They Hunger

Cover Art for They Hunger Episode 1

Cover Art for They Hunger Episode 1


They Hunger is a single player horror mod for Half-Life developed by Black Widow Games. It is divided into three chapters, which were distributed on the internet over a span of three years. Current distributions of the game include all three chapters. They Hunger focuses on a small American town in the 1950s, where the player is an author that has moved to the town to get inspiration for his new book.

The player is suddenly forced to fight for his life against zombies after a freak accident that forced his car into a lake. After fighting through the countryside, he manages to get to the small town but learns that it is overrun as well. However, he is captured by the evil sheriff and is nearly killed when a non-zombified police officer rescues him. The player then fights through the town and ends up at Dr. Franklin's Asylum, the nexus of the zombie outbreak. After meeting Dr. Franklin and his army of new zombies, called Zorks, the player nearly sacrifices himself to destroys the asylum and Dr. Franklin, who is still in the building when it is destroyed. However, he wakes up in a hospital later and learns that the zombies are still spreading.

He goes back to the Asylum and finishes off Dr. Franklin. Another non-zombified police officer offers to fly the player out of the city after Franklin is killed. However, while the player is flying away, the sheriff appears in a helicopter and attempts to kill them. The player kills the sheriff and manages to escape the doomed town.

One twist in the game is that the player is stripped of all their weapons at the start of each chapter, forcing the player to start from scratch. Otherwise, it plays very similar to Half-Life.

They Hunger borrows some of its art from other GoldSrc games, such as Team Fortress Classic and Counter-Strike. However, it also uses original art developed for the mod and art that was included with Half-Life, mostly the indoor textures.

Sound Effects Used

as They Hunger is a modification of Half-Life, many sounds are reused, although some other sounds are also sampled for the mod.