We see a certain dream, or one of the parallel realities. Sailing on a boat in the middle of ice and ghosts, we follow the call of the bell and the shadow of G-man, leading us to the destroyed ship Boreas. Then we wake up in our (?) reality — on the capsule of an entire Boreas belonging to the Alliance. At the beginning of our journey, dimensions will intersect more than once, driving us crazy.
Something terrible happened on the ship, and we are desperately trying to survive in a light horror setting, learning to kill headcrabs using improvised objects, and hiding in the shadows from hostile Alliance soldiers. Suddenly we come across a living person — worker Odell, who helps us get out of this ship, taking us to. city City-17.
My acquaintance with Dark Interval happened a few years ago. The first part of the modification already impressed me, and since then I have been waiting for the second, silently absorbing the few news about the project. And then in December last year a new build was released, Dark Interval Part 2 – in my opinion, one of the best mods for Half-Life 2, which I gladly completed (and then replayed) during these winter days. And I received a lot of impressions that I hasten to share!
All Half-Life 2 fans know about its famous leaked beta version – "darker, more depressing and dystopian". In fact, this is not entirely true, because the so-called “beta version” is just a set of many builds that only reflected the long and difficult development process, during which Valve came to the release of the second Halfa.
But still, in the “beta version”, as well as the book Raising the Bar, many interesting visual and gameplay solutions were preserved that were impressive, and, most importantly, complemented the established image of the canonical second Halfa in the head. After all, the second part, although it turned out beautiful, was still unsaid – personally, I always imagined what the game could be like if a fair amount of the ideas had not been cut out of it.
Dark Interval gives us this opportunity. But the developers went further and did not blindly imitate only beta aesthetics, no. Dark Interval amazingly combines the style of the release Halfa and its beta versions, and in such a way that it looks organically. At every stage of the passage, you feel that the game was made by real fans of the second part, who know about all the nuances of the game.
When passing through, you must take into account that Dark Interval is not just Half-Life 2, and not Half-Life 2 Beta. This is a separate independent work on the Source engine, created under the influence of both.
The fact that this is a separate work is emphasized by the author’s unique style, which I have never seen in fashion before. This style is felt in the gameplay, in the narrative, and in the concept as a whole.
Now to the details.
Plot
The plot of the game, as expected, follows in the footsteps of the original. After the Prologue in Boreas, we arrive in City 17, under the yoke of the Alliance, we meet Barney, Professor Kleiner. Then there is an unsuccessful teleportation, general alarm and flight from the city through underground communications and drainage channels.
However, in Dark Interval the familiar plot is presented differently – from a different angle, with new accents and a different pace of narration, which makes it somehow deeper and more detailed.
Our journey through City 17 will take a lot of time, but it won’t be stupid – after all, we’ll have time to get acquainted with the local gameplay, and it’s better to immerse ourselves in what’s happening. The local City-17 is more dystopian, gloomy and scary, like in the beta – but unlike it, more contrasting. There will be no eternal night and smog here, the locations replace each other, showing different sides of this city and life in it. Yes, yes, exactly life, after all, citizens here don’t just walk aimlessly along the streets, but go about their own business – some work for the Alliance, some are engaged in some kind of trade, some are hiding underground. Metrocops are watching over the city, but who is above them?.
The alliance led by consul Brin (who plays a background role here for now) in the game is still the same mercilessly totalitarian, but his cruelty, at first glance, is quite justified by what is happening in the world. Planet Earth was completely disfigured by the consequences of portal storms, its flora and fauna were assimilated by the flora and fauna of Xena, which were successfully introduced even into the catacombs of City 17. The Alliance is waging a merciless fight not only against the rebels, but also against the all-consuming living creatures of Xena.
But the Alliance may seem like a stronghold of security only at first – very soon we will personally see its countless crimes against humanity. So far in the original HL2 "genocide and unspeakable evil" mentioned mostly off-screen, in Dark Interval we will encounter this over and over again. Two small stories in City 17 were especially clear in this regard for me.
While in technical communications, Gordon for the first time encounters stalkers – people mutilated beyond recognition, turned into robotic slaves. Their distorted appearance is as terrifying as their sounds. These are not metrocops, or even cyborg soldiers. There is literally nothing human left in the stalkers – neither externally nor internally. As Alix said in Episode One: "This is what they do to those who resist".
Wandering around the city further, after the Manhack Arcade (which is worthy of special mention – beta connoisseurs will appreciate it) we find ourselves in an empty area of City-17. It seems as if there is not a soul there, there is no one. And then suddenly one of the most psychedelic episodes in the game begins!
Gordon hears terrible sounds and hallucinations that make us understand: in this area in the past there was an uprising that the Alliance suppressed, and the local population was turned into stalkers. The terrible truth fills us with a feeling of horror, we hear the sounds of battles, although there is silence and no one around. That same frightening feeling of emptiness and liminal spaces Halfa torments us. We will still meet a couple of people on our way, but we are not sure whether they really exist or are just another phantoms. Then we come across the corpse of a worker, killed under unknown circumstances. Paranoia at its limit.
Finally, we find a diner here with a couple of townspeople and a metrocop (they all ignore us), strange music playing. I’m not sure if this place was real either, but at least I felt relatively safe there.
When I got out of this area and went down into the dungeon, I was more than ever happy about the headcrabs – because they definitely alive!
And there are a lot of such history-rich locations in City 17 alone!
This is what they do casinogenting.uk to those who resist (c)
I’ll separately clarify a pleasant and realistic little detail: unlike the original Half-Life 2, here the rebels don’t know who we are, even if they’ve heard of Gordon Freeman. Someone is afraid of us, someone drives us away, and someone only trusts us a little. Only little by little, on our own, will we again earn our reputation in this terrible place.
Design
Let me move on to one of the main highlights of Dark Interval – the unique design and atmosphere that did not leave me indifferent. The plot of the game would not work without the unique style of the local maps, which are made at the highest level and into which a lot of detail is invested. Sometimes even overkill, but always and everywhere everything is done with taste and love!
If in Half-Life 2 only the Citadel produced the effect of scale on us, then in Dark Interval literally the entire environment puts pressure on us. A huge amount of work has been done with scale – we we feel the colossal size of this city and all its buildings. Here we are just another little person, and we don’t feel safe in this oppressive city. The city, by the way, is unusual – it mixes different architectural styles, later new fortified housing was added here from the times of portal storms and the Seven Hour War, and the Citadel and other Alliance buildings complete the image.
But City-17 only precedes the main plot – and then I suddenly have to move on to the main and newest part of the mod! A vigorous and dynamic gameplay begins, in which we will not be allowed to relax until the very end!
The industrial areas of the city and warehouses look extremely interesting and atmospheric, and despite their seeming ordinariness, many exciting events take place here. Here we will for the first time give a full-fledged battle to the metrocops and with our efforts we begin a new uprising – still smoldering, with very vague prospects. However, the Alliance forces are already determined to nip this in the bud and catch us. the wrong ones were attacked! There are few of us, but we have a junk HEV suit!
Bad troubles beginning.
Journey across the rooftops
From industrial areas we are gradually reaching the canals. They differ from HL2 channels in gameplay and purpose, but they definitely have something in common. Remember I said that Dark Interval connects the atmosphere of beta and release? So, the channels convey this feeling best.
This is an incredibly atmospheric and dangerous place where we fight against metrocops and sometimes stumble upon rebel hideouts (most often abandoned for various reasons). The image is complemented by the gloomy weather, as well as the all-consuming nature of Xen, which, however, due to the efforts of the Alliance, is not present everywhere.
I can say with confidence that the atmosphere of the channels will absolutely please all those who liked the channels in the second Halfa!
Separately, I would like to note the chapter “Hydra’s Lair” – one of the most unusual in design. It combines the atmosphere of the Canals, Victory Mine (the lair of the murals from Episode Two) and Xena. It turned out great, great job!
What is special about the chapter and why is it called that?? See for yourself when you go!
We will cover part of the route along the canals with the help of transport – and here the developers were able to pleasantly surprise! The local rebels are poor and on the brink of survival, so they don’t have an airboat, as expected. But it doesn’t matter, because we can personally get ourselves transport – an Alliance armored personnel carrier, which will make our escape from the city much easier and faster – and will also frighten our enemies!
In its cabin you feel like you are in a spaceship, despite the fact that technically it is just an ordinary car with wheels.
Personally, since the time of the original second part, I have fallen in love with this armored car! So I’m excited to ride it.
And now we smoothly come to the most impressive part of the Dark Interval – the Wasteland! This legendary location was cut from beta at fairly early stages of development and was poorly preserved, so its style and role in the plot are not fully known. Instead, there are a huge number of fan interpretations of the Wasteland and its design.
In my opinion, Dark Interval produced the best Wastelands – again due to the detail, design and visual storytelling.
We soon find out the hard way why City 17 was much safer. The area outside the city wall is a disfigured, barren desert, where only the same living creatures Xena can exist. However, we will still meet here a few people, vortigaunts, alliance soldiers and synths.
The wastelands are diverse, contrasting and incredibly atmospheric, charging us to search for adventure. Definitely one of the best Dark Interval chapters to date!
There is a constant struggle for survival here, and we will feel it at every step. and also participate!
It’s better not to go down into this pit. Although.
One of the last islands of earthly vegetation seems to promise us hope
To summarize the design section, I will say that during the playthrough I wanted to photograph almost every frame, and for me personally this says a lot. The work was carried out colossally and with a very careful approach to detail!
Gameplay
Dark Interval is a very immersive shooter that from the very first minutes will teach us to carefully study and use the environment. The game takes all the best from the gameplay of the second part – vigorous shootings combined with puzzles – squeezing the maximum out of it and developing it in new directions.
The game has a lot of explicit and implicit puzzles, and many maps, due to their huge scale and heaps of details, can be completed in different ways, using alternative routes and different tactics in battle. There are also a huge number of secrets hidden in the game, and many of them will not be found on your first playthrough.
Of course, the size and variability of the maps sometimes led to the fact that I did not understand where I should intuitively go next – but I encountered this very rarely, someone will encounter this more often or not at all depending on their playing style. Of course, this game is for thoughtful playthrough.
One of the most memorable episodes was the ride on an armored personnel carrier of the Metrocops. There is no boat in the game, so in order to speed up our movement along the Canals, we will use a stolen armored car. He can shoot a machine gun, shoot rockets and even jump. Unlike HL2, here our transport has a limited safety margin, so it can be lost, including from attacks by enemy armored personnel carriers, which pose a very big threat. But it can be repaired in specially designated areas.
Our comrade armored personnel carrier and its repair station
Our enemies won’t let us relax
Particularly pleasing is the artificial intelligence of opponents. Metrocops now use cover and smoke grenades, making every fight with them much more difficult.
Each Xena monster has its own unique behavior – in truth, many of the "monsters" turn out to be not particularly aggressive or even harmless, and by understanding the characteristics of their behavior, the player can save a fair amount of ammo. To some extent, this is the implementation of ideas from the beta of the first Halfa (!), where not all alien opponents showed aggression towards the player.
Barnacles have one small and very subtle change that makes them very annoying. Same with headcrabs.
And that friendly houndeye from the Wasteland won and broke my heart! 🙁
There are many new opponents in the game, I will highlight the most memorable of them:
Cremator: The creepy burner of corpses and other organics from beta has returned to Dark Interval. Can kill with a flamethrower in a matter of seconds, while he himself is very strong, because he has only one vulnerable area – the fuel tank.
Water Bullsquid: There is also a regular bullsquid in the game, but there is a water version of it. was able to surprise. It is much more dangerous than the ichthyosaur from the first part, as it is more dexterous and similar to a crocodile in appearance and attacks. I inserted it here primarily because of the surprise effect, like in movies. Beware of bodies of water!
Hydra: living aggressive organic matter of unknown origin, killing everything in its path. It lives mainly only within its colonies, where it is better not to interfere too much.
Elite Alliance Soldier: Not to be confused with Elite Soldiers from HL2! A real killing machine that combines the features of a sniper and a hunter from the second episode. Moves quickly and is well camouflaged.
Crab synth: In HL2, this type of synth appeared only in the Citadel without participating in battle, but here it is shown in all its glory. Possesses deadly attacks, can carry out massive artillery shelling, shoot at point-blank range and ram. Virtually invulnerable, but has one Achilles heel. In general, the striders were not even close to his background, believe me.
Synth mortar: no less dangerous flying synthetics that fire over an area and often serve as air support for crabs. Although not as armored as crabs, they can kill in a matter of seconds, you need to show miracles of dexterity with them.
