We all read and watch plenty of other amazing stories and ideas.
The thought of using them as inspiration for maps is an interesting one.
This theme came about from a suggestion made on the RTSL site.
The following was taken from the announcement post:
I want you to make a map that crosses over between a Half-Life game and another game. Now, when I say crosses over, I mean uses something from that other game. It could be a location, a story element, a gameplay style – almost anything.
The map should start with a black screen, onto which appears the map’s name. Ideally, the end should fade to black with the name of the game it uses as inspiration appearing in text.
In addition, I would like some subtle G-man sightings and/or at least one secret area.
The crossover could be between the Half-Life games themselves or other games.
I DO NOT expect mappers to use new textures or models etc. I fully understand this is not fair within the time frame. In fact, NO assets from other games are allowed unless legal.
The winning map will be the one that uses a clever crossover but is also well-made and fun to play.
- Title: CrossoverVille
- Filename: hl2-ep2-sp-mc-crossoverville.7z
- Size : 153MB
- Author: Niker107, Jacob Heywood, Daniel Friend, LifeLost, melc311, Abraham Lee AKA Lhonnyboy, Guitarman
- Date Released: 20 December 2015
Download to your HDD [153MB]
You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.
- Copy the CrossoverVille folder into your …\Steam\SteamApps\sourcemods\ folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- CrossoverVille should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
In Chapter order.
- Construct Conspiracy by Niker107.
- Deadmines by Jacob Heywood
- The Hunter’s Dream by Daniel Friend
- Gnome Heist by LifeLost
- Mesa by melc311
- Quid Pro Quo by Abraham Lee AKA Lhonnyboy
- Duke by Guitarman
Brane Scan by Kelly Bailey from Half-Life 2
The RunThinkShootLive.Com intro video was made by ĜL1TCĦ³
This challenge was sponsored by Nodecraft – High Performance Game Servers.
Receive 15% off your first month by clicking the link above.
Various Steam and Origin games.
Seven gridview icons are included in this file. To use the included grid view icon, select “Gridview” in Steam (top right corner). Right click on “CrossoverVille” and select “Set Custom Image”. Then browse to the SourceMods folder and then to CrossoverVille/steam-gridview-icons folder and select the image. Then click “Set Image” and that’s it.
Of course, you can create your own custom image if you prefer.
The challenge started 25th November 2015 at 10am GMT and finished Monday 14th December 10pm GMT
This time the first prize won’t be games, but a set of three HL/Portal inspired prints. The winner will have to buy the frames, but I think it’s a better prize than just a game.
There might be second and third place prizes depending on the number of entries.
In the original announcement, I said that I and an anonymous judge would decide the winner, hoerver, due to circumstances beyond my control, it has been decided that the winner will be chosen by public vote. Sorry for the confusion.
- Maximum two maps per mapper per challenge.
- The map must be original and not have been released publicly before.
- The map must run in system with only Ep2 installed
- By entering the competition you grant PlanetPhillip.Com & RunThinkShootLive.Com the right to release the map as part of the CrossoverVille Mod.
- Maps must not appear before the release and for one month after the release of the mod.
- No assets from retail games other than HL2, HL2: Ep1 or HL2: Ep2 are allowed.
- Other assets are allowed with written permission from their original authors, which MUST be included in the entry.
- Phillip’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into about it.
- The map MUST have a proper name.
- The map MUST have a proper filename: MapName_cov.bsp
- All entries must be sent to: [email protected] no later than the deadline.
The playthrough/walkthrough below is provided by PlanetPhillip. See more of my playthroughs on this site: VP: PlanetPhillip.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Each map has 5 screenshots. Thanks to ArctixSnowPup for providing the screenshots!
1600 x 900
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5,100Overall
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2Today
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5Last 7 days
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10Last 30 days
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190365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 12 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 45 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 4 Hours by DaZ
Total Time Played: 22 Hours, 50 Mins
This release is currently not in a collection
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
Download link is not working for me ;d
Give it another try, please.
Getting “error 404” when attempting download.
Please try again, should be online now.
Hey, could you still change the “Construct Conspiracy” submission’s author from ‘Денис п’ to ‘Niker107’? I didn’t expect you to take my email’s name. I’ve changed it now.
I’ve changed it in this post and will edit the mod itself tomorrow. I sued that because I didn’t know what other name to use.
First door, after the elevator ride, doesn’t open. Break glass, destroy boards, no command works anywhere. Is there a problem with the map.
Sorry, I figured it out.
There is a lot that could be said about this package of maps. . .
And quite frankly, a lot to be improved on as well.
Many of these maps were well executed and my “WOW, I KNOW THIS” moment was sparked in Construct Conspiracy.
The personal favorite goes to Gnome Heist for it’s developer textures and well executed game play mechanic.
Now here is a message I wish to transfer to the creator of Duke:
It’s alright, we’ve all had to start at some point and the fact that your map is not the best does not mean you are bad.
You had the guts to come out to the public with your work and that is all which matters. Don’t let yourself be let down.
For even your work is far above my unreleased box of cinder blocks. <3
–
As for anyone others, you may experience a lack of light in your maps after playing Duke, this is due to the map lacking lights and the Engine forcing a fullbright command which persist between maps.
To re-enable your lights simply input "mat_fullbright 0" into your developer console and restart the map you are playing (or reload a save).
Manually
Easy
1 Hour, 20 Minutes
To be honest I think that Duke gave me one of the biggest “I know this” feeling out of them. It shows that sometimes the simpler maps can bring the most nostalgia :P.
Whew, what a pack. One think I got say up front about this pack is that I liked this challenge. For one, it allowed people to experiment with ideas they normally wouldn’t have and this allowed each entry to bring something unique.
I liked this one. The eerie tone at the start really drew me in. Though, I have no idea what the employee screen was talking about. It provided some cool context to the ideas we’ve already seen Gmod, and it had some good puzzles. Most of them we’ve seen before, but the one with the gun battery I thought was cool. My one complaint was that the player needing the switch for the engine was not obvious. The level also didn’t end. This is easily fixable, the author needs to have a point_clientcommand and fire the “command” input with the “disconnect” keyvalue. Overall, a solid map.
Demos:
CC Demo 1
This one started off good. I like the fact it slowly ramped up in difficulty and complexity. And you had a gravity gun–and it helped out a lot. That was one of the strengths of this level, I felt like a lot of it was built for gravity-gun usage. Except for the hunter fight. that one felt weird. I thought I could use the rollermines to kill the hunter (especially since there was no way to get rid of them), but they didn’t seem to do anything. Maybe it had something to do with the way they were programmed–*shrug* I dunno. I also thought the smg crate in that room was a bit of a cop out–some props would have probably lessened the need for that. I think that’s about where the mod started turning down hill for me. It started off well–I really liked the aesthetic, even if it was a little too dark–there was nice small enemy encounters (with plenty of variety and room for them to move around), secrets and hidden areas, and plenty of options thanks to the gravity gun. The ending was just super rough. That final fight at the docks? Goodness, I had to lower my difficulty and even then it was bad. I ended up just rushing to the boat (which I didn’t even know I had to board). The last bit of fighting just lacked everything the map had previously. Movement was limited with the leech infested water, and the clipping on the dark made it difficult to move. This entire last bit really soured the experience for me. The little bit with the headcrab lightened the mood a little, though. I bet that was a reference to the level this was based on. That reminds me, I believe this level was inspired by WoW, and I’m curious if that is reflected in the combat set ups. They’re very “room-corridor”-y, even though the aesthetic helps them connect a little. Isn’t that how combat is done in MMO RPGs? There’ s typically a room with baddies, and you clear it out only to go to the next room with baddies? Overall, a good map soured by the end–I thought about putting it in second place on my “list” but the ending would probably make me give it third.
Demos:
DM Demo 1
DM Demo 2
Dm Demo 3
Dm Demo 4
Dm Demo 5
Dm Demo 6
Dm Demo 7
Dm Demo 8
Dm Demo 9
Dm Demo 10
Dm Demo 11
This is what I was talking about in I meant unique ideas. A hub map? Where each “branch” gives you new weapons? That’s what I’m talking about. If this author hadn’t been trying to immitate bloodborne, I don’t think we would have had a map like this. I did kinda wish you could visit the areas out of order, though. So if you get stuck on one you can try a different one. My three favorite bits were the final boss, the guard fight, and the zombie town. The boss fight was cool because it was more a puzzle then a boss. I liked that. The problem and goal were obvious, just solid design. The guard fight was neat because of the spikes. It looked like you could kill the guard with out having to use the spikes, but none the less it was a fun concept I hadn’t seen in HL before. The zombie town was just solid, a little cramped, but that worked with the crowbar “dance” made things more tense. The other level, “sharpshooters dream” I absolutely hated. For one, I missed the door at the start. It’s nice that the player gets introduced to the goal early, but the readability for that was annoying. I guess that’s due to the source material, but still, I didn’t like it. The doors bugged me too, they just got in the way and felt unnecessary. I also thought the soldier weren’t a good choice. It was just too cramped for their ai. I can understand why they were chosen (difficulty increase and they fact they use grenades), though. Which actually reminds me. This probably had to do with the bloodborne inspiration, but I liked how each level was basically a puzzle of some sort. You had to find grenades to kill the sniper, you had to navigate the zombie town to get to the poison zombie, and you had to figure out a quick way to kill the guard. I liked that, and I felt it fit HL well. Another solid entry.
Demos:
HD Demo 1
HD Demo 2
HD Demo 3
HD Demo 4
First place. Enough said. The inspiration was obvious–I actually thought about doing something like this wayyy back, but I didn’t think it could work. Obviously, I was wrong. From a mapper perspective I liked the timer, I had completely forgotten about those countdown props. The atmosphere at the start was cool too. Hearing the CP radio chatter, and seeing the empty street just created this feeling of “calm before the storm.” You just knew things were gonna ramp up. The assets were pretty sweet. I didn’t realize this until later, but each asset helped at a different stage. For example the apc and turret assets helped at the end carrying bit, and the citizens helped at the start. I just think that’s cool. Bam! Instant replayability. Whcih actually reminds me: what was up with the levers? they’re probably some super secret, but I have no idea. This level was just filled with cool moments. Having the to use my noggin and think of different ways to move the gnomes was fun (though I wish I had a grav-gun). And an APC INSIDE THE BUIDLING?! It’s just funny, but also really changes the gameplay. …And I can totally see the combine doing that. My one complaint was the soldier’s ai. Some parts of the level were too cramped for them to work well, and the tended to glitch out. I know the author gave them plenty of additional paths–except for the gnome vault. It also felt quite spammy. Fewer sodliers and perhaps some hintgrouping, clear-on-contact assaults, and standoffs could’ve helped. That doesn’t mean they didn’t do their job. The constant flow of soldiers created this awesome sense or pressure. My hands were shaking as I loaded the last couple gnomes. Just awesome level–I kinda want to make my own heist now.
Demos:
GH Demo 1
GH Demo 2
GH Demo 3
Being inspired by Half-Life seem like a little bit of a cop out, but I liked this one. The reveal of the dilapidated BM sign at the start was just cool. There was actually alot of neat little bits of scripting in this one. The soldier foreshadowing was cool, and I really liked the ambush with the shotgun intro. That was just a neat and organic moment–kinda like when you first get the 357 in Water Hazard. The soldier fights are probably what I liked the most about this map. They were small, but fun. they weren’t necessarily challenging, but that didn’t matter. There was only one time I felt a corridor could be widened a little, but other then that they were good. The only down side of this one was it’s length and that one ladder jump. I hated that jump. HL2 ladders just don’t work with those type of acrobatics. Oh, and no gravity gun. But yeah, short but sweet. I’d give this one second place just because it was so solid.
Demos:
M Demo 1
M Demo 2
This was my level. I’m not gonna say much, mainly because I have a lot to say, but I enjoyed making this one. Here’s a link to an image of the bit from Halo 3 it was inspired by. Originally the start was gonna be longer and feature a rebel APC evac, but as the level progressed I realized that was gonna be difficult. I was partially inspired by the chopper in Uncertainty Principle for the final result. I will also admit I had already made the scripting for the dropships before the contest. I just had them “sitting on a shelf” until I found a good way to use them. There’s also a variant with turrets on the side, but I decided against using it when the combine APC was added. There’s a lot I wished I could’ve changed to help pace things more, but it’s too late now. I also forgot to include the vmf, so I’m just gonna link it here.
Behold the scripting nightmare!
Not much to say about this one. Hated the ladder at the end. Nice start “puzzle”. I’m betting this level is from Duke Nukem, but I haven’t played that game.
Demo:
D Demo 1
D Demo 2
Really enjoyed this one. Can’t wait for the Hammer Cup.
Manually
Hard
1 Hour, 50 Minutes
It was really nice to see so many varied entries to this Ville! I will admit that the difficulty of one or more of them and the ‘go read a text file outside the game environment’ put me off a couple.
The visuals and mood of this one starting off and on through to the end were very good. Clever puzzles, and I had only the faintest idea of what it was emulating until I got to the end 😀 This one came in 2nd for me overall, though I can’t say that it could be made much better than it was, outright – just that the other below did things that surprised me or got my interest going more.
The combat was way too hard in this, and the visuals were very dark. Playable, certainly a good challenge, but harder than I was going to want if this had been a more full mod.
While I guess others liked this, or played through it all, I was unable to get through even the first bit. Frankly having anything outside the game as ‘required reading’ in order to even start playing, was unacceptable to me. That said, the part I did get through was laughably hard and funny, I know that game is meant to be incredibly, stupidly hard, so that worked I guess.
On one hand it was a well made overall map, pretty confusing with both completed and dev textured areas though. I didn’t notice any gman moments, unfortunately, which might have nudged this up a little for me. The fights were very hard and with infinitely respawning enemies I god-moded the end of this just to be done. I think if you allowed ‘respawning allies’ in addition to enemies in some proportion, that might be okay. Also, some idea of where to go/what to look for would have been good. I have not played the game that this came from (hell I think the only ones I’ve actually played are Gmod and HL 1 for this!) but I suspect I wouldn’t like it much. In many ways I can see why people would think this one’s good, but it was unfinished, and lacked flow. As a disjointed single-map event, I suppose it would work okay.
I can only really warrant a ‘good’ on this one, though it’s definitely in my top 3 because it was very quickly recognizable and well done in that regard. Like a little condensed Half Life experience. I laughed when I realized where I was, that was good. Too short though, if it had more matched the length that some others had, it might have become my favorite of the bunch.
This was an excellent example of map making, I think. It was hard, and a little confusing in terms of where things were coming from or where I should go. Good use of the npcs though, for whatever reason they actually tended to do what I told them to?! The area itself was well made, it took me about 10 minutes after dying over and over at the earliest area that I had the grabbity gun. I am stupidly attached to that item, and enjoyed bashing things in the face with tires and boxes. Do you run through health that fast in Halo3? I certainly did. I voted this one for best, it narrowly edged out Construct because it showed more depth to the goal-oriented side of things.
As an obviously unfinished map goes, being able to arrive, shoot stuff, do some puzzling, and reach the finish line all actually happened in a pretty good order. I’m not sure why we start on a roof and instantly head down, though, but hey. I did get trapped in the trash bin, and there was no way to see where the other combine guy on that little bridge was so even when I did survive there, he would repeatedly kill me because I couldn’t see him and he could see me. (also, he fell through the structure and onto the ground after I did kill him.) With proper lighting and some more attention to props and flow, it’s a good start.
So overall Quid Pro Quo wins for me, with a very close second of Construct Conspiracy and a somewhat distant third of Mesa.
Using Gauge
Medium
1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Probably my favourite pack since Verticalville, lots of really clever stuff in here. I’m suprised that noone done anything to do with FO4, given the timing that this was being made. I was going to participate, but when it was announced I had no time to work on any of it. Still really fun to play.
The name and the colour of the intro text gave me a Garry’s Mod vibe, and when I finally got to the Toolgun part I snapped and realised it. The only complaint I have was the toolgun parts puzzle, took me a bit to find the lever and to find out you had to break the part of the gun off.
This is the only one that I didn’t get the crossover of until it actually told me, but it was still very fun. Difficulty was pretty smooth throughout (besides that last bit at the boat; had no ammo and just had to rush it). The “Final Boss” gave me a bit of a giggle, even though it’s probably referencing something I haven’t seen.
Without the tutorial this was pretty hard to understand, didn’t even have the suit up until the guard area… probably just because I’m stupid, but it probably should’ve started with a suit rather than having to get it. The difficulty was kinda random, with the guard being extremely easy while the sniper area being pretty damn hard (probably because I done it without a suit, but even after I went back with a suit it was still tough).
While it still had dev textures hanging around, this was my favourite of them all. The tutorial explained things quickly and efficiently, and the “pick your assistances” at the start gave it a lot of replayability. It’s intense, has a really good balance of difficulty and overall it was damn fun. Getting the final gnome and escaping on 2HP was one of the most stressful yet enjoyable moments of playing HL2 in a long time.
I’m not entirely sure if using Half-Life for a Half-Life crossover mod is cheating or not, but I was thinking of using HC2 so I guess it’d be fine then. Short, had some decent looking decorations, and it’s basically what everyone wants for Half-Life 3, even though it’ll never happen.
This one was the hardest for me, because of how the dropships dumped all the soldiers in groups all over the place until you’re out of breathing room. I eventually managed to escape alone after all the prisoners died from an APC rocket the moment it drove in, but I guess that’s just how it is.
I’m sorry to whoever made this, but honestly this just seems like something thrown together in the last couple of hours to get a spot in. No lighting, everything is really blocky, there’s a ladder that killed me 3 times because I kept falling off it into a dumpster where a soldier would throw a grenade in and I’d say my last goodbyes before blowing up, and overall it just looks off. As far as I can tell it’s based on that duke nukem level with the theatre, but that’s all I can say about the theme. If the person who made this happens to be reading, I’d say not to give up on mapping, and instead keep practising until they’re able to make something with a thought out theme, and then try and enter a future mapping contest with it. We all started out with blocky fullbright maps, it just takes time before you can make something great with it.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 40 Minutes
Update link plz
Why, it’s working.
Not for me it’s not!
I’ve tried since yesterday to download it and on hitting the download button it immediately goes to a 404 error. What I have noticed is the URL on the error page starts with http:// and an IP address before /files/hl2-ep2/hl2-ep2-sp-mc-crossoverville.7z and not the same as what shows at the bottom of the screen when I hover on the download button.
I’ve taken a screenshot of the error page if you want me to mail it to you.
Okay, yeah sure, send me an email.
The problem is that if the download works for me and others, then any issues might be at the users’ end.
A great theme, and a mixed bag of entries. Worth a play
An atmospheric and promising start is immediately let down by a lack of HEV suit, and the puzzle breaking. I didn’t find the crowbar very fast, so I had to hop forwards and backwards though the area a few times to locate it (but that might have just been me being rather slow on the uptake).
The internal facility was cool, but the puzzles really did not resonate with me. It was all well presented, but the gameplay didn’t quite do it for me.
First thing that happened is I found a crate with no crowbar to smash it open.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed this entry for what it was. I felt as though the village and guardians den areas were weak, but the other two were strong.
The hub idea was good fun.
The ability to choose things at the start are very cool, I don’t think I’d have managed it with without the “1 less APC” option.
I greatly enjoyed the intrusion of the bank, the crossover was immediately apparent. Waiting on the timers, knowing the forces outside were mounting were excellent, and served as good breaks from madly dashing through the level.
Breaking windows admitting new forces were great surprises.
I felt as though the quality dropped harshly once the player reached the gnomes. Having to ferry six gnomes outside (where it is extensively difficult) was frustrating.
Still, excellent entry.
I agree with Phillip, it’s a shame to see a Half-Life franchise game on here.
Still, the map itself was pretty fun. I couldn’t find a crowbar initially, so I had to give myself one, but passing that roadblock, there was some fun, honest gunplay (if a little easy).
A fun little entry, the intermission between the two main meals that were the maps before and after.
Wow.
This one impressed me even on stream. The large open areas, and the gameplay it served was great. There were some great tense moments running through this little base.
The reversal at the ending, and the introduction of the allied helicopter were spot on.
Whilst it’s clearly from a new mapper, it would be unfair to other entries to give it too much leeway for that.
The level design is wonky and short, and lacks lighting. The tie-in with the crossover is poor.
Deadmines was also a good lesson for myself, I made a few development mistakes, and the section after the hunter boss was extremely rushed. I’d put Gnome Heist and Quid Pro Quo above it.
Anyway, this one is good fun, I hope to see more interesting themes like this one in the future.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Not sure how you got the formatting you did, but I’ve fixed it.
So is it possible to kill the hunter with the rollermines? And what’s the story behind the ceiling turret in the room with a bunch of mines?
Honestly, a lot of the mechanics are inspired from basic concepts in the original WoW dungeon.
The turrets and hoppers represent enemies on an upper layer that would throw bombs at the party. The rollermines represent weak enemies that would annoy and interrupt players focus as they were trying to fight the giant mechanical third boss (now a hunter).
Perhaps the translation didn’t work out so well in the final version, particularly with how down-to-the-wire I got with getting it ready in time. We live, we learn.
I don’t think the rollers could damage the hunter, I tried a lot. 🙂
Me too.
I tried a few random downloads from RTSL and they worked!! Only CrossoverVille produces the problem. That was with FireFox and that doesn’t make sense but that’s what happened.
Then I tried Chome and it worked first time.
It appears to be a browser problem!
It works for me in FireFox.
Use proxy, it helped me.
[MAP OWNER] Of course I’ll say that I think it’s good. I won’t say it’s amazing, but I think I did a pretty good job. Now, since I am the creator of the map, I will speak more on Phillip’s playthrough of my map. Specifically, my commentary on his commentary and way of playing.
WARNING: Spoilers Below.
First off, Phillip, I didn’t suggest that you jumped over the fence, I suggested that you opened it and then shut it behind you! Eh, I guess it’s not too obvious, but I genuinely haven’t even thought of making it seem like you jumped over it. The only real reason it’s not just open is because I didn’t want an invisible wall 😛
Moving on, since this is the first time I ever saw somebody trying to complete my map, I was genuinely quite surprised at how different our playstyles are. I like puzzle maps more, so I usually don’t act stealthy and just move on with the map, however you were constantly trying to hide from enemies which I didn’t put into the map, so that was fun to watch knowing that there isn’t anybody out there to kill you, heh.
I like testing my maps constantly, so I sometimes pretend as though I don’t know what I’m doing, to see approximately how long an average person would take to complete the map. After testing, I thought my map would take at most 4-5 minutes for the average person. Phillip took 20 minutes, most of which were taken up by things I hadn’t even thought of. I didn’t even know you could get on top of the second platform in the testing chamber, and I didn’t realise I suggested a jumping puzzle in the warehouse by placing those forklifts there.
When Phillip accessed the different areas and completed the puzzles, I was sitting there, probably feeling more chuffed than he was! Especially after watching him try to figure out a puzzle that seems too easy for me only because I made it.
Watching him try to solve the toolgun (the test chamber puzzle) was really, really fun. Seeing his thought process and how he accidentally got closer to the truth was great. Even though I tried to make it as obvious as possible on what must be done, it still wasn’t as obvious as I thought. Which isn’t bad, since mappers do need to make their maps at least a bit challenging. I just hope that him being lost didn’t affect his overall opinion of the map.
To sum up, this is actually the first time I ever saw a reaction video to my map, which made it even more exciting. Despite my short entry, I think that I was able to learn a few new things, and just watching somebody play something that you made is extremely satisfying. Thanks for the playthrough, Phillip!
Psst. You missed the extremely brief G-Man sighting.
This entry is the second one in the mod, and it is the first one to make me think “Okay, I have no chances in winning this challenge. Oh well.” Anyway, enough about me, this is a big one, and it definitely took a lot of time to make, so let’s get started.
WARNING: Spoilers Below.
I will try to be quite brief about this, I haven’t played World of Warcraft, so I was left guessing what the crossover in this entry was. So, naturally, I still didn’t really know by the end. I will say, however, that this is quite an enjoyable entry. The environment seemed very rich – there were all kinds of materials used, as well as natural (and extremely well-built) caves. As I said in the review of my own map, I like puzzles more than I like action, but the fights were evenly spaced out across the map and they were overall quite fun. The only thing I didn’t like about this (and a few other) entries was probably the mounted guns. Because I have no clue on how to deal with them. If I try to run to the soldier behind it to shoot him, I get killed before I move a single step. And because of the flashlight attached to the gun, I can’t really aim properly and kill him from afar. It’s personally just an annoying feature to me, but it isn’t the mapper’s fault, maybe I’m just stupid.
Good entry, amazing environment, crossover which I didn’t get (hey, I never was a WoW fan), and a silly boss fight. This was a very fun, nicely made map.
I think that this entry would get an ‘It’s Great!’ from me if I had played Bloodborne before. However, I don’t like huge crowds of enemies and monsters coming at me all at the same time, but the entry was still good.
WARNING: Spoilers Below.
First off, I’d say that I did not enjoy the first level. It seemed way too hard for a start and the shipping-container-corridors filled with enemies to the brim was not fun. I also fell into the hole with the poisonous zombie at the end and had to die because you either shoot it from above or drop into the hole with it. After I killed it, I struggled to get back slightly, but still managed it.
The second level wasn’t as disappointing, it was quite a bit more fun and I genuinely enjoyed playing it. I guess I just like Combines, so they were more preferable to fight than zombies and headcrabs. There’s not much I can really say about it – I enjoyed playing it. It was a nice step up from the first level, since the first just seemed like a spam fest.
The third level was as good as the second one. I don’t know if it’s the map’s problem or if something bugged out, but when I was fighting the antlion guard, no new antlions were spawning, so I just had to run in circles shooting at it. It was still more fun than the first level, and it seemed like a good idea for an arena.
The fourth level was… er, unexpected. I thought that I had finished the map after the third level, but then – suddenly this one appears. Again, I don’t know if it’s supposed to be the way it is, but all I had to do to complete it was to run up the stairs, hit two of the switches, and then watch the strider die. It didn’t seem like a genuine fight. Maybe I just did something wrong, I dunno.
I’m new to this community, so I won’t be surprised if I get flamed for my commentary on this. Sorry! The entry was genuinely nice.
Oh, this entry is definitely one of my favourites. I think it was quite easy for me to guess what the crossover was, and I looked forward to playing it as soon as I realised what it was.
WARNING: Spoilers Below.
So, at first I thought it was a reference to Rainbow Six: Siege (because of the C4 mechanic), but soon I realised that it is, in-fact, PayDay: The Heist (or as the author suggests, PayDay 2). So, my opinions are: the perk system is a nice touch, the balanced Combine waves were fun to fight while I was trying to get to the vault, and the snipers and APCs were also an especially big threat. I am glad to say that I didn’t have to use any cheats to finish this (which I might do with some maps), so I was able complete the map properly. This just goes to show that the map is well-balanced (in my opinion) and it resembles HL2’s overall level of difficulty, which is good. I wish I didn’t have to have my hands occupied when carrying the gnomes because having to throw them on the ground to fight the Combines before picking them back up and running some more could get frustrating at times. Nonetheless, I liked playing it and I eagerly waited for the “Inspired by PayDay 2 to show up at the end.
Didn’t see the G-Man sighting – was there one?
It was quite clear from the start what this map is referencing – and I’m fine with it! Since I’m quite a fan of the Half-Life games, I was looking forward to playing this the second I saw the entry image and the title.
WARNING: Spoilers Below.
This entry did not disappoint me. It captured the feeling of a broken-down, abandoned Black Mesa Facility and I enjoyed going through it. The spaced-out Combine encounters were fun to go through and I liked how the map was able to alternate between very short exploration periods and action moments. The ride at the end wasn’t as exciting, but it’s clear that the contestants don’t have all the time in the world, so if you don’t look behind yourself when you’re riding off into the sunse– erm… desert horizon, you should be fine. The map is enjoyable, nicely detailed and quite close to Black Mesa: Source’s appeal. I like it, good job on accurately replicating the feel of Half-Life. I was eager to see at least one entry have a crossover with an existing Valve game.
Honestly, there’s not much I can say about this map other than ‘WOW’. As in, ‘Wow, how did this person even manage to create such a masterpiece in only, what, 3 weeks?’ Absolutely astonishing work. Definitely one of the best maps of the challenge.
WARNING: Spoilers Below.
It started off with an alarm and a lot of deaths. You see, I hadn’t found the crossbow then, so I had to manually slaughter 3-4 Combines with a pistol and a bit of ammo to finally get an SMG and start making progress. After that, the map started curving upwards exponentially. Again, something I didn’t like were mounted guns, but that’s only a problem due to me not finding a crossbow. Afterwards I was able to make my way through the map with both close-quarters and long-range combat involved, until I finally arrived at my destination – the rebels. I freed them and saw my objectives update – I had to wait for the rescue team to arrive.
*15 minutes later*
Welp, all of my rebel allies are dead, and I am only now able to escape. Objective failed. Hey, at least I enjoyed it, right, boss?
Yeeah, I wasn’t able to keep any of the rebels alive during the long escape sequence, and even then, the chopper took quite a long time to actually land. I think that is because there were still enemies around, but I’m not sure. The good thing about the helicopter, however, is the point at which it fights the APC. I was genuinely unsure whether we would have to find another way to escape if the helicopter did lose in the fight – but it didn’t, and we now had to wait until it was able to land.
Another obvious thing I want to point out is how cool the custom dropships look. Now that I know the crossover theme is Halo, I understand that those are, in-fact, containers which appear in Halo games (…I think, right?), and nonetheless, I think I prefer them to the standard HL2 dropship containers. They just make a lot more sense and they look better. Good job on those!
The scenery is beautiful. I had absolutely no clue what the crossover theme was because I was busy admiring how great everything looked. It could genuinely pass as a separate mod for HL2:EP2 with the standard Episode 2 setting, because it followed pretty much all of the rules for EP2 level design.
Fantastic entry, great gameplay, amazing scenery and environment, how was this even created in the time span of the challenge, are you a wizard? You have TOO MUCH FREE TIME. Ahem, excuse me. Thank you for the superb map!
NOTE: After checking out Quid Pro Quo in Halo 3, I am pretty convinced that the map was indeed inspired by that mission from Halo 3. And it’s probably quite close to the Halo 3 location as well, I just couldn’t get good views from the walkthrough videos.
I don’t get it. I honestly don’t. Maybe there’s just some game that I haven’t played, but this map sadly has no intro, no outro, no lighting even, and it lasts for approximately 2 minutes. I try to be honest and polite to new mappers, but this map doesn’t have that much I can talk about. It’s quite empty. I think if it was worked on a bit more, had lighting and an outro screen explaining what the crossover theme is, it’d at least get ‘It’s okay’, but as it is, it’s quite basic.
Manually
Medium
2 Hours, 30 Minutes
Right at the beginning it is important to admit I only recognized Gnome Heist, Mesa and Duke. This fact forces me to rate other entries just as a gameplay experience without any feeling of nostalgia or so. Some rating might look harsh, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate your efforts.
Since I’m not very well aware of all those features in Garry’s Mod, I didn’t really recognize it. Anyway, the puzzles were really clever and the atmosphere was good too. I liked that there wasn’t any fighting as it usually tends to get very boring and repetitive in HL2 maps and mods.
Well, these were indeed mines. Lots of enemies and, sadly, very little of interesting stuff to look at. One or two parts were rather tedious but thankfully the author left us a few medkits every now and then. Overall it seemed quite average, though it might just be because of my lack of knowledge of WoW. The ending was a nice idea.
Again, I don’t really know this game. As Zekiran already said, players shouldn’t be forced to read text files if they want to know how to play the game, even more so as there is a “Tutorial” sign. That can be quite misleading. The map itself is pretty much just an enemy fest. First you run around whacking zombies, then you run around getting slaughtered by Combine soldiers. Then I quit it because I didn’t feel like continuing. Sorry.
This entry was actually pretty good. It had an actual tutorial which proved to be useful. Before the heist you even get to choose four “perks” to fit your style. It also offers some variety for each playthrough. It’s a shame HL2 AI is so dumb and NPCs constantly get in your way. Anyway, I must admit I got sniped just as I was about to deliver gnomes to the truck. There was also a downside – developer textures. I have no idea why the map looked like that. Still, I enjoyed the experience.
Mesa made me happy. First room had me wondering, but as soon as I entered the second, everything was clear. I thought it would be some kind of remake of Anomalous Materials labs, but it turned out to be “Half-Life in a nutshell”. Clever and fun to play. There wasn’t so much fighting (which was good) and a lot of good stuff to look at. The only thing I didn’t like was the extremely tricky jump in the elevator shaft. HL2 ladders are incredibly buggy and getting off them requires patience.
Although mapping-wise superior to most other entries, the gameplay wasn’t fun. You basically come out in the open and dozens of weapons start shooting at you. There’s some health and batteries, sometimes even cover, but you still get kicked right in the butt. And when you think it’s the end, you find out you must wait for extraction with incompetent AI and hardly any health.
Rating of this last entry could be a little lower, I know, but it wasn’t THAT bad. With a bit more experience and time put into it, Duke could be really good. Sadly, there are some serious issues that prevent you from getting to the end. Two, to be precise. The dumpster and the ladder. If you accidentally fall into the dumpster, all you can do is reload your save, and even if you manage to climb the ladder, you won’t get far. There’s some kind of mapping problem and you can’t reach the top of the ladder. I also didn’t mention the lack of lightning (the map is full bright), but that is quite obvious since every player notices it immediately. The nostalgia in this map was quite worth it though.
I’m curious if you could provide some more details on your Quid Pro Quo play through. It was only toward the end that I realized it’s possible to get into the “health trap,” so I understand that (I should’ve added a health charger at the end too). How was the AI at the end incompetent? Were they just not good fighters, died easily, or did they just get stuck in doors? Which points felt like they lacked cover? Was it just difficult to avoid getting nicked by the mounted guns? Were there to many enemies besides the start area? It ever felt spammy? Did you ever find a crossbow? The map was supposed to be built to where you didn’t need it. And what difficulty did you play at? I wish you had a demo. The play through where things go downhill tend to be very informative. This map is sort of the compilation of me trying to “figure out” good HL2 combat, so I’d like to know what went wrong.
For what it’s worth I thought the ally npcs were great. They didn’t die for me, but then I also kind of tried to keep them from running off by C-ing them into a nice safe corner as much as possible. I tried not to let them get into fights if I could help it.
It by any means wasn’t bad, really. I just found it kind of frustrating. Mostly the first part where I was supposed to go up the stairs. Lots of enemies shooting from the other side (prison side), my side, and seemed like some were even behind me, and the only good cover I could find was the first building behind the stairs (where even more soldiers waited outside). I usually don’t have problems dealing with more enemies at once, so it might have been that this seemed quite like a fast-paced map which I’m not used to. My own playstyle is rather cautious with lots of saving and loading.
The ending was hell for me simply because I couldn’t find more health and my medic didn’t offer any assistance. He was the only one who followed me upstairs while the others stayed behind for some reason or ran somewhere else. The medic was also just running forwards and backwards in one place, hardly shooting at enemies at all. That’s why NPCs seemed rather dumb to me here.
So yeah, I actually think the issue here was our different playstyles. I personally prefer less fighting and more exploration. And as I had said, the mapping is really good, nice to look at.
Eh, Larry, your comment does not count as a review. You haven’t chosen the overall mod rating at the top (‘Avoid It!’, ‘Maybe’, ‘Play It Now!’, etc.)
When you make a review for a mod/map, make sure to select one of those, otherwise what you write will just count as a comment. Phillip could fix this, though.
Well damn. I’ve completely forgotten about it.
Not much of a problem for me personally though. If I were to rate it, I’d probably give it “Play It Later” because even though I didn’t enjoy it as much I was hoping, it’s still a nice variety of maps.
I’ve added a PIL recommendation for you.
Appreciated.
A lot of bugs, because of being unfinished, but the maps were fun to play and good work I think.
Thanks to all contributors for a little piece of the HL² Universe, they made my day.
Greets
Heinz
What bugs are you referring to?
There were some good entries in this contest. I especially liked that the maps had such variety due to the contest theme. Here are my notes:
I quite liked the puzzles in this map.
One of them was a real head-scratcher, but I eventually figured it out. Not the kind of map you would play multiple times though.
A pretty good little combat map with a rather disappointing ending.
Funny but disappointing.
There were some clever ideas in this hub style map, but it was let down by some poor execution. The first time I played it I didn’t realize there was an HEV suit that I had to go get. Also, when I returned to the “hub” I got stuck sometimes and had to noclip
An extremely clever map with the options presented to the player.
The map looked really polished and well thought out. But while I think the author did some great work here, the relentless spawning of enemies lowered my enjoyment of the map
A very simple and predictable map.
It’s not bad but not terribly interesting or challenging
A terrific map with a very challenging task for the player. Getting to the prisoners is not that hard, but keeping them alive is. I eventually found the best solution was to barricade them inside the narrow room with the mounted gun so they couldn’t get into trouble. The only problem I had with this map was sometimes the combine vehicle fell off the end of the platform it starts on, and this caused the helicopter to shoot endlessly at the spot where it was supposed to be. This was solved by reloading an earlier save until the vehicle stayed on the platform. This allows the game to finish.
Beginners map – not much else to say
Overall I have to say that Quid Pro Quo was my favorite. While I admired the ingenuity in Gnome Heist, my personal disdain for spawning maps meant it could never be the winner.
Manually
Easy
2 Hours
It was an overall OK RTSL Comp. 2 or maybe 3 entries are definitely worth playing. Though I quite don’t like the concept as a whole, because I think HL2 it has its own spirit and it’s quite difficult to try to honor another game on source, nevertheless the only worth playing entries felt fresh and nice regarding the mapping aspect. The ones that are just bad they just feel very dull and just bad.
Sorry I didn’t like this one at all! The puzzles felt way too forced, and it was easy to being there not knowing what to do, it had no enemies at all and the end came very soon.
Is just OK, mapping was very weird combat was intense but I just felt the mapping very forced overall.
I liked the concept, and the combat was cool enough to make it feel as a fresh challenging entry.
Very cool, I liked the concept and I think the game that tries to replicate is interesting as hell.
I will try it soon, The challenge in there is great always filled with action and hardcore combat, the whole arena concept just felt cool and it was pretty challenging and had just good fun.
Is a worthy winner though I’d had voted for the quid pro quo entry.
Sorry, It was nice to see a little HL1 black mesa tribute in there, but combat was very dull, linear and simple.
Also it was very short and I never felt any challenge at all.
This was just amazing! very cool combat action, pretty intense too! and well overall halo is a great game, so I think it was cool enough to worthy recreate it in here.
The Helicopter escape was just great. The whole map was beautiful and very detailed.
Pretty bad. Not much to say, dull, linear predictable and just bad to play.
Sorry this author have to work his skills better.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
Blind demos : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33279452/CrossoverVille_demos_daz.7z
Stumbled my way through this one in what felt like a complete accident. I have no idea why anything in the level worked the way it did! I didn’t understand the Garry’s Mod cross over.
Oh the nostalgia! This was a fun one to go through. Nice sense of place and atmosphere. Combat was standard. Didn’t do anything impressive but nothing bad either. The final boss was pretty hilarious 🙂
A fun rework of BloodBorne that made sense despite me skipping the tutorial.
Difficult (as expected) but felt good to finish.
This wasn’t too bad until the very end where you just get sandwiched in and destroyed from every angle. The tools selection at the start is nice and the little tutorial was welcome. I haven’t played Payday so maybe I missed something here that makes the map easier at the end?
This one felt a little redundant as most of HL’s mechanics are featured in the sequel as well. Still, some nice rock work and winding roads to follow. Simple flow but works well enough.
My favourite of this Ville! Very cool level with an interesting layout and sight lines. Looks beautiful despite old-skool brush construction. Game play was polished and fun, layouts provided nice combat spaces in the interiors. Ending was slightly unclear, I thought I had to go back to the start but I guess not 😛
I was excited when I saw Dukes first map here because Duke3D has some amazing interconnected levels and tons of secrets and alt paths. This level ignores all of that and leaves 90% of the level missing 🙁 Time constraints I suppose, but what is here is not very good sadly.
Manually
Medium
4 Hours
Hmm this is a real mixed bag of “goodies” with a couple I really didn’t care for at all. Quid Pro Quo is the best one imho and I enjoyed this.Hunters Dream and Deadmines had there moments but overall I wasn’t impressed with this theme. Sorry 🙁
Manually
Medium
2 Hours
I already “reviewed” Crossoverville last year and wasn’t too kind nor explained much of why I seemed to hate it. So I’m pretty much embarrassed by seeing this today. I figured I needed to download it, play again, and review properly. Well, at least to my English skills will allow!
This map confused the heck outta me last year and I remember spending lots of time completing silly puzzles that made no sense. Strangely I seemed to remember them today and played through quite quickly. But the puzzles are just plain daft and aren’t obvious… The map itself is good and I can imagine puzzle lovers will fall over themselves trying to figure out the pointless problems. The weakest in the Ville and not for me.
I thought there was so many interesting aspects to this and it was always a challenge. The designs I thought were awesome and always interesting but I did have a couple of issues. Firstly, even with the locations in mind, it was always a little too dark for me and my flashlight seemed to be less than bright compared to what I expected. Also I’d have loved to have the Crossbow knocking about. There are so many places where this would have been super cool to use over the other weapons. Like the latter scenes for example… Overall, a superb map and one I’d definitely be playing again.
Like the first map, I just didn’t get this last year. Perhaps I was having a day of insanity? Well, the opening scene is pretty terrible and reminds me of some Doom 3 maps I used to beta test back in the day. But teleporting to the other scenes makes up for everything. There isn’t a great map design with lots of interesting places to visit, this is always short and straight to the point. Fascinating scenes I enjoyed throughout. I hope people play this because it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a game I’ll deff be playing again. Crude yet so much fun!
This is a rather unique idea and especially when picking out the equipment etc, etc at the start. The idea works well and reminds me of an old invasion map which I’ve played before.. It’s a good idea but I thought it could have been balanced better. Especially after the armoured vehicle and sniper appears. Basic but exciting and fun to play.
Very simple map and basic in ideas with little decor to interest or anything unique to enjoy. Very predicable and quite short too. Yet here I am scoring it quite well – because it is a very enjoyable map. Yes, it’s all the things I mention but it’s good fun too. I liked the initial scene with the shotgun and guards that pop out of nowhere. Good idea. Anyhow, I’d have liked more thought going into the overall design AND I’d like it to be bigger too. I was gutted when it was all over. Good one this and worth playing once, or maybe twice…
Oh boy. What can I say about this that won’t spoil it for future players? I adore the open area scenes at the start which are gorgeous and work perfectly with the crossbow. Brilliant. Just brilliant. And then it continues on with a relatively simple map which works perfect. Balanced and fun to play. The ending scenes aren’t OTT and are even great to watch also. I can only rate this map as perfect. The best map in the Ville!!
Okay, perhaps Construct Conspiracy isn’t the weakest in the Ville after all. This is a good start because the first map from Duke is pretty fun to play. It doesn’t really work as-is in the HL world so it needs a lot of work. It appears unfinished also. This needs finishing 🙂
Manually
Medium
2 Hours
Quid Pro Quo and Deadmines were good. The others I didn’t care for.
Manually
Easy
30 Minutes