Halden has been sealed for fourteen months.
You drove in anyway.
Joint Task Force CORDON
Public notice no. 0417 · Halden and Halden Point
The cities of Halden and Halden Point are sealed until further notice. No person may leave the quarantine zone.
A slow, tactical survival RPG
Halden was a coastal city of a million people until a fungus the survivors call the Bloom took it, and the army closed the Cordon around what was left. Now you cross it on foot, from the quiet streets of Greenridge to the towers of the Core. Nobody is coming.
The city is made once from a seed, and then it remembers: the doors you boarded up, the fires you started, the dead you left where they fell.
Halden General admits eleven patients with a fever nobody can name.
Hospital board says the situation is “in hand” and asks residents not to attend the emergency department.
The bridges are blown. The Cordon seals the city.
The evacuation trains stop running.
The last broadcast from outside goes quiet.
The metro still runs. Empty trains, lights on, announcing stations to nobody.
Everyone else wanted out. The Cordon waved you in through the north gate.
What you do in Halden
Three habits keep a survivor breathing. Scroll, and try them.
01
Every drawer, locker and glovebox. Searching takes time, and it is never quite silent.
02
A body in seven parts, 440 points in all. A hurt leg limps, a hurt arm shakes your aim. Lose the head or the thorax and the run is over. Hunger, thirst and the Bloom do the rest.
03
Sneak, keep to the dark, throw a bottle the other way. A gunshot carries for streets, and something always hears it.
And then, the rest of the day
Searching takes seconds, a reload takes as long as it takes, and a bandage is a decision. Here is the rest of a survivor’s day.
Guns that punish mistakes: range, recoil, penetration, wear and jams. Weapon mods, bows, crafted melee, and noise that carries.
Bleeds, fractures and blackouts, part by part. Armour that covers what it covers. Medicine for each wound, and every treatment takes time.
Claim a building, board it up, add beds, storage and a workbench, a rain collector, a generator and a garden. Then find out who heard the generator.
Hotwire a car, load its trunk, siphon fuel. Fit plates and a ram bar. The roads are being rebuilt for it.
Set snares and traps, fish the river, follow what the season brings. Snow keeps every track, yours and theirs.
Four factions hold the streets. Trade, join one and rise through its ranks, or cross it and wait for someone with a name to come looking.
Eleven stations still on the air, and every sound is a recording of something real: wet roofs, locks, a lighter in the dark.
The whole story with up to eight, or a city that is open from the start. A shared base, pings and quick-chat.
You choose the shape of the world when you start a new game, and it keeps that shape. The city, the sick, the factions and the rules of the body are the same in all four.
One survivor
A chaptered story across five chapters. The Cordon still seals most of Halden, and each chapter’s work opens one more district. Choose permadeath or manual saves.
1 playerFive chapters
Your crew
The same story, together. One of you hosts, the gates open for everyone, and late joiners and reconnects are part of the design.
2–8 playersFive chapters
An open city
No chapters and no walls: all of Halden open from the first minute, one of you hosting. The world remembers what you did to it.
2–8 playersOpen world
A city that never ends
A persistent online city on a server that keeps running when you log off, built for up to fifty survivors. Public servers are on the roadmap.
Up to 50Open world
The Armoury
A gun is a decision.
Fifty-seven firearms, from a pocket pistol to a light machine gun and a grenade launcher. Weapon mods on a workbench, each a trade-off. Ammunition you find and trade for, never make. Bows that are silent, and arrows you can pick up again.
Two survivors can kit out for the same outing in two different ways, and both are right.
Into the Armoury
Light machine gun
Marksman rifle
Combat shotgun
Hunting crossbow
Suppressor
4x opticRoads and rivers In progress
The car you built is the one you trust.
Armour plates, a ram bar, grilles and a roof rack are on the cars now, and a round finds the tyre, the engine or the glass it hit. Two express roads cross every city, and the pavements are lined with things you can smash. Garages, bikes and boats are next.
Down the road
Together
Bring up to seven friends into the Campaign or a persistent city: one hosts, everyone looks, carries and plays differently. A crew of four on your accounts goes everywhere together, with a shared base, pings and quick-chat.
Or join a dedicated server, where the world never ends. Joining through Steam is coming.
Crews, servers and ranks
The city
A visitors’ map with someone’s notes all over it, a radio that is still talking, and the districts and factions that lie between them.
After 1.0
Halden is the start. Five expansion packs are planned to follow the 1.0 release, each with its own place, its own way to play and a part for every one of the four modes.
Pack 1
The bay is the last open road in Halden, and the tide decides when it opens.
The Bay, south of the Port
Pack 2
Everyone outside wants to stay out. You need to get past them, and back.
The Wire, outside the Cordon: the camp, the checkpoint town, the base
Pack 3
The last relief flight came down over the Core. Something on board is still worth dying for.
The rooftops of the whole city and Halden Regional airfield
Pack 4
Light is the only road. Follow the trains down.
The Undercity, three levels under the Core and the Point
Pack 5
Bring Halden back, one bridge and one block at a time.
The Weir and the river crossings
Screens
Staged in the game’s own city and rendered by the game, plus stills from the trailer. Click one to see it large.
The trailer
Drawn in code like everything else in the game: the sealed city, the sick, and the people still holding the wire.
Questions
Anything else: write to us.
A slow, tactical top-down survival RPG set in Halden, a coastal city that has been sealed off for fourteen months. You search every room, treat every wound, deal with the factions that run what is left, and try to stay alive among the sick.
Soon. The game is being played and built every day, and the first public release is on its way. The download button at the bottom of this page goes live the day it is out.
Nothing. Halden: The Cordon is free.
Yes, Halden: The Cordon is coming to Steam. Its store page is not up yet; once it is, you can wishlist it from this site.
A 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC, and a keyboard and mouse or a controller.
Players aged 16 or older. It shows violence, blood and horror, and it has not been age-rated yet. An account for playing online is for players of 16 and over.
Yes. The Campaign tells it in five chapters: the Cordon still seals most of Halden, and each chapter you finish opens one more district. You can play it alone or with friends. If you would rather not follow a story, the persistent city is open from the first minute.
Yes, in all four ways to play. Play the Campaign together with up to eight, or host a persistent city that is open from the start, also for up to eight. Dedicated servers are built for up to fifty, where the world never ends. A crew of up to four on your accounts goes everywhere together, with a shared base, pings and quick-chat. Invite friends from your friends list, or find a game in the server browser. Joining through Steam is coming. The Together page has the details.
Two ranks on your account. The Decay Rank counts the runs you win alone, with one life. The Survivor Rank counts the runs you win together. Fifty ranks each, achievements along the way, and titles, patches and finishes to wear that show where you are. Your ranks are on the Account page of this site and in the launcher.
Yes, a game account made in the launcher: a username and a password, nothing else. We never ask for your email address, your real name or payment details. You can also make one, and look after it, on the Account page of this site. The privacy notice says exactly what the account keeps.
The launcher installs the game and keeps it up to date. What changed in each update is in the launcher, not on this site.
TPMT Games, the games label of the band The Post Modern Truth. A solo developer designs and directs it, and it is built with AI tools: see the next answer.
Yes, and we say so plainly. Halden: The Cordon is designed and directed by a solo developer and built with AI tools. Every feature was asked for, reviewed, playtested and corrected by hand over months of milestones. It was not generated from one prompt. AI produced the code, the art (drawn by code it wrote), the writing, and the music (made with Suno and owned by the developer). The sound effects are real recordings.
Fifty-seven firearms, from a pocket pistol to a light machine gun and a grenade launcher. Twenty-four weapon mods fitted on a workbench, ammunition you find and trade for, bows and crossbows, crafted melee weapons, things to throw, and a firing range in Greenridge to try it all on.
Yes. Cars can be hotwired, fuelled and loaded, and you can fit plates, a ram bar, grilles and a roof rack. Two express roads cross every city. Garages, traffic and pursuers, motorbikes, bicycles and boats are part of Milestone 12, which is in progress.
The roadmap page shows the whole road to 1.0 and the five expansion packs planned after it: Dead Water, Over the Wall, Dead Air, Below Halden and Lights On. Each one adds a place, a way to play and a part for every one of the four modes.
Use the problem report in the game or the launcher: it sends the game version and, if you choose, the end of the log. Or write to ThePostModernTruth@gmail.com.
“This train is not in service. Please stand clear of the doors.”Halden Metro announcement, still playing
Coming to Windows and Steam, free. The first public release is on its way.
Not available yet · Windows 10/11 · 64-bit · keyboard and mouse or a controller · free
Made by TPMT Games, the games label of The Post Modern Truth. Every sprite is drawn in code.
