Those who recall the good old days of the FPS genre will have fond memories of the classics. Whether it's the first two Doom entries, Half-Life, Unreal, or the Nintendo 64's GoldeneEye, somewhat older gamers will always hold a special place in their heart for these influential shooters. As an FPS game that helped define the genre, Valve's original Half-Life also skyrocket the studio to almost overnight success, and nearly a quarter of a century later, fans are still making mods for this classic title.
An independent development team called Extended Studios is currently working on a mod for Half-Life, which aims to bring a lot of new content to the late 90s game. Called "Half-Life: Extended," the add-on seeks to improve on the original format in a number of ways. Among other things, the mod will feature an increase in NPC variety, new weapons and enemies, as well as new maps. It's also going to raise the difficulty, and generally look to overhaul the entire experience.
In a recent post on the ModDB page, there's been some additional updates to the ongoing project, in which the team's "philosophy" talks about how the mod will be adding new areas to the already existing maps, all without looking to undo the "iconic" look that the game is known for. As one of the most influential first-person shooters of all time, it seems important for the developer to maintain what it is that fans love about the game while also expanding on its base ideas with some new and interesting concepts. Currently, there's no release date for Half-Life: Extended, but it's looking like it will be launching sometime this year.
It seems the fan base is keen to go back over the classic Valve game, and its sequel, and keep giving them some love. Not long ago, another user released a mod that overhauled Half-Life 2, which, similar to Extended Studios' upcoming project, added new weapons, as well as tweaking the general gameplay.
Despite Half-Life never receiving a third installment in the series, it still has a strong following, with many considering both games as classics in their own rights. With a threequel looking less and less likely these days, there's some comfort knowing that the community has dedicated people who are hard at work making sure the first two games are kept in the gaming limelight. Maybe one day Valve will do something with the series aside from the Alyx games, but many have already accepted that Half-Life 3 is not going to see the light of day.
Half-Life was originally released in 1998, and is available on Linux, OS X, PC, and PS2.
Source: ModDB