claewynt kirsty parrey
Matilda Equiluz
Continuing with Valve's method of orienting each episode around a particular theme or set of technologies, Episode Two focuses on expansive environments, travel, and large, nonlinear battles. Following the closing events of Episode One, it sees Gordon Freeman and the series' other major characters moving away from City 17 to the surrounding wilderness.
Episode Two introduces four new enemies: the Antlion Worker, Antlion Grub and Antlion Guardian as new wildlife enemies. Furthermore the Combine Hunter synth as a Combine affiliated enemy. As discussed in the commentary of the game, both display new, sophisticated types of A.I.: the Antlion Workers' in their standoffish approach, and the Hunters' intelligent flanking and flushing out maneuvers. With the Hunters in particular, with their resistance to conventional attacks, their deadly close combat moves and their weakness to thrown objects, the developers hoped to encourage players to interact with the game environment more closely, and try different tactics each time.
Antlion Grubs and Antlion Workers display a different behavior to the first chapters of the game, different from anything yet experienced in the Half-Life games, and were also used to explain and expand on the inner workings of Antlion society. The game also gradually reveals the characteristics of the sinister Combine Advisors, and they play a much more central role to the Episode Two than in previous installments.
Although no new equipable weapons are introduced, the Strider Buster is, as an effective tool to defend White Forest against Striders. It proves crucial in the last stages of the game. Valve stated before the release that they were not interested in creating new weapons, as they were more interested in exploring every dimension of the Gravity Gun, the Strider Buster being the outcome of this. This decision came in spite of the fact that the lack of new weaponry in Episode One was one of its most criticized aspects.
Running on the so-called "Source 2007" version of the Source engine, Episode Two comes with numerous technical improvements and new features as well as those introduced in Episode One (such as Phong shading and HDR lighting). Some of the more important technical improvements seen in Episode Two are:
In addition to the widely-publicized new features, there are also a number of less noticeable but nonetheless significant improvements. Lighting effects, specially for the flashlight, have been improved even further since Episode One, with any object or surface casting shadows, with the bloom effects toned down slightly to give the game a slightly less surreal look. Many character models have been improved upon once more, while the A.I. is slightly more sophisticated, most noticeably in the behavior of the new enemy - the Hunter synth. Most textures have been improved, special shaders have been applied to many characters and objects and almost everything is bump mapped.
I'm a huge fan of the Half-Life series. I always loved playing video games in general.
Once upon a time, video game developers didn't care for achieving "maximum graphics" if that meant to sacrifice gameplay.
The most important thing was to make an enjoyable experience for all gamers, an experience they would never forget. Think of Zelda (in my case, my favorite). Or Metal Gear Solid. Games were made to be fun to play. They often were very hard to beat too, and when you didn't know where you were supposed to go now, or what object you were looking for, there was no internet to help you out. You just had to play the game and find out by yourself. When there was a boss that seemed impossible to beat, you just had to try over and over again; and oh my gosh... that feeling when you just beat a boss you were trying to beat for almost a week; that feeling of accomplishment... PRICELESS!
Nowadays, only a very little amount of games are really, really "epic". There are, but they are starting to get very rare (there is still some hope left). I mean, first person shooters with auto-aim, hints and mission objectives on the hud like, for instance, an arrow that always points in the right direction to go? What the hell?!
Half-Life (in general) is one of those games that I would consider a perfect first person shooter.
A very balanced and fair gameplay. This is very rare nowadays! So many times I beat a game last year without dying even once or having to search for a way out. Videogames started to be somewhat too easy (or, at least, that is how I felt).
Ever since I played Half-Life for the first time, I was fascinated by the huge mod community and the support Valve was (and is) giving us for their games.
And since then, I always wanted to create a mod for myself. My own little creation. I didn't know much about modding or mapping or so back then (yeah, I screwed around with CryEngine 1 sandbox editor sometimes, but not enough to actually create something releasable). And now that the game industry seems to fall apart in most of the cases, I decided to start mapping and train myself for an upcoming project: a Half-Life 2 mod. After some years of using the Source SDK for various games (CSS, TF2, L4D2, and so on...), I finally got some mediocre skills at mapping. I was ready, and so I started mapping for a mod of which I didn't even know the title yet. I just knew that the mod had to have a hardcore-style gameplay, and it had to be hard to beat (not too hard, but not too easy either... a little bit of pressure sure doesn't hurt, such that you feel satisfied when you survive a fight).
tr1p tells the story of a guy who had a car accident while driving home from work after a 48h shift. He wakes up at night laying next to his crashed car in a place he doesn't seem to remember as a part of the route he usually takes to go home. Actually... he is now very, VERY far from home.
definitely not as hard or as unbalanced as people seem to think, played it on normal because I'm not an idiot and I don't put my half life games on hard mode, it was a very pleasant time and a very fun mod
Hey man, I liked your mod for the most part, came here from that 1 famous youtuber who tried your mod. I liked the level design and such but the combat needs to be toned down exponentially. I know you heard that multiple times so I wont go in-dept but I am interested on what you might do in the future. Anyways I would rate it 6.5/10, the combat is the 1 that brings it down.
Thanks for the feedback :)
Yeah, my next project is a totally different genre, don't worry!
6.5/10 is fair I guess, from your point of view.
I'm just amazed that this project still receives attention and activity, even 11 years later. The Half-Life community is just fantastic and I keep getting reminded of it.
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The episode opens up with a fast moving steam train engine No. 9 pulling a boxcar and caboose rushing out of a tunnel, billowing clouds of steam and smoke, and blowing its whistle. As it does, it heads toward a curve that is next to a large cat head shaped mansion. The train is going too fast for the curve, but is unable to stop, so as it blows its whistle, the engine jumps the tracks and crashes into the mansion... and even knocks down the background. It is then revealed to be a model train set owned by Dog and a model building that Cat made since Dog's engine had inadvertentaly wrecked his house. Cat is very cross that Dog had wrecked his model dream house with his train. Dog apologizes, but grabs a part of Cat's house, and asks Cat how he could fit in it. Cat angrily grabs the part back, and furiously tells Dog that it is only a model, before he calls Dog a nincompoop. But when Dog shrugs and tells Cat that it was an accident, Cat, still angry, cheekily grabs and angrily throws the engine of Dog's train at the door, and when it hits it, the engine breaks apart, much to a surprised Dog's astonishment. Cat then angrily complains that Dog is always breaking his stuff. Dog, now angry that Cat had angrily wrecked his engine on purpose, furiously complains that Cat never wants to have any fun. Both are angered by the rude comments they angrily gave to each other, so they both furiously wished they were never attached to each other.
While this is going on, Winslow's door opens while he's working on something in his room using a jackhammer, and tells CatDog to keep it down. When Winslow sees that the two are angry, he warns them not to go to bed mad, and just as he closes his door, Catdog just toss the remanence of Cat's dream house and Dog's model train at his door since Dog's poor engine is a sad mess. As CatDog go to bed, they still mutter angrily about each other as they're violently beating their pillows, then start to fight over the blanket and end up ripping it in half, and that was when their dreams begin.
Both CatDog's dreams are styled after classic retro cartoons from the late 1920's or early 1930's and everyone is drawn like old MGM/Disney type characters. In Dog's dream (which is the dream that starts the whole main part of the episode), he is a hobo with a derby, a cane in his hand, a scarf around his neck, a pair of pants, and even a small rag tied around the end of his tail (and also a pair of gloves like most 1930's cartoon characters), but lives a very fun and cheerful life. He sings Life is Great with different cartoon animals, including the sun and a train. After the song is done, he is lying and relaxing under an apple tree while it also shows a life-sized version of Cat's dream house in the distance.
In Cat's dream, he is a multi millionaire tycoon and the owner of a plant inside his mansion that manufactures money just for him. It first shows him sleeping in his bed when he calls Winslow, his butler, by dropping his ball of yarn and it rolls and knocks on Winslow's door. Then Winslow comes out with Cat's breakfast, caviar and milk (Bossy '84 according to Cat), and after Cat is done with his breakfast, he then says that it's time to get to work and starts singing I Love Money. After the song is over, he orders his workers to speed up production so he could make more money. As they do, he notices the Greasers, who in his dream are workers for him, and fires them just for fun. After the Greasers leave after they're fired, the house suddenly shakes as a train speeds down the tracks next to it and causes a large room full of coins and dollars to come out and flood the room, burying Cat and Winslow. Cat, annoyed with how the trains go by and shake his home, says that he's going to buy the railroad just, so he could move the tracks further away from his home.
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