Nuclear Winter is a 2002 Half-Life: Opposing Force mod by Loki's Missions.
In 2017 AD, the Eastern Alliance launched an attack of cloaked nuclear missiles upon North America. After doing so, their forces arrive on American shores to occupy all that remains.
Sure enough, the US military refused to give up without a fight, resulting in a battle that raged on for months. This is where you come in, Corporal Adrian Shephard of the United States Marine Corps.
Although the mod requires Opposing Force at first, its second (and current) version only requires a Steam version of Half-Life.
No relation to the tabletop game.
Nuclear Winter provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Shephard comes across one. And it's filled with mutants.
- All There in the Manual: The mod's readme provides an in-depth backstory.
- Alternate History: As of 2010.
- America Saves the Day: The Golden Ending ultimately becomes this.
- Artistic License – Military / Weapons Understudies:
- The Eastern Alliance using Apache helicopters. And if you count the HD pack, M4 carbines. Can be handwaved in that the Eastern troops stole American weapons and vehicles during the invasion.
- Like Opposing Force, Shephard, a Corporal, is still referred to as "sir" by his fellow marines.
- Badass Army: Both the Americans and the Easterns.
- Big Bad: Vladimir Kosomov/The G-Man.
- Black Helicopter: The black Eastern Apaches.
- Crapsack World: The United States, being a war-torn nuclear wasteland.
- Crate Expectations
- Dark Is Evil: The Eastern Alliance wear black uniforms and use black vehicles. They're actually Black Ops by any other name.
- Death from Above: There are lots and lots of airstrikes in the city levels.
- Dirty Communists: The Eastern Alliance, consisting of China, North Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, and Russia.
- Downer Ending: If Shephard dies, his efforts were All for Nothing; the Eastern Alliance manages to occupy all of the US, and it's implied they'll move onto the rest of the world.
- Dystopia
- Eagleland: Type 1 flavor.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies
- Faceless Goons: Again, the Eastern troops.
- Golden Ending: If Shephard escapes, the US eventually repelled the Eastern forces out of North America, recovering from the economic and ecological disaster decades later.
- Heroic Mime: Shephard
- Hoist by His Own Petard/Karmic Death: Towards the end of the mod Shephard destroys Kosomov's facility using one of its own nuclear charges.
- Hopeless War: The invasion is becoming this for the Americans.
- Invaded States of America: Overlaps with Fallen States of America.
- Leave No Survivors:Marine commander: Attention, all units, this is Mother Goose. We must fall back and regroup at the city center. I repeat, fall back and regroup at the city center. Take no prisoners! Over and out.
- More Dakka
- Multiple Endings: Depends on whether Shephard escapes Kosomov's facility after activating the nuke.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot
- Nuclear Mutant: Shephard encounters nuclear mutants (actually reused Xen/Race X critters) in some levels. Turns out they are created by the Easterns under Kosomov's supervision.
- Nuke 'em: How the Eastern Alliance occupied most of the States.
- One World Order/Take Over the World: The Eastern Alliance's goal.
- Police Are Useless: Subverted. The three police officers Shephard encounters in the city are quiet capable of defending themselves from Eastern troops. Doesn't mean they'll always win, though.
- Red Scare
- Scenery Gorn
- Semper Fi
- Sickly Green Glow: From nuclear spills to nuclear energy beams, the list goes on.
- Sociopathic Soldier: Pretty much any and all Eastern soldiers Shephard encounters throughout the mod.
- Shout-Out: Some of the scientists Shephard meets in the mod are apparently Xena fans.
- The Stoner: During the assault on Kosomov's facility, Shephard's squadmates talk about smoking weed.
- Tank Goodness: Unless you're American.Marine: I wouldn't go out there if I were you, Shephard. That gook tank's gonna blow your freakin' balls off, man! Charlie's mean, he's really mean he can kick a chicken some serious ass!
- Too Dumb to Live: The aforementioned Marine above tries to shoot a tank with his assault rifle after Shephard meets with him. He ends up getting blown to Ludicrous Gibs afterwards.
- 20 Minutes into the Future
- The Voiceless: The Eastern soldiers.
- World War III
- Zombie Gait
