Scream Bloody Entertainment

Same as it always was, isn’t it?

The mind just keeps sending you back again.

It’s interesting how you can find comfort in any familiar situation.

Even in a familiar nightmare.

Wake up, it’s time for the real nightmare to begin.

When taking a look at the progress of modern gaming, it is quite astounding just how much Valve Corporation has contributed to the industry over the years. Not only have they developed several iconic franchises, but the flexibility offered by their Source engine has made way for countless modifications through which independent and aspiring game developers have gotten the chance to show their prowess.


In terms of horror, there’s one mod that really stands out from the crowd, and it’s called Nightmare House 2. Developed by We Create Stuff, this Source engine based modification requires Half Life 2: Episode 2 to run, but it also comes with really impressive graphics and immersive gameplay as a consequence. In a session of extreme tension and way too many out-of-the-seat jump scares to recount, I have gone through the entire game and made it back in one piece—albeit a little more paranoid and shaken than before—only to report my findings to the world.

The Prologue

Even before taking off, Nightmare House 2 offers plenty of bangs in form of a prologue, which you have the option of playing before getting into the actual game. This short chapter takes about thirty minutes to an hour to complete and it gives you a taste—if you will—of things to come.

Waking up in the middle of the night and in a creepy forest, with a car that is conveniently broken down, the prologue will have you explore the outskirts and the inside of what seems to look like an abandoned mansion. The appropriately forbidding score sets up the game’s atmosphere right from the get go and also lets you know that you’re in for a rough ride, to say the least. During the prologue, you’ll get the chance to familiarise yourself with the haunting ghost of a woman that seems to be bent on turning your life into living hell. Yes, you’ll be fighting bloody monsters and disfigured abominations here and there, but what’s really going to make your life miserable is the dead girl. There’s no actual story to be had within the prologue, though there are some hints at the ghastly woman’s past here and there. The chapter couldn’t have ended on a better note than it did, delivering a clever scare while perfectly setting up the mood for the rest of the game.


Considering its short length and the non-stop barrage of thrills present, I strongly recommend giving the prologue a go before moving on with the actual game.

A Single Player Mod for Half Life 2: Episode 2

Nightmare House 2 is divided into seven chapters (excluding the prologue), each taking about twenty or thirty minutes to complete. There’s a good balance in terms of what every chapter has to offer, and there’s a clear progress when it comes to difficulty and building tension. While the first few chapters focus more on scares and atmosphere, the latter ones are more action-oriented.

Taking place in the ironically named Never Lose Hope Hospital, Nightmare House 2 has you start off in padded cell that is mysteriously left open and from which you must make your way through the apparently abandoned hospital and gather clues as to what happened and how you ended up there in the first place.

The various scares are definitely the highlight of the mod. Nightmare House 2 is surprisingly inventive when it comes to thrills, always managing to catch you off-guard when you least expect it or when you think you’ve seen it all already. There’s a wide array of scare tactics implemented into Nightmare House 2, and everything from things jumping out of the corner, stalking you from behind, or otherwise making your life a living hell are there. In addition, there are a few truly memorable moments in form of hallucinations that appear from time to time through the game.


The dread infused atmosphere of Nightmare House 2 is incredibly effective and relentless, much of which is due to its outstanding sound elements. The dark corridors of Never Lose Hope Hospital are ten times more potent with ghastly whispers and sounds of footsteps coming out of nowhere. Nightmare House 2 excels when it comes to using the surroundings to create fear and tension, which are only further helped by the appropriately distressing environmental sounds to make your stay at Never Lose Hoppe Hospital a deeply frightening one.

You can’t leave. She won’t let you.

It is truly remarkable how Nightmare House 2 manages to keep you at the edge of your seat throughout its entire length. Not one second spent in the game is anywhere near boring, and at the same time things never become dull. Few scares are actually repetitive and you’ll rarely, if ever, find yourself in the same situation more than once. In addition, Nightmare House 2 is also innovative when it comes to level design and what each chapter has to offer. As such, the chapters in the game bear little resemblance to each other, with not only the surroundings seeing a change, but the gameplay as well.


To illustrate, there are a few moments in Nightmare House 2 that come to mind. There’s one part during the play-through where you’ll come across a bunch of lifeless mannequins that seem to follow you around, always ending up right behind you when you turn around. Also, during the more action-oriented parts of the game, you’ll team up with a group of SWAT officers that have just arrived in Never Lose Hope Hospital in order to investigate the mysterious happenings. Such variations in gameplay help Nightmare House 2 maintain a constantly refreshing influence on the player.

Scared to death. Standard story. Does it matter?

Nightmare House 2 comes close to the perfect gaming experience, but it does end up being a little underwhelming in one department. The writing, while understandably second-rate for a game mod, pales in comparison to the rest of the game’s qualities. The plot is nothing more than a typical horror adventure, and the storyline is simply too vague in the long run and it often makes no sense. This is especially obvious during the part where you meet up with the SWAT members. At one point, they send you, a mere civilian, through the ventilation system to open a locked door from the other side. Later one, when you encounter another locked door, one of them shoots it open with a shotgun, which is fine, but it really makes you wonder why he didn’t do that earlier on.


The ending, along with the final ‘boss fight,’ leaves a little to be desired. The final battle simply doesn’t fit into the rest of Nightmare House 2 and it’s obvious that it lent a few elements from other games. As for the game’s conclusion, suffice it to say that it doesn’t give a good enough explanation regarding the events that have happened at Never Lose Hope Hospital and a few plot points remain undisclosed. However, one must take into account that horror games rarely focus on story, which kind of make the faults present in Nightmare House 2 easily forgivable and ultimately understandable.

Horror in all its beauty

All writing flaws aside, Nightmare House 2 is not only an outstanding mod, but also a full-fledged horror adventure that succeeds where many video games have failed: it delivers thoroughly effective thrills and creates an atmosphere so prevailing that it allows players to fully immerse themselves into the game. Nightmare House 2 is without a doubt one of the most intense video game experiences one can come across, and is therefore a must for those in possession of the Half Life 2: Episode 2 and looking for some good scares. It will most definitely deliver.