Reviews - The Sewer Mod for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Feb 11th, 2011 5 people agree 2 people don't
This review may contain spoilers

This review will not contain a traditional pro/con review, but rather just a semi-length text review. It also contains spoilers.

At first glance, you will notice that the download size of this mod is not that large. But, thinking that this mod is short because of the download size is extremely erroneous. This mod is best classified as a puzzle solving one. A majority of your time playing through this mod will be spent by backtracking once you gather something in order to move on to the next puzzle. Let me say this now, the mod creator definitely loves his keys LOL.

In order for the backtracking to work, one has to spend time thinking about how they are going to make their maps work with backtracking. The creator of this mod definitely thought out the maps. The maps themselves are traversed logically. The puzzles can be solved. I did have to read the included walkthrough more than once, but never did I have to noclip out of someplace.

You will also notice that concepts and assets are taken from a majority of the official Half-Life games, to include Half-Life 1 and its expansions. I noticed that the keys were probably taken from a Half-Life 1 mod. Some of the sounds were Half-Life 1. The tram was taken from Half-Life 1, btw I LOVED the fact that the creator included the tram sequence. A tram sequence was also taken from a Half-Life 1 level, where you are on the tram and there are guards, elevated, on your left and right. The antlion from Half-Life 2 is present, and you know when it is going to come. Enemies from Episode 2 are also present. The ending text was taken from Blue Shift when Barney Calhoun was also considered OUT OF RANGE.

I love that the Episode 2 engine was used. You can definitely tell that the lighting and overall graphical appearance is better and sharper, respectively.

Since you are underground a majority of the time, you will cherish your time aboveground. The funny thing is, the only thing that scared me, appeared aboveground. LOL.

<3 the mod.

Feb 12th, 2011 2 people agree 0 people don't

Ah yes, i've been waiting for this mod around 1 year now i believe. And finally, it was released!
First of i would like to thank the creators for making such a great mod. It has somehow been the wait worth, and on some points not.
There is both good things and bad things about the mod.
Down sides might be that often i end up running in circles looking for the keys that you have to collect. And after collecting them i end up running around more looking for the door it fits.
After all that is probaly what makes the mod take so long to beat. Also that you have no crosshair (or atleast in my version) makes it all abit weird.
Otherwise, i love the map design great looking levels. Not missing anything, i havn't come across any bugs yet. And for once a mod that doesn't spam you with ammo and health! thats for one thing, something i enjoy about this.
In the end, 8/10 and good work.

-Josh

May 28th, 2011 1 person agrees 0 people don't

well this mod is hard , it seems that i always skip something and i have to go back and look around for half hour and than by pure acident find something that i need to progress

May 3rd, 2011 2 people agree 1 person doesn't

Like Philip already mentioned, the mod includes a lot of switches in terms of quality.
Nethertheless this mod makes many things great, nice areas where you can really see that the author put some thoughts into the mapping.
Also this mod includes so many good ideas, simple things like the wood that blocks the door.
Or that funny part with the dispenser which explodes after you got the nade from it ^^
Still, there are some things that I missed, some sort of ectase in combat, the levels are mostly the same, the enemies are placed very well, but you keep fighting the same ones, only in the last one you meet a bunch of new enemies.
Also the keys are so goddamn hard to see, just making the key red or yellow can't really be that hard.

Anyway, I give it a 8 cause of the funny and good ideas, and the very high quality of the map layouts.

Mar 6th, 2011 2 people agree 1 person doesn't

This is an excellent and very long mod for Half Life 2. I spent ages getting lost in some levels. It was really great.

My only gripe (and why it doesn't get a 10/10) is that many of the "keys" are nearly invisible unless you're looking directly at them with your flashlight shining and some of the other things necessary to open doors (such as access cards and their associated readers) looked rather out of place.

For example: in a brick wall, during one part of the game, is a "card reader" which appears to be simply four rectangles with "Combine Metal" textures and a "Combine Forcefield" inside the rectangle. It was a little...off.

Otherwise, though, superb level editing and very engrossing. I loved it. :)

Dec 13th, 2012 0 people agree 0 people don't

So I liked how it wasnt super easy to find health, but the puzzles in the hospital level were atrocious. I blew up the wall, and had no idea what to do next. You need to provide players a better understanding of what things do. I would not have known that the bomb was meant to be for that door.

Similarly, In the sewer level (level 1) I have NO idea what the switches I was pressing would do. Try using wires or something to show players what they will be opening, and what their next objective is. The hospital was also way too big at the start. There were too many places to go that I started to breathe a sigh of relief when one of the doors was closed. Too many paths with nothing in them!

The combine fights were uninteresting and uninspired. I was usually low on ammo, and it wasnt because I was missing. Try to provide players with a little more ammo along the way.

Thats it. if I see you update the map, maybe I'll come back to it. It was frustrating at the end and I couldnt continue. Sorry man. You just need to play test this a bit more. Give it to your friends, and see how they beat it.

Dec 14th, 2011 0 people agree 0 people don't

Game has atmosphere of the old half-life, of confined space. There is no crosshair (at least, there wasn't for me) which adds further to the game immersion. You get used to it really fast. Mod is of decent length. Levels are creative and interesting. What, you are still reading? Go download.

Oct 18th, 2011 0 people agree 0 people don't

This Is a Very good mod its long And has some Music as a Soundtrack. it uses alot of Diffrent units so not only combine units.

No bugs Glitches .

8/10

Feb 25th, 2011 1 person agrees 1 person doesn't
This review may contain spoilers

Tonight or Today if you're European or American I am going to review The Sewer and I have stated this modification is the toughest modification to be beat. Why I say is the toughest Modification because it is Puzzle Hell as each of the chapter of to solve piece by piece to process to another chapter but however, finding those things to solve wasn't that easy as they're very hidden all the time and very ridiculous to find them and increasing the Frustration to think that the mod is bug and forgetting to save and die from the important part before continue. Oh Yeah, I forgot to mention about that something about wasn't see it all day, this modification don't regularly save very much as other mod have, because the developer wanted to push the gamer even much hardest decision to whenever he wanted to save or not. Also, to make the matter even worse to the gamer, the difficulty setting is random as each chapter complete the difficulty change as well even though you have set the difficulty from the Menu it doesn't work at all because it is Random program as we cannot do it as each chapter progress and this modification is the first time that don't crossfire to aim at the enemy to shoot so that even much being about that. About the story yes in every rebel modification this one is very special. A Citizen Civilian is a Rebel called Malcolm wake at the office but after the Combine starting to attacking, he try to run away from the Civil Protection and head into the sewer begin but he now know that the Underground of tunnel is not just a simple way for the other way out it is a Nightmare beyond Dream-sequence as he need to fend off Combine and Zombie along the way to solve a lot of mystery being inside the Sewer of secret Rebel Base. Yeah the story is pretty much about Rebel Rebellion against the Combine. The gameplay however like a science-friction as a lot of puzzle to solve even with the unnumbered of enemy on your *** being much more frustration then challenge.

Feb 12th, 2011 1 person agrees 5 people don't

The reason I've downloaded this mod was because it's totally overrated. So I make it quick, because this mod dosn't deserves too many words about it. The mapping is horrible, atmosphere bad and the story is missing.