8.2 /10 1 Votes
Initial release date 1999 | 8.2/10 ModDB Release date(s) 1999 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Developer(s) The A-team (Akimbo Team Productions, LLC) Similar The Specialists, Firearms, BrainBread, Eternal Silence, Dystopia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Action Half-Life (abbreviated AHL) is a mod for the award-winning first-person shooter computer game Half-Life. It strives to simulate action movies, especially those directed by John Woo.
Contents
Development
Led by Dwayne 'Oddjob' Douglass, Action Half-Life went through several beta versions before being released as version 1.0 in 1999. It originally had several lead programmers involved, but Stuart 'Payback' Crouch coded the last few betas leading to v1.0.
AHL:Directors Cut, however, is a project started by the Ministry of Action. While this project isn't supported by the A-Team themselves, it has been authorized. Their goal is to take the best features of previous versions to create a final "Director's cut". This includes improving overall accessibility, weapon behavior, and content.
Features
Action Half-life has a stunt system similar to the one found in Max Payne.
Action Half-life also has support for a single player mode. Some unique features in this mode include a move called "Adrenaline Rush", which is similar to Bullet Time.
A more recent feature addition is the walljumps that were added in Release Candidate 2.
Action Half-Life is the second official mod in the "Action" computer game series. The first was Action Quake 2 and the third was Action Unreal Tournament 2004.
Gameplay
The traditional mode of gameplay is Deathmatch; at the start of a round, players must choose a Single Pistol, Unique Weapon, and Special Item. Unlike the buy menu in Counter-Strike, these weapons are free and have limited ammunition, which makes tactical usage crucial.
The game also includes a "last man standing" mode, which plays like deathmatch, but without respawning after death.
Sequel
Action Half-Life 2 was released in 2009 by RevolverStudios and MinistryOfAction as a Half-Life 2 mod.
Trivia
AHL was the favored modification for a small subculture described by Rock, Paper, Shotgun's writer Quintin Smith as a "mad cabal of mappers who obsessed over easter eggs", with some levels containing secret areas much larger and complex than the main level. These often included whole story-lines, puzzles, and scripted sequences.