Paranoia

Paranoia — A single-player modification of the Half-Life computer game was released on December 3, 2007 by a group of Russian enthusiasts. The rendering of the modification uses OpenGL, which allowed for the use of modern visual effects such as bump mapping, reflections, detailed textures, 3D graphics, 3D skyboxes, and an improved model lighting system.

The final version of the modification was released on April 9, 2008. The modification is based on the Half-Life (GoldSrc) engine and is distributed for free. After the release of version 1.1, the modification received a large number of positive reviews, and in January 2008, the ModDB portal named the Paranoia project the best single-player modification of 2007.

Training base of the FSB special forces “Alpha”, Russia, Siberia. Training mission. No enemies present. It is necessary to listen to the nurse’s briefing, get the uniform and gas mask from Sergeant Somov, then proceed to the shooting range and shoot pistols, assault rifles, and sniper rifles, go to the headquarters and listen to General Alov.

Complex

Industrial complex "Udarnik", Russia, Siberia.’’
Battles with groups of militants for the "Udarnik"

Bunker

Underground research complex "KROT". ‘’
Battles for the complex and laboratories with groups of militants, zombies, mutants, and enraged test subjects.

Plot

The player assumes the role of a fighter in the FSB special forces group “Alpha”, Major Kalashnikov, and carries out combat missions to destroy terrorists and protect civilians in the industrial complex “Udarnik”. The player considers his mission routine, not suspecting that the upcoming events will become a true nightmare for him.

The game starts at the military base. The main hero, the major, leaves his room and first goes to the medical unit to check out new medicines and first aid kits. Then he needs to go to the warehouse to try out new equipment and pick up a gas mask. After that, he proceeds to the firing range. An alarm is sounded, and everyone needs to gather in the headquarters urgently. The major goes there and soon learns that the terrorists have seized the “Udarnik” industrial complex and are holding hostages there. Together with a group of special forces, he is sent there.

Upon arrival at the destination, the major discovers the bodies of killed workers and strange noises. When the terrorists attack the special forces, he has to kill them. After clearing several rooms of enemies, he arrives at another group of special forces, where he learns that the remaining terrorists have barricaded themselves in another part of the “Udarnik” complex. Together with them, the major goes there and eliminates the remaining terrorists.

Soon he arrives at the commander’s position, where he learns that several terrorists are still holding hostages in a small house. The assault begins. The major covers the assault team from a window. The assault is successful. The terrorists are eliminated, and the hostages are rescued. The major goes through an underground tunnel to another part of “Udarnik,” where he learns that the remaining terrorists are retreating and must be stopped and eliminated immediately. Upon arriving at the destination, the special forces say that they are leaving along the rails, and the major must cut off their path.

The Major goes to a special room where he pulls a lever to block their path, but the complex begins to bomb and he falls down. He wakes up 4 hours later and finds himself in an underground, preserved base called KROT-1 where experiments were conducted over twenty years ago. Walking through dark corridors, he contacts a soldier nicknamed “Conductor” who is also exploring KROT-1 nearby. After negotiations, the connection ends with gunshots and the soldier’s groans.

Reaching the spot where contact was lost, the Major finds the soldier dead and encounters “Unknown Enemies,” mutated workers from the KROT-1 laboratory for the past few years. He realizes this was due to an experiment. After killing them, the Major reaches the elevator and finds a group of special forces who have taken over the territory where scientists from other labs based on a new experiment system work. The Major needs to speak with one of the scientists to learn more. Walking through the laboratory, he notices clones that the scientists are working on.

Finding the scientist named Polina, the Major speaks with her. Polina explains that experiments were conducted on humans at KROT-1 twenty years ago, but the experiment soon got out of control and all test subjects rebelled, killing the staff. The base was preserved. Polina says that all the research on clones has become safer because they use an entirely new technology. She wants to examine the Major because he walked around KROT-1 without a gas mask or protection, and dangerous infection is present in the preserved laboratories, but suddenly an alarm is sounded.

The Major returns to his own group and finds that all the clones have rebelled, armed themselves, and begun to kill the staff. After killing them in the laboratory, he heads to the special forces, where he finishes off the remaining clones. Negotiations between special forces and scientists reveal that the signal controlling the clones is coming from the lower levels. The Major and “Fist” head down there and are forced to kill even more terrible, mutated creatures. They split up to find the signal.

The Major reaches a large hall where a terrible, massive creature controls all the clones and emits the signal. He kills it and returns to the special forces.

Meeting with them, he learns that some foreign military infiltrated the base and stole all information on the experiments before fleeing. The special forces catch up with them, and a firefight ensues. After destroying them, they return to the surface.

There’s a Russian helicopter fully armed and ready for combat flying above them that doesn’t respond to signals. The Major needs to grab a grenade launcher and shoot it down. The situation is complicated by enemy forces on the ground. Once he obtains the grenade launcher, the Major shoots down the helicopter. The game ends. A short clip is shown at the end featuring KROT-1 and Polina, trapped in a room and being attacked by monsters.

The history of creation

Mod Early Concept Art

The project originated in 2003 with discussions on the forum «Poligon». Later in 2004, an official website for the modification was created. The plot was developed on the forum, and initially it was related to the original Half-Life, but in 2004 the developers decided to abandon this idea. At that time, the modification was based on “Spirit” without changing the game code.

In 2005, a full-featured forum was created on the project’s website. A coder joined the development team, which gave the project new unique capabilities, and an animator also joined, who created dozens of new animations for characters. In April of the same year, the modification was registered in ModDB and immediately gained interest among foreign players. At the end of the year, the project was able to boast of its own musical themes.

In 2006, most of the character models were reworked from scratch. Each location contained its own unique characters voiced by different actors. In the spring of 2006, the first episode of the game was completed and beta testing was conducted, which inspired the team members to continue working on the modification. The project was noticed by representatives of the domestic gaming press for the first time. At that time, the project’s coder implemented a new renderer, which allowed the addition of modern visual effects (bump mapping, light reflections, detailed textures, 3D sky) and improved the model lighting system. Additionally, a new subtitle system was introduced, the enemy AI was improved, and interface development began.

In early 2007, closed testing of the second episode took place. After testing and bug fixes, work began on the third episode of the game. In 2007, professional modelers and artists joined the project for the first time, helping to make the project even more high-quality. The total number of static models for environment detailing reached more than 300.

In October 2007, the final closed testing of all episodes of the game took place, and subtitle translation into English was completed by the team «LocWorks». Paranoia was released on December 3, 2007, and immediately received a lot of positive feedback from modding enthusiasts around the world. Over the first three months, more than 40,000 copies were downloaded.

On April 9, 2008, the final version of the modification was released with minor bug fixes.

Porting

Dreamcast Version

The final version for SEGA Dreamcast (unofficially created) v.1.1 was released on October 26, 2010, and posted on the developers’ official website as well as the gaming resource “MOD DB.” A gameplay video can be found here on YouTube.

Xash3D

On March 29, 2014, the modification was ported as a standalone game to the “Xash3D” engine and was named “Paranoia: The Game Edition”. The current version as of May 26, 2014, is v.1.2.2. The porting was done by the PARANOIA TEAM and the hobbyist programmer “Unkle Mike” (also known as “Dyadya Misha”), the developer of the “Xash3D Engine.” They described the reasons for the porting on the forum «www.level-design.ru»

Quote:

«As implied by the name, the game is still ‘Paranoia’, but now in the form of an independent game that does not require pre-installation of Half-Life. The Xash3D Engine was used as the game engine. Some might ask why this is necessary. Firstly, a standalone game is always convenient for the end-user, especially in the case of Paranoia, a modification requiring Steam (or, at least, the majority of people who installed it used the Steam version of Half-Life); this creates a problem with the risk of getting a ban for using a modified opengl32.dll, which forces the user to take additional steps to avoid this danger. With this release, this problem is eliminated. Moreover, Paranoia is still the kind of modification that maintains interest over time, judging by the statistics of feedback and downloads on ModDB. So, even now, 6.5 years after the original release of the modification, it makes sense to publish the standalone game Paranoia. Secondly, the game is perfectly compatible with the Xash3D engine. Therefore, the release of Paranoia: The Game Edition will also raise the popularity of the other good work of the independent domestic gaming industry. Besides, Paranoia, even as a modification, initially has the qualities of a standalone game since it barely uses resources from Half-Life.»

26.05.2014, 19:23.

Localization

The game was translated into English even before its release and only touched on the game’s subtitles. The LocWorks team worked on translating them into English. The translation was available upon installation of the game and was included in the Russian version.

On January 26, 2008, the “Spetsnaz Project” Spanish localization became available on the ModDB portal, authored by NeedForSpeedHC, ClansMatter, Kissun@, and mario_freeman. The German localization authored by UnkSoldieR became available for download on August 8, 2008. As of March 30, 2015, the Bulgarian localization authored by S_Maddox became available for download on the same page.

Soundtrack

Mod OST

Original musical compositions that can be heard in the modification are now available for download in MP3 format on the modification’s official website along with the release. The soundtrack features music by the band Slot.