Action Half-Life
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Action Half-Life 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. It was developed by The A-Team, led by Dwayne 'Oddjob' Douglass. Action Half -Life had several beta versions before being released as version 1.0. It has had several lead programmers, but Stuart 'Payback' Crouch is the one that made the last few betas leading to V1.0 (which was meant to be the final one). AHL:Directors Cut, however, is a project started by the Ministry of Action. While this project isn't supported by the A-Team themselves, Ministry of Action has been given the A-Team's blessing. The Ministry is a group of people who still enjoy AHL and think that it has a life ahead of it despite the age of the HL engine. In their opinion, AHL is a wonderful formula for online play, but a few bad design decisions spoiled the brew; thus they have been busy making improvements to AHL v1. They have tried to take the best features of all betas + V1.0 and create a final "Director's cut". They improved overall accessibility, weapon behaviour, and content, and according to most they did a nice job. Nowadays the latest AHL-version is AHL: DC - Release Candidate 2 (RC2). RC3 is currently in development (June 2006) and might be the last and final version of AHL:DC.
Action HL has several rare features. First, it has a stunt system similar to the one found in Max Payne, introduced in Action beta 3.0 long before Max Payne was released. It was also the first Half-Life mod to feature akimbo pistols. Furthermore, it pioneered several graphic enhancements to the Half-Life engine, including the visible laser sight and wall debris. In addition to the usual Deathmatch and Team vs Team, it also has a round based game-mode called "Last Man Standing" which can be described as either Deathmatch without respawning or Teamplay with everyone on their own team. Note, Unreal Tournament also has a game-mode called "Last Man Standing", but normally the players are able to respawn a few times. UT LMS with only one life would be equivalent to AHL LMS.
In addition, unlike other mods, it has support for single player mode. In it, the player can execute an Adrenaline Rush mode, which is basically Bullet Time.
Another noted aspect of AHL is the inclusion of several extremely off-the-beaten-path but long and intricate secret areas that are housed in many of its maps, especially those created by famed map designer Hondo. One in particular (in the map "5 AM") takes multiple players to access and complete, and is in fact much bigger than the main portion of the map.
Action Half-Life is considered to be the second official mod in the "Action" series. The first was Action Quake 2 and the third was Action Unreal Tournament 2004.
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[edit] Weapons
Action Half-Life has these weapons:
Kung Fu is your basic melee attack. You can punch with your fists or you can perform a variety of kicks. The secondary fire performs a spin-kick, and pressing jump and stunt simultaneously while standing still performs a jump-kick.
- Throwing Knife
Every player comes equipped with at least one throwing knife, which can be thrown or used as a back-up melee weapon. Throwing a knife takes timing and precision, and because knives take time to travel through the air, a knife user must lead their target. However, a thrown knife does a substantial amount of damage, and can often kill with a single hit. It is not possible to throw knives while diving unless the knife was already pulled back before a dive is made.
The grenade is a popular item on populated servers. It has a large blast radius, and can be set for short range, medium range, and long range tosses. If the grenade pin is pulled by accident, use of the +weapon command will place the pin back into the grenade.
The Beretta is the most common pistol in AHL. It is blessed with a high ammo count and decent accuracy values, and a very short reload, which make it popular among new players. However, it is plagued by poor penetration and low damage. The Beretta can be held akimbo, with one Beretta in each hand. The Beretta can be fired in semi-automatic mode for more precise shooting, or automatic mode to put more bullets into the air.
Another often used weapon, the "Golden Colts" (resembling the ones used by Nicholas Cage in Face/Off) fire the powerful .45 ACP round. While on par with the Beretta in terms of accuracy, the 1911's small magazine means that the user will expend their rounds in a short amount of time.
Used by the famous John Wayne, the Colt SAA is a single action revolver that fires .45 Colt rounds. The SAA has the longest reloading time of all of the pistols because rounds must be loaded one at a time. However, unlike magazine pistols like the 1911 or Beretta, remaining ammunition within the gun isn't lost during a reload. The SAA can be quickly fired by fanning the hammer, sacrificing accuracy for speed. While the single SAA is highly inaccurate, the akimbo SAAs are the exact opposite.
One of two high caliber pistols, the Desert Eagle is the most powerful of the three semi-automatic pistols. The Desert Eagle's high caliber round guarantees excellent penetration, but its downfalls are long draw time, high amount of recoil and small magazine capacity. In the right hands, the Desert Eagle is a very formidable weapon.
The .44 Magnum is the single most powerful pistol in the whole game, beating out the Desert Eagle by a small margin. The Magnum, like the SAA, takes more time to reload than the semi-automatic pistols. However, unlike the SAA, the Magnum is incredibly accurate. If coupled with a laser sight, the Magnum can serve as a makeshift sniper rifle. However, this weapon takes a steady hand to shoot.
- Submachine gun (MP5K)
The submachine gun is a good all-around weapon. It works best in close-quarters, but can take out targets at medium range. The submachine gun can empty very quickly, so acquiring additional magazines for it is important. It can be coupled with a silencer, making it perfect for stealthy players.
As proven in John Woo's masterpiece, Hard Boiled, the shotgun is an excellent close range weapon. It can rip through opponents easily, with kevlar providing a small amount of protection. The shotgun is marred by its short range and manual pump action. Each shell must be loaded into the shotgun individually, so a shotgun user must hold the reload button to load more than one shell at a time.
- Handcannon (as seen in The Road Warrior)
The handcannon is an example of big power in a small package. It has two barrels, which can be fired simultaneously, or one after the other, resulting in massive damage. The handcannon's short range requires the user to be point-blank in order for the shots to do any significant damage. Even if the user empties both barrels and misses, reloading only takes two seconds.
- Assault Rifle (M4 Carbine)
The Assault Rifle is one of the most popular unique weapons of AHL. With high damage and penetration, the Assault Rifle is a truly powerful and versatile weapon. Fully automatic fire produces quite an amount of recoil, so burst fire or single shot is recommended in order to maintain accuracy. The Assault Rifle can be coupled with a laser sight to reduce the recoil and boost accuracy.
- Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle
The semi-automatic sniper rifle is the weaker of the two sniper rifles, but allows for quick follow-up shots. The semi-auto isn't as popular as the bolt-action because it lacks the bolt-action's one-hit-kill ability.
- Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle
The most often used and most maligned unique weapon in AHL. The .50 caliber bolt-action rifle is tied with the throwing knife as the most powerful weapon in the game, able to kill with a single hit to the chest. Anybody lucky enough to survive such a shot is likely to bleed to death in a matter of seconds. Legshots don't kill, but they are useful, slowing down an opponent and allowing a kill shot. Also present is a bug which allows a bolt-action user to fire the weapon accurately in an instant. Opinions on the .50 cal are varied. One such opinion is that it breaks AHL's fast paced gameplay.
Note: The Beretta, 1911, and SAA can be held akimbo. Only four total pistols may be carried at a time. Up to ten knives may be carried at a time. Only one non-pistol gun ("unique weapon") may be carried at a time. However, when equipped with the bandolier, the player may carry up to twenty knives, twice as much ammunition, and two unique weapons.
[edit] Items
Action Half-Life has several items which provide advantages
- Flashlight - Player Casts a Spot of light directly ahead. If pointed at a person wearing Night Vision goggles it causes temporary blindness
- Bandolier - Doubles the amount of ammo that can be carried and allows a player to hold one additional unique weapon.
- Laser Sight - Increases the accuracy of all weapons except the Knife, Colt SAA, Shotgun, Handcannon and both Sniper Rifles. Also casts a red beam from the muzzle of the gun often giving away the position of the player to an opponent
- Silencer - Dramatically reduces the sound of the Beretta, Colt 1911, Sub-Machine Gun, and both Sniper Rifles. Also increases accuracy of these weapons but by a significantly smaller amount than the Laser Sight.
- Night vision goggles - Allows a player to see as well in dark areas as one would in daylight.
- Kevlar vest - Dramatically reduces the amount of damage taken from torso wounds. Knife damage is not affected.
- Stealth Slippers - Players footsteps are inaudible allowing for stealth and the element of surprise. Excellent when combined with Throwing Knives
- Quickdraw Holster - There is normally a short delay when switching between weapons. The Quickdraw Holster allows a player to switch instantly. Useful in a firefight when coupled with weapons such as the Shotgun and Colt SAA which take a good deal of time to reload.
Note: Only one item may be held at a time.
