A Half-Life mod long in development has finally been released to the public. Half-Life: Field Intensity, which was previously known as Soldier's Adventures, has launched on ModDB after its creators worked on it for more than 13 years.
What's the story with this new Half-Life mod?
The Half-Life modding scene is very active indeed; this month, Half-Life 2 mod Overcharged launches, and a 4-5-hour campaign mod for VR game Half-Life: Alyx is also on track to release early this year. For Field Intensity, the developers are taking things back to the old school; it's a mod for the original Half-Life, complete with glorious blocky graphics and everything. Narratively, the mod covers the arrival of the military in the Black Mesa research facility through to the nuclear explosion that takes place later in the story (spoilers for Half-Life, sorry).
In gameplay terms, developer Hazard Team hasn't just rested on its laurels. There are a whole bunch of new additions to the core Half-Life formula. The devs say they've implemented new monsters besides those appearing in Opposing Force, as well as adding new abilities to old enemies. There are also new HUD elements like being able to see how many soldiers are in your squad and a rework to the basic health and armor displays. Hazard Team promises 5-10 hours of gameplay across 34 brand new maps, so this isn't just a Half-Life addon; it's a fully-fledged game in and of itself. This should be perfect if you've been looking for something to scratch that Valve FPS itch.
How to install Half-Life: Field Intensity
Installing this Half-Life mod really couldn't be simpler. You'll need a Steam copy of Half-Life and a tiny amount of free space on your hard drive (somewhere around 130MB). All you need to do is download the file from ModDB, extract the folder into your Half-Life directory, and start up Steam. You should see Half-Life: Field Intensity in your Steam library, and all you need to do from there is play it as you would any other Steam game. If you love Half-Life, this is pretty much more of it made with love and attention by fans, so it's worth checking out.
It's fair to say the Half-Life community is still incredibly active. Not only are mods like this being made (and Valve itself is now showing an interest in the series again with Half-Life: Alyx, of course), but community events like the Half-Life 2 Breaking the Bar record attempt are meeting with resounding success. If it's been a while since you last fired up Half-Life, or you've revisited it recently and you're hankering for more, then you should definitely check out Field Intensity, especially if you love the military-themed Opposing Force expansion pack.
