For Valentine’s Day, Map Labs announced a short mapping challenge. This one was a Test Tube, which means it only ran for a few days instead of the typical 3 weeks.
The theme was to make a map featuring a companion or sidekick character. Bonus challenge for creating the map with a companion as well!
The challenge recieved 7 entries and 1 bonus map, here they are!
- Title: Companion Piece
- Filename: sdk-2013-sp-mlc-companionpiece.7z
- Size : 197 MB
- Author: The_GuardianTM, White_Red_Dragons, Matt71490 AKA Event Horizon, Steven Cabbage, Jean Knapp aka XBLAH, Aleksandr Lavrinovitš aka alex_mmc, 1UpD, Tiop, Dave, PineappleSurprise, David Driver-Gomm, Kralich, JanKaszanka, Aran
- Date Released: 26 February 2019
Sorry, this version cannot be used with Gauge.
- Make sure you have the Upcoming branch of the Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer installed in Steam and run at least once. (Properties – Betas – select upcoming from the dropdown list).
- Copy the “companionpiece” folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Companion Piece should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you decide to use the Per-Map Opinion Images, please either watch the video below or use the file below:
CompanionPiece-Review-Template.txt
Thank you.
Listed as they are displayed in the mod itself:
Carnival Wanderlust by The_GuardianTM and White_Red_Dragons
Mapper’s Block by Matt71490 AKA Event Horizon
Hazardous Route by Steven Cabbage
Kraken by Jean “XBLAH” Knapp and Aleksandr “alex_mmc” Lavrinovitš
The Hatchling by 1UpD, Tiop, and Dave
Roller Mill by PineappleSurprise
Crate Expectations by David Driver-Gomm and Kralich
A Map with No Name by JanKaszanka and Aran (bonus map)
Time for you to share your thoughts! Vote for your top 3 Companion Piece maps. Poll closes 15th March 2019.
Which 3 Companion Piece maps are your favorites?
- Crate Expectations by David Driver-Gomm and Kralich (5%, 4 Votes)
- Roller Mill by PineappleSurprise (15%, 12 Votes)
- The Hatchling by 1UpD, Tiop, and Dave (22%, 17 Votes)
- Kraken by Jean "XBLAH" Knapp and Aleksandr "alex_mmc" Lavrinovitš (26%, 20 Votes)
- Hazardous Route by Steven Cabbage (17%, 13 Votes)
- Mapper's Block by Matt71490 AKA Event Horizon (8%, 6 Votes)
- Carnival Wanderlust by The_GuardianTM and White_Red_Dragons (8%, 6 Votes)
Total Voters: 34
Loading ...WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Each map has 5 screenshots. Thanks to ArctixSnowPup for providing the screenshots!
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1,876Overall
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0Today
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2Last 7 days
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12Last 30 days
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108365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 6 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 21 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 34 Mins by JetBlueChest
Longest: 3 Hours by KILLER_9639
Total Time Played: 8 Hours, 4 Mins
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
I love the atmosphere that the author created. But the map turned out to be boring and uninteresting. I could not finish this map because I could not enter the access code in the secret room. And the companion was not very interesting. But it worth playing.
This is really a creative map.There is a little crazy combat at the end. The author even recorded his voice for the map. I can’t describe everything here so I highly recommend playing this map.
It was very interesting to making this map. I’m lucky that the challenge started at the beginning of my school holidays. But setting up the NPC was very hard because of his autistic behavior.
Well, what can I say about this map? It deserved the first place, didn’t it? Making a headcrab companion is a very interesting decision. But the combat at the end looks a little boring. Anyway it worth playing.
The authors made a rather large map and they had to spend a lot of time on it, I guess. But the companion turned out disgustingly useless and silent. In any case, the map is interesting and creative.
The companion turned out a interesting. But as for me, level design of this map is cheap and boring. Anyway I recommend this map.
I love the humour of this map. But puzzles are very easy and cheap. The end was good. In my opinion the companion is nice.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
There is a note about the closure of the carnival in one of the room. The key code is there
I tried to enter the code but it showed me error. I used noclip to go through the door.
Regarding to what is been said:
If you enter the code wrong, the keypad will glitch and you will have to restart the map
The code is a 4 numbers pass.
In the note there is a date. This is the code. It worked for me (on the third door)
There is a stream of companion piece and other challenges on my twitch channel.
https://www.twitch.tv/stevencabbage/video/388463246
This one had a really good atmosphere and some decent visuals, but the gameplay was rather dull. The companion you get is a Combine Scanner. I didn’t know this at first and just walked past the thing the first time I encountered it. Later I thought that maybe the Scanner was the companion. I went back to where I first saw it and it wasn’t there and I had to restart the map.
Actually, this whole map is beatable without the Scanner. The only thing it does is point a light at something which is not that hard to spot, and open a door for you (which you can actually open regardless of the Scanner being there).
The “puzzle” with the door code was a bit frustrating to figure out. It’s not very likely that players will think as detectives when playing a map.
I like maps with a bit of an absurd theme. This map accomplishes that but not much else. The gameplay starts out ok enough, but when you reach the area it’s just shoot-a-bunch-of-things and after a little while the map ends.
Your companion here is a weird machine-thing-guy, apparently representing the creator of the map. It’s short, it’s a bit bland, and I expected better from Matt, who has released some great entries for other challenges.
This was a decent entry. Visuals were good. Gameplay and combat fell a bit short in a few places though.
Firstly, the puzzle at the start with the orange valve. I saw I needed it, and I saw that I needed three batteries to open a gate. I thought the valve would be behind the gate, and that I needed to find a way to open it. After walking around for a while, I eventually found the valve just lying in a corner behind some boxes. Not a great first impression.
There is some zombie combat, which didn’t entirely work because sometimes my companion (which is a rebel, by the way) would suddenly stop doing anything and would just walk around the enemies.
The first Combine combat was a bit too sudden, throwing six Metrocops at once at you, four of which right in front of you. After this there is a section with a Sniper and a Metrocop with a turret. This was quite annoying as the Metrocop starts shooting at you if you are only slightly within line of sight.
The final part with the combat was also too dull. The enemies stand about 100 metres away from you, and with a turret with a lot of bullet spread this is quite annoying.
All in all I would say this was an enjoyable entry, but it has some obvious flaws.
Very long and enjoyable entry, but sadly it falls flat on quite some points. Firstly, the map looks more like it was optimized for visuals rather than gameplay. There are a lot of open areas, so the combat usually revolves around peeking behind a corner.
The map is just too dark at some spots. Not in the sense of it being atmospheric or anything, but just hindering your sight. Best example of this would be the cylinder-shaped “tower” section, where there are some Soldiers with AR2’s on multiple stories, who can see you clearly, but you can’t see them at all without the flashlight on, which doesn’t shine very far.
This entry has some poor prop placement. I noticed a lot of things like pipes and doors not being alligned, and that wasn’t even when I was looking for it, it’s that obvious at times.
The part where you are chased by the Ichthyosaur didn’t really work because you can easily jump over the trigger which starts the event, and just walk calmly through the area.
At the end I was very confused where to go and what to do. I noclipped out and flew around to see where I was supposed to go. Turns out you had to run THROUGH THE FIRE and turn right into a hallway, which can VERY easily be missed.
For the companion theme, this entry had Alyx. She disappears somewhere in the map and appears later, which I liked.
Loved this entry. It has a very unique companion: a headcrab. This headcrab helps you with multiple things, combat, progressing through the map, etc.
This entry is hillarious without any word being said. I laughed my ass off when the headcrab sat down in the little basket. There are a lot of funny and great things which I won’t spoil.
Only real weak point I can find is the final battle not being that great, but I still didn’t find it that bad.
This entry does everything this challenge wants mappers to do. It won for a reason.
This entry uses a companion which I have always found criminally underused: friendly Combine Rollermines. I really love how this is used here. It allows for some puzzle solving and assists you with combat, but most of the time it doesn’t assist you enough to the point where you don’t have to do anything.
Only weak points I can think of are the visuals, which sometimes didn’t look THAT well but were mostly good, and that sometimes progresing really just revolves around throwing the Rollermine in a vent and waiting.
This entry’s companion is a box with a smiley painted on, who can talk. You use him to solve puzzles and somewhat help in combat. The puzzles are nothing special, and some of them can be cheated. The crate also kind of helps you in the first combat encounters, acting as cover and something you can throw in Soldier’s faces. I only really needed him the first encounter, as after that you have enough ammo to shoot and don’t really have to use the box anymore.
One of the things that bothered me was that when a save is reloaded, the voice lines at the beginning start playing again, and it’s really annoying.
This entry had some potential, but it mostly falls flat.
This entry starts out pretty good but it goes downhill faster than a one night stand with a cactus.
The map starts with a good setting and some good gameplay, but after that there is a fight with a zombie of some sort. It’s only one zombie, but it can take a about hundred shotgun shells before it dies. This fight is so incredibly tedious and boring, and the map is over after this.
As for the companion part, it’s just Barney. He doesn’t say or do anything special.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Well, alrighty, the Third Map Labs is here. Let’s see how it stacks up to the rest.
This map started out pretty nice. Atmosphere was spot-on, giving off the definite feeling of abandonment and has a nice eerie feel to it. My issue with it is that in terms of gameplay, it’s basically nonexistent. You flip a switch, find a keycode and open a door. That’s it.
It felt like there was supposed to be buildup to something, but it’s just some message about breakups leading to suicide? Felt a little heavy-handed. The companion was okay, but the flashing was quite annoying.
Yes, it’s a more joke-y map, like “The Creator”, but like that map, it’s just too random and stupid for my liking, plus the amount of ammo you get is really, really low. Voiceover wasn’t absolutely terrible, but there’s nothing really of note here overall.
And then we have Freeman and Bo-… wait, wrong challenge. But yes, this is essentially the same concept as that really nice bonus map, but done slightly worse. Considering the time-frame though, it’s honestly really good. Aside from some finicky pathing, I really had no problems with the companion.
Though I will say, that defense section at the end was baaaaad. Like, you’re essentially trying to snipe white dots with a machine gun, since they seemingly won’t come any closer. Overall, not a bad experience though, definitely one of the better maps that sticks to the theme.
Speaking of maps not sticking to the theme, we have Kraken, a really, really good map considering the timeframe, but really doesn’t stick to the theme at all aside from a small section with a hacked rollermine.
Hell, for 2/3rds of the map, Alyx isn’t even there. Disappointing on that front. On everything else though, it’s great. I’ve never, ever seen a map try to do a recreation of Kraken Base. The aesthetics throughout the map were quite unique, balancing between areas similar in aesthetics to HL1 to some industrial sections which remind me heavily of the sewer section from L4D2’s “The Passing”.
Overall, despite it not really fitting the theme of the competition, probably still the best map here. Well done.
One of the more unique companion-based maps, this features you teaming up with a newly hatching Headcrab to leave a set of caves. Firstly, oh my god, i’d never thought i’d see a parasite be this cute. Seeing them in that little crate was just adorable. Otherwise, the map’s pretty good. Headcrab’s a little slow, but generally the puzzles were fun, as was the final battle.
Your companion’s fairly useful throughout, whether to progress or to act as a meatshield. Definitely a good one overall.
Now this is how you use a companion, puzzles, attacks, simply chucking them at people, always useful throughout. While the visuals were lacking, it made it up in gameplay. Definitely one of my favorite entries.
Also known as “No expectations”. It’s a set of puzzle rooms featuring a heavy, annoying crate. Puzzles are repeated numerous times throughout, sometimes with no variation at all. While it uses the companion heavily, the quality of the map isn’t that high, and I found the companion not enjoyable in the least.
This is the only map that made me go “Huh?”
It’s a simple door-opening section followed by the worst boss i’ve seen. One that takes obscene amounts of ammo to kill, and can be conquered by standing on a console. While it has more actualy gameplay than, say “Carnival Wanderlust”, it lacks atmosphere or, really, anything. Definitely one of the weakest entries besides “Mapper’s Block”.
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Overall, this competition went way better than I expected it to, considering the timeframe. If I had to choose a winner, it’s probably be either Roller Mill, Hazardous Course, or The Hatchling. While Kraken was great, it just didn’t fit the competition that much.
I enjoyed this quite a bit, and I’m definitely gonna’ keep out an eye for more of these in the future.
Completely agree about Mappers Block. I couldn’t think of any other ideas so I just went with the first one that came to mind (hence the name). I was really close to not entering it at all but I still did despite my better judgement. Tried putting more effort into the presentation & visuals of the map than I did with The Creator, but it still turned out kinda ugly. In regards to the ammo, you originally got much more, but I had used “impulse 101” which I forgot doesn’t work without sv_cheats enabled.
Under Linux every Map is playable, only the last one is broken. Barney does nothing. So i got stuck at a locked door (with Dr. Kleiner behind the door, i nocliped…) And nothing happens…
Linux is also my OS of choice. Thanks for the input on which entries worked. I have been playing with “wine” (actually PlayOnLinux) with very few problems. I gave up on native linux because often the mods failed. Do you have some tips or tricks (such as lower casing all the text in gameinfo.txt, etc.) that you use with linux? Distribution?
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And to all of the mod contribitors and site managers out there: Thank you again for the enjoyment you have given us!
Carnival Wanderlust
good Atmosphere but the companion was a combine scanner, i hate combine scanners and he helped you like once, also it was very short.
Mapper’s Block
custom enemies and the companion was the mapper himself.
Hazardous Route
the AI is not that good but there is a gnome so it’s good.
Kraken
oh how far XBLAH has fallen.
The Hatchling
i got to carry around a headcrab in a plastic crate, mod of the year.
Roller Mill
i hate roller mines, but this one was cool
Crate Expectations
name 10/10 story 8/10 the crate 7/10 ending 9/10 mod 8/10 the crate is like the companion cube but it talks and you don’t have to be insane to hear it. -ign.
The Map With No Name
it’s, just, what, i mean WHAT!?.
mapping challenge 7/10 would play again -ign.
You should format your reviews better. Also, elaborate more on the points you make, it feels like a joke review atm.
sorry, i still don’t quite know what i’m doing.
Broken Its alright but it took me ages to figure out it was broke and the companion was annoying
I loved the behind the scenes feel. Not the best but it was still good.
Loved this. there was a great balance between puzzle and shooting. Companion was helpful which was great as there was lots of situations where he saved me from dying.
The most part this map is awesome the layout and everything. The monster was broken and i couldnt figure out what to do. But in the end i came up loving it.
I loved babysitting a tiny head crab. I felt like a mother crying every time an enemy even tried to attack him haha.
Companion isnt the greatest but i had fun throwing the ball into a room and letting him do his business, got stuck on the first lift though. Had no clue how on earth I was meant to plug the ball into the wall.
The map itself is alright. some of the puzzles were irritating. the balance bridge did not want to work at all. But i ended up laughing at the stupid Jayden smith tweets and the ending was great.
If this was somebody’s first attempt at a map i would be willing to give this a higher score. However, puting this map in the same bundle as the others makes it seem like the ugly baby of the group. Companion did absolutely nothing the entire time rendering him useless. Overall Bad.
Manually
Medium
3 Hours
Thank you for your review. It will be nice if you play RTSLVILLE2 and write a review for it.
Like the linux comments, my Mac struggles to play the maps as they were meant to be enjoyed… There are some good things here and the nice headcrab / talking box was funny. Overall, I cannot really rate this mod either way, because I know I’ve not seen the maps as their developers intended. Which is a shame for non-PC people :/ Perhaps one day Valve will update their SDK? (I’m guessing that’s the problem).
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
Sorry, not interested in puzzle type maps in this challenge. I decided to skip this instead
Not bad but I don’t enjoy the mapper talking. Just shut up and let me go through the map without talking!
It’s fun to play this entry however, the puzzles again. Jeez, why are there puzzles everywhere? I don’t like puzzles in this challenge! Well the combat seems fair, at least the medic has decent HP to survive waves of zombies, metrocops, and a poison zombie. You get to fight a sniper and a turret spammer but countering them with grenades makes everything easier. So far, good map.
This map is okay but it ultimately failed the challenge so I’m not giving this a high score. Despite that it has a good design despite that it’s a kraken base, you don’t get to spend time with your companion much. Most of the time, you split up with Alyx, and I get to spend more time with a rollermine. Eventually, when I reach to the part where there are barnacles everywhere, don’t bring your rollermine because if a barnacle touches it, IT CRASHES THE WHOLE GAME AND I CAN PROVE IT TO YOU WITH A VIDEO
https://youtu.be/YHL9Jur_5kc
Overall, not a good entry because this strays away from having a companion.
Having a headcrab as a companion is not that surprising. But imagine making an entry for Kleiner and Lamarr. That would be a good companionship tbh. Still a good map
Rollermines are my favorite NPCs! They have the power to kill both allies and enemies! Throwing them to each other is satisfying, hearing their bodies hit the floor real hard by throwing rollermines at their faces, I love this entry.
Nope, again, I don’t enjoy puzzles in this challenge.
Boring, supposedly dire but I gave this 1 point because at least it has playability. But I think I just encountered a terrible boss battle but it’s not the worst. In fact, I have seen worse. In other bosses, they’re cheap and unbeatable. This however is easy yet boring. Your companion Barney doesn’t help a lot so it kinda failed the challenge as well.
Some are good, some are bad. But the reason why I personally gave low ratings are because I don’t enjoy puzzles a lot with a companion. It makes me feel uncomfortable while they’re just standing next to me staring into my soul. Puzzles also take a lot of time as well.
Kraken was good but the ending trigger with Alyx didn’t work.
Well, overall I enjoyed this competition very much. I know many Half-Life players don’t like the companion of any NPC, and I can understand that for HL1, in the first Half-Life the whole NPC companion dynamic is a total mess. But here in HL2 improves a lot. So for me having a companion NPC is nice. So let’s check all entries.
Carnival Wanderlust by The_GuardianTM and White_Red_Dragons
I liked this one as had a conscious message about post-romantic break-up suicides. So yeah it is hard to see any HL2 map having a social message but I guess here we have it. Now for me, the main trigger with the keypad lock is freaked up. For the first time, I failed to place the access code which is: 1977. So I missed the number and the door got stuck forever, I had to re-start the map. Anyway a short eerie entry I didn’t dislike.
Mapper’s Block by Matt71490 AKA Event Horizon
I liked the concept on this one but overall felt pretty short and that battle against the firewalkers was so rushed.
Hazardous Route by Steven Cabbage
Nice implementation of the companion NPC, and the combat was exciting from the beginning till the end.
Kraken by Jean “XBLAH” Knapp and Aleksandr “alex_mmc” Lavrinovitš
This was the reason I downloaded this mapping competition because I guess this is the only HL2 playable map about Kraken base. The whole submarine base is greatly done with an immersive environment and gameplay. Nevertheless, companion Alyx felt so forced and I never feel she was of any help. Also, the ending was a mess with those horrid invisible walls I also got confused because I didn’t see the hole in the wall leading to the final exit.
The Hatchling by 1UpD, Tiop, and Dave
As You can see I was very well impressed by this entry. I think the whole concept was executed magnificently and seeing a headcrab, although slow, fighting on our side as a sidekick was absolutely fun. I loved this map. and for me, this would be the winning entry.
Roller Mill by PineappleSurprise
This was another entry I enjoyed a lot!! And also had a magnificent well-executed concept the roller mine on our side is actually pretty well used here and it is a perfect example of how those annoying things would’ve been used in the original game. For me, this is my 2nd place.
Crate Expectations by David Driver-Gomm and Kralich
This is another pretty awesome concept, which t was executed perfectly, as it had the right amount of well-planned puzzles and combat, also the whole voice acting and script for this entry were pretty cool and funny.
A Map with No Name by JanKaszanka and Aran (bonus map)
I honestly hate when mappers hate their own work. Because this was pretty good. I loved the horror aura on it and that intense final boss fight, thankfully I manage to survive with Barney until the end.
In conclusion, this whole competition was great and the entries were good for me, so yeah this is a solid Play it Now.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
These’s maps are decent but fun to make a video:)
Playthough here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XLcc2kAFFc&list=PL5MfhJVT6wIKbXxhAvpcJxjx8m-uEG42x&index=144
Manually
Easy
34 Minutes