Half-Life was a fantastic game that helped change an industry in a great man way. One thing that was also very Half Life, and something we have lost thanks to DLC, was the expansion packs that followed the game, filling in parts of the story happening at the same time Gordon Freeman was silently saving the world.
One of these unique expansions came from Gearbox Software in the form of Opposing Force. Its story told the tale of Marine Adrian Shephard, sent in along with his team to neutralize the Black Mesa personal after the resonance cascade incident. It was a fun side-story that expanded on the Half-Life lore, but left the fate of Adrian Shepard up in the air.
Fast forward to 15 years later to indie developer Richard Seabrook, who would leave his job as a QA tester to found his own games studio. Jumping into the source engine, Seabrook took it upon himself to continue the story of Adrian Shephard since his was the only one to not have any sort of conclusion. The risk paid off as after 2,500 hours put in, the project was given official approval by Valve.
Half-Life 2: Prospekt will drop in February, and players can pre-order the game via Steam right now. The game’s length should be on par with Half-Life Episode 1, so expect a few hours of solid fun. Prospekt is a stand-alone title and won’t require Half-Life 2 to run. It also features a number of improvements over the now aging source engine, including:
- New Textures
- New Models
- Updated high-resolution combine soldier skins with improved normal mapping
- Updated high-resolution textures
- Updated lighting
- Higher resolution models
- Increased cube mapping
- Over 20 new particle effects
- Modded HUD
- Modded VGUI
- New player model skin
- Return to Xen
- New voice acting
- New music
- New AI improvements, such as soldiers attempting to undo the player’s actions
You can pre-order Prospekt right now and save 20%, making the game only $8.99. At least someone (even if that someone is other than Valve) is making something related to Half-Life. No word on if this will fall into official canon, but any Half-Life is better than no Half-Life.
Via: (VG247)
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