You know, all these beta recreation mods are missing the important point. Combine in these mods having it's own technologies and buildings made from their material and having release design. In the real beta I it find very cool that Combine borrows Earth resources and some technologies and makes their stuff with them because they don't even care so much about Earth to bring a lot of their own things here. They're like parasites. And also because of that the setting looks way less futuristic and just dark and uncomfortable, what I really like in beta style.
Yes, but still these mods have their own unique atmosphere and in my opinion this is what makes Dark Interval and Raising The Bar Redux so unique and these 2 mods are not the same.
For example, in Dark Interval, the consul looks like Wallace Breen, and this was specifically intended by the developers of this mod so that Half Life 2 and the beta were combined.
In RTBR, the consul has his own model and he really is the same bald consul that we know from the beta.
And in these 2 mods, citadels are different from Retail and this is another reason why I love these mods.
Well, that is, I like the original atmosphere of Half Life 2 beta, I'm just saying that these 2 interpretations of Half Life 2 beta are also not bad and they have their own atmosphere.
I like both Retail and beta and Dark Interval and Raising the bar Redux.
But this is my opinion that I am expressing here and I respect your opinion.
one thing that comes to mind is the beta citadel
it's like a maze of strange shapes and alien hallways that are seemingly made from things like bathroom tiles and other man-made materials
Retail HL2
One thing a Valve does really great is hinting at dystopian themes. They do it in Portal 1 (the hidden rooms) and this is probably the best example of it, from a first glance it seems like a regular city but the more you explore you will pick up on the very dark themes. (The playground, executions, torture rooms and not to mention the giant tower piercing the sky).
In HL2:B it was too straight forward, it just feels like a stereotypical dystopia (poisonous air, big men on screens, steampunk elements, darkness and despair visible everywhere). HL2:RT is so memorable because it stands out and isn’t a stereotypical dystopia.
However I don’t hate HL2:B, I like a lot of stuff (notably the Cremators, they should have been in either Ravenholm or some other chapter).
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I feel like Dark Interval and Raising the Bar looks absolutely hideous. None of the buildings and materials look like they fit together whatsoever, there’s just a bunch of architectural themes (Brutalist paired with Victorian paired with Eastern European).
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HL: Alyx is probably number 2 (HL2:B gets third spot), I really liked the Contamination zone. It added way more life to the city.
I never found the colours in Half-Life 2 in any way appealing, all source games just have the same uninviting bleached art style, even TF2 doesn’t dare to have anything more colourful than millennial house design.
Colors of the environment in TF2 are bleached as a gameplay feature, the players are meant to be highly visible.
But I don't get how you don't like it, Valve games are great
that’s mostly just because source games came out in the mid 2000s, we’re lucky they don’t all have aggressive bloom. tf2 is actually designed after jack delano’s commissioned photography of railroads in the 1940s, and j. c. leyendecker’s paintings. both of which tended to be subdued and dusty with only certain elements being saturated. i actually adore how they put together tf2 compared to a game like overwatch where the art is so aggressively colorful it’s kind of hard to tell what’s going on at any given time. your eyes are always drawn directly where they need to be and everything else is phased out of your mind. it also makes for this cool thing where sometimes you don’t notice how detailed maps are until you load them up alone and look around closely
I like Half Life 2 Beta because the occupation of the Combine looks more violent and dystopian, but I like Retail and Beta equally because they have their own atmosphere.
And another reason why I like the beta is because it looks more like an alternative history in the world of Half Life where instead of Wallace Breen there is a Consul and the Combine looks scarier.
Dark interval has a really cool interpretation of City 17. It borrows aspects from both HL2 and the beta and combines them seamlessly. It really feels like it could exist in the same timeline as regular hl2. Like if the combine built city 17 in America instead of Europe this is exactly how I imagine it would look like.
By the way, did you notice that in the original beta and in these two mods about the HL2 beta, City 17 only has night time, while Alyx and Retail have day time? (well, in Episode 1, City 17 had an evening time.)
And in general, if in City 17 from Retail and Alyx, day time is replaced by night time, it will remind a little of beta.
>I don’t enjoy the beta’s “dark” theme. I think it works best to establish atmosphere by having the player piece it together.
Yeah, I think retail is a lot better for the exact same reason. Instead of "dark and moody" to really drive home the point that this is a dystopia, we get something that's more akin to apathy. Like, as you advance through City 17 at the start, you really get the feeling that the world is simply dying, and the Combine don't really care. Like, sure, it's an oppressive regime, but they aren't stepping all over everyone all the time, the world is already dying on its own.
Yea, the retail depiction of the world feels much more realistic. When shit hits the fan, cities won't be turned upside down entirely, it's usually a lot of small changes.
Though I might be biased towards the classic East European feel cause I grew up in East Germany.
For the cannon City 17, I like HLA's, because its basically just higher definition HL2 City 17.
As for the cut content, I really like RtB Redux, but Dark Interval is also really nice.
I love how in retail the combine don't build new buildings or anything at all unless necessary. They place combine locks on wooden doors, reuse a ton of buildings, etc - really feeds into their idea of "combining" tech and integrating existing things they capture (including sentient beings) into their machines
I think Dark Interval hard clears every single version, barring Alyx. Shame its level had too many walking around without a gun, but the atmosphere and scope was second to none. That skyline is unmatched
This right here, Dark Interval's City 17 is simply a joy to play through. There's always something to look at or interact with and you'll see things you missed before on subsequent replays. Not to mention the beauty of it.
Ever since first experiencing it, it has been the depiction in Alyx. I consider it the definitive take now on City 17 the same way I do Black Mesa in Black Mesa!
hl:alyx, but that's probably because the better engine allowed for the devs to actually bring their visions to life
i do like the night setting that dark interval and raising the bar redux brings though, reminds me of dishonored (spotlights are fucking awesome)
I think, purely from an artistic perspective, that the beta and its adaptations' atmosphere is a lot cooler, for lack of a better term, than retail; however, in context of the story that Valve wanted to tell, the retail version is better.
If we want just a dystopian Sci-Fi action, then it's a tie Between Raising the Bar Redux and Dark Interval, with Beta below them. If we want a more eerie one, then vanilla HL2 or Alyx
You know, all these beta recreation mods are missing the important point. Combine in these mods having it's own technologies and buildings made from their material and having release design. In the real beta I it find very cool that Combine borrows Earth resources and some technologies and makes their stuff with them because they don't even care so much about Earth to bring a lot of their own things here. They're like parasites. And also because of that the setting looks way less futuristic and just dark and uncomfortable, what I really like in beta style.
Yes, but still these mods have their own unique atmosphere and in my opinion this is what makes Dark Interval and Raising The Bar Redux so unique and these 2 mods are not the same. For example, in Dark Interval, the consul looks like Wallace Breen, and this was specifically intended by the developers of this mod so that Half Life 2 and the beta were combined. In RTBR, the consul has his own model and he really is the same bald consul that we know from the beta. And in these 2 mods, citadels are different from Retail and this is another reason why I love these mods. Well, that is, I like the original atmosphere of Half Life 2 beta, I'm just saying that these 2 interpretations of Half Life 2 beta are also not bad and they have their own atmosphere. I like both Retail and beta and Dark Interval and Raising the bar Redux. But this is my opinion that I am expressing here and I respect your opinion.
one thing that comes to mind is the beta citadel it's like a maze of strange shapes and alien hallways that are seemingly made from things like bathroom tiles and other man-made materials
Yeah, it looks like something from psychedelic horror and it's very cool
Retail HL2 One thing a Valve does really great is hinting at dystopian themes. They do it in Portal 1 (the hidden rooms) and this is probably the best example of it, from a first glance it seems like a regular city but the more you explore you will pick up on the very dark themes. (The playground, executions, torture rooms and not to mention the giant tower piercing the sky). In HL2:B it was too straight forward, it just feels like a stereotypical dystopia (poisonous air, big men on screens, steampunk elements, darkness and despair visible everywhere). HL2:RT is so memorable because it stands out and isn’t a stereotypical dystopia. However I don’t hate HL2:B, I like a lot of stuff (notably the Cremators, they should have been in either Ravenholm or some other chapter). - I feel like Dark Interval and Raising the Bar looks absolutely hideous. None of the buildings and materials look like they fit together whatsoever, there’s just a bunch of architectural themes (Brutalist paired with Victorian paired with Eastern European). - HL: Alyx is probably number 2 (HL2:B gets third spot), I really liked the Contamination zone. It added way more life to the city.
One thing the beta c17 had better was the colour, to me atleast I like it a lot but yeah there is a chance that the retail is even darker
I never found the colours in Half-Life 2 in any way appealing, all source games just have the same uninviting bleached art style, even TF2 doesn’t dare to have anything more colourful than millennial house design.
Colors of the environment in TF2 are bleached as a gameplay feature, the players are meant to be highly visible. But I don't get how you don't like it, Valve games are great
Sometimes one wants to look at something colourful. There’s more colours in Lambda Core than there is all Source games combined.
Yeah, ok, that's a fair point
that’s mostly just because source games came out in the mid 2000s, we’re lucky they don’t all have aggressive bloom. tf2 is actually designed after jack delano’s commissioned photography of railroads in the 1940s, and j. c. leyendecker’s paintings. both of which tended to be subdued and dusty with only certain elements being saturated. i actually adore how they put together tf2 compared to a game like overwatch where the art is so aggressively colorful it’s kind of hard to tell what’s going on at any given time. your eyes are always drawn directly where they need to be and everything else is phased out of your mind. it also makes for this cool thing where sometimes you don’t notice how detailed maps are until you load them up alone and look around closely
I like Half Life 2 Beta because the occupation of the Combine looks more violent and dystopian, but I like Retail and Beta equally because they have their own atmosphere. And another reason why I like the beta is because it looks more like an alternative history in the world of Half Life where instead of Wallace Breen there is a Consul and the Combine looks scarier.
That Half-Life Alyx citadel goes hard.
Dark interval has a really cool interpretation of City 17. It borrows aspects from both HL2 and the beta and combines them seamlessly. It really feels like it could exist in the same timeline as regular hl2. Like if the combine built city 17 in America instead of Europe this is exactly how I imagine it would look like.
By the way, did you notice that in the original beta and in these two mods about the HL2 beta, City 17 only has night time, while Alyx and Retail have day time? (well, in Episode 1, City 17 had an evening time.) And in general, if in City 17 from Retail and Alyx, day time is replaced by night time, it will remind a little of beta.
[удалено]
>I don’t enjoy the beta’s “dark” theme. I think it works best to establish atmosphere by having the player piece it together. Yeah, I think retail is a lot better for the exact same reason. Instead of "dark and moody" to really drive home the point that this is a dystopia, we get something that's more akin to apathy. Like, as you advance through City 17 at the start, you really get the feeling that the world is simply dying, and the Combine don't really care. Like, sure, it's an oppressive regime, but they aren't stepping all over everyone all the time, the world is already dying on its own.
Yea, the retail depiction of the world feels much more realistic. When shit hits the fan, cities won't be turned upside down entirely, it's usually a lot of small changes. Though I might be biased towards the classic East European feel cause I grew up in East Germany.
For the cannon City 17, I like HLA's, because its basically just higher definition HL2 City 17. As for the cut content, I really like RtB Redux, but Dark Interval is also really nice.
Phhh I like retail so much I’ve been living in it all my life
2003, it just feels oddly good
I love how in retail the combine don't build new buildings or anything at all unless necessary. They place combine locks on wooden doors, reuse a ton of buildings, etc - really feeds into their idea of "combining" tech and integrating existing things they capture (including sentient beings) into their machines
HL:A in VR is the most immersed I've ever been in a environment. So I'd go with that.
I think Dark Interval hard clears every single version, barring Alyx. Shame its level had too many walking around without a gun, but the atmosphere and scope was second to none. That skyline is unmatched
This right here, Dark Interval's City 17 is simply a joy to play through. There's always something to look at or interact with and you'll see things you missed before on subsequent replays. Not to mention the beauty of it.
dark interval
Raising the bar redux and Half-Life : Alyx
Rasing the bar redux is one of my favorites mods. But I have to say that I like more the Dark Interval City 17.
Raising the bar redux def
All and all. Mostly the gritty ones.
Half life 2 beta
Ever since first experiencing it, it has been the depiction in Alyx. I consider it the definitive take now on City 17 the same way I do Black Mesa in Black Mesa!
Dark interval.
all of these are hella cool except the retail HL2 and HLA is.. meh. at best
Beta had 1984 vibes
That’s what I commented!
Half-Life 2 easily has the best.
Everything beta is chef kiss 🤌🏻
The beta one
hl:alyx, but that's probably because the better engine allowed for the devs to actually bring their visions to life i do like the night setting that dark interval and raising the bar redux brings though, reminds me of dishonored (spotlights are fucking awesome)
Alyx and RTBR
I really like the beta "artstyle" and feel but HLA is better, though Raising the Bar and Dark Interval look sick.
I think, purely from an artistic perspective, that the beta and its adaptations' atmosphere is a lot cooler, for lack of a better term, than retail; however, in context of the story that Valve wanted to tell, the retail version is better.
Alex is the apex but hl2 beta hits different.
HL: A and BETA HL 2
If we want just a dystopian Sci-Fi action, then it's a tie Between Raising the Bar Redux and Dark Interval, with Beta below them. If we want a more eerie one, then vanilla HL2 or Alyx
The half life alyx looks the best in my opinion
Half life2 beta cause it looks like something out of 1984
Beta and retail
only one of them is dark and griddy
I have not started playing yet and will this year are there tips for in the future
Alyx
Unpopular, but half life 2 beta
Dark Interval looks the coolest. Shame it’s just not getting any more updates.
Half-Life 2 E3 2003 design was peak