You find yourself in a barn, with the objective of getting some Combine plans and then getting back again. “Easy in, Easy out”, as people like to say. But of course, it’s never that way. “Difficult In, even more difficult out”. Good luck and be sure to really explore, you may find some hidden weapon caches!
I want to start by saying that the amount of content packed into this single map is seriously impressive, very nicely done.
Visually it's excellent, lots of detail, good lighting, great use of all the Hammer tools to make it look very, very professional and maybe even better than the default game thanks to its use of lighting and decals.
Gameplay here is, well, I think it's very shaky. Just about the entire map is going to a section, wandering around to find a button that opens the door to the next section, getting ambushed, and then moving on with little to no variety. That, or you have to kill an enemy to continue. The progression is just not great. The level design is okay combat wise, and I only thought one of the shootouts was really poorly executed.
Overall this is a solid map that could have used some more variety to its navigation. Also, why does this give you the car so you can make one jump and that's it? Sort of a buzz kill.
It's a single map that's built on some good gameplay (kind of hectic, some minor mechanics are used literally just one time and then thrown away), very good looking, like the best parts of Episode Two. I'm surprised the average rating for this is so low, which is why I'm inclined to give it 9 out of 10 even though on its own it would be more like 7.5 out of 10.