Here's a mod to keep your eyes on. Mostly the work of one chap, who goes by the name "Mxthe", Underhell is a single-player Half Life 2 modification that attempts to combine the action, adventure and survival horror genres into one tasty mishmash of gaming goodness. The first episode of Underhell - titled "The Prologue" - was recently unleashed on the mod community and is causing a fair amount of message board reverberations. So I thought I would fire up that granddaddy of gaming engines, Source, and see what - if anything - lies underneath hell (I assume it must be pretty damn nasty).

Underhell: The Prologue features two very different and distinct sections. The first, and by far the most impressive segment, is called "The House". This is your character's idyllic home - a giant, sprawling mansion in the middle of a pine forest. It would probably make for the perfect abode... if not for the fact it is haunted by pure evil. Damn, that's going to take some coin off the land value.

It's in this house that the originality and polish of Underhell really shines. You'll spend the first thirty minutes game just exploring this beautiful residence, unlocking its many unfortunate secrets. Something bad has happened here - that's for sure - and as you go about finding keys and items, you begin to realise that you are not alone. Adding to this psychological unease is the mod's high-quality musical score, which will really creep under your skin.

The house also serves as a portal to our hero's dreams. Or should I say nightmares. Or should I say seriously deranged, schizophrenic hallucinations. Whatever they are, these scenes are definitely not for the damaged of heart, requiring frequent trouser patrols to check for unintended leakage.

But this strange, foreboding house is not the main section of Underhell. Instead, once you finish terrifying yourself at "home sweet home", your character jumps into his truck and goes to work. And what does he do for a career? What do you know, he's a member of SWAT.

This leads to a complete U-turn in gameplay. The slow, exploratory nature of The House is suddenly replaced by an action-packed FPS bloodbath. While this action segment is enjoyable, and does feature some terrific set-pieces (involving lots of breakable glass - à la The Matrix), it lacks the originality of The House. Instead, you'll storm through the obligatory sewer, mall and carpark levels secretly hoping some element of The House, some kind of ghostly freakshow apparition, will rear its ugly head and spice up the storyline. But it takes two to three hours of gameplay for something interesting to take place, and by then, The Prologue ends.

Still, it's an impressive start. I got in touch with Mxthe to get an idea of what he is planning for upcoming episodes, and he says the action will take a back-seat in future. "The game will still have action sequences but it will be based more around exploration, survival, scavenging," he says. He also assures players The House will remain an integral part of the game. "Every new chapter comes with a new evolved house (will get creepier and creepier) and a new set of dreams."

Mxthe - whose real name is Jeremy Faucomprez - recently began work on Underhell: Chapter One from his current base in Montreal, Canada. As yet, there is no release date, but if he can incorporate the psychological madness of The House into the game's main missions, this mod could become a standout release.

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If you want to see how Underhell is progressing, here's how:
1. You must own a copy of one of these Source-based games.
2. Install Source SDK Base 2006. You can do this by loading up Steam, and going into your Library. Click on "All Games", select "Tools", and then click on "Source SDK Base 2006".
3. Download Underhell: Prologue and this patch.
4. Extract both files into your /... /Steam/ SteamApps/Sourcemods folder.
5. Restart steam.
6. Turn off the lights, pump up the volume, and let the terror begin.

Have you scared yourself silly with Underhell yet? If so, share your mini-review in the comments.