City 17 Episode 1 is a mod that is slowly evolving into something that will amaze and surprise you.
I only cover a few In Development mods and am pleased that Gear, the team behind the mod, have agreed to work closely with me.
I have some media and an audio interview for you, so read on and enjoy!
- Overview
- Action Panoramic: 11 December 2009
- Screenshots: 10 December 2009
- 3 Music Tracks: 09 December 2009
- Screenshots: 08 December 2009
- Audio Interview: 07 December 2009
- Exclusive Beta Preview May 2008
- Beta Preview Screenshots May 2008
- Media January 2008
A mod spanning across the entire Half-Life universe. You take on the role of Jack, a rebel who along with his friend were assigned on a mission in City 17. The goal of this project was to give a different perspective on the war, as perceived through the eyes of a rebel, running in parallel with Gordon’s progress along the main Half-Life story. The mod is planned to be spread into three episodes, touching on the events from all of the Half-Life 2 episodes.
“So far, my goal is getting as many citizens out of the city and in to safety as possible. Yet we’ve been running into constant Combine reinforcements, Striders everywhere, and more zombies than I can count. Only two of us were assigned this mission and hopefully we can accomplish it. If we don’t then we’re all dead. Right now I’m in a lone room, Striders roaming outside and closing in but I’ll make it out of here; just have to fight them off…”
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Please Note: Panoramic images only are available in full screen mode. You can either open one by click the image link above or by saving it to your computer and then opening it.
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.
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Today I present 3 tracks from the mod. Each image links to a compressed folder containing all three. Copyright applies to each track.
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I was lucky enough to get the Gear team online and chatted with them. We talk about the mod, its evolution, Maxsi Distribution System and a whole lot more.
It’s only available as a download so that it doesn’t crash my server – Sorry Stream lovers.
Audio Interview with the Gear team about City17: Episode 1. It is 35Mb compressed file with a 41Mb MP3 inside.
In May 2008, I got to play a beta preview version.
Now, as with all betas, there are a few areas that need improvement but the version I played is the latest version and also about 80% finished. With this amount finished it’s clear to see where the developers are aiming for in terms of quality and gameplay style and also to see whether there are close to achieving that.
I just want to say one thing before I continue…This is without doubt one of the best mods I have ever played, even in its unfinished state. I stopped because I was enjoying it so much. I hate playing mods twice and decided that as much as I wanted to continue I shouldn’t because then I would have trouble playing the finished version.
Now, regular readers should know that I NEVER replay mods, never. It’s not because I hated them, it’s because I just don’t enjoy doing it. Therefore please understand that stopping playing the mod is a compliment, not an insult. If I wasn’t loving playing I would have simply finished and saved myself the trouble of playing it when it is finally released.
The start is both dramatic and challenging which is nice to see instead of the usual simple room fade in. All the environments are very detailed both architecturally and gameplay wise. In fact the style of levels I played are exactly the types of levels I enjoy.
There was no custom voice acting included in the beta I played but I am told this will be added soon Other new elements will including a new HUD and some animation I believe.
I really wanted to include some panoramic shots and perhaps even a short movie of the gameplay but I don’t want to give too much away.
You find yourself in the ruins of City 17, obviously, and this provides plenty of cover but also some unexpected surprises regarding the location of the Combine. The lighting is almost perfect with areas neither too bright nor too dark.
I only encountered one puzzle but it fit perfectly with the setting and rather than seeming like an after thought, as so many puzzles are, it was a natural inclusion.
Gameplay was balance between frantic and controlled, and I never felt it was too easy or too hard. A couple of times the enemy just looked at me but to be honest I quite enjoy walking up to them and sending them to a heaven of their choice.
At each level change I kept saying, “Okay, stop now before you spoil it for yourself” and each time I replied “Just a bit more”.
Once this is released (And before you ask, no I don’t know exactly when it will be released) players will be in for a very pleasant surprise. (Well maybe not now that I have told you how good it is!) Mods like this come along once or twice a year and with Strider Mountain and Combine Destiny 2 due soon we could be in for a great early summer.
The only decision you’ll have to make is which to play first!
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Ahhh yes 🙂
I first saw this mod some time ago. It looks beautiful, can’t wait to play it!
i think I beta tested this a long time ago! 😀
Looks interesting, hope it gets finnished! Good looking screen shots!
Hey thanks guys, glad you really like it!
does look indeed great, and for sure I want to play this one when its out.
success releasing it, I know how much time and effort such abig project takes!!!
leon(SPY-maps)
sorry for the double posting, but I wanted to add that I also have played this one a very long time ago, (only after looking carefully at the screens I remembered all to well the difficultie I had getting out of the carparking garage. it’s indeed a great mod, but thought it was already long ago released. gess Cubedude is right, that will have been a beta version we played.
leon
played this back in october alot of fun ,might be time to try it again.
Thats kinda odd how you guys played it already…..lol, but thats fine! I do remember Cubedude, and also Leon, but not Bkadar. However, though From what you guys said, the mod has went through a complete overhaul, so all the levels you guys went through, are now gone. They were simply like layouts, for what these maps have become, so they’ve been improved vastly, and still are being improved until release! It’s a long process, yes, but it makes the gameplay, much more of an higher quality.
I have been keeping an eye on this one for. Looking forward to the release.
i’m surpriced to hear that you have changed so many maps so much, and that when I had clearly the idea that I was already then playing finished mod instead of a beta one.
so I will play for sure the new version, am very interested to see what you have improved all.
success,
leon
got it from mod bd,or a hl2.net link I think, gonna try an find the file.
well this one seems familiar my origional back up files dont open(not much of a back up)but found some I thought was this one one the webs but I think the names a re sim but thats all, the listing was in a diff language,sooo lets (me)play the right one .
not thinkin of cite 17 are ya? that was a french mod the guy never finished.
I’ve just added 4 exclusive screenshots.
Thanks Phil. Yeah there was a French Mod called that, also another mod Called City 17, but to differentiate them, the mod has the EP1 title to it, which makes sense anyways sense were going with three episodes to continue right with Half Life 2.
Bah! I haven’t finished the cluster of mods I’m still currently in the middle of. I’m never going to finish before Christmas at this rate.
Is this out yet?
No, that’s why the page is called Pre-Release.
To me, this is definitely *the* mod to keep an eye on. Let’s hope the gameplay is up to the same quality as the graphics. Love the volumetric lighting effects!
Great interview Phillip, as always. Nice shots too, looking forward to the release of City17. And I have to say I have used older version of Maxsi’s distribution whit the Altered Transmission mod. Works really good, although I had some issues when I switched to Win7.
Maxsi Distribution will support Win7 in the next release. Possibly related to me switching to Win7 Ultimate x64. So that’s 64-bit support too!
Pingback: Episode #60 » Podcast17
Three music tracks added. Give them a listen!
this all looks awesome… but I have one major concern… and that is I hope they don’t use that “Devil’s Mutton Chops” song for anything other than credits.
I am a fervent metal head, but that song is just obnoxious… I had hoped musically they would stay with the Half – Life theme.
I agree, I really don’t care for it myself.
Action Panoramic added.
Nice update.
I find the Panoramic a bit hard to navigate, but this and the recent moddb post has got me excited about this mod again.
Still have to finish the listening to the interview, though.
What part of navigating the panoramic is giving you trouble?
Perhaps It’s just not intuitive to me.
It seems a bit slow the respond, doing nothing one moment and than flying around. Probably takes some getting used to.
Might be your system, becuase it should be very smooth. Please try downloading it and viewing it that way.
Pingback: City 17: Episode 1 | .kave
Just listened to the inteview, nice stuff mate. Very interesting to hear about the technical improvements and I already love it.
But Phillip, next time you need to speak louder, compared to your guests you were quite silent, couldn’t hear much.
And don’t forget to try Warsow! 😀
http://www.warsow.net/
I spoke louder than anybody, the software recorded me much lower though.
Pingback: Episode #61 » Podcast17
I spotted this little gem at Moddb which I haven’t seen here at PP:
“Revamped Healing System
To help convey that the player is an everyday rebel, and not the indestructable and unstoppable Gordon Freeman, we’ve implemented a revamped healing system that we believe will add extra challenge and planning to gameplay, as well as give a use for those pesky spare medical supplies.
The system works by allowing players to carry up to 3 spare medkits. At any time, the player can use a medkit by pressing the heal button they have assigned to the keyboard. When this is done, a short but unskipable healing animation plays from the first person perspective. This healing animation could involve anything from bandaging a wound to pulling a bullet out of your body, depending on the damage you’ve taken since you last healed. Over the course of this relatively short animation, the player gradually heals up to 30 HP. Let us know how you feel about this system, either by comment or by email.”
Sounds great, if a little gory!
Heh heh, still no release, I am honestly not surprised, they have been working only on the “coding” for years now…
This reminds me: what happened to the in dev new section of the site?
I closed it because it wasn’t working out as planned. Essentially, people were supposed to update the pages themselves, like they do on ModDB but never did. I would like to have something like it on the site, but I can’t do it myself.