Wake up. Take a shower.
Go down the elevator and take the green truck to work.
Oh BOY! Things just took a turn for the worst.
Don’t let those pesky aliens or army grunts stand in your way!
Basic Details
- Title: Alternative Way Part 1
- File Name: hl1-sp-alternative-way-part-1.7z
- Original File Name: ALTWAY.part1.rar and ALTWAY.part2.rar
- Size : 5.97MB
- Author: Andrei Pavlov
- Date Released: 04 March 2004
PlanetPhillip Download Servers
Installation Instructions
- Copy the dmod folder into your Half-Life folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Alternative Way Part 1 should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
Screenshots
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Reader Recommendations
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 3 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 42 Mins
Shortest: 1 Hours by Avantgarde95
Longest: 2 Hours, 5 Mins by Stef
Total Time Played: 5 Hours, 5 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 42 Mins
Shortest: 1 Hours by Avantgarde95
Longest: 2 Hours, 5 Mins by Stef
Total Time Played: 5 Hours, 5 Mins
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This was a better mod than the first 5 minutes lead you to believe. Honestly, I don’t really know why modders create these apartments for players to start in. There never really well done, make no difference to the actual mod itself and just waste time.
Better to have another tram ride in my humble opinion.
Anyway….
Once things got started proper the quality improved. In fact, the mod seems to have a gentle quality curve all the way through.
There were some nice set pieces and the difficulty level was just right for me. I did scratch my head a few times wondering what to do, but that’s half the fun.
Lovers of Black Mesa should enjoy this as will most lovers of HL.
Go play it.
Ah! a pleasant break from HQ! Looks like BM and fun to play!
Phillip you must have been disappointed when you thought you were going to get your train/tram ride and it was not to be! and I bet you thought the scientist would open the train/tram door!
This was a slow build up to the action, but worth the wait, the parts with the alien controllers and snark’s were a bit of a pain, but overall the balance of combat was just about right for me.
As for looks, it for the most part felt like BM, which is what I like in a HL1 mod.
Now I will reveal that I found something and I would be interested to know if others found it. It gives you an unfair advantage and I suspect it is something the author used during testing and forgot to disable in the finished product? I am not going to say what it is and I’m not going to put it in a spoiler as it would ruin the experience for those who don’t find it. I’ve tried other maps and mods and it only works on this one! The mod stands on it’s own with or without it, BUT if you find it, please just indicate you have, don’t spoil it for others.
I now await part 2.
Alas, there is no part 2, at least to my knowledge. He never made or released it.
I can’t imagine what you mean here. Unless you’re talking about the binds in the author’s config.cfg (which I always delete before starting a mod)? The only odd one I see is the fov bound to mouse wheel up/down which would probably allow you to zoom with any weapon.
The zoom was there, but a press of a single key gives you “impulse 101” !!!
Well I always have a key bound to impulse 101. π
Although instead of removing that bind, the author should not include config.cfg in the download package – that way HL just uses each player’s keybinds from the valve folder when the mod is started instead of people having to rebind the keys.
The training course here is designed to turn us into aces of Half-Life: there are few hard combat situations, and in the end there is a warehouse which offers a choice from different variants: you can spawn any of three types of enemies and defeat each of them or spawn two or all three types at once. This might be an interesting field for experimentation for some players.
Now, on to the mod itself. The flat that we start in has clip brushes meant to prevent us from noticing that there is no ground outside, but it is still noticeable if you jump in front of the window. You can also notice that through the exit door at the first floor. That is my only complaint. Otherwise, I enjoyed the first map.
The car with alarm is a nice touch. The next scene looks nice, car ride cutscene is spectacular. But if we look through the blockage, we will see a black wall. Another hypocrisy. Soon we find broken rails, but it’s possible to jump through them. There, beautiful sparks fall from the walls and light the area. But they fall out of nowhere and the tunnel ends with a black wall, so this scene breaks the immersion. I don’t think that it would be so hard to add locked door and put some equipment on the walls to make it more realistic.
We’ll go through various well-made Black Mesa styled areas. There is also some originality in design, which is good. Sometimes it’s possible to notice a couple of minor errors with texturing, z-fighting and too bright lighting, but overall the design is good. The gameplay situations are also very various.
There are some puzzles and some scripted scenes. Some of these scenes were never seen before, for example, moment where the scientist runs from the giant cockroach.
Some areas are confusing: ladder on the pipes on the cliff looks like it’s climbable, but it’s not. Also, when we encounter the helicopters, it’s hard to understand, what are we supposed to do. I destroyed the helicopter in the hangar where the airplane takes off, then couldn’t find a way to move the box which is blocking the way. I tried to exit the hangar and died from unknown cause! I eventually had to noclip through that box.
The ending is nice.
Overall, it’s a good mod, but it suffers from small flaws that could be easily fixed, which is a shame. If these flaws won’t spoil the impression for you, play and enjoy it.
I was stuck there too, and finally found how to proceed. [spoiler]There’s a very non-obvious button on the right wall that shuts the garage door (and kills the Apache if you didn’t shoot it down). If you rush you can get to the button while taking little damage. That blows up the barrels, which sends the far cart careening into the one blocking your path.[/spoiler]
There are some good parts to this but it is lacking in the quality department. You can get to areas where you are not supposed to get to, and other things seemed impossible. Was there a way to get through the crate and into that wall opening? The cart holding the crate wouldn’t move! The instructions went by too fast for me to read them so I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do.
I liked this one, very dynamic and with nice HL style maps, is a fun medium size HL1 mod and it’s a shame we don’t have a 2nd part, maybe after jumping the portal at the end, i’d had love to see a larger mod with mmaybe some xenian maps. overall is a cool mod, and I loved the mounted machine gun as I allways love the new weaponery and mounted MG’s.
I agree in all the suck points at the beggining in that wierd deppartment, it gives u the impression that is a really poor mod at the beggining, but it’s wierd how the deppartment looks like a wierd extention of Black Mesa, even there’s a Barney there, I mean as Phillip said i’d preffered a extended train tram section.
Just a extra observation, I don’t really know why unfinished projects remain the “PART1” on it’s title, it would look more clean if they just change the name to “Alternative Way” and that’s it. If not I hope the author is developing the part 2 but that’s unlikely.
The start was quite nice and the theme/tasks aren’t bad but by far nothing real special or something to remember imo..
It’s cool that there’s a own hazard course and the combat is very good there, especially against those nasty assassins! π
The mod itself is pretty short, but has some nice ideas included such as scripts and puzzles but sometimes things are hard, for example the first Apache.. I didn’t/couldn’t shoot it down so I just left it behind, whatever..
A positive thing is the text infos which makes it easy about what to do but there are also a lil disturbing things like getting stuck somewhere here and there and you have to jump absolutely correct at some spots..
Nonetheless the mod is quite interesting and well-mapped but as I said nothing precious hehe, just a pity there’s no part 2 and never will be (?)
Pro’s:
-Solid leveldesign
-Nice scripted sequences
-Mesa feeling (not everywhere)
-Puzzles
-Lot of ammo, weapons
Con’s:
-Sometimes boring design, always indoor
-Minor getting-stuck issues
-Minor sound issues (Apache? Where? I didn’t hear.. beeeeeeeeeep!)
-Short playtime
-Some mean placed enemies
I’m stuck at screen 21, at the tram. Can’t get the tram to move. How do I get it to work?
The tram doesn’t move at this point. Go back to the lift area. Look carefully for something that might not be quite right. If that doesn’t help, I’ll tell you exactly what to do.
Ok…I see what to do. But if your in the elevator it will hurt. Thanx Phillip.
Stuck again. Screen 51. I tried to get the hanging part of the bridge down by shooting at it, but it won’t come down. Need a little help. Great mod so far.
It doesn’t come done. Think about what you could use before the radioactive liquid rises.
I would have never thought of that but it is dangerous. Have to be very careful. Thanx Phillip. The crate marked “explosive” thing is cute.
(Spoiler)
Every time I try to change the controls and resume gameplay, the game changes them back to the original. I can’t strafe without left or right keys. Can somebody help me?
Have you tried editing the config.cfg file directly?
This pack is definitely better than the first section leads you to believe. I have no idea why the author included such a mundane and boring area, and then made you jump through hoops just to progress to the next section. Ugh.
Thankfully, this turns into a decent Black Mesa themed pack. The architecture is decent and relatively attractive, although you don’t really get the sense of the grandness of Black Mesa. I liked the various “broken” areas – places like collapsed walls or floors that block your progress, or the radioactive goo spills.
There were of course a couple of annoyances. Crates everywhere that are too large for their placement. The Apache situation discussed above – if you do manage to kill it with conventional means, you are still hurt/killed if you try to walk outside there. A couple of getting-stuck issues (especially in the finale area). These should have become obvious during playtesting.
I did like the scripts and the puzzles littered throughout. The scripts brought things to life and a couple brought a smile to my face, particularly the scientist running to his death and one involving a garg. Many of the puzzles, especially in the second half, were pretty clever. I especially liked the huge overhead fan and the couple involving radioactive waste.
Overall it’s probably worth a play if you like Black Mesa packs. It’s not perfect and has a couple issues but overall I think it’s fun.
π
Nice MOD :D.
The beginning is a bit *cough* crappy. The building is improperly made and lots of parts are there where you wonder where the city disappeared off too. But I like the thing about shower, clothing and stuff… It depicts realism :D.
The cutscene of the van could have been better at a better camera angle. And the entrance to black mesa feels…. uhm….. too boring and too blatant. I mean no security guards, no compound shown, etc. And I wonder where those two Turrets cane from o_O.
But now that you go inside and begin the actual gameplay, the MOD slowly builds up in action and quality.
Maps are nicely made though there are some areas which feel plain dumb. Also the facility feels cramped. There are some original ideas used here. And in some parts, you really have to use that stagnant brain of yours ;p. Also the “Fresh Air” section is too small and crappily made >:(.
There are nice cutscenes. The enemies are meanly placed. Playing in the hard difficulty level, I really felt the heat. The MOD is really difficult. There are parts which I had to play over and over again when at last I resorted to explosives and satchels >:D.
Not my personal favourite but I would recommend HL lovers to play this one as soon as possible. Its fun :D.
You should be able to complete this MOD within 4 hrs. I think.
‘Nuff said!
I’m stuck at screen 30 above. I went down in the lift, killed the flying aliens (not with the fixed gun), then tried to open the hangar door with the control at the left side of it. How do I open it? What did I miss? A clue, please.
I’ve enjoyed the mod so far.
If I remember correctly, there’s “something” needed to open this hangar door.
Another hint:
[spoiler]metal[/spoiler]
After replaying it today I have to admit my comment above was about something else a little later in the mod.
So if you really mean the hangar door, it does open just with the door control.
Maybe it’s necessary to kill the flying aliens with the mounted guns before, as I of course used it for killing them.. otherwise try reloading the last autosave.
Played this mod more than once and the did open at all times for me.
I hope that helps a lil Dirk (you German too?)
Thanks for the reply. I’ll try again using the fixed gun, though I think it’s naff that you would have to do that (especially as I wasn’t very good with it!).
Not sure why you think I might be German? I’m English and Dirk is an old nickname.
Hehe okay, thought Dirk is most common here in Germany π
However, good luck trying it out (I do know it doesn’t make sense that the door would only open after using the fixed gun, which does a good job imo)
Maybe your mouse sensibility is a bit too low? (I use some value of 9-11.0)
Killed 5 aliens with the fixed gun and the door opened by itself. Thanks for the help.
Weird bug then lol, glad I could help you out Dirk π
Excellent Black Mesa adventure! No cheats needed, just think & search a bit better.
P. S. Config.cfg is write-protected, so remove Read Only flag in the file’s properties (or just delete it).
Note: THIS IS ACTUALLY MY FIRST RECOMMENDATION, PLEASE BE NICE WITH IT!
This is actually a mod that I really liked! π
First, I didn’t expect that the mod was that good! I thought it was just an average Half-Life mod, but I was wrong! I enjoyed a lot of things about this mod, like the combat, the exploration etc. Though, choosing a Play It Now recommendation doesn’t mean it’s THAT good.
The beginning was crappy. I mean, I liked how the mod tried to show realism, but the apartment you start on is a little shitty, and imo could have been better. Later, a guard tells us to go on a green mini-van. And after doing that, our adventure begins. The van (of course) crashes with a car. The goal of this mod is to simply survive through the enemies, the puzzles and the environment around you.
So that was pretty much the story; but as mentioned earlier, it’s not THAT good. I encountered a big issue when I playing this mod (apart from the apartment) The Apache battles were BAD. Especially the one with the soldier talking to a radio. There is a pretty glitchy mounted gun that is horrible to use and by the time you break the wood that covers it, you will end up DEAD.
So this covers Alternative Way Part 1 (god knows when Part 2 will be released).
This could have been a bit better if it didn’t include the Apache battles or the crappy apartment, and it just lost from posting a Personal Favorite.
Manually
Medium
2 Hours
Good mod. The map looks nice and the combats are good. But I got two issues:
– The key card in the bathroom is invisible so I couldn’t find it before watching the walkthrough.
– In the helicopter scene (some after the key card scene), if I’m outside, the helicopter shoots the rockets so I can’t dodge or return to the door. But there is no autosave in that map, so I just quit playing at that part instead of returning to the previous map.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
The intro didn’t go well for me because it serves no purpose to the mod. Most of the combats are easy except the first helicopter battle, it’s hard to shoot it down when your projectiles fire a straight line. Puzzles are simple and easy to solve, and that’s about it
Indeed, itβs a great mod. The combat is balanced in most areas, and the level design is really good. It has some complex elements, like cutscenes and objectives, that really add to the gameplay. There are good puzzles; some took me a while to solve, but they are really nice, and watching a walkthrough wasnβt necessary. I do recommend you play this mod at least once, or twice, I donβt know :v
Mixed filling playing this one.
The author has certainly aquired a good mapping and programming skill but I have sometime the feeling that this is just a succession of map that make the author able to put in advance what he is able to do
There is no real storlyline, most of the time its simple shoot and think progression but certainly this release show potential and intend to see more from the author
Its still sometime fun to play but can be also sometime frustrating to undertand what to do.
It is certianly worth to give it a try π
Manually
Medium
2 Hours, 5 Minutes