History VideoGame / TheyHunger

* BackFromTheDead: All the zombies, obviously. [[spoiler: Dr.Franklin however, survives death a second time and becomes a cyborg.]]

* UncannyValley: The zombies. [[Invoked]], obviously.

-->''"This is BMRF radio. WeInterruptThisProgram to bring you a special news report! Unknown atmospheric phenomena have been reported throughout the area. Meteorologists have been unable to identify the source of the strange electrical displays but we will keep you informed of any developments. We return you now to our regular programming."''

A best-selling author drives through the countryside. He's been having writer's block with his latest work, and his publisher's paid for his trip here to try and clear it up. Unfortunately, lightning strikes his car, completely wrecking it.

After falling into a river, he realizes the dead have risen and they hunger...

''They Hunger'' is one of the better known ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' mods, alongside ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'', ''VideoGame/TheHidden'', ''VideoGame/SvenCoop'', ''Redemption,'' ''Gunman Chronicles'', ''The Specialists''...

In this three part action horror/survival horror mod, you must fight your way through hordes of the experiments of a mad scientist, his minions, and the poor infected shmucks standing in your way.

* AbandonedHospitalAwakening: Episode 3 begins this way, though you have no clue until you find a nurse [[spoiler:who turns around to show of her mutilated back, and proceeds to eat a baby.]]

* AllJustADream - Subverted. At the very end of the second game you hear a voice saying "Wake up, you're having a nightmare." Turns out it's only a nurse. Who later on becomes undead.
* AlwaysNight: It is unknown exactly how much time that passes between the episodes. One thing for certain, is that the sun finaly appears at the end.
* AmericaSavesTheDay - Subverted. Another survivor says he helped a dying Army officer out... only to find that the Pentagon is trying to destroy the whole place. Not to mention the military is being overrun.
* ApocalypticLog: You find several recordings left behind by the scientist, the sheriff, and various Police and Asylum personnel, detailing the backstory.
* ArtificialLimbs: [[spoiler: Dr.Franklin]] Survives death a second time and comes back as the final boss with a new leg and a arm.

* BadassBookworm: The main character is a Writer surviving the apocalypse. He could certainly make a awesome autobiography out of it.

* BigBadDuumvirate: The Sheriff Chester Rockwood and Dr. Franklin. They were friends before their zombifications, and they still are.
* BigDamnHeroes: The first real introduction of the military has them "rescuing" you from semi-intelligent zombies about to ritually slaughter you. However, they're trying to kill you as well. As time goes on, it becomes obvious a great number of the military forces have become infected.
** Played straight with a random deputy with a rocket launcher who saves you in the second episode.

* CarFu: Done by the player with the Train and later a police car in the first episode... Done by the zombies as well.
* CavalryBetrayal: See above, Justified as the military wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a normal human, or a smart infected zombie pretending to be a human.
* ClimaxBoss: The final boss fight is against the Sheriff, and to escalate things, [[spoiler: both of you are in two separate helicopters trying to take each other down.]]
* CollapsingLair: The player destroys Dr.Franklins laboratory and burns down the Asylum.
* ContinueYourMissionDammit: Jerry Hoobs constantly naggs the player during the final battle with the Sherrif with the words "Come on! Shoot that bastard!" Even if the player dies he won´t stop! As long as the player doesn´t load a earlier save and remain in the POVCam, the Sheriff flies around the player indefinitely with Jerrys voice in the background.
* ConvectionSchmonvection

* CorruptHick - Subverted and played straight. It appears the Sheriff with the horrible Texan accent was a good man until he was infected.
* CoolButInefficient: The Tec-9; a one-handed submachine gun that does more damage than the G3 rifle and has a burt-fire mode. Unfortunetly it has a lot higher recoil and slower firing rate as well. Getting in firefights with the armed zombies on medium and hard becomes near suicidal due to close range being needed for it to be effective. Like the shotgun it is most useful taking down the common zombies with a few bursts in their heads.
* CoolTrain: In the first episode. You get to control it, and it even goes Hoot Hoot!
* CrypticBackgroundReference: Alfred explains to the player that Doctor Franklin originaly discovered something in the waters of Rockwell which could bring anyone to a state of half-life, and Franklin's tampering with it led to the outbreak. But even though the Doctor performed his experiments, neither he or anyone else know exactly what that Something is or how it functions.
* CueTheSun: At the end of the third episode, [[spoiler: after the final fight in the air is over, the helicopter with the Deputy and the player flies off into the sunrise.]]
* DamageSpongeBoss: The Sheriff. An official mod was eventually released that halved his health and he ''still'' took forever to kill.

** "Who goes there~?"
* DieChairDie - Indeed.
* DramaticGunCock: When switching to the Tauser pistol.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Episode 1 is fairly serious and more grounded compared to the BMovie-esque Sci-Fi in Episodes 2 and 3, especially the last one's boss fight with a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot zombie cyborg mad scientist]].
* {{Earworm}} - The end credits. ''"I smell you around the corner..."''

* ExplodingBarrels
* EnemyChatter: The Zombies, with their standard desire for brains and flesh. The more intelligent ones with weapons, however, are quiet. As you hear moans such as "''Why do we Hunger?''" "FRESH MEAT..." "''Who goes there?''" "''Flesh Creatures...''" and "''JOIN US!''" It's worse in the third episode, where you wander through [[spoiler:the ruins of the Asylum]] and hear "Flesh creatures!" with no enemies around.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: During the games you find many zombies eating dead bodies. But occasionaly, you see some that Actually bother to use a Fork and a knife.
* ExploringTheEvilLair: The player wanders through the asylum, and down into the underground laboratory.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Dr. Franklins experiments in his laboratory. They are decapitated heads held alive in a aqvarium.
** There is also a man impaled stuck on a huge meathook, like a worm. He should be dead but isn´t, and is screaming and endlessly trying to get off. You can put him out of his misery though.
* FlunkyBoss: Dr. Franklin is assisted by a policeman using a mounted machinegun, while The Sheriff has infected soldiers dropping from an helicopter early in the battle.
* FromBadToWorse: Each episode. The infection is not limited to humans, so there were more enemies in the later episodes.
* GatlingGood: One Gatling Gun is found in the third episode.
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: An Ichthyosaur appears with no warning in episode 1 at the bottom of a lake, complete with no model edit to even fit the context of the mod.
** The Giant Bullsquid. You encounter it at the bottom of a lake in part three while traveling through the countryside, and you don't have to kill it, nor is there any explanation or warning that it's there. Another one also briefly appears in episode 2 in the sewers, still with no explanation or warning.
* GunsInChurch: A silenced 9mm is found at the dead body of a priest, for some reason. Next to the rope that rings the church bell and unlocks a secret Dynamite stash. For some reason.

* HelpingHands: A lot of them in the hospital and the Laboratory, and they Do actually help each other trying to kill you.

* HiddenSupplies: For some reason, there is a secret Dynamite stash in the church.
* HopeSpot: You finaly get to the police station. But then it turns out that all of the police are infected too.
** When you're in a Hospital in episode 3, the entire thing appears to be a dream. Then you find the nurse's back has a scratch on it...
* HorrorHunger: The last few recorded messages by Dr.Franklin have him mentioning that he is infected, and the symptoms slowly getting worse. The final tape have him shouting that he feel their hunger.

* HypocriticalHumor: Intentional. When the military soldiers attack the player, they sometimes clearly call you a Zombie as they chase you. The thing is, that they might say this even after they have gotten infected themselves.
-->-- '''Zombified Soldier:''' "DIE, ZOMBIE SCUM!"

* InfantImmortality: Averted several times, sadly. In the hospital, a baby is heard crying, until it abruptly stops. The player cannot get to the nursery immediately, and when he does... There is a pile of gibs in the beds for newborns. And later in the mountains, the player has to kill their resurrected tiny, tiny skeletons that have the hunger...
* ItsRainingMen: Being such remote wilderness it's the only manner the military could drop men in effectively.
* JumpScare: A few of them are in the games, but thankfully, they are far between each other.
** Most memorable one is at the beginning, before the Zombies come and when the player walks to the church. He is walking through a cave when a skull rolls in front of him.
* HollywoodSilencer: The first weapon found is a silenced 9mm.
* HowlingToTheNight: A wolf can be heard howling through all the episodes.
* JustInTime: The first episode ends with the player captured at the police station, and with a Zombie opening the cell door to eat him. The second episode starts only a few seconds afterwards with the Zombie in the cell. However, a non-infected police officer shoots a rocket at the station from the outside, that creates a hole in the wall allowing the player to escape.
* KillEmAll: The few people you ''do'' meet end up dying by the third episode.
* KillItWithFire: The Flamethrower. You also burn down the Asylum. [[spoiler:it doesn't take]].
* LargeAndInCharge: The Sheriff. No other police officer is as overweight as him.
* LethalLavaLand: The Devil's Rift.
* LightningCanDoAnything: It is used to resurrect dead, create new life, and also used in a attempt to kill the player, in a ShoutOut to Frakenstein.
* LudicrousGibs:the explosive weapons cause them. Running over the zombies with a car in the town also instantly turn them into gibs.
* MadeOfExplodium: The helicopters, in the weirdest way possible; They explode imediately if the pilot dies.
* MadScientist: Dr. Franklin. He had a huge interest in re-animating the dead a long time before the first games events. However, his alive and uninfected assistant says that he was a good man until he got infected.
* MadScientistLaboratory: Underground, conveniently below Dr. Franklin's Asylum.
* MeaningfulEcho: ''"The Secret of Life and Death!"''

* MooksButNoBosses: the first two episodes had no bossfights.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Devil's Rift. It's an active volcano/canyon filled with zombies. Also, [[BedlamHouse Rivendale Asylum for the Criminally Insane]], where the source of the infection came from.

* NightOfTheLivingMooks: Dr. Franklin and The Sheriff are the only zombified men with personalities.

* NothingIsScarier: The first areas of the Asylum of Dr. Franklin. There are no enemies there, of all places, and it builds tension the deeper you go.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Only Dr. Franklins assistent Alfred and the military calls them Zombies.
* OrnamentalWeapon: The Sheriff has a Revolver he never uses. It is possible it became this trope when he got infected, seeing as he became their ally and all.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent - Most zombies are of the B-movieish type, but people who have only recently been infected can still use their firearms and their knowledge they had prior. For instance, you learn that they can fly helicopters.

* ParasolOfPain: The first weapon picked up is a umbrella.

* PyroManiac: One is encountered in the Asylum. Even when he is dying he tells the player, with passion, to set the asylum on fire to kill everything in it. Not a bad idea. After the second episode, the player finaly gets to, so to speak,[[VideogameFlamethrowersSuck try]] being one.
* RaisingTheSteaks: Dogs roam throught the first two episodes, and the third episode had the player visit a farm with chickens and escaped cattle.

* RousingSpeech: The Sheriff gives one to the zombies while the player is captured in the third episode.
* SchizoTech: Word of God says the game takes place in TheFifties. That doesn't explain the modern-looking helicopters, modern camouflage on the soldiers, night-vision, G3s with grenade launchers, TEC-9s, and a futuristic flamethrower. Was to be fixed in the sequel.
* ScreamingWoman: In the third episode, a woman hanging over a giant firepit. You can't save her.
* ShootOutTheLock: In the first level there is a locked door. The player must find a weapon in order to be able to break the padlock open. Whenever you the 9mm, Dynamite or a damn umbrella is up to you.

* SplashDamage: The Dynamites and the grenade launcher mounted on the Submachine gun can kill several zombies at once.
* SpookyPainting: There are many paintings of Vladimir the Impaler in the mod. One single painting that appears through the episodes for no explainable reason.

* StockNessMonster: There is a Giant Bullsquid living in one of the lakes in Rockwell. If its existence and size has something to do with the undead is unknown.
* StoryDrivenInvulnerability: At the gates of Dr. Franklin's asylum after setting the building on fire, the Doctor himself comes running from the same way you came. You cannot kill him, and once he runs up to you, both of you get knocked unconscious by the Asylum's explosion.
* SunglassesAtNight: The Sheriff.
* TakeOverTheWorld: Dr. Franklin and the Sheriff decides to spread their hunger.
* TheGrotesque: Dr. Franklin. He had his half-face deformation a long time before his zombification, he was considered crazy by other scientists, and his only friend was the Sheriff Chester Rockwood.

* TheyCalledMeMad: Dr. Franklin says this word for word, replacing Mad with Crazy.
* TwoFaced: Dr. Franklin. He had the deformity before the infection, however.
* UncannyValley: The Zombies. [[invoked]]
* UndeadChild: The baby skelletons.
* UnusableEnemyEquipment: The weapon Franklin uses against the player.
* VideogameFlamethrowersSuck: Hilariously, the flamethrower can´t set Anything on fire.
* ViolationOfCommonSense: Jump into the fire to collect ammo for the Revolver!
* WhereItAllBegan - You visit the asylum where Doctor Franklin first worked and began his experiments (eventually turning it into a zombie stronghold), and the dig site where Franklin was first infected.
* WelcomeToCorneria: Jerry Hoobs really want you to Shoot that Bastard during the last bossfight.

** '''Dr. Franklin''': "''You ruined my plan! But i´ll be back... you can´t kill me!''"
* WorthIt: if you manage to take little damage, the above mentioned fire jumping will been worth it.

* ZombieApocalypse - Duuuuhhhhhhhhhh.

* ZombieGait - Duh. Actually subverted as a minor scare in the first episode - cops who are only barely infected don't have the distinct zombie animation and can only be identified by their scars and sores on their faces.

* EasterEgg: There is a PCGamer magazine in the radio station. All the episodes were bundled as one in a PCGamer issue.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Episode 1 is fairly serious and more grounded compared to the BMovie-esque Sci-Fi in Episodes 2 and 3, especially the last one's boss fight with a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot zombie cyborg sheriff]].

* DevelopmentHell: The source remake/reboot.

* MoodWhiplash.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen - The game was supposed to have an entry that used the source engine, titled ''Lost Souls'', but it was apparently canceled.

''They Hunger'' is one of the better known ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' mods, alongside ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'', ''VideoGame/TheHidden'', ''Sven-Coop'', ''Redemption,'' ''Gunman Chronicles'', ''The Specialists''...

* GunsInChurch: An silenced 9mm is found at the dead body of a priest, for some reason. Next to the rope that rings the church bell and unlocks a secret Dynamite stash. For some reason.

''They Hunger'' is one of the better known ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' mods, alongside ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'', ''TheHidden'', ''Sven-Coop'', ''Redemption,'' ''Gunman Chronicles'', ''The Specialists''...

* AnyoneCanDie

* ArtifactMook: The electricity-shooting skeletons. The first one is encountered in a laboratory where it is brought to life by being electrocuted, which does much to explain why it attacks by zapping you with bolts of lightning. But then you continue to encounter electric skeletons for the rest of the game, all over the place, even though it's impossible to think that every instance of this enemy could have been created in the same way.

''They Hunger'' is one of the better known ''HalfLife One'' mods, alongside ''Counter-Strike'', ''TheHidden'', ''Sven-Coop'', ''Redemption,'' ''Gunman Chronicles'', ''The Specialists''...

----

* ConveyorBeltODoom: In the third episode. By the push of a button the player can send the creators of They Hunger and Alfred to their death.[[hottip:*:Don´t get too distracted watching their demise, as a zombie walks into the room when it hears the noises of the machinery.]]

* LethalLavaLand: The Devil´s Rift.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Devil´s Rift. It is an active volcano. Also, Rivendale Asylum for the Criminally Insane.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Devil´s Rift. It is an active volcano. Also, Rockwell Asylum for the Criminally Insane.

* ClimaxBoss: The final boss fight is against the Sheriff, and to escalate things, [[spoiler: both of you are in two seprate helicopters trying to take each other down.]]

* ItGotWorse for each episode. The infection is not limited to humans, so there were more enemies in the later episodes.

* AdvancingWallOfDoom: Towards the end of Episode 2 the player has to seal a boiler shut to advance, once the boiler explodes however the entire Asylum catches on fire forcing the player's escape.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: An Ichthyosaur appears with no warning in episodes 1 and 3 at the bottom of a lake, complete with no model edit to even fit the context of the mod.
** The Giant Bullsquid. You encounter it at the bottom of a lake in part three while traveling through the countryside, and you don't have to kill it, nor is there any explanation or warning that it's there.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: The Giant Bullsquid. You encounter it at the bottom of a lake in part three while traveling through the countryside, and you don't have to kill it, nor is there any explanation or warning that it's there.

* SpecialEffectFailure: When the Sheriff gives his speech to the zombies while the player watches, he is interrupted by the

* SpecialEffectFailure: When the Sheriff gives his speech to the zombies while the player watches, he is interrupted by the army, and vanishes quickly. ''Very quickly'' in fact; if you squint and watch the sheriff, The Sherrif literally disappears Out of Nowhere on a millisecond when the first explosions hit the ground between the both of you. The flames of the explosions didn´t cover him up good enough.

* SplashDamage: The Dynamite and the grenade launcher mounted on the Submachine gun can kill several zombies at once.