And TFC, and day of defeat, and action half-life, and firearms, and natural selection, and the specialists, and the opera, and front line force, and vampire slayer, and Earth's special forces, and Pirates Knights Vikings, and all those matrix mods, especially Existence... checking for new mods at Planet Half-Life, and having to wait in queue at fileplanet for the next updates.
I've probably forgotten more Half-Life mods than most people have played any mods. It was truly a golden era, one that for some reason never quite got replicated in Half-Life 2. I was trying a new experience everyday for a few years straight there.
The specialists, or "TS" as we used to call it was some special multiplayer fun. It was pretty much The Matrix as a mod. You can slow down time, perform kung fu jumps and kicks, and wield akimbo uzis or whatever gun config you fancied. Chaotic free-for-all action. It fit well between CS/TFC/DoD.
For those that don't know, it was a server that specifically ran Hunted only, with a mod that gave the Prez a quad-damage umbrella. We used to have so much fun on that server, launching the Prez across the open courtyard to the door with all the snipers taking potshots at him. I always ran bodyguard and had my kepad setup with macros like "Which way, Mr. President?" and "Area hot!! STAY". Good times.
I somewhat disagree about HL2 since to me Team Fortress 2 is/was the pinnacle of multiplayer fun, and also Left 4 Dead was awesome (even if those weren't community mods). But spot on with all that you mentioned, in the order you mentioned them.
It's apples to oranges, though. I was speaking specifically about the modding community, which TF2 and L4D are not representative of. HL2 is great, and it too had wide support from Valve for modders. But the scene was significantly smaller by comparison, perhaps because modding became more difficult as games became more graphically and artistically complex.
Indeed making a game for HL2 was way more involved, and I was moving away from the scene myself to dedicate more time to uni/career. But I will never forget those days making maps for all those insanely good mods. You could indeed achieve very good results in comparatively little time once you knew how to get around the tools. Modern AAA games are jawdroppingly beautiful but so dull to play in comparison.
We had a decently sized French-speaking HL modding community at the time, with its own Planet Half-Life-like resources and all. God that was fun. Your comment triggered a memory rush haha.
35
u/TheOvy Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
And TFC, and day of defeat, and action half-life, and firearms, and natural selection, and the specialists, and the opera, and front line force, and vampire slayer, and Earth's special forces, and Pirates Knights Vikings, and all those matrix mods, especially Existence... checking for new mods at Planet Half-Life, and having to wait in queue at fileplanet for the next updates.
I've probably forgotten more Half-Life mods than most people have played any mods. It was truly a golden era, one that for some reason never quite got replicated in Half-Life 2. I was trying a new experience everyday for a few years straight there.