What would you do for a million dollars?

That’s a pretty hard question for me to answer, and I’m fairly sure I’m not allowed to go into the details of the kind of things I would do here. HEGI and his small group, however, have decided to make a kick-ass survival horror mod for Unreal Tournament 3 for Epic Games’ Make Something Unreal Contest. Full write-up after the cut.

Make Something Unreal was started in collaboration with Epic Games and nVidia back in 2004. It offered aspiring designers a chance to win a grand prize of $1,000,000, a high performance PC and a commercial license for the Unreal Tech engine. In the past, this has actually given birth to two fantastic mod-to-retail games, those being Red Orchestra and Killing Floor respectively (and ironically both of those were by Tripwire Interactive). It also causes crazed modders to put out some of the highest quality and incredibly entertaining, interesting and unique mods you’re likely to find, and it is always worth browsing through the contest submissions for each phase to find something truly awesome.

This year, I have discovered a little gem known as The Haunted, a mod which in the most base sense could be classified as ‘co-operative survival horror’ with a larger focus on the survival aspect as opposed to the horror. Gameplay is actually very reminiscent of the later Resident Evil games, using an ‘over the shoulder’ third person perspective with which you have to hold down the right mouse button to go into an aiming mode before you can shoot. In the latest update, powerful instant-kill melee attacks have been added to the game, further increasing the new Resident Evil feel. The Haunted contains four different modes of play – Survival, Hunt, Battle and Demonizer – the former of which tend to play considerably different from the latter two, whilst still being exactly the same game.

Survival plays like a bizarre hybrid of Resident Evil 4, Killing Floor and Left4Dead. Up to four players are charged with the task of defending against hordes of demons which are spawned by an AI similar to the Director from Left4Dead, starting off with simple ‘Wendigo’ demons that just run straight for you in an attempt to scratch at you, and zombies that will leap for you once they get within a certain range. As time progresses the monsters get considerably more varied and difficult, ranging from smaller demons that throw scythes at you from a distance, to hulking brutes with clubs that can shake the ground and stun you, to demonic assassins with flaming claws that have the ability to charge forwards and instantly behead you with a well placed attack. There are also some oddball designs designed to take down camping players, such as spiky balls that roll full-speed at players and explode when shot, or swarms of hellish bats that aim for players who try to camp in high places. Each of the demons in the game also has an alternate ‘Special Attack’ mode they can go into, which can cause for some very intense moments when this happens, such as when the Iron Jack – a large man with a bear trap for a mouth the spews fire – causes his own head to explode and then begins to spew fire and molten rock out of the spot where his head used to be. It’s a real sight to see this happen, but you’d better start running fast to get out of this guy’s way.

When setting up Survival games, the host player chooses a certain amount of rounds to play through – which increase slightly in difficulty with each round if players manage to survive the previous one, the amount of time between rounds, and the starting difficulty for the game. By default, a game lasts three rounds with 15 minutes per round, which seems to be the most entertaining setup I have found so far. I usually knock the difficulty up a couple of notches and by about 12 minutes in it usually comes to the make-or-break point, where survival or failure is really decided. Something you should know about this game, however, is that death is not final, but players do not respawn instantly either. When a player dies, a large floating rock known as the ‘Soulstone’ appears at a random spot on the map. Players who are still alive have to find this stone and destroy it – either with a melee attack or one of the many weapons in the game. Once the stone is destroyed, that player will return to the game. If you are playing on your own, you also needn’t worry – once your health falls below half and as long as you are the only player in the game, a stone will appear that will restore you to full health when destroyed.

Hunt mode plays pretty much identical to survival, but with rounds being finished after reaching a certain score to make things a more competitive style survival game with players aiming for the largest number of kills. However, players still need to work together to make sure they can actually make it to the end of a round.

Battle mode is where things really get interesting. This game type supports up to eight players – up to four players play as the survivors and, as an interesting twist,  up to four players play the role that the AI would play in standard survival, gaining the ability to spawn in the various demons that chase down the human team. All of the monsters that appear in survival are available to spawn by the demon team, but they cost a number of resource points depending on the power and abilities of each individual demon. The resource points are shared between the players on the demon team (although the amount of resource does increase exponentially to accommodate the number of players), and the points are regained either over time, or they are also increased with successful attacks against the human players. Rounds this way are played in much the same way as survival, either with the survivor team succeeding by lasting  until time runs out, or the demon team winning by eliminating the other team. This mode reminded me a lot of the popular ‘Zombie Master’ mod for Half Life 2, in which a team is pitted against one player designated the Zombie Master, who spawns in zombies at certain points throughout maps in order to take down the survivors. The main difference with The Haunted however, is that demons can be summoned anywhere, with a certain ‘safe’ radius around human players where they cannot be spawned. Another really interesting part of battle mode is the ability spawn in as whatever demon a player chooses. The player controlled monsters have no extra abilities or large advantage over the AI controlled, but it can be a lot of fun to play as the demons yourself, and a human controlled player is always more effective than a bot. It’s also much more gratifying to get the killing blow on a survivor yourself versus just watching your minions do it for you, and I believe you gain more resources for scoring a kill this way, though don’t hold me to that.

Demonizer mode is by far the most interesting, and in some ways the most entertaining mode in The Haunted. The game starts out in much the same way as survival, with four players trying to survive against the demonic legions coming after them. The twist in this mode, is that as each human player dies they do not return to the game as a survivor. The AI hands control over to this player and they are moved to the demon team, where they then try to take out the surviving players in the same style as with battle mode. Play continues until either time runs out, or all of the players have been ‘Demonized’.

With all of this demon hunting going on, I’m sure you’re wondering exactly how you get to go about killing these foul hellish aberrations, and The Haunted goes for a very unique approach  in terms of weaponry that is available. All players start out with four weapons, a knife, pistol, shotgun and a sub-machine gun. You only start out with ammunition for the pistol (and the knife, obviously), but one of the first demons a player kills will drop an ammunition crate to give ammo for the shotgun and SMG. Item drops are unique to each player also, so there is no fighting over who is allowed to grab the ammo! Once this first crate drops, another will not drop again until one of your weapons is out of ammunition, and event hen it usually only take about one to three kills for another to appear.
As players kill demons, a bar in the upper right corner of the screen with a picture of crossed swords next to it will start to fill up, and once this bar fulls, the next monster you kill will drop a green crate with the same sword icon painted on the side. Pick this up, and whichever weapon you are currently using will be upgraded to something more powerful, and the bar in the corner of the screen will reset and start to fill once more. Each weapon has four different upgrade levels, and HEGI really came up with some very interesting ideas for the weapon upgrades. The weapon upgrades are as follows, along with an experience multiplier toward your next upgrade that you are awarded for using each;

Handguns:

-The first upgrade to the basic semi-automatic pistol is a 3-round burst automatic pistol called the Cerberus. A little more useful than the basic pistol, dispatching enemies a little faster, but each single bullet isn’t any more powerful than the standard pistol. +10% XP

-The next pistol upgrade is a tasty one indeed – your bog standard, run-of-the-mill, always awesome .357 Magnum Revolver, named the Vendetta. This baby will almost always score a kill with a headshot on around 80% of the demons chasing you, and usually takes out the remaining fifth of the population with a second shot. +10% XP

-The fourth level for handguns is  a .50 Magnum called the Jericho. This baby tears through almost anything with a faster rate of fire, higher clip size and slightly lower damage than the Vendetta. It also sets things on fire. Fire is good. +10% XP

Shotguns:

-Level two for shotguns awards you with a sawn-off double barrel shotgun, that whilst having a terrible amount of ammo and only two shots before each reload, his gun is incredibly powerful and hits in a very wide area in front of you. Really good crowd control, great damage, but make sure you’re ready to run the hell away when you need to reload. Normal XP gain.

-The next step for the shotguns is the Auto Shotgun. This little street sweeper eats through almost anything fairly easily, blowing weaker enemies away in all directions and provides decent stopping power for the big guys. One of my staple weapons, always reliable. Normal XP gain.

-The fourth and final shotgun is a real beast called The Arsonator. This howitzer of an automatic shotgun spews lethal burning incendiary rounds charged with the very fires of Hades (okay, I may be exaggerating here, but this thing is freaking cool). Sets everything on fire. Kills everything very quickly. Possible to set yourself on fire if you’re not careful. Normal XP gain.

Full-Auto:

-First up for the automatic upgrades is the Commando Rifle. Completely standard military assault rifle. It does decent damage, is pretty damn accurate and dispatches most demons fairly effectively. It’s just not all that interesting. Normal XP gain.

-Next we have the Heavy Assault Rifle. This is a pretty powerful heavy automatic gun that mows down groups nicely, has a pretty big clip size and makes nice loud bangs. Again, not all that interesting, but it is nice to feel like you’re firing off something really powerful. Normal XP gain.

-Last but not least for the automatics is the Machinegun. This baby comes with a few hundred rounds of slugs that tear through enormous groups of demons with remarkable results. This puppy doesn’t need to reload at all and will general turn everything it goes through into meaty chunks. Incredibly powerful, fantastic crowd control and just an all-round crowd pleaser. It may not be as fun and interesting as say, the Arsonator, but my, is it effective. Normal XP gain.

And finally, containing the most entertaining weapons of all, the Melee:

-The second level of the basic knife is a chainsaw, and everybody loves a good chainsaw! It is very satisfying to just hold this out and chew through the weaker demons of the game, but it is far too dangerous to risk using this on the more difficult enemies at such close range. +25% XP

-The third melee level is probably my absolute favourite weapon in The Haunted, The Witch Hammer. This horrible, gruesome, wretched weapons is a sight to behold. A whirling mess of blades that chew through enemies, spinning them around the end of the weapon and throwing limbs and gore in all directions. This weapon is obscenely powerful and an absolute sight to behold, but you do still have to be careful about getting in close range when using it. +25% XP

-The final level for melee upgrades is a weapon called the Glaive. Very reminiscent of the focal point weapon of last years incredible failure DarkSector (a game I hardbor a special resentment for, as I was very excited for it), just without the post launch aiming. The Glaive is an oddity in the sense that it isn’t technically a melee weapon – you have to throw it to use it, and it goes a decent mid-range distance. The powerful part of this weapon however, is the fact it will instantly behead and kill any demon you throw it at, and then continue to slaughter anything that it catches on its return path. However, you are incredibly vulnerable to attacks whilst it’s in the air, unless you can get a couple of melee kicks in to push monsters back. I’m not the biggest fan of the Glaive myself, preferring the ridiculously evil Witch Hammer for my close quarters ruination. -50% XP

-Also worthy of note is that the basic knife actually gives +75% XP per kill. This is extremely useful early on, as the knife can behead the weaker enemies in one slice if you’re good enough.

On top of the wonderful cast of characters available as weapon upgrades, there are also a few more weapons hidden throughout the available maps in secret areas. Aside from your typical grenade launcher, flamethrower and sniper rifle – which do pretty much exactly what you would expect them to, there is a fun little addition called the Nitrogen Thrower. This device launches slugs of what I can only expect is liquid nitrogen, instantly freezing anything it hits which can be then easily broken with a well placed bullet or melee attack, which brings me to the next point of note…

In the more recent updates to The Haunted, HEGI and his team have added standard hand-to-hand melee attacks into the game. A quick tap of the melee key and you character will perform a roundhouse kick that will knock enemies back. Combining this keypress with different directions will yield different attacks which all do little damage but are helpful in getting you out of trouble at short notice. However, if you hold the key down for a few seconds an indicator at the bottom of the screen will start flashing until it turns white. After it has changed this colour, release the key in combination with a direction to pull off one of the game’s many impressive instant-kill melee finishing moves. One of these attacks will always kill any monster it connects with, but it will almost always only kill one, and knock others in the area back. These moves are very entertaining to pull off and awesome to watch other players performing them. They really make you feel badass whilst trying to hold off the hordes. The Haunted also gives you the ability to roll out of danger, with a quick double tap of a direction causing your character to tuck and roll, negating any damage. You can also reload whilst rolling, which the creators heavily encourage.

Another great piece of the action is the environmental hazards that exist in each of the three maps available with the game. In the map ‘Stronghold’ – a map themed around a great ancient castle, either the AI or human players on the demon team can trigger a dense fog to fall over the map, obstructing the view of the survivors and allowing them to only see a few feet in front of them. In the map ‘Forsaken Canyon’ – a map that looks strikingly similar to some of the later windy canyon areas from Resident Evil 4, a lightning storm can be called upon which causes extremely powerful lightning bolts to strike the map at semi-regular intervals. These bolts tend to completely decimate whatever they hit, so run for cover! On ‘Forgotten Temple’ – a map based on a dark temple, the entire map turns a deep burning orange/red colour and powerful meteorites fall from the sky causing massive damage and fires all over the map. Again, FIND COVER.

Graphically, this mod is really head and shoulders above almost any other I’ve seen. A great amount of detail has been put into every aspect of this mod. It appears as though almost nothing from the original UT3 stock artwork remains, with all new models, textures, effects, music and sounds. Everything exudes a very professional quality, although I am not a big fan of the new loading screen animation HEGI has used in the latest version. It looks very out of place and gaudy in comparison to the old loading screens that showed an image of the next map, or a picture of one of the demons. Things look even better in version 2.5 – the latest version of the mod, with texture detail increasing a great amount and a number of old issues being fixed or removed. The architecture in the new map – Forgotten Temple is especially wonderful, depicting an ancient and horrific keep with many gargoyles and demonic artifacts placed throughout the level.

A number of new balancing changes have also been made with the latest version of The Haunted, such as better weapon and damage balancing, and also some resource and gameplay tweaks to make the game more enjoyable overall when playing on the demon team.

In all, The Haunted is what I see as an incredibly well done, polished, professional grade modification to Unreal Tournament 3. A total conversion in the most complete sense possible. Absolutely nothing but the menu structure from UT3 remains. Sure, you still shoot guns and make things explode, but many games that aren’t UT3 allow you to do that out there today. I used to have some gripes with The haunted in previous versions, but those have essentially been taken care of. As a mod, I really have nothing bad to say about this game, except maybe that there is a great lack of available maps (a third was added at the release of version 2.5). HEGI and his team have done an incredible job, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us by the next phase of Make Something Unreal.

If you have UT3 at all, if you enjoy the regular game or not, I highly recommend grabbing The Haunted form their ModDB page here. I really can’t stress it enough, this mod is truly something else, and it needs a strong community to back it. I really wouldn’t be surprised if HEGI makes it all the way to the grand prize with this one. Keep up the good work, guys!

And now, for you exceptional people who Survived this wall of text, I give you a little video I made of the Witch Hammer in action. Be warned, the audio may be a little off sync due to Xfire’s new broken encoder…