Vendor-Lazarus said:
So many good (and bad) mods with varied, inventive and unique play-styles.
*Puts on spectacles* Those were the good days.
Indeed. When I started playing back in ~2000 some of my best experiences from video games came from mods. Half-Life mods were rampant and a lot of good ones, as well.
I remember some that had an entirely new campaign which were really good. I really can't remember the name of one I liked but it...had a number in it. It might have been 481, as in the Fahrenheit temperature, but there as another word associated with it. At any rate, it told the story of what happened immediately after the Black Mesa incident in the rest of the world - you played as...somebody - can't even remember if they were a random guy or a significant one but you were going through almost fresh post-apocalyptic levels to do stuff. I do remember it being really good, though - I liked it a lot.
There was also Natural Selection which was AMAZING. It is now rightfully an entire game, however, back in HL days they had the base building and the alien metamorphisis and everything. I was absolutely floored the first time I played it - I had never actually seen anything like that as a mod before. The game was now completely different - it was Alien vs Predator..only without the Predator and it also added some StarCraft for good measure.
They Live was some single player zombie mod that I remember was quite popular for a time. I didn't actually play it, but I do recall a lot of people enjoyed it.
Counter-Strike is just a one of the most influential game systems produced ever and it started as a HL mod.
While Team Fortress did not start off in Half-Life land, it was commemorated there which eventually lead to Team Fortress 2 - another really big hit since.
I
remember playing Worms as a mod for Half-Life as well. It was 3D, though, and an FPS. It wasn't that good - sort of average but at least it was funny and different. On the other hand, I've tried to find it in the following years but it didn't seem to exist. However, I do vividly remember playing it, and it wasn't Worms 3D - that was in third person. Bizarre. There is this mod [http://www.moddb.com/mods/wormshl/downloads/wormshl-beta-32], however, I think it's more recent than the one I played back in ~2005.
Fire Arms may just be my favourite Half-Life mod ever. I just really like it - it was a team based military shooter (in that you played soldiers) which added a dash of realism. Being shot
hurt - if you survived it, you could end up bleeding until you bandaged the wound or, failing that, until you bleed to death (a feature in Action Half-Life as well). There were different classes that specialised in different things, like demolitions, medics, snipers, heavy weapons and so on. As you killed more people, you "levelled up" and unlocked more and more perks of the class - medics could not only apply bandages but also heal a bit, demolitionists could deploy more sophisticated explosives and more of them as well, etc, etc. What really got me was the realistic weapon handling - hold down the fire button and you wouldn't be hitting anything, however, if somebody is hiding behind a wall, you could shoot to hit them through it. If it's thin enough - thicker walls and covers would not be penetrated. However, what I really liked is that bullets
bounced. It's not a reliable mechanic to use, not easily, but if you fire at the right angle, you'd get bullets ricocheting and possibly hitting other enemies. Or allies. Basically, there as an extra tactical side of shooting. The mod was sort of a mix between Team Fotress in terms of teams and classes and Counter-Strike in terms of realism. Really well done, as well.
I think my point is that I've enjoyed a lot of Half-Life mods.
