Description
Current Team Members:
- Fly (Gin)
- AmbientNoise
- Egon Haystavk
- Kelly_Bailey
- Lt_Wheeler
- Megamawman
- Le Pip
- Cvoxalury
- RandomUserMDB
- F®∑∑ϻαNFṙΩmβlα©kϻ∑Sλ
Mod Description:
Raising The Bar is a mod based around the concepts cut from Half-Life 2 during its development cycle. The mod will provide a longer amount of gameplay than the retail release of Half-Life 2 due to the mod containing more levels overall. Cut enemies, levels, weapons, and more will be restored to a brand-new state with new models, maps, textures, and animations alongside improvements to increase the mod's graphical fidelity. This is not simply a remake of the leaked material, however. The mod will feature a storyline that is a hybrid combination of Valve's concepts and our own ideas to help add to the overall experience, all the while remaining true to dark theme of Half-Life 2's earliest concepts. In time, this mod aims to truly Raise the Bar for mods based around Half-Life 2's leaked material.
We aim to re-create the oldest known Half-Life 2 universe, and with that comes loads of unused or broken content from Valve. While we would love to see every concept or idea to be used in one form or another, some material will nevertheless need to be left out due to issues with either gameplay or aesthetics. Do not worry though, we will try to minimize this loss of content as much as possible as we are just as big of fans of the early story as you are. Features that we plan to include in the mod are as follows:
-Remade Maps- The maps included with the mod will be constructed in a fashion that mirrors certain aspects of their older leak counterparts, however they will be of much higher quality in both gameplay and visuals. In the vein of the Half-Life series, one of the main aspects of map construction will be that of gameplay; puzzles, battles, and interactive features. Another large focus will be that of the immersion created by these areas, which is constructed from sequences, interactions, soundscapes, models, and textures. These features will help to create a feeling of being surrounded by a living, breathing universe.
-Remade NPC's- Many cut friends and foes will be reconstructed from scratch by our mod team, and either will be featured similarly to how they are presented in the leak and concept material, or they will be altered to better fit the overarching story and atmosphere. However, we fully intend for them to be easily recognizeable from their leak and concept counterparts. They will be seen in nearly every level in some aspect or another, so we intend to make them as dynamic as possible. Friends will follow and support you, while enemies will try to outmaneuver and suprise their foes.
-A Hybrid Story- While the earliest concept fragments of Half-Life 2's story are interesting and the leak maps provide hints as to the different directions that Valve were working in, many gaps and holes are still left in the early story, some of which span entire areas. While it would be easier to simply bridge over or skip these areas, we are going to instead be trying to fill them in as logically as we can. It will be more difficult and it will take time, but in the end we feel that including these areas, if done right, can really help to create a unique overall story. In addition to these holes in the story, we also have recognized the fact that many of our followers will have at least some knowledge of the levels contained within the leak. This conclusion has led us to develop a 'hybrid' story that follows the early story in a logical manner and references or reuses leak and concept ideas, while allowing for injection of new content to either reinforce or add to gameplay and story depth.
-Remade Weapons- Many different weapons were proposed for inclusion into Half-Life 2's arsenal over its years of development, and many were also scrapped. One of our major goals is to bring back many of these cut weapons in a manner that makes them unique and balanced compared to their counterparts. Due to the sheer amount of weaponry that will be included, we also plan to rework the inventory system to accomodate for it. We will be recreating these cut weapons from scratch with new models, animations, textures, and sounds, to bring them up to our standards.
-New Music- As we develop the atmosphere of the mod and those of its individual levels, we will also be making new music to add to dramatic or interesting points of gameplay. While Half-Life 2's soundtrack would be sufficient, we intend to create a newer, darker soundtrack to identify with our story more closely. We will be treating it as if Valve had hypothetically never made the soundtrack like the retail one we have today. We do intend on remixing a few Half-Life songs into the mix, to help keep things familiar, but overall we will be creating original music tracks which we plan on releasing formally when the mod is complete.
We hope that everyone enjoys our mod when the time of its release rolls around, and we plan on staying in frequent contact with our followers and the community in order to help polish and refine ideas both for the mod itself and furthering its publicity. We are also open to ideas from the community, so feel free to post any ideas or comments you may have on the forums. We will more than likely be glad to answer or discuss them!
Thanks for visiting our website!
Raising The Bar is a mod based around the concepts cut from Half-Life 2 during its development cycle. The mod will provide a longer amount of gameplay than the retail release of Half-Life 2 due to the mod containing more levels overall. Cut enemies, levels, weapons, and more will be restored to a brand-new state with new models, maps, textures, and animations alongside improvements to increase the mod's graphical fidelity. This is not simply a remake of the leaked material, however. The mod will feature a storyline that is a hybrid combination of Valve's concepts and our own ideas to help add to the overall experience, all the while remaining true to dark theme of Half-Life 2's earliest concepts. In time, this mod aims to truly Raise the Bar for mods based around Half-Life 2's leaked material.
We aim to re-create the oldest known Half-Life 2 universe, and with that comes loads of unused or broken content from Valve. While we would love to see every concept or idea to be used in one form or another, some material will nevertheless need to be left out due to issues with either gameplay or aesthetics. Do not worry though, we will try to minimize this loss of content as much as possible as we are just as big of fans of the early story as you are. Features that we plan to include in the mod are as follows:
-Remade Maps- The maps included with the mod will be constructed in a fashion that mirrors certain aspects of their older leak counterparts, however they will be of much higher quality in both gameplay and visuals. In the vein of the Half-Life series, one of the main aspects of map construction will be that of gameplay; puzzles, battles, and interactive features. Another large focus will be that of the immersion created by these areas, which is constructed from sequences, interactions, soundscapes, models, and textures. These features will help to create a feeling of being surrounded by a living, breathing universe.
-Remade NPC's- Many cut friends and foes will be reconstructed from scratch by our mod team, and either will be featured similarly to how they are presented in the leak and concept material, or they will be altered to better fit the overarching story and atmosphere. However, we fully intend for them to be easily recognizeable from their leak and concept counterparts. They will be seen in nearly every level in some aspect or another, so we intend to make them as dynamic as possible. Friends will follow and support you, while enemies will try to outmaneuver and suprise their foes.
-A Hybrid Story- While the earliest concept fragments of Half-Life 2's story are interesting and the leak maps provide hints as to the different directions that Valve were working in, many gaps and holes are still left in the early story, some of which span entire areas. While it would be easier to simply bridge over or skip these areas, we are going to instead be trying to fill them in as logically as we can. It will be more difficult and it will take time, but in the end we feel that including these areas, if done right, can really help to create a unique overall story. In addition to these holes in the story, we also have recognized the fact that many of our followers will have at least some knowledge of the levels contained within the leak. This conclusion has led us to develop a 'hybrid' story that follows the early story in a logical manner and references or reuses leak and concept ideas, while allowing for injection of new content to either reinforce or add to gameplay and story depth.
-Remade Weapons- Many different weapons were proposed for inclusion into Half-Life 2's arsenal over its years of development, and many were also scrapped. One of our major goals is to bring back many of these cut weapons in a manner that makes them unique and balanced compared to their counterparts. Due to the sheer amount of weaponry that will be included, we also plan to rework the inventory system to accomodate for it. We will be recreating these cut weapons from scratch with new models, animations, textures, and sounds, to bring them up to our standards.
-New Music- As we develop the atmosphere of the mod and those of its individual levels, we will also be making new music to add to dramatic or interesting points of gameplay. While Half-Life 2's soundtrack would be sufficient, we intend to create a newer, darker soundtrack to identify with our story more closely. We will be treating it as if Valve had hypothetically never made the soundtrack like the retail one we have today. We do intend on remixing a few Half-Life songs into the mix, to help keep things familiar, but overall we will be creating original music tracks which we plan on releasing formally when the mod is complete.
We hope that everyone enjoys our mod when the time of its release rolls around, and we plan on staying in frequent contact with our followers and the community in order to help polish and refine ideas both for the mod itself and furthering its publicity. We are also open to ideas from the community, so feel free to post any ideas or comments you may have on the forums. We will more than likely be glad to answer or discuss them!
Thanks for visiting our website!
Where do the donations go?
Our new website includes many features such as a new detailed description, a news section, a public forum, and a contact us section. Unfortunately, we are limited due to expenses that the website takes to run. With your help, we can increase the forum member capacity up to 100 and add many features such as HD Videos in 1080p, a custom domain name, favicon, customizable footer, improved slideshows, and more. It is possible, with enough donations, to make the member capacity unlimited. Please do not feel obligated to donate, only donate if you wish to do so.
Our new website includes many features such as a new detailed description, a news section, a public forum, and a contact us section. Unfortunately, we are limited due to expenses that the website takes to run. With your help, we can increase the forum member capacity up to 100 and add many features such as HD Videos in 1080p, a custom domain name, favicon, customizable footer, improved slideshows, and more. It is possible, with enough donations, to make the member capacity unlimited. Please do not feel obligated to donate, only donate if you wish to do so.
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