Suicide Survival: the Half-Life 2 Deathmatch hide-and-seek mod

“I’ve been playing suicide survival for the past couple days or so and I’ve got to admit: I’m completely addicted to this Half Life 2 Deathmatch mod.” That is how our January 2013 review began, and the mod got our Editors Choice. Suicide Survival turns Half-Life 2: Deathmatch into a team game of hide and seek. One team hides among the pot plants and tries to get close enough to explode. The other team tries to spot them first.

Suicide Survival has had no release since 2008. Version 1.1 went up on ModDB on December 12, 2008, two weeks after 1.0. In 2012 and 2013 the team posted news about a version 1.2 with new maps, and in September 2013 they wrote that it “should be ready for release this fall/winter 2013”. No 1.2 file ever appeared. ModDB still lists only 1.0 and 1.1, and its newest news post is the one from September 2013. No successor is linked from the ModDB page or the official site.

This page replaces our old review. Nobody here has played Suicide Survival for this update. Every fact comes from the mod’s ModDB page and its official website, read through Wayback Machine copies up to August 2025, and checked on October 16, 2026.

How the game mode works

The ModDB page sets it up in a few lines. There are two teams:

• Survivors play “an overweight WW2 pilot”. They have to stay alive and spot the suiciders. For self-defense they throw copies of a book: “Gardening for Beginners – by Barbara Bush”.
• Suiciders are disguised as pot plants. They sneak up on the survivors and blow themselves up.

Every map is full of shrubbery, and many of the plants are fake. As the page puts it: “If a shrubbery isn’t moving, you can’t tell if he is being controlled by another player or not.” Beyond that it is plain team deathmatch. The page admits the game “doesn’t have any other goal”.

What version 1.1 changed

Version 1.1 reworked the scoring and changed the balance between the two teams. From the release notes on ModDB:

• Scoring. A suicider who explodes without killing anyone takes a death penalty. A suicider who gets a kill takes no penalty and scores a point for themselves and one for the team. Changing teams also costs a death.
• Suiciders. They move a little slower than survivors, but get a short speed burst, a third-person view and a silent sneak.
• Survivors. They got taunts. The books fly faster and drop more under gravity.
• Maps. Seven new ones: ss_an_arena_dev, ss_castleyard_v2, ss_gardenpanic_b1, ss_greenfield, ss_outback, ss_park_final and ss_plaza_4.

Version history

Does Suicide Survival still work?

The newest post on the official site is from September 26, 2017, titled “Running Suicide Survival 2017 Edition”. It says: “With all the updates to Steam over the years the mod still works”. We found no later word from the team, so treat that as the last confirmed state, not a promise for today.

The ModDB page says you need “any game from Valve”, for example Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2 or Left 4 Dead 2. It is a multiplayer mod, so you also need other players. The last server guide on the official site, for a non-dedicated server, dates from February 2014.

How to install Suicide Survival

These steps follow the 2017 post on the official site. Our Half-Life 2 mods guide explains the sourcemods folder in more detail.

1. Download Suicide Survival 1.1 from its ModDB page. The file is SuicideSurvival_Release_1_1.rar.
2. Extract the archive to a temporary folder.
3. Copy the SuicideSurvival folder to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\sourcemods\.
4. Restart Steam. The mod shows up in your library.

The 2017 post warns that the mod “does not support alternate Steam library locations”, so use the sourcemods folder of your main Steam install.

Sources

• Suicide Survival on ModDB, read through a Wayback Machine copy from August 2025
• Suicide Survival 1.1 release notes on ModDB
• Official site: Running Suicide Survival 2017 Edition (Wayback Machine)
• Official site: Version 1.2 progress update, September 2013 (Wayback Machine)
• Official site: server guide, February 2014 (Wayback Machine)