This mod is insanely good. It reminds me of Doom Delta, of taking the beta of a game and not only fully realizing it, but also making it look ten times better. Obviously not 100% faithful in that regard, but it makes it far more interesting to get into even as someone who doesn't really care about the beta. I think the visuals of the mod are great, by the way. I don't agree that it needs to be darker or anything. I think the idea that the beta was dark and griddy exists because most fans only know about City 17 and think the rest of the game MUST look like that too. I also love Alyx' voice actress. I think the lines are a bit over-acted, like she recorded them separately and gave each one the same energetic delivery (like I do), but it fits this beta recreation perfectly. Plus, that's what the original sounded like too. Wouldn't be surprised if it's actually the same person. The only thing I think needs work is the forcefields you can see at 13:24, because they look too opaque. I didn't expect you to be able to shoot through them. By the way, I'm not sure if that ending is going to stay in the game :P it reminds me of the HL1 demo ending, which just ends with you getting mauled by a Gargantua and Episode 2's ending.
It's so exciting seeing a mod I've worked hard on being reviewed by the great RadHaz! Thanks for all the positive comments and feedback! Glad you enjoyed it! We've got a fantastic team!
I think looking at the original art and voice of Alex, it's more feminine and give that 90s action movie vibes, like the first game did. The final design and voice feel more suitable and strong enough for a rebel in a world rule by aliens to survive.
the way shooter part done in this game only confirms that Gordon is not traumatized at all. He is your typical doomguy - biorobot hellbent on killing monsters
I love the attention to detail on the OICW. The DUMMY THICC scope with the buttons, the separate animations for the primary grenade launcher and the underbarrel assault rifle, the fact that you have more than one grenade per grenade mag (I forgot how many the OICW had). I also do like the more subdued reloads that Gordon uses, like using the button on the side of the OICW to load a round into the under barrel AR vs using the charging handle to load a round into the chamber. It shows that Gordon is calm and focused amidst all the chaos around him.
I had no idea there was an original-original Alyx voice actor. They really did an amazing job finding someone who sounded similar. Honestly this all looks great
It makes me IMMENSELY happy they did not use AI-generated Alyx voice for their BETA. It is just things like this that sets a good community project apart from a GREAT one.
3:51 honestly, I think the scope size is perfect, as a scope with any kind of electronics (night vision, theramls, and stuff used for the air burst genades on the xm29) thend to be a lot bigger and bulkier than what you might think
It might be realistic and faithful to the original, but for me personally it was too obtrusive, especially in big open areas where you have to look around a lot (freeing vortigaunts).
The character 3D models look very balanced, mods have this thing where sometimes character redesigns may look rushed or like a simple outfit change but here they look very thorough. A few of my favourite shots in this video regarding atmosphere are at 9:47 where Alyx looks at the screens, the quick shot at 9:56 - 9:58, the part at 10:07 with the vortigaunt and 12:15 where we see Dr. Maxwell. The way this mod uses rather warm colours to create an atmosphere really makes it stand out since half-life 2 has a lot of cold colour choices (for an example at 11:10 we see those orange gates which would probably be a blue tone if they were in the original hl2 version). The voice actors have really done a good job so far and I can’t wait to see more of this project moving on. ALSO THE MUSIC SLAPS Anyways yap sesh over good video again 👍
I like the fire rate change for the shotgun. The standard is slow and feels clunky at times. Being able to pump out four or more blasts quickly is much more exciting.
Well, to be fair, there's a reason they shrank the scope a bit on the cut model. Having so much of your view taken up by that thing creates a pretty massive blindspot, and the way it's positioned on the screen makes it look even bigger, so shrinking it a bit is less noticeable from that perspective and lessens the amount of screen space it obscures.
13:24 - Immediately the song reminded me the one from Opposing Force called " Storm " just faster and higher note. I wonder if that was intentional from them or not, it is highly samiliar and i like that.
I'm gonna be honest. This was the most fun I've had with a Half-Life mod. It felt so good figuring out the puzzles. The gameplay was fun and enjoyable. The weapons felt great. I feel like only a few tweaks are needed for this to be perfect. I think this is probably going to be the next fully finished beta mod. Minimalist mod being the first. I also have really high hopes for Dark interval as it's next demo is releasing in the fall of this year. I genuinely cannot wait for division 3 to release.
This looks incredible!. I will nitpick one aspect though, and that is the new voice acting for Alyx doesn't really fit her character model, which is obviously an edited version of the final game's. It would probably be too much trouble to make a newer, younger-looking model though.
I played this demo a while back, and really the only bad thing I have to say about it was that one puzzle that you mentioned at 14:07. Seriously, I had to reload the map like three times to correctly get the antlions onto the platform.
Just want to voice my own opinions on this update after playing it and add on to your own thoughts: (for reference, I played on Hard) Overall, it's a pretty solid demo. Love the new models, the new environments, etc. I did really like the Shotgun firerate buff, even if it played mostly second fiddle to the OICW, which ended up being the main workhorse. Also, yes, that initial round arena fight is tough. I died several times. There are a lot of Combine, and sometimes you'll hit the triggers for several groups to spawn, so there'll just be this big horde of soldiers deleting everything they see, so you can't really wait on the Antlion spawns to thin them out. Speaking of soldiers, the OICW troopers can DESTROY you if given a chance. I get that it's set to Hard, and they're meant to be like Pulse Rifle Elites of base HL2, but this is like Halo 2 Legendary levels of DPS. Literally just slightly lowering it would make it feel fine. Also, one-shot Acid Antlions on Hard with 100 HP. This happened to me multiple times. Okayish on their own, but that one corridor is a deathtrap. Besides all that, the gameplay is honestly great. The only other complaint I'd have, is the arena at 11:46 feels both overwhelming but also surprisingly empty once you wipe out all the units. Like you said earlier, it'd probably feel better if they came in waves. And once again, all the custom models, the visual design, everything is just top notch. I do want them to take their time, but goddamn am I so hyped for their next release.
This mod looks absolutely amazing! One criticism I have, however, is that I think the enemies don't stand out enough. In retail HL2 the combine stick out pretty easily, but while I was watching this video I had trouble seeing the soldiers and even the hunters were difficult to see. From what I can tell this mod is a bit challenging, so I think the difficulty in seeing the enemies + the lighting might be an issue.
There was always the problem of, "How would you find Tau Cannon ammo?" for HL2 and I think this mod had the perfect fucking answer and I really wish someone would mod that into base HL2.
I very much enjoyed this demo is as well. The action sequences are quite good, especially the one with the hunters. Good weapons sound, nice particles effects and the shotgun is quite reliable! Although I must say the lighting is not yet up to par. It feels artificial, if not flat at times. Like, the mapping is very competent but the environments never manage to be beautiful in my opinion. Still I did take some screenshots as there are some nice layouts.
There's a cool short mod on moddb called "surrender earth" it's basically half life 2 beta but made in the goldsrc engine, no it isn't half life 2 beta minimalist mod. But I think you should check it out otherwise
I’m not particularly looking forward to this project, but out of curiosity I decided to take a look. I don't think anyone is surprised that fans can do great things.
My biggest issue is that some stuff just looks a bit too clean? Like the smg and all the crates inside the depot itself Also need more boltgun ammo for real Rest is amazing
RTBR is amazing but it does have a pretty consistent problem with lighting. I always feel like I need to have a flashlight on in order to properly see my surroundings. And I think the devs know it too, considering they made flashlight infinite.
Hey rad big fan of your vids keep it up. But may i suggest mod for hl2? Its called kayf life 2 it add more more weaoons and other stuff, i would just like to know about your review . If you have some spare time try it and i think youll love it or hate who knows?
I didn't know what to do in that antlion puzzle, so I did a prop jump with the gravity gun and skipped all that part. also the AI was a bit clunky with their navigation system, in one part Alyx didn't move and I had to manually put and play the previous map just to get her to move. I know that it's a demo and it's not the final thing. I hope the RTBR team take notice of some things they did wrong to improve them.
yo radiation hazard the video you posted about hl2 games on roblox. the scuffed hl2 game is a stolen map and idk if you would read this but i dont think we should let them get players on it. and i love your videos
Everyone raises the bar, but no one asks the bar if it wants to be raised... BARS HAVE FEELINGS TOO! Don't know about bar charts though *laugh track* But its always a good day when the Rad does the Haz!
What I don’t like most about this mod, in all its episodes, is the inexpressiveness of the locations, while the original concept of Half-Life 2 Beta fascinates with its scale, inhuman gigantism, huge alien structures, we spend most of the RTBR in some abstract, very claustrophobic spaces that are not memorable and differ little from each other. It’s the same with the Depot, in concepts it is an impregnable fortress in the middle of the Wasteland, a legendary lonely railway cutting through the Wasteland, towering tens of meters above the ground, a structure impossible by human standards, what do we see in this mod?, regular rusty corridors full of rubbish, with inserts of alien technology without much meaning, except that in the moment with the liberation of the Vortigaunts they give us a little more scale, but in my opinion it’s still rather weak. In my opinion Dark Interval does this job much, much better. Also, sorry if this text looks weird to you, I was lazy and used Google Translate with some fixes afterwards.
Apologies for the lack of uploads and live streams. I've started working at a new day-time job and that takes most of my time now.
its ok, you need to make the money to support RadHaz Jr and your hot wife somehow
what’s your new job?
Writing IT documentation
Do you work at the Dark and Griddy Inc?
Damn apologizing for being a human is crazy 🤣
RadHaz never fails to darken my gritty
This mod is insanely good. It reminds me of Doom Delta, of taking the beta of a game and not only fully realizing it, but also making it look ten times better. Obviously not 100% faithful in that regard, but it makes it far more interesting to get into even as someone who doesn't really care about the beta.
I think the visuals of the mod are great, by the way. I don't agree that it needs to be darker or anything. I think the idea that the beta was dark and griddy exists because most fans only know about City 17 and think the rest of the game MUST look like that too.
I also love Alyx' voice actress. I think the lines are a bit over-acted, like she recorded them separately and gave each one the same energetic delivery (like I do), but it fits this beta recreation perfectly. Plus, that's what the original sounded like too. Wouldn't be surprised if it's actually the same person.
The only thing I think needs work is the forcefields you can see at 13:24, because they look too opaque. I didn't expect you to be able to shoot through them.
By the way, I'm not sure if that ending is going to stay in the game :P it reminds me of the HL1 demo ending, which just ends with you getting mauled by a Gargantua and Episode 2's ending.
oh hi peter griffin
Doom Delta mentioned!!!
Du hier? :D
I'm gonna raise the bar to get the beer he owned me
Owed* (I think?)
@@eliasroflchopper3006 the original word is own
(I looked at it and it's right.)
@@Green-Cop its owed
I've found you again.
@@MedicalHazard67 I am not save!
It's so exciting seeing a mod I've worked hard on being reviewed by the great RadHaz! Thanks for all the positive comments and feedback! Glad you enjoyed it! We've got a fantastic team!
The Half-Life 2 beta is like crack, because i can't get enough of it!
great video rad!
IKR LOL
I cant wait to play this in a full release
RTBR keeps making me happy.
Finally you made a video on this dark'n'gritty demo!
I think looking at the original art and voice of Alex, it's more feminine and give that 90s action movie vibes, like the first game did. The final design and voice feel more suitable and strong enough for a rebel in a world rule by aliens to survive.
oh how i falsely yearn for this to get a greenlight
steam greenlight hasn't been a thing since around 2017
Entropy zero
That would cost the dev team 25000, if they want to make it payed
I really want this to be on steam 😊
the way shooter part done in this game only confirms that Gordon is not traumatized at all. He is your typical doomguy - biorobot hellbent on killing monsters
I love the attention to detail on the OICW. The DUMMY THICC scope with the buttons, the separate animations for the primary grenade launcher and the underbarrel assault rifle, the fact that you have more than one grenade per grenade mag (I forgot how many the OICW had). I also do like the more subdued reloads that Gordon uses, like using the button on the side of the OICW to load a round into the under barrel AR vs using the charging handle to load a round into the chamber. It shows that Gordon is calm and focused amidst all the chaos around him.
I had no idea there was an original-original Alyx voice actor. They really did an amazing job finding someone who sounded similar. Honestly this all looks great
I like how the Spas-12 mechanics is to it's real life counterpart.
It makes me IMMENSELY happy they did not use AI-generated Alyx voice for their BETA. It is just things like this that sets a good community project apart from a GREAT one.
3:51 honestly, I think the scope size is perfect, as a scope with any kind of electronics (night vision, theramls, and stuff used for the air burst genades on the xm29) thend to be a lot bigger and bulkier than what you might think
It might be realistic and faithful to the original, but for me personally it was too obtrusive, especially in big open areas where you have to look around a lot (freeing vortigaunts).
@vevench3055 That's fair, I understand that some might not like the size, it's just my personal preference
@@Hunter-7115 aye that's aight mate, you're good 👍
the alyx voice acting is very fitting, but i think the environmental reverb effects on her voice made it sound weird
the weird spacing too
Radhaz. WHERE IS IT?!? I NEED MY RATIONS, I'M STARVING TO DEATH! I'M YOUR BEST SLAVE, I DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU! IF I DIE, YOU HAVE NOTHING!
The character 3D models look very balanced, mods have this thing where sometimes character redesigns may look rushed or like a simple outfit change but here they look very thorough. A few of my favourite shots in this video regarding atmosphere are at 9:47 where Alyx looks at the screens, the quick shot at 9:56 - 9:58, the part at 10:07 with the vortigaunt and 12:15 where we see Dr. Maxwell. The way this mod uses rather warm colours to create an atmosphere really makes it stand out since half-life 2 has a lot of cold colour choices (for an example at 11:10 we see those orange gates which would probably be a blue tone if they were in the original hl2 version). The voice actors have really done a good job so far and I can’t wait to see more of this project moving on. ALSO THE MUSIC SLAPS Anyways yap sesh over good video again 👍
Man this looks frickin awesome dude cant wait to play this myself
I played and finished the demo yesterday. It was really good and I'd recommend it to everyone who hasn't played it yet.
I love how this and Delta Particles replaced the double shot of the SPAS-12 with semiauto fire.
I like the fire rate change for the shotgun. The standard is slow and feels clunky at times. Being able to pump out four or more blasts quickly is much more exciting.
Only time will tell if the whole Division be fully develop finish and then they put it on Steam as we paid. They deserve all of it.
the bigger OICW scope is accurate to it's real world counterpart as the XM29 was a heavy combat rifle with a very big scope on it
Well, to be fair, there's a reason they shrank the scope a bit on the cut model. Having so much of your view taken up by that thing creates a pretty massive blindspot, and the way it's positioned on the screen makes it look even bigger, so shrinking it a bit is less noticeable from that perspective and lessens the amount of screen space it obscures.
Alyx -with her voice and look .. :3 so damn cute
16:23 Rad you are not bolloxed! :p
The graphics, especially the skyboxes look great!
13:24 - Immediately the song reminded me the one from Opposing Force called " Storm " just faster and higher note. I wonder if that was intentional from them or not, it is highly samiliar and i like that.
I'm super happy that you upload your music on Tidal!
I love your music and videos RadHaz!❤
I'm gonna be honest. This was the most fun I've had with a Half-Life mod. It felt so good figuring out the puzzles. The gameplay was fun and enjoyable. The weapons felt great. I feel like only a few tweaks are needed for this to be perfect. I think this is probably going to be the next fully finished beta mod. Minimalist mod being the first. I also have really high hopes for Dark interval as it's next demo is releasing in the fall of this year. I genuinely cannot wait for division 3 to release.
This mod always raises my bar
this comment raises my p
This demo was dark and gritty
14:16 interesting cuz the *Depot* mod had a similar platform puzzle and it worked for them.
This looks incredible!. I will nitpick one aspect though, and that is the new voice acting for Alyx doesn't really fit her character model, which is obviously an edited version of the final game's. It would probably be too much trouble to make a newer, younger-looking model though.
I played this demo a while back, and really the only bad thing I have to say about it was that one puzzle that you mentioned at 14:07. Seriously, I had to reload the map like three times to correctly get the antlions onto the platform.
Its a unique idea, sad that it didn't work out.
I think this is my favorite channel intro of all time
Just want to voice my own opinions on this update after playing it and add on to your own thoughts:
(for reference, I played on Hard)
Overall, it's a pretty solid demo. Love the new models, the new environments, etc. I did really like the Shotgun firerate buff, even if it played mostly second fiddle to the OICW, which ended up being the main workhorse.
Also, yes, that initial round arena fight is tough. I died several times. There are a lot of Combine, and sometimes you'll hit the triggers for several groups to spawn, so there'll just be this big horde of soldiers deleting everything they see, so you can't really wait on the Antlion spawns to thin them out.
Speaking of soldiers, the OICW troopers can DESTROY you if given a chance. I get that it's set to Hard, and they're meant to be like Pulse Rifle Elites of base HL2, but this is like Halo 2 Legendary levels of DPS. Literally just slightly lowering it would make it feel fine.
Also, one-shot Acid Antlions on Hard with 100 HP. This happened to me multiple times. Okayish on their own, but that one corridor is a deathtrap.
Besides all that, the gameplay is honestly great. The only other complaint I'd have, is the arena at 11:46 feels both overwhelming but also surprisingly empty once you wipe out all the units. Like you said earlier, it'd probably feel better if they came in waves.
And once again, all the custom models, the visual design, everything is just top notch. I do want them to take their time, but goddamn am I so hyped for their next release.
They should have name it "Raising the ReBar"
love how there are like 100 of mods about the beta of half life 2 but zero about half life 3 fan game that as been release
That warehouse level reminds me of Opposing Force after you defuse the nuke.
I just thought that the alyx audio quality was weird, It felt lower quality compared to the others.
This is like cake, the leaked half life 2 beta is like burned cake.
This looks amazing 🎉
This Demo was a lot of fun to play through.
Love that they added reloading for the OICW's grenade magazine, I think this is the only game that has you reload that.
constantly raising the bar
This project has shown a lot of promise but I hope to god they recast Barney and Kleiner...
The music with the antlions is the opposing force main theme
This mod looks absolutely amazing! One criticism I have, however, is that I think the enemies don't stand out enough. In retail HL2 the combine stick out pretty easily, but while I was watching this video I had trouble seeing the soldiers and even the hunters were difficult to see. From what I can tell this mod is a bit challenging, so I think the difficulty in seeing the enemies + the lighting might be an issue.
new radhaz video! lets gooooooo!!!!
There was always the problem of, "How would you find Tau Cannon ammo?" for HL2 and I think this mod had the perfect fucking answer and I really wish someone would mod that into base HL2.
I very much enjoyed this demo is as well. The action sequences are quite good, especially the one with the hunters. Good weapons sound, nice particles effects and the shotgun is quite reliable! Although I must say the lighting is not yet up to par. It feels artificial, if not flat at times. Like, the mapping is very competent but the environments never manage to be beautiful in my opinion. Still I did take some screenshots as there are some nice layouts.
Great review and great points 😊
There's a cool short mod on moddb called "surrender earth" it's basically half life 2 beta but made in the goldsrc engine, no it isn't half life 2 beta minimalist mod. But I think you should check it out otherwise
RTBR depot doesn't quite hit the same now as it did when you were talking about eating and shitting coins while playing it. 🤣
Alyx sounding like the TikTok TTS lmao
This looks amazing. The devs should keep cooking.
It's been a hot minute since we've gotten an update for this mod.
I’m not particularly looking forward to this project, but out of curiosity I decided to take a look. I don't think anyone is surprised that fans can do great things.
Yup, another RTBR classic!
its still dark and gritty
2 minutes ago is wild
preposterous even
My biggest issue is that some stuff just looks a bit too clean? Like the smg and all the crates inside the depot itself
Also need more boltgun ammo for real
Rest is amazing
not gritty enough?
Daaamn, this looks like a mix of Quake 2, Black mesa and the HL2 beta, i pray for their succes with father Grigori.
Pretty good mod, got soft locked at the door puzzle area because I left Alyx somehow behind, and didn't have a clue why the elevator wasn't working.
Funny how Half Life 2 always has some elevator glitch, serious i don't know how many times i got stuck in a elevator scene
2:34 he said it! he said it!
You should do a brutal half life video. If you have time
I'd love to see that but uh... I'm not sure if RUclips shares that sentiment
9:08 bro called Alyx, Alice.
Finally, a spas 12 which secondary fire is full auto instead of double shot. 🎉
RTBR is amazing but it does have a pretty consistent problem with lighting. I always feel like I need to have a flashlight on in order to properly see my surroundings. And I think the devs know it too, considering they made flashlight infinite.
This sure raises my bar. Tho, I still think Dark Interval was much cooler in how it portrayed City17 urban part.
It’s time to raise the fucking bar
Hey rad big fan of your vids keep it up. But may i suggest mod for hl2? Its called kayf life 2 it add more more weaoons and other stuff, i would just like to know about your review . If you have some spare time try it and i think youll love it or hate who knows?
Papa hazard where are you?
Will RTB:R have the weapon drop/pickup system from the beta?
raising the BALLS
I think the outdoors should be darker, to give the more atmosphere.
Where is the hl2 1999 trailer it was beyond cool I had it in my downloads but I think I deleted it by accident
I didn't know what to do in that antlion puzzle, so I did a prop jump with the gravity gun and skipped all that part.
also the AI was a bit clunky with their navigation system, in one part Alyx didn't move and I had to manually put and play the previous map just to get her to move. I know that it's a demo and it's not the final thing. I hope the RTBR team take notice of some things they did wrong to improve them.
You were supposed to blow up the antlion holes? I never realized that and just left, the antlions also stopped coming after a bit
Very griddy, dark even
the smg looks too 1:1 with irl to me, would have been cool if they went a bit more fictional with it
I like the blood effects
I think the rtbr team should work alongside with the Terminus dev team for the wasteland chapters
the intro song is back!
yo radiation hazard the video you posted about hl2 games on roblox. the scuffed hl2 game is a stolen map and idk if you would read this but i dont think we should let them get players on it. and i love your videos
2:28 whos that burnt toast guy?, Is it eli vance or morgan freeman. I cannot tell
The dark and the gritty back at it again 💪💪💪😤😤😤
its been a month without a rad video
Everyone raises the bar, but no one asks the bar if it wants to be raised... BARS HAVE FEELINGS TOO!
Don't know about bar charts though *laugh track*
But its always a good day when the Rad does the Haz!
What I don’t like most about this mod, in all its episodes, is the inexpressiveness of the locations, while the original concept of Half-Life 2 Beta fascinates with its scale, inhuman gigantism, huge alien structures, we spend most of the RTBR in some abstract, very claustrophobic spaces that are not memorable and differ little from each other. It’s the same with the Depot, in concepts it is an impregnable fortress in the middle of the Wasteland, a legendary lonely railway cutting through the Wasteland, towering tens of meters above the ground, a structure impossible by human standards, what do we see in this mod?, regular rusty corridors full of rubbish, with inserts of alien technology without much meaning, except that in the moment with the liberation of the Vortigaunts they give us a little more scale, but in my opinion it’s still rather weak. In my opinion Dark Interval does this job much, much better. Also, sorry if this text looks weird to you, I was lazy and used Google Translate with some fixes afterwards.
Same, as much as i love dark interval i dont like this mod
She raise my bar till i redux
Wow this is definitely dork and groimy
damn that shotgun is nice
Would it be possible if Half-Life Raising The Bar becomes a full game?
hey so uh wierd question say i only have the base game like half-life 2 only and not the episodes can i still downlaod it
That vortigaunt activated my trypophobia 😖
I have arachnophobia
what a madman lmao
og Alyx has a bit of a Valley Girl lilt to her voice