Grey
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Grey is a total convertion mod for 
Half-Life 2: Episode Two. The Mod was released August 24, 2012. The mod was developed by Deppresick Team.
Contents
Synopsis
Grey's life has been nothing but a struggle, a constant downward spiral. And it seems even reality has turned up against him. He awakens to find that the world has gone quiet, the streets empty... You must find help!
Story
Grey awakens at his bed, startled by nightmarish visions, he ventures on only to find disturbing occurrences on his way and goes to hell to exit through the back door. He decides to take a shortcut to get quickly to his house, although he states that he hates the shortcut, he has no other choices.
Grey enters an alleyway and finds a flashlight to be able to keep moving. Searching around, he finds a pipe and uses it to destroy the wooden planks blocking the entrance. Going further, he descends into a basement-like room where he finds a disturbing doll. Grey decides to leave the place but notices that the doll follows him. After crawling through many places, he manages to find the exit and reaches his workplace, only to find a handgun along with another note whose writing is the same as his mother's, but he states that it's impossible because she died, yet he has no other choice but to do as the note says. Realising that the metal curtains can't be opened
electronically due to a malfunction in the system, he cuts the power in the place to open them manually. He's then attacked by a mysterious, floating man wielding a knife, but Grey kills him with the handgun. Proceeding further, he encounters more of this enemies and questions himself what is happening. Grey also encounters disturbing dolls that jump on his face, men whose body is up to the waist and move with their hands, dogs that seem to be skinned and deformed and many other disturbing enemies while many parts of his past are revealed.
After venturing a while, he enters into what seems to be a nightmare when he's about to get home. He tries to enter, but a female voice tells him that he "can't go home yet" because he must "do something for her first". He proceeds to the next room and finds a broken doll that resembles a girl, Grey must find the missing doll pieces and restore it (while the player explores part of the girl's memories). Once the doll's restored, Grey's sent to a boss fight against 4 giant female-like monsters while evading enormous blades.
Once the battle's finished, it's revealed that Grey was (in reality) killing a little girl with a drill, Grey then reacts and says that he "did the best he could". He then enters his house and hears the female voice (his mother) telling him that he'll "find the answers in the basement".
Grey proceeds as his mother instructs and goes to the basement, finding a long wooden plank covering a hole. He destroys it and reaches a secret part of the basement that's swarming with enemies. Grey finds a clue about his father and decides to go to the mental hospital where he was locked.
Grey reaches the hospital (which is also empty) and proceeds to find the archives section in the third floor to collect information about his father, who'd gone mad a long time ago (the reason of his insanity is not fully explained). After reaching the third floor he realizes that the floor was under renovation and that the archives were moved to the basement. Also, it was noticed that there was a hole in a section of the hospital that leads to the basement, but it was fixed. Nevertheless, Grey destroys the fixed floor where the hole was and manages to reach the basement and finds his father's documents and information. The door behind him locks itself and Grey is unable to open it, screaming and shouting. The screen then goes black and the voice of Grey's mother is heard telling him that "he's safe" and that "everything is gonna be ok".
If the player completes the game in hardcore mode, the real ending is unlocked and Grey's past is completely clarified as follows:
In 1986 Steve and Jen, his parents, were married. Soon after they moved into a small town, called Bright Woods, hoping for a peaceful life for their soon-to-be children. Steve used to work as a surgeon in the city, but now had to work at the local hospital for a much lower pay. Jen tried to get a job to help support his new salary, but was unable to. In 1989 Anita was born. Anita goes to the city school and is bullied aggressively, frequently coming home in tears. Her parents can't afford to send her anywhere else, bullying or not. In 1997 Jen is pregnant again with another daughter. Shortly after giving birth to Claire, Anita suffers a fatal fall on a school trip. It was no accident. But with little evidence other than a broken kids wagon that she was tripped with - that every child on that trip had played on - there was no one to pin the blame onto. Anita was rushed to Bright Woods hospital where Steve was one of the few surgeons available to work on her. While it was against hospital policy to allow staff to work on their family members, they had no choice. Anita dies in the hospital under the care of Steve, driving him into a deep depression which eventually costs him his job at the hospital.
In late 1998 Steve finally completely breaks down believing that his family has no future anymore, he decides to take out the rest of the family with him in a crazed suicidal state. Successfully murdering Claire with a kitchen knife, he fails to kill Jen who then calls the cops. Early 1999, Steve is admitted to Suzanne Cross Hospital where he spends the rest of his life under review by Dr. Hamon Heath who believes Steve's troubles are hereditary and that a lobotomy may be able to save his troubled mind. After the lobotomy Steve suffers multiple seizures and lives out the rest of his life in a cell in a zombie-like state.
Jen finds out she is pregnant this same year. This time it's a boy. Jen worries about his future knowing he'lI have no father to raise him as well as fearing what he could become. Unable to afford the home she is living in anymore, she moves to an apartment in the same town. During the regular screenings and health-check-ups for the birth of the baby, Jen finds out she has first stage spinal cancer. The baby is born late 1999. Jen gives him the name Grey, knowing both her fate and the baby's.
After ten years of suffering and chemotherapy as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, Jen dies leaving the house to the bank and Grey to live the rest of his childhood in an orphanage. In 2019 Grey left the orphanage for the last time, becoming a car mechanic with low pay - but just enough to move into the ghetto part of the city. After about a year of work he starts to hate his job, his boss, those around him and himself. Then, Grey realizes what he's done.
He accidentally crippled a co-worker due to an accident and decided to hide its mistake from the others. After having a fight with his boss, Grey stabs him, returning to the bar to wash his blood-stained hands. He then states that he has "a long time left in this hospital, but maybe one day, I will have my own place to call home. My own family..."
Characteristics
Grey's development team was made by the ModDB user Ashkandi, who had previously developed 2 Half-Life mods: Mistake and Mistake-1. Grey goes in the storyline of this mods. Grey's weapon mechanics are like Half-Life 2 . But Grey's hands are shaking while holding any gun (more notorious while using ironsights), which shows that (unlike in many other horror mods and games) the main character is afraid of it's current situation.
The most notorious characteristic comes with the Hardcore difficulty. This difficulty throws a new, fresh challenge to the player, changing weapons location and maps structures, as well as adding new puzzles. Upon completing the game in Hardcore difficulty, the real ending will be revealed to the player.
Reception
Grey was well received in the ModDB page and in many other sites. Reviews praise both its visual quality and horror atmosphere. Yet, they criticise that the game is quite hard, with not too many clues about what to do or where to go, leading the game to be frustrating at some points. It was also pointed that it's a very unbalanced game due to the fact that it takes you almost a full handgun clip to kill an enemy and the melee weapons have been categorized as "'useless", and though the game warns that it's better to run from some enemies, you can't run in Grey, as the sprint function is deactivated. Aside from that, the game has been praised due to its atmosphere, which resembles Condemned: Criminal Origins, Silent Hill and Dementium.
Grey has a score of 8,3 in ModDB to this date.
