(buried)
I care not about this going commercial. Your mod/game is not my scene and so it is not my business.
However you say:
“….we're going to answer once and for all the question of whether games can be art."
This appears to imply that you consider SP FPS games and mods using the Source engine are not art.
Do I understand correctly?
Great fun!!!
This can be played in different ways so has replay value too.
I gave up on the Strider though. 3 rockets + 3 SMG grenades + 3 tons of grenades on it's head = Dead Strider to me, but it lived.
A different and marvellous map.
Heck! I've played The Harbour & Rainy Days which are magnificent,
I'm really looking forward to this one.
Yes, it certainly is different!
Great hard gameplay. Loved The Harbour.
I'd better have a look at Wreckage now.
Both of these have very high replay value. That is so important. Well done.
Wow. That was great. What a game.
Pluses all the way.
No cons. Well it was bloomin' hard but that's why we play, right
I'd better going with the Harbour
I have. Tactics required.
Dash round to the grenade box (cutscene interrupts).
Chuck grenade through the vent above the door.
Avoid explosion!
Get your bum up that ladder in double quick time soldier.
2 lovely health packs await and loads of time to take out the opposing grunts below and on the service bridge.
I had 70+ health
Never hurry towards your death !!!
As I’m not a fan of puzzles, I’m surprised I liked this.
I thoroughly enjoyed the mod 1st time around.
The 2nd play was not so enjoyable because you know the solutions so you’re left with just the gameplay.
There is very little combat with just 1 minor skirmish and 2 proper battle engagements that were short and rather easy.
Unfortunately, this means that there is little or no replay value for an otherwise very well constructed map (needed more testing though).
However, that’s true of all mods and maps where the puzzle element is heavy and combat is light.
Once the puzzles are solved, that’s it, game over and done with.
An example of a replayable puzzle mod is ‘Research and Development’. While the main thrust of the mod is puzzles it is also combat heavy. That makes it replayable.
Other examples are maps by Miigga which are both puzzle and combat heavy with standard HL2 weaponry.
Thank you, Ultradr3mer, for a great experience. I would love to see more of your work – don’t forget the combat.
Very good indeed and thank you.
A bit confusing in a couple of places but that's the nature of sandbox games.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to your next release.
Not again!
These have been released loads of times.
I have no problems with what you say, joure, none at all.
'I will not try to fix things that a few people didn't like because of their personal preference'. Quite right too.
The mapping is excellent and mappers should map for what they want.
I just expressed a personal opinion.
The majority seem to like the map.
There's a few more comments over at planetphillip.com, if you haven't already been there.
Breathtaking. Really. Astonishingly excellent.
There were parts of this that genuinely had me scared to look around the corner. This is more than I can say for so called ‘horror mods’
The mapping was beautiful, efficient and exceedingly well thought out.
Not a lot of combat but what is there was ideal for the scenario.
Enough combat to keep this warrior entertained though!
The use of physics was superb and very rewarding.
It took me a while to figure out how to get to the well head. The answer, as it often is, is obvious.
Indeed, sharp observation and deduction by the player is key.
Very well done.
A niggle: Too many empty petrol cans. It’s gets boring. It’s irritating and the flow of the game is lost.
Just 6 or 7 is ample and then the player realises the search is on.
Great place to leave the last can, by the way, (if a little odd) and a marvellously thought out mechanic to get it out.
I hope you don’t leave us teetering on the brink for too long!
John was a waste of space and a huge irritation.
I hate iron sights and weapons control was far too complex for this grunt.
Iron sights!?!? There’s no place for iron sights in a modern day Sci-Fi mod. That’s terrible.
I finished this with a sigh of relief. With a few exceptions, I did not enjoy this mod.
This comes over as a masterpiece but the author(s) just could not leave it be.
More and more was added and the masterpiece became a mess.
I know this represents a heck of a lot of work and I'm not unappreciative of that but it's been overdone.
More is less.
I was one of the testers of this mod and privileged to work with this quite extraordinarily gifted team. They are without peer.
I learnt a great deal about SDK mapping and what the pitfalls are.
I had FPS problems but my GPU, at the time, was way below the recommended spec’ for EP2.
This was not a fault with the mod.
I’ve since replayed a couple of the chapters with a better GPU with no slow downs at all
Pros: This is a work of genius. The list is too long.
Play it.
Non-Cons: Yes, there a few trivial issues outstanding, all spotted and reported by the testers.
More than have been mentioned here and elsewhere.
None are game stoppers, none detract from the beauty of the mod or the game play and I doubt that many even noticed.
This mod was very late indeed. It very nearly did not happen at all because the Valve updates all but destroyed it.
Originally, it was an EP1 mod. When this development team say they will release, they do release, always. They toiled hard and converted a lot of what they had to EP2.
This cannot have been enjoyment, just work.
They were desperate to move on and released with a very few minor issues still outstanding. It was either that or no mod at all.
Most artistic works of genius have minor technical faults.
Cons: I thought the ‘hints’ were overdone, almost insulting, actually. Except for one; I can understand the need for the ‘STEALTH’ section for anyone that has not played Coastline to Atmosphere.
This one is up there with the very best but the magnificent Strider Mountain is the very pinnacle of HL2 modding and will probably so remain.
A very fond farewell from this HL2 player to all the team.
I can but hope, along with many other HL2 players, that your absence will be short and we get to play more of your masterpieces for HL3/EP3 (I'm an optimist).
SP-Mods team, I thank you.
So very short. So very, very sweet.
Marvellous mapping, and great, well paced combat.
The start of a great, story driven mod.
'This is map 1 of 7 for the initial release'
Oh boy, I'm looking forward to the next 6. I hope the Demo map is one of them - that was magnificent.
The 'Minerva Metastasis' style of text and content is brilliant. Keep it up cesig. A great enhancement.
Great idea to release in instalments of a map at a time. We get new maps from time to time and you get feed back.
Talking of which:
Cons: Just one for me. I did not like the beginning. I think it would have been better to extract the player in the alleyway.
Pros: Everything else.
A map by an expert modder and it shows.
Any plans after map 7 for this mod?
Super mod.
The fun and frolic really kicks in with Chapter !!! Find out for your selves. It's just amazing.
All limbered up, fully armed, locked and loaded, powered up and battle brain engaged?
Yes? Then it's time to go to:
HL2 EP2 Armageddon.
What a treat.
Go play, go play HARD.
Moddb are just checking things out I expect.
LordXamot has it right.
The download link 'Balticforever.com' at the bottom of 'Latest News' works.
This is nowhere near as good as 'Dark Factory'.
You get the Airboat briefly. After 2 seconds it gets stopped at the top of an iceramp.
Invisble walls stopping you from getting into what looks like a jolly nice forest after recent heavy snowfall.
There's a good punch up with 3 Hunters to make up for things.
If there is a nomination for the slowest train ride over the shortest possible distance this takes the Gold Cup.
Those invisible walls also stop you from using anything like tactics at the first combat crunch.
Pity. Please stop clipping and use proper props instead.
After that, it's pretty much straightforward and the combat (not much) is easy.
The end is obscure, but Binocl gives a hint in one of the posts.
Very good and thoroughly enjoyable
The bad
Too many empty areas.
Long walks hither and yon.
One of the slowest train rides ever.
Music is irritating and intrusive.
The good
You get the Airboat, always good fun
Everything works as it should.
The combat gameplay is fun and very good, quite hard in places.
A good length mod.
Worth replaying in Hard.
Overall, nicely done, Binocl
This a very weird mod but entertaining; you need to play it and find out for yourself.
It seems to be a series of vignettes strung together about a central theme (of some sort).
At one point, I had instant death every time I tried to progress and had to go to 'God'
(something I missed?).
Each vignette, bar one - the train ride, does have some reasonable combat though.
The combat ganeplay is OK
Thanks for this, Binocl
It's looking darned good to me.
3rd person? Oh no LOP. That's like going back to the dark ages.
Dabu[PL] It looks to me like your making a darned good FPS SP HL2 combat mod.
All power to you.
I've tried everything I know including inHeaven's fix.
Nothing doing.
Sorry RavenITA, this needs fixing by the modder. Otherwise it's not going to get played which would be a great pity.
Great fun, great mapping.
Loved the humour.
Got any more? No, no, I mean maps not donuts or even dinuts!
Donuts, dinuts. Nice pun, intentional?
I thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you.
Very different. HL2 with some HL1 mixed in.
I didn't get a finish. I got the radio message and thought I had to go back to the beginning to get collected.
So I hightailed it out of there, with some Antlions and an Antlionguard stuck up my bum, to the building on top of the hill. Only to find a switch I had not pressed.
May be I missed one.
The only 'leak' I noticed was after the 1st Vortigaunt onslaught. The ramp into the building with the forklift truck piled high with crates.
On the cliff side of the ramp in 'Crawl' you can see under it.
Other than that:
If it does not have a finish it needs one.
Number the Switchgear buildings "Switchgear 1" etc so that daft as a bat cats like me get them all and in the right order.
Well thought out in my opinion and nicely done.
Great video, Joe (even if you did play a part with God on!).
Thanks for that.
Physics objects: Oops I'll do it again.
Cookies please!
Yes got the wooden platform and used it by chucking a crate on to it, nice touch.
Don't get me wrong, I understand your enthusiasm and applaud it.
I think you have released this test a little too early. You should have tried a few good friends first and built on it a bit more.
Oh well:
The start looked very promising.
Then there's drop through the grating where I could not help but lose life - down to 53% (did I miss something?).
Headcrabs, break through the planks, Zombies - fine and not a bad area.
The boat in the wall is illogical. It has a box of power-ups. Easy enough to get by picking up, chucking, kill barnacle.
The next room - fine & standard procedure.
Then the corridor with the exploding barrels. I can only say that trapping the player with so many exploding barrels is not good. I switched on 'GOD' until it was over but this defeats your purpose.
You might like to review your use of the Lambda logo. The usual purpose is to get the player to a stache of ammo and power-ups or to hint at the way forward (through a vent for example).
Good for you and I hopes this helps.
No I got that wrong. Stopping the spawning is not the solution.
This would work very well if the spawning intervals were lengthened, say 15 seconds, so that you could actually get to places, without rushing around, before a new spawn. Then you could increase the number of bots to your taste and enjoy the mapping as well.
I've just realised. This is in Addons.
You should move it to mods where you and the map will get the exposure you and it deserves, CaffeinePowered.
Joe Rogers has this right, I think, CaffeinePowered.
Although I had no frame rate issues at all.
Darned good mapping and superb combat gameplay.
Pros: Absolutely everything except -
Cons: All very, very minor - Needs background sound/music. The rubbish in one place was a bit overdone (and very solid!). All my hostages were dead!
Definitely a superior map. Brilliantly thought out and planned.
Very well done indeed and thank you. I, too, look forward to your next.
Expertly mapped, beautifully mapped.
The combat game play is a dream come true.
Calling all combat game play lovers, play this now.
No bugs, no anomalies, everything works.
Extraordinarily superb.
My congratulations and gratitude to you insta.
jasper.atpp
Robert joined
HL2 Game playing fanatic - COMBAT only SP-FPS only. I now have some good ideas for EP2 combat mods. The only way they are going to see the light of day is to map them myself. I've made a start (but only just).