Beyond the Bar One: Bringing Concept Art to Life addon - Coterminus mod for Half-Life 2

My brief review of the levels.

1. Pitstop
Admirable to see anybody use the Trainstation concept art, I think it is underrated/underused. Progression was awkward in the beginning and confusing once on top, but overall, okay. The backdrop is also okay, and the main area is servicable, but could use better HDR values.

2. Nomad
Started very well and entertaining. The gameplay is quite difficult, with too much thrown at the player. But if you got through it, you're rewarded with sick scenery, very atmospheric, rich, strong classic wasteland vibe. The new soldiers were a big surprise factor, but they're very overused in numbers. This map is nearly A grade material.

3. Canal-Combine gateway
After Nomad this felt relaxing and fast-paced, which I liked. The environment is understandably rough in places, but overall, it's quite alright. The progression is okay, the difficulty is manageable. I like it well enough.

4. Nova
An extremely impressive map in terms of style, visuals and atmosphere. I got very involved, thrilled, even. Unfortunately, it's not exactly finished, so the ending is plopped on to make it finishable. If it could be wrapped up properly, it'll be one of the best beta-themed maps. Special props for using the 2003 Citadel model, which I love.

5. You're not supposed to be here
I have to give this map the lowest score, because it relies very heavily on recycled geometry. That said, it's one of very few maps to incorporate canals_03, and actually fill it with some adequate gameplay substance! So, it gets better toward the end. I also managed to finish it without the airboat, which is a good sign. Overall, the map is okay.

The first map, Pitstop, is pretty bad imo. The start is a parkour section with gas-spewing scanners, which is pretty annoying, then you get into an elevator and you're surrounded by metrocops. If you killed the scanners while doing the parkour, you might not have enough ammo to deal with the metrocops. If you left the scanners alive to save ammo, you might not have enough health to deal with the metrocops. After the metrocops, you do a simple battery puzzle to activate another elevator, and then the map ends.

Nomad looks amazing, it has very pretty views of the wasteland, and the character's models & voice acting are pretty nice. But the map falls apart during gameplay imo, most combat sequences are just nearly endless waves of enemies.

Canal Gateway is the best map in the pack imo, the visuals are simplistic but the gameplay and music are great, and it's a nice break from the previous 2 maps.

Nova looks very nice, and the initial combat against zombies and a couple soldiers is good, but then the main building has enemies coming in from all entrances, turrets basically everywhere, and wasteland scanners which either shoot lasers or vomit grenades. I had to use godmode to get through this combat section. The map ends very abruptly as the developer didn't have enough time to properly finish it.

You're Not Supposed To Be Here is a decent map, definitely second best imo. There's nothing super good about it but nothing bad about it either, so I don't have much to say.

Finally finished BTB. Here are my reviews (ranked from highest to lowest in my opinion)

Nova - My favorite map in this whole pack. Scenic, beautiful, and balanced gameplay. The map was simple and straightforward with interesting mechanics and visuals. It was so detailed, that you wanted to stop and take a look around at the environment you were in. Additionally, there was a near-perfect share of enemy placement, supplies, health, etc. for a fun and balanced walkthrough.

Nomad - This could've been up there with Nova, as the mapping design and visuals were fantastic, but the gameplay dynamic was very poorly thought through. Every 10 footsteps, you were spammed with hordes of either Antlions or Combine Soldiers, with a very limited supply of ammunition and health/armor. This made it very difficult to progress. Not to mention, the section with the destroyed ship and the carts is super confusing to figure out. I spent like 15 minutes trying to figure out what the hell to do before eventually giving up and noclipping out of there. All in all, very pretty details and visuals, but really frustrating gameplay.

You're not supposed to be here - Despite the rough terrain and recycled geometry, I liked this one. While it did appear a little bleak and a bit blocky, I liked how it was a recreation of an old canal map with actual visuals and gameplay. The difficulty was manageable and the progression was simple and straightforward. If the visuals were improved a bit, it has the potential to become a very beautiful short-and-sweet map.

Canal-Combine Gateway - This map had a similar problem to the one above, with very blocky architecture, but the airboat ride was fun and I liked the use of a depressing yellow ****-colored skybox. The enemy placement wasn't bad, although confusing at times (like why is there a mortar synth just hovering right next to a bunch of houndeyes?) but I enjoyed how it was rather relaxing and quickly-paced, and altogether very simple. It just needs a few tweaks in terms of detailing here and there, and it'd be golden.

Pitstop - I have to give this map the lowest score because pretty much all it has going for it is some decently cool visuals. I liked the take on those concept train stations that have a massive gap in the middle of it for whatever weird *** reason, but the parkour at the beginning of the map was very annoying, as half the rocks you could BARELY latch on to, and there was like 3 metro cops you fought and that was it for the combat. It felt more like a walking simulator than an actual map. Lastly, at the end of it where you take the elevator to the 2nd floor, I had no idea what to do from that point onward and just assumed that was the end of the map, so it was a little anti-climatic.

how to play