BLACK SNOW Mod Released

[ad_hominem]

Interlopers luminary and Source engine chum Tay, or "Kremator", has released his new polar horror story BLACK SNOW.

You play John Matsuda, an IT Technician that is part of the Prometheus assessment team sent to investigate communication silence at a research station in Greenland. Naturally, nothing is what it seems.

The mod requires HL2:Ep2 to play, but really, who doesn't have that nowadays? You can read more about it in the thread he's created on these very forums, or go straight for the ModDb.


*Disclaimer* I helped Tay out with some minor script editing and playtesting for BLACK SNOW. The existence of this news story is surely evidence of my absolute corruption.

[no00dylan]

I tested this a long, long time ago. It was scary as hell back then. I'm too scared to play it today.

Look out for the shrim monster

[nub]

Stuck in a room with a black smokey monster taunting me by opening the door whenever I close it.


This is fucking horrifying...

[Mehis]

Stuck in a room with a black smokey monster taunting me by opening the door whenever I close it.


This is fucking horrifying...

Try to go outside. Go to the kennel and find a blowtorch to access the generator.

[zombie@computer]

Wow, Tay finished something?


Dangit, cant download the file. Can only get a 403.

[Vicpop]

Get it from ModDB.

[zombie@computer]

So, umm what am i supposed to do? Im outside lab one, ive got a feeling i need to climb the roof of the generator room but ive no idea how to do that... Ive been running around for ages but none of the doors open, theres no boxes to move so i cant stack some climbable pile. Any spoilers?

[Mehis]

So, umm what am i supposed to do? Im outside lab one, ive got a feeling i need to climb the roof of the generator room but ive no idea how to do that... Ive been running around for ages but none of the doors open, theres no boxes to move so i cant stack some climbable pile. Any spoilers?

Go inside the transmitter room (right next to the generator, on the right), take the grappling hook and then you can access the main building (the big middle building) through the hole on the wall.
Even though you DON'T have to do this, because next you need to get the blowtorch from the kennel/garage and to get there you can just go around the main building or do what I said and go inside. There is another exit on the other side of the main building, which makes it easier to access the kennel and back.

Hint: In order to get the blowtorch, you need to climb up a box stack inside the garage. It will be dark as fuck there so you can't really see anything.
At this stage you praise the stupid Source engine because of the reflects it does on props so you can actually see some of them.
And after that I guess it's pretty clear WHAT TO DO WITH THE BLOWTORCH, right?

[zombie@computer]

So, umm what am i supposed to do? Im outside lab one, ive got a feeling i need to climb the roof of the generator room but ive no idea how to do that... Ive been running around for ages but none of the doors open, theres no boxes to move so i cant stack some climbable pile. Any spoilers?

Go inside the transmitter room (right next to the generator, on the right), take the grappling hook and then you can access the main building (the big middle building) through the hole on the wall.
Even though you DON'T have to do this, because next you need to get the blowtorch from the kennel/garage and to get there you can just go around the main building or do what I said and go inside. There is another exit on the other side of the main building, which makes it easier to access the kennel and back.

Hint: In order to get the blowtorch, you need to climb up a box stack inside the garage. It will be dark as fuck there so you can't really see anything.
At this stage you praise the stupid Source engine because of the reflects it does on props so you can actually see some of them.
And after that I guess it's pretty clear WHAT TO DO WITH THE BLOWTORCH, right?

Ah, found it.

This game is not my cup of tea. I loath dark area mazes. Ended up mat_fullbrighting everything, but that made the game lost all its charm. So im gonna call it quits.

[joe_rogers_11155]

*Disclaimer* I helped Tay out with some minor script editing and playtesting for BLACK SNOW. The existence of this news story is surely evidence of my absolute corruption.

i dont know what blackened your soul long ago, but may god have mercy on it.

*Disclaimer* I am currently downloading.

EDIT: OK, I just played for 30 minutes. It is really great overall, and incredibly intense, but I pretty much have to agree with zombie@computer here, in that......(spoilers)

things are a little imbalanced in the black hallway maze. i dont exactly mind the darkness and i understand what the goal is with the flickering lights down the blakcened hallway. but the monster is kind of bugged. oftentimes the monster will not disappear when the next light comes on, and then i end up colliding with the monster while trying to walk to the next light. then it takes two quick swings at me and i'm dead. i tried doing this hallway thing legitimately for about 15 minutes and it sucked. i am trying to get from one half-lit room to another but the monster moves very quickly and hits me twice while i'm walking before i can reach the next half-lit room. i also think that certain areas are extremely tough to find in the dark, such as the locker room. i get stuck bumping into walls and props (even with the projected texture nearby, it is tough to navigate) and then the monster kills me again. i am also having trouble finding puzzle elements in this area, but i feel that it would be easier to search if i could evade the monster slightly better. it seems to teleport away when it runs into a light...what if it teleports away after smacking the player once? that would still daze the player and penalize him for getting caught, but it would also increase the survivability and thus the playability of this area. just a thought.

[Teh Frog]

Got it, played through it in about an hour. The game is pretty neat, fantastic level design and visuals with an intriguing story that you can discover through a series of intricate messages between people that were left behind. Although there is one extremely large, glaring issue. It's a spoiler, so don't read the spoiler if you haven't played it yet.

Alright, what the fuck is up with the ending? I play through this game, learn all about the story of the facility and what's going on there, get through the eerie setting and past those damn invisible monsters, discover a way out, do all this work to get the Snow Cat running, only to get blown up by a bomb behind the map? The fuck? What type of ending is that? There's no closure, no explanation, no happy ending. You just explode. Fucking... what? Why? Who thought of that? Did I miss something? Is there another way? Or is that just it; boom you're dead. End game. Come on now, is there some other route or ending I missed? This was a MAJOR let down in an otherwise flawless horror experience. /rant

Also, for those having problems escaping the monsters, spam your space bar. You move considerably faster while bunnyhopping. I outran the monster by spamming space.