Posted: 28-08-05 In: Interviews By: Munro2 |


During August we took the time to sit down and have a chat with some developers involved with the upcoming Half-Life 2 modification Operation Everlasting Shadow including Badger (team Leader, programmer, writer), Beldor (modeller), FarrowLeSparrow (lead Mapper, assistant writer), qckbeam (programmer), Sniper (sound recorder and editor, webmaster/public relations) and last but not least, Stone (lead modeller and concept artist).

Halflife2.net: Could you give us a quick overview of the modification?

Badger: Yeah, of course; Operation Everlasting Shadow is a single player mod, which puts you firmly in the shoes of Agent 151, a Black Op veteran of the Black Mesa research facility 'incident'.

Halflife2.net: Would it be giving away too much if I asked about the plot?

Badger: We can talk about some elements of the plot yes... The Operation Everlasting Shadow of the title is the hunting down and eliminating of those people who survived the Black Mesa disaster... however, things go wrong...

Halflife2.net: So will Agent 151 be the hunter or the hunted?

Badger: This depends, roles are reversed... yin becomes yang and the assassin can become the hero.

Halflife2.net: You're working with the Source engine, which is already renowned for it's realistic physics. Are there are gameplay elements you plan on implementing to take advantage of this?

Badger: As players of Opposing Force and Half Life will no doubt recall, the Black Ops did some spectacular moves in close combat... we are planning to use Havok to physically simulate arms and legs making contact, thus keeping clipping and other ugliness to a minimum.

Halflife2.net: So there will be kung-fu or some form of martial-arts?

Badger: Some form of martial arts, effective moves from all manner of disciplines will be included. However, the first person viewpoint will never be broken, to tighten the bond between the player and the character... ala Half-Life.

Halflife2.net: Ok, so we've established that the player has an array of hand to hand combat options, how about firepower? What kind of weapons can we be expecting?

Badger: No superweapons like the Redeemer and such... expect light firearms, submachine guns, assault rifles, etc. working up to some more impressive specialist weapons.

Halflife2.net: Now, What kind of equipment can we expect during play?

Badger: You can expect night vision goggles as standard, as well as a few other little trinkets such as thermal vision, ala Splinter Cell and radar, a modification for one of our weapons. You'll also see things like lock picks and motion sensors.

Halflife2.net: You're using real world weapons, so are you going for realism as opposed to a relative fantasy world?

Badger: Not all the weapons are 'real world', since the setting of Half Life is a mildly futuristic one, and you will be encountering former employees of Black Mesa.

When talking about realism, I will say we are going for a fun realism, not 1-2 hit kills, but a proper health bar style interface. However, Iron sights will be included, to improve a weapons accuracy, but Raven Shield, or even CS style realism. No.

Halflife2.net: Ok, anything else you'd like to say about the gameplay aspects?

Badger: Yes, a few. In every single level, there will be a number of ways to anything. You could go in, all guns blazing, or you could sneak in, Splinter Cell style, or you could combine the two with each other, or close combat, it's up to you. It is for this reason that there will be no difficulty levels.

Sniper: For instance, if you find a particular way too challenging, you can take a easier way - if you can't get past a building full of guards, why not just get on the roof and skip the building?

Halflife2.net: So you're trying to incorporate an element of stealth into the mod, something along the lines of Thief?

qckbeam: Yes, it will work in a similar way, although with our system movement will take away your invisibility... since the human eye picks up movement.

The enemies in the game will be able to use shadow to their advantage as well. Of course you could use night vision to see them if they are hiding, and they can do the same when looking for you. So shadows may not always be a safe place like they were in Thief .

Halflife2.net: Being a fan of stylish stealth kills along the lines of those seen in Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven on the PS2, and XIII, are you planning on implementing something like that?

Sniper: Well, we are going to integrate a shadows engine into the game, to allow players to get close enough to silently kill, or perform a special move to remove a opponent.

Badger: Does seeing a guard, running up to him, jumping, and kicking him in the side of the head, causing him to fall to the ground, and then landing with both feet on his neck count as stylish? That's just one such move of many that will be able to be performed with ease, due to a 3 button control system, easily incorporated into the standard WSAD layout.

Halflife2.net: Models and maps. What will the workload be like?

Stone: Well, at the moment we have 12 weapon models from knifes to high power weaponry. Each will be animated to show the complexity of the weapon and to handled as a reality it is handled. The weapons will ranging from a simple 'Long Blade' Pattern Commando Knife to H&K USP Tactical Silenced Pistol to a H&K G36 Commando Submachine gun to a H&K PSG1 Sniper Rifle. We expect to expand this arsenal.

Halflife2.net: Do you intend on taking full advantage of the increased number of polys available for use in Source?

Stone: We will be utilizing the extra polies available within the source engine, to create the utmost realism of weaponry and complete immersion within the world. Beldor is at present creating the character models.

Halflife2.net: And how heavy is Beldor's workload?

Stone: The workload between both modellers, Beldor and I, will be quite heavy, due to the number of weapons, characters and static models within the mod, although full co-operation between us both lessens the load extremely, and we will both be working to insure that full use of our abilities will be used.

Halflife2.net: In relation to maps, what types of settings and environments can we expect?

Farrow: There are quite a wide range of areas that the player will visit. These range from the alaskan country side, to the depths of research labs. Keeping with the tradition of Valve, we want to create an atmosphere that the player really feels a part of. This should hopefully be apparent in the detail that we intend to put into the maps.

We really want to take advantage of the opportunity that the Source engine gives us, in terms of map size and detail. For instance, we hope to make use of vehicles to the fullest.

Halflife2.net: What should we be expecting in terms of vehicles?

Farrow: Well, we hope to include a wide range of vehicles including tanks, APC's. all the basic military hardware, as well as helicopters vans some civilian stuff.

Halflife2.net: So how big will the game world be?

Farrow: Big. As I said earlier, we really want to take advantage of source and its capabilities. Some maps will stretch source to its limits (likely the outdoor maps) where as others will be on a much smaller scale.

Halflife2.net: Bringing us back around the gameplay, in your design document, you briefly mention some form of multiplayer mode.

Badger: Not really, except to say that there is one, and it will shortly be in development... Sorry, but we are keeping quiet about this one for now.

Halflife2.net: Fair enough. You're obviously taking your cues from where the original game and it's expansions left off, but will you try to tie it in with HL2?

Sniper: In keeping with Valve's (well, Gabe's) ideas, but against popular belief, Hedgehogs will NOT make a appearance in OES. Sorry Gabe.

Badger: The plot of OES will run parallel to Half Life 2's, and you will visit City 17, and maybe see a few key scenes from the game.

Halflife2.net: In your design document you also mention a "dynamic music engine". Can you explain exactly what you mean by this?

Sniper: We are planning to use a series of music samples to create a loop effect. We'll most likely be contacting the publishers of pre-existing samples, to see if we can use them, if not I shall be recording our own.

The idea is for the music samples to loop until a key event activates a loop 'bridge' which will cause a different loop to begin. Say, when you are fighting small enemies, it has a quiet beat, then a strider smashes through the wall, the music will change.

Badger: All of this being unscripted, and controlled by this "DME".

Halflife2.net: Thanks for your time guys, you've been great!

Badger: Our pleasure.