Half-Life 2 Beta Mods: A Quick History

In this video, I showcase a couple of mods that tried to recreate the Half-Life 2 Beta. For almost 20 years, there have been countless mods that tried to take the leaked maps or even create their own maps that would go over the old/beta storyline.
Link to Vitoy's forum post:
hl2-beta.ru/index.php?topic=2...
Links to the mods themselves can be found in Vitoy's post.
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All music used in my videos are my own UNLESS stated in the description above. You can listen to them on my Hazard Music channel, or on most music streaming services.
Intro Music:
Unexplained Hazards (OG Intro)
Intro by Skyclad
❗Links❗
☢Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/2YLBB...
☢Music Channel: / @hazardmusicyt

[@RadiationHazardYT]

IM SORRY I FORGOT TO MENTION BETA MINIMALIST MOD PLS FORGIV THX

[@tofix6839]

I thought you didnt mention it because it was so iconic you didnt need to

[@dorijandodig5189]

Ok

[@NiiRubra]

Mentioning it in a pinned comment is minimalist too, this was all planned, clearly

[@RadiationHazardYT]

@@NiiRubra you got me 😎😎

[@SkillChill112]

Dont worry bruh. Just make a full vid of it yeah? ;)

[@hl2-beta]

Hey, here's Vitoi. This video brings back so many memories, many of these mods had so much potential... A small correction: I actually released Air Exchange mod back in 2008. In fact that's how I started fixing beta - I really liked the idea of Airex chapter but no one released a fixed version of it before. So I decided to try and fix it myself. And then, most of mods that had Airex chapter actually used my fix as a start. As for 2018 release - it was an updated version of my mod with cpt. Vance scene I added after Mega Patch 4 was released.

[@RadiationHazardYT]

Hey Vitoi! Thanks for the correction!

[@arthurasta96]

This Vance scene blew my mind when I first saw it. Awesome work. Thanks for bringing AirEx back to light)

[@systemshocker2875]

HOLY SMOKES! It's been a long time since I've seen you!

[@umcarafoda125]

Hey rad, about that HALF LIFE 2 skyboxes video that you're making, there is a HALF LIFE 2 beta skybox on counter strike source files and you can use it on hammer, and the skybox is pretty dark and gritty i think its from hyper era or 2002 era

[@RadiationHazardYT]

I'll take a look. Thanks!

[@rebel6301]

cs:s is one of my favourite source games, thanks for mentioning it!

[@SocknessMonster]

dark and grittying my beta half life 2

[@stormhought]

Your forgetting the most important beta mod: Beta thick Alyx

[@mak4yla_yt]

Thick Goth Mossman

[@Sharp22CatFish]

Thick Isaac kleiner

[@v_crowbar]

Thick Barney

[@jess648]

dark interval is awesome because it actually feels like an alternate universe half life 2. especially with the level of polish in relatively recent ModDB update articles

[@Kyezoar]

Another +1 for the Dark and Gritty Scale. But for real though. As a huge fan of videogame beta's and just any topics you can find on the TRCF, these mods are freaking awesome.

[@BlazejBoc]

OMG Another Dark and Gritty video. I will be sipping my Consuls private reserve while I watch this

[@dennisholmgren4107]

Oh cool! My old concept art at 9:09! I remember working on this mod back in the days! Many of the team members honestly tried to put their best into it, but our leadership was very weak and very little real progress was getting made! Still, I remember it fondly and learnt a lot from the experience! Great video! Brought back many memories from the early HL2 modding days!

[@RadiationHazardYT]

You made that!? Excellent work on those pieces! I checked them out on Moddb while I was making this video.

[@dennisholmgren4107]

​@@RadiationHazardYT Yes I did! I made all the concept art for that mod. It was a real fun experience with lots of really young, talented developers! I hope they are all doing good and got into the industry by now! Looking forward to that special series coming up! I'm a huge fan of your videos!

[@aSkyclad]

My heart will always go to Missing Information, being my first exposure to the beta. I'll always remember the day I installed it, July 7, 2009. I remember it so clearly cos it was the day of Michael Jackson's memorial service and I had the TV right next to the PC as I was checking out the Trainstation Plaza lmao

[@reptiliannoizezz.413]

God rest your soul Michael 😔

[@Vienna3080]

The History of Dark and Griddy🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥

[@overlordmgcover2262]

I really love Dark Interval and Raising the Bar: Redux. I wish that both mods will reach their end goal and their fullest potential. A beta mod that has been dead for a long time but always fascinated me has been Dark Skies. The concept art (which can all be found on the DeviantArt aswell) always had a certain charm that just stuck with me.

[@viannizvnv7222]

goddamn, just checked them out and yeah a lot of the concept art kick absolute ass

[@DaXenCroosader-27EA2]

cant believe you forgot the GOAT of beta mods, half-life 2 beta minimalist mod

[@AJ-po6up]

That's a pretty good comprehensive list of hl2 beta mods, I've played most of them as a beta connoisseur but there's a few I haven't tried yet so this is a perfect opportunity to try them out. I hope the beta curse doesn't claim Dark Interval or RTBR, those 2 are the poster child of what beta mods are capable of. I wanna see the day they're completed for real.

[@systemshocker2875]

5:20 heads up:im still working on porting that to Coterminus

[@thesynthscreamcollective]

Man, watching your videos while inhaling a burrito and drinking coke on the couch is a guilty pleasure of mine

[@kkarhiiv95]

Team Gaben also had a big forum, in fact, it was the biggest HL2 beta forum, but it was always shit. Vitoj was user of that forum, and the closure of the Team Gaben forum made him create Project Beta. Also, holy shit you are actually making a video on build 2046. There is unlisted streams on the Project Beta channel with other developers playing that mod, if anyone wants to check it out.

[@AShift-io1ng]

Vitoy created hl2 beta forum because beta duscussion was banned on Nashalife forums, russian-speaking beta community of the time was largely uninvolved with team gaben.

[@kkarhiiv95]

@@AShift-io1ng A, ok.

[@alotario]

I think the cancellations of all these mods show exactly why the original game wouldn't have worked -- it was too ambitious. Even Valve couldn't do it.

[@CB66941]

RTB:R really is such a stand out among what you've listed. I have hope they'll reach the finish line. - Cinematic mod Hoo boy I hope you got enough hard disk space.

[@matijajovic8125]

Great idea for the video! Loved it. Coterminus is still in development but basically just one guy is working on it so it is super slow. Unfortunately DI won't have Ravenholm, but I hope for the Part 2 release this year. RTBR will have Division 3 demo out this year for sure. Can't wait!

[@cosmiccynic2757]

I hope that RTBR will break the curse.

[@TheUltimateD00mer]

Same

[@VUFL0]

i love Gritty Half life 2 slop!!!

[@barklagestudios6464]

I love hl2 beta videos! You explain them so well unlike the other channels

[@plrusek]

seeing all these single chapter mods actually being finished, i wonder if someone could just stitch those together with proper transition levels and have the most complete beta mod so far

[@Snazzonix]

Rad Haz with another dark and gritty video 🙌

[@Joeyyytrow]

Man whenever I’m feeling an itch to watch something half life related, I always know you’ll have a cool mod video or something pumped out

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Der Schwarze Nebel was one of the first HL2 beta mods I played, if not the first. It ran like crap on my computer at the time because the maps were not optimized and also had a lot of extra props and foliage. I'm glad it got a mention and I look forward to the full video about it!

[@MindAtItsFinest]

Another video, another journey

[@thealandude9146]

Watching videos of The Axel Project and Build 2046 is a part of my childhood, I can't wait to see Dark Interval and RTB:R to be done in the future, these two are the ones I look forward to the most in current times

[@tacobelldriver]

Im glad you took a break from your chroming session to upload this

[@XanderNiles]

Missing Information had the biggest potential. The concept and the ideas really drawn the notion of the beta quite well. Despite that, Raising The Bar Redux is truly the definitve beta mod as of right now. A project that's exciting to be behind.

[@spartan117ak]

I actually worked briefly on Missing Information, sad I didn't get to see my texture work on MugOfDoom's soldier model, what a talented modeler, still use a screenshot of it as my steam pfp

[@spartan117ak]

I miss being in the modding scene so much, but I don't see anyone looking for purely texture artists... and I feel outta practice

[@t0m_mcc]

I think one of the HL1 environments artist was also a skeletal rigger. So perhaps having a crossover of skills like that is an upper hand

[@JukoYT]

Daaam, alot of new videos lately

[@psell8628]

I love learning about obscure videogame history, would love to see more vids like this. Very impressive to see what all these fans have made with limited resources and no financial support, just goes to show how awesome the original Beta design was

[@deadfool179]

my life is eternally dark and gritty

[@delmuswu-tangbroadnax9056]

I've never been so hyped to get home and watch a video before other than an episode of Geno's comprehensive Christory

[@franthehonest-eyes4883]

The half life 2 beta mods always makes me think of a mod that would be a life simulator where you can have your own home and just explore the world peacefuly as a tourist, something I liked to do with the GTA games and the counter strike maps, just admiring what the designers have created, and that always worked well with half-life related games in general because of how good the immersion is.

[@-the-pupster]

It's intresting to see how most beta mods end and when they started. BUT I AM MORE INTRIGUED BY A SOUP REVIEW!

[@m.blaster05]

Watching these videos always tempts me to make my own HL2 mod. I have two ideas, them being making one or more based off of your Half Life 2000 soundtrack, and the other where you're a civilian waking up in a bunker near your farm with a few people surrounding you. Like anyone, I'm probably capable of doing these, but, I'd have to fight the horrors.

[@t0m_mcc]

I had started creating some HL2 mods (maps really) but never got too far. Wish I still had all the files (although they would be horribly messy and unoptimised). Sorta sad they are lost to time 😔

[@ttk2023]

Ultra dark and gritty, amigo good video

[@bloomingpain-flower7074]

I hope during the Cinematic Mod series you wont discuss the drama part that much, because every damn dog that covers HL2 mods, sometimes even outside of the "community", considered it their duty to talk about notorious nsfw graffiti, Alyx bedroom and "fully modelled" because they want hype, they want drama and attention. Like yeah, let's talk about these 1% of the mod and not about like great visual effects, one of the first decent weapons packs, amazing reworked maps and other stuff, other stuff that makes people till this day consider SM as a proper, not remake of course, but a remaster, and that after we never got anything even close to its' quality. P.s. Always found nsfw graffiti part especially funny, these dudes really never went outside of their mom's basement, if I would get a cent for every time I see a clean d*ckless wall on the street I would be damn poor.

[@wizardlycash2507]

I will always want the conscripts to be lore because I love the olive drab and the idea of the combine forcing remmants of earths military to fight against their own species then eventually getting revenge, plus because they had actual training, armor and big gun.

[@ultgamercw6759]

Here's something that might possibly be an absolutely crazy idea that might just work. What if someone was to make the beta backwards? I know that normally that's an insane thing to do in game development but considering how many Beta mods get abandoned it would be interesting to see one work backwards. That was if the project gets abandoned then people could possibly play another unfinished mod so that when placed together you get a finished Beta mod.

[@t0m_mcc]

I think that's a great idea 💡 if the mods share assets and engine and feel similar. Maybe teams in communication with each other

[@InfinityPotato97]

There is also another interesting HL2 Beta themed mod, called as Outkast on moddb. The last update was over a month ago, including a teaser for the demo of this mod and it looks promising.

[@moajesty-nh5us]

these dark and griddy videos are so sigma

[@humanharddrive1]

love archeology videos like this. looking forward to the build 2046 and der schwarze nebel videos

[@ElmeriThePig]

This is a perfect opportunity for me to talk about my own beta mod. (It never came to be, obviously.) Buckle up, this will be a long comment. The very first RadHaz video I watched was the "Recreating HL2 Beta: Dark Interval" video, I thought it was about YOU actually recreating HL2 Beta, and since I was making my own mod at the time, I was intrigued. Even though the video wasn't about that, I still kept watching. (If it wasn't for the title of the video, I probably would've never become avid viewer and commenter of Rad's videos.) Anyway, my first comment on Rad's videos was also there, and I told that I was working on my little beta mod called: "Half-Life 2: Dark City". Rad as a small KZbinr at the time was probably thinking my mod was about to become something so he was something like: "Sure, let me know when it's ready and I'll check it out!", and I as a small starting modder was excited and told him: "Yes, hopefully I'll just get to finish this." Aged a bit badly there. The mod was gonna be like Dark Interval and RTB:R, so recreating the 2001-2002 beta storyline in a retail Half-Life 2 fashion, using the modern engine obviously. I never actually thought I would get my mod released if my goal was that, but I still kept working. The mod only existed because I was so obsessed with Half-Life 2 Beta at the time, and I eventually stopped after two years of development, because beta wasn't that interesting to me anymore. How many maps did I made? Only few. One was even complete, but it still looked awful, so not really 100% complete. I had custom code for the mod even, and I added MP5K and the ability to shoot while zooming, but not much else. Even though I never really progressed, I still learned so much about modding, and I know what to do, what not to do. I still made some references to this mod in Rad's comment section and live stream chat, which now I regret, because I was literally hyping a mod I even knew wasn't probably gonna be released. Rad used to host mapping competitions called HMC aka. Hazardous Mapping Contest. (Btw Rad, please make HMC 5, I'm parched to make new maps for you! Unless the theme is still gonna be GoldSrc...) Anyway, HMC 2 had a HL2 Beta as the theme, so I decided that this will be the perfect opportunity for me to advertise my non-existent mod (That was a bit idiotic). So I made my map "Dark City Demo" or something like that and I just made the end of Red Letter Day as one map with the beta theme. I took the Dark City theme a bit too seriously there, because it was in City 17, and the map was so dark, you couldn't see anything. I also used the Citadel model from Dark Interval there, which I feel embarrassed about because I didn't ask for permission to use it and Rad had to do it himself, I credited for the model and that was apparently enough, but still. The map just sucked anyway, it ranked low and it had a lot of open space for no reason. Well, the reason was because I rushed the map. Rad didn't even know how to properly progress through the map, because the layout was so confusing. He even had to use noclip, and if the player feels like they need to use the noclip, then you have failed in the map's creation. So, what's gonna be the future of Dark City? Well, the last time I touched it was in 2022, and I feel like it's not gonna continue ever. I'm currently working on two mods, one is actually my dream project and it's on pause, because the second one is gonna be the first mod I'll release. I realized I can't just release my dream project as the first one. It really needs to succeed, so I'll start with a smaller and more simpler mod. The dream project is related to the Combine and I've been thinking of that idea ever since I played Half-Life 2 for the very first time. When EZ2 got released, I knew I had to start working on it immediately, because that mod is kinda like my idea. Now the dream project is on pause, because I want to start with a smaller mod first, obviously. This is related to the Resistance and takes place before the events of Half-Life 2, possibly during winter. The dream project also takes places in the retail Half-Life 2 universe, but I won't say anything more about these two mods for now. There could be a possibility that Dark City returns, but it will a lot more different mod than it used to. My beta obsession doesn't exist anymore, and the purpose of Dark City was to just defuse my enthusiasm. But someday, I will succeed. I will make a big Half-Life 2 mod that will blow the internet. I feel like my dream project unfortunately won't do that because EZ2 already did and people probably don't care that much about Combine mods anymore, but I can keep for dreaming. Thanks for reading this.

[@AndrewDasilvaPLT]

Thank you for your work.

[@loztwalker5068]

It's wild that the first mod ever for half life 2 was made for a build of the game that was leaked and released before even the game itself came out, and it's even more wild how that's no even an unique occurrence. Reminds me of this one video i watched on the development history of stalker shadow of chernobyl, where they released this early but mostly finished copy to gaming journalists so they could check out the multiplayer, and just didn't bother to add ANY DRM, so it leaked immediately and you also had multiple mods for that game months before release.

[@snoiper-bp9vf]

I can’t wait for the radhaz special!

[@dreamernawid]

Cannot wait for the videos on 2046 and Nebel. They're really fascinating to me

[@captain_crazeh]

Your dark and griddy videos make me so happy

[@NickyByloo]

I played one of the betas in 2003 before the official release. I wish I kept that copy.

[@btarg1]

Now more than ever i want a B3313 style half life 2 mod where every one of these maps is interconnected. Very Dark and Griddy RadHaz!

[@redisdead628-2.0]

these mods are so dark and gritty

[@quote6013]

So dank and gritty tnx dadhaz

[@c0l1n_m45]

I think the Beta curse stems from the fact that many of these projects tend to have their goal set on creating the Beta storyline from the ground up with completely new maps and assets, instead of using what's already there and just filling in the blanks. Making the leaked files a fully fledged playable storyline again such as 2002 Edition & Coterminous, has always been my preferred concept, but I do hope projects like RTBR & Dark Interval are able to succeed even if they aren't my taste per say. We've seen community projects like Black Mesa make it, so it's definitely possible.

[@pixelash1069]

Hey Rad! I recently discovered a mod for HL2 that you might enjoy! When I say recently I mean recently btw like 15 minutes ago. The mod is called Goreagulation. It came out in 2022 and it went under the radar. I found out about it after I saw someone had ported models from it to GMOD. It’s got a great dark and gritty vibe to it since it is set in a factory!

[@griffin2465]

Oh my god, the original raising the bar! So many people contributed bits and pieces. I think I made the discord icon way back when?

[@sanitylost4271]

I don't know what's more real at this point - getting full fledged half-life 2 beta mod or getting half-life 3

[@andresbravo2003]

Really worth revisiting.

[@BeyondBaito]

My favorite beta mod Ive seen uses beta textures, models, enemies, and weapons in the base campaign, but the whole campaign is flipped so its still the same but with a slightly...different feeling. It actually does work okay.

[@proletariandreams69]

Well, color me surprised, I was actually not aware of the history of the beta inspired mods to be so extensive. I think these kinds of mods are the ones which improved tremendously as time went on, as early attempts were all both rough in visuals, many being just basic fixed versions of leaked maps, and gameplay. I'd say MI was the first to step up the game considerably, as the competition in this field couldn't live up to it at the time, but unfortunately, it ended up committing suicide after the denied Steam release. For context, there's two main reasons why this happened: One, MI relied far too heavily on content taken or adapted straight from the leak, which Valve did not appreciate at all, and some employees at the time absolutely did not want to see it landing on Steam. Second, the team seemingly lost motivation after the rejection, they still planned on releasing it on other platforms (most likely ModDB again), but no more news came afterwards, then I recall the lead making a comment at some point mentioning what I said a paragraph ago - more progress was made, but the team lost interest in making more releases, and it just... died. A shame, since the original plan was to make MI act as a base for mods as well, hence why Steam Workshop support was even planned, but well, we know how that went. As for Coterminus, just like DI, development is more than alive and well, just that there's no new footage released to the public yet, but the team stays in touch with the community on their Discord, and it's going mighty fine. The project is far from dead, just not ready for major announcements. DI also entered its spoiler territory quite a while ago, and it was stated multiple times that no more surprises will drop until close or after Part 2 drops. Cvox did upload a new gameplay snippet on his channel not that long ago, however.

[@nonothis]

Nice video very griddy indeed

[@JHenryEden]

the biggest issue is not just going by concepts, descriptions and leaks but mostly that the seperate "builds" are not even consistent with one another. the titular "dark and gritty" is your meme-phrase but you can see how early builds of the game used world geometry brushes to make vehicles while later builds had static car props. a thing you can also see in the earlier builds is the lower resolutions of textures. whereas a normal source map uses 256x256 to lets say 512x512, old early source builds still seem to use lower resolutions (128x128 or 64x64?) not just the game theme but the technology evolved as it went and with it even the architecture of the world and how its constructed. Also: why the fuck did they title a build with a german name "The Black Fog/Mist"

[@I-See-In-The-Dark]

Another banger video

[@onfox1864]

"It´s gay" -Essel 3:26

[@thiagomachado5562]

Does the originao raising the bar mod exist somwhere because it would be nice to play it

[@hydroponicgard]

While I was seeking any remnants of HL2-Lost, I found the Build 2046 n other one... But I didn't know/think you'd mention them... So... Oops on sending you a mail b4 finishing the video? My bad x_x

[@Cats-TM]

_Technically,_ The Thing is a Half-Life 2 Beta mod...as in, it is a mod of the Half-Life 2 Beta.

[@venanimatesstuff]

DARKER YET DARKER, GRITTIER YET GRITTER, THE GRITTIYNESS CUTS DEEPER.

[@Aoi_the_Hert]

I always feel gritty when Rad releases a beta video. My room also gets a bit darker... Wonder what thats all about

[@Feasco]

is your free tv turned on

[@Aoi_the_Hert]

@@Feasco Y'know that would probably help. I'll try turning it on.

[@Real_Gordon_Freeman]

Ah hello radhaz its good to see you.

[@yougnomed630]

OK, im ready... LETS GO!

[@candidate12]

All of this, and I STILL dont know what the raising the bar redux leak was

[@RadiationHazardYT]

That's the first I'm hearing about it honestly.

[@candidate12]

@RadiationHazardYT there was some leak with the weapons from what I can gather, in that time frame someone ported them to gamebanana (taken down) and than to gmod

[@HellsAsylum]

It would be cool to someday see a complete HL2 Beta game, maybe like a Black Mesa Source.

[@boyboisass4068]

Can you do another hunt down the freeman the video?

[@EyoWasTaken]

Very dark and gritty video fr (14th comment, 3 minutes before i write dis was dis vids release)

[@WorstLandsknechtEver]

Nice vid

[@spzz33]

Rad a mod that is quite old worth being a part of recreating hl2 beta. Is Oldschool story v5 demo or atleast that is its name on hl2 beta ru.

[@RoyalBananaYT]

This video is dark and gritty

[@ringpop6482]

Wish someone would do the parts between Vertigo and The Citadel for once. Or hell, even just The Citadel would be pretty cool. Serious missed opportunity for modders to really use their creativity.

[@JasonKane.457]

Radiation hazard can you try Stalker? it's been 2 years since a new video has came out

[@theenceladuschannelcool5777]

Dude you forgot minamalist mod. This makes you no longer dark and gritty

[@RadiationHazardYT]

The bad ending achieved :(

[@MuscleMMan]

Radiation Hazard🗿👍 The Intro: RadhA 😂💀

[@Redbr34]

radhaz bring us another beta classic

[@platboi8474]

tell me dose gordon freeman mew during the whole hl1 and hl2 game and is that the reason he dose not talk

[@RadiationHazardYT]

Absolutely. You could cut diamonds on his jawline.

[@justinlee3812]

Or even the antlion king, perhaps. Who knows what the developer team of the DI is up to now. ^^.

[@kelleklaus2045]

what a madman lmao

[@DZY8733]

Really hope we get air exchange on RTB:R that would be so cool

[@BobTheMartin]

9:28 WHAT CAT?!

[@kikoano111]

I see beta video and I instant click!

[@ntn999]

Aren't Build 2046 and DSN the same mod?

[@3333218]

THE HYPE IS REAL

[@RogerBaxely]

Tsk tsk, you forgot the Beta Minimalist Mod.

[@bazooka93]

I don't get why development of beta themed HL2 mods is so cursed. Game itself turns 20 this year and we still don't have a real, proper, finished restoration of the old story, whichever incarnation of it. Meanwhile, as a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fan, where alpha content is a big thing, I could enjoy Lost Alpha 7 years after og game released, and even better restoration such as OLR2.5 a few years later. That's despite Source is way friendlier with modding than Xray engine, and I remember times when there was whole 0 (zero) resources on modding xray.

[@thisisnotfunny69]

dark n gritdy!1! (the beta is still cool)

[@MuscleMMan]

Bruh! The beta Stalker Scream💀💀💀!!!

[@alexwasherefirst]

dark and gritty on my birthday?!?

[@ios6user]

happy birthday

[@alexwasherefirst]

@@ios6user thank you

[@FatherMcKenzie66]

WE’RE GETTING DEMONETIZED WITH THE CINEMATIC MOD BOOIS 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🦅🦅🦅

[@GenTristan]

there's a place called ~vert~igo~~