This is a cinematic portfolio piece. You and Alyx must support Echo Team in their attempt to attack Outpost 16.
Things don’t go quite the way you or they expected.
You have action and some puzzles to deal with, oh and don’t hang around looking at the beautiful view, if you linger you die!
- Title: Outpost 16
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-outpost-16-v2.7z
- Size : 145.95MB
- Author: Mike Anderson
- Date Released: 10 February 2010
Download to your HDD [145.9MB]
- Copy the outpost16 folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Outpost 16 should now be listed in your Library tab.
Please Note: Panoramic images only are available in full screen mode. You can either open one by clicking the image link above or by saving it to your computer and then opening it locally.
How to use: Once the image is open and your cursor is on the image, press and hold your left mouse button and move around the image. Use your mouse wheel to scroll in and out of the panoramic image.
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 800 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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DO NOT WATCH THIS IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY THIS MOD!!
This video was made by the author.
Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010
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4,186Overall
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1Today
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4Last 7 days
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17Last 30 days
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107365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 2 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 17 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 15 Mins by geekofalltrades
Longest: 0 Hours, 19 Mins by JellyBeanDude27
Total Time Played: 0 Hours, 34 Mins
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This mod contains one of the best interactive intro scenes from any mod I have played. It sets the scene beautifully and leads into the action very smoothly. The mod is a combination of puzzles and pure action.
The author notes that there is no lip syncing because that wasn’t the focus of the work and to be honest it doesn’t really take anything away from the final result, at least not for me.
The outdoor scene is just spectacular and it’s a huge disappointment that you don’t get to go down there and play within it. However, the indoor areas are almost as spectacular, as can be seen from the panoramic image.
Besides being too short I have almost nothing negative to say about this mod. The voice acting from Alyx is fantastic, and I first thought it was the same actress. The male voice acting is okay, I’ve certainly heard worse. I didn’t agree with some of the choice of music, especially in the final battle, but that’s just personal taste I suppose
I have to admit I am not happy, and the reason is simple. I have very little doubt that this mod will lead to full time employment for Michael and that means he won’t have time to make more mods. As selfish as that sounds, it’s true.
I obviously wish him well, but unless he works for Valve I won’t get to play anything he makes.
Enough complaining, this mod will surprise, astound and please you, so, unless you are playing one of the best mods you’ve every played, stop and play this instead.
5 Words or Less Review
Absolutely Stunning
I got as far as moving the first rocks on the ledge and then had the game crash on me every time. Same type of thing happened to me with Provenance, which was another highly rated mod that pushed the limits of what the source engine could do.
I’ll try a few more times and change my rating if I ever get any further, but I’d almost rather get a crappy mod than what looks to be really good one that is too bugged to play.
I can say that the voice actor for Alyx sounded good, and was close to Valve’s Alyx, though perhaps a little deeper and not quite as vibrant. Her script needed some serious work to match up with the speech pattern and word choices that Alyx used.
Make sure your using version 2 and try turning your audio setting to low and turn down the detail in video settings.Its a very taxing mod even on a kickbut machine.
I always run my video settings at their lowest points. I didn’t know there was a version 2. I may actually have an earlier version since I downloaded it within a day or two of when it released on ModDB.
Hopefully that will fix things. If so then thanks
I too played V1 but without problems. Phillips version posted is version 2 because I’ve played that as well. Hope you don’t get the same problems with V2.
I’ve never seen that happen, even with all the testing I’ve done. Seems most likely to be a memory problem. When I compiled, the entity data racked up to almost 200%, which apparently is waaay beyond the levels found in the official Half Life 2 maps. Version 2 of my release only fixes a couple gameplay glitches and adds additional voiceover during the puzzles for those who needed more help.
Yeah, I figured out what the problem was. It was honestly pretty stupid on my part.
Couldn’t even un zip it. Tried twice and each time it told me it couldn’t open t. Tried saving to my computer and thenunzipping and tried going directly to 7z to unzip right from thesite. No luck. Too bad. Sounds interesting. I’m running VISTA on a dual core laptop in 64 bit mode.
System
——————————————————————————–
Manufacturer Acer
Model Aspire 6920
Total amount of system memory 4.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2
Storage
——————————————————————————–
Total size of hard disk(s) 283 GB
Disk partition (C:) 1 GB Free (144 GB Total)
Disk partition (D:) 138 GB Free (139 GB Total)
Media drive (F:) CD/DVD
Graphics
——————————————————————————–
Display adapter type NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS
Total available graphics memory 2303 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 512 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1791 MB
Display adapter driver version 7.15.11.7490
Primary monitor resolution 1280×720
DirectX version DirectX 10
So, let me clarify. You downloaded the file, tried to open it via the 7zip website? Do you have 7zip installed on your PC?
One thing I did notice is that you only have a gig left on your C drive and they recommend having 20% of you drive free to optimize performance, not that this is related to the unzipping issue. CAn you open other files with 7zip?
Hi Phillip
Yes, I have 7zip on my computer. I tried downloading the file and then unzipping it with 7zip and I tried the option of opening it with 7zip. Neither worked. I did notice the 1 gig lefy on C drive and have since erased a bunch of stuff and cleared the recycle bin. Just tried opening it again (a fresh download) and still no luck. The error says it can’topen the file as an archive.
Kirt
Okay, I think the problem was the FileFront file. I also received the same message as you. My local copy worked fine so it’s uploading to FF as I type. It should be finished 15 minutes after the time of this comment. I also downloaded the file from my server and that worked perfectly. Depending on the speed for you, you could try that one.
Well, I finally figured out my problem. I had been using a config file that set some dual processor variables that make things a little unstable unless they’re specifically supported. I honestly feel a little stupid.
Now that I’ve actually gotten through the game. I can weigh in on the mod for its own merits.
Positives:
Visually Appealing – There was a LOT going on in this mod. The outdoor area was HUGE and what I almost have to describe as meticulously detailed.
Excellent Voices – the girl who voiced this mod did an excellent job of sounding like Alyx. That really was a huge plus for this mod, especially considering how many other mods, even top quality ones, suffer from bad voice acting.
Fresh Gameplay – There were a number of fresh uses of rarely used game mechanics, and having them all on the side of a building gave them all a nice polish that made them feel new again.
Negatives:
Bad Autosaves – I can’t count how many times I had the stupid mod autosave AFTER something stupid just happened that ended up leading to a game over. As a result, I reloaded from the last save only to have a few seconds before I got a game over again (usually Alyx or the rebels died)
Visually Distracting – There was an incredible amount of detail put into these maps, but 90% of it was focused on areas that you were never supposed to be.
Short Length – The mod could have been okay at the length that it was at, but the author specifically made a point of alluding to there being more to this particular incident than just what the mod covered. COPOUT. If you can only make the mod so long, then only make it so long and don’t put the extra work into a dialog that’s only purpose is to make you think that the mod will keep going.
Bad Pacing – Sure, the fast time requirements made things tense, but it also meant that I had all of 20 seconds to figure out what I needed to do, where I needed to do it, and how to get there to do it with Alyx standing in my way like an idiot.
[spoiler]I ended up dying twice at the point where I needed to plug in the magnet: the first time was because I had no idea where the plug was, but the second time I couldn’t get to it because alyx was blocking my path. I almost lost the rebels during the sniping session because I could only see the helicopter shooting and just barely noticed that there were actual ground troops that I was supposed to be firing at. Then right after that, Alyx was yelling for me to bridge the gap for her, but then proceeded to stand in the way and make it impossible to tell where I was supposed to be bridging the gap to.[/spoiler]
Bad Script(dialog) – There were a LOT of cases where I heard Alyx’s voice, but her personality was completely lost due to the words she was using, the types of things she was saying, and also how her dialog was being triggered. Alyx should NOT be Navi. She was giving way too many orders, basically acting as a talking walkthrough for the game. This was obviously used to make up for the fact that the time limited sequences had almost no other queues for what you were supposed to do, but it was still a BAD solution.
The one point when the Hunters busted in, I found particularly annoying because the chairs had no effect on them. Ep2 pretty much set the standard that Hunters are particularly WEAK against PHYSICAL ATTACKS. I can take down a hunter in Ep2 with 3 or 4 properly placed shots of just about any object with the gravity gun. When I attempted to do this with a chair, it had no effect even after about a dozen shots, until I finally just gave up and shot it with the Pulse Rifle.
Ultimately, it’s definitely worth trying, ONCE. But I don’t really see any reason that I’d be interested in ever coming back to play it again.
fantastic level, very short, but with some good sequences.
very very good but too short I hope it is only a demo would love this in a full version.
Lots of fast action and wow ammo, lots of ammo
Amazing mapping, great intro, fantastic voice acting. The part with the helicopter shooting holes in the walls was awesome, it reminded me a lot of Uncharted 2.
This is an excellent mod overall. There are some frame rate issues in the final battle. Voice acting was great. Lip syncing would have been better.
It’s a shame this is so short. It should be called Outpost 16: Episode 1.
HL2 maps/mods have a tendency of irritating me right at the beginning of the first level, testing my IQ…………lol!
It should be smooth sailing right at the beginning of every map/mod IMO, but not with HL2, and this mod is no exception. How can one down a gunship with only a “bow & arrow” with Alyx on your side taunting you to keep movin’?
A very solid mod though, but I want to move on, and not bugged down on the edge of a building………….!?!?
Yet I recommend all to Play it now!
I don’t think you are supposed to bring down the Chopper with the crossbow, just kill the Metrocops. At least that’s what I did and the chopper stopped shooting.
I’m pretty sure there’s no way that could happen (short of a HL2 glitch that I don’t know about). You have to shoot the metrocops. I couldn’t actually get the helicopter to respond to being shot at which is why it’s the way it is right now.
Wow What an amazingly talented designer this is. Stunning.
Phillip’s said it all so I’ll not bore you, bar this:
Before you play make sure your adrenalin glands are fully fit and ready to go. You are going to need them – big time.
I’m having trouble downloading a file from either the Planet Phillip Server or Filefront that will unzip properly. They download ok but when I go to extract with 7zip it plays up and says it is not an archive file.
Any ideas???
Turn off any anti virus you have running and use either winrar or 7zip to unpack.
Tried all that. I know 7zip works because it will unpack other 7z files but no matter what I do it won’t recognise outpost as an archive file and I’ve tried it with the file from both sites. Is there any other sites I could download it from?
Rats. I wanted to play this one.
I made a self extracting rar file.Give it a try
http://www.filefront.com/15595327/HL2-EP2-sp-outpost16-v2.exe
Thank You Andyb.
It downloaded and extracted itself no worries.
I’m going to give it a go now.
Thanks again mate.
Another thanks to Andyb. I had the same problem, have the latest V 4.65 7-Zip program, and also never experienced this problem with any other file. Its not AV or Ad-Aware blocking either.
I just use winrar.It does just about anything.Have never had a reason to change.Think I will make all files self extracting from now on if I can remember lol.
Seeing as how this mod has now gotten nominated for best voice acting, I should let you guys know that my voice actress, Yasmin Joyner, is a concept artist/short filmmaker whose website is:
http://www.yasminjoyner.com
this is very useful 🙂 thank you
Nice, pretty, innovative.
This was an outstanding effort. Anything I have to say has been said by Phillip. The only thing I can criticise about this mod is that there wasn’t enough of it (but that’s more of a compliment). I got to the end and I was hanging out for more.
I would love to see more from Michael. I just hope that employment in the industry doesn’t stop his contribution the mod community.
I’m stuck on the balcony after distracting the Combine and am trying to jump to lift platform. Alyx says “what about those wooden boards”? I don’t see any wooden boards. I jump to the lift platform and get message that I’ve abandoned personnel.
Please help.
the boards are covering the window between you and alex just above your left sholder
When Alyx says to start shooting the Combine down there, there aren’t any to shoot. I watched the video playthrough posted above, and I see where they should be but they’re not there.
Can you hear a battle? I suggest starting from the beginning again, just in case there is a glitch.
It takes the combine ground troops a while to get into a position where you can actually see them. I had the same issue. I looked down at the rebels when she told me to start shooting, saw nothing, and so I shot at the helicopter since it was the only thing I could see to shoot at. Then a while later I looked down and realized that some combine ground troops had moved in, I almost missed them cause I was busy trying to figure out how to deal with the helicopter.
While short its fantastic and has an actual story line.
Pro’s
– voice acting
– script
– environment
– enemy battle
– excellent puzzles
Cons
– not optimised
– to short
– alyx dies to easy if you are not fast enough
that mod is awesome 😀 but too shiny and because of that it was laggy to me:D you need very very good pc to play it smoothly
I will definitely take the approach of andyb and take the same rating it wasn’t that obvious to find out whats next… after the first battle with the crossbow if you follow Alyx opinion ‘she cannot jump” so you go instantly backward…
So visually outstanding but the gameplay wasn’t that great in my opinion (I assume it was also not the real aim of this campaign) that’s why I won’t rate it has a personal favorite ;=)
The mod proved to be a fun and unique experience, but as mentioned by others, it is far too short. The mod ends with the possibility of further maps and I hope the author makes them.
The mapping was excellent with unique outdoor settings. The indoor setting turned into an arena combat situation reminiscient of Serious Sam.
The lack of lip-synching was a bit off-putting. I also thought that Alyx sounded more like a young boy than a hardened female Resistance fighter. Maybe the voice actor’s voice did not get translated very well during the recording process, but then again other reviewers here seem fine, if not impressed, by it.
Well worth playing with some decent action and innovative puzzles. I played on Normal mode and found the combat to be a bit easy, so I look forward to playing it in hard mode.
Pure Awesomeness however, I am a Christian and had to get rid of the cursing.
Please make more!!!!
I am really looking forward to this one and as it seems that some folks are having tech problems, you may want to do what I now do with all games prior to playing them. I open up Game Booster and click on the defrag option. Then go to this mod in the list and defrag it. Then I click on the booster and shut down all other processes before starting the game. This only takes a minute to do and it makes a big difference in the game’s performance. I run all games at the very highest settings with no problem. The software is free from Gamebooster.com-now, on with the installation.
Pretty much all around visually stunning. I’m sure we will see more from Mike and I suspect it will only get better.
Alyx and I died a few times on the ledge. You have to keep moving and make no mistakes. The voice acting and script was great.
Definitely one to avoid. Alyx swearing like a trooper, getting in the way of everything, plus very poor optimisation (if any) makes this one of the very few mods that I’ve simply hated and deleted very quickly.
Just finished it and unless I missed something, it ended right after the chopper went down. I could not believe this was more then 100mb long. It was ok but nothing special and not anything new. It should be called a demo rather then a mod and it would have been much better to wait and release something that takes a while to play. This took me about as much time to download and setup as it did to play. It also needs more work on making it run better.
It’s a portfolio piece.Not meant to be a full mod.
Personally, I didn’t see a problem with the language being used. I always find it interesting when people are upset about language or sexual content in a game or film that primarily features the act of killing other living beings. These same critics are apparently ok with killing just as long as no offensive language is used. In a combat situation in which characters are experiencing extreme stress, the use of coarse language is realistic and thus acceptable. In fact, if anything, the language in the mod was too tame in that the expletive beginning with “f” was absent.
I don’t have as much of an issue with swearing as I do with Alyx swearing. It’s not because I don’t think it’s proper for her to be swearing at all, but I just don’t think it fits properly with how valve depicted her throughout the course of HL2 and the episodes.
I think there were actually a few points that ALyx swore, but it was for specific reasons, not simply swearing every time she was feeling a little pressured. If I recall correctly, even in those instances, she usually used damn or hell, which have religious applications that can keep them from being completely swear words when used in proper context. Shit or fuck are generally considered more crass as they serve no real purpose other than acting as more crude versions of crap/feces and sex/fornication.
It may not seem like a huge deal, but it’s subtle things like that which make all the difference when trying to capture the essence of a well rounded character’s personality.
I completely agree. I have no problem with swearing as such – it’s putting those words into Alyx” mouth that upset me.
I still say avoid the mod though, for this and the other reasons I previously mentioned.
I’d give you a thumbs up for that but it’s not an option lol.I agree.You get into a fire fight the last thing you will be thinking of is watching your language.
The original game never used bad language and it was able to express all the emotions of the principle people involved just fine. While it is kind of hippocritical to condemn vulgarity and yet condone the killing of others, I don’t see any real need in any games for the use of cussing. It does not impress or make it any better but , I think it actually shows weakness and ignorance. Anytime people get into an argumant, when someone runs out of valid points to make, they resort to using cuss words.
I used to cuss alot back in my drinking days and thank God those days are over.Using high tech jargon is much more threatening to most people, as for most it’s like hearing a foreign language. And people fear what they don’t understand.
Actually, the original game did have cussing.
You weren’t listening closely it seems.
In a few words I would call this “Ambitious with Faults”.
In some way it’s frustrating to play what with frame rates making this a very stop-go experience and at least one bug that kept terminating either me of Alyx. Due to these issues I can’t say it was an enjoyable play, and one gets the feeling that this mod was not designed to be played but more an exercise in what the author could achieve, as such I wonder if he should have released.
No doubt there is some great work gone into this mod, however, a fail to see how we can appreciate it, lets hope the author if and when he releases part 2 gives more thought to the playing experience.
Short but Sweet.
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Pros: Great voice acting, mapping, puzzles, and events.
Cons: No lip syncing, too short.
Overall it’s a wonderfully fun mod to play.
Great mod! I hope there is a sequel. Also, I never knew City Scanners can cause that much damage by summing a giant beam. =/
Its well done! only down side is the length, if it were a full length mod it would be amazing, but i’m sure it took ages to make anyway what with its quality. Would love to see more, take a look whenever you have the time 🙂
On a personal note I don’t particularly enjoy mods that you can only succeed at through following directions, here those given by Alyx. It’s also very, very difficult to begin a mod well with an action sequence, and while Outpost 16 looks pretty, its flaws are obvious and a real hindrance. Being too far away to distinguish rebels from troopers, for example, means shooting and guessing. There’s nothing wrong in starting with an action sequence, but if the modder wants to make it more than an exercise in following orders or succeeding merely by trial and error the short-term objectives need to be clearer.
Towards the end having the rebel leader constantly holler “Freeman, over here. Freeman, over here. Freeman, over here” while the battle is ongoing and when you can’t see him in order to join up with him is extremely annoying.
The modder has a strong sense for visuals but should study what makes for enjoyable gameplay.
Visually stunning mod with some performance issues. The art is incredible and the scripting very good. Yet the mod is too short (barely 10 minutes) and can be frustrating at times.. Too bad, as it could have been much better!
fantastic!
the style and the design was epic, especially the action scenes were amazing!
the gameplay was quite nice, especially the first part, not often that you have to sneak in halflife, last fight was quite nice, except that the heli was quite an easy one, music was cool too
voice acting was good, especially alyx ones
The only problem I had, was that sometimes, I wasn’t listening to Alyx, and so I didn’t get the hints she gave.
Also sometimes I just didn’t hear hear voice due to the heavy surrounding sounds or the music, wished some subtitles or alyx mentioning things more often.
I had no idea what todo when the heli came to kill you.
Sniper part was cool!
An astounding piece we got here…
also I got an awesome idea for a boss battle through this mod ^^
I just got around to trying this, but the mouse control isn’t working. I have up and down control on the mouse but no left or right movement. There is no real config for the mouse, so I don’t think I am doing anything wrong. Could this be another problem caused by the recent Steam updates?
Ok, the problem seems to be with Episode 2 itself. HL and HL Episode 1 work fine; HL2 episode 2 used to work fine but now the mouse is wrong. Does anybody have any ideas? Not being able to turn left or right is frustrating!
Well, if it isn’t for some gameplay problems (such as the numerous deaths of Alyx if you don’t know what to do), it would be a “personal favourite”.
The map is AWESOME, and the whole context, with numerous great effets such as the city’s destruction, and the “bullet time” assault, is truly convincing. The final assault in the theater is a piece of madness, entertaining and chilling, truly mastered in its construction…
However, when you know what you do to go from the beginning to the end, it is finished in less than ten minutes, and that is a weak point…
Overall, this is probably the most “blockbustering” map I’ve ever played, it’s like the author was trying to offer us great moments like we see in Call Of Duty Modern Warfare, you know…
Alright, I give it 2/5.
Why?
1. The game was very short. It took me 15 minutes to complete.
2. It seemed just scripted level without anything else. You didn’t even animate the faces of the characters. The voice acting was good, thats all.
3. Swearing. Swearing isn’t really problem, but every second word was a swear word. And it was Alyx saying in. It doesn’t fit her personatily…
Gameplay:
4. The ONLY fighting part was just wave of endless enemies until the timer ran out.
5. The ONLY puzzle was just setting the plank on the gab before the timer ran out (=Alyx died by the chopper), in case you don’t count walking on a ledge (That was VERY, very easy) a puzzle.
It is OK to make short mod that has just one level. But atleast that one level should be good. It wasn’t. Wasn’t worth downloading. I am upset.
I mean just… Who could consider this as their personal favourite…
was good, hope they make more and longer.
Can’t get started. I’m stuck on the ledge of the 1st bldg at the beginning of the map with Alyx. Where do I go, what do I do??
Try and work your way to the right. You might need to jump onto further ledges, I can’t remember, sorry.
Well I was the female voice actor of this hear mod and I’m shocked to see people so upset about Alyx swearing. This is pretty funny seeing as I always viewed mod’s as a way for a person to use their creative juices. Who wants to play a mod that is exactly like the game. I feel that Mod’s are like a blank canvas leaving you open to change an interpret what ever you like. It’s has actually been proven that swearing helps you deal with pain more. And I don’t care how christian you are I’m sure if there are hundreds of people trying to kill you and a helicopter firing rounds at you in a real life situation you might drop a few “F” bombs. Not to mention this is a violent game people get killed left and right I don’t see anyone complaining about that in the regular game. If you really have a problem with violence and swearing go play that game made about jesus from nintendo years ago. I’m sure it’s more your speed.
Cheers Alyx
skechit, thanks for dropping by. With all due respect, I think you missed the point about why some people were not happy about Alyx swearing. Whilst it’s probably exactly what she would say in real life, it’s out of character for her. It’s like having a mod where Freeman talks. It breaks a boundary, that shouldn’t be broken.
If Mike had made a new skin and called the character anything but ALyx, we wouldn’t be discussing it.
Yes, this is a violent game and we are not saying that swearing is worse than killing or anything. But killing was part of the original game ans swearing wasn’t.
I don’t know how much you play HL2, but little details like this are important to some people.
I understand what you are saying. I have the same conversation with my friend about Final Fantasy and how he felt it was more fun to have the characters not speak. He enjoyed making up the voices in his head as if reading a book. He despises that the voice actors never live up to his idea of what the character would sound like. I only think that because this is a mod and people have the ability to make additions to the game to their liking. It is an opportunity to mix things up change and add what you will. I’m not trying to be crass about the subject, it’s only that it’s not as though we have seen everything that there is about Alyx. I have played all of the Half Life games and know how her character is not the F bomb type. But doesn’t matter she is still inherently the same character. Now if I made Alyx sound like a valley girl then maybe would see the big deal. I thought it wasn’t a big deal that she cursed. She is a character that can evolve or change in the hands of a new writer. Mod’s are meant to be whatever they will be. Blank Canvas doesn’t mean that it has to be completely different. I just don’t think it’s a big deal for people to stress over especially in a mature game, we are all adults are ears won’t bleed if we hear a few naughty words in a simulated high stress situation. But I’m still glad people dig the mod so Cheers to all who like and don’t like it’s all fun in the end 🙂
Who wants to play a mod exactly like the game? Um, how about the 10million+ people that became fans of the game in the first place?
If a mod is using the scenery, the story, the weapons, the props, the enemies, the characters, and the VOICES, then it’s already NOT a blank canvas. If you want a blank canvas, use new characters. There are plenty of reskins out there on gmod or fpsbanana or whatever. The subtitles could have even been reworked to call her sarah, or robbie or whatever the heck they wanted and that would have even been enough. You wouldn’t have even needed to make the effort to mimic Alyx’s voice at that rate.
As a character, Alyx already has her own fanbase. By mimicking her voice for her role in a mod, you’re using that character. The good part of this is that what those fans want is already known, as long as you meet those expectations, you have that fanbase, but the bad part is that if you don’t meet those expectations, you only upset that fanbase.
The visuals, script, and voice acting are stunning, and the author is to be heartily congratulated and given a job with Valve (working on the much-awaited Episode 3). Lip-synching – big deal – I can live without it with scripted set-pieces and beautifully crafted settings such as this.
However, I was really starting to get into it, right up to the part where it faded to black, the credits rolled, and I actually thought to myself, “Huh? You mean that’s it?” I honestly felt cheated.
This would have been a personal favourite if it hadn’t been so short. I’d played the mod “Offshore’, which is quite long, immediately prior to playing Outpost 16, and I guess I was expecting something similar in length. Please, Michael, finish what you started, “cos it’s fantastic!
This is a fun mod but too bland the intro is way too long the fight in the building is very annoying with the music and the “freeman get over here cmon get over here”
And I really dont see how this got over one MOTY award and eye of the storm got none (as I can see)
🙁
Firstly, this map hasn’t won any awards yet, only nominations. Also, Eye of the Storm was last year, and the awards only started from January 2010.
Didn’t work for me. At the part where the helciopter attacks Echo team and you have to snipe the soldiers down with the crossbow, there aren’t any soldiers. The rebels shoot at nothing, and there seems to be no way to win. Any solution?
For a mod this visually gorgeous, it’s kind of a shame that it plays like an old Atari game. That is, difficult, trial-and-error gameplay that pads out an otherwise really, really short piece.
As a portfolio selection, it’s great to look at. Tons of details everywhere. Lots of custom models, textures and choreography. It’s pretty, no two ways about it. It’s also not overly garish. Aside from the fact that it’s a lot more detailed than retail Half-Life 2 maps, it still looks like something that could belong in the fiction. Given the sheer amount of custom content here, that’s actually a pretty big compliment. Many times when authors go heavy on the custom content, the end result is a mismatched noisy mess. Not so in Outpost 16!
But I’m afraid the gameplay won’t win any awards. There’s too much of Alyx telling you what to do and then having you, while stumbling around in the darkness on a 1 foot wide ledge, try to figure out what the heck she’s talking about. And if you don’t figure it out in ten seconds, too bad. We’re just going to kill you. Instantly. Try again. Even though the mod is really short lived, and this kind of gameplay is somewhat tolerable for that length of time, it’s still unfortunate that this was the best the author could manage for such an attractive set.
Course, we almost make up for it, because by the time you get to the second map about 5 minutes later, you’re locked into a pretty intense and fun battle with Combine Soldiers, the Helicopter, and a surprise special guest Hunter or two. But that’s also over very fast, along with the mod as a whole.
Music is an overall detraction and distraction. The author spent a ton of effort building up this neat, beautiful atmosphere, and then it’s buried under generic techno. Kind of a shame. A more somber, haunting score would have set the scene better and reflect the seemingly hopeless situation.
I also echo what Grey Acumen was saying about the autosave points. As you run along the ledge, you’ll trip several autosave points even if you’ve caused a failure. So when you restore from the checkpoint, you’re caught in an endless loop of dying. The checkpoint manager should have looked to see if you had triggered a failure event before committing the autosave.
Rather than feel like a traditional mod, Outpost 16 comes across like an interactive trailer. If you know exactly where the cues are, playing it would wow anyone at a demonstration. And maybe that was the author’s goal. But not knowing what to do is a whole other story. For all of its good looks, can’t give it more than a PIL.
can this on ep1?
Try it.
I recently tried out this story mod and I have to say I was astounded by the level of custom content detail they set into this and although it was short, needless to say I was extremely impressed. The entirety of it is very well done and anyone looking for a boredom breaker should get this right away as I love it now and I pray there will be a continuation of it later in the future. 🙂 I give this story a perfect 10/10 as the voice acting is very well done. All in all a very well put together story which I now love and hope it will continue one day. ^^
While it’s great – it has error on Hard difficultly – I can’t help down there… no enemies
@BrambleG: try on Normal difficulty
Sadly, I agree with a lot of the bad points said in previous posts about this “cinematic portfolio piece’. Not a mod. I for one could’ve done without playing it and watching the video playthrough instead, it’s not really meant to be played. I guess I’m the second to think Alyx sounded more like a 14 year old boy and the cussing only enforced that. And yea, loud d’n’b is also the genre a teenager would choose for the final (ahem, 2nd) battle. The only reason I didn’t give it the lowest rating is because of the cool AI scripting for the rebels and the nice visual effect after a wall is shot making room for beams of light to guide your path.
WOW!
The intro was truly amazing.
The scene with the destroyed buildings and the huge base in the distance was also very impressive.
Great work, balanced gameplay and amazing mapping work done here, the only negative point was the music when fighting the helicopter, it didn’t quite fit in IMO.
Very well done, personal favourite for me 🙂
Firstly, the intro sequence is amazing. This is a blend of cinematic and action, chapter one mainly being cinematic and chapter two being pure action (apart from the ending).
In chapter one you have to sneak around the rim of a building. I know I talk a lot about atmosphere, but this truly is atmospheric. The decorating is nothing short of amazing. I wish more mods/maps took place at night without being in Ravenholm. I love Ravenholm but I never really see City 17 at night. This isn’t exactly C17 but that’s fine because it has an interesting and unique setting. My only complaint is that it kept autosaving right before I screwed up and dropped something. Other than that, this chapter is awesome.
Chapter two is when you and Echo Team get to the rendezvous, but the Combine rudely interrupt. I love how the building looks with its weird wavy ceiling, and the action is awesome. There’s fights with Combine Soldiers, Combine Elites, Hunters and even a Hunter-Chopper. In my opinion the music fits the intense action, especially with the weird visuals. And then… what happens? They tell you it only gets harder when you go into Outpost 16 and then the mod ends. Very anticlimactic.
Outpost 16 is a short mod but it’s near perfect. Play it I say.
Manually
Medium
19 Minutes
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The last time I tried to play this mod was on a laptop that could not handle it.
So, this mod is pretty. But it really has nothing else going for it. A lot of people are complaining about Alyx’s dialogue, but I couldn’t really hear any of it. What I did hear seemed fine, and the voice actress did a good job.
“Cinematic” is indeed the word I would use to describe this mod, but ultimately, videogames are meant to be played, not watched, so I’m giving it three stars.
Manually
Medium
15 Minutes
uh, on startup, i get “can’t find background image materials/console/startup_loading..vtf,”
how does one fix this issue?
Have you tried using Gauge for these instead of manually installing? I don’t know whether they work right (I’m downloading the other you commented on right now) with maptap/gauge but it might help. Some mods have broken files like that, which gauge should fix (or at least, make it so you can get to the menu instead).
Reminds me of Dragon’s Lair. You only get one right decision. If you guess wrong you die. Not really fun. Looks great though. Nice scripts.
While this has some good visuals, combat, and map layout, the puzzles take the fun out. They leave you no room for errors at all and I don’t like those kinds of puzzles, it gets annoying when you die the same death over and over. The second map is where you get to find a rocket launcher but almost every rebels have one so why won’t they lend one to you? You taking down the helicopter sure is for boss battle purposes but it defeats the purpose of those rebels with rocket launchers. They could’ve just take it down at once or why not don’t give them rocket launchers?