Black Snow - It's in the Shadows
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.พ. 2022
- Another mod for Half-Life 2. Investigating a comms failure at a remote science station in Greenland, we assume the role of a technician sent to investigate. But our skills won't help us with what the researchers discovered beneath the ice.
Download the mod here: www.gamepressure.com/download...
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This mod definitely seems like a classic example of great vision, but bad execution. Or heck, even just lack of playtesting. So much of the mod seems to have great ideas and understanding of horror, but falls short in it's lack of purpose or direction. The game made it's self decently open in scale, but didn't set a very clear place or goal in the beginning. Whether to find your team, escape, etc.. Only becoming a "Let's leave this place" objective once hearing learning the snowcat existed still, and receiving the list. If the game let you play out that intro sequence some, I feel it would have escaped that problem in my mind. A sense of urgency, seeing your team be split up and attacked by an unknown or cryptic force would be put upon you, realizing that your team is gone and nothing would change that, escape comes to the forefront of your mind. Hastening movements through the dark and derelict halls, getting to your objective.
Yep. There's a definite lack of direction and urgency that, you're right, would have been alleviated had we played through the beginning. Like, why is am I discovering the snow cat by chance, and ONLY THEN learning that it's the vehicle I arrived in, and I need to repair it? My character should know that it's in the garage and my best bet at escape. And for that matter, why does an on-site memo have a list of repairs, for MY TEAM'S SNOW CAT THAT JUST ARRIVED!?
That list is very perplexing and I kind of glossed over that while watching. It seems like the development of the mod was overly rushed and things were overlooked in the writing process as well, the magical list for a vehicle that only just arrived. Or the axe left in the server cabinet, defying the Chekhov's Gun principle, narratives should be able to go against this to defy expectation to a certain degree, but not for quite literally no narrative or gameplay purpose, it has to DEFY, not be left as a sour taste left in your mouth at the end. While I understand it is a mod and not a fully fledged game, I feel like that shouldn't be an excuse for lack of polish. All of that being speculation, but I have seen quite a few projects go by the wayside through lack of motivation or burnout, leading to a generally worse end product.
the intro did establish that you have to escape, why would you wanna stay with a creature that has torn your team into shreds and attack you? Didn't you pay attention that all this happened within a day?
@@Immolator772 While yes, it did show these things, it also was in a fast paced and chopped cinematic cutting between set pieces quickly. Like The Librarian said, I thought it was going to switch characters and have you play as a separate person, hence why a lot of things were ambiguous in the intro. But instead it didn't. I dislike the narrative of x bad happened, insert gameplay to reach y ending.
I enjoyed it at the time when it released, but looking back, it's a pretty rough product. This is just me speculating, but I feel like you can see where the project finally fell apart with the abrupt ending. The first two Penumbra games and Cryostasis (if you can find a copy) are probably better games to look to if you want to see many of these ideas well executed.
This is quickly becoming one of my favourite yt channels. I'm not a big fan of horror but having someone there equally as scared makes it so much better
I agree
I agree, I stumbled across one of his videos and stared to watch all his other videos and loved them
In a game yes but in real life no. They can be the person between life and death at that point 🤷🏻
Wow! This is super crazy to see, I am actually the creator of this mod and searched for it because I was trying to show my friend what it looked like. I can’t believe this thing still runs and most of all, that anyone has been playing it!
Thank you so much for this video, it really meant a lot to watch a modern take.
I’m also cringing at all the terrible design decisions I made a decade ago 😂. A lot of the bugs also occurred because I made this mod with zero coding and just scripting, so a lot of things are a bit janky and would only run well on the folder structure and architecture of Source2007, the fact that it runs at all is quite amazing. I had to do A LOT of duct tapey things to get the whole thing to work (and even back then they don’t always do).
Thank you for putting up with the mod, and yes you were very right that it’s a bit all over the place. It was my first released mod ever and I was doing it alone - hopefully I have learned better design sensibilities now 😂
Thank you again! 🙏🏼
This game kind of reminds me of John Carpenter's 'The Thing'. I feel like the arctic setting is fairly unused in horror games. The sense of isolation that comes with being surrounded by hundreds of miles of ice and water and no civilization whatsoever is nothing short of worrying.
I agree, the arctic setting is so underutilized. It's like being on the surface of the moon - which is another overlooked setting.
Like the setting of The Thing but the characters and beginning of dead space, like the main character being an engineer, and military investigating an abandoned base. Mainly the thing though.
try the game Cryostasis, it's a really unique russian horror game.
@@Immolator772 i tried it, i uh.. i feel like i didnt meet its recommended or even minimum requirements. i did like the couple minutes i played though.
@@snippy4377 what you mean by that?
I played this mod way back in 2012. My experience was actually pretty smooth, and I thought the game was quite good. The only part I really got stuck on was the X-ray puzzle. Watching this video now, I notice how incredibly lucky I was on that first playthrough to not miss as many cues, or take wrong turns, otherwise, I probably would have been stuck aimlessly wandering the dark and being frustrated like you were for much of the game. It's clear that the devs designed this mod to be played in one way, and one way only.
For instance, I was fortunate enough to notice the light pattern in the first hallway before it disappeared off. It takes a long time for the light to come back again, and the game gives no additional hints on what to do beyond that, so I have no idea what they expected a player to do if they missed it. On the second time going outside in the game, I went left instead of right, and was able to go into the garage with most of my health. I don't understand why they didn't put a heater in there, instead of forcing injured players to backtrack so far. Upon acquiring the biodiesel, I fueled up the generator first, instead of going for the Snowcat first, evading the inventory UI bug. At that chase in the flickering hallway, I ran in the opposite direction, instead of taking shelter in the siderooms. It seems the mod developer did not anticipate the player going into those rooms, as the light does not ward the entities off as they should.
This mod should have been playtested more before release. It seems that the devs did not account too much for deviations in the way other people would play their game.
Some people are just better at games, this guy tends to miss obvious stuff.
@@Immolator772 Just because you're "missing obvious stuff" does not mean you are worse at games. The player is always right. If he misses something, it's bad game design. In fact, The Librarian is one of the few people I've seen who actually take their time exploring the environment and paying attention to smaller details.
@@lewinside8289 oh yeah you want the game to put an obvious arrow saying "go there idiot"? Many games back in the day didn't have stuff pointing at you where to go that doesn't mean they were badly designed, having bad orientation meqns you are a bad player.
@@lewinside8289 I agree with you, but not on "The player is always right." Some people can have pretty poor awareness and miss things that the majority of people would otherwise see as being obvious. Now, if the majority of players miss something that the game expects them to see, then that would definitely point toward bad game design.
@@Immolator772 It's not as binary an issue as you make it out. I agree that a game should not be holding your hand, but Black Snow has certain cues that the player could easily miss, and this could lead to the player wandering aimlessly trying to figure out what to do, wasting time, and making them frustrated. This frustration also affects the fear factor of the game. Black Snow has some excellent scares and atmosphere, and you could see that in the earlier parts of the game, The Librarian was really digging it. However in later parts, The Librarian was obviously getting frustrated, and being taken out of the game. Game developers need to ensure that the target audience can make reasonable progress in a reasonable amount of time. It does not necessarily mean that the game needs distracting quest markers.
Even if I accept your stance. Black Snow is also just a bit too unpolished. It has quite a few bugs and design oversights that should have been addressed shortly after release, and yet this mod came out a decade ago. The inventory UI bug, and the inconsistency with how enemies react to light is just unacceptable.
It just randomy ends with a bomb for no reason lol
They ran outta ideas
The “how can she slap?!” Part brought back some memories, very fun.
46:45 I feel that trope is what happens when taking a middle ground when explaining the lore.
Explain nothing in-game and leave it everything to the manual (if at all), and you'll have the players who care about the lore complaining about the game not bothering to explain anything, and having to come to external sources when everything important should be in-game.
Explain everything important in dialogues and cutscenes, and you'll have the players who don't care about the lore complaining about the game stopping its gameplay, and having to wait for the dialogues and cutscenes they don't care to end so that they can play again.
I guess, for a game developer, leaving notes is the balanced approach. The players who care about the lore can stop and read them, the players who don't care about the lore can just ignore them.
Being in a frozen cold environment is paralising in itself. The feel of freezing to death and being alone in a winter night is scarry. You are not just afraid of the lurking monster but you are afraid of cold itself.
There is a video by Jacob Geller called "fear of cold" and your comment reminded me of it
@@mistakesregretsandimperfec7740 Thanks! I will watch it!
The Thing 1982. Watch it
@@windows2785 thanks, i know it but never saw. I will watch it!
the character is as clueless as you are because he never saw the monster and was running into the facility, plus nobody had any idea what was going on.
This mod brings back a lot of childhood memories. I remember seeing it as a kid in a play through of one of my favorite youtubers. Glad to see it again with a mature perspective. Love your channel Librarian, you've been my go-to in the last 5 months. Somehow your videos give me lots of nostalgia and comfort, and I needed that lately.
The sound you elicited from me with the "How can she slap?!" You made my entire week, Librarian.
i've run out of things to try in source games but your videos keep giving me stuff to play in them :)
A lot of your issues with this mod seems to be a result of you not paying attention.
No. The map lacks direction
@@slabman6262 He literally does not pay attention and misses out on several points in the map. Librarian does this VERY often.
I remember watching Markiplier play this years ago and had no idea what the "story" was beyond evil goop. I forgot what the mod was called until this popped up in my feed so thanks for playing it (and providing commentary besides screaming lol)
i love ur gmod vr videos, they are so deep and interesting!
can't waiting for more
I loved what the mod was trying to do, seems extremely scary in concept, but the execution hampered it. Also I like how he also found the creatures charging into the light scary. It really disturbed me when I saw it. And I also liked the sense of hostility of the environment, and the isolation. This is something that many horror games try to do by setting you in the woods. But space, or the arctic work very well for this.
This is an excellent example of why game and puzzle design is just as important as setting up good atmosphere and scares - if not more important!
36:40 as you were leaving there was a flickering light path that would get you to the main area of the building which then will let you go to an area that has a working heater
1:03:45 When the videos are long I wait till i have some time to sit back and watch them, occasionally I'll forget and end up not watching them until much later. I was browsing the channel to see which ones I missed and started watching this one. When the phone rang in-game, MY phone rang as well and they both have the same ringtone! It may not be night time but I am home alone, so hearing that made my skin go cold and I could barely get myself to move to pick up the phone. This IRL scare has been unknowingly brewing for over a year and I gotta say, I got a GENEROUS serving of Creepy to my Comfy today.
Glad you played this! Definitely interesting to hear your analysis of this while also eking jump scared every now n then
This is one of my favorite all-time mods! I am looking forward to watching you play it!
This sorely needs just some text prompts of "I can use this for this" or "I could do this if I had something like this."
Honestly an easy fix...
Love the play through, you've quickly become one of my favorite you-tubers. The explanation of horror, and what makes it work, has expanded my reading list. I had read some horror before finding your channel, but after ive been watching, Ive read more and more horror.
I do think this mod had a great vision, but gets let down what a lot of puzzle games get let down by. If you arent in the same headspace as the creator, and they dont have enough sign posting (clues that let a player, reader, or watcher, connect the dots between events) its very hard and frustrating to make progress. Being mad or frustrated takes you completely out of the horror aspect.
You ought to play scanner sombre & into the radius. Scanner sombre is about exploring caves. Into the radius takes inspiration from the book roadside picnic. Both are in VR.
I forget how much I love your content sometimes.
The abrupt end makes me wonder if the mod wasn't fully finished. I'm willing to bet the dev(s?) eventually just lost interest in the project or was for whatever reason unable to complete it. If my guess is correct, it would explain some of Black Snow's rough edges.
I'm pretty sure that room at 2:32 is the same design as the room where the creature was trapped in the 1950's "The Thing" film - They barricaded it inside a greenhouse where it went for warmth
How would the main character know about what is going on, when he and his team go to investigate? This mod is pretty much a mixture of Amnesia and The Thing, it has the plot of The Thing and some ideas from Amnesia, the black blod worked like the darkness from Amnesia. Also i'm not sure about this, but i think there is another ending where you actually escape, but i'm probably wrong.
when you did that last half life mod i was hoping you did this one glad to see you playing it
So what were doing during that intro sequence? It told you what you needed to know as the character you play as. Something is going on at an arctic base, your job is to find out what it is. It then establishes that there's an unseen force that has killed your squad. You literally don't know anymore than that and the character doesn't know more than that. I always thought that was well established.
Oh this gem! Classic. Looking forward to watching this. Wonder how well it held up
Automatic like for HOW CAN SHE SLAP?!?1
I’ve Been a fan for a very long time
Man picks up 2 cans of biodiesel and uses one to fill up the tank it makes sense that he has a spare but it not being on the inventory because it's a key item
You can actually try out the beginning part in a Map Labs challenge, but I don’t know which one was it.
32:54 HOW CAN SHE SLAP! HOW CAN SHE SLAP
I love when he makes subtle jokes when something happens, always gets a laugh out of me 1:08:45
Yooo, Lars is a reference to the “The Thing” prequel! (The 2012 remake of whatever)
Favorite yt channel
Yeah its "The Thing" all over again. But I like those scenarios.
This is a great mod, i would love to download this, it has everything set up and the atmosphere is exotic!
This had so much potential it's so sad. If someone is willing to remake this mod and make it better I would love it.
A game made by a person who really understands art and atmosphere but doesn't understand game design at all.
59:33. I think it was scripted for you to turn on the generators with 1 can, then fuel the vehicle with the other.
That ai sure does like to talk…
"Then it got cold, stupid cold"
-Oversimplified's Narrator
This quote goes well with this video
that one is legendary yep
it is finally almost midnight, time to watch this on my phone on my bed in the dark
Thanks for covering this mod, it's one of my favorites despite its length and flaws. Definitely a strong premise with its unique assets/ambience and an ambiguous but compelling story. It's a shame it never got a followup or sequel. IIRC the 2013 Steampipe update also broke some things in the maps that still haven't been patched, some related to the UI, and one secret you missed at 1:11:40, behind the bookshelf in that room you can find the body of your team leader and some additional lore to who may have planted the bomb. It's refreshing to see constructive criticism on very dated mods such as Black Snow.
Within the first three and a half minutes, I already noticed the influence taken from the premise seen in Aliens and then Carnosaur 2.
I usually watch long videos on 1.5 or 2x speed with the exception of your videos, your videos I always watch on 1x speed no matter how long they are
Here we see a great example of our generations need for immediate gratification
@@Alffraido jeez dude, just how I like watching videos, it's not that deep
@@bird9188 I know my guy, I just like observing this phenomenon of how our generation wants instant gratification. You do you :)
What do you get for playing videos at double the speed? Chipmunk voices?
Bruh, everyone truly has the attention span worse than a goldfish
@@thejunktownsheriffkilliand4800 not on TH-cam, it doesn't increase the pitch.
Most people on TH-cam speak really slow or take long to get to the point, so I speed it up while still watching it
I feel as though you should revisit this and look more at the story aspect of everything. It'll feel better to have completed the game in a second run and you can also discover more about a very interesting story that is in there. There's a lot of story telling through the bodies, laptops, and you could try to take out the axe again at somepoint. Just something to think about. Could make a good video essay at least. You could even do a video of what you would've done to make the whole game better.
Nice, i like this mod, it got perfect horror atmosphere 😁👍
This may be creepy but definitely not comfy! This is fun to watch though! Good job!
The setting and atmosphere of this game is really good,it gives you the feeling of arctic style horror. But,when it comes to gameplay,it's so tedious and boring. I also remember watching Markiplier play this long time ago,but he didn't finish it. I feel shame for this mod,it could have been so good,but as a matter of fact,it failed
Unfortunately this is common with artist who create things in source. They have an idea. An image. A theme. But they aren't experienced well in level building. I remember making a puzzle for portal 2 that took me 3 days and it was hard to form a full level in my head so i went part by part and it turned out bad. Lesson of the story is that good level design is a useful rare skill to possesse. Half life mods like hunt down the freeman is a great example. Everything was outlined story wise but the artist were very vague on their level design so communication fell apart and the project was ass.
Translation for the text at 1:04:50: CARINA,
DAD IS SORRY, I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO KEEP MY PROMISE, JAG LOVE YOU.
Oh damn, I'm glad to see this mod in this channel.
i remember trying to play this as a kid on Desura and being so sad that i could never get it to work
I just want to say that at 1 hour and 25 seconds… you pas a cement mixer which I can only assume is a foreshadowing of your play through of Cement Mixer Simulator 2003. Amazing how it all ties together.
Neat mod, but it's lack of rule clarification seems to make it frustrating instead of scary. For some reason I wasn't very immersed except when you were outside.
I was going to suggest this one!!!!
Letsgooo new video
This map/mod is awesome.
Cool Creepy Story.
One of the best HL2 Horror mods that I've played
1:04:58 The fourth kind ? Idk, i just think about this great horror movie.
Something I learned when I saw someone tied to port this full mod into Gmod, since it's such a heavily modded version of Source, a lot of things break, and end up breaking the illusion in a few places.
Apparently, the smoke monster is actually an Antlion that's been made invisible, had it's sounds replaced, and in place of it's model, it generates those strange, smoky particles. Which does make it start to make some sense. They probably couldn't completely remove the sounds of it moving, so you can recognize the antlion footsteps once yo know what it is. Also gives you a better idea of it's mobility. Antlions can move pretty darn fast. Also why it hits so hard. Though, them opening doors is an odd anomaly. I don't remember Antlions being able to open doors, and I'm unsure if it's intentional.
They certainly did a good job with the illusion, though. This thing's much more existentially terrifying than an antlion chasing you around!
strong Penumbra vibes
It's not the dark, but which moves unseen through it.
this mod hurts my head so much, why is the key for your snowcat, that you drove in after everyone was dead, encased in concrete by one of the people, that were dead after your team got there and why was someone, again, that was dead before your team got there, trying to fix, your snowcat, I swear this mod has such a good foundation, they just needed to sit back and actually write the story or hire someone that can write a story that better then you getting blown up by a bomb that I have questions of why that was there in the first place. This mod pisses me off so much its inspiring me to want to pick up hammer again and make something better
Oh great librarian, where does your library lie. I wish to read all the wonderous books it contains before I die. Oh great librarian, what does your library have in store. The past's stories and heroic glories, future guesses, and more?
Hey I think I got a game you might enjoy but I don’t think it fits your style, it’s called “At dead of night” a First person horror FMV Point and click game, Here is the description from the steam page I don’t know if you would enjoy it but I really enjoyed the game
At Dead Of Night is part horror film, part horror game and part ghost hunt. It seamlessly blends live-action and computer rendered graphics to create a unique immersive horror experience like no other. You play Maya, a student trapped in a remote hotel run by a psychopath called Jimmy Hall.
48:46 L4D2 Nick's smoked cough sound .wav
yeee new video
Wow, the immersion chamber looks exactly like a reference to the movie Sunshine.
I am totally behind most of your critical points, but for what you call a non-ending, I get the impression that you completely missed the point that this seems to be some kind of "found footage"-analysis. When you die, the death messages say things like "corrupted recording" etc., as if some agency or whoever was sifting through bodycam footage of whoever was found at the site of the incident. If you wrap your head around that premise, I find it to be an acceptable ending that your character has in fact found their demise by the detonation in the tower. It's not a great ending anyway, since it would have easily been possible to have a similarly tie-in ending without leaving so many loose threads, but a bad ending is still better than a non-ending I guess.
Goddamit pete
Thanks for the warning gamer 👍
This has to be inspired by Penumbra.
Hey librarian, I recently released a 3rd build for a liminal space game and I'd like an opinion on the gameplay and maps so I could make them better, it's a huge work in progress and I will probably add to the maps later. If you wanted to check it out it's on game jolt and the name is liminal escape (make sure it's not the demo and it's the third build, they're two separate downloads) I'm going to release another build sometime today or tomorrow since I updated it a ton.
You could say some “thing” was wrong with those dogs
You could say the inventory bug has caused much confusion and delay
Thomas The Tank Engine Sir Topham Hat words right there
58:11
I feel like the room is meant to be some sort of trap room like in the cube movies where one room will be safe but the next room leads to your death so the dog shelter is that safe room and the cellar where the soldier is, is the death room
For the start of this I'm already getting vibes of the thing but I saw it the other day no surprise as that does that helps to but once it gets inside I don't know if it'll be the same feeling then.
Maybe the guy got amnesia
Misgaard had the freeze problem to right
Unfreeze the key maybe it's shape memory alloy like metal gear joke I would doubt that would be it
I hope the IT guys getting paid good for this job.
Tab lucky it ain't alt+F4 😁
Deja-vu
Honestly at 51:10 I wouldve liked you to keep in when you got your health back. It was so long being at low health that it would’ve been satisfying to watch.
But I’m sure there were other reasons for the cut
The librarian you should play this half life 2 mod called the sun vanished based on the Twitter arg with the same name. It’s really good
I think it would have been better if instead of giving you an infinite use propane torch, it scattered pickup-able flares around so you have to choose which locks to melt open
this mod just pushes the limits of hl2
1:20:01 that's actually almost a real Linux command, except they replaced `||` with `or`
Fairly certain that whole immersion chamber section is just a reference to the movie "sunshine", the crew of the station in the film have a similar chamber to help with the mental health problems of isolation by showing comforting images of earth, likewise somebody commits suicide in the chamber in the film, awesome film by the way.
"What a convenient block of ice" 🤣😂🥶
Especially when it just allowed you to warm in the same room, lol, it should let you fill a bucket with snow, melt it on the radiator, and melt the ice. Or even just directly melt it with the bottom of a hot bucket
This map had a lot going for it but once I got to the 1 hour mark I got uninterested and felt bored and tierd of it. The lack of direction and instruction on what to do just was awful. I like the idea but execution was mediocre at best.
As always great videos love your content and have a good day or night
Hello Lib 8sianRaine here, i have a suggestion for you to play a GMod Map called "Liminal Apartments". I found it on the Workshop yesterday and you should try it out. Another map is a Gm_bigcity_void which kinda looks like a dark world for me if i played it. I never spend more time on Discord so i decided to suggest in here.
At 1:20:11, I used the dd command in that way on my Linux Mint Mate to clone the system to put it on another computer.... amazing that they used that.
Hope the dev made more mods, interested if they improoved their storytelling and scares
What?! I thought this mod was lost forever!
I'm so annoyed this had a lousy ending, such a promising mod that fell short imo, especially that ending, made no sense
Yeaaaaah perfect something to chill to as I fistfight unity and coding
I understand that the gas tank disappeared from your inventory, but when you picked up the gas cans it literally said "YOU PICKED UP TWO CANS OF GAS", so it's kind of your own inattentiveness that had you pissed off and confused. I also think you're kind of prone to becoming so analytical you completely miss out on gameplay and puzzle clues and that leads you to put the game down even though again it's kind of your inattentiveness causing it. Like this definitely wasn't perfect and had lots of problems but the parts that made you angriest it seems were your own fault.
Ye that was definitely a problem when he plays mods like this
"I understand that the game bugged out and is poorly designed, but it's totally your fault for missing a line of text."
No, I'd call that the devs problem.
@@StalwartTirith
>2 cans of gas
>pick it up and it says I GOT TWO CANS OF GAS
>there are two objectives that need gas and he didn't try and use both, he just used one and immediately went "oh I only had one"
It's not the games fault if you're not paying attention. How is that 'poorly designed'? It's just bugged. And the UI bug occurred AFTER he got the gas.
@@Sharkfurter If it's a bug, then it's a poorly designed section. If it wasn't a poorly designed section, it wouldn't have the bug.
I do get what you mean about being more observant, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying it seems unfair to put all blame on the player and not at least acknowledge that the game could have done things better as well.
I'll concede about the timing though. I mostly had the video playing as background noise so I don't remember when it exactly occurred.
27:42 💀