Solitary Echoes
Mod for Half-Life (1998) | Category: Total Conversion
Author: Team Lambda | Curator: Modbadger
Mod for Half-Life (1998) | Category: Total Conversion
Author: Team Lambda | Curator: Modbadger
Solitary Echoes is a total conversion of Half-Life set in the Aliens universe. You play as an engineer at LV-513 base, which is under attack by xenomorphs. Having hidden in a maintenance room, the protagonist decides to venture outside after weeks to fight for his life, find help, and discover the truth about what happened.
Localizations:
Localizations:
The mod is localized into 1 language
(You don’t need to download anything extra to play in these languages)
Despite only the first episode of Solitary Echoes being currently available, the project is already attracting attention due to its quality execution and attention to detail. From the first minutes, the visual development stands out: lighting, custom models and textures create a sense of authentic presence, as if you're entering the world of Aliens. The atmosphere is tense and grim, and the maps delight with their variety and neat, pleasant design.
The gameplay is built around the idea of survival in tight, claustrophobic spaces. You have access to a limited arsenal of weapons, ammunition is extremely scarce, and battles with enemies are tense and often force you to save every bullet. Enemies are fast and dangerous. Although hitboxes sometimes cause inconvenience and the balance may seem too difficult, this only emphasizes the feeling of fragility and vulnerability. The gameplay is complemented by elements like signal lights, turrets, and hidden areas that reward those who dare to explore dark corners.
The voice acting makes a special impression. Here, characters actually speak, which is rare for GoldSrc mods. Even though some lines are voiced using AI, the overall impression of the presentation remains positive — voices bring the story to life and enhance the atmosphere. The plot develops gradually, only outlining events rather than revealing them completely, serving as a prologue to a larger story.
Of course, the project is not without rough edges. Some maps need optimization, there are technical flaws like physics problems or missing sounds. Some may find the pace too slow and the episode duration insufficient — playthrough takes about an hour and ends just when tension reaches its peak. Nevertheless, even in this form, the mod makes a vivid impression.
Solitary Echoes successfully combines features of classic Half-Life modding with a fresh approach to horror atmosphere. It references Alien: Isolation with its slow, oppressive rhythm, while maintaining the spirit of the golden age of GoldSrc mods, when fans sought to create full-fledged new worlds on the old engine. The result is a work that not only carefully handles the Aliens legacy, but also shows that the Half-Life modding community is still capable of surprising and creating high-level projects.
How to install a mod Solitary Echoes
Extract the solitary_echoes folder and place it into the root directory of the game.
Launch the game, go to the Change game menu, and select the mod.
Play!
(Optional) ReShade
ReShade is a generic post-processing injector for games and video software developed by crosire. Imagine your favorite game with ambient occlusion, real depth of field effects, color correction and more. ReShade exposes an automated and generic way to access both frame color and depth information (latter is automatically disabled during multiplayer to prevent exploitation) and all the tools to make it happen.
SE comes with a custom preset for ReShade. It is originally based on the ReShade preset for Half-Life by QueenPlague, but altered in some key aspects in order to fit the darker maps and atmosphere of Solitary Echoes better.
Installation instructions:
Download ReShade from: https://reshade.me/
Stop the game, if it's currently running.
Start ReShade and coose hl.exe from your Half-Life installation directory.
Select OpenGL as renderer.
When asked for a preset, either load Half-Life.ini or just press skip and install all available plugins.
Extract the Half-Life.ini file from the ReShade folder of the mod download archive into your Half-Life directory.
A new file that is called opengl32.dll should be visible. CHANGE IT TO READ ONLY as Half-Life will try to remove it upon loading the game.
Extract Solitary Echoes.ini and Vanilla.ini from the ReShade folder of the mod download archive into your Half-Life directory.
Start SE. Ingame, press the assigned ReShade key (default Home), head to the "Home" menu tab and select the "Solitary Echoes" preset and enjoy the enhanced features.
If you want to switch back and forth between ReShade and vanilla look, you can switch to the "Vanilla" preset on the fly.
IMPORTANT: Please note that it's not sure wether or not this will get you VAC banned, so use at your own risk! If you want to be safe, delete opengl32.dll before joining online servers with any Half-Life mod. Also ReShade can cause slight visual bugs on some graphic cards. Just switch to the Vanilla preset, should you experience something strange.
To avoid entering the "Change game" menu every time you start the mod, you can:
Option 1: Launch via shortcut
Go to the properties of hl.exe and in the Target field (for example: "D:\Games\Half-Life\hl.exe") add a space and then write -game followed by the name of the mod folder in the game root directory. It should look like this: "D:\Games\Half-Life\hl.exe" -game mod_folder_name
Apply the changes.
Launch the mod using this shortcut.
Option 2: Launch via Steam
Open Steam, click on the "Games" menu > "Add a Non-Steam Game".
Browse to the game folder and select hl.exe.
A shortcut will appear in your library.
Right-click on it, select Properties, and in the "Launch Options" field write the full path to hl.exe (for example: "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life\hl.exe") and add -game plus the mod folder name after a space. It should look like this: "D:\Games\Half-Life\hl.exe" -game mod_folder
