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1%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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3[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/507200.jpg]]
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5->''"You're listening to BMRF radio; [[WeInterruptThisProgram we interrupt this program 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."''
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7''They Hunger'', created by Black Widow Games, is a action horror / survival horror modification for ''VideoGame/HalfLife1''. In this three chapter adventure, you must fight your way through hordes of you guessed it, the undead, and try to uncover the mysteries underlying in the crisis of a small county town. It's one of the better known [=GoldSrc=] mods, alongside ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'', ''VideoGame/TheHiddenSource'', ''VideoGame/SvenCoop'', ''VideoGame/GunmanChronicles'', ''Redemption'', ''The Specialists'', and so on.
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9A best-selling author, name not given, drives through the countryside of Rockwell. He's been having writer's block with his latest work, and hopes that his retreat will give him some ideas. Unfortunately, shortly on the way out, lightning strikes his car and causes him to crash into a small lake, almost leaving him to drown.
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11Soon, after escaping the lake through a drainage pipe, then a sewer that leads to the catacombs, and finally a pathway to a seemingly abandoned chapel, he eventually realizes the dead have somehow risen and that they hunger... for human flesh. The writer is forced to survive a land that's bit by bit being taken by the zombie horde, and now must find a way out of Rockwell; along the way, he slowly discovers that things aren't as they seemed originally about this growing menace.
12----
13!!This game mod provides examples of:
14* AbandonedHospitalAwakening: Episode 3 begins this way, though you have no clue until you find the nurse [[spoiler:who turns around to show off her mutilated back, and during the meantime before the player got there, was eating a baby]].
15* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: After escaping the police station in Episode 2, the player must go through one.
16* AdvancingWallOfDoom: Towards the end of Episode 2, the player has to seal a boiler shut to advance. The boiler predictably explodes, and the player must rush through the level as fast as they can to get out, or die a horrible flaming death as the fire spreads through the asylum. Impressive, for a [=GoldSrc=] mod.
17* AllJustADream: Subverted. At the very end of the second episode, you hear a voice saying "Wake up, wake up, you were having a nightmare." Turns out it was a nurse who said that. [[spoiler:Who later on becomes undead.]]
18* AlwaysNight: It is unknown exactly how much time passes between the episodes. One thing for certain, is that the sun only rises at the end of the third episode.
19* AmericaSavesTheDay: [[spoiler: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.]]
20* ApocalypticLog: You find several recordings left behind by the scientist [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin]], [[spoiler:sheriff Chester Rockwood]], and various police and asylum personnel, detailing the backstory.
21* ArtificialLimbs: [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin survives death a second time, and comes back as a boss at the end of the Asylum in the third episode]].
22* ArtifactMook: The [[spoiler: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]].
23* AuthorStandIn: The Programmer Einar Saukas has his own office in [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin's]] asylum. Some of the mod creators cameo as [[spoiler:floating heads in his laboratory]] or as part of [[spoiler:a meat-cooking machine in the final episode]].
24* BackFromTheDead: All the zombies, obviously. [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin however, survives death a second time and becomes a cyborg.]]
25* BadassBookworm: The main character is a writer surviving the zombie apocalypse. He could certainly make an awesome autobiography out of it. Hell, their preferred weapon is an ornate ''umbrella''.
26* BagOfSpilling: Between each episode, and even halfway through the third one. At least each opportunity leads to a few additional new guns. All of them have justification (getting imprisoned in the second, put in a hospital in the third, getting captured... again... halfway through).
27* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:Sheriff Chester Rockwood]] and [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin]]. They were friends before they became infected, and they still are friends.
28* BigDamnHeroes:
29** The first real introduction of the military has them "rescuing" you from semi-intelligent zombies about to ritually slaughter you. However, [[spoiler:they're trying to kill you as well. As time goes on, it becomes obvious that their job wasn't to save people]], and a great number of them have also become infected.
30** Played straight with a random deputy with a rocket launcher-equipped jeep who saves you in the second episode.
31%%* BloodyHandprint: Everywhere.
32* CarFu: Done by the player with the Train and later a police car in the first episode. Done by the zombies as well.
33* CavalryBetrayal: See above. [[JustifiedTrope 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, as [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin]] shows.
34* ClusterFBomb: This is Sheriff Rockwood's most defining trait as he drops these even while casually talking to Dr. Franklin. Then there's his line when he goes after you in a helicopter.
35-->''You ramp-bastard, son of a yankee bitch! You might've gotten the doc but I'll beat yo ass!''
36* CollapsingLair: The player eventually destroys [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin's laboratory]] and burns down his asylum in episode two.
37* ContinueYourMissionDammit: [[spoiler:Jerry Hoobs]] constantly nags the player during the final battle with [[spoiler:Chester]] 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 an earlier save and remain in the POVCam, [[spoiler:Chester]] flies around the player indefinitely with [[spoiler:Jerry's]] voice in the background.
38* ConvectionSchmonvection: As long as the player isn't actually touching the hot areas around Devil's Rift or [[spoiler:what remains of the Asylum]], they're perfectly fine.
39* 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. Don't get too distracted watching their demise, as a zombie walks into the room when it hears the noises of the machinery.
40* CoolButInefficient: The TEC-9; a one-handed submachine gun that does more damage than the G3 battle rifle, and has a burst-fire mode. On the downside, it has much more recoil and a 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.
41* CoolTrain: In the first episode. You get to control it, and it even makes train noises!
42* CrypticBackgroundReference: Alfred explains to the player that [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin originally discovered something in the waters of Rockwell which could bring anyone to a state of [[ShoutOut 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]].
43* 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]].
44* DamageSpongeBoss: [[spoiler:Sheriff Chester.]] An official mod was eventually released that halved his health and he ''still'' took forever to kill.
45* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: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 bibs in the beds for newborns. Later in the mountains, the player has to kill a resurrected family, including three baby sized skeletons.]]
46* DemBones: [[spoiler:Resurrected skeletons that can talk. And shoot lightning bolts.]]
47* DieChairDie: Expect to destroy any crate you see for supplies; this is a mod for the game that started the fascination with crates in video games, after all.
48%%* DramaticGunCock: When switching to the Taurus [=PT145=] pistol.
49* 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 [[spoiler:[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot zombie cyborg mad scientist]]]].
50* EasterEgg: There is a Magazine/PCGamer magazine in the radio station. All the episodes were first released though PC Gamer issues.
51%%* ExplodingBarrels: Another leftover from this mod's parent game.
52* EnemyChatter: The Zombies, with their standard desire for brains and flesh. [[spoiler:The more intelligent ones with weapons,]] however, are quiet. As you hear moans such as "''Why do we hunger...?''", "Freeesh meattt...", "''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.
53* EpisodicGame: They Hunger was distributed by Magazine/PCGamer in three installments from 1999 to 2001 from ''They Hunger'', to ''They Hunger 2: Rest in Pieces'', and then finally the final episode ''They Hunger 3: Rude Awakening''.
54* ExploringTheEvilLair: The player wanders through the Asylum, and down into [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin's underground laboratory]].
55* {{Expy}}: With [[ClusterFBomb all of his casual swearing]], Sheriff Rockwood is definitely inspired by [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Eric Cartman]].
56* FaceRevealingTurn: Invoked in the first [[spoiler:Armed Infected Cop]] encounter, as the first one encountered is facing away from the player looking the same as its non-infected counterpart, only to turn and attack at the last second.
57* FateWorseThanDeath: Some of [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin's experiments in his laboratory]]:
58** The [[spoiler:decapitated heads held alive in an aquarium]].
59** There is also [[spoiler:a man impaled on a meathook, like a worm, in the freezer just behind said aquarium. He should be dead but somehow isn't, and is screaming and endlessly trying to get off; who knows ''how'' long he's been there. You can thankfully put him out of his misery, though]].
60* FinalBoss: The final boss fight is against [[spoiler:Sheriff Chester Rockwood]], and to escalate things, [[spoiler:both of you are in two separate helicopters trying to take each other down]].
61* FlunkyBoss: [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin]] is assisted by a policeman using a mounted machinegun, while [[spoiler:Chester has infected soldiers dropping from a helicopter early in the final battle]].
62* FromBadToWorse: Each episode. The infection is [[spoiler:not limited to humans]], so there was a larger variety of enemies in the later episodes.
63* GatlingGood: One minigun is found in the third episode.
64* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Several Ichthyosaurs appear with no warning throughout the trilogy in bodies of deep water, complete with no model edit to even fit the context of the mod.
65** The [[spoiler:giant Bullsquid. You encounter it at the bottom of a lake in episode 3 while traveling through the countryside, and you don't have to kill it, nor is there any explanation or prior warning that it's there. Another one also briefly appeared in episode 2 in the sewers, still with no explanation or warning]].
66* 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. [[CrazyPrepared For some reason.]]
67* HellishCopter: The police and military copters fought against in the mod.
68* HelpingHands: A lot of them in the [[spoiler:Hospital]] and the [[spoiler:Laboratory]], and they do actually help each other, by trying to kill you.
69* HeroicMime: The writer you play as doesn't speak a single word in the game.
70* HiddenSupplies: For some reason, there is a secret dynamite stash in the church.
71* HopeSpot: You finally get to the police station, [[spoiler:but then it turns out that all of the police are infected, too]].
72** When you're in the Hospital in episode 3, it seems to be leading to the idea that the previous events of the last two episodes [[AllJustADream were just nightmares]]. [[spoiler:Then you find out that isn't the case, as the nurses turn out to be infected.]]
73* HorrorHunger: The last recorded message by [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin]] has him mentioning that he is infected, and the symptoms are slowly getting worse. The final tape even has him shouting that he can "feel their hunger".
74* HyperspaceArsenal: Even more egregious this time as you don't have a heavily engineered protective suit to explain how the writer can carry so much ammo and weapons.
75* ImColdSoCold: The skeletons from later parts sometimes mutter, "...Cold..."
76%%* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Happens twice, in both Episode 1 and 2.
77* ItsRainingMen: Being in such remote wilderness, it's the only manner the military could drop men in effectively.
78* JumpScare: A few yet subtle ones are in the episodes, but they're few and far between.
79** 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, as if it moved by itself or an unseen force...
80* HollywoodSilencer: The first weapon found is a silenced 9mm pistol.
81* JustInTime: The first episode ends with the player [[spoiler: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 already in the cell, not yet focusing on the player. However, a non-infected police officer shoots a rocket at the station from the outside, which creates a hole in the wall allowing the player to escape]].
82* KillItWithFire: The Flamethrower. You also burn down the Asylum. [[spoiler:Not all of it burned down, however.]]
83* LargeAndInCharge: [[spoiler:Sheriff Chester.]] No other police officer is as overweight as him, and this was before Otis was first introduced.
84* LethalLavaLand: Devil's Rift is an active volcano that the player must navigate while dodging lava, fire, and using steam vents to reach inaccessible areas.
85* LightningCanDoAnything: [[spoiler:It is used to resurrect dead, create new life, and also used in a attempt to kill the player, in an obvious ShoutOut to Frankenstein.]]
86* LudicrousGibs: Explosive weapons cause them, of course. Running over the zombies with a car in the town also instantly turn them into gibs.
87* MadeOfExplodium: The helicopters, in the weirdest way possible; they explode almost immediately if the pilot dies.
88* MadScientist: [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin.]] He had a huge interest in [[spoiler:re-animating the dead]] a long time before the first game's events. However, his alive and uninfected assistant says that he was a good man until he got infected.
89* MadScientistLaboratory: [[spoiler:Underground, conveniently below Dr. Franklin's Asylum.]]
90%%* MeaningfulEcho: ''"The secret of life and death!"''
91* MiniMook: [[spoiler:The undead baby skeletons, found at a burial ground in the mountains, are smaller and speak in high-pitched voices.]]
92* MooksButNoBosses: The first two episodes technically had no boss fights.
93* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Devil's Rift. It's an active volcano/canyon filled with zombies. Also, [[BedlamHouse Rivendale Asylum for the Criminally Insane]], [[spoiler:where the source of the infection came from]].
94* {{Nerf}}: The [[VideoGame/HalfLife Itcthyosaur]] appears in a certain part early in the game. While the latter can still mow you down in a few seconds, [[GlassCannon his health has been vastly reduced]], so you can kill it with the silenced pistol in no time.
95** [[spoiler:The Sheriff's helicopter]] received this in the patched version of the mod after several complaints on the said boss for having way [[MadeOfIron too much health]], rendering him [[UnwinnableByDesign nearly unbeatable without cheats]].
96%%* NightmareDreams: The main character has two of them when he lies unconscious in the hospital.
97* NightOfTheLivingMooks: [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin and the Sheriff]] are the only zombified men with personalities.
98* NoNameGiven: The player character.
99* NothingIsScarier: The first areas of the Asylum [[spoiler:of Dr. Franklin]]. There are no enemies there, of all places, and it builds tension the deeper you go.
100* NotUsingTheZWord: Only [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin's]] assistant Alfred and the military call them "zombies".
101* OrnamentalWeapon: [[spoiler:Sheriff Chester]] has a revolver he never uses. [[spoiler:It is possible it became this trope when he got infected, seeing as he became their ally and all]].
102* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Most zombies are of the B-movieish type, but [[spoiler: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]].
103* PapaWolf: The sheriff loves his zombie "children".
104* ParasolOfPain: The first weapon picked up is an umbrella, taking the place of the crowbar.
105* PeopleFarms: Instead of killing all the uninfected inmates in the Asylum, they are all locked in their cells instead.
106* PyroManiac: One is encountered in the Asylum. Before he gives out, he rants that the whole place should burn down as in his own words, there is "no salvation". [[spoiler:At the hands of the player, it indeed burns down.]]
107* RaisingTheSteaks: [[spoiler:Rabid dogs roam throughout the first two episodes, and the third episode had the player visit a farm with zombie chickens and zombie bulls.]]
108* RevenantZombie: Though it doesn't apply to all of them. The leaders of the horde, Rockwood and Franklin, retain most of their human selves. Zombie cops, guards, and soldiers use their respective weaponry and behave identically to their human counterparts.
109* RevolversAreJustBetter: It kills every zombie in one shot to the head, and it has good accuracy.
110* RightBehindMe: Near the end of the game, the player walks up to a window and listens in on a conversation between the [[spoiler:Sheriff and the resurrected cyborg Dr.Franklin]] where both of them complain about how your progress has set their plans back greatly and how difficult it has been to locate you. [[spoiler:Then Franklin sees you in the window right behind Rockwood.]] Cue [[OhCrap shocked reaction]] and alarm and a demand to [[VillainousBreakdown bring him the head of the guard who let you in]].
111* RousingSpeech: [[spoiler:Sheriff Chester]] gives one to the zombies while the player is captured in the third episode.
112* SchizoTech: WordofGod 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.
113* ScreamingWoman: In the third episode, a woman is about to be cooked over a giant fire pit by the zombies. You can't save her.
114* 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. The 9mm pistol, dynamite, or the umbrella is up to you to break it open.
115* ShoutOut:
116** Take a guess what [=BMRF=] stands for[[note]]yes, it's Black Mesa Research Facility[[/note]].
117** The hands are an ambiguous one to ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'', which also featured walking hands eager to invade your personal space.
118** The two chatting zombie scientists in the cattle (and human) processing plant mention Sheriff's ''[[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust final solution]]'' to the civilian question. Yikes!!
119* ShovelStrike: One of your melee weapons is the shovel.
120* SniperRifle: With a Nightvision Scope!
121* SplashDamage: The dynamite and the grenade launcher mounted on the submachine gun can kill several zombies at once.
122* SpookyPainting: There are many paintings of Vladimir the Impaler in the mod. [[spoiler:One in episode 1 has a Headcrab break out of it.]]
123%%* StandardFPSGuns
124* StockNessMonster: There is [[spoiler:a giant Bullsquid]] living in one of the lakes in Rockwell. It's unknown if its existence and size has something to do with the undead infection going around.
125* SunglassesAtNight: [[spoiler:Sheriff Chester.]] rocks this look, which just adds to the HamAndCheese nature of his character.
126* TakeOverTheWorld: [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin]] and [[spoiler:Sheriff Chester]] decide to spread their hunger to the masses.
127* TheGrotesque: [[spoiler: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 [[spoiler:the sheriff, Chester Rockwood]].
128* TheFifties
129* TeleportingKeycardSquad: Pretty JustForFun/{{egregious}} here, where zombies appear in mazes after you made sure they weren't there (and if you're quick enough, you can see them appear out of thin air).
130* TheyCalledMeMad: [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin]] says this word for word, replacing "mad" with "crazy".
131* TwoFaced: [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin.]] He had the deformity before the infection, however.
132* UndeadChild: [[spoiler:The baby-sized skeletons encountered in Episode 3.]]
133* UnusableEnemyEquipment: The weapon [[spoiler:Dr. Franklin]] uses against the player is a modified Hivehand.
134* VideogameFlamethrowersSuck: Subverted; hilariously, the flamethrower can't set ''anything'' on fire, but it can deal a good amount of damage.
135* VillainSong: "You Are What I Eat," a [[SoundtrackDissonance jaunty little tune]] sung by a zombie detailing how he will beat you to death and devour your corpse.
136* ViolationOfCommonSense: Jump into the fire to collect ammo for the revolver!
137* WhereItAllBegan: You visit the asylum where [[spoiler:Doctor Franklin first worked and began his experiments (eventually turning it into a zombie stronghold), and the dig site where Franklin was first infected]].
138* WelcomeToCorneria: [[spoiler:Jerry Hoobs]] really want you to "shoot that bastard!" during the last boss fight.
139* WeWillMeetAgain: The player gets one in a nightmare from the angry MadScientist you just blew up.
140** '''[[spoiler:Dr. Franklin]]:''' "''You ruined my plans. But I'll be back; you can't kill me!''"
141* WrenchWhack: The second melee weapon found is a wrench.
142* ZombieApocalypse: Ultimately Averted thanks to the location and the player's own actions; while the Zombies were very effective at taking over the area and they were even able to defeat and turn most of the police and military sent to contain them, an overheard conversation in the third game reveals that the zombie forces were starting to suffer losses from their own forces literally falling apart, and thanks to the player's efforts in destroying most if not all of the intelligent zombies, whatever plans they had were ruined.
143* ZombieInfectee: The sheriff and his subordinates. Oh, and Doctor Franklin.
144* ZombieGait: Actually subverted as [[spoiler: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 the wounds on their textures]].

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