By Alec Meer on July 20th, 2009 at 8:36 pm.
This puzzlicious Half-Life 2 mod is causing quite a stir, at least in our swollen inbox. “This year’s Minerva“, say some. “Mod of the year?” say others. “Has reinforced seams in order to contain dangerous quantities of awesome”, said an essay-length endorsement. “Try it… or GO TO HELL”, said a shorter, scarier one. Well, we’re all going to hell anyway, because of that thing we said about John’s mother, but might as well take a look nonetheless…
R&D’s hook is that it’s essentially non-combative. Yep – you go without guns throughout (bar the ol’ Gravity jobbie, but hey, that’s more about construction than destruction here). Sure, you can tell an Antlion to claw someone to death or arrange to squash men with falling girders, but you’re definitely not Edward Pistolhands. It’s an environmental adventure game, taking the irregular physics and logic puzzles seen in HL2 itself and turning them into the game itself. Mazes, gravity, exploding microwaves and fire-retardant antlion carapaces all make an appearance – it’s very much a point’n'click adventure in an FPS engine.
Some challenges are clever, some are very clever, some are annoying (especially the ones that involve pushing specific buttons on a keycode lock – the Source engine’s Use button lacks the required precision, alas), and some are openly silly (though in fairness the Combine’s ridiculous giant power cables were originally Valve’s fault), but crucially none of them involve shooting a man in the head until he falls down and doesn’t get up again.
The best comparison, oddly, is the original Half-Life – a game whose noble puzzle values its sequel largely abandoned in favour of super-atmospheric action. There is very much that sense of strange tricks and traps born of scientific experimentation, and your largely non-combative persona is in many ways more in keeping with the mind-over-matter character we’re often told Gordon Freeman is than the openly, incongruously murderous role he dons in Valve’s games.
If you’re rolling your eyes because this is more adventures in Combineland, don’t. The environment may be oh-so-familiar, but your interactions with it are a seismic (if oddly natural-feeling) shift away from what you’re used to. This is as must-play as an HL2 mod gets. So play it, you must.
Turns out it’s rather hard to thank the mod’s author for his sterling work, however. ‘mbortolino‘ is something of a man of mystery, it seems. Any clues, young bloodhounds?
20/07/2009 at 20:43 Mike says:
Guy’s full name is Matt Bortolino.
20/07/2009 at 20:44 Mike says:
Oh, and (sorry for the doublecomment) he posted it over at Interlopers.
“Research and Development is a mod for HL2 Ep.2, born from a series of test maps as I learned Hammer (hence the title) it’s grown into about an hour of puzzle-centric, gun-free gameplay.”
20/07/2009 at 20:52 Bhazor says:
For those struggling with the damn codes and switches you can turn on the cross hairs. To do so first you’ll need open the console. You’ll need to activate it in the advanced options menu and then check the controls menu to see what “Open Developer Console” is set to. Then with the console open type “crosshair 1″ (without quotes natch) and you’ll get the standard, no the godly, HL2 crosshairs.
It really boggles my mind that this got through testing and actually renders some parts unplayable. Still a spiffy wee mod though, I’d say best single player mod since Minerva.
20/07/2009 at 21:11 The_B says:
John’s mother is a Classy Lady.
20/07/2009 at 21:15 MrBejeebus says:
whats with the whole “im gonna use hlep2 for all mods ever” attitude of mod peeps nowadays, i bought HL2:GOTY a few weeks before orange box came out so i missed the deal, so i dont have ep2 or 1, which means no mods like this work for me, i was deeply dissapointed when it came to Dear Esther..
20/07/2009 at 21:21 jsutcliffe says:
MrBejeebus, an obvious solution presents itself: Buy the HL2 episodes to play the mods. As an added bonus, you also get to play Episodes 1 and 2.
20/07/2009 at 21:24 Tei says:
Since theres no documentation how to start playing this, and it don’t create a launch icon. I am here with something installed that I have no idea how to launch, where is installed, or something.
Is this a map that is loaded from console? do I have to create a shortcut of htl.exe with “hl.exe -game science-in-action-research”.
What?
20/07/2009 at 21:25 Tinus says:
A quick browse on the moddb page reveals that the cross hair thing should be fixed now:
“Updated 17 July 2009, fixed several issues & added a dynamic crosshair when using the keypads & lab buttons.”
20/07/2009 at 21:26 Tei says:
Ignore it, I have found how to start it, and I am not telling u.
20/07/2009 at 21:28 Matt says:
The world needs more imploding microwaves. Also, Mr. Whirly = new Weighted Companion Cube?
20/07/2009 at 21:33 A-Scale says:
WOW! I just picked this up two days ago on the suggestion of a RPS member, and I’ve been loving the hell out of it. This man should be hired by Valve as a level designed. I had no idea this game came out so recently. I feel like a regular avant gardener!
20/07/2009 at 21:41 lumpi says:
Yus, this is beautiful.
It’s as close to the MacGyver game I always dreamed up as a kid. You know, don’t use guns, make elaborate “distractions” using random household objects instead…
20/07/2009 at 21:49 Adventurous Putty says:
I, for one, am quite a fan of the Combine’s absurd massive power cables and am resentful of your public mockery of them, Mr. Meer.
20/07/2009 at 21:52 Theory says:
There’s another critical bug later on the game. If you can’t get out of the cart, open the console and type “ent_fire ui deactivate”.
But even obscure console fiddling can’t stop this from being my MOTY 2009! It’s so good. :D
20/07/2009 at 21:55 Smee says:
I for one can’t believe how beautiful it all looks. Source really does some lovely texture work, eh? This guy’s a proper artist.
20/07/2009 at 21:56 Starkadder says:
Maybe I’m a bit of a thickie, but I can’t figure out how to get past the bit just after your ant-lion buddy is killed. I’m assuming I need to get the container to drop and crush the APC, but I can’t see how…
20/07/2009 at 21:57 Stem says:
@MrBeJeebus: get yourself to http://www.g2play.net and get Orange Box for just over £8, giving you Ep1,2,TF2 and Portal as well as a copy of HL2 you can gift (or sell for a couple of quid!)
20/07/2009 at 22:20 Catmacey says:
Ok. I’m an idiot. Some one please tell me how to launch this thing… I have it installed…
20/07/2009 at 22:22 The_B says:
Catmacey: Restart Steam after installing, as is the case for all HL2 mods (but granted, they usually tell you this.)
20/07/2009 at 22:32 Catmacey says:
@The_B : Many thanks.
20/07/2009 at 22:38 Maj says:
@Starkadder: The answer lies in the cables (or more precisely, their weight limits)
20/07/2009 at 23:01 Brass Gerbil says:
As long as there are no jumping puzzles. I hate those almost as much as I hate soccer.
20/07/2009 at 23:11 Zra says:
If it really is Matt Bortolino, then he’s the graphic artist who worked with Liquid Development on Hellgate: London.
20/07/2009 at 23:41 Wallace says:
And the award for most inventive use of a microwave goes to…
21/07/2009 at 00:03 Starkadder says:
Thanks Maj, that’s actually the first thing I tried, but it didn’t work, so I thought I was on the wrong track. Perhaps my body wasn’t fully on the container or something. Anyway, thoroughly enjoying it so far!
21/07/2009 at 00:06 Vandelay says:
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!!!
I love the Half Life games but this had almost as many fantastic moments as the whole series put together. The only qualm I can think of is that some of the puzzles could have been slightly better sign posted but I managed to solve the whole thing by myself, so it wasn’t too much of a big deal. But besides that, this really could have been made by Valve themselves. Genius throughout.
21/07/2009 at 00:45 Mike says:
I don’t think i’ll buy RPS advice on mods after the trainwreck that is Neotokyo.
21/07/2009 at 00:47 Tim James says:
Can goddamn websites in 2009 figure out a way to earn enough money to keep the servers on without this clown college jumping through hoops to download a zip file?
I’m about to join moddb out of pity.
21/07/2009 at 00:50 Psychopomp says:
@Mike
RPS made a bad/strange call=/=All of their calls are bad/strange
21/07/2009 at 00:52 Mike says:
They usually make bad/strange calls on mods.
21/07/2009 at 01:08 Krondonian says:
I find it so odd as a regular lurker on Moddb that this- perhaps the most accomplished, professional mod I’ve ever played- had basically no introduction. Especially with the enormous effort many others put into advertising much lesser efforts.
This is the first HL2 mod I’ve played with a custom vehicle too, DIPRIP aside. All round awesome. I only got stuck twice, and they were my own fault (I turned the crosshair on for the keypad bits).
21/07/2009 at 01:25 The_B says:
Starkadder – you yourself are not required for this puzzle. (Call it a quick lapse in physics continuity.)
21/07/2009 at 01:59 Purple0limar says:
Seriously, wow. That was unbelievable. The way the author gives you a few precious moments of invulnerability with Mr. Whirly, then steals it away with barnacles– great. This guy had better have a job coming to him at Valve.
21/07/2009 at 02:20 Psychopomp says:
@Mike
Then I question your taste :\
21/07/2009 at 03:06 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
The evil *if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean* was brilliant.
21/07/2009 at 03:43 Willy359 says:
I hate freakin’ gunships.
21/07/2009 at 04:39 Weedkiller says:
@Willy359
Amen. Trying to hit a gunship with it’s own bombs has always been hard with no depth perception. I was willing to go through the fight against two gunships, but when I realized I need to fight a gunship, hordes of zombines and hordes of rollermines all at once I just quit.
21/07/2009 at 05:37 Peanut says:
I loved it through and through, also slightly proud I didn’t need to ask for help for anything as some folks on ModDB are. :D
21/07/2009 at 05:49 T. Slothrop says:
Best mod for Half-Life 2 that I’ve ever played, the imagination, visual cues, level design, Mr. Whirly and even visual fidelity all supersede Valve’s work, even the imploding microwaves recall the black scientific humour of the first game perfectly. I really wish Valve would integrate puzzles like this into their own games and I certainly join the chorus to see this man hired by the aforementioned developer. Minerva just doesn’t compare to this brilliance, sure the levels were ‘clean’ and neatly constructed without too many rough edges but where was the heart?
21/07/2009 at 06:08 wbjohnston says:
beat it. it was good. i wish they found a better way to kill heli-choppers though
21/07/2009 at 06:22 Cirdain says:
http://www.destructoid.com/elephant/index.phtml?t=Indie+Nation has a much better article an doesn’t undersell how awesome this mod is.
21/07/2009 at 06:24 Cirdain says:
Destructoid has a much better article an doesn’t undersell how awesome this mod is.
21/07/2009 at 06:43 Joseph says:
Really bloody well made. Lots of fun, interesting and varied puzzles. Particularly like the crawling zombie one and Mr. Whirly.
21/07/2009 at 07:38 Ben Abraham says:
Arrgh! It’s asking me to remember a what those four colours numbers were 20 minutes after I last did that section!? AAAARRRGGHHH! Pro Tip: Write them down for future reference, players!
21/07/2009 at 07:46 Ben Abraham says:
Ah, I watched this walk-through and figured it out. SPOILER WARNING! (admittedly, it was pretty confusing what it was asking me to do.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jxjRxNhKlc&feature=related
21/07/2009 at 07:55 Ennui says:
The guy who made this mod posts regularly on Interlopers.net under the username Matt_b. He basically made it as he learned Hammer, and you can follow some of the development of it through his threads there from the past year.
I personally loved this mod to death and as far as I’m concerned (sorry Minerva fanboys) this is the best singleplayer experience that a Source mod has produced to date.
21/07/2009 at 08:10 Kommissar Nicko says:
Am I mistaken, or was there once a mod called “Reserach and Development” for the original Half-Life, which was all shooting and killing, and had you working for either Amalgamated Fluorodynamics or Something Carbide Labs? Is this a hallucination?
Also, Neotokyo was fun!
21/07/2009 at 08:28 Metaltron says:
Kommissar: that mod is called “Science & Industry”. they are supposed to be making a new one but dont know if they are still working on it.
21/07/2009 at 08:36 wbjohnston says:
ben follow the wire
21/07/2009 at 09:03 JB says:
Weedkiller, it really wasn’t all THAT tough. I used the rollermines to take down the Zombines, then killed the chopper. Easy? No. But not impossible. A challenge, like a lot of the mod.
Also, once I finished R&D I downloaded and played through Minerva. Thought it was good, but R&D beats it hands down for entertainment value IMHO.
21/07/2009 at 09:07 AzzX says:
I want guns dammit :)
21/07/2009 at 09:13 Tei says:
Great mod. Lots of puzzles. I love the effects, like the microwave box.
21/07/2009 at 09:50 jprwilliams says:
We can congratulate him :
http://matt-bortolino.cgsociety.org/about/
21/07/2009 at 11:22 Soulless One says:
Excellent mod. I’m a gonna try to kill more gunships that way. Also, the secret to the fuse box puzzle is to back up a bit. that had me stuck for awhile.
21/07/2009 at 11:24 BooleanBob says:
‘Edward Pistolhands’ is a good joke.
21/07/2009 at 11:46 Ginger Yellow says:
“whats with the whole “im gonna use hlep2 for all mods ever” attitude of mod peeps nowadays, i bought HL2:GOTY ”
Presumably to incorporate the improvements to the Source engine, such as HDR.
21/07/2009 at 12:10 Tei says:
“Presumably to incorporate the improvements to the Source engine, such as HDR.”
It could be a flaw on artistic types. Don’t understand the concept of compatibility. You can also get this problem with Flash animations. Are always exported to the last version, even if the last version are only supported in a few OS’s, or the animation don’t really need to use Flash 12.
Too bad you have Flash 10.
It don’t get to these guys that is better to release for the older version possible. If the animation is compatible with Flash 5, release for Flash 5, to get more people playing it.
Also, artistic types don’t understand about different machines. “It work on my machine” is all what understand. So a lame flash animation that move in a 4 GHz double core CPU, move like slow in a laptop, using the 100% of the CPU.
It make you wonder how the artist types survived withouth programmers all these millennium.
Anyway is not related here. The mod is totally unplayable withouth HDR. just kidding…
21/07/2009 at 12:12 Tei says:
postdata:
Is the version I have on my machine is type of “It works on my machine”
21/07/2009 at 14:18 Bluepixie says:
Meh, sounds like a Source version of without the story and survival-horror.
21/07/2009 at 14:21 CMaster says:
You don’t need to require episode 2 to use HDR and other engine improvements. You can make maps for the “Orange Box Engine” and anybody who owns ANY source game can play them. It’s the inclusion of content that makes ownership of individual games necessary. In this case it is probably the use of a certain NPC, texture, model or sound that requires the use of Ep2.
It’s an argument I keep having with people who map for Synergy – that they shouldn’t use Ep1 or 2 content unless it genuinley adds to the map, as it significantly cuts down the number of potential players.
21/07/2009 at 14:30 MonkeyMonster says:
“Well, we’re all going to hell anyway, because of that thing we said about John’s mother” had me chuckling all the way to the bottom of the article. But thanks for making me want to play hl and hl2 all the way through AGAIN – yeah thanks lads. Oh and this mod too.
21/07/2009 at 16:21 Nero says:
Wow, just finished it and there are some really cool and clever stuff here. So awesome.
21/07/2009 at 17:23 A-Scale says:
In contrast to the brilliance that is R&D, I played “Mission Improbable”, another mod that I saw sitting along with R&D on the HL2 mod site. It was a perfectly fine HL2 level, but compared to the genius that is R&D’s level design it felt like rubbish. I am now spoiled.
21/07/2009 at 18:23 Chemix says:
It’s like a point and click adventure game mashed with HL2 and Junkyard Wars: and without the need to check a guide every 2 minutes to see if the left, second to bottom door from 4 perspectives ago contained the first of 25 keys or if I calibrate the machine to 45 or 123 degrees. I love it. Even if Mr. Whirlie is a bit floaty and hard to drive at times, it’s still a wagon with a roll cage and a scrapmetal fan that propels it.
21/07/2009 at 18:29 Bobic says:
I feel pretty sorry for the zombie torso. Chopped in half, eaten by a headcrab, trapped in a box, trapped on a drawbridge, its a sad story.
21/07/2009 at 21:38 Jaffo says:
Great stuff, really enjoyed it.
21/07/2009 at 21:56 vader says:
That was really, really good. Lot’s of really clever puzzles in there. I’m gonna force feed this to everybody on my steam list.
21/07/2009 at 22:06 Paul Moloney says:
Been playing 50 minutes, and grinned like a loon several times.
Gabe Newell, hire this guy!!!
P.
21/07/2009 at 22:24 Tom says:
MR WHIIRRRLLEEEYYY!!!!!!!
R&D – putting the laughs and cool lasers back in to Half Life.
21/07/2009 at 22:25 Tom says:
MR WWHHIIRRRLLLEEEYYYY!
R&D – putting the laughs and cool lasers back in to Half Life.
21/07/2009 at 23:44 Urthman says:
After coming really late to the Half-Life 2 party, I was enormously disappointed at how few single-player mods there were, especially compared with the incredible bounty of single-player-goodness that followed from the first Half-Life game. Where is the Source answer to They Hunger? Is it really that much harder to develop mods for these next-gen engines? Have all the kids interested in game-making moved to Flash and other web stuff? Are there so many games now that no single game gets a critical mass of mod development to really explode? Is single-player modding dead? Are people who would have made a game in the past have too many new games to play to make mods for old ones?
Anyway, Research & Development is a wonderful exception. Super-high quality in production values, fun ideas, fun execution. I kind of hope he doesn’t get hired by Valve and continues to turn out more Source-engine-goodness while we’re waiting for Episode 3.
MORE LIKE THIS PLEASE!
22/07/2009 at 00:22 macc says:
Utter geniality, had an enormous smile on my face at the end!
More like this please!
22/07/2009 at 01:16 Geb says:
By the end I was grinning so much that my mouth hurt, but then about fifteen minutes after that, I stopped suddenly and asked myself “did I just have an A-Team ending?”
Bullets have very little effect, enemy takedowns are mostly by conveniently placed heavy objects, finish by hiding in a garage to build an armoured car…
It was, wasn’t it. Argh.
22/07/2009 at 14:56 Theory says:
Right here. OH WAIT.
23/07/2009 at 03:52 Thiefsie says:
Great mod… better than HL2 single player imo (and defo better than Ep1).
Brought back a lot of the exploring/reading/thinking nostalgia from HL1 including the train rides.
nice challenge too at times.
23/07/2009 at 08:14 Bobic says:
Actually the level transitions are more natural than in the legit hl2 (words on the wall)
23/07/2009 at 13:55 Paul Moloney says:
Quite possibly a contender for Game of the Year in my book; apart from that one annoying level at the end with two swinging platforms, it’s perfect.
P.
23/07/2009 at 15:46 KP says:
I can’t exit Mr. Whirley without being frozen in place and still controling the vehicle. :(
25/07/2009 at 11:25 SlappyBag says:
@Kommissar Nicko – as Metaltron said there was another one in production but we ended up folding.
28/07/2009 at 22:00 noggin says:
just finished it – i heartily agree it’s ingenious and lotsa fun
01/08/2009 at 07:09 Fumarole says:
Urthman: next gen engine? Say wha? Isn’t Source five years old now?
01/08/2009 at 10:25 domo says:
RAWR! I’M EDWARD PISTOL HANDS!!!! FEAR MY WRATH!!!!
01/08/2009 at 17:49 alvarito says:
no se que decir… xD!
02/08/2009 at 00:32 CMaster says:
This article now linked to from Steam Update News. Funky.
Also, this mod was pretty awesome. I think the need for Ep 2 may well have been the helicopter you can throw bombs at, although can’t rule out textures or sounds also. Oh, and the gnome.
03/08/2009 at 17:36 Pyro says:
I noticed this mod on ModDB, downloaded it, thought “It’s a nice mod.”
Now it’s all over the ****ing place, getting rave reviews left and right.
Go figure.
15/08/2009 at 01:25 Kua says:
I like it a lot. A whole lot. Very very polished. Very very clever. And does that thing, the player, the gravy-stained-vest-wearing-tin-swilling player feel clever. I don’t recall getting frustrated once. If it took me a little while to work out a solution then I was very much enjoying that working out. Lordy, this is good.
Oh, and Valve have a rather delicious engine there too. It doesn’t feel dated at all and I actually prefer the ‘style’ to Crysis and Far Cry 2.
15/08/2009 at 01:28 Kua says:
How embarassing. I really f***** up one of those sentences. Enjoy.
17/08/2009 at 16:07 fuggles says:
Gah! This was absolutely brilliant until the very end part – although I see what the desired effect should be (and it’s probably down to my mad skillz) I became very bored as I failed massively to do x to y enough times as I kept falling off, or spinning or generally not getting it right.
Still, asides from that – bravo! Clever and funny.
29/08/2009 at 07:49 Jayt says:
Finally reinstalled ep2 and gave this a go, loved it!
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09/01/2011 at 09:33 GameKey says:
Really bloody well made.
:)