About
You are Gordon Freeman. On your quest to the Lambda lab you find another one of Black Mesa’s nuclear weapon storage facilities. This one is different though; a rogue group of military has stormed the building and plans to detonate the weapon to rid earth of the alien invasion. You, becoming aware of this, must deactivate the nuclear device to save innocent scientists, and to prevent the destruction of Black Mesa’s vast amounts of data, research and information.
Basic Details
- Title: Ground Zero
- File Name: hl1-sp-ground-zero.7z
- Original File Name: gzero.zip
- Size : 2.27Mb
- Author: Derek McBurney AKA Hellfire
- Date Released: 31 October 1999
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 8 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 8 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 38 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 25 Mins by MisterAddy
Longest: 1 Hours by Avantgarde95
Total Time Played: 5 Hours
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 8 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 38 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 25 Mins by MisterAddy
Longest: 1 Hours by Avantgarde95
Total Time Played: 5 Hours
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Gameplay:
A simple episode with a lot of action and some challenging areas with a lot of good ideas throughout, especially the gas room. Plenty of health and ammo, a good enemy balance with a decent storyline.
Design:
Average design throughout, with a few basic areas. Texturing is basic and some bad texture choices through some areas of the mod. Lighting is average and not too over the top.
Conclusion:
A simple episode, not too hard or easy with good ideas throughout, worth your time.
Rating: 70%
Not a must have but worth playing 5-Map piece. Released in HL1s time of prosperity another MP-Mapper shows SP-mapping skill. Also worth playing the second part (for OPFOR).
Since then Hellfire changed to UT2K3/K4 MP mapping,but had also made a DM Map for HL2.
Spoiler Played this a while ago just replayed it fairly good mod but one thing puzzles me at the end when you deactivate the lasers what does that mean.I finished it by going in the duct.
Good game, ending could have been better structured.
I like this mod, it’s a good entertainment.
Good work, allmost.
Interesting maps with basic design but good playable, still nothing special if only the a bit better architecture and lighting.
Pro’s:
-Good design but very basic
-Nice puzzles
-Decent combat
-A few nice scripts
-Lot of ammo, weapons
-Lil barrelride
Con’s:
-Sometimes very poor design
-Mean scripts
-No HEV at start
Just as with Quake II, the Half-Life mapping scene is slowly beginning to split into those levels that follow the original game and mostly stick to its themes and materials and the levels that branch out in their own direction. Examples of the latter so far have been USS Darkstar and, more recently, Redemption. While they were both great, the quality of the regular Half-Life maps has been dramatically lower on average. There have been a few highlights – Dave Water’s maps, for instance – but they’ve generally been pretty poor compared to the standard found in Quake II. This author is evidently aiming to change all that by releasing what is probably the definitive third-party Half-Life-style level to date.
It didn’t start out too well; though the opening scene looked okay, I was immediately wary about what was to come when I fell out of the map a few seconds later. Fortunately things picked up dramatically from then on as Ground Zero presented five hugely enjoyable levels.
For a start, it looks really good. Not the best we’ve seen but of a very high standard throughout with some particular highlights from time to time. There are a couple of mistakes with the texturing and obviously there’s something seriously amiss at the beginning but otherwise this author really hasn’t put a foot wrong. While a lot of the areas will be immediately familiar from the original game or other levels that have come out since, Derek’s talents are plain to see here with some really nice design. All of the levels are lifted by lots of little sequences and set-pieces dotted around the place as well and there really wasn’t a moment when you weren’t doing or watching something. The story is adhered to throughout and even if the new vocals sounded a bit out of place in the Half-Life universe it was still a great effort at presenting a complete package rather than the usual grunt-fest.
Ground Zero also plays as well as it looks. Combat was excellent with some great arenas complimenting the fine enemy placement. The balance between having levels too sparsely populated and having ones that are too overcrowded with bad guys is struck perfectly. Health and items are distributed a bit too generously but it still wasn’t that easy and will keep you entertained for a good hour or so.
It may not quite be the perfect Half-Life level but Ground Zero is still a top-notch piece of mapping, especially when you bear in mind that this is Derek’s first single-player release. The ending is pretty disappointing after the sections that have gone before but that’s really the only significant issue in the whole unit. If you’re not all Half-Life’d out after Redemption then this is thoroughly recommended.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Monday, 1st November, 1999 by Morgan.
This review was originally posted on the Ten Four Website, which is now offline. Permission has been granted to republish the full review and more details can be found on the About page.
This is an enjoyable mod for HL1 whit a Black mesa classic style feeling, that BM environment and atmosphere I think is well handed throughout the entire levels or maps of this mod.
Is short medium lenght and is pefect for a HL1 30 minutes break, the combat in it is perfect and the voice acting introduced is just perfect to tell a basic story into a mod, the plot is simple: go and avoid BM explodes!, so u have to deactivate a bomb the HECU soldiers have set up, nice and simple.
Overall an entretaining mod, which I wonder why, this mod was abscent in the HL1 100 days of nostalgia, maybe Phillip missed it, I don’t know but here we have a small nice basic mod.
Manually
Easy
35 Minutes
A decent and relatively short pack of maps from the early days of Half-Life (1999). It’s a little uneven, especially in the mapping, but overall it’s fairly fun. I did experience a mysterious crash in the first 5 minutes, but I just reloaded Half-Life and it wasn’t repeatable.
Ground Zero includes some reasonable custom voices for the scientists and Barney that convey your objectives as you go along. It’s a passable story involving a nuke that you have to find and disarm. There are a couple minor puzzles along the way including a barrel ride on a radioactive river, and even a visit to Xen which is actually done pretty well here.
Overall I found this pack way too easy (except the last map or so) because there are double chargers frequently and plenty of weapons and ammo (including the tau cannon). I’d crank the difficulty up if you play this.
It’s a fun time but not really outstanding.
Manually
Medium
30 Minutes
Hmm, not too sure about this one. The combat is fairly enjoyable and you face a variety of foes in different layouts, but that alone is not enough to make a mod worthwhile. Graphically the mod isn’t that great, most environments are very blocky or simplified, although some are better than others.
Around the middle of the mod there is a nice Xen interlude, which was probably the best part as the mapping was less blocky and there were some more interesting design ideas. Even then the gameplay was not very challenging, and there is nothing really in the way of puzzles. There is something of a plot delivered via some iffy custom voices, that set up a brief timed ending sequence. However this too was let down by the basic level design.
All in all I did have fun playing it and it’s hardly a bad mod, but I don’t think Ground Zero does anything to make it worth recommending, especially with so many hundreds of alternatives.
Manually
Easy
25 Minutes
This one is a short, but very fun mod, it has few good ideas sprinkled through it too, like taking a ride in a barrel over a river of toxic waste, the only problem would be the ending which was pretty sudden, but I still like how it forces you to stop taking it slow killing one enemy at a time and makes you run for it before the times runs up
Overall, is worth a shot, and even if you don’t like it, it is pretty short so you can finish it in no time
Manually
Medium
40 Minutes
This one is a short, but very fun mod, it has few good ideas sprinkled through it too, like taking a ride in a barrel over a river of toxic waste, the only problem would be the ending which was pretty sudden, but I still like how it forces you to stop taking it slow killing one enemy at a time and makes you run for it before the times runs up
Overall, is worth a shot, and even if you don’t like it, it is pretty short so you can finish it in no time
Manually
Medium
40 Minutes
Good mod. I like the surprises (ex. Soldiers after getting the HEV suit). The design of the map and the combats is very good. Fading out after disarming the nuclear bomb is not bad, but it would be better if the mod automatically exits to the main menu after fading out.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
You can beat on any difficulty level, it’s well balanced
The first soldier might be the nightmare on hard but there’s a trick. Let him see you and he becomes mad placing grenades until blow himself. Easy MP-5 for you. I hope you can open the path in the installations through marines and aliens. It is about trial and commiting mistakes until finding the correct action for every situation. I pretty happy how well this mod can be completed by using the propest weapon in every situation. It gave the sensation that the author calculated every situation correctly. It’s not a maze, it’s not an impossible battlefield, it’s just tactics.
Manually
Hard
35 Minutes
I believe Ground Zero is one of the first Half-Life mods that I ever played. It was certainly the first one to include custom voice lines and that was mind blowing to me at the time.
Coming back to it today, I find myself somewhat divided. This is one of the earliest released map packs for Half-Life, so the author created this entire thing, likely only having Worldcraft’s built in tutorials to guide them. Certainly not a robust guide. It’s interesting seeing the same mistakes that newcomers to Goldsource are making today, 25 years later.
Things such as consistency with breakable crate and windows, being unable to shoot through transparent surfaces like railings and fences and the worst offender, a lack of show, don’t tell. There are multiple occasions when you will find a solution to a blockade before you find the blockade. You find a console, hit a button which sometimes is indistinguishable from the console and get a text prompt stating “Forcefield deactivated” or “Lazer grid offline.” This can be jarring when you’ve stumbled upon neither of these things and you pass through the rest of the level unhindered. Quite unsatisfying.
Otherwise, some puzzles are far too vague. Something such as shooting four lights on Xen to open up a cave mouth. Once you’ve done that even one time, you start to question the level designer’s logic. You find yourself shooting otherwise innocuous objects whenever you find yourself at a dead end.
In spite of all that, this is a pleasure to play through again after however many years it has been, but with the level design experience I have attained over the last two decades, it would be remiss of me to not point out some of the huge flaws this pack has.
Manually
Medium
35 Minutes