The Road to Release news - Half-Life 2: Inhuman mod for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Regarding our release date

Progress on Inhuman overall has been very good, however as it stands I think July 31st is simply too early to achieve the level of quality we’re going for. After some discussion, the team is looking at something closer to the end of September.

Shipping this project is really important to me so scope creep is something I’ve been really trying to avoid. That being said, there are parts of this mod that are simply far too outdated compared to the rest of the project, levels made years ago with kinda rough level geo etc., and I want the experience to be as smooth as possible. So in lieu of being able to give you the first release this month, here are some teasers of what the team has been up to.

Progress

Inhuman’s Art team has grown significantly in the last few months, making it a lot more feasible for us to really sell the new world the game takes place in. Brand new propaganda posters, bits of machinery, and other bits of detail are coming online and really making an improvement to the game.

We have also recently got a new composer who has wasted no time drafting up an OST for the game. We’re really happy with the tone we’re getting from it, which should hopefully feel very faithful to the originals. Take a listen for yourself:

AI Decision Making has been basically untouched for the last few months as I think it’s in a really stable place, however I have been doing some final touches on gameplay balance to make sure the game is fair and feels good. One big focus has been giving enemies consistent reasons for hitting or missing their target, which I show off in this video:

There’s a lengthy boring explanation as to what’s going on here in the video description but in short, soldiers should generally be missing their shots if you catch them by surprise with a flank, or when you’re running from cover to cover at a distance. The game should reward smart and cautious play, with total damage avoidance being possible if you’re skilled enough.

The Road Ahead

Most of what’s left for the project at this point is getting levels polished up. The game is basically playable from start to finish, with some areas being basically locked down while a few are admittedly still mostly in the dev texture phase. I’m confident that we’re on the road to a successful launch, even if it’s taking a little longer than I’d like.

As mentioned in the previous post, making this project open source is very important to me. I’ve been working a bit on documentation for AI and other balance changes to make level creation as smooth as possible for those who want to try. Beyond that, it’ll be a bit of work getting other npcs not used in the project up to par with the rest before I’m comfy putting the code out, but it’s absolutely going to be in your hands eventually.

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