Black Mesa Sideline is a small Half-Life singleplayer mission. It contains 2 maps and is fully compatible with HL-Steam and HL-Won.
Excellent mapping, and difficult, but not too difficult combat. The only con I have to list is that it's very very short.
Its one of those very rare, excellent short mods (~15 minutes), it has beautiful level design, attention to details to the texturing, pipes, metal lining along the bottom of walls. Unfortunately it provides very little variety, with 2 very small outdoor areas in between the action, and one 2 tight air ducts (one of which had a very nice scripted sequence, THANKS BARNEY!!) this level design didn't feel claustrophobic because there was ample light and grates on the walls to see around. The level design is just tight, which doesn't do well for the combat IMO, these sorts of sequences would have been great to add flavor to a bigger mod... but with ~15 minutes it paints a very average picture.
With no puzzles or storyline it all rests on the enemy placement and level design.
The difficulty is fairly average, the hardest part is the beginning with the 5 grunts, one oddly placed satchel charge that can put in trouble if you rush forward passing it and the standard 4 weapons with some ammo is a overall average execution.
If you are on coffee break its worth playing.
BEST MAPPING EVER
Great mod.
Pros:
GREAT MAPPING!!!
Fun gameplay!!!
Classic location!
Cons:
WAY TOO SHORT!!! It's only 2 maps. :(
Short, but well designed and a lot of fun :)
Damn, that security guard totally saved my life with some quick thinking. What a scripted sequence!
Creative ductwork. Claustrophobic echoey mazes. Though still able to be played at a quick pace due to how linear each dead end was. A bit of backtracking that added artificial length, but overall kept the player moving forward without frustration. Just exasperation.
Clever girl. Breakable boxes? Better equip my crowbar. BUZZAPP HEADCRAB. Had me swinging for the fences. Love when the player is forced into primitive, uncomfortable positions. It's truly an art to ambush the player while they're wielding a crowbar, but still make it feel thrilling and amusing, not frustrating.
Dude how do you fight snarks? I don't encounter this nearly enough.
Combat was tough. Frequent ambushes and multi-directional firefights. Required liberal use of explosives in tight quarters. Don't think I pulled the magnum out even once. Combat was far too up close and personal. Shotgun was meaty as ever, especially with MMod, and grenades were my savior. So anyway, I started blasting.
Health fluctuated between scarce and too abundant. Although, Sideline did manage to capture one of my favorite suit armor gameplay dynamics: low health, high armor. Purely low health is scary, but feels much more comfortable with even 10 armor points. I love finding a battery when you're at 14 health. So cautiously empowering whereas a health kit just feels like staving off the inevitable.
This mod does a wonderful job creating interesting Half-Life experiences. This was really good. My eyes were glued to the screen the entire time, wondering what was to come.
Good
claustrophobia ahh mod, sorry
Good and short modification, just let me rate >_<