Summary
Back in the ’90s, Gearbox developed three expansions for the originalHalf-Life, letting us see Black Mesa from a whole new perspective.
Opposing Force put us into the boots of a fresh-faced HECU gruntcalled Shephard,Blue Shift introduced series icon Barney Calhoun, and PS2 exclusive Decay followed Gordon Freeman’s two colleagues, Colette Green and Gina Cross. But we never got a game about the Black Ops assassins.
After nearly 30 years, fans are finally changing that.
Dark Matteris a mod for the original game that follows Kovac, an assassin who has been tortured by HECU soldiers following the events of the Friendly Fire chapter. Left for dead, they awaken in a sewage system with only a sliver of health and a bog-standard flashlight.
If you haven’t played the original Half-Life games, here’s a quick rundown of the special unit that Kovac belongs to.
In the ninth chapter, Apprehension, we run into an ominously silent government hit squad adorned in jet-black combat gear, wielding cloaking technology. They’re here to wipe out everyone, military included, and nuke the facility in a last-ditch effort to stop the portal storm and conceal Black Mesa’s research from the public eye.
Half-Life: Dark Matter Started Development In 2020
Pipeline Software first announced Dark Matter in 2019, beginning development proper in 2020. But project author D3ads made little progress while studying full-time during the pandemic, and things only got worse when they were admitted to hospital following a heart valve failure.
At the end of last year, having recovered, they restarted development and rebuilt the entire code base to introduce a few new features.
The first is a spin on Opposing Force’s night vision: a thermal vision mode that highlights enemies in bright red, inspired byMetal Gear Solid. The other noteworthy addition is the “intelligence” feature, which allows you to collect documents and manifests for an unnamed agency.
The Black Ops squad was originally intended to be made up of CIA operatives.
Dark Matter is also introducing a new fire axe weapon, assassin zombies (finally!), and revamped visuals for the Black Ops squad themselves, as well as the HECU grunts. It’s an ambitious mod, to say the least, even rivalling Gearbox’s standalone expansions. But we might not have to wait long to play it.
“The biggest question on every mod fan’s mind is always the inevitable, ‘When do I get to play this?’ The answer is; probably a lot sooner than you realise,” the description explains. “The release date is still not set in stone, but rather than delivering the game in one chunk, the release is going to be split into three segments: Phase One, Two, and Three.”
The first phase will consist of five chapters, including the Drop Zone prologue. And the team plans to launch the game on Steam, making it easier to slot into your library alongside the official expansions.
If you want to keep tabs on Dark Matter, you can follow theirBlueskyandTwitteraccounts linked here.
