One of the main reasons In Sound Mind was such a pleasant surprise to me a few years ago was because I heard it was from the team who made Nightmare House. In my memory, Nightmare House was a very annoying jump scare Half-Life 2 mod that was of the same obnoxious horror design mentality as something like Cry of Fear. But then, I saw a lot of people speak of that mod with genuine admiration and it popped up in different conversations described as one of the best single-player Source mods of all time… As I’ve come to learn, what I was thinking is the original Nightmare House, while what people love is Nightmare House 2.
Which is where Nightmare House: The Original Mod comes in to clear things up a bit. Released as a free game on Steam, partially to promote the development of a complete remake of this mod, this game combines both of the original Nightmare House mods into one experience. With the original mod serving as a “Prologue” and the praised Nightmare House 2 taking up the most of your playtime. As far as I’m aware, apart from many quality of life tweaks allowed by a standalone release, both mods are presented almost exactly as is with only minor changes.
So… what is it then? Well, it is a horror themed mod made on Source that has a lot of neat little ideas, some of which were later reused in In Sound Mind. It is of high quality for a mod, lasts a couple of fun hours and has a few secrets and endings. Okay, I was describing Nightmare House 2 right now – I can see now why people had fond memories of it. It definitely is among the best Source mods as far as the single-player goes.
But, since the story of the mod needs it, Nightmare House is still required to go through to get to the fun bits. And it is almost as bad as I remembered it being. It’s actually less obnoxious with jump scares than I thought, but is still of a far far inferior quality when compared to the “sequel” and can give very bad first impressions to people who have never played the mod before. It basically reuses most of Half-Life 2 assets as is, has no understanding of combat balance, several of its required progression problems are based on the assumption that you know how Half-Life 2 mods usually work and what you can and cannot do, as it doesn’t teach you anything… At least it’s short.
Still, one thing I fail to understand is the need for a remake. Sure, Nightmare House 2 is a neat short mod experience, but the story is so basic, it’s full of tropes and direct references to things like F.E.A.R…. Why even remake it, if to make it a good standalone game you’d need to change 90% of everything?.. Whatever the case may be, we will see when said remake comes out. But as a free game, Nightmare House: The Original Mod is neat. Mostly by modding standards, but still – I don’t regret playing it and neither will you.