All maps from this modification have a very similar kind of feel of atmosphere and gameplay from the original Ravenholm, but with an different and expanded story, and many new locations.
The atmosphere is spot on in this mod, it successfully mimics and expands on what was already shown of Ravenholm in Half Life 2. The storyline was intriguing and kept the ball rolling and the characters were good.
A great mod. I liked the new zombie trap ideas.
I was surprised at how hard it was even on easy. I think there may have been over a thousand zombies in the game, not even kidding, and it was longer in length than I thought. Also I don't think the sewer chapter fitted the theme very well.
Also because it wasn't updated when Steam broke the mods, I had to noclip through some areas that required Michael and I sort of just guessed what they were supposed to be saying.
Still, it was enjoyable.
scary i love Ravenholm
Decent length mod with a focus on quantity over quality, although it has good ideas and challenging combat.
Environments that feel sparse and unexciting, despite some rather clever puzzles.
Attempts to mimic HL2 Ravenholm, but lacks those rich environments dripping with atmosphere. Poor prop placement, sewers a bit too cavernous, and honestly, no real spook factor. It's eerie, but it's not terrifying.
Decent mapping. I can appreciate the peeks over the bannister at previously romped locale, especially when progressing upward. Not very Ravenholm, but rad all the same.
Lighting felt dull and rushed. I enjoyed the return to Ravenholm segment toward the end, but it felt bland and... uncanny. More unusual than scary.
Low ammo and weak weapons can be frustrating at times, but do add to the survival horror element.
No sprint was kind of annoying, especially during the fog area. You know what? I just noclipped through most of the fog. Dear god, why was there so much fog? Why do you choose to suddenly make this open world with the most obnoxious environment possible where you can't see 5 feet in front of your face?!
And the worst part? I still had to consult a walkthrough for the second fog arena. Even noclipping to the highest point to view the entire map didn't help spot the obscure entrance.
Game kept hinting at juicy traps, but never letting you use them... until you're no longer expecting as much. But then the real traps hit and I have no clue how they work. Tripwires? Remote device? Barrels? Oh, I'm being attacked!
Half-Life 2 did a much better job organically introducing traps and making them useful. I desperately wanted to make the traps work, but I usually discovered them after the fact. Having to hunt for batteries while being absolutely bombarded by fast zombies is not an enjoyable trapping experience. And all that for a ****** saw blade launcher that misses half the time?!
Ammo is too sparse. Too much pistol. The game tries with gratuitous use of explosive barrels, but ultimately fails when it comes to engaging combat. Poor enemy placement and numbers make encounters feel sloggish, grindy, and unintuitive. It was tense and nail-biting, though. I'll give it that much.
Plot was weak and meandering, but I won't deduct too much since the mod still held my interest for the most part.
I may have come on a bit strong on the environments. There are some good ideas with moments of brilliant variety, but they feel basic. Like GldSrc at times. There's a lot of content here, but I would've preferred a shorter story with more polish.
THIS SHITTT GOOOD, I really do like how it reflects in its quality of when it came out
I did not enjoy it very much.
I really prefer to support modders, especially those like Lord and his team who go to such lengths to build a large-scale single-player experience. Unlike Eye of the Storm, which is pretty short, Ravenholm is a sprawling attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the original game chapter, while providing a much larger layout to the city. To begin with the few positives,I would say Lord succeeds in this regard. The lighting and feel of the city seems quite accurate, and the fog-filled fields are a nice touch. I applaud the project.
I just wish it worked in, well, every other dimension of the game. Frankly, I found the gameplay frustrating at best, downright infuriating at worst. For a modder with such talent, there is just no need to have so many zombies and headcrabs ambush you to create some feeling of suspense. It doesn't feel fair to walk around a corner and get one-shot killed by a bunch of exploding headcrabs, one of the new additions to the HL2 universe. Or to have flaming barrels dropped on you for no apparent reason. The mod is sadistic, and not in a fun way. There were a number of sequences where I just died over and over and over trying to figure out a way to manage the onslaught. Many of the traps provided in the game didn't work properly to manage the horde. Ammo and health at times are unreasonably scarce. And the game would be -- and is -- so much more fun with a gravity gun, but you're not rewarded with that until you beat the game (some bizarre incentive to get you to play it through again, now with access to additional areas and goods).
There are also serious issues with the level design. A lot of the game has clipping problems, from blocking bullets that should hit enemies to trapping your avatar on an invisible edge while a Combine chopper turns you into a bullet sponge. Many of the areas are very difficult to navigate; there are no discernible goals to your progress, leaving you to just run around in circles chased by huge armies of headcrabs and fast zombies while you try to find an exit. This was particularly acute in the aforementioned meadows, vast expanses with no obvious exit, just assaulting you with seemingly endless zombies. I also noticed how those outdoor areas felt like a less well rendered version of They Hunger, with awkward polygons, huge plane surfaces, and no discernible realism to the geography. It's not a good sign when your mod comes up short of an HL1 mod 6 years earlier. I get the Neil Manke was a genius, but at least next gen mods should be as good as old stuff.
In the end, I just didn't have fun playing through this. It was a chore, exhausting in a way that HL2 mods shouldn't be. It's a shame, because more Ravenholm content is a great idea. It was one of the best parts of the original game, and Lord clearly put a lot of time and thought into this. I admire the effort, but it didn't succeed.
Первая локация с очень пустыми картами, не очень похожими на Рейвенхолм,но более менее играбельная, вторая локация - канализация и третья локация - лес тоже очень пустые, играть абсолютно невозможно, карты - просто пустые коробки, никаких интересных геймплейных фишек нет, я пролетел канализацию и час леса в ноклипе и дальше посмотрел продолжение мода на ютубе, сюжета тут нет, есть небольщая история и только за неё 6, а не 5.
English(bad):
The first location with very empty maps, not very similar to Ravenholm, but less playable, the second location - the sewer and the third location - the forest is also very empty, it is absolutely impossible to play on them, the maps are just empty boxes, there are no interesting gameplay schticks, I flew over the sewer and the hзфке of the forest in the noсlip and and did not play further, the continuation of the mod I looked at YouTube, there is no plot here, there is a small story and only for it my score - 6, not 5.
Boy, did this mod dragged on for me.
First off, if you are not good at English, please let the native speakers polish the texts and subtitles for you. It was hard to analyze the texts to get a grasp of what you’re trying to tell.
I love the original Ravenholm from Half-Life 2, I see that this mod can give me an excuse to kick down the door and perform shotgun-pellets-injection on the undeads’ craniums. I got what I wished for, except it was a bit too much for me. The whole mod took me 3 hours and I have to be honest, it dragged on too long.
The story is so bad it’s funny, mostly because of translation. You outright left a friend at the beginning, then you meet someone you are supposed to care about. (Who dies three maps later after meeting him.) There’s also zero explanation of why is this guy keeps getting “phantasms”. There’s also explosive headcrabs, which are terrible additions in my opinion. Nothing screams frustration more than a headcrab who moves fast and can, and will, instant kill you.
Level design is a mix between good, redeemable, and straight up horrid. Checkpoints are few and far between. On some occasions, you face too many enemies more than what you can handle. One example is when you have to trek through a wide, opened, foggy forest. On top of not knowing where to go, you are constantly harassed by an endless stream of Fast Headcrabs and Fast Zombies. Also, this mod really likes stacking puzzles and weight puzzles. I’m serious, they are used very frequently.
I think the creator kind of misunderstood what makes Ravenholm so memorable. One thing is because it stands out from the other chapters by the only kind of enemies here are zombies. Zombies only, but not too short to make it a slog. Another thing is, while you can blast through the chapter with just firearms, you can always opt to play with the Gravity Gun if you get bored. Also, any mods that try to recapture Ravenholm forgot one thing: Ravenholm IS dark, but not pitch-black dark, light sources populate the chapter just right so the player can see. Zombies are usually crammed into tight spaces so they would actually act as an obstacle for the player.
The Gravity Gun is unlocked after beating the mod as a New Game+, it makes literally everything easier as now you can carry around props to throw at zombies with you. You also gain access to previously unreachable supply caches too.
One of the best single player mods I have played since the original. Some of the puzzles are very tricky and the large number of enemies was challenging in some scenes but overall it's a great mod. A lot of thought and effort went into level design and it has a feel of the original.