Half-Life: Field Intensity [HL1 MOD]

[Touchdown]

Field Intensity is a single player mod for Half-Life 1 that is more or less a spiritual successor to Opposing Force (you play as the marines). The story is nicely weaved into the events of HL1 and it has a very decent lenght - I didn't time my playthrough but I think it's about 7-8h long, definitely longer than the base game.

Okay, I don't want to waste anyone's time so I'll cut to the chase. This mod is just amazing. It feels very vanilla as in it doesn't stray too far from HL1/OF/BS but it still has a few tricks up its sleeve. In terms of atmosphere, tone and gameplay it's pretty much retail quality. Visuals are slightly above HL1, just enough to make it look appealing but not too much so it still feels like the original games. It's more difficult than HL1 but again, it's not going crazy with the challenge. It has a decent amount of new content as well as a ton of restored features that were cut from HL1, such as Vortigaunts resurrecting other Vorts. The pacing is good, the environments look great... The only real complaint I have is that the campaign lacks some kind of a climactic event at the end.

This mod has been in development for 13 years. I'm not following many HL mods so I wasn't aware of it and I went into it without any expectations but it just blew me away. I'm a huge HL fan so believe me when I say that FI really does feel like it's a legit HL expansion from a parallel universe. I could give you a detailed review or a mile-long list of notable features but I'll just say this: if you like HL1 and you're hungry for a custom campaign that actually feels like the original games, just go for it. It's awesome.

Field Intensity on ModDB

A note: this might be common knowledge but I had issues with it so here's a little hint. To install the mod you need to drop it into your Steam HL directory and it should appear in the Steam library. The thing is that, at least in my case, Steam threw it into the Unlisted category (which I didn't even know existed). So if you can't find it, try looking for that category, it should be there.

 

A note #2: Tab is your friend. Some of the new things are explained there when you need them.

 

[Rudolph]

 

[xvertigox]

I love HL1 and it's mods so cheers for the heads up. OpFor is definitely my favorite of the 3 or 4 official campaigns but it's always way too short (don't get me started on BS). I'll check this out now and hopefully it could be fit in nicely after an OpFor run.

 

Quote

I'm a huge HL fan so believe me when I say that FI really does feel like it's a legit HL expansion from a parallel universe.

 

This sold me.

[Jello]

I do want to thank you for pointing this out. It probably would've completely fallen under my radar for at least a year or two. I really don't check out the Half-Life community nearly as much as I used to.

 

I think I've got around two to three hours into it at this point, and it's extremely well made. It still feels kind of fan-made, but it's extremely well made. Two puzzles in the first couple of levels threw me off, because I had to push a metal crate into a place to get to a gap that I never thought I would be able to fit through. But they really nailed the "Stuck? Well, look at your environment" puzzle solving that I liked in the original games.

 

Well, and the first elevator that you have to get on with the Engineer was irritating. I knew I had to get up to the hatch, and there were ladder rungs leading up to it, but I couldn't figure out how to get up there. The door was already closed, the panel didn't do anything, and the Engineer wasn't giving me a boost. Just kept telling me I might have to go through the hatch and open it from the other side. A few minutes of that,  and it was ~ sv_cheats 1 noclip. Not sure if I missed something there, but I couldn't hit those rungs.

 

Other than those few minor instances, it's been really enjoyable. I haven't played the original Half-Life in some time, most of my recent Half-Life play has been Black Mesa, but the original game seems to hold up really well. I'm sure it doesn't to some people, but it's enjoyable, fast paced, can be a bit confusing at times, but it's really damn good. I mean, it could've been the original Op:For from what I've played so far. I would highly recommend it if you enjoyed the original Half-Life. 

 

So again, thanks for posting this, because I doubt I would've seen it. And it's pretty damn good. Although sometimes the soldiers pathfinding gets completely messed up, especially around swinging doors. Oddly enough, I doesn't seem like the scientists and barney's have this issue, just the soldiers that you can have follow you. I would strongly recommend it, A+ effort.

 

 

Oh, and it brought back my favorite aspect of Half-Life, and I think there must've been multiple team meetings about this during the creation of the originals, and the mod teams must still be having this meeting:

 

"Hey guys, we all love the game, but what's your absolute favorite thing about it?"

 

"When I open a door to an office, I love it when a headcrab is placed right behind the door, so it pounces on me before I can react!"

 

"That's our favorite thing too! Great, now what if, after that one, we place another one behind a filing cabinet in the room, that pounces when you check the desk for ammo or items? Or one hiding on a shelf in the back, that hits the door when it jumps and gets stuck behind it, but you don't realize it's stuck behind it until you try to leave the room?"

 

"Please don't promise us things you can't deliver."

 

I still love the game though... but those damn headcrabs...

[Rudolph]

The voice-acting is a bit distracting to me. You can tell the actors are not native speakers, which would not be too bad if Half-Life was not explicitly set in America and all the characters supposed to be Americans.

[Jello]

7 hours ago, Rudolph said:

The voice-acting is a bit distracting to me. You can tell the actors are not native speakers, which would not be too bad if Half-Life was not explicitly set in America and all the characters supposed to be Americans.

I thought about mentioning it, but it doesn't really bug me. Yes, they have heavy Eastern European accents, and it was a little odd at first; but it's also a free mod, of retail quality (well, certainly back in 1998), and they spent thirteen years working on it.

 

I'll certainly give them a pass for having accents. Maybe at some point they can have the voice-lines redone by Americans, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Aside from that niggle, and ones I mentioned above about some rather obtuse puzzles and not being able to open a hatch, it's really damn good. 

 

And honestly, even with their accents, I think they did a really good job recording the voices. Hell, they speak more clearly than a fair number of Americans I've met. So I would say if it bugs you, and it did kind of bug me the first time I heard a voice over the radio, power through. Because it's worth it. 

[Rudolph]

Oh, I am not saying this is preventing me from playing the mapset. I just cannot help but notice it.

[Jello]

4 hours ago, Rudolph said:

Oh, I am not saying this is preventing me from playing the mapset. I just cannot help but notice it.

It is noticeable. But I just wanted to make sure it didn't turn you off of the whole project altogether. Most of the voices are original stock HL or OF, except when you listen to the radio.

 

 

[Touchdown]

On 3/6/2022 at 6:16 AM, xvertigox said:

I love HL1 and it's mods so cheers for the heads up.

 

On 3/7/2022 at 9:54 AM, Jello said:

I do want to thank you for pointing this out. It probably would've completely fallen under my radar for at least a year or two. I really don't check out the Half-Life community nearly as much as I used to.

 

I'm glad to hear that. There are so many games / mods that I'm sure I'd enjoy but it's not like the universe is just going to bring my attention to them. So most of the time it's down to dumb luck whether I find a project like that or not. And when I do I usually think hey, surely there are people as strange as me who'd enjoy this thing as well but they probably have the same problem of simply not being aware of it - we're not talking about AAA releases that literally everyone's gonna hear about, this is niche stuff. So I always have an urge to just scream left and right about something I had fun with just to spread the word.

About that elevator, I THINK I know which one you're talking about. The solution is quite straighforward: you just have to jump towards the grating of that hatch because it functions as a ladder. But I agree, it's not very obvious and I got a bit of stuck there myself because it felt like something else was supposed to happen. Especially that jumping didn't really work right away, I had to try a few times and finally caught the grate. I also thought the Engineer would give me a lift considering that's something that happened in Blue Shift. But hey, the mod just came out, they might improve it if people complain about it.

I didn't really have a problem with soldier pathfinding, actually it felt a bit better than in retail entries but that might be just an illusion. I do like the fact that they've added icons / health bars for the troops and that you can tell the entire group to follow / unfollow you with a single button. I think I had like 7-8 guys with me at most so clicking on each one would have been a pain.

And yeah, I completely agree about the Headcrabs. It didn't really bother me in FI but afterwards I played Echoes which is another SP mod for HL1 that people were really gushing about. It literally has every annoying Headcrab placement you can think of: opening a door, right around a crate, right around a corner in an air vent, right after destroying a crate, at the top of the staircase so they jump at you immediately as you go up... My "favourite" example was when the author decided it was a good idea to put a bunch of crabs in a flooded room with knee-deep NON-TRANSPARENT water. So it was literally impossible to see them and I had to run around like an idiot hoping to trigger their jump and then remember where they land... I mean, come on. Stuff like that would work in HL2 because in that game Headcrabs can be killed with a single crowbar swing but not so much in HL1.

By the way, Echoes is also worth a recommendation. I didn't like it as much as FI and it has a TON of really annoying issues (definitely left a worse impression on me than FI). But it's still really neat. The beginning (I would say the first four chapters) is simply superb and it has a better ending than FI.

 

19 hours ago, Rudolph said:

The voice-acting is a bit distracting to me. You can tell the actors are not native speakers, which would not be too bad if Half-Life was not explicitly set in America and all the characters supposed to be Americans.

 

Yeah, that's an issue with voice acting in mods. On the plus side I read on ModDB that they'll re-record lines for the radio guy at some point so there's that.

[Jello]

Well I finally got around to finishing it. Aside from kind of a weak ending, and some confusing level design towards the end, it was absolutely wonderful. It was really nice playing the original game again, and it's impressive how well the game holds up after all these years. It would've definitely been worthy of an expansion pack back in the late 90's. It's better than Blue Shift, and it's on par with, if not better than Opposing Force. It's really damn good.

 

But my favorite moment when I was playing it was a complete accident. I was going down a stairway, and I saw five zombies gathered in a circle. As I descended, Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" started playing. I couldn't believe it, and as I was hitting the zombies in the head with a pipe-wrench, more zombies came around the corner "200 hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit!". Then I went outside and I was mowing Xen creatures down with my newly acquired M249. I wondered how in the Hell did they think they could get away with using a Queen song.

 

Then I remembered that I had burned a CD for someone and it was still in my drive; I'm not sure why it started playing at that moment, it had never done it before, didn't do it afterwards either. But if anyone has watched Shaun of the Dead, that was the perfect song for diving into a bunch of zombies. 

[Murdoch]

1 hour ago, Jello said:

But my favorite moment when I was playing it was a complete accident. I was going down a stairway, and I saw five zombies gathered in a circle. As I descended, Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" started playing. I couldn't believe it, and as I was hitting the zombies in the head with a pipe-wrench, more zombies came around the corner "200 hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit!". Then I went outside and I was mowing Xen creatures down with my newly acquired M249. I wondered how in the Hell did they think they could get away with using a Queen song.

 

As a massive Queen fan this fills me with great glee.

[Jello]

1 hour ago, Murdoch said:

 

As a massive Queen fan this fills me with great glee.

As sad as I am to say it, it took watching Bohemian Rhapsody for me to really start listening to Queen. I always found their music to be good, but it was never my cup of tea. However, after watching the movie I did start listening to them. And they were fantastic. Before that I thought of them as an iconic band, and I respected them, but they were never a band that I would consciously listen to. But Freddie Mercury was an amazing vocalist, one of the best of all time. I'm just sad that I didn't realize that until recently.

 

I hope, if there's an afterlife, he knew that I was hitting zombies with a pipe-wrench while singing "Don't stop me, cause I'm having a good time!".

[Murdoch]

2 hours ago, Jello said:

As sad as I am to say it, it took watching Bohemian Rhapsody for me to really start listening to Queen. I always found their music to be good, but it was never my cup of tea. However, after watching the movie I did start listening to them. And they were fantastic. Before that I thought of them as an iconic band, and I respected them, but they were never a band that I would consciously listen to. But Freddie Mercury was an amazing vocalist, one of the best of all time. I'm just sad that I didn't realize that until recently.

 

I have been a fan since 1994, when I was 14. I always kind of liked them but never actively followed them. I always loved "I Want It All" from the first moment I heard it. That driving, simple but distinctive rhythm. Great fun to jam to. But it took a friend to really make me realise what I had missed till that point. I am not much of a fan of depressing and/or angry music. I like fun stuff and the kind of music that makes you want to dust yourself off and go another round. Few bands epitomise that as well as Queen does. If one searches forums, it does not take long to realise that their music has quite literally saved lives.

 

Freddie was an amazing vocalist and showman. There's been technically better vocalists, but few who come close to his performance ability and just sheer versatility. He could shift techniques and keys at the drop of a hat and that's very difficult to do. And when you can turn in vocal performances like "The Show Must Go On" when you are so sick and in so much pain you can barely stand, well, enough said. I have had the privilege to see Queen + Adam Lambert not once but twice. Standing in a crowd of thousands singing along to those songs is a truly magical experience. Especially "We are the Champions". I usually dislike playing favourites when it comes to music as many artists and many songs have so much to offer, but I would not hesitate to call that my favourite song of all time. It is compositionally brilliant. That shift from C minor to Eb major as the lyrics get more positive is simple but genius. And in a live setting, it's capability to bring people together in a positive way is matchless.

 

I even had a brief email exchange with Brian May a number of years ago. Even though we did not completely agree on the topic being discussed, you could tell he was still interested in what I had to say and took it on board. I dislike any kind of idolatry (even the most noble of humans is flawed and idolising them can blind one to those failings), but I can confirm he is every bit the class act he seems. He ended the last message with "Please consider me a friend." I will never forget that.

Sooo yeah, bit of a fan heh.

 

2 hours ago, Jello said:

I hope, if there's an afterlife, he knew that I was hitting zombies with a pipe-wrench while singing "Don't stop me, cause I'm having a good time!".

 

He got to see the "Bohemian Rhapsody" bit in "Wayne's World" before he died and thought it was hilarious. He would have loved what happened, guaranteed.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

9 hours ago, Jello said:

Then I remembered that I had burned a CD for someone and it was still in my drive; I'm not sure why it started playing at that moment, it had never done it before, didn't do it afterwards either. But if anyone has watched Shaun of the Dead, that was the perfect song for diving into a bunch of zombies. 

Can you imagine what you would've been thinking had your friend requested a Lil' Wayne CD instead?

[Jello]

On 3/25/2022 at 4:41 AM, Murdoch said:

 

I have been a fan since 1994, when I was 14. I always kind of liked them but never actively followed them. I always loved "I Want It All" from the first moment I heard it. That driving, simple but distinctive rhythm. Great fun to jam to. But it took a friend to really make me realise what I had missed till that point. I am not much of a fan of depressing and/or angry music. I like fun stuff and the kind of music that makes you want to dust yourself off and go another round. Few bands epitomise that as well as Queen does. If one searches forums, it does not take long to realise that their music has quite literally saved lives.

 

Freddie was an amazing vocalist and showman. There's been technically better vocalists, but few who come close to his performance ability and just sheer versatility. He could shift techniques and keys at the drop of a hat and that's very difficult to do. And when you can turn in vocal performances like "The Show Must Go On" when you are so sick and in so much pain you can barely stand, well, enough said. I have had the privilege to see Queen + Adam Lambert not once but twice. Standing in a crowd of thousands singing along to those songs is a truly magical experience. Especially "We are the Champions". I usually dislike playing favourites when it comes to music as many artists and many songs have so much to offer, but I would not hesitate to call that my favourite song of all time. It is compositionally brilliant. That shift from C minor to Eb major as the lyrics get more positive is simple but genius. And in a live setting, it's capability to bring people together in a positive way is matchless.

 

I even had a brief email exchange with Brian May a number of years ago. Even though we did not completely agree on the topic being discussed, you could tell he was still interested in what I had to say and took it on board. I dislike any kind of idolatry (even the most noble of humans is flawed and idolising them can blind one to those failings), but I can confirm he is every bit the class act he seems. He ended the last message with "Please consider me a friend." I will never forget that.

Sooo yeah, bit of a fan heh.

 

 

He got to see the "Bohemian Rhapsody" bit in "Wayne's World" before he died and thought it was hilarious. He would have loved what happened, guaranteed.

An amazing story to hear, even if it was just a bit of a back and forth. I respect the people in Queen, because they did what they wanted to do, and even then it was flamboyant. Nobody wanted to play a seven minute song on the air, and I respect them for keeping Bohemian Rhapsody in it's whole. That was the vision for the song, they weren't going to cut it, or edit it, that was the song. So kudos to them.

 

And yes, Mercury's vocal range is almost unmatched, he can hit the lows, hit the highs, so many ranges in between. His vocal ranges were literally mercurial, as well as his life. Maybe why he took the name. I do remember being in sixth grade after we had cross-core olympics, we had two cores of students, C-1 and C-2, because they needed to divide up classes based on the teachers they had. There were a variety of physical exercises, and one core one and the other didn't. Well, my core one, and my best friend and I, we went out of the hallway singing "We are the Champions". And a teacher stopped us, and told us we couldn't sing, because it might make the other students feel bad. Well, why have the damn competition in the first place?

 

On 3/25/2022 at 9:05 AM, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Can you imagine what you would've been thinking had your friend requested a Lil' Wayne CD instead?

I've got some Isis, KMFDM, Leningrad, Leonard Cohen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marilyn Manson, Meatloaf, Modest Mouse, Motorhead. No Lil' Wayne... sorry. Let me check the W's... no it ends after Victims Family and Violent Femmes. Maybe the Beastie Boys or Wu Tang instead?

 

Kidding aside, if a friend asked me to burn a CD for them, I would figure out a way to do it.

 

Maybe if it would've been something like Angel of Death, I would've gotten a kick out of it. Or Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys, Son of a Gun by KMFDM would've been neat. But given that it was Don't Stop Me Now, and there's the scene from Shaun of the Dead of them bashing zombies with pool cues, which is one of my favorite movies, it was perfect. And that's always how I'll remember Field Intensity.

Edited March 27, 2022 by Jello