After going through a few more videos, here are two more short films (and one bonus) made by fans set in the excellent Half-Life universe. Both are excellent, but very different in execution. I would even argue that one of them is more on the artistic spectrum, while the other is direct in what it set out to depict – a brutal combat scenario between the resistance and the Combine foot soldiers. Enough of me babble, let’s get into it.
PATIENT ZERO
Let’s start with one filled with guts and blood. Now, this is not the only thing this gem little consists of, as it would be pretty boring. The atmosphere is great, and so is the tension and scene set up. It has lots of snappy, brutal and realistic combat scenes.
First off, the survivability of being a resistance soldier is not very high, at least when you can’t eliminate the threat fast enough. Secondly, the initial survivor of the Combine squad, the soldier, is a pure badass, even if he works (slaves?) for the evil alien occupiers. I’m not sure if I can remember meeting one of them in any of the Half-life titles. It could be a unit based on the VR prequel game Half-life: Alyx, which I have not played yet, but want to.
Another thing that I reacted to, was that the Combine soldiers almost come off as having personalities. It’s a bit surprising, since from what I know, these dudes are captured humans repurposed into soldiers working for the alien overlords. Maybe they do retain something of their past self and memories, even when being mind wiped, who knows? Either way, excellent film. The creator TheParryGod got a lot more of a similar nature on his channel, so check it out.
AFTER WAR
The second short film is a bit simpler in its delivery. Nonetheless cool, with an artistic flair, showing the passage of time in a dark alleyway in City 17, near the gigantic Citadel. It starts with a scene before the 7-hour world, and goes on from there, ending with the collapse of the Citadel in Half-life 2 (I assume).
From peace, to utter destruction and total humiliation in a span of twenty hard and cruel years. It’s a fascinating display of time taking place in the same area. Those of you that have played the games will most likely recognize what part of the games the scenes show. However, it starts a little unusual, by having a character from the Half-life 2 leak setting fire to something. In the leak, the city was even more depressive and moody, and looked more like something out of the movie Dark City, than what we actually got. While that would have been cool, I think I prefer City 17 as it is in Half-life 2. The creator is RG Studio.
Hierarchy Problem – A Realistic Reimagining of the Black Mesa Incident (BONUS)
Hierarchy Problem is a realistic take on the events of Half-life, in the form of a documentary/longer news report of the resonance cascade incident and the following proceedings. Like the Aftermath video from my first post, it is of a longer nature. However, unlike that film, it does take certain liberties in making the reporting a bit more authentic to real life. So, no soldiers with orders to murder civilians.
I greatly enjoy productions like this, and it’s clear a lot of effort went into this project. All art used is made by Nuclear Potato himself, and it’s very fitting to what he set up to do; tell the events of Half-Life reimagined as something that feels feasible, even if the subject by itself is pretty outlandish.
And that’s all for this time. I hope you enjoy the videos as much as I did. I have watched plenty more, but these short-films stood out to me in presentation that I felt I had to share.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 