Hour Glass

for Half-Life

6th October 2005

Hour-Glass is mission-based and involves time travel to various planets.

After the events at Black Mesa, Gordon Freeman is hired by Intergalactic Time Reassurance, Inc.

As an ITR agent Gordon must maintain the true historical time line.

Heavily influenced by Quake 2 architecture and uses “keys” in order to open some doors.

The game also includes some Duke Nukem sounds and ideas.

The game includes some weapon, model, sound and texture replacements.

WARNING: Hour-Glass contains some sounds, images and an animated sequence that is NOT suitable for minors.

This was August 2015’s Classic of the Month mod.

Story

After turning down the Gman’s offer of employment, you managed to escape using an intergalactic teleporter that returned you to Earth. Hiding out within the inner city, you soon believe that the Gman is no longer interested in you. A calm peaceful feeling begins to replace the fear, terror and horror that overwhelmed you during your nightmare with Black Mesa, the soldiers and the Xen species.
Feeling confident that it is now safe to return home to your wife and look up some old friends, you make your way back to the old neighbourhood.

Your apartment looks different somehow. There are no signs of your wife or anything that would belong to a woman. You also notice other strange things like
items are missing, neighbours no longer live in the building. You turn on the television to watch some news and many of the anchors are new, but what really gives you that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach is the content of the news. Facts are no longer true, companies and products don’t exist, people have vanished and been replaced by someone else.. Many things have changed.

Your agitation brings you to telephone your mother-in-law in order to talk to your wife, who must have moved out for some reason. Your mother-in-law informs you that she has never heard of you and insists that they never had a daughter. You try to call up on some old buddies but can only find two and they insist that they don’t know the other missing friends at all.

You are sitting in your chair, in a state of shock, staring at the television, when there is a knock at the door. Two men dressed in black greet you. They are
ITR agents. Employees of a newly formed organization called Intergalactic
Time Reassurance, Inc.. They explain that they are time-space enforcement officers and have been sent to offer you a job as an ITR agent. Time-space …hmm… maybe I can get to the bottom of what the hell has happened to my wife and friends etc.
You decide to accept the job and complete a special forces training program. You are now an ITR enforcement officer and have been teleported to a secret base of operations. It’s monday morning 9:30 am and you are running late as usual…..

Author’s Notes

Hour-Glass should play well on a computer with a 300+ CPU with 64 megs of Ram. A hardware accellerated 16meg Ram video card or better is required. Don’t even try playing this game without a hardware accelerated video card, period. You should have the latest Half-Life game update installed on your computer or at least version 1.1.0.1 to see Hour-Glass as intended. It will play on older versions, but many things in the game do not look correct.

Headphones are recommended during play for two reasons;
1) increases your enjoyment, and
2) there are sound files of an adult nature that you don’t want young people and your wife to hear! You have been WARNED!

Play this game in a very dark room, as many of the maps are on the dark side. Adjust your in-game monitor display gama using the Half-Life video mode adjustment if the game is too dark.

STRATEGY! and weapon selection are the keys to winning this game (especially near the end of the game). If you are suffering from “I die a lot” syndrome while playing, change your strategy and weapon combinations. I know this is asking a lot, but, you have to think in some areas. There are more than enough forms of health, ammo and weapons to succeed, but you need to be able to recognize where, when, what and how to use them. Use the sci’s healing whenever possible. (Hint: heat seeking
weapon works best against invisible enemies and if you don’t know when to use a Sniper Rifle, well…).

There are numerous auto-save triggers that will save the game for you as you play, however, there are places in the game where you should save by pressing F6 after every small achievement.

There are several (6, I think) hidden/secret areas that contain good stuff. (Look behind doors, under stairs (if a vent is near) and in the shadows for stuff.
Make sure you find the Hyper-Blaster!

Many things in the game can/should be “used” by pressing your use key, ie: open books, control panels, orbs, crystals, light switches, buttons etc.

Recommended skill level setting is “MEDIUM”.

If play begins to get choppy or slideshow effect, save/exit and restart the game. The Half-Life engine can fail to clear the RAM properly during play, which is a prime reason for this to happen in good maps.

Don’t email me if you get stuck, need hints or to complain. I am not going to support this custom game or create a walk-through for it. This will be my last “Custom Game” for Half-Life. I have moved on to other things.

I really hope you enjoy playing Hour-Glass.

Basic Details
  • Title: Hour Glass
  • File Name: hl1-sp-hour-glass.7z
  • Original File Name: hourglass.zip
  • Size : 16.00MB
  • Author: Grey Dog
  • Date Released: 18 July 2001
MapTap Users

Download directly into MapTap [16.00MB]

You MUST have MapTap installed before using this link.

Download Options

Download to your HDD [16.00MB]
You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.

Manual Installation Instructions
  • Copy the Hour-Glass folder into your …\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life folder.
  • Restart or start Steam.
  • Hour Glass should now be listed in your Library tab.

If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.

Playthrough Videos

The playthrough below is part of the Classic of the Month Event, run by Don AKA Unq.

Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!

10 recommendations, average score: 4.3 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.61 (what's that?)
Total Downloads

Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010

  • 3,312
    Overall
  • 0
    Today
  • 3
    Last 7 days
  • 13
    Last 30 days
  • 216
    365 days
Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 4 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 4 Users

Time Taken:
Average: 2 Hours, 35 Mins
Shortest: 2 Hours, 10 Mins by shaboo
Longest: 3 Hours, 30 Mins by Zekiran
Total Time Played: 10 Hours, 20 Mins
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46 Comments

  1. Darth Marsden

    Yet again… Bad Link.

  2. Yet again…Fixed. 🙂
    Can anybody hear an echo?

  3. Darth Marsden

    Echo? Nope. Funnily enough, I was playing the first mod by the author the other day. Then I played this one. It’s much better.

    Echo? Nope. The R Rated content is happily dealt with in the first few maps, and from then on it’s an interesting mix of Quake II, Star Trek and Half-Life. The Quake II style levels, the Star Trek style weapons (there’s even a phaser if you can track it down) and the Half-Life mechanics all combine together to form a rather fantastic mod.

    Echo? Nope. Naturally, the big bad behind the time disruptions is the G-Man, and in a wonderfully set-up scripted sequence you literally see the effect he has upon altering the timeline. You’ll travel to the past, the future and even space as you attempt to solve the problems he’s caused. You may get a little lost in places, but it’s nothing you won’t overcome.

    Echo? Nope. The levels are excellently designed, and the new sounds (what there are) are also of a high quality. The models are collected from various sources, and they’re mostly of a high standard, although there are one or two which aren’t quite so hot. But again, it doesn’t detract from the rest of the mod.

    Echo? Nope. There are one or two flaws though. There are some rather iffy set pieces, and you may well get stuck in one or two places. There are also some sections you can reach which you obviously weren’t meant to – this is only an issue if you’re a explorative little soul, but if you are then have “noclip” on standby. Otherwise, there’s very little to hold this mod back.

    Echo? Nope. Overall this is an excellent mod and is highly recommended. Download it and enjoy.

    Echo… Hey, wait a minute…

  4. Kyle

    You know, I think I’m the only person alive who knows, and for that matter, has PLAYED the game this is based on.
    Anyone ever hear of “The Journeyman Project”?
    It’s a PC puzzle game. They even use some of the sounds and tunes from that game in this MOD….

    And if I remember correctly, one of the levels is based rather heavily on a segment from the game.

    1. Kyle, I played Journeyman Project, when it came out. I recently started it up again.

  5. Christian

    Actually, I played ‘the Journeyman Project 1 & 2’. That was a while back 😉

  6. Carolyn

    I’m wondering if I am in one of those places not meant to be accessed. I am in a spot where one more step forward triggers two soldiers to come out, one in front, one in back, and both shoot me at the same time. Try as I might, I can’t find a solution. The door out is locked. It’s in a lower level with 2 sets of winding stairs, one to a locked door, the other to where I am now. There is a grate at floor level just inside the door that leads to a secret cache where I pick up a canister of anti toxin for my suit.

  7. Carolyn

    Still stuck…made it past that last place I posted about, but now running around a 2 level bldg and I apparently need a code. Has anyone played this mod and remembered it? Also, I am stuck in God mode and can’t turn it off.
    Help!

  8. heyzors

    This is the sequal to the mod “Adam”. This one is much better. Adam has no plot and is just random places. This one asctually has a plot and is quit fun!

  9. Mike

    Yep, this is a good one. My favorite aspect was the Quake II maps he remade for this. Sort of a nostalgic deja vu feeling.

  10. AI

    Needed something to do today, so I just got done playing thru this mod, very good, even tho I got stuck in a few places, no big deal!! A good mix of Duke Nukem and Quake 2 with a little flavor of Duke Nukem’s Penthouse Paradise mixed in, if anyone remembers that far back??? Phillip, I did get a 404 message but got it using #12’s link, thanks Andyb!! Well worth the DL and to add to my collection!!

  11. Sarah G

    Can anyone please tell me where the red key is to open the first door? Thanks.

  12. Hi Sarah. Go into Grey Dogs Den. Proceed back to the restricted area & in one of the rooms is a trashcan with a dead soldier. Smash it & grab the card.

  13. Sarah G

    Thankyou! 🙂

  14. wreade1872
    Play It Now!

    Did anyone else notice the hiliarious bit with the scientist telling the other one he’s leaving? lol great stuff and its all done with sentences from the original game which just makes it funnier.

  15. shawn

    I’m in the minority then–a soft-core porn key hunt isn’t my idea of a good time, and that’s exactly what Hour Glass is. I quit the mod at the point where with a shotgun blast the soldier kills the woman who’s giving him a *******.

    Yuck.

  16. Ade

    She was just in the way :)) the shotgun blasts are for you.
    Pretty odd, I said to myself, to have a trashcan in such a room, but never thought of smashing it.. thanks, Goddess!

  17. Ade

    I’m at the map with the big tank and the 5 valves. The one near the tank won’t budge. Any ideas?

  18. Ade

    Turns out I had to shoot the scientist to complete that mission!
    After that, there was the code 352, if you’re still interested, Carolyn. And, of course, if we’re talkin bout the same thing

  19. Ade
    Maybe?

    Finally found the time to finish this 😀
    A second code was 241 but I never got to use it.
    I liked it.. mostly. But it has several parts where you really have no hint of what to do next and I really hated the part with the invisible grunts and that invisible.. dart-shooter. I know it’s supposed to be sci-fi, but it’s rather unfair, since the heat-seeking rocket launcher isn’t too helpful, nor the few snarks. So the gameplay isn’t its forte by far.
    I enjoyed the architecture and I think a few screenshots would convince others to play it. The key usage – also nice. The idea of not being able to kill someone except in his real timeline is oh so complicated by all that text at which you have to stare at for 5 minutes each; the “killing one’s parents before one’s conception” reminded me of Terminator :)) Too bad they wouldn’t let me go through with it.
    Anywayz, I was expecting something shorter and was pleasantly surprised by its length and new stuff.

  20. through my recent review at SP map corner somebody told the file he download from filecloud seems to be corrupted?

  21. through my recent review at SP map corner somebody told the file he download from filecloud seems to be corrupted?

    I have just downloaded, uncompressed and installed the file with no problems. I just tested it and it ran fine on my Steam installation. Looks like the user has a problem.

  22. hey does any one know where to go ?
    im stuck in the strip club and dont know where to go?!?

  23. Stef

    thanks for you help phillip

    b_rad7456 sorry I can’t help you it’s soooo long that I play this one

  24. zockopa

    This one goes also in the “good” folder.

  25. Mel
    Play It Now!

    great game go play it

  26. Anonymous

    As Goddess said a few comments ago, smash the trash can in a back room for a red key to the door down the street.

  27. SP Map Corner

    After the release of Adam, a good half-life experience that integrate a lot of vertical moving, Greydog came in 2001 with a master piece…Hour-Glass.

    Everything fits well in this add-on, new textures (under others some hot babes), new weapons ( under others coming from Counter-strike), some memorable theme revisited (Duke nukem, Quake 1&2), this all put together with new voice acting and some huge scripts.

    Nothing about storyline? Sure and it is certainly a good and original one; Like in most half-life experience, the G-man is leading you to an impossible mission… but this time you’re gonna be surprise…through travelling to time, that you have a close link with the G-man… only way to destroy him…just think about. The all ” quest” is made by separate mission that make you travel trough time and solar system, this with all the stuffs that is needed to do it in the good way: puzzle to solve (sometimes tricky), descent combat (in the first half a little to easy, but after, sometimes challenging especially when you are going to encounter some invisible grunts) you will find those situation in some well experienced place that will remember you some good memory according to quake and duke (in this way you have 6 secrets zone to find !!!).

    Is there any flaws, some small but more depending on the easy way to criticise them, to close to the original Half-life game and some part that are close to original game (especially some quake2 area), but this is nothing to compare to the enjoyment of this add-on.

    In Conclusion
    A good use of FPS history to add some value to a really good experience that reach is paroxysm with The End scene

    Playtime: 7 hours

    Rating: A (91 %)

  28. Ollo

    I’m stuck at the big coca cola boiler thing. I suppose I have to stop something with the valves, but I’m hopelessly stuck. can anyone help? thx!

  29. tekknej

    there’s a scientist in that room… that’s your target )

  30. piledriver

    As much as it pains me to ask for help;
    In map h1m3, where is the power relay needed to open the exit door?
    A voice over tells me I need one.

  31. piledriver
    Play It Now!

    OK done it. Good mod. Nice variety of puzzles and action. Invisible soldiers? I didn’t see them 🙂
    Screenshots on their way.

  32. tox!c

    it was so hard to find the keys for me I just nocliped

  33. Maybe?

    Interesting idea, but fails in practice imo, don’t ask me why but I got bored quick so I stopped playing after mission 2, I guess it wont get better after that point anyway

    Pro’s:
    -Story, idea of time-travels, missions sound(!) interesting but aren’t
    -Different weapon designs, stolen q2 textures 😛

    Con’s:
    -It soon gets too boring
    -Poor level design

  34. Anon_392896

    where I can download the link, because I dont see the link for download the half life’s mod, hour glass

  35. Ten Four Reviews
    Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

    I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this pack when I first downloaded it. I found Adam, Grey Dog’s previous Half-Life episode, very disappointing in terms of gameplay and fun factor. Well, my apprehension was completely unfounded – Hour-Glass is an all-around high-quality pack, with plenty of fun to be had.

    As usual, the G-Man is up to no good, and it’s your mission to stop him. Set after the events in Black Mesa, Hour-Glass has you back as Dr. Gordon Freeman, agent for Intergalactic Time Reassurance, Inc. You see, the G-Man has been messing with the fabric of space-time and generally wreaking havoc. Throughout this episode you are given mission backgrounds and objectives via thorough on-screen text instructions. But Hour-Glass is not just a series of search-and-destroy missions – there is, in fact, a pretty clever plot that develops as you advance.

    Like I stated above, this huge pack is a lot of fun to play, and I personally feel it is in the top echelon of Half-Life map packs. Grey Dog has certainly improved on his level design skills – all the areas represented (and there is quite a variety here) are well-designed and for the most part the r_speeds are kept in check. Architecture is nice as well, but what I really liked is how the areas interconnect. The flow of the game is certainly not linear in a number of maps, and there are a few hidden areas to be found.

    The gameplay aspect really shines, too. There are a bunch of puzzles here, but gone are the random instant-death scenarios present in Adam (good riddance!). Most are the puzzles are of the ‘find-the-key’ variety, but overall they are well conceived and executed. The combat is solid and challenging in spots. The main enemies you’ll face are grunts, although the G-Man has also managed to open a portal from his Moon Base to Xen, so you’ll have some non-human enemies in that mission. Grey Dog has implemented a slew of new models for the weapons. But there are no new weapons per se, as they are just replacement models for HL’s existing arsenal.

    Also included are some aspects derived from other action games, such as Quake and Duke Nukem 3D. A couple of Duke sounds and some areas that resemble the original Duke maps are added to the first mission. And the final mission is certainly inspired by the Quake games in terms of architecture and textures. I should also warn you that, like Adam, Hour-Glass contains some adult material and content, and is not intended for children.

    There are a couple shortcomings in this pack that don’t detract much from the enjoyment, but are bothersome nevertheless. First is a problem that shows up in a lot of packs, and I seem to find a lot of them because I’m the curious type. There are several areas that you can get to in some of the maps that you shouldn’t be able to. Right near the beginning, a couple of quick jumps and I was permanently trapped in a place I wasn’t intended to access. Other maps had specific spots where you could get ‘wedged’ and trapped, usually on uneven/complex architecture. The author uses a number of short cutscenes to highlight certain aspects or sequences. Unfortunately, a couple of them involve your being ambushed by grunts, and the grunts start shooting you before the cutscene is over. Cutscenes are fine if used right, but getting shot while watching one is not particularly fun, especially when playing on the ‘difficult’ setting. I’m surprised the thorough playtesting didn’t point out this annoying problem. I also felt the balance of the pack is a little off. The first three-quarters or so seemed way too easy on the ‘normal’ skill – there were tons of health and ammo available. The last mission is quite tough, and is closer to a nice balance. But as an experienced Half-Life player, I feel that overall Hour-Glass is better balanced if you play on ‘difficult.’ The last mission is very tough in this case, but I’m always up for a good challenge. But in any case, consistency in the health/ammo/challenge balance would have been nice.

    Overall Hour-Glass is a lot of fun to play through, and with 30 maps, it’ll keep you playing for quite a while. A good plot, solid design and combat, and general professionalism make this episode highly recommended.

    Notes
    This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Wednesday, 23rd May, 2001 by Unquenque.

    This review was originally posted on the Ten Four Website, which is now offline. Permission has been granted to republish the full review and more details can be found on the About page.

  36. Play It Now!

    For those who find this mod stupid, I’d rather say it’s original. It has many jokes (which will even make you laugh while fighting), most of them are made from the HL-voice or have been extracted from other games like Quake.

    At first it’s all jokes and easy encounters, but the part with invisible grunts might make you drive crazy (Tip: Hornet’s homing fire makes things easier).

    Also, the game puts together all those jokes in an interesting storyline with a great plot twist (Play yourself to see what it is!) and cool new models.

  37. Personal Favourite

    I’m going to say that while I have this as a PF it’s actually somewhere between PIN and PIL in terms of actual ‘quality’ mapping, but because it made for some VERY good game play and fun, plus bonus points for using Gman so cleverly, it ranks a PF from me.

    On one hand, I looked at the comments regarding the early portion of the mod and thought, well, its creator was probably somewhat immature – and I would likely be right, given the ‘fun wavs’ and images that are prevalent in the first 15 minutes. After that area, though, there’s only one spot I can think of where any of the questionable images come back, and only once more with a model at the end, and frankly that was in context anyway (… I suppose, lol, because I’m sure that someone had a *clothed* female?)

    The variety of locations was offset just a bit by the fact that they were all uniformly ‘twisty turny and confusing’, but once you get into the groove of exploration and retracing, it’s actually a lot better than many which I’ve played that rely heavily on back-tracking. I did get stuck a couple times, and since if you progress past certain doorways you really can’t go back and re-explore, I’m not sure what I was missing from having dropped into a couple spots and reloaded the game.

    The use of textures whether they are unique or from other games, was really, really impressive. Visually the locations were quite fun – and specifically the last one was amazing in many ways. I have to think, this mod was released LONG before Narbacular Drop and obviously before Portal, and yet… there sure were some interesting portal-like spots…

    I did have god-mode on for a considerable chunk of this, particularly the end areas with invisible enemies, because frankly with not quite enough armor around, and invisible enemies that have grenade launchers… that’s a touch unfair. However, even then, the fights were all pretty *fun*, and that’s what counts to me. I didn’t feel like I needed to give up though I sure would have been dead most of the time… I made use of the revival pools and tried a couple times without god mode but after hitting 17 hp within seconds… yeah that wasn’t gonna happen. That all said, I like being able to appreciate the locations even while guys are shooting at me.

    The layouts, while confusing, made for a couple really good ‘OH!’ moments, clever getaway methods, and ‘oh that’s where that leads!’ while wandering around.

    A lot of the ‘personal rooms’ found in the end and on the moon/planet bases were cool and felt quite lived-in, artistic, a place that I’d like to kind of sit around after a day moving ore and doing paperwork. The use of modified sounds to create at least the illusion of more characters was a nice touch.

    All in all, honestly? I think this mod deserves to be remade in a newer engine using its own textures and models. It would benefit greatly from improved physics and lighting, and obviously in the meantime I’d hope that Grey Dog and friends have had more experience in layouts and level design to add to this obviously excellent work they did here.

    normally I’m against having Gman > Gordon in whatever way, but this was handled remarkably well! good use of existing dialog options too.

    1. (there is meant to be a spoiler tag around that last paragraph, but it doesn’t work for some reason? and is that bug where if you edit your post, your review image vanishes, still here? I don’t want to run that risk, so… pretend there’s a spoiler tag on that last bit 😀 )

      1. I’ve added the spoiler tga for you. No, the bug with the vanishing rec image has been fixed, BUT when you edit your comment it LOOKS like the image has been removed but it hasn’t. Refresh the page and it appears.

        1. Zekiran

          Thanks, and that’s very good to know 😀

          Also I was still hit with that ‘can’t comment on blog post’ bug with your absence / illness post, I hope you did see my comment elsewhere a while back and also hope you’re doing better now. 🙂

  38. Unq
    Play It Later

    I forgot to review this when I played it a few months back for Classic of the Month, so here goes. Although that is my Ten Four review above – but some opinions have changed replaying this after 14 years(!).

    Overall I still think this is a solid pack of maps. Yes, it borrows some textures, sounds, models, etc. from other games/mods – but they’re not the focus of the pack and in general they help the fresh feel of Hour-Glass. The mapping is solid, and you visit a variety of areas – but (especially frustrating if you watch my playthrough) there is a dire lack of player guidance. I’m not a fan at all of handholding the player, but I literally went in circles for 20 minutes before stumbling upon a red key card that I needed. The locked door should have somehow indicated that a key was needed! Playtesting would have helped a ton here.

    This mod is especially memorable for the invisible enemies in the last chapter. I’ve played games with invisible enemies before and usually they’re terribly frustrating but here I didn’t find them to be too frustrating, but certainly challenging.

    In general: worth playing. It’s tough and can be frustrating but it’s solidly mapped and there are some nifty details, as well as a number of secret areas to find.

    Overall I think this is worth playing, although I’m not convinced I made a wise pick for it as a classic. 🙂

  39. Play It Later

    I enjoyed this mod and have to agree with Unq here: worth playing, but not a classic.

    Fighting invisible grunts felt stupid and really was an experience I’m glad is exclusive to this mod. Hornet’s homing fire really helps here, so it wasn’t as frustrating as one could fear, but just spamming rooms and corners with homing shots is not my idea of some good or interesting fighting.

    “The locked door should have somehow indicated that a key was needed!”

    Actually it does: The message “You Need a red key to open this door.” appears when you’re trying to open the door, but it appears only once, on your first try. That said, I agree that this mod is occasionally lacking some guidance.

  40. JC

    Just decided to play this mod again after many years. I totally forgot how crazy it is.
    Wonder what kind of weed the author of this mod was smoking when he made it 😀

    Still a good mod, but don’t play it if you’re coca-cola fan.

    🙂

  41. Play It Later

    Strange campaign but nevertheless, a good one. The content has similarities to Timeline Trilogy, level design is meh, some are good, some are not. The combat becomes unfair at the near end because of invisible grunts.

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