Authors’ Note:
Keys is a short first person art installation that provides a visceral and thought provoking experience combined with rich environments and striking imagery.
It is greatly influenced by our admiration for games like Good Morning, Commander, The Barista series, Kairo, and Radiator.
- Title: Keys
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-keys.7z
- Size : 147MB
- Author: Ryan Trawick
- Date Released: 28 June 2014
To play this mod you will need to have any game that gives you the Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer and have it installed and run at least once.
If you enjoyed the music from the mod, you can listen to/buy it from Bandcamp.
This option has been removed as the file is too big.
You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.
You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.
- Copy the keys folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Keys should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
The playthrough/walkthrough below is provided by PlanetPhillip (me!). See more of my playthroughs on this site: VP: PlanetPhillip
Click on the tabs below to select the size of screenshot you would like.
All sizes are the same screenshots, just in different resolutions.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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1,497Overall
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64365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 4 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 36 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Max
Longest: 0 Hours, 52 Mins by PlanetPhillip
Total Time Played: 3 Hours, 2 Mins
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SPOILERS BELOW
Well, first of all, I’m not a big fan of Art Mods. I’m not ashamed of that opinion or in anyway against the creation of them.
I’ve played a couple and have been promising to add them to the site and I suppose this is the start of that process.
I quite enjoyed this mod but felt the text was too vague. I’m not against creating doubt in a viewer’s mind, in fact one of my favourite films of the last few years is Enemy, where you finish with more questions than you started.
I feel the text should have been voice overs as it almost ruined the immersion for me.
Secondly, the mod crashed twice – not the author’s fault – but I suffered the consequences, which was not having save points. Luckily I had Quicksaved but when I restart I had the strange effect that you get at the start. I stopped my video recording at that point but realized how to solve it afterwards and continued to the end.
All in all, it was interesting and probably technically well-built but I was left without any kind of emotional response.
To my mind Art Mods should challenge me, provoke me, test me. Just like some kinds of art. I honestly feel that whilst the authors have the technical ability they missed something here.
I am presuming I was playing as ghost and somehow interacting with thoughts and feelings of Annie. I like that, but different coloured text doesn’t cut it in telling a story.
I am sorry for sounding so negative but that’s how I feel. Throwing paint on a canvas doesn’t make abstract art or a Pollack.
And that’s how I feel about this. It lacks an underlying cohesion to the ideas presented.
Oh, I forgot to mention I didn’t like the fact I couldn’t change my screenshot key.
Using Gauge
Easy
52 Minutes
so i just finished this, and i must say that it was pretty damn amazing.
i really love mods that have a focus on an art style, and this one is no exception.
the music fit really nicely with the simplistic, yet wonderful looking environments and the soundwork was… okay i guess, seeing as there really wasn’t much sound except for me walking and maybe using something every now and then.
the graphical effects were also nicely incorporated and (when used) gave the game a nice, special feeling.
i sadly had a few problems following the story, but from what i could catch, it seemed pretty nicely built and incorporated into the game.
all in all, i recommend to play this mod now, because it’s pretty nice, especially for something on a relatively old engine.
Manually
Easy
30 Minutes
I played for a few minutes and a picture of a corpse flashed on the screen. That was the first warning that this was going to be one of THOSE mods. Then in the next room there was a giant spider. I immediately closed the game with a hole lot of nope.
I know what you mean and that corpse is definitely not representative of the overall mod. That said I am not going to try to convince you to play because I don’t feel strongly enough about the quality of the mod. But that corpse was assuredly out of character for the rest of the mod.
Ha! I didn’t even notice the giant spider. But yeah, this isn’t a horror mod, it’s just kind of weird. I’m sure it has all sorts of hidden meaning but personally I didn’t get it. I really don’t know what to make of it at all.
Does this mean your house is full of giant spiders, since you don’t notice them? :S
And if it is, are they the same size?
Well, I wouldn’t say full. but if they’re just hanging out I don’t tend to evict them. But my house isn’t like a scene from eight legged freaks if that’s what you’re implying. I guess I just really love art galleries?
I found it strangely attractive….2nd time around. I quit the first time as it was, in Phillip’s words, too vague. I didn’t have a clue. i just needed the well open at the beginning and it took the walkthrough to see how. Then everything flowed, sort of. A strange one.
Manually
Easy
30 Minutes
An interesting mod, and quite a departure from usual shoot-em-up variety. It was visually attractive, with a haunting vibe to it. It was interesting to play but only as kind of a “palate cleanser”. I couldn’t play mods like this much or it would drive me crazy.
The only thing I really didn’t like was being forced to walk long distances in slow motion. The author didn’t want you to have an HEV suit obviously, but maybe the walking speed could have been fixed?
I have to recognize I’m not a big fan of artsy mods indeed. But in this one in some areas visuals just were delightful just very immersive I say. For example, the very first part on that weird island, remember me to the all time sadistic mod classic Half Quake Sunrise, and got me thinking why on earth nobody haven’t developed a Half Quake mod for source engine??????? If it may be very good.
Obviously this mod it has nothing to do with any concept of the Half Quake Saga. and here the basic gameplay is developed around puzzle solving, where the one involving a car battery is if we can say, the hardest of all in there.
Now I really didn’t get the plot or story inside the mod, and I really don’t know if it really matters. To me was just a guy facing a girl who tells him “nothing is going to be the same never again” or some heart breaking wordiness like that. So well I really never felt connected to the main plot in this mod.
So if is not the story inside the mod. Then, what makes this mod worthy in my opinion? Well, again for me the strongest point in this mod are the visuals, really make me feel like I was in a kind of strange land, the water, the island, and even the end, although I must admit I’m always gonna be the kind of gamer, who wants a full army of CMB soldiers or a bunch of Hunters coming out from that huge splendid building-structure, instead of just contemplate it’s beauty and that intense almost real blue sky.
Probably if this mod was like an arena combat style, you know, the kind of mod like the all time combat arena HL2 classic; “The Great Forever Tomorrow”, I would certainly have loved it, you know have a combat in those surreal places must be pretty cool, at least for me. But I definitely know that was not the goal in developing this mod, so I understand.
Overall it was an ok mod to me, some exploring in strong visual areas, and that’s it.
The fact it made me remember of Half Quake mod saga at least in the visual part, make me wish some crazy modder would develop some Half Quake mod in Source engine because it could be interesting, and also some other parts make me feel the desire to play a combat arena mod like TGFT, so I hope some new mod like that be coming on the way soon.
Manually
Medium
35 Minutes
Keys for Half-Life 2 Episode Two
I like a good art mod, but this here didn’t interest me at all.
I have played a lot of art mods, like Dear Esther and Post Script, but this one is different and not in a good way.
The thing is I didn’t understand a thing. The levels don’t fit. They’re not like a straight line, they’re more like a really curved one.
I don’t understand much of the plot, since it’s not presented that well (imo) and the levels themselves are very easy. I know they’re not meant to be challenging, but seriously, only 2 puzzles are presented here.
The mod also lacked some stuff for an art mod. How about 2 endings, or different paths or something? It would have been much more interesting!
Though, I will admit that the atmosphere is really good but later it gets worse.
Overall, I have a lot of strange feelings about this mod so the choice whether you should play it or not is up to you.
This is a weird mod, but it has a strange allure. The visuals and general atmosphere are perfect for this gloomy tale of lose with a nice musical compliment.
A house on an island leads to memory flares an underground art gallery and the biggest spider I’ve seen in a mod! Just stay put!
Shadow figures are again used for that strange ethereal vibe as you collect keys, hence the name!
Well-diving to advance levels was a new twist and the final areas were somewhat bizarre but satisfyingly fun, in their own strange exploding beauty.
Did the story confuse me? Yes! But I plan to experience this again.
Play it and enjoy its oft monotone beauty…
Manually
Easy
35 Minutes
Didn’t care about the story if ever there’s one. I just played this for visuals and to slack off