matter that much since there's no combat.