Estranged : Act I

Estranged : Act I is an adventure first-person shooter developed by Estranged team led by Alan Edwardes. It has been released on January 16, 2014, after 3 years of development. The game gathered very positive reviews, with 93% of all steam users rating positively and having 8.9/10 on moddb.

The game uses the Source engine .

Plot
Main article : Fisherman

The story revolves around a fisherman who got stranded on a mysterious island during a violent storm. Fisherman is forced to fight for his survival while he is trying to get back to the mainland and find out what happened on the island.

Allies

 * Fisherman
 * John Derril
 * Professor George Richmond

Other

 * Liam Jones
 * Capturer

Humans

 * Arque security force

Monsters

 * Infected

Weapons

 * Colt M1911 : The first weapon obtained in the game. Powerful and accurate.
 * MP7 PDW : A fully automatic submachine gun and a standard weapon of Arque Security Force. Fires at 900 rounds per minute, making it an excellent CQB weapon
 * SPAS 12 : Powerful shotgun. Appears only in hands of one security guard. Can be obtained using cheats or by modifying maps
 * Hammer : Only melee weapon in the game. It is slow, but powerful.

Development
Estranged development started with Alan Edwardes. He came up with the idea for the game. The team quickly grew.

The game started as a map for Half Life 2 : Episode 2, Splooshe.bsp. It later became a full fledged mod. The first alpha build was released in 2011 and game gained a fanbase. The earliest versions were distributed on the moddb page and can be still found there.

When the game was nearing completion, Alan submitted Estranged : Act I on Steam Greenlight. Game was accepted and released on steam for free.

In 2016, the team started developing a sequel, Estranged : Act II.

Gameplay
Estranged Act I shares many gameplay traits with Half Life 2, most notably physics based puzzles, movement and several gunplay mechanics. It also features several new mechanics and changes to the gameplay, notably the addition of interactible computers, player can carry only one weapon at a time, higher weapon damage etc.

The game heavily focuses on exploration and rewards it using dynamic spawn system, intelligently spawning player ammunition and medkits based on his health.

Estranged features a very minimalistic HUD, consisting of a cross displaying health status, a flashlight icon displaying status of flashlight batteries, both in the left lower corner and an ammo counter in right upper corner.

Technical
Estranged uses 2013 build of Source engine, which comes with a heavily modified Havok physics engine which provides realistic and interactive physics. Source also includes many graphical features such as High Dynamic Range Lighting .

Estranged Act I features many graphical improvements, including effects such as Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion, Vignette, Lens flares, improved and fixed dynamic lighting and many more.

Modding
Act I comes with preconfigured Hammer map editor and default map source files, allowing users to make their own maps or use the default maps for educational purposes. The game can also be modded using skins and sound replacements by editing gameinfo.txt