Half-Life 2: Badlands mod

Dev Blog #2: Half-Life 2: Badlands | A New Beginning

Hello everyone! Woah, it's been some time since I've made a development blog on ModDB. It's pretty much been a year since I told you all that Radiated was on hiatus, but a few days ago I decided enough was enough and I should start working on this project again, so here we are!

What the hell... What is Half-Life 2: Badlands?

Well, HL2: Badlands is Radiated. It's pretty much the same project; however, as of writing this development blog, I am currently overhauling the story to something a little bit more manageable for myself and the team. The major changes are that Badlands will no longer be an episodic modification; it will be released as one complete product at some point in the future. This does not mean any vertical slices or demos; if we have something ready to show the public, I will make sure people don't get bored waiting for this project to release.

What's Been Done in 2 Years?

Not a-lot… Well, yes, there's been a lot of development, but unfortunately, there isn't much I can show the public outside of some completed code and a few screenshots. Since a lot of the work has been surrounding the introduction scene and nothing past that:

The lead developer of "Half-Life 2: Through the City," Kajlo, created the redesigned citadel collapse sequence seen above. Obviously, this map was and still is extremely work-in-progress, but as I begin to get used to hammering and working with other level designers, we should be able to make the final rendition of the introduction levels.

Another level designer on the team Taz worked tremendously hard last year on concepts that may or may not see the light of day within Badlands, but his work is interesting to show nonetheless.

Reloading Turrets:

The reloading turrets could've been a mechanic added in some of the earlier chapters, as the player is tasked with having to clear out a load of mutated antlions.

Shock Hands:

The shock hands are the first of many mutations within Badlands; the shock hands act as a lesser version of the Supercharged Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2: Episode One. With the shock hands, the player would be able to rip off metal doors and destroy the environment in order to progress. The shock hand was also used as a way to combat enemies:

Mutated Antlion Nugget Drop:

Mutated Antlion Explosion:

Mutated antlions in Badlands would spew out toxic radiation upon death within the first few chapters and then would begin to drop small "radioactive nuggets" for the player to pick up. The plan at the time was to tie these nuggets to different abilities the player could use, such as healing, a more aggressive push for shock hands, and a faster speed. Only one was ever created.

What Now?

At the moment, I'm in the middle of giving this project the revamp it deserves. I'm still busy with life, but I have time to give this mod the attention it deserves. Thank you all very much for still following along as I go. I'm still working on NIGHTFALL, an HL2RP server that was meant to be a prequel to Radiated. But because of how things are going, Badlands is most likely going to be a sequel to NIGHTFALL. If you'd like to join our development server for Badlands and other projects, the links are down below, and if you'd like to support me and the team, the KO-FI links for NIGHTFALL are also down below!

Also, we're still looking for coders! It'd be fantastic if we could have a coder on the team, as that would mean we could get Badlands out to you sooner rather than later!

If you have any questions regarding this development log or the Badlands I'll be happy to answer them in the comments below!

KO-FI: Ko-fi.com

Discord: Discord.gg

- Syph0