#dark interval

[a-shift]

"Don't move," said the person above him. "One bite and you'll be dead by your next breath." Then he heard a thud, and the figure dropped in. He knew instantly--even with the heavy black gear, the belts of ammo, the goggles and the short-cropped hair--that it was a woman. She crept up until she was next to her pet. She made a click with her tongue, as if gentling a horse, and the thing wound around and flowed onto her shoulder, settling itself there like a glistening stole."

Marc Laidlaw, "Alyx"

[wei39]

There is no disabled character in the game itself, and this isn’t even a timeline from the main story. I just made it up from my head, so don’t take it seriously. I’m just messing around because I couldn’t come up with anything sensible for the mod’s actual story :^)

and these are just sketches. I couldn’t refine them into a more finished state :ь

[ohnoitsz1m]

Sorry this is kind of gonna be all over the place but

A lot of the HL2 (campaign based) mods I've played and finished are inexplicably interested in ghosts or otherwise haunted spaces. Which is interesting for a game like HL2 that really doesn't fuck with that type of thing.

And it's not really a super overt thing, it's usually just an Easter egg but like. The frequency that I see it combined with how similarly it's presented is. Interesting to say the least. Like the most Ghost acknowledgement we get in HL2 is a sound effect that plays by the apartment blocks and I'm inclined to believe it's less of "we are hearing dead children," and more of a "hey, you should be thinking: where are the children?" Because it's a relevant plot point that there are no more children. Not that they were wiped out just that we stopped having them.

Okay with that out of the way. Ghosts in HL mods. Starting with Entropy:Zero. Obviously spoilers ahead for literally every mod I talk about.

So in Entropy:Zero after raiding a rebel camp, you can encounter a radio that, when interacted with, plays the voice of a young girl that prompts you to find her doll. This is something you can do for an achievement in the game.

As an honorable mention- he's not a ghost but the cannibal in the next chapter is presented in a way that very much leads you to believe he is until you actually meet him.

Another honorable mention: whatever the fuck is going on with Wilson.

Okay next isss Entropy Zero Uprising. EZU has two instances of "ghosts" I wanna talk about. Neither of which are actually ghosts but like. Functionally they're ghosts ok. First and most obvious is Victor's wife. She's more of a dream/hallucination but she is very much haunting the narrative, calling out to Victor, and her appearance as a fuzzy, glitchy shadow is a kind of common way these ghosts are presented in HL2 mods.

There's also. The man. Idk how to really explain this one. He's a guy who shows up sometimes in EZU and he doesn't reeeeally do anything it's likely you never noticed him. But he is some Entity and he can kill you. Is he a ghost? Maybe. For the sake of this post yes.

Aaand finally because I'm getting tired but this is not an exhaustive list ok?

Dark Interval has several instances of ghosts and weird haunting type shit. In the apartments there's a guy in the dark who disappears once you look at him, he's presented similarly to Victor's Wife in EZU. I can't remember where exactly but there's a similar effect later in the game. Some shit falls off a shelf out of nowhere when you do a task in the early game. Dark Interval just has weird shit going on in general and I love it for that. ALSO THE PATH TO ELIS????

Okay I'm done goodnight

[dandanthegamerman]

Dark Interval vs Raising the Bar

Two teams, two mods, both aiming to recreate the much-lauded Half-Life 2 beta look and storyline.

Dark Interval is the best looking HL2 mod yet.  It’s Tim Burton’s Half-Life 2, a thing of beauty.  You start out coming out of a cryo-pod on the Borealis, en route to City 17.  Gameplay is more slowly paced and difficult than Half-Life 2 (even on medium!), you need to be very frugal with ammo.  It’s also got a more personal story: your glitchy, broken HEV suit has a radio so you get to hear some metropolice politicking and infighting. You meet and help more individual citizens, and some of them fear the carnage following in your wake.  You get to do a version of canals but in an APC.

I initially ignored Raising the Bar: Redux, after playing 2 minutes of an early version and assuming it was just a grimdark reskin.  But although some areas are a little too similar for my tastes (presumably it’s based on a more recent version of the many-times-iterated HL2 plot than Dark Interval), it really is it’s own thing.  Difficulty is on-par with HL2, you’re never lost, gunfights are kinetic and fun.  Exploration always yields little battery/health/ammo rewards like HL2.  It’s got a touch of humour.  If Dark Interval is Tim Burton’s Half-Life 2, this is Joel Schumacher’s version.  Grim, gothic but with neon and a hint of coked up madness

And holy fuck, they made the Vortigaunt disgusting.  Like, actually upsetting to look at.

It’s so fascinating to see where the two projects converge, and how they interpret the same concepts in different ways.  Whether it’s houndeyes, bullsquids, Xen fauna in the C17 canals, how Combine APC’s handle, to how many shots it takes to kill a Cremator.

So in conclusion: PLAY THEM BOTH! I'm hoping they're both completed, but even as-is, they're more than worth your time.

[lambdageneration]

Another update from Dark Interval - A recreation of Valve's earlier concepts for Half-Life 2. They have also announced that they are aiming to release Part 2 of the mod next year. 

[neonhornart]

The Arcade

[a-shift]

making dark interval 2.2 fanart instead of making dark interval 2.2

[a-shift]

Dark Interval wasteland militia concepts. Again.