TheHalf-Lifeseries has become notorious for seemingly unending development periods for much-anticipated games. The notoriousHalf-Life 3has been a rumor for years, although last year’s documentaryThe Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyxseems to have confirmed the end of the 2013-2014cancelledHalf-Life 3project. But aHalf-Life 2inspired game has been in development for much longer. After 13 years,Half-Life Lambda Warsis finally out and is free to play on Steam.
Half-Life Lambda Warsactually began as mod forHalf-Life 2based off ofValve’s 2010 top-down shooter,Alien Swarm. The goal inAlien Swarmis to clear waves of aliens to progress through levels.Alien Swarmcontains some RPG elements like class choice, interchangeable equipment and weapons, and unlockables as players progress. The idea forHalf-Life Lambda Warswas to re-create the feel of top-down shooter action inAlien Warsand incorporate it into battles fromHalf-Life 2.
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Half-Life Lambda Warshas been in development since 2007, and the development team behind the game was constantly changing. One team member did say on Reddit that the “lead programmer started and finished the project.“Half-Life Lambda Warsallows players to choose sides between the Resistance and the Combine and fight opposing forces in real-time strategy battles. The game features single-player missions and an offline AI skirmish mode as well as multiplayer for up to 8 players.
The launch ofHalf-Life Lambda Warsalso brings with it Patch 1.0, which adds new content from the beta version of the game. The patch introduces four new units: Heavy Rebels, Heavy Combines, Cran Synths, and Mortar Synths, as well as bug fixes for the game. AlthoughHalf-Life 2is played from a first-person perspective,Half-Life Lambda Warsis fully embracing thereal-time strategy formatwith an RTS interface, fog of war, and separate unit and production building groups.
The story ofHalf-Life LambdaWarsis an uplifting one for any who follow community-made mods of their favorite games. These mods are often created as a passion projects by teams who receive little to no financial compensation for all the hard work put in. The release ofHalf-Life Lambda Warsis an achievement in and of itself, as other community-made mods never come out at all.The Elder Scrolls 5: SkyrimmodSkyblivionand its sister modSkywindhave been in development for years as well, though there is still no expected release date for either.Half-Life Lambda Warsis lucky, and fans of theHalf-Lifeseries might want to give the real-time strategy game a shot.
Half-Life Lambda Warsis free to play now on Steam for PC.
