Take a hunk of Half-Life 2, mix it with a pinch of Portal, heat in a scientifically calibrated microwave for a couple hours, and you get Research and Development, a Half-Life 2: Episode 2 mod that I played and thoroughly enjoyed over the weekend.
The mod starts you off in a research lab, where someone’s been experimenting on antlions, with varying degrees of success (and one even wonders why anyone would ever try to invent a bullet-proof antlion). Naturally, with the Combine scouring the area, you’ll be wanting to escape using whatever you find, which won’t be any sort of traditional weapons. An antlion theropod here, an experimental zero-point energy cube there, some help from the local undead, and of course, liberal use of gravity gun, which will require solving a series of puzzles to even acquire.
Puzzle solutions come in many shapes, forms, and degrees of undeadness.
Most of the puzzles aren’t that difficult to solve, though some time will be spent just staring at the puzzles, trying to solve the issue of what, exactly, needs solving. And, once you’ve got the gravity gun, the game turns into more of an action and reflexes affair, where you’ll need to catch and return grenades and heli-bombs before you get blown up. There’s a lot of trial-and-error in the action sequences, and often the error leads to your immediate death, but the auto-save is, for once, very well done, and you’ll never to go back further than the portion that just got you killed.
Sigh. Yeah, there's a couple of THESE puzzles. Luckily, they're not too hard to figure out.
It’s also helpful to make sure your textures are high-quality enough to read the many helpful notes that are pinned up throughout the levels. There’s plenty of surprises and humor in the mod, too, which, along with the reality of navigating some dangerous areas with no real weapons, makes it feel very Portal-esque.
Some of the puzzles are of the usual HL2 nature and revolve around moving, stacking, and flinging physics objects, but there are also some really clever and creative ideas I haven’t seen done before using the Source engine. This is a great mod: part action, part point-and-click adventure, and challenging in parts but rarely to the point of annoyance.
57 Comments
August 4, 2009
Played it, loved it, fired off e-mail to Walker pleading to hire the guy.
August 4, 2009
Oh and: http://digg.com/pc_games/Research_Development_mod_released_to_mass_appraisal
August 4, 2009
I’ve downloaded it but have yet to play the thing. Looks awesome on a stick, though.
August 4, 2009
This mod is pretty great. It’s apparently got about 2 hours of play time (I’m just over an hour into it, I think). I’ve run into a couple of frustrating bugs: the switches activated do not always correspond to the switches aimed at and at about the place where that third screen shot is taken, I got stuck in a tram with an unkillable combine soldier who kept knocking me off. He was eventually killed by one of his own snipers.
Definitely worth the download and probably would be worth paying a couple bucks for.
August 4, 2009
Here it is, plain as day - I used to think we were all well and truly fucked. The good ol Cyrodiil we all know and love?. Ahh, she’s a mess. I had pretty much written us all off. But that was before a certain Chris from 1fort. So believe me when I tell you that I was wrong. Dead wrong. That guy Chris posting on First Person Shouter is the Last, Best Hope of Nondrick.. We’ll get through this, children. You just gotta believe. Living in Oblivion WILL get an update.
August 4, 2009
Nondrick is dead. There, I said it.
August 4, 2009
>>An antlion theropod here, an experimental zero-point energy cube there,
Perhaps you mean pheropod?
August 4, 2009
I thought this mod was great too, but I think that people are heaping a bit *too* much praise on it. Some of the puzzles (like the one in your first screenshot) were much more trial and error than anything else while others (some of the other puzzles in that same room) were so obviously explained to the player that they didn’t require much thought at all. Other puzzles - the zombie torso and the domino puzzles - were downright broken in my opinion. The former was full of red herrings that completely distracted the player from the uninteresting correct solution while the latter was simply too difficult to execute (I knew the solution the whole time, I just couldn’t pull it off!).
Regardless, the mod had enough “Wow!” moments that it made up for it. Definitely worth playing.
August 4, 2009
Awesome mod. Way to short though!
August 4, 2009
And there’s a garden gnome of doom.
August 4, 2009
The heli fight was so hard I switched on buddha :(
August 4, 2009
The problem I had was that the mod tended to have a fair few moments where you would appear to be stuck in a room, causing you to try all manner of ridiculously obscure methods to progress.
August 4, 2009
I agree with Chris on this, I want HL2:E3, dammit! After I played this mod, like two weeks ago, by the way, I went out [on Steam] and got Half-Life. It’s been a while since I played it anyway, on my brother’s old machine. And I almost forgot what a thoroughly awesome game it is.
August 4, 2009
And then you’d find out that you actually needed to do something retardedly simple.
Still a good mod, I just kept getting frustrated with it and leaving it in favour of more fallout 3.
August 4, 2009
It’s a good mod but maybe a little too highly praised, a few of the puzzles are really annoying like the bit with the fuses which is making me want to punch my screen at the moment.
@adam: I had the same problem but luckily while he is immune to pretty much anything you can do from that close, you are immune to his melee attacks! I just stood really close to him till he got blown up by a stray grenade.
August 4, 2009
I almost cried when my Antlion companion got gunned down by the Combinemobile.
August 4, 2009
I felt like the first chapter of the game was absolutely brilliant, but it went steadily downhill from there. To be honest, the entire Mr. Whirly section wasn’t really all that much fun (not to mention the broken vehicle exit- I had to use a console command to properly get out of the car), and the boss battle was possibly the lamest and least original way to end such an exciting and creative mod. But as meh as the mod becomes, the original series of puzzles and environments stands out as the most fun I’ve had gaming in a long time.
Am I the only person who’s bored of the gravity gun?
August 4, 2009
lol Glorb, combinemobile, now I can’t get this image of combine soldiers joyriding and doing drive bys…. now that would be an awesome mod!
do we have a steam group? And pleeeeaaaase can we be friends chris, we can be the very best of friends….
August 4, 2009
and chris, have you heard of ’splosion man? great looking game I think you will like it. and how many aussies do we have?
August 5, 2009
When I first picked up the bulletproof glass, I thought to myself: “My god. This is exactly what was missing from the Half-Life series.”
I’m also proud to say I solved the entire thing without hints or even knowing what the basic premise of it was from the start–someone just suggested it as a great HL2 mod, and left it as that. Personally, it helped me feel great when I managed to solve complicated puzzles. I’d love to see more mods like this.
The chapter transitions were brilliant. The helicopter fight I thought a bit hectic and just plain annoying. I don’t like helicopter fights.
I did like the way no puzzle was impossible– there was always a hint there, but usually a very subtle one. My favorite hint had to be the target painted on the cement block– I was stuck forever on that part until I saw it.
…Also, meester whirly
August 5, 2009
I was stuck forever on one of the keypad puzzles, I had to resort to a youtube walkthru to find out the solution (why did they hide it up there?!). Also the helicopter bit was quite annoying (my least favourite bit of Ep2 as well).
Best SP mod since Minerva though.
August 5, 2009
The only one I got stuck on is the room from Chris’ second screenshot, I kept using the zombie to get me on top of the air duct thinking I was suppose to ’splode all the barrels to smash open the door, I tried that a few times, and then I tried to get up to the other side of the air duct, with no zombie, i tried stacking every single thing I could find to have enough weight to get up there, eventually gave up and reloaded :p.
August 5, 2009
Hey, I just gotta say that there are other great mods out there. I haven’t yet played R&D, but I have played both of the Radiators and Dear Esther.
August 5, 2009
After playing it I thought of it as more of an excellent tech demo.
It would be more interesting if the gravity gun was changed to only be able to lift the objects you cant lift yourself. No exploda-barrel puzzles.
Add in some flares and maybe some industrial dynamite… Vary the destructive tools a bit more.
August 5, 2009
Yeah, I played trough it too.
I liked that cube you have to put in the microwave.
August 5, 2009
@lemminglord
You really thought driving a spinning sawblade nitro boosted Mr. Whirly into a strider was unoriginal? Er, what would qualify as original, then?
August 5, 2009
Hey Chris, any chance of you crossposting your blog updates to your Twitter? I rely on it almost solely as an RSS feed reader, and you have an account, so…. I mean, you can just do it automatically with twitterfeed or something, so yeah.
August 5, 2009
Also, I think I’m going to download this mod now. Or, well, whenever I can get access to the computer I use for gaming.
August 5, 2009
Thanks to Chris for pointing this out… it’s an awesome mod, especially for the price ($0). Most of the puzzles have just the right level of frustratingness. I had trouble with the gunship, because a) at first I didn’t notice the damn thing, I was trying to take down the helicopter, and b) I suck at tossing mines.
The idea of making a gravity gun and car is great. Though I think you should have to move the bobblehead into position yourself.
August 5, 2009
^ That. I spent 15 minutes tossing mines at the Goddamn chopper. 5 direct hits and the son of a bitch was still flying! I was about ready to chuck my computer out the window.
Took me a few retries before I figured out I was supposed to be aiming at the gunship. “Durr” moment of the day for me.
August 6, 2009
Did… did anyone find the gnome?
I did. The horror… the horror.
*cries*
August 6, 2009
fun mod, to bad the car exit is broken, if anyone could tell me the console command i would appreciate it, overall still a good mod but not as good as Minerva.
August 6, 2009
Weird, I didn’t have any trouble getting out of the car.
August 6, 2009
That was amazing, best mod I’ve played in ages.
August 6, 2009
Wow, did you guys all miss the gnome? Or is the amazingness of it dwarfed later? Because no one seems to want to talk about it.
August 6, 2009
Alright, I checked this Mod out on your recommendation, and I must say you have not disappointed me as a reporter and reviewer. I’m serious, if this doesn’t make it to a Demoman review, it’ll be a shame. However, I’m sure it won’t since you need to physically purchase Episode Two for the PC before doing so.
It saddens me on how short it is, being shorter than Portal in gameplay, but what it lacks in time it makes up for in brain-twisting challenges that, upon reflection, make me want to say “Oh, how stupid of me not to know that.” The game is a no-brainer after the fact, but that’s why I love it.
August 6, 2009
@Random
I found the gnome on accident, while looking for the real exit to that room. It wasn’t as traumatizing as, say, Bloo seemed to think.
I mean, it was just a high-pitched Grigori laugh, followed by sudden self-termination by way of mentally forced speeding of the blood, building up pressure and heat to the point of spontaneous combustion, shortly after followed by full-body explosion due to the enormous pressure bursting the internal organs.
I wonder if that’s enough to swear someone off gibbing people in games.
And ignore the fact that it’s a garden gnome that doesn’t have internal organs, blood, or any explicable reason for setting on fire and then exploding when you pick it up.
August 7, 2009
Can’t say I had much trouble with the puzzles, but they were really good fun. The end section where you had to build that thing and those spray paints of certain people on the wall was just killer. The slo-mo on the strider too was great.
Are there any other mods that are as cool as this?
August 7, 2009
Oh yeah, forgot to mention the car issue. I too had issues getting out of the car the few times you needed to do it. For those who are stuck, the command you need to enter in the console is ent_fire ui deactivate. That will allow you to exit the car. To get back in, simply climb in and hit the Use button and you’ll control the vehicle again.
August 7, 2009
Chris’s Twitter is not moving, OHHHH NOOOOOO!
August 7, 2009
I didn’t have any problems being able to get out of the car; I noticed E didn’t do it (which would have been more logical) but spacebar worked fine.
Great mod though, some cool puzzles and I was never stuck on one for longer than it was fun. Probly spent more time stacking up shit in front of the slow motion jumps than anything.
August 7, 2009
Have none of you maggots noticed that the twitter feed is gone?
August 7, 2009
New Freeman’s mind Chris.
August 7, 2009
@WolfZword
You seem to forget the gnome has glowing red eyes. It is a DEVIL.
August 8, 2009
Actually, the twitter feed is still working.
@Alphahawkp - where? i don’t see a new freema’s mind anywhere.
August 8, 2009
@Nonomu
Yes, I actually did forget. It’s been too long since I’ve played the mod. :V
August 8, 2009
@Jim:
Machinima. EP 14.
August 8, 2009
@Alphabawkp - Ah, thanks. Evidently I am missing my eyes.
August 8, 2009
nice, now all we need is a Monkey Island mod and we can submit it to guiness…XD
P.S. hint for n00bs red = BAD
August 9, 2009
GREAT
Now go update LIO
August 10, 2009
When I read the new XKDC I thaught of chris :(
August 10, 2009
Has anyone else noticed a fool in morrowind has pulled a LIO on us?
Unless the other entries are somewhere else on the site that is.
August 10, 2009
@Out Reach
oooohhhh snap!
Did you just imply that Chris is the least interesting man in the world!?
I shall go to battle in the name of Chris’s honour, I challenge you to a tf2 duel! with spys and knifes and stuff! and it must be hosted in Australia for the lulz.
August 10, 2009
I played this over the weekend and I loved it, although I did run into a few bugs.
The section right before Mr. Whirly, No matter what I did I couldn’t get the plug out of the wall for the air conditioner. I watched a play through of that section and the guy knocked it right out, but I had to resort to laying down wooden planks (I assume that’s why they were left there)
And with Mr. Whirly, I couldn’t exit him, when I did the only control I could do was jump, everything else still controlled Mr. Whirly. “ent_fire ui disable” in the console fixed that though.
August 10, 2009
@ twitter: The guy who produced Hitman is working on a film version of Just Cause? OOH THIS IS BAD!
August 11, 2009
@Avocadobride
The apologizing for not posting and the hover over comment of recalling a TF2 kill. I can’t be certain on the other 3 though. So 2/5th of the least interesting man in the world.
I didn’t want to think of Chris but it was my immediate reaction :(
August 11, 2009
I’ve just looked at day one of the new TF2 update. I’m fairly sure people will still manage to get annoyed at it. More hats, more maps. OUTRAGE!
http://www.teamfortress.com/classless/
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