Can you find your way through the maze of buildings and enemies to reach the “The Sphere”. If you can get there you will find you can only break it using a crowbar. Good luck.
Basic Details
- Title: The Sphere
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-the-sphere.7z
- Size : 10.22MB
- Author: MrDirectX
- Date Released: 04 May 2010
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Download directly into MapTap [10.22MB]
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Download Options
Download to your HDD [10.22MB]
You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.
Installation Instructions
- Copy the_sphere.bsp into your Half-Life 2: Episode Two Maps folder.
- Copy Music folder into your Half-Life 2: Episode Two Sounds folder.
- Launch Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Open the console and type map the_sphere.
- Press enter/return or click the Submit button.
- Play and Enjoy.
If you require more help, please visit the Help page.
Screenshots
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 800 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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Reader Recommendations
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Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010
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When I first started to play through this the stutter was too much, so I restarted my computer and tried again. It helped bu not much. I had to use God mode to play and get the screenshots. The overall idea is very good but I feel it has been let down by trying to make the whole map visible.
The action was a little repetitive and the placement of enmies the same. Groupos of zombies can be found in strange places and health and squads stations provide som help but nothing fits.
It’s one of those maps, that is obviously that, a map made by somebody to kill enemies.
If the author could limit his imagination to something that seems real I for one would enjoy it more. Full makes for trying to accomplish such a grand concept but low marks for making it seem possible.
Those readers with faster and better computers may have no trouble running it but I suspect most will. The end result is one of lefts and rights with no more than trail and error required to find the corrects routes.
I had a lot of overflow messages and the console gave lots of errors too. Looks like this one needs more optimization.
Oh, one word of warning. If you don’t like Heavy Metal music, don’t copy the music folder. I hated it, so I deleted it. I really don’t think this kind of music should be used in SP maps, in fact, no music with lyrics should.
5 Words Or less Review
More realism, please
They are d” agreement on the post of “Planetphillip” .
Perhaps I have decidedly pushed the engine of EP2 over its possibilities.
It asks me to Planetphillip to make the maps more realism ….. just you have reason… but unfortunately 2 important factors lack me a lot,
first the time of being able to create a realistic map, because it is necessary more engagement and second, the ability to know to make it that I do not have.
however thanks for having inserted my map on http://www.planetphillip.com ; -)
Huge map. As Phillip says, you need a high spec” computer.
I’m lucky and have. Even then I got all the warnings both in game and in the console. I got just the one crash but no lags.
MrDirectX has a vaulting imagination but has overreached the capabilities of EP2 maybe. There’s just too much going on, especially sound.
Give your system a chance to keep up, don’t charge about. Take your time. Worked for me.
Otherwise: Very well thought out. Combat is straightforward but definitely not boring. Visually very interesting but without any eye candy for sure.
Tip. Screenshots 32 & 34. Not recommended! This very definitely is:
Screenshot 33. To the left you can see a white wall. Just above it you can just make out a small grey column. [spoiler] Get to that roof to get to the Super Weapon. Press “use” key on the grey column[/spoiler] and bring hellfire down on those Poison Zombies. I took out an Antlion Guard with it as well (also shot myself with it!). Great fun.
After I had finished off everything in sight, I found I couldn’t use it again.
So, you get one turn, one turn only. But as many shots as you want.
After this, the tunnel from hell. Awesome.
A must play.
I can’t even get any rebels off the ledge. This is so buggy I’m not going to bother. Sorry. :/
I don’t think the rebels are supposed to come off the ledge.
Why have them shown as “following” then? I did start again and took some advice from below, “stay left”, and still… After 25 minutes of wandering around and shooting things, I was pretty much no closer to finding out what I was meant to be doing, than at the start.
Also, maybe it’s because of my settings or computer itself, but were things meant to be “see through”? Half the zombies and antlion creatures were not truly visible most of the time, and I’m not really familiar enough with the engine to know whether that’s a side effect or they were meant to be that way.
I might try going back to it, but it’s not something that I’d recommend to anyone wanting a well-made mod.
The one big problem this map has is that if you don’t make very specific turns, you’ll wind up dead, period. Word of advice: KEEP TO THE LEFT WHEN STARTING OUT. You should be able to get some suit power and shotgun ammo along with some Pulse Rifles if you take out the combine along the way.
The music was stupid, but I got rid of it pretty fast.
The cool part about this map is that there are a great number of different strategies that can be used to play the map. I can only guess that Jasper primarily followed the streets and shot every enemy that he came across. My strategy was head downhill anytime a roof was low enough to jump up onto, then try to jump from roof to roof to make my way up the slope while avoiding most of the enemy fire. I never so much as shot at the hunters and generally avoided the antlion guardians.
I ended up skipping the two towers in the middle of the map and just jumping over the fence. shortly after that I ran across a suit charger that pushed me up to 100HP and 200 energy After which I was pretty much set.
The ending itself was honestly just a bit of a letdown after all the work, but I suppose the satellite gun made up for it. Unfortunately it doesn’t make up for how poorly optimized the map was. The draw distance was set ridiculously far. You could see enemies from a range that they wouldn’t even try to fire at you, and you couldn’t make out their shape even AFTER zooming in. Draw distance really has no reason to be more than about 20% more than the range of a pulse rifle’s alt fire. This map must have used easily double or triple that.
Also, “The Sphere” ? I know this is nitpicking, but I would have personally titled this map as “Uphill Struggle”
I loved this one. Multiple routes, strategic thinking required (do I take on the hunter to get to the weapons stash, or shall I bypass it?), glimpses of where you are going to be in 20 minutes gameplay time – these made it hugely enjoyable. Although the textures are very uniform and bland, the vista that is before you from the tops of the high towers is superb. I very nearly gave this a Personal Favourite recommendation.
What on earth is this thing?!!
Found in a room with Mossman,Kleiner and Father Grigori. Near the multitude of Poison Zombies.
It’s a poison zombie too but without its poison headcrabs on it.
I had to go back to HL2 Ravenholm to check.
You’re quite right. Thanks for that
Interestingly though when I blasted his head with the last headcrab’s teeth firmly embedded around his nick with the shotgun, his head came clean off.
When I shot him in the body, he died with the headcrab still on his face.
In this map, he’s still got his head and he’s a friendly (weapon lowers).
Actually, I pulled the console while I had my flashlight on it, and it seems this one was supposed to be the Alyx model. (it was looking for the “Blind” expression when you shine the flashlight in her eyes) It even has her gun!
I think this map doesn’t worth downloading. Obviously author was just trying to see limits of Half Live 2 without optimizing the map. Here is the answer: either optimize it or make it smaller.
Map looks bad, design is just about lots of blocks. Textures are used bad, props are used bad, there are not enough details and so on.
Action is just boring and repetitive, there is no story or sorts, music is uninspired and so on.
Just good for target practice if you are into this kinda thing.
funny huh,,
I just clicked on the link civanT and the first phrase that pops up is,,
“if you dont have anything good to say,, why speak?”
I don’t see anything funny, what do you mean?
Anon_220928 has just read the ‘latest blog” default entry on your member details on Moddb civanT (but I bet you knew that).
Mine reads the same.
That makes at least two of us who are a bit funny then!
Anybody else in the funny bunch?
Obviously Anon thinks my review was not good, but he missed the meaning of “good” in that sentence in Moddb. I think my review about how I felt after playing this map was good which is map was bad. If I only reviewed maps/mods that I think are good, what’s the point? Is it not equally good to warn people?
Whatever, I don’t like this kind of comments since they don’t benefit me, others or modding community. This only leads to flame wars. Flame wars should stay out of PP, that’s why I’m here, there are no flame wars here, it’s just good people commenting respectfully. My low point reviews are only here, because I believe others will try to think that my intentions are not bad. Maybe sometimes my ideas are too extreme but that’s what I’m really like. PP exclusive 🙂
I also apologize developer of this map. Even if I think my statement of this map being bad is true, I shouldn’t point that out constantly on my every post. Patience lasts only a while, I don’t want to be discouraging.
Ick.
Yet another Run and Gun type mod.
Not even a particularly good one, at that. Too much space. Too few enemies, and sparse ammo.
PLUS A FREAKING ANT LION GUARD RIGHT OFF THE BAT.
AVOID THIS THING.
Alright, since I kinda went off there for a bit, I’ll describe what I didn’t like about this mod.
When I started it up, the mod crashed after a few minutes as I explored. Strike one.
In the beginning of it, I was surprised to find a whole squad of rebels. However, they were up on a ledge and refused to come down. That was an annoyance, since it rendered them useless to me. Strike two
Then, I rounded a corner, only to come face to face with an Antlion Guard. With no weapons, I thought I could lead it back to the squad of people, however it refused to follow me.
Left with nowhere to go, I simply gave up. There were no destructible walls, no passages, no alternate path, nothing that I saw that would take me past this, save for some tricky dodging, which, while I can do, I di not believe the mapper would force a player to try such a thing.
Apparently, I was wrong. I HAD to do so in order to get by. Then, it took me a while to find anything weapon wise.
It was at that point that this became an exercise in frustration. Useless squad members, hounded by an Antlion, and then the final kick, little weaponry. Yes, That’s right, few weapons. Strike three.
By this point in time, I simply cheated, as I was simply not having fun. I gave myself all weapons and went to town on the antlion guard.
With that out of the way, things got boring fast. Sure, I found the occasional combine, maybe two or three, but rarely. Most of my time was spent hopping across the rooftops to avoid the maze and hopefully reach somewhere interesting.
Then I saw the towers, and I at first thought that it was the finale.
Yeah right.
Lots of elite, zombies (…what. the. crap. Zombies on top of a combine tower. Ugh. This just got ridiculous…), and a hunter.
Oh joy. More mindless killing on a high tower with a mini boss with little room to maneuver. NEXT!
The rest was more or less straight forward, and I managed to wander into a rather massive weapons cache. Would’ve been nice had this been earlier. >.< Now all it gets is a passing "huh, this would've been nicer BEFORE I had to kill all those combine, two Antlion Guards, Hunter, and zombies."
Is my distaste for such badly thought out maps evident?
The satellite was fun, but I wish I could've used more.
For some reason, I felt like a pachinko ball going up the board. It felt ridiculous and boring.
I've played run and gun maps and yes, I have enjoyed them. It's just that, I need a substantial amount of enemies and weapons, otherwise its just boring.
Perhaps this would've been better as a DOOM mod.
I suppose I just hold Half-Life mods to a higher standard.
My recommendation to the mapper is if you are aiming for old-school style, try some of the older FPS.
Heck, give Old-School, a run-n-gun style game very reminiscent of DOOM, a run. Very fun game.
Then again, you are a first time mapper.
But, you don't need to release every single map you make…
You guys are weird,, no new maps for how long and then you bag them???
I had no stutters, no missing textures,
found the poison zombie the second time through,
now I know about the special weapon,, will play it again 🙂
Thanks for the map MrDirectX 🙂
A map drought is totally irrelevant.
I don’t think your point is valid. How does map drought makes new ones good?
Yer, we just got both Enthalpy and Siren, both of which are WAY better maps than this one. By far.
A map drought does not by any means make a map like this good.
A bad mod is a bad mod regardless of whether or not we’ve had anything else.
Having played this out of curiosity by first reading the above posts, something I don’t normally do, the phase curiosity killed the cat came to mind. If you read these postings first then you have the option of not bothering with these one, an option I wished I had taken.
I can’t find much to credit this map with; the layout is large but uninteresting, however it is ideal for running around killing antlion guards. That apart there is no detail and the whole set up lacks imagination and a purpose; I kept asking myself what is the point of this.
I did not experience much in the way of trouble playing through, I seemed to have killed all the Combin I could find and brought down at least 4 if not 5 antloin guard, not sure if this then leaves much, as I decided to call it a day with the first crash.
Not sure what the Rebels were meant to do, for sure they did not form a squad and follow, not that you needed them the Combin were easily dispatch with very little thought given to placement and ambush.
Overall I disappointing experience, but feel sure given the time the author could do a lot better.
Whilst I realise that everyone is entitled to their own point of view, I think that there is too much negativity being shown towards this mod. At least one “Avoid It” has come from someone who clearly has not played the mod all the way through – shame on you, you know the rules.
Saying “Avoid It” runs the risk of persuading people not even to give it a try, as well as being extremely discouraging for the hard-working author who has provided us with entertainment for free. This is a reasonably long mod that makes you think and has some interesting twists and turns, and is fully capable of giving pleasure to the Half-Life community. Hand out “Play It Now” recommendations freely, but think long and hard before giving the lowest possible rating.
I use Avoid It when I don’t like a map/mod, and to guide people who have same taste in games like me. If I were to give reviews for everyone, I’d be more objective and recommend it to some people with a 3/5. But I don’t review mods for everyone, I just review them for people like me, I thought I should make this clear first.
I know giving negative comment discourages mappers but they don’t have to be mappers you know. I hate it when people just think if something is free we should appreciate it. I don’t, I seek quality.
By no means I’m saying this mapper is untalented or shouldn’t map. I’m saying if you are just creating something without aiming to make something good and high quality, you are just wasting your time. This doesn’t necessarily mean, bad looking mods can’t be good. Creators should aim to make at least one aspect of their creation appreciated. This can be a tutoring, telling a story, playing a song, creating a feeling etc. That’s my way of approaching mods.
About this map; obviously this map aims to create firefights and push Source Engine’s limits. Well, I understand some people like that, but I don’t.
That’s why I like PlanetPhillip member reviews. I know who like what, I know how they treated to mods I played, so I know what to expect from a mod when I see reviews about it.
To make things clear, I give good scores to maps with a high quality level design, interesting story, new gameplay elements, scary moments, and/or atmosphere. That’s what I expect and that’s what you should expect from my reviews.
PS : One more thing, people don’t make mods to make other people happy. They do because they like it. Believe me, for most level designers creating their own levels is much more fun then playing other maps. Consider that.
Very nicely put Clunkfish. How true.
While the map has some features to it’s discredit these are well outnumbered by features to it’s credit. There is a depth of thought and design here that many are missing.
To me, it’s about how you play it. The first time I played it I wasn’t that keen. It was only on the second play that I saw the author’s intent and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I found using the “roof” tops was a critical inclusion, otherwise why are they there. All the Antlion Guards can be avoided but I did take out a couple just for the pleasure.
I have to agree with CivanT here. Any mapper who only looks at the recommendation images to determine how their work was received is ultimately going to fail at what they do. A good mapper is going to look at the actual written reviews and filter out simple detracting opinion from honest and constructive criticism.
Recommendation images are for the people who are looking for mods to play. Setting up a mod as “play it now” when it doesn’t deserve it is only going to raise people’s hopes and make it all the more unlikely that the mod or map will live up to their expectation, which will only increase the negative opinion of it.
There’s no way for any individual to be completely accurate in reviewing a mod with the idea of taking “everyone’s” opinion into account, so the only effective solution is for everyone to give as completely accurate review of their own individual tastes and preferences. If everyone does that, then when all those reviews are gathered together (as what is done on PP.com already) then those reviews as a whole will be the most accurate review possible for “everyone”
I very nearly gave this review an avoid it myself, but found the concept of not having the weapons you needed simply handed to you, the constant climbing instead of working across a flat surface, and general mazelike aspect to be unique. So I gave it a Maybe, but I also recognize that there are people who would not be interested in these aspects, which would likely make their reaction to it as that of “avoid it”
it’s good that we get a cross section of views posted here on pp, and long may it remain so. People’s expressed opinion is not the main problem here; it’s always the rating system that generates the heat.
Sometime I feel there is not enough respect shown for other views and too often some postings get personal in their critical comments on other reviews and reviewers, I may just include myself here, lets remember what the purpose of the posting are for, to aid others, give constructed comment and where possible feed back to the author. The fact that you do not agree with someone else’s expressed views or rating is only secondary, yes, I realize it can lead to good debate but what you think of so and so comments or ratings aren’t that important or that helpful to others.
To often the posting have been used to launch an attack on another posting, we should respect more the opinion of others, and if others are expressing the opposite view then this is fine as long as it’s backed up with constructed opinion. For sure if someone posts a negative and maybe damaging review without constructive reasons why, then we should be questioning the reviewer, but to challenge a review just because you don’t agree with its assessment which leads to more of an attack on the author of the posting is serving no purpose.
Yes I tend to agree with Mel – I have no problem with people either loving or hating a mod, that’s up to them. However, “Avoid It” is a very blunt put-down. Perhaps “Not My Cup Of Tea” would better express the negative opinion? It’s still worth having “Avoid It” for those (thankfully few) mods that should never have been released, but saying that a mod is not your thing is more allowing of other points of view and less of a kick in the teeth for the author.
I still think that Sphere is nowhere near an “Avoid It”. This rating really ought to be reserved for mods that are doomed from the off; one or two rooms with a couple of enemies, no story or atmosphere, usually just a first go at producing something by a beginner. To put Sphere with those doesn’t make sense to my mind.
Whilst I completely disagree with an Avoid It! for this mod, I have to respect a readers opinion. I would have hope that the lowest this one received was Think Twice but sometimes a mod comes along that really divides opinion and this is one of those.
For the game to get started for me, I had to go right because there was a wall on my left. The squad didn’t follow me, but I didn’t care because most of the time they’re more trouble than they’re worth. Go right, turn corner and walk a few steps, see the antlion guard, go “oh sh*t” and run back the way I came. By that time, the wall had disappeared and the squad was fighting Combine. I let them shoot at each other for a bit, then grabbed a weapon and joined in.
At first there’s really no scarcity of weapons or ammo. You grab a shotgun and pulse rifle from the first Combine/squad battle and almost all the Combine you encounter use AR2s, so there’s plenty of ammo refills. I even went through the entire map and killed everything, and still had guns laying all over the place because I didn’t need the ammo. (It does get more scarce further on in the map, though. But there’s at least one ammo station in each section–if you want to travel the distance to get to it.)
What I absolutely hated about this map was the song. I don’t mind the song, actually, but to have a 3 minute speed metal (or whatever) song play every time I reload a save is really annoying. That’s 3 minutes that I can’t hear enemies… (I finally ended up loading, then pausing the game ’til the song finished; though deleting it would have been faster.)
I didn’t have any lagging or crashes on my 5-year-old computer, so I don’t know what caused that for other people. I did get a lot of “Overflowed CClientRenderables List” errors.
I don’t know what the deal is with the ghostly enemies–I’ve come across it in other maps, but there I know it was intentional.
There are several ways to play this, though I don’t know if I’ll replay it again. This time I went through the whole map–at the end there was one antlion guard alive above ground. Next time I could bypass the towers and jump the fence. Or I could find the shortest path onto the roofs and ignore distant enemies.
The fact is that the map looks bad, plays bad, it’s boring and repetitive, optimization is out of the question if you have a mid range machine don’t even try running, it I bet it’ll run poorly as hell. The only interesting thing here was the tower game play which as almost everything in this map if it were done properly would have been great, but it gets insanely boring after 10 floors of going up and making a left turn, thank god for the elevator in the second tower. The driving sections were totally out of place and second was down right awful. The ending segment was on par with the rest of the low quality of the level, and the final puzzle was somewhat OK. I’d say don’t bother with it.
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Dangerously enticing map!