Got into the mood for some Half-Life action, since the universe Valve created is cool and fascinating – especially from a military sci-fi viewpoint. It also has clear horror elements sprinkled on top, when you consider the zombies, mind sucking aliens and general despair of humanity being on the brink of extermination. Everything to make it as fun as possible in what I would call a good time all around. Well, unless you are one of the characters stuck in this world, like the soldiers in LZ – Sparrow.
Alien skirmish
To sate that hunger for Half-Life, I found LZ – Sparrow in my searches. It’s a year old now, so it’s not something recent. However, it was new to me. It’s an action piece from Half Life, that depicts US soldiers engaging the aliens in what I would believe a first, or a very early encounter. It’s pretty damn good, from the smooth and realistic animations, setup of scenes and pacing of the event shown. Very impressive work, in which you can watch below:
One thing I liked with the short-film, beyond what I already talked about, is the effect of Vortigaunt green beams. It absolutely demolishes the people it hits. It doesn’t melt them, which would be the classic. Instead, it causes some kind of explosion which throws the victim like a rag doll and separates the limbs from the torso. Brutal, gory and awesome. It also makes me think how fast Gordon would have been made into ground meat, if it wasn’t for the HEV suit.
The creator JoAcoNS got a lot more creations of a similar nature on his channel. Even a few more Half-Life short-films. I highly recommend checking out his channel. You might also like the neat WW2 stuff he has made, too.
The aftermath
Now, as a bonus, I want to show another interesting video. It’s entirely different, in both format and tone. However, it’s just as good, if you value the lore of Half-Life. It’s the film The Aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident: Definitive Edition. You can watch it below:
The film tells the story of the incident of Black Mesa, and the following fallout from that event. Eventually leading up to the 7-hour war against the combine and the dooming of humanity. The video is rather low-key in how it shows the happenings. Regardless, it’s still very dramatic, and above all, immersive to listen to. Reading the reports of humanities final moments also has a creepy vibe to it.
I hope you enjoy these movies, like I did. For me currently, I’m now going to blast some aliens in Black Mesa – Blue Shift, since I can’t get enough of Half-Life at the moment.
/Thomas
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