DoorVille is the first in a series of 6 mapping competitions lasting ten days each. The objective was to select ANY locked door from HL2, Ep1 or Ep2 and give the player a chance to find out what’s behind it.
Locked doors are a very important part of all Half-Life games. They control the player’s flow through a level.
Sometimes they tease you with a glimpse behind some glass, other times you hear sounds, but in all cases they are telling you “You are not wanted here!”
Well, now that is changed. Dare you find out what’s behind the door?
- Title: Doorville
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-6x10mc-doorville.7z
- Size : 25.1MB
- Author: Mr. Walrus, Miigga, Tony DeBlasio, Justin Carlton AKA SneakySpeckMan, Tobias Janderå AKA TabMan, David Lundvall AKA WizardExt
- Date Released: 15 May 2012
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
- Copy the doorville folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- DoorVille should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
This takes place in the canals area of Half-Life 2. You start within this area but are limited in your movement around it.
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Gordon Freeman is on the run from metrocops. Instead of jumping into the water, he decides to enter the door in front of him.
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Tony says “The door of interest is found in Half-life 2 at the end of Point Insertion right before A Red Letter Day begins. Alyx just rescued Gordon from the Combine and takes him down an elevator. The door of interest is the only door in the room at the bottom. Then Alyx opens a secret door to proceed to Dr. Kleiners lab. Gordon is curious about what’s behind the door. It should be noted that Gordon is without suit, crowbar and weapons at this point.”
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This map takes place in a building from Episode Two when you are travelling with Alyx in the Jalopy.
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The door is found in the airboat levels, when you approach a control tower next to 2 big doors, an alarm goes off and the doors closes. You need to go up into the tower to open them. You drive to the right, park your boat, break the padlock and enter. Right in front of you is a door which is shown in the picture. What could be behind it?
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This was a late entry but is included here because I received it in time to package it up. It receives the points for entry but was ineligible for winning.
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This was a difficult one to select a winner from.
Above the Canals played okay but I felt it replied too much on Valve created views and had too many invisible walls.
Amplifission looked great and was fun to play but it looked too much like a Miigga level and I didn’t really believe it could look like that behind the door.
You Missed One was probably the best in terms of making me believe I was really in the place I was supposed to be but it wasn’t much fun to play. It was too cramped and didn’t have enough action.
What’s Thru Here, Alyx? was the most fun to play but the breaking canon part really bugged me.
Unknown Hazard was just too grey, dark and depressing. Was quite fun to play though.
It didn’t consider Canals due to its late entry, although if the lightning hadn’t been so bright and it had been a bit longer I think it would have won.
So, who did I finally pick?
What’s Thru Here, ALyx?
Even though the canon thing was annoying, I felt that I should penalise the author because I did not mention it in the rules.
The start was well done and it seemed as if I could be where I was supposed to be.
There was no clear winner in my mind and I am sure some of you will disagree, especially the authors!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who entered and hope they can continue to do so.
The series of mapping competitions, has individual winners but they also accumulate points for entering, winning and other aspects. There will be a grand prize at the end.
All entrants: 5 points
Tony DeBlasio: +5 points for winning.
Tony DeBlasio: +2 points for the start of the map
Justin Carlton: +2 points for making me believe I was in building from Ep2.
The playthrough below is provided by Custom Gamer. See more of his playthroughs on this site: VP: Custom Gamer
The playthrough below is provided by Custom Gamer as part of The Ville Retrospective event.
Which DoorVille map did you believe kept the atmosphere of the area AND was fun to play?
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Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 12 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 1 Hours, 30 Mins by theattackcorgi
Total Time Played: 6 Hours
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Certainly not the best mapping competition I have run but not the worst either.
I enjoyed all entries to varying degrees.
In other competitions the winner was clear to me from the moment I finished playing all the entries, but not so in this competition. No entry stood out as much better than the rest for the criteria I judged it on.
I hope you enjoy playing the maps and below are some thoughts about each entry.
Above the Canals
I think that this relied too much on the visuals of the actual HL2 game. I understand why the map has lots of invisible walls but it really broke the immersion for me.
I don’t think the author carefully read the rules, because this should have been done without any invisible walls.
The actual map seemed to fit the location very well, but I admit I haven’t gone to the play to find it and compare.
All in all I felt the author did a good job of making the are fit the location but it was perhaps too ambitious for such a short competition time. Too many parts were too bland. The battle with the metrocops was too easy and same for the helicopter.
Amplifission
This looks and plays like a Miigga map. The problem is that Half-Life 2 doesn’t. I feel that Miigga didn’t do a good job of making me believe that the area I was in was really what could have been behind that door.
The gamplay was too “Miigga” as well: shoot enemies that drop in, find puzzle, solve puzzle, shoot charging Combine soldiers, look for way to exit area etc etc.
There’s no doubt it was fun to play, but I just didn’t feel it was the right map to win.
What’s Thru Here, Alyx?
I certainly enjoyed the start of this and beside the canon thing and what seemed to be an invisible wall by the pickup truck, this was a fun map to play.
It was not too ambitious but didn’t feel tiny either. The author used the area well, although I suspect if I played it a few times I could find some exploits.
You Missed One
There’s little wrong with this entry expect it wasn’t much fun to play. If this is what was actually in the building from EP2, I probably wouldn’t be complaining but since it’s a stand alone map I hoped for more.
Unknown Hazard
I can’t quite put my finger on what I didn’t like about this but it was perhaps too dark and depressing. It was pretty fun to play and probably has the most replay value of all the entries but nothing really excited me.
Canals?
It is interesting that this is the second entry for the same door and it’s good to compare this with Miigga’s. As much as I enjoyed it, the lighting was just too bright and although the area looked perfectly set up for a strategic battle, the combine were too easy to kill.
They should have come from more directions.
Philip. you sound utterly dissapointed with all of them. How is it possible this got a Play It Now from you?
It didn’t get a Play It Now from me, it got a Play It. My recommendations are different from readers. I feel that all readers should play this mod.
I didn’t mean to sound “Utterly disappointed” but I have to admit to being a little disappointed. I really felt the theme offered really interesting possibilities.
I guess it could have had more entries, but your expectations might be set too high, considering that these are 10-day maps.
I don’t believe so. The amount of work people put in was fair, it was more the style and ideas rather than the quantity of content.
I agree in here, and a HUNTER or maybe 2 would be just fitted perfect in there!, and maybe a gunship or a heli, would be great to fight in there too.
It sounds like this was a competiton which was good for mappers but not so fun for the players.
It is a shame that the competition is limited to Episode 2 because I think it would be nice to open one up to a wider range of people with the new Portal puzzle maker. I want to make maps but always have problems with Hammer.
This site is not really focused on portal, so it would be silly to have a Portal competition. Especially for the new Portal editor which is focused on not needing a website to see and play the maps.
Yeah as a gamer i’m really picky and I probably wouldn’t play a PORTAL comp. i’d see it as a pain in the but, because is annooying for me to play 6 or more maps just center in the portal puzzle solver dynamic that I don’t used to enjoy with portal mappers-moders too much, I prefer combat and fun arround the action fights and environments HL2 brings…
Yeah, I’d love some HL1 competitions as well.
Well, there was one and it only got one entry, but there will be more in future.
Confession about my map: The competition theme didn’t really inspire me much. I wanted to enter anyway. I ended up not really putting all my effort in. I lazily ran with pretty much any idea I got without thinking about it much.
And now for my short reviews of the other maps:
Above the canals
Lots of invisible walls. Low framerate so I guess the map was not very well optimised.
I could not find the third battery, but funnily enough the puzzle accepted a barrel as a substitute for a battery. Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/tDHiP.jpg
Use a filter_activator_name next time to fix this.
The combat was not particularly exciting either. The metrocops kind of just stood there and fired at me while I was doing the same to them. Also, the helicopter required a ridiculous amount of hits to take down.
Other than these problems, the map was alright.
What’s Thru Here, Alyx?
I got stuck in this one quite a few times. It’s never clear what you’re supposed to do and fighting a squad of combine soldiers without any weapons besides the crowbar is kind of silly.
It wasn’t that bad but I don’t understand why this won, to be honest.
Also, having the [spoiler]number be identical no matter which way you read it is kind of weird. Had no idea whether it’s 1986 or 9861.[/spoiler]
You Missed One
Very well-made map. Perhaps a little bit too cramped. Also a bit confusing.
Probably would have won this competition if it was up to me
Unknown Hazard
Quite atmospheric, albeit lacking a bit in visuals. Used maybe a few too many zombies. I liked the “sneaking” and the grenade hole in the wall.
Overall a pretty good map
Canals
The bloom is murdering my eyes
The combat could be more exciting; the combine soldiers are just running directly at me at regular intervals.
Overall a fun map and it looks a lot more HL2 than my map does, for sure.
Maybe that barrel was full of acid with a few lead sheets wet on it lol.
Sorry for the bloom/hdr in my entry. I don’t want to murderer peoples” eyes. 🙂
Here are my reviews:
Above the Canals
I was looking for a door, but found a breakable window. The progression was a bit weird in the beginning, many hard turns. I didn’t like the invisible walls, they blocked large open spaces. Felt awkward, made me frustrated. I didn’t like the kill triggers. Visually the map could have been stronger. That area works okay in HL2 since you are riding a boat. But here, in this map, you are higher up and see behind the scenes. A lot of backdrop models are close to the player.
I like battery puzzles. I enjoy looking for them. But this battery puzzle was a bit lame. I found one but spent ages looking for the next one. As a last attempt I decided to backtrack to the beginning of the map… where I found the missing battery. Not good.
Most of the encounters played bad for me. Headcrabs out of canister stood still, Combines at the end had no cover, making them easy kills and their behaviour boring. The helicopter took way too many hits, I thought I did something wrong and looked for other possibilities.
Interesting area to choose, but I didn’t enjoy it too much.
Amplifission
This map looks really good, but doesn’t feel Half-Life 100%. Gameplay wise it’s also, at times, a bit outside the Half-Life universe. I get Portal vibes. 🙂
The map feels a bit random throughout. Like many slices of different cakes, all merge to be one. Nom nom!
Overall it looks and plays great. I like the variation between encounters and puzzles. Good job!
What’s Thru Here, Alyx?
Visually interesting. Love the amount of details and the area itself. But the script failed on me, I think.. I spent a long time trying to understand what to do. Breaking crates, pushing every item and button I could find. Had some random encounter with combines and a Spider standing outside. But nothing seemed to make things progress.
Really confusing map.
You Missed One
Interesting design, I love pipes. But this one I didn’t finish, I had no idea what to do or how to progress. I managed to push some buttons and turn some wheels. But after a while I just got bored of not knowing, getting stuck and doing same thing over and over.. I gave up. And having Alyx, outside, fighting.. that just made me nervous.
Unknown Hazard
Cool intro! Linear freedom. I like feeling of having an advantage and a choice. The map played really well for me, most encounters were really fun. Some nice exploration areas. The ending was a bit odd. I ran past the combines at the end and up the stairs towards the light. Was prompted with a fade and success text, but the game was still running and I managed to get killed while having my black screen.
Anyway, I liked this map. Well done! 🙂
Just finished playing through all of the maps. While I won’t say I was overly-impressed, I do think that all the mappers did pretty well. I feel Migga’s “Amplifission” was by far the best mapping-wise; the detail was great, good lighting, fun gameplay, just a generally good map. Though unfortunately it didn’t seem to fit the style of the area very well imo :/ I think WizardExt’s “Canals” felt the closest to an actual HL2 map, and I greatly enjoyed it despite its short length and the brightness. If it weren’t for the late entry, I would consider it the clear winner. All the others I enjoyed as well; I thought that those two were the crowning achievements though.
Thanks for the criticism on my own map btw, and apologies for its problems. I soon discovered while making it that the nature of the area was demanding an abysmal amount of invisible walls. I tried my best to avoid them, but that required either placing in a ton of very obvious and out-of-place looking barriers (which I had to do as well regardless) or making it very open, which I thought would make it feel too distant from linear HL2 maps. The gameplay was dull too; the last part of the map, the attack on the Combine fortress and the heli battle, was incredibly rushed as I completed it in the last 3 hours of the competition, right after staying up all night to finish it. I rather wish I’d submitted it late as a more finished product, like what occured with Canals. Though luckily I learned a lot, and ofc there are the other 5 to look forward to working on ^^
Btw, in several of the maps, including my own, I found that the scenes didn’t play :/ is anyone getting this same problem?
My turn to review? I can see why Phillip had a hard time judging, all of the entries seemed to have their drawbacks.
I didn’t mean for my map to be too confusing, I tried to make it as obvious as possible without completely giving it away. For anyone stuck,
Hint:
[spoiler]You want the crate tank to match the headcrab tank. Watch the water level and the red/green indications on the control panel.[/spoiler]
How to solve:
[spoiler]There are four valves you have to close. Each emits steam so listen for the sound. The opening to get behind the pipes is a busted part of the fence on above the stairs. Turn on the bubbles and use the gravity gun to pull the crate out.[/spoiler]
Above the Canals
I liked how it tied some things together, but the swarm of metro cops I mowed down at the end as well as the chopper more or less ruined the experience for me. I’d place it second on the believability ranking.
Amplifission
I’ve seen this mapping style before. As already mentioned, it doesn’t feel like Half Life. I would say it is my pic for most entertaining, though the way a few things were put together detracted from the experience.
What’s Thru Here, Alyx?
I didn’t personally like this one very much. I was confused about what was gong on, why it was happening, and what I was supposed to do the whole way through. The introduction was a nice touch though. The funny thing is that I thought about using that exact door.
Unknown Hazard
My first pick for believability, though not perfect. Also a tie with Amplifission for most fun to play. There was a reasonable variety in game play, though the setting was a bit bland. Hard to criticize for only ten days, my entry only had one room. This map would win it for me, except the ending had way too many shotgun toting combine and I couldn’t tell if they were infinite or if I was just supposed to run around them.
Canals
BLOOM! + combine = an okay entry. Some of it was fun but it fell a little flat for me. I think part of that has to do with my inability to remember anything except the area in the screenshots.
Overall? Hard to say. By the criteria of the competition I think I would choose Unknown Hazard as the winner.
As Migga1 said, the theme was not really inspiring. I made like until the zombie bashing the door, then I was out of ideas, it felt like there were no point in continuing. And the name Unknown Hazard sounds cooler than the map actually is.
Can’t wait for the next competition in a couple of weeks.
Played through the first 3 and I think I’m one of the few to finish You Missed One, in 2 ways actually.
[spoiler]
First way was actually the more obvious to me, didn’t pay much attention to valves since I saw a crate that had to be blown up, which I did: with the zombine’s nade.. And then Alyx said we have to go so I left lol game over
And that hinted me the end, but not the means to it, because the fences that open aren’t being differentiated enough as everything around is fency and grey (didn’t see the locks at first) and, most frustrating, not all valves turned! Maybe enhance that smoke, cus for me it wasn’t obvious that SOME of the valves turned because they had gas coming out of them. Also for being so cramped I failed to visualize all that needed to be turned, even if I did know which are ‘turnable’. Had a rough time finding the second to last and a tremendous hard time finding the last one, but finally made it.
[/spoiler]
I didn’t manage to enter in time. However it taught me quite a lot, I spent far too much time on little things. Either way, im still working on my map. I will finish it after my exams.
I will review these maps another time.
I’m sorry If I confused the names but the proper one is Tabe.
Even though it sounds like insults, it teaches you lessons. Now that people said it, my maps ARE dark and depressing. Now I know what to work on until the next competition.
I’ve done this as play each game and then write and on to the next one. As an overall for all the entries this is most definitely a play it now. However I’ve rated each one as if it was a single entity. As the longest ” Above the canals” was the one that disappointed me the most.
Mr. Walrus chose to use familiar parts of the HL2 series rather than build new, but in the time saved could have used a little more inventiveness to bring it alive.
Miigga! Well as far as I am concerned, just carry on in your own inimitable style.
Tony DeBlasio! More please.
Above the canals:
As has been said already the invisible walls were frustrating, but the one place they should be in they weren’t! You can get into an area I’m pretty sure you’re not meant to and there seems no way out? Fortunately I found the first battery first time, however at that stage it was not evident where you will need it. Apart from a couple of zombies and headcrabs at the beginning the only combat was at the end, it was not that much fun as the metrocops almost stood there waiting to be shot. Another pain was the helicopter, it takes a stupid amount of rockets to bring it down even after seeing a body fly out of it!
Looks-wise, it was OK using HL2 stuff for such a short development time.
As with any mod or map I play (for me at least) fun is the major factor and in this one it was only a light dusting. Overall on its own it’s a Play it Later.
Amplifission:
Ok! it’s from Miigga so we already know its going to be fun and look good. Not his most difficult but there were some doors in it. Overall on its own it’s a Play it now.
You missed one:
It looked good and was as confusing as the pipework in in a chocolate factory (I used to work in one), but it wasn’t much fun for me. Combat consisted of one Zombine and two fast head crabs. I think I finished it, I tried to open the green door and it went back to the menu?
What confused me most was why do you start with so many weapons most of which you don’t need? Despite it’s good looks. Overall on its own it’s a Maybe.
What’s thru here, Alyx?:
Well that was (very) short! But sweet.
it’s not often that a short game is more than a modicum of fun but this one was quite a little gem in my opinion. For what there was of it it looked good, played well and above all was fun. I was a little worried when the bad guys turned up and I only had the crowbar, but a couple of Thwack’s and they gladly gave me some more weapons (very gentlemanly of them).
I played this through a second time, with noclip on to see if I missed anything as the gas canisters against the wall are just begging to blow a hole in it but alas no. Overall on its own it’s a Play it now (and nearly a personal favourite).
Unknown Hazard:
And yet another short offering! Not as good as ” What’s thru here, Alyx?” but still not bad!
A bit dark, but still a reasonable amount of combat, its maps like this that make you wish the torch was a bit more realistic and didn’t die after a few minutes. It looks OK and indeed is a short donation to the fun fund. Overall on its own it’s a Play it Later.
Canals:
Ouch! This brings back some painful memories of San Diego, California!
All things aside, this was not that bad, it was very short with some combat and it had a door. Overall on its own it’s a Maybe.
Phillip, despite your reservations this competition provided some interesting entries, probably due to the time limit. More time allows for more complacency toward deadlines.
when I first played half life 2 many years ago I sometimes wondered “whats behind that door” or “were does that door go to ” and thanks to “doorville” we know get a chance to see unseen glimpses into new area,s of the half life 2 world
so I shall do this review in order of map…..
ABOVE THE CANALS is a interesting map which begins with the water hazard area of the original game…. and it took me a while to find the door until I realised it was actually a window ! .. however after that was smashed with the crowbar you will greeted with what looks like a scrapyard…. after killing a few zombies and arming yourself with a pistol you find yourself again looking for a door…. until you find the fence instead…. from then on you encounter a battery puzzle… and many guys found it hard to locate the 3rd battery … however this is located earlier in the game which I thought was good…. the rest of the map was pretty standard as hl2 scripts go…..
AMPLIFISSION.. is my personal favourite…… this is standard MIGGA work… to be honest MIGGA is my favourite hl2 mapper ( with leon being my fav modder ) … his work is class and AMPLIFISSION is quality… a good mix of puzzles,action and nice textures…. I personally thought this should of won.. but I suppose some may disagree..
WHATS THRU HERE ALYX… is a cramped map but extremely well made… to get that much detail into such a small area isnt easy but its done well….. I found this a bit annoying at parts… but thats probally me since I prefer more free roaming maps … but not bad
UNKNOWN HAZARD … is another excellent map…. maybe a bit dark at parts but great to play.. the end could of been better…. but a well balanced map with not too many npc,s and some good set peices
CANALS … is another good map and basically is a extension of when you first enter the canals in hl2 before meeting the rebel and vortiguan …(sorry about the spelling ) ….. anyway theres a good firefight but the lighting is crazy in this map….. if the author is gonna extend this map and release it as a dedicated hl2 map then he needs to fix the lighting…
On a personal note I rated the maps as follows :
Above the canals: PIN
Amplifission: PF
You missed one: PIL
What’s thru here, Alyx?: PIL
Unknown Hazard: PIN
Canals: PIL
as phillip stated theres been better mapping competitions.. however this was good fun and worth playing… so as a overall mapping comp I give it PLAY IT NOW!
I understand why you say that but the theme and the rules were about making it feel as though it belonged to the area chosen. If Miigga had chosen and area from Ep2 then he probably would have won. But he chose HL2 and his level is out of place for that reason.
good point phillip…. how about the next mapping comp being “comedyville” …. allthough there are not many parts of hl2 that could be described as funny it would be a challenge …. there was a mod called “half mind” which was basically hl2 with some funny alterations such as dancing metro cops….
worth considering !
All of the competitions have been planned, just not announced.
All things considered, you got a whole lotta entries. Perhaps this smaller style allows mappers to not end up binning a map because it’s too ambitious.
Thank you all for the feedback and thanks again Phillip for picking my Map. After playing the others I could see it definitely could have gone to them.
I started mapping about 3 and a half months ago and this is my first released map although the second one I worked on. The first called FreedomTrain is larger and also set in the Halflife 2 world playing as Gordon. It is pretty much done gameplay wise but optimization will be tricky. I’m a slow mapper I think, but will try to get more entries in this contest if I have the time when the 10 days are running. Mapping is peaceful and addictive and I wish I had more time.
Feedback is good.Thanks!
Above the canals
This one had a good idea but I got a little dissapointed. The enviroments are dull the rebel assault on the base was nice though. The heli fight at the end took forever. It could take alot of beating, that chopper. Its not a great map but its not bad either.
Amplifission
My first thought was, Wow. The starting room was really nice to look at, and it kept the same atmosphere through the entire map. I liked the puzzles a lot this would be the winner if the combat would be any good. I felt like the map just threw a bunch of enemies at me to slow me down.
You Missed one
This one was really creative and fun to play. Its entirely puzzle-based. In my opinion, a good HL2 maps should mix combat with puzzle. But that was not a rule, so I would say this would be a clear winner for me.
Unkown Hazard
I can’t review my own map 😐
What’s thru here, alyx?
Something about this map really annoyed me. It felt wrong, somehow. I really could not understand how this could be the winner. Nothing personal, its a very well made map, but I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the others.
Canals
This is a beatiful map if not for the eye-burning bloom. I seriously needed to turn down my brightness to be able to see. The combat was really fun though, and I really belived that could really be behind the door.
I’ll be continuing my review now, with a recommendation of “Play It” now that I finished the mod.
Above the canals: Actual hl2 setting, but window in DoorVille? Never seen so many invisible walls in one map, nor so many police in one hl place; final battle was duck, wait, stand, shoot, reload, repeat!
Amplifission: I might be Miigga’s new fan and start playing all his maps since I only see quality stuff coming from him. But I agree, it misses the atmosphere, the story, some connection to the hl2 universe, despite being in it visually (textures, models, props). Other than that, top notch work as always. You and Au-Heppa from HLSS should sit down and talk, and then do great things together 🙂
Already reviewed You Missed One in a huge spoiler up above. Now I took a pause here in the middle of the mod, but wanted to say this:
PP was probably looking for bright ideas, but even those take time, and authors spent 5 percent on that and the rest on implementing, when the desired ratio would’ve been a lot higher, 20/80 at least. Because the actual map imo shouldn’t necessarily be big in order to be good, gameplay shouldn’t be long. Let’s be real, how MUCH quality mapping can you make in 10 days? Instead, imo, the map should be rather short and sweet, innovative, funny even. Like finding someone dancing in a bathroom, or saying a dirty joke to a colleague, or finding plans and sketches for Borealis. That (last one) would’ve gone straight to my heart. In other words, I would’ve wanted to see an elaborated and playable hl2 easter-egg.
And the 2nd part:
Indeed I can see how the prize would go to “What’s through there“, even though in the first 15 minutes or so I was about to give up because nothing was happening and thought to myself well map must be broken! The button to open the door beneath the siren is also kind of buggy, you press it once for the siren to go off and then try as you might to push it again and shut the loud siren down, except it doesn’t work for about a minute or two. Now on my first playthrough I didn’t know that, so I only pushed it once and ended up going “What the hell am I supposed to do?!”. What was more annoying was the damn siren itself, that not even game pause would pause it.. And another bug: couldn’t pick up the nades.. But when the action started I was right as rain. I do hope the author fixes all these dead times and we’ll see a short but polished release out of this, because I see potential.
Just as I went back to finish the mod, I was going “OK.. 2 more left”, so yea, I guess this wasn’t the most successful competition here on PP.
Yet what a pleasant surprise! Unknown hazard would have taken it for me. The only draw back would be the improper ending. Exploration is rewarded, for eg the shotgun is neatly hidden; layout was new style, like the pools of bodies and holes in brick walls; I also like the way mappers find new ways to give items to players, like the hanging health kit, tho probably few notice such small details.
Too bad no puzzles, but I hardly missed them while playing. Short and sweet for me.. I dunno why people called it dark and depressing, maybe I got used to bad lighting from playing other maps, also I found the darkness in trend with all the bloody dead bodies and I wish I hadn’t missed what looked like some great fighting. I for one had a blast playing this one!
And as I went back to play the last entry, now I was glad I had the chance to play this mod, as Miigga’s and Tobias” were my fav entries.
And I have to ask, was there a rule about the ggun? Or were the entries stages of the game where the player didn’t acquire it just yet?
Canals.. hmm, is that it? As there were no bugs, there was no spark either. And I agree, map was awful bright, I know HDR is nice and all, but maybe darker skybox (sorry if that’s a newbish idea)? At least the setting looked most familiar (second, of course, to Above the Canals) and was 2 minutes of good fighting. But oh so short.
I don’t know if I have any final words, but seeing how short that last map was, I might go and do something I rarely do: replay my favorite 2 maps of DoorVille!
And forgot to actually click on a recommendation! Silly me..
I only give it a “Play It Now” because I consider some entries a must-play – read up to see which.
I like to judge the competitions more as a whole project, than for the particular entries they have. That said, I found this DOORVILLE comp, as a very fresh and nice piece to play, so that’s why I think this competittion retakes worthily the succesfull way of other great and interesting competitions as Sniper, Hunter or Rooftop Ville.
That’s really relevant, and well here I think all of the entries were very environmental, and offered cool small battles.
In some maps specially in What’s thru here Alyx? and Above the Canals were the only ones where the doors where actually the main argument of those maps, I liked more Avobe the Canals, because gave me feeling that i’ve been there, and the combat in that open field at the end was great and I really enjoyed it, tough I would have prefered to get the RPG and maybe a crowbar sooner in order to strike by surprise in that final battle, despite of the too much invisible walls and that unuseful airboat which got me confused for a bit, that map was the most beautiful in view terms and I allways like good looking scenarios in HL2 maps specially inthe open areas.
What’s thru Here Alyx? was an ok winner, tough I tought maybe ATC was also deserving of the triunph, WTHA? was the best winner because it was the best map which developed the “beyond the door” concept, tough that “out of the cannon” concept was wierd and I mean just crazy!, think Gordon gets out of the path and kill a CMB platoon, then shoot down a Strider and then confortably gets back to alyx again, CRAZY!!
With Amplifission, I agree it was a totally100% migga map, but maybe too much in his style, the door there was just a big stuff to go on, and solve basic puzzle.
Unknown hazard I give personaly a Mention of honour to this one why? because I think it was just subestimated just because of its darky aspect, but actually the first ambush where you precisely enter to a secondary door to take the CMB by surprise was a clever and a really fun detail, and also the last battle against the CMB units and the fast zombies was something that I enjoyed.
In You Missed One, the whole thing was to solve the wierd valves puzzle in there and that’s it, the doors were abscent at ALL, I think the Canals entrie was so much more intense and interesting tough there were not doors at all there!
Ok so in conclussion I liked this enries and I hope we see the rest Competitions as playable, fun and with interesting combat in them as this first one was.
Wow. Everybody thinks different. I almost feel sorry for Philip, having to judge wich one is the best. You are doing a great job, Phil!
Indeed. I was expecting a poll to rate the winner, perhaps in the next ones?
It’s been there since I made the post, directly above the Reader Recommendations data.
I thought it was over aka replaced by an active poll hmm well then, how come you picked a winner haha
Because I paid for the prize. The Poll is just a chance for readers to see what other people think.
heh forgot about that part, my apologies
I can’t really add much as a layman gamer and not a mapper, but from my perspective…Above the canals looked good but must be memory hungry as it ran real slow for me, the other maps played fine, good fun in all, but as usual with this kind of thing, a little short, but at least someone is bothering to do something for the rest of us…nice one guys.
Above the Canals
It was an interesting route. First impressions: Extremely laggy. Mapping was alright, but nothing special. The battle was pretty boring, there was little cover against the mass of civil protection, breaking in was just pressing a button, not so clever. The chopper seemed nearly invinsible, very boring just shooting it was a rocket, it didn’t move much, pretty un-inspired. There were a lot of
I recommend you try to learn how to optimise. I can understand why the battles were a little dull as you might not have spent enough time to test/polish it. Overall it could do with a lot more work.
Amplifission
This was fun. The mapping was very good. The combat was well degined. The puzzles, although generic, were fun e.g. The batteries were hid in a clever place.
You missed one
Interesting, the mapping was alright but the gameplay was pretty boring. Just press several buttons/wheels. Then the cache didnt even pop out, was stood there trying to grav gun the cache out. It was still quite good considering the competition.
What’s through here, Alyx?
There were no puzzle or combat. The mapping seemed good at first, but the repetetive loud ringing bell and flickering light were un-neccesary and pretty annoying.
Unknown Hazard
The mapping was good, the combat was OK, there were no puzzles. The combat with the white super soldiers and the shotgunners was a bit strange, they kept on respawning instantly after you killed them. I think this was the end. Eventually when you die you respawn at the beginning of the map. This little problem left a bad taste.
Canals
This was fun. The mapping was good although there was a bit of a problem with very bright HDR. The combat was good, although minimal. There were no puzzles, although it is not a problem.
I was a bit unfair on What’s through here Alyx. However, i’m sure I would have persevered if I could stop the repetitive ringing bell at the start (was this a glitch? the gate didnt open) and the flickering light. Not good for my headache at the time of playing xD Maybe I will play it another time.
I gotta say, first time entering a mapping competition and its really fun to see other mappers work and hear what other people says about mine. Now I know exactly what I did wrong and what I did right. Thank you, everyone, especially Philip.
Heh, forgot to login 🙂
I enjoyed some maps more than others, which is as expected:
Above the canal: aside from the invisible walls, I had problems with this on my computer. It kept complaining about missing scenes so I didn’t get any vocals from the rebels, and I guess that is why the door wasn’t unlocked. I had to noclip through it to finish.
Amplifission: thought it had good action, puzzles were relatively easy to solve, and overall it was decent
You missed one: I didn’t enjoy the cramped spaces very much
What’s Thru Here, Alyx: I really liked this one, and I found all the weapons and HEV suit. Getting the HEV suit almost killed me, but it was worth it
Unknown Hazard: ok but nothing special
Canals: pretty good but really short.
My choice for winner was “What’s Thru Here, Alyx?”
Thanks for organizing the contest, Phillip!
I want to know the name of the song playing in the menu, you also used it at the end of the Miigga interview and I think also for another Ville. It’s awesome and I want it..
Please check you gmail account.
Just as I was going to say “never mind, I iz hacker”
Thanks!
Well, it seems not many people liked my map…but at least now I know the reasons.
-Too dark
-Too grey
-No Puzzles
-Not enough freedom
+Atmospheric
+Kinda creative small things?
+Balanced gameplay
Anyways, I can’t thank you enough for setting up this competition. I really enjoy it.
Aww don’t be put down by the first reviews. Like I said, I voted for you and I’m pretty exigent. I’m really looking forward to playing your future entries. Speaking of, have you got any past work? And if you ever need a beta tester, just ask PP for my mail.
Thanks, dude 🙂
Its mostly unfinished maps that scrap around in my source sdk folder, not a single finished playable map, but I am working on stuff now to practice for the next competition.
I’ll let you know when I have a new map, if you wanna try it out 🙂
Also don’t forget to add autosaves, I replayed your level and wanted to rush the last fight but died and had to replay from the beginning 😐 I noticed miigga’s map had at least 2 autosaves..
For some reason, 4 out of the 6 maps won’t unlock for me, even though I’ve played the first two all the way through. Is this a known issue? The thumbnails are greyed out and don’t have a selection box lighting up on them. :/ I very much want to finish these!
For what it’s worth I thought the Above The Canals one was inspired. I enjoyed it quite a bit, because that location is a place I tend to dwell for a while, occasionally noclipping around to look at things there. To have that area extended was a little gem in my opinion.
Amplifission was good, but so dark I had trouble seeing a lot of the options for where to go and what to do. I prefer a bit more lighting in maps, though I can understand why the specific locations didn’t have more light.
I will update with my full review if I can get to those others!
Your issue has not been reported before on this mod. I set it so that they are all unlocked from the beginning, so that players can choose the order they play in.
Open the doorville folder, then the cfg folder and then open the config.cfg file in a text editor (not word processor) and look for “sv_unlockedchapters”. Mine is on line 212. Change the the number to the right of the text to 15. Restart the mod. That should fix the issue.
Excellent, thank you, I’ll try that today. It does seem really strange to me, because I’ve never had this issue before – but then I don’t think I’d played any villes on my win7 rig. If it says anything other than 15 I’ll definitely tell you. Not sure why it would be different.
Of course, with my luck I’ll open it up today and it’ll be fine 😉
This is very strange, my config reads
“sv_unlockedchapters “2”
So I changed that. 🙂 Thank you! Going to enjoy the rest of these now and submit my review when I can!
Still not working, for some reason it won’t save. I’m going to redownload it and see if that helps.
*edit again*
Nope, for whatever reason, even after I’ve saved the file with a new number, the config reverts back to 2, even after downloading and replacing it. :/
Try making a copy of the file in the same folder. Edit the new file, close it, open it again and make sure the save worked. If it did, delete the original config file and rename the copy to the original name.
Will do that, thanks so much 😀
🙁
It seems to create a new config file every time, that replaces even the one I re-wrote and renamed.
I’m just going into the console and typing map 😉 Sorry to be so much of a pain.
Ok, watching the playthrough it appears that on my map, “Above the Canals”, the custom audio file isn’t functioning- in the rebel outpost, the radio is supposed to play a sound clip describing how the rebels are organizing an assault on the Combine outpost. I’m very sorry about this- it was a pretty big part of the map, my attempt at a “storyline” aspect, and without it that portion is rather confusing.
I believe the problem is that I sent a file called “sounds” instead of “sound”, thus placing it in the wrong area. When playing the mod, please just hop into the main Doorville folder and rename “sounds” to “sound”, then it should function perfectly.
can’t add much that hasn’t already been stated in other comments but I had fun with each of the entries and suggest a play for all. given the time build constraints I applaud all of the authors efforts Thank You to all
Overall I felt this was one of the better competitions. There were plenty of interesting ideas used, although many of the maps were quite short.
My ratings:
Winner: You Missed One, rated 8 out of 10, maybe a 9. I was fascinated by the cramped environment, the concepts etc.
Amplifission, rated 8 out of 10
Above the Canals, rated 7 out of 10
What’s Through Here, rated 7 out of 10
Unknown Hazard, rated 6 out of 10
Canals, rated 4 or 5 out of 10, however I believe it could have been made into something much better. I was thinking, “this is starting to show some promise”, then it ended.
Above the Canals by Mr. Walrus
This map is very interesting “cause explores a part of the game very well, presenting a Combine station in a creative way. Although, it’s very laggy and the combat with the combines is a bit awkward — too many enemies and little or no help by the allies.
Amplifission by Miigga
This map is beautiful and has a very good action pace! It is so well made and would perfectly fit in the actual game. I think this is the best map of the package because it has the best design and gameplay. It’s the kind of gameplay where you must take screenshots “cause it’s so damn beautiful environments.
What’s Thru here, Alyx? by Tony DeBlasio
It’s curious the way this map plays with a beginning part of the game. It’s awkward and somehow funny for the HL2 fans — in a good way, of course —, because it’s so anarchic in view of the original story.
You Missed One by Justin Carlton AKA SneakySpeckMan
Good puzzle-solving map.
Unknown Hazard by Tobias Janderå AKA TabMan
Map with great dark atmosphere and a nice hardcore shooting scene with fast zombies and combines fighting each other.
Canals by David Lundvall AKA WizardExt
Nice shooting map, but I think the use of HDR is excessive.
sorry that it took me so long before I played this new mapping competition mappack, but I am very busy mapping myself.
overall it was great fun just to play some new fresh sp-maps again with Hl2 (ep2), I have played about each and everyone of them as most of you have. and there are not many new ones (or mods and or TC’s for that matter) these days.
so new maps are always welcome!!
i have watched the great walkthrough movie above from Custom Gamer, after I played all maps myself and I have to agree with nearly everything he says while he is playing. so I will not write for each map a complete comment here, (unless a mapper wants me to). that said I still would like to add some things;
some maps where a bit to easy to me, in the way of mapping. the autor just had taken a original HL2 map and changed or added stuff to it . what made in the end that about 10% of it was original or so. I know this contest ask the mapper to continue with original maps, (and add a mappart behind a door). but some really did go heavenly overboard with how much they used of original maps. others where really very short, of course is the time you get as mapper quit short to complete a full map, but still where some very short.
and it looked like some maps weren’t tested at all by other people as the mapper himself. something I noticed and didn’t see back in the Custom’s Gamer review was the map Unknown Hazard by Tobias JanderÃ¥ AKA TabMan. at the end you have to fight against a load of combines, fast zombies and headcrabs, what I love. but, when you walk to the end of the hallway then you see all enemies spawning, and not a few but loads of them. so all you need to do is just stand there and kill each new spawned one, what made it really to easy as the end of the map. this is a real beginners mistake, adn beta testing would have pointed this out, when properly done.
still, loved it, it gave me quit some time with new maps.
thanks for that Phillip!
Leon
I don’t know exactly what I meant by my stupid comment above, because I really liked playing this mod! The concept for the competition is intriguing, a chance to go back and take another route in Half-Life 2 is really cool.
First off was Above the Canals which did a really nice job of fitting it into the Half-Life 2 environment, and most of the level worked in that regard, apart from a strange Combine base at the end. The only other problem is seeing the nasty “skybox trees” up close.
Then there was Amplifission, which was extremely well made and enjoyable, but I didn’t think that Miiga’s style really fit in with the part of Half-Life 2 it was supposed to. Then again it was probably the best overall in terms of gameplay.
What’s thru Here Alyx I didn’t really like, most of the triggers didn’t seem to work properly when I played through it, and it was pretty counter-inutuitive.
You Missed One was cool, and I liked how it fit into the Radar side-mission from Episode 2. It was interesting how the mapper created a tight contained environment, that was maze-like but not too confusing. Then again I think I might have slightly broken it with crates!
The next map, Unknown Hazard, was a curious one, I liked the stealth area at the start, but later on I thought the graphics were quite poor, although the gameplay was fun. It also didn’t seem to relate to its position behind the door at all. Perhaps a shortage of time was the issue on this one??
Lastly, was Canals, which was set behind the same door as Miiga’s map, but seemed more believable to me. The issue was the short length and the fact that you need to turn off HDR to be able too see!
Although I can see the issue Phillip had with the entries, I quite enjoyed this competition and it was definitely worth playing.
Manually
Hard
1 Hour, 20 Minutes
Above the Canals
This map was not the greatest in my opinion. First of all I couldnt find the second car battery, so I nocliped after half a hour of looking in the same little area. Second of all the combine fight is too easy as all the combine just walk forward to be killed and the Helicopter fires too little
Amplifission
Ah, a Migga map. Just like all his others, too easy enimies and some stealth and puzzle elements
What’s thru Here Alyx
This one was my favorite. I liked how everything cramped into the little area all goes together to get the code to get to Alyx
You Missed One
An interesting concept. I like the complexity of the puzzle just for one lambda box. I do like the pipe parkour as well.
Unknown Hazard
Interesting……. Its fast paced and zombies. I love and hate Hl2 zombies. And Zombine. and… well you get it
Canals
MY EYES!!!! Well not really. Nice for a late entry except for the bloom and missing skybox
Overall all semi-good, I expected more from a 10 day time limit
Manually
Easy
1 Hour, 30 Minutes
I really wanted to rate this competition a PIN. I really did. The subject of it is so interesting and I remember playing a TR4 mod called “That One Door”, where you have to explore a door you couldn’t in the main game. It sounds really fun, but unfortunately, the entries were mostly just decent.
This was the first entry I played and it was a good way to begin. The beginning is basically the Station 12 section from the Water Hazard chapter. The way the door theme was implented was an interesting one. The combat was mostly OK, but it’s just too easy. The mapping, apart from the HL2 parts, was mostly big and I really liked the way certain events from HL2 were mixed with this entry. I also had some minor framerate issues, but nothing else. Overall, this is a pretty solid entry, but IMHO there were some things that were really annoying. For this reason it wasn’t my personal winner.
This is a map from Miigga, so I expected the puzzle centric gameplay and the great atmosphere, but this is a very different entry from what he’s made before. Even though the atmosphere is still great, there weren’t that many puzzles and the map focuses more on combat. Again, the door theme was implemented nicely. I didn’t really seem to find anything very annoying about this entry, and that’s why this is the winner for me.
Wow, this map was annoying. The concept is interesting enough, trying to find a cache, I liked that. But sadly, the door theme wasn’t implented as well. The biggest problem with this map is that it’s just so small, there aren’t many enemies to fight, and it was tedious as hell. The lighting though wasn’t as bad, I guess.
What. The. Fuck. Seriously though, WHAT HAPPENED HERE? This entry is the winner? I just found it annoying, stupid and illogical. The map itself is just a big room with a ton of useless stuff in it. Like for example, the citizens. WHY WERE THEY THERE? The combat though was nice I guess. Overall, I do not understand how this map ended up being the winner. IMHO it was boring, repetitive, and illogical. I do not recommend it.
There’s not a lot to say about this map. It’s a bit boxy, but the lighting was really nice. Combat was mostly just Combine, which I don’t seem to find bad. But – like Phillip said – it was very grey and depressing. Overall, this is a really nice map, but just didn’t do that well to be the winner.
And finally…
Well, even though this is a bonus map, I still find it to be quite enjoyable. Sure it was really short and sometimes the lighting was a bit off, but I liked the idea and it was really fun. Not a lot to say, really.
I really wanted to rate this competition a PIN. I really did. The subject of it is so interesting and I remember playing a TR4 mod called “That One Door”, where you have to explore a door you couldn’t in the main game. It sounds really fun, but unfortunately, the entries were mostly just decent.
This was the first entry I played and it was a good way to begin. The beginning is basically the Station 12 section from the Water Hazard chapter. The way the door theme was implented was an interesting one. The combat was mostly OK, but it’s just too easy. The mapping, apart from the HL2 parts, was mostly big and I really liked the way certain events from HL2 were mixed with this entry. I also had some minor framerate issues, but nothing else. Overall, this is a pretty solid entry, but IMHO there were some things that were really annoying. For this reason it wasn’t my personal winner.
This is a map from Miigga, so I expected the puzzle centric gameplay and the great atmosphere, but this is a very different entry from what he’s made before. Even though the atmosphere is still great, there weren’t that many puzzles and the map focuses more on combat. Again, the door theme was implemented nicely. I didn’t really seem to find anything very annoying about this entry, and that’s why this is the winner for me.
Wow, this map was annoying. The concept is interesting enough, trying to find a cache, I liked that. But sadly, the door theme wasn’t implented as well. The biggest problem with this map is that it’s just so small, there aren’t many enemies to fight, and it was tedious as hell. The lighting though wasn’t as bad, I guess.
WHAT? WHY THIS ENTRY? Seriously though, WHAT HAPPENED HERE? This entry is the winner? I just found it annoying, stupid and illogical. The map itself is just a big room with a ton of useless stuff in it. Like for example, the citizens. WHY WERE THEY THERE? The combat though was nice I guess. Overall, I do not understand how this map ended up being the winner. IMHO it was boring, repetitive, and illogical. I do not recommend it.
There’s not a lot to say about this map. It’s a bit boxy, but the lighting was really nice. Combat was mostly just Combine, which I don’t seem to find bad. But – like Phillip said – it was very grey and depressing. Overall, this is a really nice map, but just didn’t do that well to be the winner.
And finally…
Well, even though this is a bonus map, I still find it to be quite enjoyable. Sure it was really short and sometimes the lighting was a bit off, but I liked the idea and it was really fun. Not a lot to say, really.
These reviews were done after replaying the mod for The Ville Retrospective.
This level starts out strong but slowly falls apart as it goes on, unfortunately. The instantly recognisable area from Half-Life 2 is great and the initial exploration of the new areas is good. The level starts to break down once you hit the battery puzzle. Lots of invisible walls and ill-thought out battery locations are frustrating. The final assault on the combine base was lacking. Only a single piece of cover on the way in and a comical amount of metrocops on the inside. The chopper is built out of unobtanium or something and took about 20 rockets to take down which is silly!
It’s a Miigga map so the there is plenty of polish and that classic “Miigga map” look and feel to everything. The level starts out strong with some fun combat. It stumbles somewhat in the middle due to an annoying battery/stacking combo puzzle which is frustrating to carry out but recovers afterwards with more fun combat. Very abrupt ending!
Well, it’s another Tony DeBlasio map so everyone can safely throw all their acquired knowledge about how Half-Life 2 functions out of the damn window! 🙂 I feel like this level had a fairly solid foundation of slowly accessing different parts of the map as you acquired more tools but the execution is a mess and the map ends up being confusing, frustrating and illogical. Also, designers take note! THAT DAMN ALARM BELL, NEVER DO THIS, EVER, EVER EVER!!
A short and sweet level that slots nicely into Episode 2. There are some clever nuggets in here that help explain how the machine works or get the player to look at or notice certain environment elements. A great example is the sheet of glass on the floor as you approach the machinery in one section of the map. It gets the player to look up and see that the machine has a missing window segment at the top, critical for getting the player to understand what they have to do!
Activating all the valve wheels involves some simple exploration in order to find them all. The steam is a nice touch as you can home in the sounds in order to locate the wheels. The only real issue I had with the puzzle is that you couldn’t see how high the water level was from each valve wheel which made it awkward to work out if you had raised the water enough to collect the lambda cache.
Very simple visually but has some nice game play moments. The introduction is well thought out but I felt this thought was lacking in most of the sections of level after the start. The intro has a nice fight or flight feel that lets you observe the enemies before engaging and gives you a looping layout in order to surprise some combine soldiers from an unexpected angle. This type of game play is completely lacking from this point onward however, with the rest of the map feeling very linear in comparison. The only other notable part for me was the ending area. This are was fun to fight in as you could observe the ai fighting each other or wade in and help one side overwhelm the other. It was confusing what you were meant to actually do in this area though as enemies just kept on spawning.
The only other level in the pack where I felt like I was really just off the path beaten in Half-Life 2. Instant recognition of where I was helps a lot with this (just like the first map in the pack!) and David does a nice job, just like Mr. Walrus, of constantly letting the player see back into familiar parts of the main Half-Life 2 game. The combat in this map is rather straight forward and I think the combat area could have benefited from being broken up into smaller chunks with heavier line of sight blocking. I also was not a fan of the enemy combine soldiers not dropping their weapons/ammo when killed. Short but sweet!
I really like the theme for this one, so here we go:
It starts off alright. The atmosphere is nice, the combat is standard zombie fights. It kinda falls apart at the end, with a huge group of metrocops with no rhyme or reason, and then a rocket launcher fight with a helicopter, argh! As a side note, whenever I looked in a certain direction, the game slowed down a lot, which made the fight with the metrocops more difficult than it should’ve been. Did anybody else have this problem?
It’s a short and fun map. It looks pretty nice, it plays nice and it flows nice. The battery puzzle is a bit annoying in that I found one and didn’t think the other would be in the same place, but apart from that I enjoyed it a lot.
With all the weapons it gives you, I thought there would be more combat. It’s a kinda puzzley map where you have to find four valves. The visual language is a bit inconsistent as there are two valves you can’t turn and four you can, and one of the valves is hidden in a ridiculous place that took me forever to find. However, there is a certain charm to it, especially when you get outside the normal playing field.
]
I have no idea how this won, it’s just frustrating design choice after frustrating design choice. How about the suit being hidden in a box that doesn’t even look breakable? Or just having to wait a long time for combine to arrive? I don’t recommend this one.
While the visuals are bland and blocky, I actually had a lot of fun playing this one. Some fun fights, including a shotgunner/fast zombie shootout at the end. Also some nice things you can get through exploration. I enjoyed this one.
It’s a pretty fun combine shootout. The only problem is, the lighting is ludicrously bright, and it’s very difficult to see what’s going on.
Not a bad mappack, but only two maps I would definitely recommend. Next up, ElevatorVille!
Might be a bit late to post a review for a 2012 release, but I’m very glad I found this one. Great choice for a challenge, however only three of the maps truly did what it was meant to do in my opinion: Above the Canals, What’s Thru Here, Alyx? and Canals – to me that was walking through a door in the original Half-life 2 level into an area you were not meant to be in. That said all of the maps were enjoyable to play for me and interesting to explore. I’ll list off every entry and my review of it starting from my Favorite of the bunch.
Above the Canals – Favorite
What a great entry to start this one off with, this is what I use to imagine as a kid playing Half-Life 2 before I found out there really wasn’t a huge city behind all of the player clips. I spent countless hours trying to get above the canals as a kid hoping to see the world beyond and that is what I imagined I would find. Being able to clearly see your previous path made it ever so sweet. You even get to meet the guy who threw the supplies down! Even though the resistance base seemed to be missing dialogue and the final battle was… pretty awful with two dozen or so of copy and pasted CPs in a small base. The helicopter and a rocket launcher are not a great combo, neither does it make sense for Metrocops to store and RPG. Still, this is my favorite and I played through it twice, thank you for waking up my 10-year-old imagination again!
Ampliffision – 2nd
I don’t know if I would have known exactly where I was if not for the chapter image, and the location itself was not very interesting in a sense of venturing off from your designated path. However, the Pace was perfect for me. With quick and interesting puzzles and challenging, but not hard fights with some cool ways to take out groups of enemies not to forget the beautiful level design featured in this map, I actually wanted to keep playing after the end!Because of that, this is my second favorite pick!
You Missed One -3rd
Though it didn’t really give off the vibe of going off your path (I understand the premise of where it would’ve taken place) it was definitely a quality made and thought out the map. The puzzle was interesting and took be about 8 minutes to solve; mostly because of my frustration with falling off the pipes constantly and entering from the wrong direction, making it unreachable from the wrong side would have made it better. Very short but very well done!
Canals – 4th
Short but fun Arena style map, even though I didn’t think the location was very interesting it wasn’t a bad choice. Being able to see your original path from Half-Life 2 like in Above the Canals made it more special. The AI behaved well enough and plenty of cover for the player and AI both made it more enjoyable, especially with a bunch of destructible props.
What’s Thru Here, Alyx? – 5th
The First playthrough didn’t seem to trigger the Combine attack, so I was left clueless and continued onto other entries. However after getting it to work was quite and interesting idea even somewhat humorous as Gordon
starts big trouble with the Combine right after being rescued by Alyx from them. The enemy waves were balanced and fun to take down, even that hard to hit strider. The keypad was quite interesting too, I was expecting to have trouble using one, but no got it first try. A bit confusing at some parts, such as getting the suit but definitely worth a play! Wouldn’t choose it as a winner, but I agree it’s a hard choice in this challenge.
Unknown Hazard -6th
Really not sure where I was within Half-Life 2 campaign, and not sure how I felt about this one overall. A couple of bugs here and there, such as being able to end the level early, enemies spawning on top of you in the final room and a bad cubemap.
The level design was a bit stale too, both in the gameplay and art department. Though I wasn’t hating it throughout, this is my least favorite entry.
I might actually play through these maps again one day. Would love to see DoorVilleTwo one day, although I can see it being a hard topic to get right!
Manually
Easy
1 Hour, 10 Minutes
I’m going through the archives looking for something “new” to play 🙂
Hmm this looks familiar and plays like the original early on, but I loved the idea of the “doorway” through to the back. This area is pretty nice but the zombies are too few and a bit boring. Perhaps less dormant and already moving? And with the odd explosive barrel too!
Breaking out from here I see the mortar headcrabs coming in for the landing which was superb. So many times I hear the darn thing but don’t get a proper view, so I loved this simplistic effect that worked wonders for me! However, these fast crabs are just sitting there – so I picked them off from a distance and that was that…
I knew I should have brought the battery! Ugh, time to backtrack…
OMG its the helpful chap that drops the supplies!!! I love how he can run through a completely dark tunnel 😉 Yep, I kept turning my flashlight off but he never bumped into a wall hehe
A little bit awkward now. Couldn’t open the door and wondered what to do so checked the other bit of the tunnel but nothing. Then noticed that door was open. Went through and met up with a couple of guys before taking on the hoard up high.
This seemed a little silly. Sure they’re all coming in waves and that’s good but they stood there like dummies. Didn’t know what to make of this part and it probably let down the entire map which was great until now.
It did crash on me here (just before disabling the forcefield) so I restarted and was suddenly at the start again. I guess there are no checkpoints? So I no-clipped and went back to restart. The Gunship battle took forever! And then it was all over…
I really liked this map the idea behind expanding (one of my favourite areas from HL2 world) is a fascinating idea. I really loved how I was able to see and explore these familiar areas, but, from a new perspective. Incredibly good idea!!!
The ending scenes let it down but I cannot deny I love this map!
I love the mood set from the start here, and the soldiers hit nicely in packs without being OTT. The zombie room was great and the sound of the train added to the atmosphere.
The spooky room was …well… spooky! I didn’t see the bridge at first as I was trying to look down as I imagined a zombie hoard roaming… Liking the idea of staged headcrabs slowly appearing from the dark – which I picked off from the ladder! But I almost had a heart attack when the ladder broke!! Pressing the switch didn’t seem to do much, not that I noticed at first, so this was a little confusing. But let’s build boxes and solve a lame battery puzzle. Actually, I shouldn’t complain as I often struggle with some of Miigga’s frustratingly awesome puzzles heh.
After the vent, it took my slow brain a moment to realise where I was, and then the action was on! I loved this even though they didn’t come in for the chase too well… Seeing the vent wasn’t obvious at first so one of those face/palm moments for me lol. Afterwards, seeing the soldiers below me was freaky cool. I thought this might have worked better if I could have taken a pop at them and use the metal as a shield. I couldn’t so began to worry about what might be around the next corner! Flipping that switch got me in a panic as I imagined the soldiers would return but oddly they didn’t… It leads onto another open door and the barrel idea is genius. Simple but it worked superbly!!!
What a great ending to an entertaining map!
I found this map rather frustrating. The layout is pretty simple over a small area but it’s sometimes not obvious what to do or even how to get to somewhere. Must admit, when I did suss out the sneaking, it did make sense afterwards. What I did like was the feeling of Alyx still there outside the room. That was superb. Also, I like the lighting which went from dark to the brighter levels after powering the generator.
Yeah, this is definitely worth playing but I felt too restricted and bewildered walking back n forth looking for valves. Didn’t really make any sense to me and the door idea using Alyx was cute 😉
Okay, so we decide to go walkabout but I didn’t really “get” this map if I’m honest. I played it a few times but often things didn’t seem to happen as they were meant? Trying the shutter near the crowbar set off the alarm and it stayed on (ARGHHHH). Whereas walking elsewhere and coming back to it didn’t… Finding the suit was a stroke of luck as most things cannot be broken and what’s up with the ladder that goes nowhere?
I didn’t know any door codes… But how did the guy suddenly find a rocket launcher? The combine came in but are dumb, even soldiers and elite guards where easy to take down. I lost interest when the Strider came as I knew no way to kill it after my three rockets where gone.
Sorry, but I just didn’t “get” this map at all :/
Starts off stealthy. I always think this is where HL2 fails because if I flash my light, they should see me. But, if I remain dark and crouch, then they shouldn’t. Okay, the last kinda works but it’s unrealistic to have me flashing away lol
It does lead to a cruel area – that darn zombie knew I was coming and threw a box smack-bang into my face!! Arghh then a headcrab nips from the side. Lovely! 😉 It’s a little too dark and needs more details but I’m liking this so far. I enjoyed rolling a grenade on top of the poisonous spider! The rooms after where a bit odd and dropping into the void work quite well, I guess.
I never did see the point of a crippled “fast” zombie but at least I got to witness a cool zombie attack against the combine forces. Arghh it never ends. How will I beat these annoying respawners? Hang on, what’s that I see? At first, I thought it was another sneaky way out but alas it’s a dead end albeit with goodies. But this means the constant respawning stops and we have a cool battle on our hands with the remaining forces.
Not a bad map at all and definitely worth a play.
After the previous map, I was loving the light and attention to detail throughout the environment. However, it’s OTT and doesn’t look right when going from dark to light places. Bloom? HDR? I don’t know, but it needs switching off whatever it is.
This is such a short map and the enemy comes at you in three stages. It’s pretty tough because of the weapons and the fact that the soldiers don’t drop theirs after death. I struggled. Then I realised I should have gone into that room before heading through the open area as there is some ammo here. But that’s how tight it was, for me.
Shame when it ended as it was over with all too soon
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Great idea for a “ville”. Overall I didn’t enjoy the maps with the exception of Amplifission. Although I don’t see where this takes place in HL2. And oddly I feel like I’ve played a different version of it.
Manually
Easy
30 Minutes