This is the remake of They Hunger trilogy with new weapons and monster behaviors. The maps remain the same with the exception of new lighting and more defined shadows. There is also "Infection Rate" system which makes it harder to die when on low health, making the gameplay a lot more forgiving.
A fantastic overhaul of a mod that was already great. Relit's adjustments affect They Hunger at all levels. Being able to choose an episode without knowing which map ID to use in the dev console is nice. The achievements are fun to pursue, aside from the "carry an object to the episode's end" ones. The survival mode is also chaotic fun.
The weapon changes make up my favorite part of the mod. The arsenal here fits the 1950s atmosphere, complete with rebalances to better reflect the real-life inspirations and force the player to better conserve their ammo. Most came from Day of Defeat, but I enjoyed the weapon variety and the way it worked in features like impact grenades and double shotgun blasts.
The enemies have some slight adjustments to fit the rebalance. The undead police are no longer insanely accurate with their pistols. The electrical skeletons can also revive each other, requiring you to strategize taking down groups of them. The final boss fight is still too spongey, but it's beatable if you conserve your ammo and land your shots.
It's a fun rework of a mod that was already work playing. You'll appreciate the changes more if you've already played They Hunger, though. If you're playing it for the first time, stick with the vanilla version. If you're planning to revisit the mod, I would highly recommend playing Relit.
It's really great, thank you devs!
I really enjoyed this remake, and was surprised by how much I actually liked the new weapons.
Made a ModDB account just to say this mod is amazing and is finally letting me play through They Hunger and enjoy it. Thank you for making this!
WHY DO WE HUNGER?
This is a review for version 1.1 of They Hunger: Relit.
They Hunger: Relit, a mod-mod by Deanamx, alters PC Gamer and Neil Manke's Half-life 1 classic in 4 big ways.
The first one is the one that is advertised on the name itself: it has many of the games environments relit for a much moodier atmosphere, without screenshots for comparison you might not even notice it, but that's the good thing about Relit: it feels like the They Hunger you remember, so it's unobtrusive, but the changes do make a difference. At times I wondered if a map had been changed because it looked so different, but then I watched a walkthrough for comparison and sure enough, it was the same as before.
The second and perhaps most noticeable addition of TH: Relit is the weapon changes, They Hunger was full of anachronisms, with modern weapons showing up in a game set in the 50's, this was never too big of a problem, likely the result of Neil Manke making use of assets available at the time, but the authenticity brought on by TH: Relit is appreciated. In addition to the period accurate weapon revamps (which includes stat changes), there is the addition of a few new weapons, my favorite is a lightning gun that functions as a low mag plasma assault rifle of sorts, its ammo is obtained by killing skeletons, and the weapon can be found amongst They Hunger's other "mad scientist" inventions, it's a nice fit, I liked it and found it reliable. One weapon model I found to be unfitting was the flamethrower, it's a cool model actually, but I think it fits better in a setting such as Unreal Tournament, rather than the 50's hollywood-inspired aesthetic of They Hunger, the weapon looks futuristic and is a step backwards into the anachronisms of the original.
TH: Relit also adds several quality of life improvements, such as more frequent (and visible) auto-saves, tweaked enemy behavior (I found the guards to be a tad less annoying), and subtitles! Although the subtitles at times can be a bit off, this is not a huge problem though, the characters can be understood well enough.
Lastly there's the infection mechanic, a curious mechanic that adds a meter that increases as you take damage, I'm not quite sure how it works, but as the meter rises, it notably reduces damage you take, a side effect from the necromancy manifesting itself in you, I imagine. This is interesting because it encouraged me to *not* heal to 100%, instead I hovered around 40, keeping a moderate amount of damage reduction, healing more than this seemed to be a waste since I would lose health rather quickly without the damage resistance, so I played through the game half-alive, carefully balancing my HP and my infection status.
This is definitely something you should check out if you've played They Hunger before, and if you never did, then I think this is pretty good for a blind playthrough as well.
Overall, it was perfect modification.. Everything down to the last minute details.
I always had troubles with ammo in They Hunger, so it felt so weird when i had a full pistol in this game. Im so glad people still remember They Hunger. But i must admit, that weapons feel really out of place. It would be cool, if weapons models were like Classic style.
One of the Best Versions of They Hunger.
very cool