Half-Life 2 Beta Mods: A Quick History

[Music] originally I wanted to do a new recreating half left 2 Beta series for this year it had been a while so I thought why not this time I thought rather than going for newer projects we' take a look at some old forgotten ones I had chosen three different mods first would be insulins then Terminus and the third one well that's a surprise I'll tell you at the end so when I downloaded an early development build of insulins I thought well it's a development build how incomplete could it be and then I played it but not all of it was like this it was either maps with 2 billion errors or maps that were just ported from the leak after checking insence out for a while I felt that while it was interesting it wasn't as interesting to Warrant it own video the ported Maps just had a bunch of added props and models in them and that was that then I booted up Terminus now Terminus looked a little more promising it too had a development build but some of its Maps were unique and some ideas were interesting but at the end it again didn't interest me enough to the point where I could do a full video on it insulin was a mod that was being worked on in the early 2010s and I guess stopped development around 2014 same with Terminus that stopped development in 2015 as unfortunate as it is that's the way most beta mods go in the end the modder or modders lose interest and move on or just get busy with stuff in life but what's this video about then well I thought I had to make something that would talk about historical mods that were beta themed or attempted to make a beta campaign so why not take a quick Gander at some of them for starters the thing can be classified as the first mod ever made on the leaked engine before halflife 2 even came out also around this time was when Gary Newman had ideas to make a mod that would be a Sandbox of sort after he played a bunch of JB mod which might be the first ever mod for retail halflife 2 Gary's inspiration for a mod sprung into place and Gary's Mod was created but how do we find the first ever beta themed mod thanks to V Toya's post on half left 2 Beta forums there's a list we can go through and check them out now I can't say that this is a super complete list but it is very comprehensive for our needs let's split the categories into two beta mods on the leaked engine and beta mods on the retail engine one of the earliest beta mods on the leaked engine was halflife 2 lost from 2004 now keep in mind most of these mods have been lost to time as their download links do not work anymore there might be backup links somewhere but I didn't manage to find any so we'll be mostly going off of screenshots and in some cases descriptions halflife 2 lost just looks like a mod with a bunch of maps in rough shape the screenshots aren't much help either it does feature the Hydra old prison maps and some Highway 17 maps the mod would cease production around 2009 in 2006 a mod was shared on the internet created by team gabin I actually remember years ago reading up about this mod and apparently it was a big deal back then because it actually looked quite promising as they had implemented Ed or rather reactivated a bloom Shader plus some other weird ones as well there was maybe multiplayer 2 along with a bunch of leaked maps that were fixed up the mod was quite atmospheric for its time showing heavy saturated colors in some of the maps team gab's mod would seize development around 2010 around 2008 vtoy himself would start working on an air exchange mod on the leaked engine after almost a decade in 2018 vtoy would pick up the project again and release the air exchange mod publicly this is playable in the mega build of the beta vtoy would also work on another mod called the city 17 mod which would take place in the starting chapters of the game in C 17 development started in 2015 and was paused in 2017 an incomplete build of the mod can be played in the mega build the Axel Project was another mod that started development in the late 2000s and was released in October of 2010 the mod focuses on the 2002 and the 2003 Maps most fixing them up with a little bit of Polish and they were playable coming to the modern day and age we have the 2003 map pack by XJR 9000 XJR fixed a lot of the 2003 Maps mainly the missing textures and models and added level transitions to the map pack as well this would allow the player to experience the 2003 story maps from start to finish albe it in a little bit of a rough fashion this map pack was released in November of 2018 toast the fox would release the e3202 map pack in 2021 this would have all the e3202 maps that Val was supposed to show off at that Year's Event but didn't it also contained some early variations of these E3 Maps as well which showcased how the levels changed over time then there were two mods by wolf clock the first one vertigo came out in 2021 and would feature levels taking place in the vertigo chapter of the original story line the second one is the 2001 City 17 map pack which would feature some of the early City 17 maps along with Eli's lab and the canals lastly we have the 2002 Edition by Arthur ASA 96 this is an ongoing project which is reworking the 2002 maps and stitching them together to form a proper campaign that players can go through from start to finish while technically this mod does have a start and a finish Arthur is adding in new maps that are missing from the middle of the game now these were all mods that run with the leaked engine the 2003 engine or the leak net engine whatever you want to call it there are a few more but I think these were the most interesting one or at least the ones I know more about next we'll be looking at some mods that ran on the retail Source engine that tried to recreate the beta one of the earliest ones is E3 2003 from 2005 there aren't any screenshots so from the description it was basically a mod that would showcase the E3 Maps even though this mod Never released and would be cancelled in 2008 you can still play the e32 2003 maps in the mega build I'm not not entirely sure who put together that map pack or mod then in 2005 a mod by the name of halflife 177 would appear this mod you might know better as its more recent name missing information Mi was a very ambitious mod it had a great team behind it and its Maps were absolutely fantastic filled with the atmosphere that the original beta concept demanded development would continue all the way to 2019 when they were trying to get the mod posted on Steam but they Quest was denied due to some problems with the mods executable and thus the mod remains in stases ever since the unannounced cancellation of this mod was very heartbreaking for most it was supposed to be released in April 2019 but that would never happen then a little old YouTuber by the name of radiation Hazard would spring up in early 2020 and seeing this Mod's cancellation news would Inspire him to cover the overall topic of the beta and its cut content in between these years of missing information there were many others that would pop up too but few would be completed two of these completed ones were the vertigo mod from 2008 and the depot mod from 2013 both of these are basically what their name suggests they take place in the maps taking place in that chapter then in 2010 a project was start up that is still being worked on till this day a little old mod by the name of dark and turbo di is one of the best beta Recreation mods out there right now its level of originality and quality is only mashed by raising the bar Vu and nothing else it has been a while since an update came from their team but last where they left off was in the Wast lamp chapters hopefully we'll be seeing the antline caves or Raven home in a new update soon di would go through a revamp sometime in its development and an offshoot called Dark interval old build mod would be released in 2021 which would contain older maps from dark inter turval the modder behind old build mod silos cilum would release a now well-known mod called cremation in 2015 the art style and atmosphere presented in cremation would hook players and it would also release critical Acclaim from the community as of this date he's working on a cremation 2.0 and as Silo has stated development is slow and a release date is 5 years down the line at Max around 2012 another ambitious mod would spring up by the name of raising the bar raising the bar was very ahead of its time with fantastic original models textures and overall it had captured the concept of the beta very accurately along with dark interval this was one of the first mods to not rely too much on the leaked Maps but rather create their own however in 2016 it would be announced that due to inactivity by the team no work was being done and the mod was permanently sheld it wouldn't be until 2 years later in 2018 when kic would pick up the pieces and launch development on raising the bar Vu raising the bar Vu is currently the biggest beta themed mods out there with the team making major strides in the past four to 6 years story-wise they've covered up chapters till ravenol and now are in process of making the depot chapter they've also released a spin-off by the name of raising the bar salvation in which you play as father gregoryi in Raven home and another portal themed spin-off is coming soon as well at the pace they're going rtb might be the first ever proper mod to transcend the development hell and become a proper halflife game that takes place in the beta Universe now I'm going to skip over over a lot of these mods because as far as I can tell most of them never went past the concept art stages or didn't have much going on with them so in this last quarter of the video I'm going to talk about some mods that I've either personally played or know about in detail Bild 2001 was a mod similar to Cremation it was short but damn was it packed with amazing Maps like cremation it had a very strong emphasis on its atmosphere the mod was able to instill this depressing mood that a lot of us like in these kind of mods but the then we have mods like cterminus this one is a unique mod in a sense that it mixes the retail game with the beta Concepts the mishmash of Both Worlds provide the special experience where things seem familiar but also new at the same time you'd have pre-existing maps from the retail game but then it would open up to new maps that were inspired from the beta although not specifically cancelled it has been 2 years since a new update came out of this project but still it's a must-play experience for all beta fans project urban conflict is a cancelled mod that I grieve till this day it was supposed to be a mod for halflife 1 but basically taking place in the beta Universe the gold Source Aesthetics gave it such an amazing and old school look that suited the history of the beta itself unfortunately it development seized in 2020 don't drink the water is the most different kind of mod on this list it is a fixed camera mod that takes place in the beta Universe the last demo for it was released in 2022 and the last update in 2023 basically it's halflife 2 Beta but running on the gold Source Engine with gameplay taken from the old school Resident Evil games although this mod has also been silent for a while I really hope we do get some sort of update soon remnants is a very recent mod that's been put on hold rather than making a new campaign this mod planned to upgrade the existing maps to a more Modern Standard the current available media for it do represent that unfortunately no public release happened and it is unsure when will develop and resume again and lastly seox the developer behind dark interval released the 2003 storyline Port this basically takes the 2003 map pack by XJR and ports it to run on the modern Source engine now this isn't a complete list of every single beta mod ever made but it was supposed to be a Showcase of some of the more prominent ones I'll leave a link in the description to the list of mods that I referenced to in the video now if you have a Keen Eye or know about these kind mods you might realize that I missed two very specific and Infamous mods from this list that is because in the coming weeks I will be producing a red hair special series consisting of Three episodes cinematic mod build 2046 and dur schwar Nebel both build 2046 and DSN had lost maps and builds but I spent two days straight collecting them and will begin production on this rad has special series at the end of the month now coming back to the top Topic at hand beta mods are world of their own with its own Legends stories dramas and achievements while the beta mod curse is very real that most beta mods get cancelled we still saw a lot of great releases over the years with projects like rbr and dark interval still in development the beta dream is still very much alive and well and that's pretty much it for this one thanks so much for watching and a big thanks to these benefactors for supporting the channel Taylor wufo sco Ms AI Nicholas go Imperial Embers unusual t-boy 301 Tombstone Jack 5282 tonium Bubba quiltman five first clone boy interloper CS TTG RoboCop Noel nobody important Franco sley Justin imri tsaur odan nachos lambre roadkill Walter hob gabes no click go out Fisher GCE Haw assault Mr span jellen a normal street lamp of our Droid and bipol it thanks again and see you in the next one

Channel: Radiation Hazard

Views: 23,105

Keywords: half life, half life 2, valve, steam, half life 2 beta, mods, mod review, maps, map showcase

Id: 5KDkSKMrCXk

Length: 14min 11sec (851 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2024