A complete port of 2003 storyline maps for Half-Life 2. Includes all 50 levels, all necessary assets, scripting and programming. Based in huge part on "September 2003 Storyline Map Pack" for the leak engine by XJR900, Vitoy & Maelstrom. Visit hl2-beta.ru if you want to download it. This project aims at preservation and accessibility. It does not remaster or overhaul the levels and it doesn't place cut content that weren't in them already. It was done for personal purposes and I decided to share it for anyone interested.
Great and accurate port of very crusty prototype experience, with some fixes of things that were broken in the leak by default, though I'm sure experts will miss dune buggies roaming the streets of C17. The main value is being able to quickly compare with final HL2 without bothering with the 2003 engine.
Really nice to finally have a stable and playable port of this stuff. The only bugs I noticed were in the street war sections of the game, where Alyx kept running head first into a disintegration field. Also that cut Kleiner death made me lol
the beta (but it doesn't crash)
I enjoyed it.
It's not a "massive 2003 HL2 muh beta" restoration, but rather an un-altered storyline mappack. Puts a nice perspective on things and makes the player realize just how much work still had to be done to produce such a powerful triple-A title.
I didn't mind any lacking assets or textures, though some level transitions did get me confused. Even though it was supposed to be in the 2003 state as-is, I guess some additional work regarding the transitions could've made a it a better experience.
Still, it was pretty fun. It requires a different approach to really enjoy it, but I did. Mappacks like these help me indulge into HL2 beta stuff since I can't be arsed to fiddle around disjointed assets and maps myself. And I always will take another excuse to play some more Half-Life.
Don't have a single complaint. Makes the 2003 state of HL2 perfectly playable.