Episode 3: The Closure

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

27th February 2016

Jump to read the 385 comments   /   Leave a comment or review   /   Follow the comments RSS feed

The Closure starts where the original Half-Life 2: Episode two ended, with the death of Alyx’s father, Eli.

Dr. Kleiner has gone missing after going to destroy the Borealis and its secret cargo in the North Pole.

Dr. Magnusson sends Gordon Freeman to find Dr. Kleiner and find out once and for all what’s in the ship.

Gordon travels by aircraft to the North Pole to find Kleiner, and save the ship.

Will you be on time? And what will you find in the ship’s hold?

Only one way to find out!

Basic Details
  • Title: Episode 3: The Closure
  • Filename: hl2-ep2-sp-ep3-the-closure-v2
  • Size : 1.49GB
  • Author: Leon Brinkmann AKA SpyMaps
  • Date Released: 27 February 2016
UPCOMING Beta Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer

The UPCOMING Beta Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer is required to play this mod. It should automatically install if it is not already installed. If not, there are manual install instruction in the mod’s README file.

Download Full Version 2.0

Download to your HDD [1.49GB]
You can still use it with Gauge once you have downloaded it.

Download Patch 2.0

Download to your HDD [53.40MB]
This patch must be installed manually. Instruction are within the file.

Patch 2.0 Details

map 8; 2 flowting weapons at top road mountain fixed.
readme.txt; changed there also emailadress.

loadingscreen1 completely renewed, now with warning message at end, that says;
“This is a fan made mod and is not always consistent with the Half-Life lore.”
Furthermore were there very small issues fixed in the levels;
1,10,11,12,17,18,25,35

Download Patch 1.1

Download to your HDD [11MB]
This patch must be installed manually. Instruction are within the file.

Patch 1.1 Details

Patch changes or fix;
map 8; 2 flowting weapons at top road mountain fixed.
map .; changed old emailadress in new one.
readme.txt; changed there also emailadress.
loadingscreen1 completely renewed with now waring message in it at end, that says;
“This is a fan made mod and is not always consistent with the Half-Life lore.”

DownloadVersion 1.0

Download to your HDD [1.49GB]
You can still use it with Gauge once you have downloaded it.

Installation Video

Please note, this video contains no commentary.

Manual Installation Instructions
  • Copy the Halflife2-Episode3 folder into your …\Steam\SteamApps\sourcemods\ folder.
  • Restart or start Steam.
  • Half-Life 2: Episode Three should now be listed in your Library tab.

If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.

Screenshots

The images below are the chapter images. More screenshots will be posted once Phillip has started the mod.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.

1024 x 576

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

1366 x 768

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

1600 x 900

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!
39 recommendations, average score: 3.49 (out of 5), standard deviation: 2.71 (what's that?)
Total Downloads
  • 109,791
    Overall
  • 32
    Today
  • 123
    Last 7 days
  • 355
    Last 30 days
  • 4,385
    365 days
Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 41 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 38 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 11 Hours, 31 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 20 Mins by Repus
Longest: 30 Hours by Bolloxed <---- Boooo.. Evil
Total Time Played: 472 Hours, 13 Mins
Categories (?)
Half-Life 2: Ep2 HL2-EP2 Mods Play
Tags (?)
Collections (?)

This release is currently not in a collection

If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
Jump to a review
Avoid It!Maybe?Avoid It!Avoid It!Personal FavouriteThink TwicePlay It Now!Think TwiceMaybe?Play It Now!Think TwicePlay It Now!Think TwicePersonal FavouritePlay It Now!Personal FavouritePlay It Now!Play It LaterPlay It Now!Personal FavouritePersonal FavouriteAvoid It!Personal FavouritePersonal FavouritePlay It Now!Personal FavouritePlay It Now!Maybe?Personal FavouritePlay It Now!Personal FavouriteMaybe?Think TwicePlay It LaterAvoid It!Maybe?Avoid It!Avoid It!Avoid It!

385 Comments

  1. AI

    Sure wish you could have made a torrent file for this! Would have been a lot easier to DL!

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Sorry, but I don’t know how to.

      Reply
    2. mike

      i followed all the instruction but half life2 episode 3 will not appear in my library in the games list

      Reply
  2. ZikShadow

    It’s released finally.

    And of course my graphics card HAD to break a month ago. Now i can only use onboard, rendering even Half-Life 2 laggy. Just my bloody luck i guess.

    Well, have fun ya’ll.

    Reply
  3. PlanetPhillip

    How did you install?

    Reply
  4. Nush

    Looks somewhat promising. Can’t wait to start it!

    Reply
  5. DjReplica

    I think it’s time that I have to thank every modder for giving me a free mod where he could have went to greenlight and put a price tag. You know… Like hey he worked on this for 2 YEARS by himself, he has to be compensated…

    Reply
  6. S.anchev

    It’s happening !!!!

    Reply
  7. crowbar

    well I installed it, but after starting it it just crashes. I can see the Valve logo, but after that immediately shuts down -.-

    Reply
    1. RR Snake uk

      Getting the same thing here, get to the blurred screen then crashes to the desktop

      Reply
    2. vanmunchen

      Will not install at all

      Reply
      1. PlanetPhillip

        What exactly happens?

        Reply
    3. shark

      Exit steam, re-enter steam and launch from steam library. If you launch with Gauge it crashes.

      Reply
      1. Zekiran

        Yeah Gauge does not seem to be able to work right with this mod. It opens the Valve theme and head guy, but crashs before reacing the menu. No error message, just crashes back to desktop. I am running Windows 7 64b Pro, and have the Upcoming beta 2013 installed. Gauge asked if I wanted to fix this mod, which I said yes, but it didn’t work. Will try again using the steam library instead. 🙂

        Really looking forward to this!

        Reply
        1. PlanetPhillip

          I’ll check on this and get back to everyone.

          Reply
    4. tomC

      Did you ever get a response about the crash problem at the out-of-focus screen ?

      I’m getting the same thing, and I have downloaded the SDK 2013 prior to running the game.
      If this is a half-life2 mod, shouldn’t the SteamAppId be 420, not 243730 ?
      I’m wondering what we need in gameinfo.txt to correct the SteamPipe changes.
      I’m also loading it from Steam, the library page, I have launch options:
      -console -novid -height 1080 -width 1920

      Reply
      1. tomC

        After reading further comments, it looks like I simply did not opt into the SDK 2013 beta, and
        after I did that, the SDK did a short update, and it is now working.
        Sheesh. RTFC.

        Reply
    5. anders

      On my computer it is crashing after the the image with the guy with the valve in his head. I only see the blurry loading screen and then it crashes. I don’t understand why, since I have indeed installed UPCOMING Beta Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer. Does anyone have an idea what the problem is?

      Reply
      1. Zekiran

        Anders – are you using a manual install or trying to use maptap/gauge? Restart steam and try manually installing it, and running it from your Steam library if you’re using gauge. If your other HL2 games run okay, it should run properly too with the 2013 upcoming beta, though also you might scroll down to see if there are any changes. The mod’s been updated so if you’re playing the newer version, you might comment on a post below that update (I think Phillip posted one below?) if it still doesn’t work.

        Reply
        1. anders

          Hi Zekiran, thanks. I am using a manual install of “Options Version 1.1”. And all the other HL2 games run perfectly. Isn’t it weird :-S. I don’t understand why it won’t work :-D. I am not sure where you suggest that I comment.

          Reply
          1. anders

            Finally got the mod to work. My instructions are adapted from another mod by Leo.
            1. Right-click on Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer.
            2. Go to the “Betas” tab.
            3. Change “Select the beta you would opt into” option to “incoming”
            4. Restart Steam
            5. Right-click on Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer.
            6. Go to the “Local Files” tab.
            7. Click “Verify Integrity of Tool cache…”
            8. Wait until game cache inspection is completed.
            9. Extract the mod to your “Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer” folder .i.e
            C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer\Halflife2-Episode3
            — In that “Halflife2-Episode3” folder, you should now have several subfolders such as bin; cfg; maps…
            10. Restart Steam
            11. Right click on Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer.
            12. Select “Set Launch Options” in the “General” tab.
            13. Enter the following: -game “Halflife2-Episode3”
            14. Click OK
            15. Restart Steam
            16. Double click on Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer to start the game.

            Reply
            1. Crokobos

              I was hoping this way of instaling the mod would work, but then Steam didnt find the gameinfo.txt, which clearly existed. Can you remember if you did it any differently?

              Reply
  8. PlanetPhillip

    I have embedded an installation video made by malortie. Maybe this will help.

    Reply
    1. dexiz

      I have the same problem… Some people are talking about it being caused by Gauge, but I don’t even know what the heck is that and definitely don’t have that installed on my pc..

      Reply
      1. Zekiran

        Gauge used to be titled Map Tap, and is Phillip’s mod/map installer. It’s available for download in the PLAY section in the top bar in blue, with install information and how to use it.

        It will usually help install mods or maps, to their right destinations, and with corrections to start menu/images if needed (as many of those were broken with one or more of the Steampipe and Engine updates over the years).

        However, it does seem to have problems with a couple newer mods – I wonder if it has directly to do with the Upcoming Beta 2013 version of the engine? Not really sure but it seems like those have problems anyway. Normally, Gauge / Maptap will be extremely useful in both installing and uninstalling, as well as keeping track of your favorites, and browsing for new maps.

        Reply
  9. crowbar

    okay seems to work now after opting into the “upcoming” beta of Source SDK 2013 Singleplayer.

    Reply
  10. PlanetPhillip

    I have just added a torrent file, courtesy of Henky!! Thanks.

    Reply
  11. crowbar
    Avoid It!

    I didn’t play that much, but I hate this already after the first half hour or so because this is really really really really bad.
    This mod tramples on everything that distinguished the Half-Life series from every other game.
    1. It has cutscenes. What’s the point? The story is barebones anyway. Then the cutscenes are made extremely bad and buggy with laughable intros and credit sections. I mean why do you make so ugly cutscenes anyway please tell me? If you make cutscenes, then they should at least be as well made as Metal Gear Solid 1, which is from 1998 btw, but it is not even close to something professional.
    2. most custom content is not self made. The glock model is ripped from some Counter-Strike mod, i remember it from my CS:S times. But even if it was self-made, it’s completely pointless replacing the original pistol, because it has TERRIBLE animations, worse sounds and doesn’t even look better and the proportions are completely wrong. Then why do we get a Wrench instead of a crowbar? Is this the wrench we missed in Prospekt and the crowbar which should be in this mod went to Prospekt instead???
    3. terrible level design. Every next room feels like a completely random place, there is no believable word, no believable connections, no story, no player guidance except sometimes with those bad cutscenes, which again, is bad game design, or not “Bad”, but lazy as hell, because it means you are too lazy to guide or teach the player with the game itself, you just show him stuff. Also terrible enemy placement and abysmal lighting.
    4. It feels like the mapper used completely random textures for every area, like everything he could find he put somewhere in the maps. Random doors, random sounds, and there is glitchy stuff too. Nothing fits. It’s like someone took everything custom asset he could find on the internet and throw them in a blender.

    You can already see how terrible this mod is in the ugly menu which is UGLYYYYY.
    The beginning of the game make me laugh because it felt like a bad parody of a bad parody with the gravestone and stuff. And this mod calls itself “Half-Life 2 Episode 3” hahahaha.

    This is even worse than Prospekt, that had at least some consistent qualities here and there, even though I HATE that too.

    And please don’t come at me with “but dude the creators worked a really long time and really hard for this”, if you go to toilet for 10 years you still just get shit out of your ass. I guess you can tell I’m a bit pissed off. If they playtested the first 10 seconds (or any 10 seconds from the mod), they would know how bad this is, I mean seriously? Can’t they see for themselves? You don’t need playtesting for this or even any knowledge of game or level design to realize how bad this is. Why does this mod have so many chapters?

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    30 Minutes
    Reply
    1. crowbar

      oh I meant “30 minutes playtime” , not “30 hours” :S

      Reply
    2. Confused Travolta

      terrible level design. Every next room feels like a completely random place, there is no believable word, no believable connections (…) It feels like the mapper used completely random textures for every area, like everything he could find he put somewhere in the maps. Random doors, random sounds, and there is glitchy stuff too. Nothing fits.

      Sounds like typical Leon’s mod ^^

      (looking at 3rd screeenshot)
      Yes, it is 🙂

      Reply
    3. November

      Honestly I agree with everything you’ve written here.

      It felt disjointed, inconsistent and frustrating. When I downloaded it and it showed up in my steam library titled “Half-Life 2: Episode 3” I was expecting something of that calibur, not… this.

      Reply
    4. Tobias Janderå

      Do you write reviews for books based on the cover as well?

      Reply
      1. PlanetPhillip

        Whilst I don’t agree with Crowbar writing such a negative review after such short time, he tried it and didn’t like it. If I watched a movie and after ten minutes hated, I would tell people. His views are his own and he has a right to them. Ideally, everybody would finish all the mods before they write reviews but the reality is that sometimes we stop playing because we really don’t like something.

        Reply
        1. Zekiran

          Generally though, Phillip, you’ve encouraged everyone to finish a mod before allowing them to actually post a labeled image review. Seems unfair to those of us who actually are playing it all the way through (and I have to imagine that out of the 500 + downloads, SOME of us are) and will actually have a full review of the entire game. Not liking something has never warranted being able to get away with not finishing it, with rare exceptions, and I’m going to call that out here.

          Reply
          1. PlanetPhillip

            Yes, you are right, in generally I require people to finish mods or at the very least have stopped playing them. I saw his review but it was caught in moderation. Initially, it had 30 hours as the playtime and I was a little annoyed about then, but then he posted it was supposed to be 30 minutes. I seriously considered removing his image, in fact, I did but then put it back.

            To me, in this case to require somebody to play 25 hours seems unfair and if somebody really doesn’t like something it is often clear from the beginning.

            I feel that the fact he only played for 30 minutes will temper his negative review and readers will be able to judge for themselves how important his review is to them.

            Reply
      2. crowbar

        If I knew that I had to endure that book for 25 hours then yes.

        Reply
  12. DjReplica

    Did anyone got a BSOD after finishing the 3rd/4th map(loading screen). This was the first ever BSOD i got on windows10 and it was from this mod.

    Reply
  13. SPY

    O my God, can’t believe it myself but its finally released!!
    DJReplica above said i had work for 2 years on it but this is not true.
    Took me almost 6 years of daily work to develop it, i know, insane !!
    Just did grow above my head so to speak.

    Really hope you all enjoy it, even when you don’t like it the first levels,
    please do give it a change because towards the end it gets better,
    at least is that my experience.

    wow, still can’t believe it.
    Have FUN!

    Leon

    Reply
    1. Pedro_The_Swift

      Thanks for all your hardwork Leon,,

      I cant wait for the DL to finish,, 🙂 🙂

      Reply
      1. Pedro_The_Swift

        Installed and running perfectly on Win 10!!

        Reply
      2. Fearthechevy

        I’m about 2 hours into it and I really love this mod good job Leon it’s one of the best mods I’ve ever played can’t wait to finish playing it. Good maps and it’s alot of fun thanks again for the hard work you put into it leon.

        Reply
    2. DjReplica

      Leon I have betatested your map when I was with the BTC, I didn’t manage to finish it (or maybe I did), because I was using a very unstable build then.

      About BSOD, just occur again. At loading stage 09-10. I have no idea why it gives me bsod. It could be that I’m recording the demo for first response but i’m not sure. Looking through the event viewer I get nothing.

      So far, I’m in love with your mod. Too bad windows10 freaking as usual hates old stuff.

      Reply
  14. SPY

    Sorry to hear of your BSOD in windows 10 DJRaplica!
    As you can understand have i played this mod till i did get sick
    of it but never did experience that problem. Same with at least
    6 other people who tested the mod very thoughrowly.
    All was done not on windows 10 though, so maybe that is something
    that is causing it. Hope this was a one time deal for you…

    thanks for wanting to play it,
    Leon

    Reply
  15. Bolx

    Got it working! Played the start to the first level change and WOW! Visuals are great.
    But what is with the gun twirl on reload, if that were done for real the shooter would most likely have shot themselves!
    OK! I’m going to continue playing.

    Reply
  16. Dysprogue

    I just found the first Easter egg. It’s so wonderfully bizarre. No spoilers from me 🙂

    Reply
  17. Wesp5

    Okay, so I got this working without problems, but while I really liked the idea of closure to the HL2 games by doing a HL2:EP3 because Valve probably would do HL3 (if ever), I was dissappointed right from the start!

    You broke some serious HL game rules:
    1. Gordon does not speak.
    2. Gordon can hardly be seen, especially not in long cutscenes with exposition.

    The really cool thing about all the other HL games was that you were almost always in control and experienced the things out of Gordons eyes. You disregarded both rules which resulted in the mod feeling right from the start NOT like a real HL game!

    After that followed needless changes like the reload animation already mentioned or the yellow reloading boxes with HEV on them when nobody at the time would know what HEV means anyway.

    Big time immersion breaking there too! Why didn’t anyone, e.g. Phillip, warn you about this? I will continue playing because the rest looks great for now.

    Also Prospekt made the same mistake with it’s long static introduction scene and white flashbacks, this is not what made HL special! How could dedicated and fantastic HL modders like yourself not see this…

    Reply
    1. Zekiran

      It seems you’ve never played any of his other mods? Because those are all hallmarks of Spymaps, and since this is a mod, and not a “real half life game”, I’d suggest playing some of his other stuff and seeing how they match up to this one, rather than thinking that it’s designed specifically to be just like Valve’s work. It’s never been that, always a very specific ‘feel’ to Spymaps. I get what you’re saying, but it’s a hallmark of these maps.

      Reply
      1. Wesp5

        Well, he sub-called this mod HL2:EP3 so I was expecting he wanted to step into Valve’s shoes! Otherwise there is nothing wrong with making your mod like you want to…

        Reply
    2. Pedro_The_Swift

      Broke what?
      Immersion?
      Give me a break.

      I found the “outside looking on” scenes great,, actually hearing Gordon moan was just right and proves how important the scene was.

      Is it just my imagination or has Time caught up with Gordon a bit 😉

      Reply
    3. PlanetPhillip

      Why didn’t anyone, e.g. Phillip, warn you about this?

      I have told, as have others, Leon multiple times about his cut scenes etc. But Leon does things HIS way and that’s that.

      Also, I have played this mod, even as a beta, so I couldn’t tell him anything. ALso, even if I had beta tested it and told him, he would still do things HIS way.

      Reply
  18. 99tulio

    Downloading right now… Thanks for your hard work! 🙂

    Reply
    1. RossBondREturns

      Loving it thus far SPY!

      I knew that there would be 3rd person cut scenes as that’s your style and they were very well done. I’m recording as I go it looks really really nice.

      Thanks so much and I am enjoying it thus far.

      Reply
  19. CurlyHoward

    Crashes for me during loading screen also. In steam. SDK 2013 is upcoming – beta

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      If you used Gauge, please uninstall and try manually. Seems there is a problem with Gauge and this mod. I’ll be testing it later.

      Reply
  20. SPY

    Thank you guys, for liking it so much.
    I am not sure what is ment with;
    “But what is with the gun twirl on reload,…”
    maybe someone can explain this better to me, i though the reloading animations looked fine (?).

    And about the cutscenes, and showing Gordon, and making him talk. As far as i can remember doesn’t Gordon talk in this mod of mine, or it should be some moaning sound or something.
    And Phillip did warn me, lol. About that cutscenes with Gordon in it would take away the emersion for a lot of players. Its the on going discussion Phillip and i have for many years now, lol.
    But, will sound strange to you, but for me cutscenes with the player figure in it does enhance the emersion, and not take it away. ANd there are others who think this way to. I know its not following the HL logic. But when i am working for 6 years on a project, then i need to make exactly what i like, otherwise i never could keep it up. So, sorry. Still, i hope you find the other stuff good enough to still keep playing.

    And great the eastereggs make so much impression!
    thanks guys,

    leon

    Reply
    1. SPY

      CurlyHowards, did you follow the exact instructions in the install video above.
      Because when you do it really does work, please check if you did everything well,
      (closing and running SDK 2013, and closing opening steam i mean).

      Leon

      Reply
      1. PlanetPhillip

        Leon, all my emails to your are showing a permanent failure.

        Reply
      2. CurlyHoward

        Yes Leon, I tried the normal source mods method first. Then I tried moving the folder to SDK base 2013 single player and setting launch options to -game “Halflife2-Episode3” . Both ways I get sent to desktop before the menu screen loads.

        I am guessing there are particle effects on the menu screen my setup cannot handle. XP P4 with hyper threading DirectX v9.0+

        Anyway, thanks for replying. I will probably try re downloading again later. It has been interesting seeing you grow as a mapper. From the beginning of Coastline where it looks like Goldsource, through Strider mountain with the pantomime. I definitely enjoyed playing them.

        Reply
    2. Bolx

      The gun twirl with a real semi-auto pistol is dangerous as the pivot point is the trigger, the twirl combined with the weight of the gun would be enough to fire it.
      Even if the Glock had a traditional safety, which it doesn’t, the safety would unlikely be engaged during a fire fight.

      Reply
  21. BatCornMan

    Iv been waiting for this, my whole life and i cant wait to play it.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      You are only 5 years and 4 months old? Sorry, couldn’t resist that joke.

      Reply
  22. vancanucksfan

    Seeing this available for download literally made my day. I don’t have TV right now due to some renovations and this is awesome so far. Full review to follow, but thank you Leon (and Phillip of course!)

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      I deserve no thanks. I’ve done nothing.

      Reply
      1. crowbar66

        So humble. You have created a fantastic site and continue to provide great mods through your contests. Leon deserves full credit for this mod, but you help to make it all possible.
        Thanks.

        Reply
  23. ZikShadow

    Tried pressing on despite the lag.

    Here’s a compilation of thoughts from the start to 02_spymap_ep3.

    – Really excited, hearing that this thing took 6 years must have been the hardest of work.
    – Ok, the menu looks nice.
    – People apparently really like to use brushes to make fonts, despite the weird look to them…
    – The brushing architecture here looks quite nice.
    – Wait… Was that a FEAR music?
    – Cutscenes… Not really liking it… HL never really used cutscenes in any of their games, and even any non-moving sequences would still at least put you in Gordon’s eyes, ah well, nothing to it i guess.
    – Voice acting could do a little work, some subtitles would be nice as well.
    – And suddenly CoD music… Maybe try to pick a more obscure game to take OSTs from? Or maybe actually ask for a musician’s help ala’ Underhell?
    – That was silly, the Rebels sure knows how to pick a really good transportation.
    – The Glock’s twirling reload, yeah, that’s silly.
    – Nice beginning fight, a couple of headcrabs, some SWAT-looking metrocops…
    – Wait, is this a flashbang acting as a HE grenade?
    – More cutscenes… Is it really necessary?

    At this point i cheated to get a good look at all the weapons.

    – A wrench? Am i sure that i’m playing Half-Life right now?
    On a second note, i know that this was probably not intentional, but why do i get the feeling that picking the wrench for the iconic crowbar slot was a poke on Prospekt? Just me?
    – The 357 is simply magnificent, An Agressive Napkin sure knows how to make a good models, Mantuna’s animation addition was a cherry on top.
    – Bizon was an odd choice, the grenade animation was kinda sillier than HL2’s MP7.
    – Not really liking the G36 as a pulse rifle.
    – Now that’s a nice shotgun.
    – Woah, a Barrett, and it hits instantly too, well done.
    – The drawing animation for the RPG is a tiny bit odd.
    – It still bugs me that the model for the HE is a flashbang.
    – Bugbait and Grav gun are reskins, i’m fine with them.

    Back to gameplay.

    – So a zombie metrocop, but there’s no headcrab on top of him, i’m pretty sure that metrocop masks aren’t big enough to cover up any headcrabs, as the Zombines have demonstrated.
    – The space station looks beautiful.
    – Really nice choice about giving players an option for difficulty, i had to pick the lower ones due to my lag issues, really thankful.
    – Interesting mechanic about the puzzle explanations, though VERY game-y.

    All of those things could have just been done at the beginning, doing all of that here kinda got me to lost my suspension of disbelief here.

    At this point i kinda got too weirded out at the oddly selected custom stuff, and tore it apart.

    Most weapons are classic ones with either improvements done on them or using a different animation.
    Normal Combines are back.
    Used a proper HE grenade replacement.
    Got back most of the original weapons, sans the 12 mag limit of the pistol and the sniper.
    Replaced prop textures.

    The Closure – Remod has begun.

    http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/02_spymap_ep30000_zpskdazo0al.jpg
    http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/02_spymap_ep30001_zpshjnm2mrb.jpg

    So far, the mod is good, first impressions kinda lacking, but hopefully it’ll pick up from there.

    Reply
  24. DjReplica

    Alright I happened to fix the problem by reinstalling the mod and using the torrent.

    I also verified integrity for the source 2013 singleplayer and swapped upcoming and out of beta.

    Usually the BSOD occurs in the middle of loading phase, but I stress tested with 20-40 loading tries and it doesn’t seem to give BSOD.

    Reply
    1. Darth_Sylph

      tbh, i’m probably gonna replace all the custom weapon models with hd versions from Game Banana anyways….lol

      Reply
  25. NeoTheFox

    Can you please compile it for OSX and Linux too? It is not hard…

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Exactly what needs to be done for that?

      Reply
      1. NeoTheFox

        client.dll and server.dll needs to be compiled for for Linux and OSX – https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_SDK_2013

        Reply
  26. voxxx

    Thank you LEON and Philip .

    I’ve played right up until the underground elevator going up.

    So far this is slicker than snot on a door-knob … as good as I was expecting from the man who gave us such masterpieces as Strider Mountain and Coastline to Atmospherre

    For some reason the torrent file didn’t work for me so I just DLed it off of RTS server

    Reply
  27. AI

    Spy, first of all it was very nice of you to put the remembrance to “Jasper” (1947) in the opening, I guess I am older than he was! I just turned 70 and was born in 1946, and to all you younger members I still play pretty good! Your opening video cuts are really good and lead right up to the game start. I look forward to a good play!! I have been playing “Fallout 4” and will take a break now this is out and installed on my PC!

    BTW; I do envy you guys/gals that make these maps/mods, it’s something I wish I would have learned to do!!!

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      It’s never too late to learn.

      Reply
    2. Tex Arcana

      Welcome to the Olde Fartes club (55 here)!

      Reply
  28. Lurk

    It’s like someone took a trip though gamebanana and downloaded skins at random.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Leon has a habit of changing lots of stuff without regard for consistency or overall feeling. It’s just his way.

      Reply
  29. Unq

    “The Closure – Remod has begun.” – http://www.moddb.com/members/zikshadow/images/so-i-decided-to-try-out-modding-on-source1#imagebox

    Reply
  30. Dr.Nathan100

    I guess I’m going against the grain here as my first impressions of the mod weren’t that great. First off, The mod is meant to be played at 75 Degree POV. If you turn it up, the main menu, intro credits, and cut scenes will all look terrible.

    Second, what was up with teleporting to a space ship and having random commentary about selecting enemy density? It barely tried to follow combine aesthetics. It didn’t fit in at all visually or in the story and is nothing at all like something from a Half-Life game, especially the way intro credits and cut scenes were executed.

    There was a lot of re-skinning that I didn’t find appealing. The Metropolice units and Combine soldiers were models I’ve seen in Gmod that were just ripped from Workshop. It doesn’t make sense to have SWAT metropolice and some of them don’t have a mask, making their voice lines way off. I liked the new weapons, but they were seemed to be scaled up to be pointlessly large.

    Lastly, the mapping. As I said, the random space ships and intrusive cut scenes don’t help. There aren’t too many cues on where the player is supposed to go next or what doors can and can’t be open. I ended up lost on the map with the house in the valley and had to noclip to find out where to go. Turns out there was a vent hidden behind a dresser and when I continued, the enemy NPCs would spawn right in front of me or just be a floating gun.

    Overall, I feel like this mod needs some work. I can see it’s style being a good mod, but I don’t think it should of been called Episode 3. I’ll have to give the full mod another go but for now, it left a bad taste.

    Reply
  31. Gambini
    Maybe?

    First of all. I haven´t finished the mod, but it´s because it´s buggy and I am unable to continue.

    I appreciate the amount of effort that´s been put into this but I think It´s barely on beta stage. I updated SDK 2013 to the “upcoming” beta YET there were plenty of missing models and materials, some making it impossible to play. Voices have no subtitles and that outer space difficulty selection was completely pointless and confusing. I didn´t understand the instructions and was covered with huge red ERROR models around. No Idea how i managed to get out of it. If you wanted the player to choose a skill level you should have done it ala Quake, at the very beginning.

    Apart from the many bugs, and specially talking about stuff that seems to be finished: The layouts are messy and confusing. There is no such thing as cover, some enemies shoot you from impossible to spot locations, and there are some unnecessary mazes. The criteria for decorative vs functional buttons and/or doors is strange too. And the music tracks are of very different styles from each other and hardly match the game momentum. I loved the flares and halos though!

    Conclusion: Unless you really need to take a time away from it, I suggest you get it back to the shop and fix all the bugs and give a last try on improving the experience.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour
    Reply
  32. crowbar

    why is my comment still awaiting moderation?

    Reply
    1. Urby

      I assume you included images or external links? They need to be approved by Phillip.

      Reply
      1. crowbar

        no, no images or links

        Reply
  33. crowbar

    btw I find it funny that we even have to discuss “cutscenes”, because the cutscenes in this mod are made so badly. I guess you can’t do much with the Source engine with cutscenes, but then again, what’s the point in the first place. Every time I saw a cutscene I had to laugh because they looked like slapstick.
    Oh and I forgot to mention the use of music, which is completely random. The modder just took music from some other games and movies maybe and put them together. The modder learnt NOTHING from Half-Life, and saying “it’s his style” doesn’t make it good.

    Reply
  34. BatCornMan

    Dame so much hate, you guys need to remember that he been making this for 6 years and its a mod, a lot of people are expecting it as a game, and he’s only one man doing this, you people should expect cutsceens from his other mods and its his style to put it. and It seems you people never played any of his mods about cutsceans.

    Reply
    1. Zekiran

      That is how it really feels to me, that most of the folks complaining about any of the distinct “Leon Style” bits can’t possibly have played Coastline to Atmosphere or Strider Mountain, both of which I would consider “episodes 1 and 2” to this 3rd installment. Whether the intro is ‘meant to continue’ the half life 2 story – so were those, and they too were lengthy, interesting, and for whatever reason – highly divisive.

      I think the Spy maps are … well, brilliant. Not always what you expect, and definitely with their own flair. They aren’t ‘for’ everyone, clearly, as evidenced by the remarkable range of commentary in those mods.

      Reply
    2. crowbar

      it doesn’t matter how long it took. Every Ville entry from every Ville I played is better.
      We shouldn’t need to play his other mods. Why does that matter anyway?
      And again, the problem is not that there are cutscenes, but that the cutscenes are just bad, too long, boring and interrupt the gameplay.

      I should add that after Prospekt I am a little bit more sensitive…

      Reply
      1. Pedro_The_Swift

        I dont understand why you’re still harping on about it,,
        you dont like it?
        fine.
        shut up and move on.

        Reply
  35. aaron

    Source SDK Base 2013 takes forever………..

    I have been saying this since I was only 18.

    There are modders (self taught) they are either classical or technical and they are good at one thing but they choose to apply them selves to learn other things and one day they want to make a mod. I made 3 and I was good at making models.

    There is mod teams who are hired on at dev studios who are like interns or helpers who get to use the tools and have a better advantage.

    There are professional devs who love to mod in the spare time to show off what they can do to get the studio known more

    Wrapping that up there are school mods and it is a project.

    We will get some good ones and when you dig deep you find why it is better or more awesome from the previous one or the next one.

    The feelings for the project is why this site exists we can share them. Be respective about it. I only bring this up again and again is not all mods can be based on one mod. Yet we do it every release.

    Reply
  36. DarkShift

    Damn, time goes on and too much newcomers here…

    You really should have played Coastline to Atmosphere, and Strider Mountain, Final Project Diary, before this one. Besides, people should understand that here, above all places, it’s a temple for “‘vanilla” HL/HL2… that’s the most liked and played… I’m more “mixed” (i.e. I like both vanilla and Total Conversions), but the point is, since 7 years I’m here, vanilla Valve-styled mod’s are the most praised.

    That, and if you compare the ratings of Leon’s mod’s rating’s on moddb and RTSL, you’ll see a nice difference…

    I understand people coming from moddb will probably torn the mod to pieces, but you’ll probably also face the misunderstanding of the “regular” users here…

    And don’t you dare compare this to Prospekt, an 2 hour paid mod done in 2 years against a 25 hour FREE mod done in 6 years…

    Reply
    1. crowbar

      “too much” newcomers?

      btw I played Strider Mountain and I don’t come from ModDB.
      There is nothing “total conversion” about this mod, they just replaced some of the models and textures with assets from the internet. I actually am really excited when I see a mod which has new weapons and enemies and stuff, but only until I realize how badly they are implemented and how inconsistent the whole thing feels.
      For example that new weapon in “Transmissions Element 120” was AWESOME.

      Reply
    2. BatCornMan

      So very True Man.

      Reply
    3. ZikShadow

      I’m copying my comment from ModDB here with some additions, so that the “fans” would understand the backlash and “rudeness” that other players/modders would bring here.

      The thing about media is that none of it is protected from criticism.
      Games, films, mods, all the same.

      You can make something with the hard work of a thousand years or 10 seconds, paid or free, but if someone doesn’t enjoy it, then they will express their opinions and how they think it can be better.

      Especially when something is named so powerfully and was supposed to be a sequel to an also powerful franchise, something that a lot of people have been expecting.

      Appreciation of work can only be achieved if the work itself is enjoyable for them.
      People enjoyed stuff like Underhell, Nightmare House, and even stuff like Cry of Fear. And so, would comment on what is good, what is bad, and everything in between.

      And so far, a lot of people are disappointed on the inconsistencies, the broken things, and the many “flaws” (to some people) of Leon’s older works still being used and added here.

      It’s up to the developer whether to listen or not.

      Btw, my computer’s rig is really weak right now, so i can’t even finish the actual mod at the moment, TC:Remod would have to be postponed for a while, sorry.

      Reply
  37. Wesp5

    As for all the angry comments here, people and I can accept that a modder makes a mod like he likes it. But sub-calling it “Episode 3” sets expectations very high and assumes he want’s to step in Valve’s shoes! Which seem much too big for this one ;)…

    Reply
    1. Jim_Partridge

      I hated Underhell, Nightmare House and Cry Of Fear… All three of them were too cutscene heavy, the gameplay sucked and the story was boring…

      Go play Mission Improbable, Research and Development or Minerva… those represent the best in HL2 modding…

      Reply
    2. Jim_Partridge

      I hated Underhell, Nightmare House and Cry Of Fear… All three of them were too cutscene heavy, the gameplay sucked and the story was boring…

      Go play Mission Improbable, Research and Development or Minerva… those represent the best in HL2 modding…

      Reply
      1. DarkShift

        I hated Underhell, Nightmare House and Cry Of Fear… All three of them were too cutscene heavy, the gameplay sucked and the story was boring…

        Go play Mission Improbable, Research and Development or Minerva… those represent the best in HL2 modding…

        Yeah, as I said the problem here is there is a bit too much praise on vanilla HL2 modding, and great disregard about all the Total Conversions… ^^
        That was always a problem for me but I managed to cope with it (with time), but I can’t imagine how it can be for newcomers or the other guys coming from moddb…

        I mean you can like BOTH… Vanilla HL2 modding and Total Conversions… When it’s done with talent…

        Seriously, I just can’t understand sometimes how people can be so extremist…

        “the gameplay sucked in Underhell” : What the HELL, man…

        Reply
        1. crowbar

          I checked out Underhell because you kept mentioning it. THAT is a proper total conversion high quality mod and I can tell even without playing it. All the content for that mod is self-made by the developers unlike this mod.
          You tell me “don’t you dare compare this to Prospekt” I tell you “don’t you dare compare this to proper total conversions like Underhell or Cry of Fear”.

          Reply
          1. Jim_Partridge

            Its not extremist to state a preference…
            This site is a HL2 site… it stands to reason people would praise mods based on how well they emulate the original, official games.

            I disliked the mods you site because they were poorly made or dull to play in my opinion, not because they were different from HL2.

            The problem with Total Conversions for Single Player HL2 is they normally fall flat in two areas.
            1: Story
            2: Gameplay

            With the exception of The Stanley Parable I can’t think of another that’s worth playing that hits both…

            Reply
  38. OJJ

    Only 1/3 of the way through, some set-pieces are cool but i’ve counted atleast 10 times so far that I have;
    a) gone down a corridor with a door at the end
    b) pressed use on the door at the end
    c) it’s locked so I go back
    d) suddenly an enemy has appeared from the other direction and I now need to go down another corridor that I already went down that had previously had another locked door in it.
    Also the pathing is really vague as well, like near the start there’s a place with a house you can walk around, some mines which are blocked off and a ladder on the roof of the house but there is no hint which place is the way forward so you look around the house, check out the roof and try to get through the mines but really the way forward was behind a specific wardrobe inside the house that you have to gravity gun away.
    Also none of the re-skins make any sense so far and no reason for them, like why are we fighting guys in suits instead of combine now? Why are poison headcrabs made of lava? Why are striders white? I really could’ve done without these skins to be honest, they only serve to make the download time longer and make the player wonder why they were changed in the first place.

    Reply
    1. crowbar

      things were changed just for the sake of changing them.

      Reply
      1. Jim_Partridge

        Yeah that can be frustrating… where they clearly spent ages on adding a new feature that makes no difference to the game.
        Just bells and whistles…

        Reply
  39. Jim_Partridge

    For me there’s only one measure of a mods success… DID YOU HAVE FUN PLAYING IT…
    It doesn’t matter how close to actual HL2 gameplay it is.

    Leon’s maps don’t stick firmly to HL2 rules but i have to say I’ve always had fun playing them.

    I will get to playing this soon but am working on projects now and don’t want to be influenced by others work.

    Reply
  40. brianthesnail

    As one of leons biggest fans ( i play “final project ” every month without fail ) im quite nervous about running this on my windows 10(64bit ) pc … and thats a shame … has anyone else run this on windows 10 (64bit ) and experienced bsod,s …..
    theres obviously something to do with the mod and the way the source engine works with the os … that said one of the maps on the a recent “ville” competition also crashed …. so it could be a “nvidia” or “AMD” specific issue …
    i will wait for some more windows 10 feedback and if enough guys manage to run the mod without any probs then i will download the mod
    just a shame as im so much looking forward to “the closure “

    Reply
  41. Confused Travolta

    I see some serious discussion here. But I will tell you this.
    I played all Leon’s mods, and I don’t like any of them 🙂 But I understand them and why people like it.

    It’s not about being vanilla or a total conversion mod. It’s about being old-style.
    Leon’s mods are old-style creations.
    Like in early days of modding when you could just put some brushes and monsters here and there and call it a mod, and people played it, and it was good 😉

    What does old-style mean?
    It means that modder can build whatever he wants and not care about logic and realism. He just puts one room after another. Oh he forgets a door? Lets put a door here. It doesn’t make any sense? Deal it with (⌐ ͡■ ͜ʖ ͡■)

    Lately there is this urge for mods to be more professional and realistic and this is natural evolution. Games and engines offer more possibilities and people just want to create and play better stuff. But it’s all hard and it’s almost like making a game. It requires lots of knowledge and compromises. So many things to deal with. But modding is for everybody and it doesn’t have to be only like this (realistic, professional way, by the book). Modding is about freedom of choice.

    Now excuse me, I have to play this 🙂

    Reply
    1. brianthesnail

      i do agree with you Confused Travolta … but thats why some people ( me included ) liked leons maps … but i can understand why some dont
      for example mods such as “water” and “g-string” showed what the hammer editor can do with amazing textures and pure hard work … but i come from a gang of hl2 fans who like it old style and i suppose thats why leon,s maps and mods appeal so much to me and others
      the only problem with “the closure” is windows 10 .. from what ive seen many people are experiencing bsod,s and lock ups …. and this needs to be fixed before it can be seen as ready .. as many comments have stated it seems a little buggy and beta quality
      what os are you using ( windows 7 or 10 )

      Reply
      1. DjReplica

        I think I fixed the issue with reinstalling the mod and using the torrent and swapping the out of beta and upcoming. Also the multiplayer base was put as upcoming too.

        BSOD occurs at Loading phase, it happened to me between 3-4 map and 8-9 map. I was playing on hard difficulty with “more enemies”. Myself would think I fixed it with 20 loading tries and map swaps and the mod didn’t bsod anymore.

        Reply
  42. dougjp

    Managed to get it running by installing with Gauge but then, as trying to play using Gauge always caused a CTD as others reported, I started it from my Steam game library without problem. I’m currently only at the beginning after the opening videos.

    Wanted to report a strange thing that I have never experienced before, and wonder if anyone else had this. I could not unzip the downloaded file, it froze my computer part way through the unzip process, at differing percentages of completion. No errors or warnings, simply frozen, the only way to proceed was to unplug the power from the computer. Happened twice, I tried a second time with my AV disabled thinking that could be the problem. I have the latest version of 7zip, Nov 2015, running Win 7 Professional. I’m concerned some files in the download may be invalid and I suppose I’ll find out mid way through the game.

    Reply
  43. SPY

    Let me start with saying to you all that i am overwelmed by the amount of people who say such nice things, and the amount of people who do want to give this new mod a try in the first place.
    To be honest, all the years i was very sure of myself that this would be a new great mod. But the last few weeks before release were a nerving time for me, is it really that good as i hope it to be, (compaired to earlier work of mine, and just in general). But, the mod is out, all i can do is hope that it will be played with great fun by as many people as possible.

    I am following all comments here and on Moddb and i would like to take the time to answer as much comments here as possible.
    Let me first start with all the people who say nice things. Many thanks for your kind words, i really do apriciate them and make my day!

    Now i will go in to some of the remarks that have been made;

    Let me start with that this mod doesn’t follow the HL(2) universe, and that new weapons and npç skins are used, which some dislike very much. Its true, it doesn’t follow the HL universe in a lot of ways. But, to me that is no problem at all. I think it comes all down to what i prefer. When i “need” to work for 6 years on a mod, then i need to make exactly what i like myself, (and just hope others will to). Otherwise i never could complete a project like this. That it isn’t consistent or HL worthy is for me not that important. Was it fun to make, that is to me important. And that it was for 80% of the time, (never is all the work fun, there have been months … don’t get me started, lol

    Lurk:
    “It’s like someone took a trip though gamebanana and downloaded skins at random. ”
    more people said this, well, what can i say other then that it is not true. For months i have tested weapons and finally i choose these for the mod, and some were specially made or compiled.

    AI:
    Glad to hear from you old man, lol. I hope i may say things, amd 52 myself haha.
    But, am glad you are playing it as rest on Fall Out4. And, should you be serious about learning to make maps then i am very willing to help you. I promise you you will be able to make rooms with enemies in it, and models, sounds, etc, in just 2 hours. Its in fact so much easier as most think.
    Just let me know!

    Dr.Nathan100:
    The mod is meant to be played at 75 Degree POV. If you turn it up, the main menu, intro credits, and cut scenes will all look terrible. ….seen in Gmod that were just ripped from Workshop.
    lost in the house and had to noclip to find out where to go. Turns out there was a vent hidden behind a dresser and when I continued, the enemy NPCs would spawn right in front of me or just be a floating gun.

    Let me start with your last comment, when you noclip through a map then please don’t complain about things not working!! This makes me so mad, you say you go around triggers but then complicate that things are not triggered, are you serious. No, really. This is so sad.
    But, then, you are fully right with the 75 degree POV. To be honest, i always play on default POV. And i completely forgot about this option, its that you brought it up now. So, i am sorry, my mistake! Althhough i do have to say that most people seem to play on default POV, at least all beta testers did also. Sorry for my hard words above but i really wonder why you complain about something that you yourself cause happening. To me that is just unnessesary bashing, but ok, guess you just wrote without really thinking. Happens to me to, that is the internet, we write and press enter, and the words are out. So, no problem. happens to all of us.

    Gambini:
    You complain about the mod being bad because its full with large red errors.
    This is a ep2 mod, so you need to have ep2 installed. Therefore i really think that a comment of you like;
    “…I suggest you get it back to the shop and fix all the bugs and give a last try on improving the experience. ”
    is completely unnecessary.

    Crowbar:
    You had complains like;
    – The modder learnt NOTHING from Half-Life, and saying “it’s his style” doesn’t make it good.
    – There is nothing “total conversion” about this mod
    – Things were changed just for the sake of changing them.
    This is never presented as a Total Convertion, so your right, there is nothing TC about it, never said there would be. And about things were changed just for the sake of it. There you are absolutly right! I as i assume most have done, have played tons of mods. And after all these years i simply don’t like to play anymore with the default weapons, npc’s, models, etc. This is my 5th mod and i really wanted to make things fun again for myself by replacing as much as possible. That doesn’t mean i just took stuff random from the internet. Most did come from there, but always with permission, and never just random. These weapons i choose after having tested weapons for many months for example. So, yes, things are changed just because of the changing effect. Another vanilla mod would be no fun at all for me to make, again.

    OJJ;
    You complained about having to walk around in in map3 before you did find the exit in that house. This is called some sort of a puzzel and is done frequently in mods, nothing new. I even added a puzzle solution system for people like you who dislike these kind of puzzels. Just walk around and you find the solution. Don’t get me wrong, personally i am also not a fan of puzzels like these. But to complain about it and say its badly done. What else could i do, i even added the solution to the puzzel. Still, sorry it did frustrate you, that was never my intention.
    About that you have to look around sometimes to find the right way to go to. I really tried my best to make things as easy as possible, but still put in a bit of exploration.

    Jim_Partridge:
    “For me there’s only one measure of a mods success… DID YOU HAVE FUN PLAYING IT…”
    You are right my friend, and i fully understand that you don’t have time now for playing because of your own project, and not wanting to get influenced.

    Brianthesnail:
    sorry to hear you have such Windows 10 problems.
    The mod has indeed not been tested on it, and it is build on windows 7 and a NVidea card system. Still, it does amaze me that windows 10 can play this mod so badly that it causes blue screens of dead. I really hope soon you will have more info about it, i also would hasetate very much when it would happen to me. Hope you will play it one day though!
    Just read your last comment Brianthesnail, and the mod is really not buggy at all. One person said so but later he “confessed ” that he playes on a low end computer. It realy has to do with windows 10.

    Confused Travolta
    Well said, although i don’t fully agree with you that this mod is old style. Not because it isn’t because its not old. Even these days games and mods are made that way. But, i know what you mean. Thanks for wanting to play it anway, even when you disliked previous work. All i can do is hope you see any improvement in my work.

    Dougjp,
    i am really sorry to hear your problem. Have just downloaded and extracted the 7zip myself as test and all went fine. So i do think there is something at your end what causes this. Also are you the first to say this and many people already have extracted it, and never reported something like that. Which they would for sure, if that was the case.
    Sorry for this all,

    well, that is it for now. Thank you all again and have FUN!
    Leon

    Reply
    1. OJJ

      Making a large area with false leads and only one tiny place that is interactive or the path forward does not a puzzle make. It seems like you’ve mistaken poor level design for a puzzle because having the player have to press use on everything is not only not fun but also doesn’t count as exploration because exploration areas should atleast reward the player for looking around and have the path ahead clear to the player.

      Reply
    2. brianthesnail

      thanks for the reply leon .. what i will do is buy another copy of “half life ep2” and install it on my second gaming pc ( in the front room ) which runs windows 7(64bit ) and has a core i3 3220,8gb ddr3 ram and a sapphire HD6850 with 1gb of vram …. this way i can run the mod using windows 7 and play hl2 ep2 again if i want
      that said the “orange box” may be a better option as it has all the hl2 games with portal thrown in for good measure ( dont like team fortress .. never have ) ….
      i could try running “the closure” in windows 10 ( the main rig has a core i5 3330 ,same 8gb of ddr3 ram and a MSI R9270x ) .. this would run any game and all mods and maps have a fps of around 290fps ) …..
      keep u posted leon … all the best mate

      Reply
      1. PlanetPhillip

        Why will you buy another copy? Just install Steam and install it from there.

        Reply
        1. brianthesnail

          can you have 2 libarys then phillip .. so for example if i log in to my steam account from my spare pc will this make steam on my main pc inaccessible ? …. or can you have a steam account running on multiple system ( all on the same network )
          im not 100% sure but in the past when ive logged into my steam account on another pc ( again on the same home network ) ive had to go through the security malarky
          if i can have my steam account running on the 2 systems then that will be fine .. and downloading the games wont be a problem now im on a 80meg fibre connection ( had to get that one in )
          cheers phillip ….

          Reply
          1. Zekiran

            That’s the entire point behind Steam as a system. You can have any of the games that the rig is capable of playing, that you own on Steam, on *any* computer. The only thing that’s important is the account that’s running it. The only thing you cannot do (and I’m sure there are ways around it) is to have two of your own running *at the same time*.

            So yes, you can install and run Steam on any computer – ANY – and install whatever game you own on it, and run it. It doesn’t need a new copy, they’re not per-computer, they’re per ACCOUNT. That’s the joy of Steam.

            Reply
    3. Gambini

      I have followed the installation instructions in detail. I have switched my copy of Source SDK 2013 Singleplayer to the “upcoming” beta and have ep2 installed. I have a mod in progress myself and after quitting your mod I launched mine just to be sure nothing was broken in my files. The Zombine model for example, is missing in your mod, the headcrab and grenade hover around.. and they are there when I launch other sdk 2013 mods.

      Please don´t misunderstand the tone of my post. I´m trying to be constructive when I say you have to get it back to the shop.

      here are two examples of missing models (sorry i didnt take more): http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/550933846698765198/631F459CFF4453DCE2110F4346E47ABE936A2C35/

      http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/550933846698765045/7D4C5528F0BB45B93FE056AF9B9364AEA8299890/

      Reply
      1. Zekiran

        Gambini there is something really wrong with your install. That shouldn’t happen. There’s nothing wrong with the files on most other people’s versions, it’s not the mod, it’s your game. I’d recommend a blob delete and reinstall the Steam client, (not the games, just the client available in the steam website) to maybe clear that up. That should not happen, but it’s definitely not on the mod’s end. Have you looked at your options for video? Change the settings to their lowest and restart the game, to see if you’re trying to force a load of textures that don’t exist. Also, if you have any other mods installed, *remove them*, that’s kind of a last resort but it might be that something’s breaking it by having the same name or a path that is wrong.

        Reply
        1. Gambini

          Thanks for the help, but I´m an experienced modder/mod player and never had this issue before. I have a lot of mods installed and they all work, half life 2 ep2 works too. It´s the first mod i had to switch to a beta (didn´t have a problem with that) so there´s something he´s ignoring about his mod requirements. Maybe all the people that didn´t have problems share an specific configuration/installation that is different on my end, but it should be up to the developer to address this, because I´m following his instructions in detail so it means many potential users will suffer this problem.

          I won´t do what you say because it will hardly fix the issue and will be a lot of work not worth the effort.

          BTW I divided my review between bugs and the mod in general. I was aware something wasn´t going on the right way.

          Reply
    4. crowbar

      I was very negative towards your mod, but you gained my respect, because of how you respond to everyone’s comment. By the way the comments I made about this not being a total conversion mod, I knew that it isn’t supposed to be, but someone else kept saying that this is a total conversion and that’s the reason why people like me don’t like it when in reality it isn’t a total conversion.

      Also I can understand why you want to change weapon models and skins and stuff to have some variety, but again, I didn’t criticize that you changed them, I criticized that the new models and skins are either bad or don’t fit to each other. That doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun with them, but for me it’s a big thing which takes away from the experience.

      Also I respect how you just “do” stuff. Shia LaBeouf would be proud of you, you “just did it”.

      I’m sorry if I made some harsh remarks or something like that, I get really emotional sometimes.

      Reply
    5. AI

      Spy, thanks for the reply, I’ve played about half way thru, and haven’t had ANY problems at all !! I have all graphics at max (I only run an NVidia 650 Ti boost vid) Anyway thanks for the offer tho! I’ve been retired for 14 yrs and just stick to what I know, building game machines!
      BTW; I have all your games stored on my backup drives.

      Reply
  44. SPY

    IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT PLAYING “MANY ENEMIES” MODE ;

    It is very sad to say, but when you play in many enemies mode, then this mode ONLY stayes active when you play from start to end the mod. You can load save files but you

    CANNOT LOAD A LEVEL THROUGH CONSOLE !!

    This will take away the “many enemies” and set the mod back to a normal amount of enemies.

    I am thinking about releasin a seperate mappack in which all levels are default in “many-enemies” mode. But this will take at least a week or two.

    Leon

    Reply
  45. Loke

    Heh, I guess I’m the only one who’s been enjoying it for the past two hours. Yeah, it’s your typical Leon stuff with a heavy amount of cut scenes and custom models but I really don’t care. I came in and expected it and that is what I got. Some people might not like it but for me personally I really don’t find it so distracting.

    Of course I’ve only played for two hours so the later part of the mod might not hold up but so far I’ve definitely enjoyed it. There has been quite a few good vertical combat sections as well, I’m always I fan of those so I hope there’s more of that.

    Thumbs up from me so far!

    Reply
  46. Urby

    I’m not going to do any playthrough videos of this, simply because a single hour of gameplay for me then requires an 8 – 10 hour upload… so multiple hours is a nono.

    Also, I’m not particularly impressed that I need to alter my SDK settings just to get it to work. Seems a bit of an oversight that should have been ironed out in testing.

    Either way, going to give this a go now.

    Reply
    1. Urby

      I’m about two hours in, which I gather means I’m not even a quarter of the way through. So far though, its been a bit of an endurance test. I opted for the low enemy count at the start, and I still find myself plowing through hundreds of enemies at a time. It’s really not fun gameplay wise and the mapping leaves a lot to be desired.

      This is the kind of thing you expect in a game from the 90s, like DOOM or Duke 3D, but it just doesn’t hold up in 2016, or the Source engine…

      Going to play through to the end however… I’m not going to let it beat me 😛

      Reply
      1. Urby

        Sunk another couple of hours into this, and I honestly don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say “hundreds of enemies per map.” The sheer volume of antlions that spawn in apparently infinitely… I don’t even fight them now. I just run.

        As for the soldiers, it’s nice when they engage from a distance, but they almost ALWAYS close the gap. “Lemming squad 202 reporting for duty, ready to run headlong into the enemy’s bullets, sir!”

        Also, if it gets to a point where you need to offer hints for players to get through certain areas, it might be worth considering why. Maybe put more time into making it a little more obvious to the player, without saying PRESS THIS BUTTON… which brings me onto another point. All I’ve done for the first four hours of this mod is press buttons. Or pickup keycards which then allow me to press another button.

        Now, I will say that some of the environments are fantastic, especially the area I just go through with the portal 2 style automated panels, bridges and stairs. The problem here is the gameplay, which always falls back on mindless combat. No tactics and no clever environmental traps to take out the enemy, just SHOOT ALL THE THINGS. PRESS ALL THE BUTTONS. 🙁

        It’s such a shame.

        Reply
  47. Dannster

    I really love Leon mods they always personally are very enjoyable for me I never quite know what to expect and that is something that draws me in. I am thoroughly enjoying The closure so far because it is different from other mods. It’s what makes the source engine an amazing engine to this day the fact that you can make your own games and styles. Different levels normally have something used differently such as attaching a first aid kit to a wall instead of leaving one lying around and Leon has his own way of doing alot of things such as using cut-scenes and creating various and almost slightly surreal locations.

    It reminds me of something MrBtongue said in one of his videos “TUN: The Great Infinity Engine Do-Over.” “The players are guests in your world, infact the game itself is a guest in your world, and while you should treat guests with hospitality you don’t rebuild your house for their sake.” Even though said video is about RPG games I feel like the quote can apply here.

    Anyway I can see why people don’t like Leons work seeing as it can feel disjointed but I always have fun playing Leons stuff and thats all that really matters for me with certain mods :D.

    Reply
  48. SPY

    Thanks Dannster, i can only be glad that people recognise my work, that is has sort of a own style. With that always comes that not everyone likes it. So everyone has its own taste and opinion.

    To say; “…I find myself plowing through hundreds of enemies at a time” Urby, is simply silly.
    That doesn’t even happen in the many enemies mode, but, your entitled to exaggerate ofcourse.

    Leon

    Reply
  49. DjReplica

    Unfortunately, another BSOD. It happened on the same point like yesterday(between loading map3-map4).

    And the message is something with directX.

    I really loved your mod Leon, but I can’t afford bsoding for the rest of playtime.
    So I won’t be reviewing this one unfortunately.

    Reply
  50. asterixer

    Okay, after some work it runs under linux:
    -rename all files to lowercase
    – delete or disable this line in gameinfo.txt: ( with // ) gamebin episodic/bin
    – copy all bin files from singleplayer 2013 bin to bin in the mod
    – copy server.dlib and server.so, client.dlib and server.so from hl2 ep2 bin to the bin folder of the mod.

    Now you can start. So far i had no problems…

    Reply
    1. Steve

      Thanks asterixer – your fix worked perfectly (Apple Mac)
      I didn’t need to rename files to lowercase but I muddled through with the rest. Seemed to work 😀

      Reply
    2. rhradec

      asterixer
      28th February 2016 at 9:37 pm
      Okay, after some work it runs under linux:
      -rename all files to lowercase
      – delete or disable this line in gameinfo.txt: ( with // ) gamebin episodic/bin
      – copy all bin files from singleplayer 2013 bin to bin in the mod
      – copy server.dlib and server.so, client.dlib and server.so from hl2 ep2 bin to the bin folder of the mod.

      Now you can start. So far i had no problems…

      just to add, a simple way to find and rename all upper case files to lower case is using the “find” and “convmv” commands. (find is default on any linux distro, and convmv can be installed by the standard ways each distro has to install packages!)

      just cd into the closure mod folder and run this command line:

      find ./ -name ‘*[A-Z]*’ -exec convmv –lower –notest {} \;

      it will find all files with upper case in the name, and rename to lower case.
      You need to run it multiple times to account for folders with uppercase being renamed to lowercase. After renaming the folder, find needs to run again to find upper case files in that folder and rename then… and so on.

      keep running the command until no renaming happens!

      Reply
  51. SPY

    What a shame DjReplica.
    But, when it says something about DirectX then maybe it has to do something with that. You could just run a DirectX program to see if your having the latest version. Also, are your video drivers fully up to date, this also can cause issues otherwise. Because Valve keeps updating its engine and tools. I am not familiar with windows 10, is there maybe a option to set the compability as in windows 7 ? Because otherwise you could reset it to windows 7, then all problems should be solved.
    All in all i am really very sorry that you experience this. And i can fully understand that you don’t want to keep trying. BSOD are no joke.
    sorry,

    Leon

    Reply
  52. Hakuryuu_Ren
    Avoid It!

    I’m a very big Half-Life fan and I’m waiting for Half-Life 3 for ages. Once I stumpled on this mod and I was pretty excited. I almost waited 2 years for it. Of course I knew it wouldn’t be as good as a real Half-Life 3, but I never thought it was going to be this terrible.
    It already began in the intro cutscene. Everything looked and felt completely out of place. Just look at the moon in the intro. Why is it so big? Did Leon ever look at the real moon? Something like this just destroys the atmosphere. The cutscenes are unnecessary as hell. They mostly show, how Gordon walks somewhere or how some enemies appear. This doesn’t belong in a Half-Life. This was one of the things, that made Half-Life this great. That you are PLAYING the story, not watching it.
    But there isn’t any story, or at least I didn’t notice it. You just walk through the level, shoot enemies and collect keycards. Once and there you get one of this ridiculous cutscenes.
    Then there’s this aweful level design. The levels are mostly generic, boring and feel absolutely slapped together. That had as result, that the levels felt unrealistic an out of place. Also it seemed, that just random assets were taken. What’s with the new combine models? They even don’t look like combines anymore. And I lost myself completely, when I encountered a turret from Portal…
    And what’s with the music? Mostly it plays random music from Call of Duty 2. I mean, it isn’t bad music, but it fits not to Half-Life. When suddenly the theme music from Requiem for a Dream played, I ultimatly turned the music off.
    Least but not least, it’s buggy as hell. Once I had a floating gun, which blocked my way. And later, a door wouldn’t open, which I need to go through. So for me it’s not possible to continue.
    There are some things, I say that were good. The gameplay itself is pretty fun. But that’s because it’s the same gameplay as in Half-Life 2. And I kinda like the new weapons, even if I miss the crowbar.

    Avoid this mod. I thought it would be a cool replacement for Half-Life 3. But would be better to have no Half-Life 3 instead of this crap.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    2 Hours
    Reply
  53. Gangway!

    “I thought it would be a cool replacement for Half-Life 3” – it’s your main mistake. The higher the anticipation the bigger the disappointment. I didn’t think so and now I enjoy this mod (as the other Leon’s mods).

    Reply
    1. BatCornMan

      by the term episode 3 it was the last of his other mods like Coastline to Atmosphere was episode 1, Strider Mountain was episode 2 and now Closure is episode 3, like Leon said it doesn’t follow the HL universe. And you have not played all of it.

      Reply
      1. crowbar

        thats why its called “Half-Life 2: Episode 3” in your steam library and the description of the mod says it continues where the story of Episode 2 left off.

        Reply
  54. BatCornMan

    All the hate people dident even play all of it and it gets every hour you play just because it doesn’t follow the HL universe, who cares this is his own way he would experience it, and 25+ hours come on no mod was that long and and i cant wait to finish it.

    Reply
    1. OJJ

      I’ve finished it, didn’t really like it all that much and I have to say it is more of the same throughout, also many mods have much less time to prove themselves to players for the players to decide if it’s good or not.
      Also it’s not 25 hours long, sure it’s long but I don’t think it was Underhell long or atleast didn’t feel it.

      Reply
  55. Dr.Nathan100
    Avoid It!

    This mod is an example of quantity over quality. I made it to ‘Chapter 17’ of 32 before I couldn’t play it any longer. This mod does a lot of things wrong to the point where it not even worth anyone’s time.

    First off, the levels are very poor. There is nothing showing the player where they should go or what to do next, leaving me running around and back tracking before finding some air vent tucked away in the corner that I continuously missed. The cut scenes are poorly executed and shouldn’t exist to this extent in a Half-Life game. They sometimes play back to back, let enemy’s have free shots at you while you have no control. It don’t even show where the player is standing, it shows the player where it wants to and then puts you back without a beat. I also had a lot of problems with NPCs spawning directly in front of you or being entirely invisible other then their weapons. A lot of times I was overwhelmed with enemys even though I selected few, and no, I didn’t use console commands to load a level. I even got ‘Graph Node out of date, rebuilding’ on a few maps which I expect more from an “Expert” mapper like Leon claims to be on his profile. There was even an observatory area where there is nothing stopping you from falling out of the map.

    The atmosphere isn’t Half-Life. The music is poorly chosen and poorly executed. There is a part where the player is without a weapon and running away from zombies, but smooth jazz is playing? That is only one example of the random music that plays. The intrusive cut scenes only go further to ruin the atmosphere as they seem random and just interrupt whatever you are doing to force you to look a poorly scripted sequence. This is further ruined from all the Gmod Workshop assets everywhere. Using original weapons is fine but they don’t fit in with this mod. SWAT and tactical human weapons are very far off from combine weapons such as the AR2. The Combine NPCs are reskined to be SWAT units for some weird reason and doesn’t fit their voice lines or what the combine even are. We know combine soldiers are transhuman, not men in balaclavas.

    The story completely disregards Half-Life lore and goes it’s own way. Apparently White Forest isn’t on top of a mountain anymore, it’s within a small way from “City 18.” Alyx is in some sort of depression from losing her Dad and is “Getting worse” as magnusson keeps telling us. It doesn’t fit magnusson’s character to be so concerned and place the fate of humanity aside because of Alyx. And Kliener being infected without any explanation as to how or why? Only that it altered him and made him evil?

    This mod could of been something great but unfortunately it was poorly executed on way too many levels. It’s clear that a lot of effort went into this mod but I expected more from 6 years in development. I could forgive some of these mistakes if it weren’t for the title. You cannot tell me this is “Leon’s style” or “Leon’s version of the story” when he has the nerve to call it “Half-Life 2: Episode 3” When you call it Episode 3, you set the mod to have the same expectations as a Half-Life game. This mod throws out all the core mechanics and has no sense of immersion. I teleported to space ship to listen to the dev tell me how I can tailor my gameplay? I can go find this bright green plus to show me the solution of a puzzle? This isn’t Half-Life, none of it is.

    Overall, I was disappointed by this mod. I’m sorry if this isn’t what Leon’s fan wanted to hear but as a Half-Life fan, I don’t think this mod is worth anyone’s time unless you actually enjoy this weird fanfiction.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    5 Hours
    Reply
    1. BatCornMan

      What do you expect, a Real half life 2 episode 3 game, all of his other mods that i like were so this and this was even better, it doesn’t follow the HL universe you cant blame him for only being only one man do it all by himself.

      Reply
      1. brianthesnail

        yes,i think too many people dont understand leon as a modder and a person … ive been playing hl2 mods for many years and leon,s work in unique …also its a bit like marmite/you love it or hate it ……
        after playing final project so many times ( around 40 times at the last count ) you can see leon,s personal life in the mod … if you knew about his personal life ( which i do ) you can see this reflected in some of his mods…
        granted leon,s work wont be everyones cup of tea .. but come on guys,it took many years for us to realise that coastline to atmosphere,strider mountain and final project diary were masterpeices.. maybe in time “the closure” will be up there with them
        even without playing the mod i know it will stand the test of time

        Reply
        1. Koranis

          So basically whoever doesn’t like this mod simply doesn’t understand Leon “as a modder and as a person” ? This is your argument?

          Reply
      2. Dr.Nathan100

        If it doesn’t follow the Half-Life universe, then why does it call itself Half-Life 2: Episode 3? Why does it use the same locations and characters and try to continue the story? So what if it was just one guy? Transmission-Element 120 and Minerva Metastasis where both made by individuals. I’m starting to feel like you have some bias and aren’t looking at this objectively.

        Reply
        1. Zekiran

          If you play Coastline to Atmosphere, and Strider Mountain, this is most certainly Episode 3.

          Reply
          1. Dr.Nathan100

            Half-Life 2: Episode 3? Or Leon’s Mod series: Episode 3? Those have two very different meanings.

            Reply
          2. Gangway!

            I think it seems to be Leon’s Mod series: Episode 3

            Reply
    2. BatCornMan

      What do you expect, a Real half life 2 episode 3 game, all of his other mods that i like were so this and this was even better, it does not follow the HL universe you cant blame him for only being only one man do it all by himself.

      Reply
  56. BatCornMan
    Personal Favourite

    I wanted to say that this was the best mod iv have ever played and i did even complete it yet, but i will today, but the level design was super good and the atmosphere was calm just like strider mountian. People will say they hate it because they thing it is a real half life 2 game but it is not its a mod. This is his own version of episode 3, not the real one. By far this was the best.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    5 Hours
    Reply
  57. Zekiran

    I want to ask the people who claim “avoid it” – do you really want people to actually avoid playing this?

    Or do you, as I much more strongly suspect, want to say “this isn’t hl2 / episode 3” so don’t expect that?

    Because one of those ratings is reserved for ‘actually unplayable mods’ which have dire play issues such as bad mapping, gaps in geometry, broken models, unmistakably terrible game play, and the like.

    if you actually mean, “I would probably have awarded a different rating if my personal expectations had not been triggered by the title” you should probably go back and *change your ratings*.

    It’s outright insulting to ANY modder to see the kind of bullshit ratings of “avoid it” for a mod which is CLEARLY superior in so many ways, to those which would actually warrant that rating.

    GO BACK and play without the expectation that this “is supposed to replace hl2/e3”. It’s not. It TAKES UP from where episode 2 ended.

    Just like Coastline to Atmosphere TOOK UP from the end of HL2 only with a twist that Breen was apparently on the loose. Or where Strider Mountain TOOK UP from portions of the journey where Gordon was aiding rebels and got lost.

    If you cannot play the mod because you neglected to install the correct Beta (this is the UPCOMING beta, NOT the ‘standard’ beta – and don’t forget to restart Steam) that’s not Leon’s fault. If you cannot figure out where something is on a map, LOOK AROUND. Leon’s got exploration and detail down pat – if you aren’t seeing a vent (… what the HELL? really?) you aren’t looking around yourself. If you can’t appreciate the depth of the locations, you’re not looking enough.

    But this is in no way an “avoid it” mod, just because personal expectations were for something that it was never, ever, going to be. My recommendation is that Phillip remove those extremely biased ‘but it’s not hl3’ reviews, because they aren’t – they’re just whining at the cost of an incredibly detailed and long-thought-out mod. Block out the name, if you must – stop thinking that it’s a replacement toy for Valve’s missing episode. it isn’t. Rate it for what it IS, not what you WANT it to be.

    Rant / off.

    Reply
    1. OJJ

      I agree, but I didn’t enjoy it but I would’ve given a ‘think twice’ if I believed in rating systems being reliable for grading a topic.
      But to just outright remove the reviews because of just one criticism from a list seems a little excessive because that will just outright silence any other criticisms people have for the mod, also while we’re on the subject on removing because of bias; BatCorn’s PF is also a biased review for he hasn’t completed it and also has a straw-man against those who didn’t like it so much, should that be removed too?

      Reply
    2. November

      Those recommendations actually have legitimate reasons for the authors not liking the mod, aside from the title. Also, when you give a mod such a hefty title you give players expectations. It barely even attempts to meet those expectations in any way aside from it being a “continuation”. When those expectations are not met, you can reasonably expect people to be upset and for it to effect their opinions of the mod.

      Complaining that people are upset because they have been misguided into believing they will be playing something that is extremely different to what they receive reeks of fanboyism. No one was expecting it to actually be Half-Life 2: Episode 3 quality, but it wears that title, so they were expecting it to at least try to be something similar to Half-Life 2, which it is absolutely nothing like.

      The name of the mod absolutely matters in cases like this, and it most definitely factors into the driving force behind someone’s opinion of this mod. It’s not their fault for thinking they were going to be getting something based on the name of the mod. The fake Half-Life 2 Episode 3 maps do a better job of a serious Half-Life 2: Episode 3 attempt than this.

      You say you recommend Phillip remove reviews that have this as a part of their reasoning, but really, it honestly sounds like you’re trying to police reviews just because they don’t have the same opinions or tastes as you.

      Reply
    3. Gangway!

      200% agree

      Reply
    4. crowbar

      apparently you didn’t even read the reviews.

      Reply
      1. Gangway!

        I mean I 200% agree with Zekiran. And you?

        Reply
    5. Jim_Partridge

      Ahh and here we fall into the problems once again with the rating system on this site.
      A star system would be far more informative and accurate.

      People expecting an accurate HL2 gameplay mod of the modders vision of Episode 3 have a right to advise other players to AVOID IT. Its not what it seems…

      Had this been a pure star system I think it would be getting 2-3 star reviews…

      Reply
      1. PlanetPhillip

        A star system would be far more informative and accurate.

        It seems that you and I disagree on almost everything. A star system would be easier to understand but ultimately less useful. It’s been discussed so many times before. I don’t believe a star system is more informative or accurate.

        Reply
  58. Ryan

    I’m using Linux. I have downloaded the Upcoming release for SDK 2013. I have also placed the mod folder (Halflife2-Episode3) into the sourcemods folder. When I start the game through Library, I see the Valve/Source logos, but before it makes it to the menu, it crashes. The error it reports is: Engine Error: Could not load library client. Try restarting. If that doesn’t work, verify the cache.

    It then takes me to Steam and my Library view. If I try to restart the mod, then Steam offers an additional error message: Failed to start game with shared content. Please update these games first: Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer.

    I’d appreciate any thoughts you may offer.

    Reply
    1. asterixer

      Hi Ryan, Read my first post here to make it running under linux. it is possible!

      Reply
  59. aaron

    still cant get it to play past the valve start

    Reply
  60. Koranis
    Think Twice

    I’ll avoid a wordy review because many others have already stated what is clearly wrong with this mod, so I won’t repeat that. I’ll make a quick rundown instead:

    MAPS
    -AVERAGE. I expected at least a Transmission Element 120 level of quality, having heard all the praise about the author and the 6 years of development time, but if Transmission 120 is almost Valve-level, then this mod compares poorly. It’s not bad and it gets better but it never shines. I’ve never stopped to say “wow” so I’ll say it’s “Average”.

    GAMEPLAY
    -BELOW AVERAGE
    Anything that works is simply because of the game that is Half Life, which is still fun today and that gameplay hasn’t been augmented by the author in any way. On the contrary, it has been hindered by the way to frequent, way to annoying and way to amateurish 3rd person cutscenes. I understand what Leon and fans of his work say, and I respect those opinions. But this is my review, based on my experience and I must say it’s lacking. The 3rd person cutscenes are annoying as hell, they interrupt the gameplay flow and force an exposition on the player, without adding anything meaningful, in part because Source Engine simply hasn’t been made for it.

    SOUND
    -BAD
    I don’t like when a music is forced on me. The first time I heard an out of place music in this mod (taken from another game by the way) I hurried to mute the music altogether, only to find out I just couldn’t. Even if I muted it completely, the music continued on with the same volume as before. I had to quicksave and reload to make it go away. That’s shoddy.

    OVERALL PRESENTATION / “ART” DIRECTION
    -WITHOUT FOCUS AT ITS BEST, LACKING AT ITS WORST.
    It is sadly a collection of out-of-topic assets slapped together, not because it had a modicum of sense (it didn’t by the way, Star Trek shuttle I’m looking at you) but because the author simply could do it, and so he did – because this was his artistic view. Fair enough, but this artistic view didn’t tell me anything, didn’t convince me, and left me uninterested.

    And until now I avoided to mention the elephant in the room: the pretentious title “Episode 3”, and even if I will continue to avoid it, I will say this:

    Think twice if you expect a Valve-quality Episode 3 mod. Think twice if you expect a visually coherent, well-thought-out mod contained within the Half Life 2 universe. You also must be a fan of the author’s previous work to be able to appreciate it. Tastes matter here, more than anywhere else.

    I won’t say you should avoid it, but I will certainly say again that you should think twice and temper your expectations if you decide to give it a go.

    EDIT: So much for a quick rundown…. lol.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    11 Hours
    Reply
  61. Pedro_The_Swift

    Gee’s some of you take yourselves seriously,,,

    its a GAME.
    its not cancer.

    yes its still running perfectly on Win10,

    Yes I’m looking forward to replaying it on “many” enemies.

    Great work Leon.

    Reply
  62. vancanucksfan
    Play It Now!

    OK, I finally finished this mod. I feel like I completed a marathon!

    While it’s not for everybody, I personally loved this mod. There are enough really good things to make up for some things that weren’t optimal. So it is going in my “Great Mods” stash so I can re-play it when I want. At least until Valve breaks it with a Steam Update of some kind.

    Things that were good included the setting for more or less enemies, the hints you could use if you got stuck (I never needed them but it’s a great idea), and the suspense while looking for the shotgun. I kept seeing shotgun ammo everywhere at the beginning while I didn’t have the gun. I thought the voice acting was pretty good as well, and I loved the trophy room and the first aid boxes on the walls. Plus that sniper rifle was a terrific weapon.

    However with any mod there are always things that aren’t as good. There were parts of the mod that were more like a sequel to Strider Mountain than anything else. The metrocop zombies don’t have a headcrab showing, yet when you shoot them it magically appears. There is also some repetitive speech for the Dr. Kleiner character in a couple of situations. I found a few bugs as well; sometimes I jumped into places and got myself stuck. On one occasion I jumped across a courtyard to fight some enemies only to be stuck and unable to progress.

    The cut scenes were sometimes great and sometimes tedious. I personally enjoyed the one where Gordon steals the Combine armored vehicle. But I thought the “helicopter” was a little silly looking and the collision didn’t make any sense. For the part where you are supposed to ride down the cable holding on to the bar, I kept falling off as I thought I was supposed to hold down the “Use” key.

    I think if this Mod didn’t have such a pretentious title people would be giving it better reviews. It’s not a “real” Half-Life game. I also didn’t have to pay for it either and got many hours of enjoyment out of it. It’s just a really long mod with a few flaws that is best played in spurts so you don’t get fatigued. I personally loved it and think there are enough great points to make it a PIN.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    12 Hours
    Reply
  63. S.anchev

    Compare it to Transmissions Élément 120?? That’s insane, nearly nothing can be compared to this level.

    Besides, it’s a 1 Hour short mod.

    Seriously, you clearly don’t know Anything about HL2 mod’s to compare or expect TE120 level. Even for other short mod’s, it’s impossible.

    Reply
  64. brianthesnail

    if the title “half life episode 3” was not listed anywhere and the mods name “the closure” only used ( both in files and in the steam libary ) i think there may of been some different comments here .. as some comments have stated the title “half life episode ” gives you expectations far above what any modder could produce

    Reply
    1. Koranis

      Exactly. If it wasn’t called Episode 3 it would have got a quarter of the attention it got and it would have got none of this flak as only those who still play HF2 mods (and enjoy them without high expectations) would have played it. “Episode 3” was an unnecessary title that attracted a lot of newcomers like myself who judged it as it was “advertised” and hyped on ModDB: as a follow up to Episode 2 made by a renowned modder over the span of 6 years.

      As S.anchev pointed it out, you don’t come out of this one easily, just like it was wrong of me to expect something along the lines of Transmission 120.

      Reply
      1. PlanetPhillip

        I discussed this with Leon and said that I thought it was unfair to call it “Half-Life 2: Episode 3” as this would give the impression it was from Valve and he said, and I paraphrase now “That’s what I want to happen. It will also remind people that Valve have taken a long time to release nothing”.

        Reply
        1. Koranis

          I understand it and share it to some degree, but if this is what he really wanted then he will have to stand fast and weather the storm because the mod simply doesn’t have the nuts to drive the message home.

          Reply
        2. Alencore

          That’s why I like it. It’s big middle finger to valve intentional silence about ep3 or hl3. People judging this mod too critically probably don’t have any clue howto even make maps and worst making single player maps, it takes lots of dedication and time, there are really bad mods out there but this ain’t one of them, yeah it can be better here and there but there are enough good things about it, people who probably can’t stand it are probably to lazy to look for around to get to another area since this mod truly makes you go crazy as it does not spoon feed the gamer just like what this triple A titles such as COD’s and BF campaigns are doing. I’m really pissed to when it’s taking me such a long time to get to another area but it feels super good once you solve it hehe coz I sometimes avoid the + sign unless I’m in a big hurry.

          Reply
          1. OJJ

            That’s alot of assumption, also how long it took to make doesn’t change anything if people didn’t have fun with it also if you look at people who did rate it you’d see that many of them have made maps.

            Reply
          2. Confused Travolta

            People judging this mod too critically probably don’t have any clue howto even make maps and worst making single player maps

            I think it’s exactly the opposite.

            Reply
    2. Jim_Partridge

      100 percent agreed…
      Just the same as Prospekt, the modder has set inaccurate expectations and is rightfully being criticised as a result. Even if Prospekt hadn’t been a paid mod, it would still have made people mad.

      I fell into this trap when I foolishly added weak elements to Aftermath at the last minute that implied it was a follow up to Deep Down (which it wasn’t at all). I can’t even remember why that felt like a good idea now…

      Reply
      1. crowbar66

        You are right , Jim. The first time I played Aftermath I said “WTH” where is Alyx! I was looking for a follow-up to Deep Down and was disappointed to no end. The second play through with no expectations proved much more enjoyable and I realized what a great mod you had created.
        To be truthful, the reason I registered with RTSL was to be able to thank you for all the wonderful works you have shared with us and wish you the best. So here it is — THANK YOU!

        Reply
        1. Jim_Partridge

          Awww thanks man!!!

          Reply
  65. PlanetPhillip

    I understand that Leon’s work polarizes players and some people feel strongly but I just want remind everybody to remain fair, polite and respectful. One of the difference between this site and other sites is how users treat each other and I will not hesitate to edit or remove comments that I feel break the house rules. That’s not to say you can’t express your opinion and question others’ but always be polite. Thank you.

    Reply
    1. Dannster

      Thank you for that Phillip things seem to be getting very heated here 😛

      Reply
    2. brianthesnail

      phillip the referee ( funny wasnt phillip a trained sports coach ) .. lets enjoy “the closure” guys .. its just a mod hey .. its not like man utd or liverpool and a offside allowed …. !

      Reply
  66. Stefan Wagner

    Great Game !! Thank You !!

    Reply
  67. SPY

    WOW, simply,…. WOW!
    Let me start with thanking everyone who liked the mod !

    I have been reading all comments on RTSL and Moddb and will keep doing so.
    Let me start with ” the elephant in the room” , the title.
    As Phillip quoted, i did indeed say that i called it Ep3 so it would reach more people, (because there are still millions of people out there who never even heart of mods. With this Ep3 title i hope to reach those people. Ofcourse did i realise that this would set expectations, specially to the die hard HL fans. But then, this is a EP 3 MOD, not a EP3 GAME.
    So its a game made by a modder, and modders make what they themselves prefer.
    I love cutscenes, making them and watching them. A lot of people say that this destroyes the emersion. But that is just there opion. Please don’t get me wrong, they are fully entitled to that. But, please do realise that this isn’t the same for everyone. I for one feel it exactly the other way around. When i play games as for instance my favorite Max Payne games, i feel so much more emersed by watching the gameplay figure in cutscenes. And i don’t just say this, this is really true. The way the original HL games work, i don’t feel that emersion as strongly at all. And there are other people who think this way to. So, to say cutscene break emersion is simply not true. It is for those who feel it is that way.

    Now about this mod (not) following the HL saga or universe:
    I did try to make this mod a part/Ep 3 of the HL2 serie, that it doesn’t follow the full original story is true. But, i made what i thought would have been fun, and also important to realise, what i COULD realise. Which brings me to the next part;

    Using assets (star trek models and textures, and other games assets in general).
    I am formost a mapper. As some of you know is this my 5th HL2 (and eps) sp-mod.
    After having played tons of mods, and made so many myself i experienced no fun at all anymore to see and work again with the default HL2 materials. Simply couldn’t bare it to mod again with the old default weapons, combines, turrets, textures, music, etc. So i wanted to spice things up with new stuff. I can’t remember how many times i have searched for and or placed adds for help in this field of models, textures etc. Because HL2 (and eps) are so many years old the modding comunity is quit small these days. And the ones who are still here do work on own projects or were not gooed enough, or, also important, started to be scared by the huge scale of this mod and the time and effort it would take. The people who did promise to help out never did reply anymore, or simply promised me the world to then never hear from again. Still, a hand full of devs were so kind to help me out with lots of things, and without there help i could never have released this huge project. In short, i had many more ideas and plans but simply couldn’t deliver those because of lack of models etc. All that was left was use excisting assets from mods that weren’t released (died), ofcourse with permission of the devs !!
    Do i understand that it looks wierd to see a Strar Trek ship in a HL2 mod, ofcourse i do. But it was that or no ship at all. And to be honest, personally it doesn’t matter me at all. And after all is that what is most important i think, while i am working for nearly 6 years, about 6 to 10 hours a day, around 300 days a year. I can only make huge projects like these when i do exactly what i want. Otherwise i would have stopped 5 years ago developing this.

    Now about the rating of this mod here;
    May i thank Zekiran for the nice and in my opinion o so true words. Because i to believe it isn’t right to give this mod a “avoid it!” only because your disapointed about the fact that it doesn’t live up to your expectations. Ofcourse does a title as Ep3 make that people expect something. But then, please first check what says that it is a Ep3 mod. In this case it is a one man made (with tons of help from good friends) MOD. So, to me that says you get to play a Ep3 made, not by Valve, but by a modder. And they make what they like, and ofcourse they hope other people will like it to. As Zekiran said so well;
    “Rate it for what it IS, not what you WANT it to be.”

    To close this off, i do think/hope that all the negative comments here only pretray a small portion of the actual findings about this mod. I mean, loads of people play it and never comment.
    This does bring me back to the days that i released my earlier 2 large mods. In the days after the release, reading all comments here and on Moddb it looked like hardly anyone priciated them. But, now after many years they belong to the top mods. (don’t get me wrong, i say this very humble and proud !!). And that is not my opinion, numbers prove this outcome;

    Strider Mountain:
    RTSL : average score: 4.32 (out of 5) 59 recommendations,
    Moddb: average score: 7,5 305 recommendations

    Coastline to Atmosphere:
    RTSL : average score: 4.62 (out of 5)47 recommendations,
    Moddb : average score: 7.6 195 recommendations

    So, looking at then and now i think this mod will do quit good. At least i hope so ofcourse. And the Ep 3 title will not harm to much i assume. Because ones people start to see it for what it is, a mod and not a game, people hopefully will judge it for what it is.

    a fan made mod, in which he developes a follow up on the original Ep2.
    In a way he can develop. Meaning, what i actually can produce.
    (because one reason why so many mods die before release is because they wanted way more then they actually could deliver, in that light i have learned my leason.)

    Ofcourse am i not pleased with that not everyone is trilled with this new mod, but as with my previous mods. I knew up front that there would be a small segment that would dislike it. As i have said so many times before over the years; its simply impossible to please everyone. All i can do is make what I like, and hope that other do to. And till now that was a right way for me to work, because a lot of people did enjoy the released mods very much.

    Leon
    (edit; what i dislike is when people complain for things they themselve cause. So comments like;
    i see combines spawning in front of me, and flowting weapons, or big red error from not excisting models. To them i would like to say, don’t use no clip and fly through levels, or don’t complain when the map doesn’t work anymore as it should. It really is as simple as that! And when you don’t own Ep2, or don’t use the beta version of source 2013, you will see big red errors. Please first read how to install then instead of complaining about the mod not working well and not showing models. Again, it is as simple as that.
    Sorry, but i simply can’t have patients with this kind of silly remarks!

    Reply
    1. Wesp5

      After reading this: ‘I discussed this with Leon and said that I thought it was unfair to call it “Half-Life 2: Episode 3” as this would give the impression it was from Valve and he said, and I paraphrase now “That’s what I want to happen. It will also remind people that Valve have taken a long time to release nothing”.’ I would suggest to just remove the subtitle HL2:EP3 from the next update of the mod, which probably needs to be updated anyway to make it work on Windows 10. Then a lot of people will not play it with too high expectations anymore and it would also open up the way for a ‘real HL:EP3’ mod to come out eventually if Valve never released another game. Right now I think this subtitle is quite unjustified and you pretty much are aware of it too!

      Reply
    2. DjReplica

      Combine Spawning and Floating weapons can be achieved without noclip if you look at the right place in a very swift manner before the trigger even checks. As I was getting bsods, I did notice multiple places where I could actually see the combine spawning

      Anyway, about the reviews. It really pains me to see that people just registered here to give a negative review as their first comment.

      And yes, this mod is hell better than what Prospekt was. The Paywall makes a very big difference.

      Reply
      1. Confused Travolta

        Well, I think people are more critical to mods that call themselves successor/continuation of official V games (even if this is more like a joke), especially after Prospekt.

        But I don’t understand, how they can’t deduce from media on ModDB that it’s not what they are looking for. I don’t know, few first screenshoots and you know it has nothing to do with HL2 canon story.

        Reply
  68. asterixer

    Hello Spy,

    First, thank you for your work on this huge mod.

    For me it has not the HL2 feeling but is is fun to play, sorry folks 😉

    Im happy surpriesed that we have so much new content here. Im a little tiered to see the old HL2 content, over and over again…so thank you for that.
    Your Coastline to athmosphere is one of my fav. mods.

    I don_t like the cutscences so much, but they dont disturb me…so ok…

    The music is sometimes a little bit confusing, but ok.

    To all people who give an avoid it: Make just a better mod.

    So agian from me: thank you spy.

    Reply
  69. Urby

    A lot of strong thoughts coming from both sides here. I am firmly on the fence at the moment.

    I will admit that this mod has me hooked to some degree. I don’t know what is driving me, but I feel I need to finish it so that I can post a review with the full experience fresh in my mind. It’s frustrating in places, which is fine. Games that I grew up playing were made to be frustrating. You would get mad, throw things, then sit down, collect your thoughts and plow on through. I get that.

    There are other parts however, where it just gets far too dull, when you are literally running around and pressing buttons…when you can find them. This wouldn’t be so bad if the environments felt interesting to explore, which they often aren’t. Sorry, but that’s just my opinion. The large open areas look fantastic at times, but there is a fine line between looking and feeling interesting.

    As a long term mod developer myself, I hate to imagine how it feels to get overly negative feedback and I do understand the frustration when newcomers sign up to the site, leave an AVOID IT review and then bugger off again, in some cases not even having the courtesy to finish playing.

    However, at the same time, they are still entitled to their opinion and a lot of long term members seem to be approaching this with a lot of arrogance. “Clearly you’ve never played Leon’s other mods.” or “That’s just his style.” when concerning things like terrible conveyance to the player.

    What confuses me most is that a project that I was involved with (TWHL Tower) got slammed by a few members for the EXACT SAME ISSUES that they are now defending… Admittedly, they knew better than to post a review having not finished the mod, but I just find it interesting.

    To clarify, I am not going to be saying AVOID IT because that isn’t fair. As mentioned by a number of people, this is reserved for mods that simply should not be played. The Closure has given me no reason to outright say DO NOT PLAY THIS, so it’s doing something right. However, it’s also given me no reason to say YOU HAVE TO PLAY THIS.

    Reply
  70. OJJ

    Found this review that I agree with alot on;

    Reply
    1. Confused Travolta

      Yep, totally agree. I just finished this behemoth. Oh god 😀

      Reply
  71. Dirk

    The main file downloads at a snails pace despite having fast internet. I can’t download the torrrent file at all. I’ve tried two apps for this. Where am I going wrong? Help, please.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Firstly, I am sorry to hear that the download is slow. In general, my server is quite fast, but perhaps at the moment with such a large file and probably lots of people downloading it at the same time, it is under a little stress.

      With regard to the torrent. When you say you can’t download it at all, what exactly is happening? I presume you have downloaded the torrent file and then tried to open it in an application. Which applications have you tried?

      I just tested it with UTorrent and it is working.

      The more information you can provide the better our chances of helping.

      Reply
      1. brianthesnail

        downloaded fine on my connection …. took around 5 minutes on my 80meg connection ..( rubbing it in )

        Reply
  72. Corvatile
    Think Twice

    Sorry for posting this twice, I forgot to click the rating button.

    Phew. Just finished this whole mod and I need to write some of this stuff down now before I forget it all. Beware spoilers.

    The Closure presents itself as a continuation of the Half-Life 2 episodes and as such I was hoping for either a logical, consistent and interesting narrative that flowed on from the official games or at least some interesting classic gameplay around the arctic tundra environment. Unfortunately, I don’t think it really succeeds in either respect.

    The plot only follows the original games in the loosest possible sense. I don’t understand why the developer would pose it as a fan-made Episode 3 and then disregard so much of the existing canon. A lot of story elements are totally contradictory of the original games and the returning cast behave totally out of character. Magnusson is for some reason a concerned guardian of Alyx as opposed ot the no-nonsense pragmatist he was in Episode 2 and Kleiner has gone insane for some poorly explained reason. Apparently he has a ‘headcrab infection’ despite the fact he doesn’t have a headcrab on him in the entire game. I guess they just saw that zombie Kleiner skin on Gamebanana and felt they had to find a use for it. And why do the Vortigaunts attack you in the arctic? The voice at the ending said that they were trying to prevent the teleporter falling into the wrong hands or something but it was very odd how one moment they were attacking you and the next one was helping Gordon into an escape pod. And why was Breen back? Didn’t he die at the end of Half-Life 2? And what was up with that radio news broadcast near the start about governments responding to strange events in the Northern Hemisphere? If this is set to follow Half-Life 2 Episode 2 then surely the alien invasion has already succeeded and the Combine own Earth? Everything feels contrived.

    The most glaring example of this is the reskinning of all of the game’s enemies and weapons. Why are the Civil Protection officers replaced with generic camo soldiers? Why do all of the Combine look like generic space marines? Why are the poison headcrabs made of lava? Why did you replace the normal zombies with Civil Protection zombies who clearly don’t have headcrabs on them? There doesn’t seem to be any justification for the new models beyond the fact that they had the assets to hand and I recognise most of them as mods from Gamebanana. The turrets are replaced with the robot turrets from Portal but most of the time they’re on the Combine’s side. This makes no sense whatsoever and later on you can just pick them up and use them against the Combine. Why?!

    Replacing the crowbar with a wrench is counter-productive in my opinion. The crowbar is Gordon’s signature weapon so swapping it out for a different weapon when the player takes the role of another character makes sense but here there’s no reason for it. Gordon uses a crowbar, god dammit!

    Additionally, what’s the point in replacing all of the gun models if they’re functionally identical to the originals? If you’re going to change them all to new guns I would at least have altered their stats to shake up the gameplay a bit. It’s just strange how everyone is using totally new guns for no obvious reason. The only exception is the sniper rifle which is so ludicrously overpowered as to be farcical. Instant kills from any range with almost instant cooldown makes any fight with the sniper rifle pointlessly easy and the game just loads you up with ammo for it at any time you fight enemies at range. The soldiers shoot at you with SMGs from half a mile away and there’s no challenge to it whatsoever.

    The combat is pretty monotonous throughout. There are no cool gameplay setpieces like ambushes or holdout scenes and 99% of the game is just walking through identical corridors and shooting some dudes in them. A lot of the time you can see the enemies spawn in as you enter. Then once you’ve reached the end of an area, you hit a dead end and turn around which triggers enemies to attack you from where you came from. This happens so often in the mod that it becomes ludicrous. There’s no logical progression between areas; you just walk through then come back again until a previously locked door becomes unlocked. In particular, there was one area after the train station scene where you fought zombies in a hall and you had to walk back and forth along it four times or so to trigger zombies bursting through the doors. The arctic base had the same problem. Buildings would just be locked until you enter the previous one and come out again so that a soldier would emerge from it.

    Another problem is that the entire mod is massively oversaturated with health kits and batteries (both of which are reskinned for no obvious reason. The health kits are clearly ripped for Left 4 Dead which was a big immersion killer for me). There is no tension in the vast majority of the fights because there are enough items to fully heal before and after every encounter. The placement of pickups is largely random. I recall the part near the end where the Dodge drives over some mines and you land in a ravine and get attacked by a helicopter. There are tons of healthkits lying around in this ravine for no reason whatsoever. I played through the game on hard with the ‘more enemies’ setting and died very rarely. The overuse of Combine Elites in last few chapters also skews the gameplay balance as you always have a surplus of AR2 alt-fire. Every time you face a hunter, you can guarantee you will have an energy pellet to kill it instantly.
    The mapper also has an over-reliance on ammo caches. Any time you fight an APC or a Strider, you are immediately given a stash of rockets upon entering the arena and the solution is to simply stand at the entrance and keep firing rockets until the enemy is dead. This also hinders combat with the other enemies: you can just stand at the rocket caches and keep firing them at soldiers and hunters from range which makes fights ridiculously easy.

    One issue that consistently annoyed me throughout the entire mod is that it breaks Half-Life 2’s rule about doors. In the original games, doors which can be opened have handles and doors which cannot have no handles. The Closure breaks this rule throughout and I found myself constantly wandering around maps pressing E on everything that looked like a door. To make matters worse, most of the doors which don’t open make a door-opening sound when you interact with them even when they’re locked. It is incredibly frustrating.

    The story of The Closure is told almost entirely in cutscenes and my god are they annoying. Every single interaction has a cutscene, no matter how trivial. Why do I have to sit through the same animation of Gordon opening a first aid cabinet every time? Why not just have it open normally in game with items in it? Even more annoying is how the game awkwardly freezes each time a cutscene starts. Enemies attack you in cutscenes and at one point I was killed by a grenade instantly as a cut scene ended because a soldier had thrown it while I was frozen.

    It feels incredibly silly when you’re chasing down Dr Kleiner and every time you reach him the game cuts to third person to show Gordon staring gormlessly while Kleiner escapes again. I also remember two of Kleiner’s monologues being repeated which was weird. The use of dynamic props in place of NPCs is very obvious in a lot of instances; the rebels all drive vehicles in dead body poses and characters stand around with their eyes closed like they’re having a stroke or something. My favourite cutscene of all was when Kleiner blew up a room on the space ship and a ragdoll prop of Gordon was supposed to be thrown backwards by the explosion but instead he flopped down a flight of stairs like a punctured waterbed. Other cutscenes were so long and drawn out that it became tedious. Watching the space ship fly away from the airport to get to the arctic dragged on for so long.

    The music in the mod was also very strange. The orchestral score did add some drama to the big fight scenes but it felt almost parodical to hear epic crescendo music as you fought two manhacks in a corridor or whatever. There was one particularly weird scene where a zombie attack was accompanied by smooth jazz. The horror stings were often poorly scripted and at multiple times in the mod I triggered a bunch of zombies to attack or whatever and the scary music hit would only play when I walked a few steps further. Also, I maintain that game developers should never put pop music they like in a mod simply because they like it. The rock song at the end felt totally out of place and gave me flashbacks to Portal: Prelude’s bizarre finale music.

    The whole mod has that feeling of being really ‘gamey’ and it ruins immersion. You never really feel like Gordon Freeman- you’re just constantly pulled away to watch him in stilted cutscenes. The little bubbles that appear to tell you the solution to the puzzles are also a gripe of mine. In my brutally honest opinion, if you need to tell the player the solution to your puzzle then your puzzle does not work. You should be able to convey the solution to the player through purely visual cues. If you have to tear the player out of the game to tell them how to do it then the puzzle doesn’t work. The inclusion of the Gravity Gun feels like a complete waste because the vast majority of environments have no potential for it. There are almost never any props to shoot at enemies and the occasional explosive barrels are often frozen in place for their strict use in scripted sequences. Other elements feel like they’re in the game for no reason at all. In particular, the game gives you the Dodge Charger at one point only to force you to abandon it again within 5 minutes. Why even include it if you’re not going to let us use it?

    Can I also point out that having the game announce to you that there is an Easter Egg defeats the point in an Easter Egg? They’re meant to be cute little secrets for attentive players to find but in The Closure the game just tells you that they’re nearby and they’re so easy to find that I wandered on so many of them by accident. I get that you’re proud of your artwork but its inclusion here feels very out of place it’s tonally jarring when you’re playing a sci-fi shooter only to go in a vent and be greeted with some explicitly sexual or violent drawings. They had nothing to do with the game and they totally pulled me out of it. This particular NSFW gem will stick with me.

    Most of the time you have no clear goal in levels beyond ‘kill all the bad guys’ and The Closure switches between environments fast enough to give you whiplash. Why on Earth you visit a spaceship and escape it only to return to it again immediately after is beyond me and most of the levels could not logically fit together in any way. You wander through random mines and then into cave networks which somehow opens out to White Forest which is also right next to a major city with an airport? Part of me thinks you could just randomly rearrange every map in this mod and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The ending came pretty much out of nowhere. After capturing the super teleporter, the game decides to keep going after it should have ended and you fight more Combine in a forest with the most annoying looping cricket sound I’ve ever heard. Then, despite the fact you witness rebels (and Alyx) being massacred by a huge army of soldiers, hunters, striders and APCs, the voice on the radio announces that somehow humanity has defeated the Combine and you’re treated to a slideshow of Combine being killed. What? That ending comes out of nowhere and the fact that Alyx gets killed off in the final chapter without anyone mentioning it at all is bizarre. She just keels over at one point and then she has a grave at the end.

    I appreciate that this mod represents someone’s time and hard work but when you name it ‘Episode 3’ and brand it as a continuation of a best-loved franchise you MUST realise it will inevitably be compared to the games it references. The Closure ultimately suffers the exact same problem Strider Mountain had: quantity over quality. The mod is one of the longest I’ve ever played and yet I struggle to think of any particular stand-out moments or things I liked about it. It’s testament to the fact that shorter, more polished mods are generally preferable to the much larger ones like this. There’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re playing filler content and – I know it’s harsh – but I honestly think this mod would be better with large parts of it removed. The arctic levels and the reveal of the Borealis was cool but you have to play through several hours of generic sub-par maps to get to it. Whole chunks of The Closure feel totally out of place and it feels like a parade of shooting galleries in totally unconnected environments. It doesn’t feel like a cohesive plotline. The mapper would have been better of focusing as much as possible on the important parts of the mod rather than trying to make it as large as possible. I would take a well-crafted, heavily tested and polished two-chapter mod over a mediocre 32-chapter mod any day. It’s the classic problem of a modder with too much ambition.

    I can already tell that this is going to appear on PC Gamer or something advertised as ‘modder makes his own Half-Life sequel’ or something so if you’ve come here to play something to stave off those cravings for a new Half-Life game then my advice would be to just play chapters 18- 26 and ignore the several hours of wandering through identical corridors. It kills me to give such a low score to something that has clearly had a lot of time poured into it but the simple fact is that I didn’t enjoy The Closure, either as a generic Half-Life 2 experience or as a fan-made successor to the originals.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    6 Hours, 30 Minutes
    Reply
  73. brianthesnail

    around 20 minutes into the mod and my keyboard wont respond … initially i thought my wireless logitech keyboard was the culprit however it runs fine on all other games ( and i even changed the battery which it didnt need ) but it still happened …. i can move but it takes around 3 or 4 presses of the “up arrow” key to move making the mod unplayable
    as i stated this only happens in this mod …. i even ran a anti-virus scan ( paranoid ) … but again clean as a whistle …. this is unique as ive never experienced any keyboard movement issues in any other mod,infact any other game
    any idea,s

    Reply
  74. rikersbeard

    At long last Half Life Episode 3! (Unofficial but actually here!)
    Leon’s work is always interesting and slightly weird at times so I’m looking forward to this.
    The gun flip made me smile – no outrage yet, maybe I’m playing a different version to some others…
    I was peeved that I didn’t get a helicopter flight as in some other HL3 type mods though; grrr!

    Alyx did look so upset…

    Non-cannon, huh!

    HL3/ Episode 3 or the first human landing on Mars; which will come first?

    Reply
    1. Bolx

      The gun flip (twirl) got me as well, especially after seeing on Leon’s own website he has done military service, I find it strange he doesn’t get the (real world) danger of twirling a semi auto pistol.

      Reply
      1. rikersbeard

        In Gordon’s world he can enter a hazardous area in a hazard suit with zero head protection and no respirator, not even as much as a hat. I mean how much protection do those glasses offer?

        A lot I guess!

        Maybe he’s become a Hollywood action hero!

        Reply
  75. Kesler

    Originally submitted on Moddb:

    When I run, after the Valve logo, it flashes the loading screen for a split second, then closes and displays this:
    “Engine Error

    Could not load library client. Try restarting. If that doesn’t work, verify the cache.”

    I have SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer installed, with the Beta enabled. I have verified that, restarted Steam, to no avail. Is this a common problem? Any idea how this can be fixed?

    Leon, if you see this, feel free to respond here or on Moddb.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Is Episode Two running okay?

      Reply
      1. Kesler

        Again, originally submitted to the Moddb page:

        I have run all Half-Life 2 games, even though E3 does not require them, and run Source 2013 SP Beta. And yet, I get the same error. I ran your own Strider Mountain and Nightmare House 2 as a test, and both of those worked fine. The mod was installed correctly.

        For some reason, it seems if I run SP Beta, then verify the steam files, it will say a file is missing, and will be reacquired. However, if I run the Beta again, and verify again, it will say the file is missing again.

        If you guys have any clue on this, it would be appreciated. Such a long wait for E3, and it seems I’ll have to wait a little bit longer :3

        Reply
    2. brianthesnail

      first human landing on Mars or teleportation ….

      Reply
  76. SPY

    I want to thank you all again, specially those who do write a lenghty review, even when they didn’t like the mod. I do apriciate they did take the time to express there feelings. A lot of valid points are made, other points have more to do with taste as acuatly bad game development. But that is my humble opinion. When more as half of all player like this mod then i am already pleased. I knew up front that real HL hard core fans would not be satisfide with this mod, but that was also never my intention. All i wanted to do was make a new lage mod, with lots of firefight action in it, and some simple puzzels (hate puzzels myself).

    About the keyboard error, very strange! This is the first time someone mentioned this error. So i assume it has something to do with the keyboard or computer as it has with the mod itself. I would love to help you out but i really don’t know what to say. That it never happened to you before does say that the error is linked with the mod, but what causes it is a real mistery so me. I am very sorry you now can’t play on. Maybe use another keyboard and or mouse?

    Leon

    Reply
  77. Dysprogue
    Maybe?

    So I’ve finally completed the final version of this and overall it’s OK. As a personal achievement for Leon the level of quality here (considering the immense size of this project) is something to be proud of but the resulting product kind of crumbles under the sheer weight of the ambition here.

    The levels are generally entertaining enough and there are some novel set pieces but the combat isn’t much fun. There isn’t enough variety in the combat to keep it interesting. You are either running down the set path shooting whatever is in your way or you are camping near ammo clearing a path. Enemies that could add variety aren’t utilized to that well. With the new sniper rifle and the combine elite constantly dropping energy balls Hunters are painfully obsolete and with any other bosses you encounter can be beat by just hanging out by the rockets til its dead, it’s just not very exciting. Leon attempts to add variety by stripping the player of weapons and thus restarting the weapon progression arc and the times he has the player use environmental traps were quite fun but throughout the mod you have your weapons stripped at least 4 times the whole thing ends up feeling very routine.

    I don’t mind cutscenes as a concept however in this mod Leon is far too liberal with them. They are more annoying than the stupid paper clip from Microsoft “It seems you’re trying to pick up a weapon, would you like some help?” as I stand frozen in place longing to wreak havoc with a shotgun but instead I am being unwillingly subject to the prerequisite and painfully long weapon ogle. I know what a shotgun looks like dammit!

    The plot wasn’t great, it really didn’t feel like the Half Life characters, world or story and painting it as such only really serves to shoot ones self in the foot, with a crossbow… so maximum damage. If these weren’t presented to be Half Life characters I don’t think I would dislike the story quite so much but as such these versions of the characters are disappointing.

    The models are pretty good quality but some of the enemies are harder to see now (the combines glowing eyes served a game play purpose) and things like the frost zombie and the portal turret were completely out of place any time they appeared prior to the Borealis section.

    Honestly this mod is very much a case of quantity over quality more enemies, more features, more new stuff and more levels but in achieving this everything ends up feeling recycled, the same assets, the same scenarios, the same exact lines (looking at you Zombie Kleiner) and it all ends up feeling tired and overstretched.

    Reply
  78. brianthesnail

    Well its been 2 hours up to now ( using windows 10 64bit ) and no problems to report ( except for some weird keyboard issue midway through however it dissapeared soon after )…
    i cannot for the life of me work out why theres been so many bad reviews … as ive allready stated i think its the name “hl2 episode 3 ” in conjunction with hl2,s fans annoyance with valve not releasing a official game …. mix this together and your gonna get some peeved customers
    im simply amazed by the amount of work leon,s put into this …. theres been many mods alot worse than this who have received amazing reviews so come on guys .. play the mod,forget the name half life episode 3 and then when you have finished then base your review on the mod itself and not the title !
    im just upset to see so many bad comments on what is another classic spymap mod …

    Reply
  79. Gangway!

    I cannot get off the rope on the map #11. Every time I reach the end of the trip on the rope I fall off and die regardless the buttons which I press/don’t press. What should I do here, please?

    Reply
    1. OJJ

      Do you have a screenshot? I don’t remember something to do with a rope.

      Reply
      1. Gangway!

        Here is this place:
        http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=636218641

        Reply
        1. OJJ

          Level has most likely glitched because it took me to the end when I played it, you probably need to noclip to the end of it.

          Reply
  80. Zekiran
    Play It Now!

    The Closure review – SPOILERS AHEAD

    I want to preface this review by saying that I in no way expected Leon’s work to “be” Valve-made continuity. Realistically speaking, the name of the mod *should have been* The Closure, and left off any kind of confusing terms that led to the serious problems people have had with an otherwise incredible mod. As far as I am concerned, the ‘episode 3’ is only in reference to the fact that the prior installments constitute the first two that this one ‘closes’ out. While it’s obvious that the world is ‘similar’ to the vanilla Half Life universe, Leon’s maps have always been fanciful alternate-universe versions and I view AND REVIEW this one exactly in that vein.

    Mostly since I write my own ‘very-alternate’ universe work, I don’t ever look at a mod – no matter what its name is – as a replacement for, or a canon continuation of, an officially released product. No modder with only one notable exception that I know off the top of my head, has ever produced ‘it could be official’ type work – and that is not even acknowledged BY Valve as such. So to get that out of my system: I am looking at this mod AS a mod, and in no way would I ever have compared it TO a Valve product, even if its name ‘seems to indicate’ that it is. Period. I don’t do that. I enjoy it when people use the Valve canon story in-context, but given that Leon has never, ever done that, I don’t expect anything other than a good AU mod from him. The characters behaviors were a little weird, and that’s my only real concession to canon comparisons.

    I’m probably going to forget a few things, but this review will be long already so … I might add comments later.

    I do have a couple overall issues with the mod aside from the name.
    First: holy crap, lensflares? Really? I could have gone my entire life without playing a Half Life mod that contained lens flares. If I had been on the playtesting group for this mod, I would have mentioned this every single time I communicated. I mean, they were pretty and shiny but really, over done to an extreme that I gritted my teeth every time I saw a shiny light. On the other hand, they glowed through objects too, so I could usually tell where I was meant to go based on whether I saw a green or red light dancing around my UI.

    Second: the characters used were… radically different than any of their prior portrayal, with the exception of Barney. Fairly, it set the tone for what we were up to, and allowed for us to not have to worry about Alyx as an NPC (which seems to be problematic for people playing vanilla HL2 I guess), but … I didn’t much care for the portrayals. I’m quite biased against using Kleiner for a pseudo-villain, and even less inclined to think that Magnusson would have been even remotely as compassionate as he was toward Alyx. Their personalities were almost entirely reversed from what anyone could expect, and the effect was jarring to say the least. I don’t really know why the decision to completely exclude Judith, perhaps if Leon had asked around for female voice actors I might have been able to actually DO a passable Judith for a script… Oh well.

    Third: the length. I’m not going to say ‘omg it was way too long’ because it took several hours to actually get rolling. But my problem is, when we see the mysterious Borealis object being wheeled away into the grey darkness and Gman watching silently… That should have been the end of the mod. When it wasn’t, I was rather surprised, though I did still have fun with the last bits. Along with that is that the introduction was very, very poor. The inclusion of a choice system that apparently didn’t work properly, more than a few minutes into the game itself, was a bad decision. It could have either been left out entirely, or done before the actual game was started. I can see that it put some people off, but I just kind of shrugged it off and kept playing.

    I have to say that I loved playing it all the way through to the end. While I don’t think that it was as good as Strider Mountain in that it lacked a LOT of direction and meandered quite a bit, we knew where we were going to eventually wind up, got there, and got home.

    I don’t mind cut scenes from your maps, Leon. I have come to expect them – and in some cases really enjoy them. No, it’s not “just like valve does”, because you’re not valve. The reliance on a couple cut-scene animations (opening the first aid boxes for instance) I could have lived without, but honestly I love having a real model present while playing – seeing Gordon’s body slump to the ground when you die is both sad and funny. I do like how the cut scenes in your mods work to show us a locaiton, or to show that Gordon’s not a complete damn idiot standing in the middle of a room – he is shown hiding behind items, watching carefully, being reasonably stealthy, and overall acting like he does know what he’s doing. He’s a scientist after all, he’s not a moron blundering through the area. He’s also a now-experienced fighter: we can see through his eyes in those cut scenes, what a smart man would be looking for – enemy placement, locations of items, and how to get through an area safely.

    Given those cut scenes didn’t appear everywhere, though, I would love there to have been a lot more direction for us to understand where we were and why, at any given time. The Borealis suddenly turned into some kind of pit? Did we move locations without being told? How much of the Borealis did we explore, that now we’re on the surface or in a massive facility? I liked the presence of the Aperture bits, though I think we could have had more of them or visuals that evoked more of the Enrichment Center itself, rather than the plain halls or brick-and-mortar rooms that we got later. Overall the feeling of moving between environments left me wondering how I got anywhere, because so many places looked either the same, or out of place. A voice over or even just a visual text reminder, “you need to get over that pit” or “didn’t you see a control panel back this way” would have helped.

    The environments themselves were as usual, very fun to explore even if they didn’t make a lot of sense right next to each other. Individually each area seemed remarkably well done. Unlike some recent uploaded mods or maps, the “industrial” areas of Leon maps are *superb*. Where some maps seem to just dump a few generators or pieces of equipment into an area and call it done, these areas seemed to be lived in and worked in, with machinery that was placed in context, rather than just because it looked like a machine needed to go there. Some locations were a bit too large to easily understand, and I did resort to using clues on a couple maps because I just didn’t explore quite enough, or the solution really didn’t appear clearly.

    The visuals and sound-scapes were all quite good though there were some bits of noise that bothered me the whole time. Having the constant drone of gun fire as though there were street fights right near by made little sense, but they were *everywhere*. I didn’t care for the replacement sounds on the guns, but after a while they didn’t bother me so much. I suspect if I go play another mod and hear the original sounds I will get a little surprised.

    I loved the Gman effect, when you show someone specifically *walking right through him*. Also the use of the teleport bubble, it looked both scary and mind-blowing because of the reflections of the location and npcs as they moved near it. It gave a good specific impression similar to the teleportation bubble in the Terminator, leaving a crater as well.

    I liked the reload animations. It’s like Gordon is showing off. Any real-world complaints about how they would have shot or been wrong? Who freaking cares? People can teleport and there are electricity-throwing aliens in this game. Spinning a gun around your finger is the *least* of the real-world issues I’d be worried about.

    Some of the fights in the “post snowy” area were… really hard. Much harder than any of the earlier fighting. I had chosen the ‘easier’ version but if your earlier comment about choosing between hard and easy enemies is true it didn’t matter what I’d chosen? Because I played on and off for the last 3 days, and I guess that setting would have been forgotten by the game? The post-snow fights though were a lot harder than the prior batch, but seemed to be more in line with CtA and Strider Mountain’s. I had to resort to god-mode during some of those fights, honestly, which I hadn’t the entire time before that last location.

    Some specific things I want to mention.
    The re-use of the fight with the Guardian in the Parking Structure venue took me by surprise, but it also made me smile because that was one hell of a fight. I remember that fight from its prior incarnation but not well enough to remember if something’s changed. The lift part worked better than I remember from the last mod, because I do recall there being geometry missing before, seeing through the walls of the lift as you go up. It helped tie in the Strider Mountain and Coastline mods to this one, too, I think. Breen’s presence as well, since the whole idea of CtA involved him not being quite as dead as we’d like him to be. Those little nods were fun.

    Unlike some folks, I *love* the inclusion of the music choices you made. Specifically you put the Fear soundtrack to good work, and since my own AU stories include a mashing up of Half Life and Fear, I felt more at ease with that music in the background – because I know what it means to use it. I also liked the repeat use of music you’d had in Strider Mountain, because once more, it brings those mods into memory and puts this one into perspective for me.

    The inclusion of easter eggs is so distinctive of Leon’s maps, I am slightly annoyed that I missed at least half of them. I only saw 3 comics and the Trophy Room, so I know I missed at least 2 comics (or something) in spaces where I didn’t fully explore or wound up in a level transition before I could find them and didn’t go back in favor of finishing the mod overall first. I would love there to be a guide for where to locate the easter eggs, because I want to see all of them.

    Seeing the information in the Trophy Room was really fun for me. Turns out: Leon you’re only a couple years older than I am, and since I have the background I do, I easily recognized how influenced you would have been by the European comic scene and Metal Hurlant in specific. All the comics were so VERY Heavy Metal! A touch gratuitous and probably could stand a warning for younger members of the mod playing groups, but still I know where that all comes from and enjoyed them for what they’re worth – seeing an artist’s work for the first time and going back to my own teenage years when I read Heavy Metal and was exposed to European comics for the first time. I had no idea you were doing art like that. I also didn’t know how much other work you’d done, mostly because I only play HL mods and have not bothered with other games that you’ve modded for.

    To conclude:
    I will give this one a Play It Now and not a PF because I don’t know that I could manage a second full play-through just yet. It does have plenty of issues which detract from a PF for me personally, but not because it’s unplayable or broken in any way. In fact I didn’t have any issue aside from Gauge not being able to load it properly. Once I manually installed it, it ran without any problems for me the entire time. I didn’t have game freezes, blue screens, though I did get some sound stuttering in the last map’s battle, and I have to wonder if that’s a map that wasn’t fully play tested. But this was 15 hours that I am glad I played. It could have been made considerably shorter with better direction and less wandering, but after the first half hour worth of preface and prelude, it got rolling very well.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    15 Hours
    Reply
    1. Confused Travolta

      I want to ask the people who claim “play it now and personal favourite” – do you really want people to actually playing this?

      Or do you, as I much more strongly suspect, want to say “this mod took 6 years to make, it’s Leon’s work, so play it and be greatful”?

      Because one of those ratings is reserved for ‘actually very good, playable mods’ which have great elements such as splendid mapping, good fights, beautiful self-made models, unmistakably perfect gameplay, and the like.

      if you actually mean, “I would probably have awarded a different rating if my personal expectations had not been triggered by the title” you should probably go back and *change your ratings*.

      It’s outright insulting to ANY player to see the kind of bullshit ratings of “play it now” for a mod which is CLEARLY underdeveloped in so many ways, to those which would actually warrant that rating.

      GO BACK and play without the expectation that this “is supposed to be super mod, because it’s Leon’s”. It’s not. It just TAKES UP from where Stride Mountain ended.

      If you can play the mod because you read installation help in comment, here on RTSL, to install the correct Beta (this is the UPCOMING beta, NOT the ‘standard’ beta – and don’t forget to restart Steam) then you are lucky. And that’s just Leon’s fault by not testing his product. If you can figure out where something is on a map, GOOD FOR YOU. Leon never
      drew conclusions how to built proper levels and got exploration and detail right – if you are seeing a door (… what the HELL? really?) you are lucky, normal people don’t expect this wall to be a door (because it wasn’t a door level before). If you can appreciate the depth of the locations, well then you just confuse a chain of rooms full of random models with levels actually designed, really.

      But this is in no way an “play it now” mod, just because personal expectations were for something that it was never, ever, going to be. My recommendation is that Phillip remove those extremely biased ‘but it’s Leon’s work, it took 6 years’ reviews, because they aren’t – they just prize at the cost of an incredibly dull and long-not-thought-out mod. Block out the name, if you must – stop thinking that it’s a great mod, that everybody should play and learn from. It isn’t. Rate it for what it IS, not what you WANT it to be.

      Rant / off.

      Sorry man, I couldn’t resist after reading your review.
      No offence ^^

      Reply
      1. Koranis

        Couldn’t agree more. Half of the reviews here are exaggerated in one way or the other. It’s true that it’s all subjective, but it’s really only to a certain degree.

        It’s surely not an abysmal mod so it doesn’t really deserve “avoid it”, but neither it deserves “play it now” because that rating should really be reserved for mods that are without so many design flaws.

        But this rating is what it is, and people use it as they wish, obviously, that’s why the final “metacritic” here is way off the mark.

        Reply
      2. Maki

        Whenever Leon releases a giant map pack, someone will invariably make the same argument.

        The thing I’ve learned over the years is that Leon is mapping for no one but himself. He has a total disregard for the tenets of good combat… or for using other game’s assets for that matter… and nothing will sway him from that.

        He has fans who will give it Personal Favorites across the board. They are entitled to that opinion. Personally, I feel this is motivated more by a quantity-over-quality argument than the author. It’s not so much that the mod itself is amazing – it’s more that it’s offering many, many hours worth of content for free and people, for better or worse, judge that very positively. He’s not the only one who does this. Offshore was the same way. So was The Gate series. In fact, you could sort of make the argument that Prospekt will have the same fate.

        I’m personally not a fan of his work. Even if I could grit my teeth through the repetitive combat, it’s the use of content from other games that turns me off. Seeing textures from Doom 3 in Strider Mountain, complete with the UAC logo still on them, is very poor form and unnecessary. But, I can’t say that anyone who disagrees is wrong. It’s their opinion.

        Reply
      3. crowbar

        nice comment 🙂

        Reply
      4. Zekiran

        At least I fully finished playing the mod before giving it ANY review. That’s the whole point here, know the reviewers and understand what they like before believing that their word is somehow worth its weight in gold.

        But I finish mods as long as they’re playable. THEN I try and get around to a review. Not before I get through the introduction, not before I get to a point where I get stuck (where I may ask for help, but not offer a timed, image-posted review). obviously some folks will never enjoy a specific type of mod. I personally hated Transmission 120, because it relied on of all things GRENADE HOPPING. it was not a new method of anything, it was just a grenade launcher item swap. And if people who cannot use that technique – like myself – are stuck in a dark, confusing looking area with nothing but that option, the game isn’t gonna get a good review from me. But if you look at any of my reviews, you’ll see I only rarely give out PFs and even less commonly Avoid Its. *someone* likes playing endless-respawn shooting, *someone else* likes combat-less exploration, *someone else still* enjoys mashup parodies and goofiness.

        But the point behind my earlier rant is: FINISH the mod, before you give a red-flagged NOPE, because that’s not doing anyone any favors.

        The fact is, humans are very easily led by negatives. Witness any time you’re at work, and get praised by dozens of customers – and that ONE GUY that complains while your boss is there? THAT is the comment he’ll remember. Tinting the recommendations list above with Avoid It when not even bothering to complete playing through the mod, is going to taint people’s expectations. Yes, there was ‘an extensive’ list of complaints about ‘that thirty minutes’ but since the game doesn’t get rolling until after that point, it seems to be a huge case of judging a book by its cover, or worse, walking into a movie without understanding what its premise is, and judging it purely by your own preconceptions.

        Had the mod been jerky or difficult to play, had it been literally endless series of the same environments, sure, my rating would have gone down to a PIL instead, or lower if there had been some really bad issues. But I judge whether I’m going to eventually want to go back to a mod again, whether I had fun with it, and how much there actually IS in it, for my rating of them.

        The mod had been out all of half a day before some people – on both sides, let’s face it the PF rating was also premature and a gentle knee jerk to the avoid its – decided it wasn’t worth playing and worth actively telling people not to play it. That is what the Avoid It banner is FOR, though I’d love to see a “this is not for me” banner instead. Because avoid it to me says “this is unplayable and has no redeeming qualities”. Not sure what it says to you, apparently.

        Reply
        1. Confused Travolta

          Wait, you dislike the best looking mod to date (with great overall gameplay) just because one little fraction of gameplay? Wow. That’s really unfair 🙂
          Yet in the same time you give The Closure ‘Play It Now’ rating although you mentioned so many basic problems this mod has. I don’t know who you want to convince more, other players or yourself?

          Ofcourse “Avoid it’ it’s unfair rating, because mod is not broken or unplayable (I didn’t crashed or stuck even once). But in the other hand, well, people are free to judge. You just do the same but in other direction, your ‘play it now’ is simply to counterweight those ‘avoid it’ ratings 🙂

          And let be honest, this mod plays all the same from beginning to the very end. So if someone dislike it after like 20 minutes of gamaplay he won’t change his mind playing more.

          Reply
          1. Dysprogue

            Reviews are ultimately subjective, like Zekiran says you should take reviews in the context of the reviewer. If you know that what you look for in a mod isn’t the same as what the reviewer looks for then you’re probably best off disregarding that review. At least as a basis for whether or not you are going to enjoy the mod.

            Reply
          2. Zekiran

            Are you talking about Transmission? Because that thing was so dark I couldn’t even see any of the ‘beautiful’ maps, and most of the ‘information’ was sent to you in the form of those little wiggy boxes which some of us don’t use in real life, I pointed out all those flaws in my review of it. If you’re talking about some other mod, dunno – if I’ve played it and done a review, those are my words.

            “One thing” makes or breaks a mod. Yes. Or a game. Borderlands the Pre-sequel for instance. Fun as hell, had some interesting new stuff, great environments (though with the same problems as always in that no one bothers to check their geometry for holes). And then the characters open their mouths and spew out this incredibly racist tripe that should never have been allowed to represent the franchise. So yes, “one thing” can change how an entire mod or game is viewed. That one thing might be “it’s got too loud noises and no way to change that” or “I had to fight the control scheme because you can’t alter the keyboard layout” or “it uses the one thing I cannot bring my body to capably repeat in a control pattern”.

            Reply
            1. Confused Travolta

              It looks like my comment was edited or I just deleted the last part by accident when posting. Well nevermind.

              Yes I was talking about Transmission Element 120.

              I know it’s post about other mod, but come on…
              It was dark only at the benning and dark on purpose. That was element of gameplay. You know, enemies couldn’t attack you in darkness?
              And creator even informed you at start that it’s best to play in dark room.
              Those wiggy boxes are QR codes and weren’t necessary to finish mod, you didn’t have to read them at all.
              Rocket jumping is pretty easy and you even had pictures how to do it. You are pointing down, jumping and then shooting. That’s all. And it was mandatory to do only in 3 spots, not in hurry situations.
              And the last battle. Great use of arena, because you had to visit every inch of it to defeat enemies. Not just stand next to crate full of rockets.

              I can’t shake the feeling, that you just didn’t want to like this mod, and that makes me sad 🙁

              But don’t worry. Everyone has right to be wrong, cheers ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

              Reply
              1. Zekiran

                ( Sometimes posts get mysteriously eaten, no worries. odd, but I doubt sinister. ; ) )

                That’s the thing though about rocket jumping, oddly enough tying into this mod: If I’d known that the gravity gun didn’t function as a gravity gun? And it had been a rocket instead? I would just have *not played it* at all. Why I absolutely do think that the title of THIS mod should seriously just have been Closure 😉 Because expectations =/= what you get sometimes.

                And I can be wrong as much as anyone hehe. I am just glad that there are plenty of different mod makers who are capable of having both of us grinning like idiots while playing! Doesn’t have to be the SAME mod!

                Reply
              2. PlanetPhillip

                It looks like my comment was edited

                Yes, that’s correct, I removed the last part of your comment as I felt it was inflammatory and it is better to avoid anything that may cause bad feeling, intentional or not.

                Reply
      5. Clunkfish

        “I want to ask the people who claim “play it now and personal favourite” – do you really want people to actually playing this?”

        Yes mate 🙂

        Reply
  81. SPY

    Confused Travolta,

    my god, please, take a few breaths. Its ONLY a mod,…..
    I could be wrong, but did you not complain when someone earlier spoke about taking down the ‘hate” comments, that would be wrong. And now you ask for the same, just the other way around. You placec hours after Zekiran had placed her last comment. So you had more then enough time to read it. She answer EXACTLY about most of all your important questions. Why ask things here when you don’t read what other people say, as answer to your questions.
    But enough about your comment.

    I am glad with each comment, specially when they come with realistic critics and arguments. I would like to comment on some of the things that are said above after my last comment, (although it is impossible to comment of everything).

    Let me start with BrianTheSnail, am glad you can now play fine without any of the troubles you had. We probably never will know what caused them, but as long as there gone its ok…

    Dysprogue, i made this mod indeed quit easy. At least also to easy for my taste. Its true, quit a lot of health and batteries, RPG’s, ammo for it, sniper rifle, etc. Hunters are not that hard anymore. But this was a very deliberate choise of mine. All my previous mods were way to hard, always way to many enemies. This made that quit a lot of people who liked the mods themselves, were not pleased with that aspect. So i made the choise for making this mod easier, much less enemies as i am used to do, (for that i used the many-enemies mode, in fact i would “normaly” have placed even more .) By chosing for the many-enemies mode you also get less health and or suitchargers in a few levels.
    About taking the weapons away from player i believe even 5 times, i did this because the mod is so long. And i thought it would do something extra for the gameplay when you don’t have all the time all your weapons. But instead a build in a few times, from no weapons till each time one extra. Guess this is as in a lot of cases a matter of taste. personaly i like this in games/mods. About some of the weapon cutscenes, it is probably a bit silly to show the AR2 in a cutscene, or the shotgun for that matter. But i liked it myself, that is all i can say. Although the second weapon cutscene of the crowbar replacement, that is indeed a bit much, even for me.
    And the story, personaly i am not such a story game guy, a littlebit of story is enough for. So that is what i make. And, it is a unbelieveble amount of work to make npc’s talk and explain the story line. And tell a story through text on screen is “cheep” i think, but that is just me.
    So, that is why the story is so small. Its just enough to get to the end, for me at least.

    Gangway,
    sorry that you have such problems with that rope and getting to the other side. As far as i know are you the first one that has this problem. But as already mentioned, when you don’t succeed after reloading then maybe you could no clip yourself to the other side, (although i am not 100% sure that this will not not trigger a event of some sort. Best maybe to try a few times, although i really can’t explain this happens only to you. Probably indeed some odd clitch that gets away when tried enough.

    Zekiran,
    many thanks for your honest review, the first part was a very little bit harsh but also very honest. So i am fully pleased with it. All i can do with mods and do my best and fun in the process and hope other people like it to. Up front through experience i already know that it isn’t liked fully by others. But as long as they still liked playing it and really liked some things then i am already a very happy man. I would like to comment on some things you said;
    “The inclusion of a choice system that apparently didn’t work properly, more than a few minutes into the game itself, was a bad decision. It could have either been left out entirely, or done before the actual game was started… ”
    When i am understanding it well then you mean the many-enemies mode. Well, it is indeed not a very solid system, in this way that it only works when you play “normaly”. As soon as you load a level manualy through console command, only then the many-enemies mode will be set off. But, when you just play on, or load a earlier save point, you are good to go, no problems. So you will have been playing all the time in many-enemies mode. (you can also see it each time onscreen through a small white text in the left bottum corner, right after the map has started and you walk for a bit).
    “… because so many places looked either the same, or out of place.”
    i have to say that this remark of you does amaze me quit a bit because i really do my very best to make each level look like nothing you did see in earlier levels. (except some cases near the end of the mod but that are only i believe 4 of the 35 levels). But, i am sorry that you had this feeling, i really do hate it when each map looks and or feels the same.
    “A voice over or even just a visual text reminder, “you need to get over that pit” or “didn’t you see a control panel back this way” would have helped.” you said.
    I am sorry when it was so unclear to you were to go all the time, but this gets to some of the core basics of a mod. When i make a mod i have to decide some core elements and one of them is how easy will it be qua exploration. A lot of people like to explore themselves, and HATE it when text say, do this, go there, lift this, etc. I did build in the puzzel solution system so people still would find the right direction, but only after walking a bit around. Should i do it the way you suggest then this RTSL page would be FILLED with hate comments about it, i promise you that, lol.
    I did indeed use a smal part of the 2 levels that i did sent in to RTSL Rooftop Ville mapping competition. In fact, that was the actual beginning of this mod. I made those levels for the contest but said at the same time that i would add i believe 4 to 6 levels to make it a full mod. Well, now we are 5+ years later, lol. In my previous mod Final Project i used the first level of Strider Mountain as last level of Final Project. I just rebuild it slightly so you now had to go from its original finish to start. But after it was released it felt “cheep” in a way. And i decided i never would do that again. So half way in development the 2 levels were still in the mod, but even when they were made for the mod it still didn’t fel right, simply because they were already released. So in the end they ended up in a very small form. From one level i only used some kind of cortyard and a house. So i think i reused about 30% of all of it. But, its still true, reused.
    “I also liked the repeat use of music you’d had in Strider Mountain, because once more, it brings those mods into memory and puts this one into perspective for me.”
    Never thought about it that way, but funny that you experienced it like that. I just liked the music so much that i reused it. But it also belong to earlier mods, that is true.
    And i am so glad that you liked the comics that i used as easteregg. Some people thought they were completely out of place, and ofcourse not belonging to the HL saga, (which i can only agree).
    It may sound quit stupid, but i am not sully sure anymore were they are myself. Just yesterday i have deleted about 80 GB of mod files from my computer which i had collected over the years. It was such a big mess that i was glad i could get rid of it . But, now it seems i have deleted also the info about were these cartoon/eastereggs were. I check the chapterscreens i am sure of them in the levels;
    6a
    10
    13
    17
    21
    (there have to be 2 of them between 21 and 33).
    33
    When you would like to know were those 2 are, or info about were each of them is then just let me know and i am happy to find out for you.

    I would like to end with that you did take your time to play it, the first day quit a few people said they already had finished it. Which ment they played it almost in one big take. When i play longer then say 1,5 hour the gaming starts to get less fun. And after 2 to 3 hours i just rush through it all to end it so i can stop. I see if often in those walkthrough videos, also the ones from RTSL. The last 2 hours are then rushed through and you can clearly hear in the players/commentator voice that he hasn’t as much fun anymore as when he started.
    But, we all have our own style of gaming and that is ok. Although i do wonder why play so long on when it is absolutly clear that the fun is nearly as much anymore as when you started playing.

    thank you all,
    Leon

    Reply
    1. OJJ

      I’m sure Travolta’s comment wasn’t serious, it was a rewording of Zekiran’s comment re-purposed to show the other side of the argument.

      Reply
    2. Dysprogue

      My criticism isn’t that the mod was too easy more that there wasn’t enough variation in the types of combat. The player is always assaulting never defending, the environment rarely plays a role in combat and the enemies just aren’t presented in a way that makes them interesting to fight.

      Reply
    3. Gangway!

      Leon, I have just figure out how to reach to the other side of the rope. First, I had to kill the sniper on the other side of the cavern. Now it looks quite obvious but actually it was an advise of my daughter 🙂

      Reply
    4. Zekiran

      omg I can’t imagine deleting that much from my computer 😀 Thank you for the rundown and information. I haven’t done the dev commentary, I will get around to doing that at some point. I’ll go looking for the easter eggs too though, that’s fun.

      I think what I meant when I say that the environments were ‘similar’ – each portion of the mod had very distinct looking environments. The science / high tech areas were very different from the ship’s interior and the outdoor spots were all clearly distinct. But within some of the interior maps it was as someone else mentioned – a lot of corridors and halls, basically each time. To me they all looked good, it just kind of went on a while longer than I think it needed to for some locations.

      Reply
    5. vancanucksfan

      Is there an Easter Egg in map 9? You come across a gnome after coming out of a vent, but I can’t find an Easter Egg anywhere. I see an area which it would likely be based on the rest of the mod, but when I press the button there nothing happens. This is the little room you can crawl into instead of taking the ladder down near the end.

      Reply
  82. ModPlayer

    Hi everyone! Need HELP! Leon or Phillip or someone…
    chapter 29, when chasing Kleiner, after taking grav-gun and pistol on the table a cutscene appears, Kleiner says “my god Gordon are U stupid? u leave me no choise bla bla bla” then a few seconds of gameplay then another cutscene and everything explodes, Gordon dies and red “death” screen appears saying Stop Dr.Kleiner, I load from last save and all written above repeats…
    Do I missed something or what? What to do next???
    Thank You!

    Reply
    1. OJJ

      You shoot him through the glass if it’s where I think it is, he says that a bunch of times throughout.

      Reply
    2. Zekiran

      Yeah you should have the gravity gun. Use it there.

      Reply
    3. Confused Travolta

      Yeah, I had problem with that part too, repeated like 20 times. You have very, very little time to shoot Kleiner through the glass. It’s very confusing.

      Reply
      1. ModPlayer

        Thanks to all who replied and helped! 🙂

        Reply
    4. Dysprogue

      I didn’t even shoot Kleiner, I just smashed the glass and he died. I just wanted to get in and push buttons. But I guess without an HEV suit broken glass is pretty deadly?

      Reply
  83. S.anchev

    Map 21.
    I’m attacked by a gunship and an APC, i have no RPG, no issues, What do i do?

    Reply
    1. Zekiran

      Off the top of my head, if you’re being attacked by those you *should* have an rpg somewhere – you might not have found it, because sometimes they’re stuck in a ‘omg run oh look a gun’ nook. I can’t remember the speicifics but I am *pretty sure* that at any time you’re being shot at by a gunship there IS a way to take it down. (And thankfully, none of the enemies in this mod require like a zillion rockets to take down like in some others!)

      Reply
  84. Urby
    Think Twice

    I finally got around to finishing the mod this evening. I’ve already raised a lot of my concerns in my previous comments, but I will basically summarise my thoughts here, and let you know exactly where my issues lie.

    First and foremost, I know that this is a mod and is not meant to be taken as canon in any way shape or form. Knowing that is the only way I could get through this, because every single aspect of this makes me wonder why it was set in the Half-Life universe, or at least loosely based off of it. SPY has basically replaced / changed EVERYTHING that Half-Life stands for, but at the same time, kept the characters… I can honestly say that I would easily give this mod a PIL at least, if you’d gone the whole hog and replaced the entire cast. If I had gone into this with absolutely nothing grounding me to the Half-Life lore, it would have been a much smoother ride.

    The Cutscenes
    My God, the cutscenes. I’d say perhaps two of them were neccessary. The intro and the outro. Every SINGLE one within the gameplay was completely meaningless. There is nothing worse than control being wrestled away from you in a first person shooter. Even worse, there were many sections where cutscenes left me vulnerable since the enemies were still attacking the point where I would have been standing. This lead to me getting blindsided by rockets and zombines with grenades as soon as a cutscene ended. Then there are sections where I would have to watch an unskippable cutscene just to see Freeman open a medical cabinet, or even worse, walk through a door!? I can do that in the game! Surely it’s 100x easier to just let the player open the door and walk through!? It absolutely blows my mind why you would take two simple, streamlined tasks and draw them out in such a miserably dull manner…

    The Combat
    Watch ANY episode of Critical Jim right here on RunThinkShootLive.com and you will see that you have broken every single gameplay rule within the first five minutes. I had to draw out playing this mod over a few days, simply because I was horrendously bored of shooting enemies that were just running up to me over and over again. There is not a single engagement in this mod that got me on edge or diving for cover. Whenever I heard a Hunter or a Strider rearing up, I groaned, because I just KNEW I would be ducking in and out of a doorway or around a corner, firing of shots until they fell over dead. The most iconic enemies in the series, reduced to whack-a-mole tactics.

    The Buttons
    Ridiculous amounts of button pressing. Pressing buttons to activate other buttons that activate yet more buttons. Find a keycard to active this button which opens a door leading to a button… That’s not even exaggeration. I did that, way too many times. I’m not asking for mind bending puzzles, but just a simple “Lower this bridge” or “Raise this ramp.”

    The overall problem
    It’s a blatant case of quantity over quality. This entire mod is so padded that it amplifies the problems above tenfold, while completely smothering the occasional sparks of genius, which ARE THERE! It’s so frustrating, but if this mod got all of it’s set pieces in, but the total playtime cut down to say, 3 hours, it would be FANTASTIC. As it stands, I do not have the energy to even consider replaying this. I simply don’t have the free time required. Likewise, I would not be able to recommend this to any of my gamer friends. I have given this a THINK TWICE overall, because I can understand that some people like this style of game. It brings to mind Killing Floor, Serious Sam or even Doom 1 and 2. Sadly, I need substance. I need story.

    I don’t need this.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    11 Hours
    Reply
  85. Filthy McNasty

    I to are having a problem with just getting the game to load. I installed via Gauge and it appears on my Steam game menu. I click on the game and I’m able to get into the game itself (past the Valve Head). I updated the game setting and clicked on the first level, the level starts to load and then dies, kicks me back to my windows desktop. Any help out there?

    Reply
    1. Zekiran

      Try manually installing it instead. Gauge isn’t (at least unless Phillip has done something) able to work with this mod, so I don’t know whether the install would be ‘good’ or not.

      Make sure you have the SDK 2013 UPCOMING beta – not the normal beta, I guess there’s a difference, and I have no idea why. Be sure to restart Steam whenever you make any changes or download, or verify files for games, because Steam has just updated as well so who knows what might have changed. Sometimes needs to be kicked. If that doesn’t work though, see if your other HL2/e2 mods or vanilla installs work, and maybe give some further info about your computer.

      Reply
      1. Filthy McNasty

        Thanx for your response. I thought Gauge would help, but I see it does not. Could it be that I’m still using Windows XP is the problem. I would like to know what the system requirements are to run this mod. That my be the reason I can’t load the levels and play. I can get the mod to load from steam but it will not load any levels and play. Just wanted you to understand the problem.

        Reply
        1. Zekiran

          Yeah I have a strong suspicion that XP is not going to help you. Are you running it on a full desktop with a video card? Even then I don’t think XP can process enough. While I was able to run most HL2 and episodic mods on my old XP desktop, my laptop which is still on XP can’t handle any Source engine so I can’t help you test that.

          I’d strongly recommend upgrading if you can, because at this point, the Beta 2013 is…around 11 years too new for XP to work with 😉

          Reply
  86. SPY

    Let me first comment on the questions here;

    ModPlayer,
    the others already gave you the answer so that is fixed. Although
    it does surprice me a bit that this part is still so confusing to some because
    the first time ofcourse all explodes. But just before the mod loads again you
    then see the message of that you have to stop Kleiner. But, it does all go very
    quick, that is true.

    S.Anchev,
    About you don’t have the RPG to stop the gunship and APC(truck), at the start
    of this leve 32 you step out of that small wooden building and 3 trucks jump
    over you, (haven’t heart anyone comment on this yet, personally i really liked
    how this part played out.) Right there is a ammo crate with RPG rockets in it,
    and on this crate layes a RPG. I really do wonder how you did manage to get
    past these 3, although i assume it is possible when you just run like crazy, lol.
    So, there is the RPG which helps you through the rest of the level. Success.

    I am very glad that people now start to talk more about things in the mod itself,
    after the first wave of the mo not being loyal to the HL world so to speak, (which
    is fully true).

    Urby,
    thank you for your very detailed review, even when your overall conclusion is a
    “Think Twice”. This does bring us back to the as someone said so well, “the elefant
    in the room”, the title. Because as you say;
    “If I had gone into this with absolutely nothing grounding me to the Half-Life lore, it would have been a much smoother ride.”
    I know because of the title your expectations were much much higher as what i as one
    man modder (with lots of friends help) ever could deliver, on such a scale.
    Personally, when i see a mod which says or has as title that it is a sequel or follow up, or next episode of something. Then i don’t expect it to be as such. I expect then something around those kind lines, but with a huge saus of personal developers taste over it. And how he takes that is up to him. But, that is just me. Everyone has his own opinion, and taste.

    Cutscenes:
    This brings me to the cutscenes. It clearly seems that you or hate the, or love them, (or don’t mind that much). As you maybe know do i add always cutscenes to my mod. I love making them, and i love watching them in games/mods. That it isn’t consistent with the HL story telling is for me not important to be honest. And that it does break emersion is a matter of taste. Many people think seeing the player figure destroyes it all. But, i myself have it just the other way around. When i see my player figure then i feel for and with him, maybe strange but this is absolutly true! And i have heared this from many other people. So as in a lot of cases comes it down to what you prefer, like. Sorry that you don’t like them and still had to watch them. There is no option to skip them in source, at least not without custom coding.
    About the few times were you see Gordon walk through a small halway, those are indeed silly and not needed. But that was a last fix enddata problem. I am very bad in planning, This resulted in that some levels ended up with to much enddata, on low end computers this can causes problems. So i had to take parts out, or even cut levels up and rebuild them in seperate ones. And specially at the end were you are near that big teleporter, there i had to cut parts away. Which made that one part of the level was not connected anymore with another part. And as player you have to go to there. I choose for a small cutscene, it was the most easy and time consuming way, but not the best way, i know. By the time this was going i really wanted to stop working on this mod. It grew away in size, and kept growing, all i wanted was to release the dam thing in the end. This makes that i did take shortcuts like these. But it was this, or just stop working on the mod. I simply didn’t have the time and effort anymore that i had all these years before. So are there more things in this mod that i would have liked doing different, by no means is this mod perfect, far from it. But it was this or nothing, really.

    The Combat,
    its clear that you are a great fps player, and that this mod is to easy for you. But, i did this for a reason. I believe all my previous mods were to hard for many people, to much enemies. So i made this mod much easier specially for that reason. (As i said Phillip already, i had him in minds quit a few times when i worked on placing enemies).
    About the style of combat. There you do loose me a bit, because there are not so many ways you can place enemies. Or they just stand somewere till you bump in to them, which is in most cases really silly looking, at least to me. Or they come at you. Personally i prefer that kind of combat. And, for me to make projects as these i really have to do what i like to play myself. Sorry when it is not liked by everyone, but that simply can’t be helped. That the combat is therefore bad is not true. Not when i read all the comments because there already have been quit a few people or thought the combat was very well designed, and some thought it is even to hard !
    As developer you never can win this, just do what you like yourself.
    But, i really would like to hear from you what you like qua combat, and i do mean this seriously because i am always interested in leveldesign!

    Buttons;
    Well, this is quit a old discussion we have here. Because in comments on my previous mods this discussion also took place many times. Buttons are for me a way to direct a player through a level. And, i for one like this way of working. In level 2 i made a mistake with the keycard adding then and then to have to pull that level, that enabled yet another lever. Now that i look at it it is indeed silly. But when i placed it i just thought it was fun, can’t say anything else to it. About half of the testers mentioned the same about this in 2. But for months i kept working on finishing the mod before i started to fix the found bugs by testers. By then 5+ years were gone and i simply wanted to finish this thing. I did look in to it, but because the whole button group there is mingeled in a group commando’s of buttons, puzzel solution triggers, cutscenes it would have taken a lot of time and effort to rip something out. By then i took it for what it was. ok, silly buttons, who cares. I have said many times to me its quantity over quality. But not in the meaning of the more then better, is it carbitch, who cares. Because i have spent about a year on polishing everything. I really did my best to make as much maps as possible, but, in such a way that they are much better as my previous work. And, i do believe i succeeded in that. That it is not professional quality i don’t mind. Its a free mod that i make in my own spare time, so i really just need to be able to do what i like at that point. Otherwise its no fun at all to me.

    The overall problem;
    your last comment. Well, what can i say. You are free to think what you want, and that is a good things. And through having released so many mods i know up front that there will be many people who dislike the mods i make. And probably for those exact reasons there are also many people who love my mods, and for that i am very thankfull.
    All i can say is that it is a shame you didn’t like it, i am sorry for that.
    All in all i do think this mod will be recommandated quit well in the end, say over 2 years or so. Because all my previous mods were reviewed like that.

    Recommandations earlier mods;

    strider mountain;
    RTSL : 59 recommendations, average score: 4.32 (out of 5)
    Moddb : 305 votes score: 7.5 (our of 10)

    Coastline to Atmosphere:
    RTSL : 47 recommendations, average score: 4.62 (out of 5)
    Moddb : 195 votes score: 7.6 (out of 10)

    I don’t place this info to show of, i am very gratefull for such reviews.
    I just wanted to show it because i have a feeling that some people
    think my mods are not liked in general. And when i may believe these
    numbers then it seems that this kind of modding is liked quit well.
    (this info is from the sites themselves, they include all “bad” reviews).

    Leon
    (edit;
    urby, i really ment what i asked. I am really interested in other ways of
    combat. I just think there is not much to choose from other then they
    attack of stay hiding somewere.)

    Reply
    1. SPY

      Zekiran is right, otherwise watch the small install video above. It shows
      exactly how to install manually. When you follow that movie the mod will
      work, at least it does for about everyone else.
      Let me/us know if it does, otherwise i will try to help you further.
      much success,

      Leon

      Reply
      1. Urby

        Hey SPY. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to read my review and to respond in such depth. Now that you have clarified a few of my points it is clear that you know to take criticism with a pinch of salt. That is a lot more mature than far too many developers these days.

        On reflection, I guess my issues with the combat also stem from the base Source games. I have never found the combat in HL2 and the episodes very interesting. Perhaps it is down to my preferring Goldsource overall, given it’s slightly faster pace, but I dislike the somewhat limited catalog of NPC’s on offer. Admittedly, that is entirely not your fault.

        I will certainly try out your other mods at some point, (given the play time, possibly when I have some time off work, haha). I recall playing part of Strider Mountain in the past and actually enjoying it up to a point. For one reason or another, I stopped playing, but I can’t recall why…

        Either way, thank you for your understanding, and I do hope you continue to develop mods.

        Now that this trilogy of mods is out, I personally would LOVE to see your style applied to your own universe, or something unrelated to Half Life. If you would be willing to discuss this, I am an aspiring writer myself and would love to flesh out some ideas with you for a base storyline for you to work to. 🙂

        Reply
    2. CurlyHoward

      Nonsense. I can run everything Source in XP on single core. Except this mod.
      Right now the mod is acting like a broken steampipe mod in XP, but it is hard to determine the issue because the gameinfo text file is such a mess.

      I just gave up, and am hoping ZikShadow will address this in The Closure – Remod.

      Reply
  87. SPY

    Thanks Urby for your last comment. Its not easy to keep calm when there are said
    things about “youre baby” right after its birth lol. But over time i have learned, and
    just did get older, that many things are said in the ‘heat of battle’. And, also is a lot
    a matter of just what someone prefers. Still, thanks for your comment!

    About what i will do next, well. For now this is my last mod. For sure will i keep mapping with released games but i really want to start with indie game development. Ofcourse would i love
    to make my own fps, but for a first indie game that maybe is to much to take on. maybe first a small top down shooter, or,… well, have tons of ideas, have to think reall hard now because as soon as i start something i am hooked again for at least a year or more. I never abandon a project ones i am committed to, maybe that is one of my flaws, joking.
    So, i am just not sure yet, need first a week or two of doing nothing. Just read comments and play games because i still have a ton of games that i haven’t played.

    I have placed the mod now on Moddb to, with a real article i mean, till now it was one screenshot with a link to here. And i have cleared somethings up. My main message that i added is;

    This is a fan made mod and is not meant to be taken as canon in any way, shape
    or form. And although it is loosely based off the Half-Life universe and going
    on were Episode 2 left off, it is not always consistent with the Half-Life lore.

    Hopefully this will make that hard core HL fans will have different and or lower expectations before they start playing.

    Leon

    Reply
    1. rikersbeard

      I am just a gamer and I must say I’ve been looking forward to this mod for ages. So far I am enjoying it, up to the first time the G Man appears in a cut scene, but I found myself as low as 40 health when faced with antlions, etc in the tunnels when I had chosen the fewer number of enemies! I’m that bad?
      Only one niggle, shiny neon green antlions, don’t like the colour, but then I don’t particularly care for antlions in the first place! As for the lensflare, I should not like it but I think it is great for manhacks.
      Thank you for such selfless work. Your maps are always intriguing and Coastline to Atmosphere was great and weird. Strider Mountain is brilliant, I cannot recall how many combine I shoot but it seemed like thousands in that epic mod!
      A grateful HL2 mod player.

      Reply
  88. Zekiran

    Urby said: Now that this trilogy of mods is out, I personally would LOVE to see your style applied to your own universe, or something unrelated to Half Life. If you would be willing to discuss this, I am an aspiring writer myself and would love to flesh out some ideas with you for a base storyline for you to work to.

    And I have to agree. I would love to see what is next in store for you, Leon. Heck, I also have my huge back-stock of fiction (both fan-fic and original work) that might benefit from such talent as you’ve got in mapping. 🙂

    Reply
  89. DarkShift
    Play It Now!

    The biggest mistake was really to call that HL2 Episode 3.

    Probably it’ll get more famous but it’ll also attract a well-deserved “hate” because some people will expect high standards/Valve quality work.

    In the end, it isn’t a true sequel to Valve stories, it isn’t even a continuation of previous SPY mod’s alternate timelines : Breen is still alive and human, Kleiner is now E-VIL because possessed (???), for some reason there are still airplanes working in this world, or bus… The Resistance use Stark Trek ships…
    Ok the story is globally a giant mess, it’s “so bad it’s good”. There is even the Exorcist OST, Requiem for a Dream OST, oh my…

    The enemies have all been reskinned and while it is a complete non sense (why the SWAT?), it is actually refreshing… Lava headcrabs, white zombies, etc…
    The weapons have also been reskinned, you now have a wrench, a Sniper… I liked the animations, the sniper is particularly fun to use.

    Besides that, it’s long, very long, mora than 22 hours of gameplay for 35 usually HUGE map’s…

    They are beautifully designed, and the dev’ seems to get more and more skilled the more you advance, you’ll find well designed vertical map’s… remember Adam Foster style…
    It is not, as usual, really “canon” in HL standards… Molten lava… But it gets you some pretty Nice panoramic views.

    Map 11 is a personal favourite, the biggest (39 Mb judging by the files) where you have to activate numerous stairs, bridges in a metallic madness, nearly a maze… I was really impressed here, very good job.

    It is less difficult than previous SPY mod’s, of course there are still numerous and giant battles but usually you’ll find many ammo and health everywhere. Some battles are really cool and with Nice music added, you’ll take some good time here.
    I particularly liked some sniper fights where you can get some unusual fun, “stealth” battles for example in the trenches escaping Antlions and dodging a deadly giant turret…

    After the Borealis climax, it all ends during a final Battle in White Forest, with a peaceful climax for Gordon and Alyx… The credits were really heart-breaking… I mean, this time it’s really the end of SPY mod’s…

    All in all, it was a nice story for a decade, that you provided us. I wish you luck for your first indie game.
    But Seriously, work with a team : with your mapping skills, you could be an incredible asset, but don’t work alone; really.

    And do more map’s like map11, it’s really, really good!!

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    22 Hours
    Reply
  90. ikar

    This is not the HL2: EP3 – this is demonstration of the fanats frustration on how Valve make shift to HL fans and with the creators of the modifications.
    And it is a tribute to the classic games of the genre – are direct quotations from a few FPS games of the genre that influenced the development of the industry of gamedev.
    And yet there is a hidden autobiographical? the story of the author, and a philosophical parable, and the memory of loved ones and friends.

    Playing too complicated, for those who have not played or have forgotten the games – the founders of the genre, who has not played Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, F.E.A.R., CnC: Renegade, Star Wars / Star Trek Universe (in some places without a hint it would be difficult find way).
    Since the author did everything alone, he used in many places the converted scenes from his previous projects Coastline to Atmosphere and Strider Mountain as if they created as drafts for this modification.

    Too many complaints to the person, who has created many large modifications completely free, while other doing all primitive deficiencies, and desire money for them as for a full game.
    People blamed him for the fact that the game is demanding to certain versions and is not free of bugs – but when in 2010 Valve began to change Source and breaking all the fashion, no one particularly helped us to correct modifications – we do it by self. It’s called old school PC gaming.
    And it is not he, but Valve began to break engine and a whole modding scene.

    Due to the fact that I do not understand very well language by ear, I did not even realize that need to stop Kleiner and it is possible at all – he was always running away from me as the programmer in F.E.A.R., make some mayhem, or explosion. I feel stupid. This is probably what wanted LEON 🙂
    Some comments of Zekiran & LEON shed some light on the story, and it became clear that I understood a lot of things wrong. The lack of subtitles complicates understanding, but at the same time brings me back to the time when I first time played in the Half-Life: Day One.
    It seems, LEON has grown from just modding, he needs to make his game, or change the hobby completely.
    But he needed in screenwriter and soundman – to tell once, stop, this is too much, we can make it shorter and clearer.

    Reply
    1. Gangway!

      It looks like the whole “old guards” does like this game. Sometimes I recognize FEAR-style levels, next time – DOOM/Quake-style. I love it. Cutscenes are great. I have just finished “Town-and-airport” level. It was amazing. Thank you, Leon.

      Reply
  91. AI

    Spy, from the OLD MAN (almost 33 years of gamming) I just finished “The Closure” this morn, I gotta say this was very good!! I guess to the young ones an old man don’t know what he’s talking about, but that’s not my problem 😉 You and your team did a fine job on this one, and I had NO problems at all playing and that “White” problem must have been corrected?? The music thru out the whole game was (in my opinion) was outstanding!! My son (who is 46) told me he wants to play it also, on the PC I built for him! Even Phillip got in there. Who cares if it’s not cannon, it’s your style, and you do it well! Now I can go back to “Fallout 4”

    Reply
  92. asterixer

    all: im stuck: at the lab where kleiner is blowing all up after a “booom” all turns to red and a “stop dr. kleiner” appears. Thats all. Nothing happens after this…

    Reply
    1. Zekiran

      A few (dozen) posts above, someone else was having trouble there too. It’s not completely obvious and it does go by quickly – use your gravity gun.

      Reply
  93. SPY

    Zekiran is right, or just shoot at the window in front of Kleiner, that way you will kill Kleiner. Because that is what you need to do.
    Glad you liked it AI, now you can go back indeed to Fall Out 4 lol.

    I hope that everyone who did play this mod will use the recommandation option on this site
    because i have a feeling that most forget and only the “haters” comment. Because the difference in recommandations here and on Moddb couldn’t be bigger, (8.6 / 10 : 21 votes on Moddb and RTSL:
    2.92 / 5 : 12 votes.)

    SO PLEASE PEOPLE, WOULD YOU PLEASE GIVE A RECOMMANDATION WHEN YOU FINISHED PLAYING?

    thank you,
    Leon

    Reply
  94. DarkShift

    I don’t know if people saw it, but there is TWO endings :

    [spoiler] In the penultimate map, there is a sniper scene where you have to help Barney and Alyx. Usually Barney dies quickly, so you can be led to believe that only Alyx survives.

    In fact, you can save Barney by focusing only on him, and Alyx dies. I tried different ways, but you can’t save both.[/spoiler]

    The ending only changes a bit : [spoiler]Instead of having Gordon and Alyx hugging, it is Gordon and Barney sitting on the tombs [/spoiler]

    Reply
  95. bobdog
    Think Twice

    Give it to Leon “SpyMaps” Brinkman – he sure knows how to cause controversy. Supposedly he wanted people to rally around the fact that Valve hasn’t seen fit to give us Episode 3 in the Half-Life 2 story (and it has been 10 years, so I can understand). However, when you name your game as the next chapter in the saga, and you specifically state that this is the continuation of what happened after the events of Episode 2, including finding the infamous Borealis, you should be prepared for the internet to explode when you try to dress your wolf up in sheep’s clothing. [NOTE: the name has now been modified to “The Closure”, but the damage has already been done.]

    And that’s exactly what has happened: many players disappointed in the lack of “Valve quality” in a game purporting to be the next installment in the tale, while others back “Leon’s style”, which near as I can tell consists of removing all fun from the game. I’ll say this: the controversy surrounding this game (or mod, if you need to get technical) is much more interesting than the game itself.

    Since August 2006, I have played and reviewed nearly every HL2 map available. And I admit that I really liked Leon’s COD2 maps and his first major HL2 opus Coastline to Atmosphere (which was my 2nd mini-review); I even wrote at the time that Valve should hire him as a mapper. Then came Strider Mountain several years later, with which I was a little less impressed but still had a few interesting elements and settings, and now comes The Closure, which to me is unfortunately his most disappointing mod of all. Too many HL2 players are quick to defend Leon and how he gave 6 years of his life in creating 35 maps that will give you an additional 15+ hours of FREE gameplay. I don’t discount the sacrifice that Leon has given, but size doesn’t matter when the quality is so severely lacking.

    And the sad part is, The Closure offers a couple of really neat settings and scenarios that if cut down to a tight 3-5 hour mod would make this absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, Leon seems to be stuck in the past with original HL2 level design, and hasn’t grown as a level designer while many new mappers are taking the Source engine to new heights. It’s the same feeling I had after playing Duke Nukem Forever – that the game designers were stranded 10 years in the past while the industry “grew up” around them.

    So many others have already written about what drags this mod down, but here are my additional thoughts:

    Story – Unlike some players, I don’t feel you need a lot of reasons to go shoot things in a FPS. Gordon had to get to the Borealis, stuff got in his way, and he made it happen. No, none of the main protagonists acted like they would in a canon HL2 game, but that’s really not the strongest issue here.

    Cutscenes – These should ONLY be used to provide exposition that can’t be provided easily in gameplay. I had no problem with the opening and ending cutscenes, but why on earth would you have a cutscene for a camera popping out of the ceiling, or Gordon walking through a door, or opening a first aid cabinet? One 3-minute cutscene showed me a fight in a canyon deep below between antlions and Combine, and never once did we enter that canyon – this is gratuitous and worse, a waste of my playing time. Most egregious were the cutscenes that constantly wrenched control away from me, showed me walking 12 feet, returned play to me, I walked past a door, control was wrenched away again to show the door closing, and play returns to me again. Tell me, Leon, what part of this is fun to a player? I almost threw my mouse at the screen, I was so infuriated. DON’T TAKE CONTROL AWAY FROM THE PLAYER FOR SIMPLE TASKS!!! So what I started to do, and this is actually the only thing that makes The Closure fun to play, is made a drinking game – every time you get a cutscene, you take a drink, and I was well, roaring drunk after each of my play sessions.

    Level Design – The closure only has a few stand out setpieces, mostly offering vertical gameplay with stairs, moving bridges, and caverns. The rest? A mishmash of hideous colors, textures, and non-canon elements. You never know if a door or a button or a control panel will open, because Leon is “bored” with using doors with handles in his mapping, so he expects the player to work at figuring it out, as opposed to allowing us to use the knowledge that 10 years of playing HL2 maps and mods has trained us for. Tell you what, Leon, having to click on every single element in a room to open a door and guess at what you the author have created is not fun. I have no problem with using new assets and textures, but I do take strong issue when level design is haphazard, when you have absolutely no idea where you are, or where it lies in relation to where you’ve been or where you’re going. For example, the Borealis – other than the outside, I never felt like I was on a ship – it felt like Leon “Tardis-ed” some underground lair into the layout. As a player, it felt like many sections had very little thought made to creating a realistic setting and layout, which would pull you deeper into the game. As an example of good Leon mapping, in C2A, he allows us to use the jeep to drive into a dock, then use the swamp buggy to find a key to finally come back and unlock the door to drive the jeep through — this is great level design, but The Closure never has anything like this.

    Gameplay – Likewise, nearly no thought is made to make the gameplay interesting. Almost every single scenario has you walking past closed/locked doors, you get to the end of a hallway, find a locked door, and then you go back and something opens, with enemies pouring out. And many times it was a multiplication of that, as then you go back to what just opened to find, nope, that won’t open either, so you go BACK down the hallway where something else lurches out at you. That’s boring and lazy, yet Leon considers this his favorite type of gameplay for some reason, which is why he continues to do it in his maps. The only interesting gameplay situation in my mind was the first time you have your weapons taken away, and you have to get around foes by using turrets and laser fences – that was well done. Also, the second time your weapons are removed, you must use friendly turrets to protect you – also well done. But by the 5th time my weapons were removed … I was beyond frustrated.

    Easter Eggs – Don’t tell us there are Easter Eggs – let us find them on our own. People will start talking about where they are, and how to get them. Worse was the soft porn artwork that I had no desire to see, yet had to follow all the way to the end to get out. I’m no prude, but I found these in extremely poor taste. Know what you could have done instead? Make your Easter Eggs a piece of paper that each provide a piece of an online link that when added together people will visit your website for that same artwork.

    FINAL THOUGHTS: I would rather replay the 25-minute prison “waiting” scenes from The Gate 2 for 24 hours straight than have to sit through another play-through of The Closure. At nearly every juncture, Leon takes the player out of the game – through unrealistic level design, overly intrusive cutscenes, non-canon situations and personalities, frustrating gameplay sequences, and soft porn artwork. Although I do appreciate the effort that he made and the time he spent developing something free for HL2 fans, I never once had FUN while playing The Closure. I wish Leon well with his future efforts, but fear that any “indie” development he attempts will be fraught with disappointment when he realizes that very few people like this “retro” style of mapping.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    14 Hours
    Reply
  96. DarkShift

    Okay, I’ve opened up Strider Mountain here on RTSL, because I’m a bit surprised…

    SM got 38 PF. 38 Personal Favourite!!! What happened for this one??

    Of all the reviewers, not only the ones who gave PF, only 2 remains for the time being, on this page : Zekiran and me (as “s.anchev” at this time, I chose a few days ago to change my name as “DarkShift” to match all my IDs : on Steam/moddb/RTSL) who both gave PF, and here who both gave PIN…

    Well, of course it was six or seven years ago. Even if we are a small yet persistent community, I think some of those guys will never post anymore, they’ve moved on… of course, there is also some who even passed away…

    I don’t know, maybe we should wait a few weeks to see if some old fella’s will come and review it “the proper way”… At least to give it the rating it should have here on PP…

    What a strange feeling to see it have a better review on moddb than here…

    Reply
    1. Confused Travolta

      Wait, I don’t understand your way of thinking. We should wait for old users to comeback and give this mod higher (the one true) ratings just because… nostalgia?

      Maybe this mod is just not good enough. Face it.
      Maybe Leon has just more fans on moddb than on RTSL.
      There is more new gamers who just don’t judge by nostalgia, but what they actually played?

      Strider Mountain was released almost 7 years ago, world has changed, games changed, gamers changed. Maybe people just want something new.
      I must say it’s a bit funny for me when Leon brings ratings of his old mods for comparison.
      Ok, it was good once, it was good twice, but maybe is not good enough for 3rd time? Seriously people.

      Normally when you release something and there are many people who dont like it, you try to draw conclusions, change what you are doing, try to do things better next time. But in this case Leon just brings his old mods ratings and says “Hey people you liked my earlier mods, why you don’t like this one?”.
      It doesn’t work that way for most people. That’s why long series like Assassin’s Creed are more and more criticized, because they don’t change, they are to repetitive.

      Maybe it’s time for Leon to leave his safe heaven of fans that will adore his every work no matter what he does? People grow up! (yeah this is funny, because most of people I’m addressing this are older than me ^^).

      Ofcourse there are many fans of Leon’s work, that’s cool. But if you expose something for public you have to be ready that there are many people who won’t like it, and even those who liked it earlier now will be just bored by the same convention.

      Currently The Closure on ModDb has twelve 10 scores, but not a single of them are supported by any serious review. It’s just 10 without a reason. How is this reliable in any way?
      On ModDb anyone can give whatever score they want without bringing any arguments. There are also three 9 scores with long reviews but I can’t make any connection between the text of the reviews and the score itself “there is a lot of issues in the mod but… BANG! 9/10”.

      What is this is if not just nostalgia?

      Reply
    2. Maki

      ModDB is a horrible barometer for how good a mod actually is.

      It’s silly for people to say that people who enjoy this mod are “wrong.” But the same is true in reverse. It’s likewise silly to insist that those with legitimate criticisms need “proper reviews” to straighten them out.

      Reply
      1. Confused Travolta

        Yeah, that’s why scores here on RTSL have bigger value, because you can read what pros and cons those players give. And it’s not just a battle between 10’s and 1’s like in many sites (metacritic for example).

        Reply
    3. Zekiran

      Well, I gave Strider Mountain a PF because it is one which I eagerly await replaying and had better and more focused direction than this one. You don’t wander around as much in Strider Mountain, and the play through is more smooth. I do compare this to its predecessors, I think I like this one better than CtA but less than SM.

      While I’m absolutely going to enjoy mods made by Leon forever, that doesn’t absolve him or any developer from critique, I can bot love the work, and pick it apart. I do that with every game I play – Just Cause 2 has serious issues but I’ll enjoy the crap out of it anyway, for instance.

      Personally I give what critique I can because I feel where appropriate, if someone’s capable of doing better or working toward a specific goal in modding, I’ll offer what suggestions I can. But I won’t do as the above ‘Think twice’ review: ‘should never’, ‘doesn’t belong’…. that’s not anyone’s decision but the mod maker. ‘Don’t care for’, ‘was thrown off by’, better comments that might indicate the reviewer has a stronger idea of their own desires rather than their expectations on a modder. I’m not making the mod, I get zero say in how it plays out. But I can offer suggestions about how the specific mod can be made smoother, without losing its specific feel and style.

      Reply
  97. Gangway!

    A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…each new theme here on PP was being started by the master’s review. It seems to be utterly interesting for all of us to hear the opinion of our benefactor.
    It’s time to choose Mr. Phillip. Time to choose… 🙂

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      You are right and I want to be the first to review everything. However, in this case, that would have been impossible. Once I had the download it seemed wrong to keep it to myself for another 10 days which would have been the earliest I could have played it.

      I will try to do better in future.

      Reply
  98. SPY

    There is much wrong with this mod, i am the first to admit that.
    There are also many things that i would have loved to do differently,
    some because theye were made so long ago and other issues because
    i see how people experience them.

    To say it is a bad mod is for me to strong.
    I am sure there are quit a lot of things done well, just as there are things
    done wrong. Also comes it down to, as it has always been with mods of me at least, to taste.
    Because quit a few things that are disliked are liked for the exact same reason by others.
    I don’t make this up, i read it nearly daily in the comments. To say people only give agood recommandation out of nostalgia, that is simply silly.

    But that is just my opinion.
    We live in a free world, and people may like what they like.

    Leon

    Reply
    1. rikersbeard

      Leon you do not need to defend something you worked so hard on and gave us gamers as a free gift!
      I am enjoying this mod; it’s very HL2, which is very nostalgic being an ancient game by modern standards. The large cavern with the vertical maze of articulated walkways and bridges was ingenious; although I was forced to noclip when I got stuck!
      Your huge open room full of antlion guards had we very worried until your green help cross appeared, thanks for that.
      The trophy room was a great piece of whimsy and very informative and had me confused for a while as to the way on. That was a small button!
      Your mods have strange flavours at times, but isn’t that the point of a modification to make something different?
      Epic music by the way…

      Maybe I will vote you a 12 out of 10 out of pure nostalgia being an old gamer, mainframe and teleprinter old! Ha ha…

      Reply
  99. Alencore

    I’m finally done! Gave it a 7 half way through but I changed my mind and gave it a 10 now! It’s an awesome FAN MADE MOD indeed!

    Game run totally smooth, not even one crash, some very few little lags here bec. of too much enemies AI bombarding me, game even ran without EP2 installed, just he beta mode of sdk 2013 sp.

    Does it deserves the EP3 title, well hell yeah! It’s way better than freaking valve unlimited silence of the f—ing ep3-hl3 people are asking for all this years..this mod at least satisfy that in it’s own FAN minded way!

    Reply
  100. rjpal
    Personal Favourite

    As usual, Leon knocked this one out the park. I understand the complaints that some of the ambient sounds are a bit annoying and that the every texture ever created was used within the mod but all of that plus a beautiful sound track makes this a new a different experience. Other complaints are that the game play is too hard and i freely admit that fighting two gun ships or striders at once begs for GOD mode. Additionally, enemies appearing from nowhere is very frustrating but to counter that I found weapons, ammunition, and health to be in abundance in spots where you needed it most.
    My one major complaint like lots of other folks are the cut scenes which do seem to be a bit to frequent.

    However, I truly enjoyed this mod for length, content and game play. It is the best mod on this site since Strider mountain (another SPy Map )

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    20 Hours
    Reply
  101. voxxx

    I have not finished playing yet …I am just where I have to kill the scientist through the glass …but I am taking my time and reading some comments here as I go along.
    My impressions so far are quite positive.
    Leon you are truly an artist and as such have given us YOUR vision of what a mod should be. People should try to remember that and not compare the mod to what their expectations were. This is your house that you’ve invited people into and if they think the furniture should be arranged differently it is a matter or personal taste .. anything else would be like arguing that blue is prettier than green.
    Something Leon mentioned in a post above I completely agree with is that if someone plays this mod hard-core for hours and hours on end he will inadvertently find situations that resemble one another in game play. It should be savored with small sips. One does not chug a fine Napoleon brandy . The player should take his time and explore the rich decors and scenery not race through trying to get to the end asap.
    I will give more thoughts after I have finished the mod but so far I can find no glaring faults with this piece of art that Leon has worked so hard on for so long.

    Reply
  102. asterixer

    I have just fininshing it and it was fun to play for me. Okay killing Kleiner i had never been thinking of, so thanks for the hint. I have only one point for Leon:
    Please reduce the number of cut- scence. I liked a few of them but there are to many and they interrupt the flow of the mod.
    Besides this is liked it very much and it will stay on my hard-drive so im able to play it agian 🙂

    Reply
  103. SPY

    Many thanks to you all for playing the mod and taking the time to
    express your mind here. May i please ask you to use the ‘Recommandation system’
    here on RTSL, (just above the place were you can write your text, choosing between Avoid I!
    and Personal Favourite).

    Again, thank you very much. It is always very nice to hear that people liked your work and
    what they liked about it.
    greetings,

    Leon

    Reply
  104. Bart
    Play It Now!

    I’m in the middle of the game and it’s an interesting struggle,
    I’m enjoying the game so far quite well and will come back when I’m finished playing it.

    Reply
  105. Gangway!
    Personal Favourite

    Wow… it was amazing. There were so wide variety of locations in the mod so I am impressed. I explored all of them thoroughly. Most of them are astonishing. Many of cutscenes are fine, some others are only illustrative but pretty nice too. I could not help feeling deep sadness when Dr.Cleiner was dying. BTW the previous part of saga , in which I was chasing him, slightly remembered me Aldus Bishop from Armahem in FEAR. The combat wasn’t too hard because the opponents weren’t too smart 🙂 and there was ammo enough. I didn’t experienced any difficulties in finding the path trough the maps or installing the mod at all. No one BSOD occured. Yes I noticed that “The Closure” has a little differenes from a canon HL universe in music, textures and so on but I liked it. The mod looks slightly FEARened. At some moments I felt horror. All in all I have enjoyed this game. I am looking forward to the next Leon’s creation.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    22 Hours
    Reply
  106. Hec

    I couldn’t be able to download this without troubles, the server is dreadfully slow? how can I download via Torrent? Please help!!!

    Reply
    1. Gangway!

      Just click it http://www.runthinkshootlive.com/download.php?id=12429&f=/files/torrents/hl2-ep2-sp-the-closure.torrent. Save this file and start.

      Reply
    2. Zekiran

      The torrent is linked directly below the on-site download button, is it not working now? I don’t use torrents myself so I can’t even say I know what might be the issue, but the on-site was quite slow a few days ago when we were all downloading it at the same time. Is it still that slow?

      Reply
      1. Hec

        Oh Thanks by the answer mate! I’ve downloaded successfully now, via Torrent. I download the U Torrent app, in order to download it faster and it worked just fine!

        Reply
  107. Bolloxed

    Wow… this Mod is terrible… beyond terrible.

    Encountered 3 game breaking bugs within the first 30 minutes – the most annoying being the gravity gun + weapons not being returned after you select the difficultly.

    Might be worth a look if they bother to make it playable.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    30 Hours
    Reply
    1. Zekiran

      Wow another 30 minutes and thinking it’s “game breaking” – the weapons are removed and come back with regularity in this very, very long mod.

      If you go back and actually, you know, PLAY IT, istead of imagining yourself being gifted with impulse101 at the very start, or perhaps read some of the actual comments regarding the difficulty decision and it’s poor placement, you might discover an eminently playable Leon style mod.

      What specific BUGS are you addressing when you say there are 3 game breakers? Be specific, so that Leon can actually figure out what your game’s install has wrong with it. Because obviously *they aren’t bugs* for everyone.

      Also do keep in mind: THIS MOD IS NOT VALVE’S and doesn’t represent anything other than Leon’s work. So when you get to cut scenes (are you calling those ‘bugs’ or are you just going to complain they’re there?) or other specific-mod ideas, understand that they’re in-style, and Leon’s style is Alternate HL Universe to say the least.

      Reply
  108. Robolovsky
    Play It Now!

    Right off the bat I would like to say thanks to Leon and his team for producing this pretty epic mod. Generally I had fun playing it and found the length and variety a welcome change from some of the shorter maps and mods that seem to end just as they are getting interesting. Furthermore I felt it was infinitely longer and more entertaining than Prospekt with zero cash changing hands.

    Having said that there were some irritations. Yes you guessed it, the cut scenes are included in the irritations. Not all of them necessarily but surely we don’t need the game to be interrupted just to see a movie of Gordon walking through a door? There were also way too many of the cut scenes, resulting in constantly interrupted gameplay which just gets downright annoying in the end.

    Another irritation (and I realise that this is probably just my own personal preference) was the frankly ridiculous amount of Antlion and Antlion related combat. There is a mod called ‘Antlions Everywhere’ and that would probably have been a more appropriate title for this mod. A large part of the action seemed to be centred around getting through one batch of Antlion soldiers and workers only to be confronted by hundreds more at regular intervals throughout the game. Personally I find the workers to be particularly annoying at the best of times with a frankly ridiculous range and accuracy when hurling their venomous load. Of course they are a legitimate part of the HL2 world but in this mod I just feel we reached saturation point.

    I’m sure the Easter eggs were enjoyed by many and have to say that the cartoons were excellent but just feel again that they detracted from the gameplay and broke the continuity. I did however like Leon’s Museum tour with all the Half Life exhibits and history which I feel was very well done. Some clever twists on the weaponless combat idea at various stages throughout the game were also enjoyable.

    My overriding recommendation has to be Play It Now as there was a great deal of enjoyable combat in some great locations and that, after all, is the heart of HL2. So thanks again Leon.

    Reply
  109. SPY

    I said it before, but i have to say it again and that is that i am so pleased with that people finally start to review the mod as for what it is and not that it is not Valve and therefore bad.
    And ofcourse am i also very pleased with that the last few people that commented did like it so much. When i mapped all that time there were numerous hours a day that i thought about how a player would experience what i was making. To read then finally that people liked it so much is a real treat.
    I do get very tired from Bolloxed, when he writes;
    “Wow… this Mod is terrible… beyond terrible.
    Encountered 3 game breaking bugs within the first 30 minutes – the most annoying being the gravity gun + weapons not being returned after you select the difficultly.
    Might be worth a look if they bother to make it playable. ”
    In your playtime you clearly state that you played 30 mintes, so you probably came near the end of the second level of 35. To think you know then what this mod is all about is ofcourse ridiculous but that is ok. I am very sorry but i really have to say that when someone acts this way then i can’t spent one more moment to even read on and take it seriously. What does bother me is that your Avoid It! recommandation is counted on to the total recommandation number. I assume that is also why you gave it, just to bring that down.
    But o well, we live in a free world and overall the mod liked enough to make me happy. I have already spent way to much time and effort on your comment.

    thank you all who did take the time to comment seriously!
    Leon

    Reply
    1. Maki

      Y’know Leon, it’s funny how much stock you put in those one-line ModDB comments when they give you effusive praise, but then denounce critical comments that are just as descriptive.

      You can’t have it both ways. Feedback is never wrong. You can disagree with it all you want and you can choose to ignore it, but feeling the need to call out every bit of criticism with a snarky “Oh, you must be a hater” or “Oh, your comment isn’t serious” – it’s unprofessional and condescending. It may reflect how the comments make you feel, but I don’t believe it’s the place of the author to call them out publicly.

      I support the fact that you make mods that appeal to your personal tastes. But the trade-off is that you must accept that these tastes will not appeal to everyone. You say you do, but your rebuttals to any kind of criticism suggest otherwise.

      Reply
      1. Zekiran

        But when the site here says, “play the whole mod before giving a banner image review”, that’s a problem. It inherently suggests that the person’s review takes into account the *whole* mod, played through to the end. If they had game-breaking bugs, they should have asked for help on fixing them, but NOT put a review banner on.

        Avoid it, as I’ve stated many times above, should be reserved for literally unplayable broken mods and maps. Obviously, that’s still Phillip’s call – but really, this is out of hand. 30 minutes *is not even barely opening the first two maps*.

        We really, really need a ‘I didn’t care for this, I’m not going to finish it’ banner, maybe in grey, to distinguish this kind of ‘avoid’ from the problematic broken mods.

        Reply
        1. Kasperg

          I think that’s an issue that will never be solved.

          If we drew a parallel with food, it is true that one wouldn’t really have to finish the whole plate to recommend people to avoid it if one spoonful tasted badly. It doesn’t always mean the rest of the meal is going to be the same (sometimes I find the unpleasant slice of garlic in the middle of my otherwise delicious food), but for someone with a certain taste, that sample is enough not to risk it.

          Those kind of reviews, however incomplete their run of a mod has been, still carry their part of truth. It doesn’t matter if the fourth season of a TV series is excellent if people have to push through three bad or so-so ones. The threshold of “how long I give this a chance to be good” varies from person to person, and as such these ‘incomplete’ reviews are inevitable.

          Reply
          1. Maki

            I’m actually not singling out Bolloxed’s review here. I don’t think it was a particularly useful review because, at a minimum, it needed to go into more detail about what these game-breaking crashes were. Although, if I were the author, I’d be following up and asking for that detail.

            What I am pointing out is the pattern of rather shameless cheerleading of positive feedback over negative feedback by the author. You don’t improve your craft by doing that. The author is absolutely free to dismiss criticism they disagree with, but that’s not something they need to publicly broadcast every single time it happens. That sends the signal, loud and clear: “I don’t care about your criticism, keep it to yourself.” So, what incentive is there to spend a hour working on a 4-page review? Why should a player have to subject themselves to 20 hours of a mod before they have the privilege of being publicly dismissed by the author? Eventually, those people stop reviewing – or get more succinct in their reviews – and what’s left is an echo chamber of fans spouting praise at the author. Hence why, like I said, you don’t improve your craft by doing this.

            Reply
  110. SPY

    Maki, i try to comment on as much as is said here, just to show that i take each and every review seriously. You said;
    “… it’s funny how much stock you put in those one-line ModDB comments when they give you effusive praise, but then denounce critical comments that are just as descriptive.”
    and;
    “… of rather shameless cheerleading of positive feedback over negative feedback by the author. You don’t improve your craft by doing that. ”
    I don’t think that i criticize harshly and publicly .
    I am a bit amazed by this because there have been spoken quit a few harsh words by others but i believe i have always kept my cool so to speak. Its to childish to start bashing around here, afterall, its just a silly mod.
    That i try to comment on each and everyone is because i really do value when someone takes the effort to speak his mind here. I don’t think its wrong to comment therefore as much as i can. This does bring me to also comment as much as i can on “bad” reviews, (should i not do so people for sure would comment on that!)
    “…rather shameless cheerleading”, is that not a bit exaggerated. I am just very pleased with positive feedback, and there is nothing wrong with expressing that, in my mind.
    That i feel no joy with bad reviews is simply natural. When legit comments are made i am the first one to acknowledge them. Quit a few times i have said that there is enough wrong and bad about this mod, and that it is far from perfect. But when people call it bad because they have a different taste, or because it isn’t following Valve guidelines, that i was lazy, or just did steel stuff from Gamebana without giving credits, then i indeed don’t feel the need to adress these issues again and again. Right from the start i have answered such comments the best that i could even when some were absolutly ridiculous. But after having adressed them severel times i am not so willingly anymore to yet again go in to these accusations again.

    And about the 30 mins gaming not being enough to write a review.
    I understand what you mean with your recemblence with food Kasperg, i really do.
    But, there are different kind of foods.
    One bite of a hamburger is enough to say if you like the rest of it. But, when you eat for instance some of the chinees meals, then each spoon of food is different and therefore it is impossible to judge by just one bite. With large mods as this it is a bit the same, specially when each level is very differently from the other one. So, when you play 1/17 of the entire mod, (because that is what we are talking about here) it is in my humble opinion simply impossible to say that it is a bad mod. You should at least have played then 1/3 or better 1/2, and even then it isn’t a fair review. All he could have said is that the start of the mod was bad, in his eyes.
    And aboud 3 game breaking bugs, well, all i can say that he is the first and only one that had this experience. For sure we would have heared so much more about these 3 game breaking bugs should everyone experience them. And this does bring me to why did he not explain these 3 such bad bugs, that would have been the least thing to do when you give a review.

    I am very aware of the fact that the mod playes so very different on different computers, systems and settings. All i can say is that it runs fine on my own system, and on the computers of all testers. That doesn’t mean that the bugs are very anoying to those who experience them, but to call the entire mod then a Avoid It! is again to strong for me. It is impossible for me to make the mod work on all these different systems, settings, etc. I already did spent way to much time on it, in the end i just needed it to be finished, in such a way that it runs really well on most systems.

    But, we live in a free world, we may say, do and make what we want, within bounderies.
    All i wanted to do was to have fun while i made a new large mod, and hopefully many people would enjoy playing it. In both fields i feel i have succeeded. That not everyone agrees with this is a shame and ofcourse would i have loved it to be differently. But through my earlier releases i have learned that it is impossible to please everyone. That i shouldn’t have called the mod Ep3, is something we can debate about. Both will be right i guess.
    All i wanted to do was make a new mod that starts were ep2 left of and ends with a search for the Borealis. And i believe that that is done with this mod, in that light it is a follow up on ep2, and therefore a ep3, (it would be childish for me to also call it Ep3 because it is my 3th big HL2 mod, even when this is the case). That it is not consistent with the Half-Life lore is to me not important at all. And with me are many people who think the same, they say it is refreshing to see new weapons and combines and models in general. That they not always are a great replacement is not that important, to them and me. I do understand that there are many people who think that this simply can’t be done, even forbidden (at least that is the impression i sometimes get). And although i do understand were they are coming from, i don’t feel that way.

    My overall feeling is that some people take this mod way to serious, even when i understand them. Its nothing more then a fan made ep3 mod, for the reasons i gave above. Nothing more nothing less. That does remind me, i am not the first one to call his mod a Ep3 one, or the last one for that matter. When i played that other Ep3 mod a few years ago (i believe) i wasn’t disapointed by it, because of the title. Although it wasn’t really that great of a mod either, in my eyes. I downloaded it with the idea of, ‘see what he made as a follow up on ep2’, without any real expectations.
    Guess that is what it all comes down to,
    Thank you all for commenting again,
    Specially Zekiran

    Leon

    Reply
    1. Kasperg

      I agree with your reasoning, although the parallel with the food analogy is, as I said, down to each individual’s judgment.
      Besides the content of each map, which can vary, there are other considerations that usually don’t change much over the course of a mod (In this particular case I wouldn’t know so I can’t comment). These considerations would be things like style, pacing, detail, look & feel, plausibility etc.

      If we were talking about a newbie mapper, we could assume the earlier maps (if they have been built in the order they are played, which isn’t necessarily always true!) will not be as good as the latter ones. However, this isn’t the case here since you are a level designer with years of experience and lengthy mods that suggest what one can expect from your maps. You can’t play that card and expect people to accept it, even if it were true (again, I don’t know).

      To finish with an example, imagine I decided to play this mod and for some reason hated the texturing or lighting in the first couple of levels, enough to prevent me from enjoying it. If I stopped playing, checked for screenshots or playthroughs and found out that it never improved, my impression after those two levels that I wasn’t going to enjoy it would be perfectly valid and impossible to refute.

      Reply
  111. SPY

    Well, to be honest, i can play that card. Because this mod is made over 6 years and quit a lot of people have said that the second half of the mod is much better as the first half. I have learned a lot over the last 6 years and that clearly shows.

    Leon

    Reply
    1. Bolloxed

      Hi,

      First of all – apologies – It was my first review and I entered 30 in the minutes field apposed to the hours field. I have played this mod for approx 30 hours. I was unable to edit my post however.

      I would have also responded sooner if I had known people had replied to my comment!

      I have played through this mod approx three times and sorry Spy, I stand by my “beyond terrible” and negative review purely because of the game breaking bugs early on in the game. Despite the mod being long and some great sections/content… I would consider any game breaking bug an instant ‘avoid’ – especially since it’s an over a gig in size.

      I’ve played many mods in my day and this is the first time I have ever encountered ‘game breaking’ bugs in them. Of course your Mod is far bigger/longer than usual so there’s far more than go wrong.

      But thanks for the Mod, some real gems in there but meh. It does become more stable/less buggy as the game progresses however which is a good thing!

      Reply
      1. PlanetPhillip

        First the good news: I have edited the 30 minutes to 30 hours.

        Now the bad news: I have removed your recommendation image.

        Before you make a little voodoo doll of me and stab in in unspeakable places, allow me to explain.

        The recommendation image must reflect the review but it also must reflect the play time. I know it may seem strange that I would allow a review of 30 minutes with a rec. image but not one of 30 hours, but it comes down to this. If after 30 hours of play you couldn’t write anything more details than a couple of paragraphs then the image is not allowed.

        If you had stopped after 30 minutes then a few paragraphs is okay.

        Please don’t think I am targeting you, because I am not, it’s something I do for many readers.

        I will be creating a new guide video next week.

        Oh, one last thing. It would be very useful if you listed your game breaking bugs for Leon to see and for other users too.

        Oh, one last last thing, I used to have an email subscribe function but it slowed the site to a crawl. I keep promising to look into it again and will do.

        Reply
      2. Robolovsky

        So can we please have a description of these, so-called, game-breaking bugs? I didn’t come across any and as far as I can see neither did a whole lot of others. What are we missing??

        Reply
        1. AI

          I just got done reinstalling the mod, with the NEW update! I’m going to give it a SECOND play thru, to see all these “game breaks and bugs” peeps have been complaining about!! Leon, like I said before I had NO problems on the last play thru. Maybe it’s because I keep my PC in good shape, of course I’m only running a modified Asus, I7, 3.4 ghz, and 32mb ram!! Also like I said before I’m just an OLD MAN (70), who doesn’t know what he’s talking about!!! 😉
          BTW, I’m about 1/3 the way thru “Fallout 4” I must say it really keeps you on your toes!

          Reply
      3. Zekiran

        We still have no idea what “game breaking bugs” you mean. After being asked by several of us what they might be you still don’t actually say. Please go into detail. Most of us DO have some kind of technical expertise, and if your comment included that “it would be better if” – only knowing exactly WHAT it is that broke, can that even happen.

        Reply
  112. Dysprogue

    Personally I think as long as you give a mod a reasonable chance you should be able to review it. More often than not a mods quality and design philosophy is consistent throughout and this mod is not an exception. However I feel people should check other comments or ask about potential bugs before claiming that something just doesn’t work in their review.

    Reply
  113. melc311

    The thing that struck my mind is this quote by John Romero – Design and build the middle level first and the first level last , this way you’ll use all the knowlege of the game’s capabilities to make a good first impression on the player. When someones reviews your mod in a negative way , you can take it or leave it , but from a professional stand point , you should just take it and see what you could improve on . I know that it feels like a punch in the stomach to see what you have worked on be reviewed negatively , but I think that negative reviews are the best thing that can happen to you if you are a ‘mediocre’ mapper .

    Reply
  114. Clunkfish

    I have enjoyed all Leon’s mods and this is his crowning glory. Leon, thank you for giving so much pleasure from your own free time. Fabulous work. I LOVED the Trophy Room area, with your special message.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    24 Hours
    Reply
  115. Clunkfish

    There seems to be a rough correlation between the time people took to get through the game and the level of recommendation. Longer playtimes mostly go with higher ratings.

    Perhaps it’s a mod better suited to those of us who like to nose about more, and also (speaking for myself here) who are a bit obsessive about keeping 100 health and 100 suit all the time, so keep going back over sections and trying do them more skilfully!

    Reply
    1. Zekiran

      Well, as Bolloxed shows now, there IS a difference between a game install that’s broken and you need to figure out ways around what should have been working correctly (though I didn’t encounter anything like that, so… no clue) and a game that simply IS that long.

      @Bolloxed, thank you for detailing the issues. 🙂 obviously I can’t explain what happened to your install, though honestly I don’t remember getting weapons back after leaving certain areas. There were at least 3 or 4 distinct places where you lose *everything*, I just kept going without when it looked like they were gone, and eventually there were pickups.

      Reply
  116. SPY

    Thank you Phillip for placing the latest mod version (v. 1.1) and thank you all for commenting again.

    I really would like to start with the game-breaking bugs, were Bolloxed keeps writing about again and again. But never he mentions them ones, and this clearly makes me think if you really experienced them. I don’t say i don’t believe you, or don’t want to believe you. But, when you take so much time and effort to review the mod, which i am very pleased about, even when it is mostly negative. Then for sure we may expect a explanation about these game-breaking bugs. You even made a video walkthrough, which i admire. But, no such bugs there.
    So please do explain yourself. Because when there really are several game-breaking bugs then for sure do i want to fix those. So, please please do explain !! ??

    This brings me to severel very noticeble bugs that even with the new version 1.1 still are not fixed. I never did experience this with any of the other game engines and editors that i worked with, but with Source you never know. The last weeks i have been watching quit a lot videos of the mod and nearly each time i notice buge bugs with the credit titles, at the start and end of the mod. When the mod was tested by BTC they didn’t come accross these bugs, and i myself ofcourse also didn’t. And now i know why, its because they seem to have played, at least i did play and build the mod, or at least worked on all credits, with a 17″ computer screen. And never did i experience any problems. But now that i have a new 27″ screen i to notice them. And i hate these bugs with the credits. Some are only shown half, the credits, and in other times you clearly can see past the black background that is behind the credit texts. Which looks very unprofessional. So, i am afraid i need to fix all these issues and come up with another version, v1.2 (sorry Phillip).

    About v.1.1
    As can be read above:

    Patch changes or fix;
    map 8; 2 flowting weapons at top road mountain fixed.
    map .; changed old emailadress in new one.
    readme.txt; changed there also emailadress.
    loadingscreen1 completely renewed with now waring message in it at end, that says;
    ” This is a fan made mod and is not always consistent with the Half-Life lore.”

    In my hurry i did sent a early version of the text, which clearly has still some writing errors in it.
    map 8; 2 flowting weapons at top road mountain fixed:
    On videos i noticed indeed 2 flowting weapons in map8, at the end of the road to the top, that you can drive on with the jeep/car. (Is the only time you can drive the car in this mod, i did do so because i personaly think that the control of the jeep is very bad, i love race games and hate bad controled cars, that is why there is no more driving in this mod).
    About the flowing weapons, i never did see them myself so i tested 8 again, and again, i didn’t see them. But then it did hit me. Right after the fight with the helicopter and APC truck you can
    climb up a combine tower, and right in front of it there is a sniper rifle. Many people seem to not go there, therefore they also don’t trigger those 2 combines. In the patch i fixed this, even when you don’t climb the tower you still trigger them. But, i forgot to place the sniper rifle somewere else also in this level. Because when people don’t go there, and don’t find the rifle, then they have to play on without it, and only get much much later the rifle again delivered. I have placed a ramp now beside the ladder that brings you to the tower, so people may recognise better that there is something to discover there. It was already quit clear that people should go to there, in my humble opinion, because there are 3 ammo crates to be found there that can be seen from the road below. But, some people rush through maps/mods, which makes that they easely miss things. This is not a complain of me, just something that i see happening time after time. But we all play in our own way, and that is ok.

    About the emailadress, on the day of release my emailadress was blocked, (i used this free email to many times that day so they blocked it because they thought it was spammed. A real shame because this adress is everywere, i used it for 16 years and can be found on ALL my work from 16 years!) So i needed to change it to my new adress, which this patch or updated mod does.

    And, i rebuild the loadingscreen1, because i wasn’t pleased with it. As already mentioned is the second half of the mod better as the first half. So i wanted to show images of this second half in the loadingscreen, just so people could see from the start that it would get better. And, also have i added that text in it that says;
    ” This is a fan made mod and is not always consistent with the Half-Life lore.”
    Just to warn people up front before they start playing, just so they can lower there expectations and know that this mod uses cutscenes, shows Gordon, etc.

    Well, i really do hope you will now let me know which those 3 game-breaking bugs are Bolloxed because i really start to get very interested now.

    I forgot to mention that on some computers the sniper rifle is shown wrong when you zoom in, again, on a not wide screen it does show very well but for some odd reason it does what it does on widescreen. This has everything to do with the model and i am no modeler or coder, so i can’t fix this, which i think is a real shame because it does make the rifle less impressive, (although i hope that people get familiar to it after severel hours of playing and don’t notice it anymore, that much.)

    Leon

    Reply
    1. Gangway!

      Now the loading screen looks so:
      http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=645972152
      In previous version it was opened for full screen (1920:1080, 16:10).

      Reply
      1. Gangway!

        Sorry, of course 1920:1200

        Reply
    2. Bolloxed

      Hey,

      Sorry for the delay – busy and I wanted to wait until the video was published so I could show you exactly instead of having to describe locations.

      1) As I mentioned before, When you return from the difficulty selection you loose your weapons and gravity gun. No matter what I did, like starting the game again, reinstalling etc etc it would never work. Can even see in the video around 12.25 the crude edit as I had to restore them via console command.

      The very first time I played this was working fine. When I replayed, no matter what I did(as mentioned) the items failed to return to my inventory.

      2) Door with the Zombie CP after the manhacks at around 14.00 didn’t open on 5 different occasions out of 7 attemptes. Had to use noclip to fly around to see if that was the correct way to go etc.. lost nearly an hour of my life trying to figure out that dead end

      3) 28.50 Ladder has noclip – this can be seen in the video – Altho it worked after a few attempts this time on previous attempts the clipping kicked in. Had to restart the level a few time but unlike the earlier bugs you could see there was a problem and knew how to proceed.

      Hope this helps

      Reply
    3. rikersbeard

      I came across a pair of floating guns on a catwalk early on (I think I’ve seen that in one of your maps or mods before and plenty of other peoples mods too) I just shot those ghosts and took their ammo!
      After getting destroyed by a rocket firing APC and a madly shooting chopper; on my next life I discovered the sniper rifle. I think it’s my favourite weapon!
      I had a Pc freeze on the cavern rail terminal before I saw Dr “Z” Kliner again. The rocket launcher triggered a freeze when I went back to it on the catwalk. I suspect my system was at fault.
      The mod, at this point is actually very good in my opinion, a little weird, but still fun.
      Your use of sound to thrill and alarm is impressive and your childish scares did not make me jump at any time, no! 😀
      Monsters when weapon less is no joke and showing an armoury full of weapons behind glass that the gnome or chair would not break is not funny… it’s hilarious!

      Devastated to find out this is not Half Life 3, but just a mod! What will they say?

      I seem to have picked up club-able that is not a crowbar. I won’t give you’re a ‘personal favourite’ now…. 😀

      People may not have picked up on this but I believe your manga strip is non-canon!

      Reply
      1. Bolloxed

        Another bug I encountered was – Saves (normal and quick) don’t work on the last Chapter. When you saves it looks like it saves correctly – but when you try to load it dumped you out to the main menu.

        Reply
  117. ZikShadow
    Play It Later

    This to be honest was a REALLY mixed bag for me.
    A part of me really wants to put this mod in high pedestal and call it MOTY.
    At the same time, i feel like turning this thing into the Recycle Bin and forgetting about it.

    So let’s start with the positives first.

    – The level design, while not really making sense when it comes to actual architecture of a building/actual Combine structures, is VERY well brushed, there’s even parts where i was just in awe looking at the scenery and wondering just how the hell was this even possible.

    – The gameplay can sorta overstay it’s welcome a lil’ bit, but thankfully not enough to kill excitement.

    – There’s puzzles here and there, some of them environmental, some of them plug and win.
    While it’s cool that hints are given for the ones with no time, i never used them (hence why it took longer for me to finish the mod as other people would).

    – All enemies are fought in this mod, though their appearance can get a bit repetitive before the new ones come in.

    – The custom coding is pretty acceptable, the pistol now only has 12 rounds (fitting for the actual real life original HL2 weapon?) and the sniper actually hitscans instead of doing an “invisible bolt” thing.

    – A choice in the amount of enemies is okay though it would be more acceptable to separate it and put in the beginning instead of breaking normal gameplay for it.

    Okay, now for the trash cans.

    – The cutscenes.
    I’m the kind of person that can accept a certain style if it fits with the product + is good, and even i feel like there’s just too much cutscenes in the mod.
    There’s times where the camera even clips through the walls, as seen here :

    http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/13_spymap_ep30000_zpshyidnhgw.jpg

    Being a fellow modder, i can guess that some of the “pointless walking” cutscenes are probably made due to how the maps themselves are built, and Leon probably use the cutscenes to teleport the player from an area that would have collided with rest of the map to a separate area.

    But the rest of the cutscenes made really are pointless and should have been just ingame, showing weapons are self explanatory, showing doors/walkways in front of the switch that opens it, opening medical boxes can just be done ala’ Underhell, and the landscape based cutscenes should have just been left for the players to look around.

    – Gman sightings.
    Either they are right in front of the camera, or the Gman straight out stood 10 feet from where you’re going.

    They are supposed to be subtle things that new players that don’t look around can miss easily, not the spotlight of every major cutscene!

    I had a situation where he was standing in front of me in the middle of an antlion battle and he got hit with an acid antlion, KILLING HIM.

    http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/17_spymap_ep30002_zpspwwvyc6v.jpg

    – The hints for the puzzles can get a bit distracting for the players who don’t want to use them, i’m surprised that Leon didn’t give any way to disable that.

    – Some puzzles confused me a bit too much, since there was no indication that the puzzle had anything to do with the exit and i had to trial and error it a bit for hours before figuring it out (with the one i’m confused in being the first area where you lose your weapons and have to plug 3 boxes into a server thing to turn on a crane far away from the initial puzzle area).

    – The often-seen details.
    I know that playing HL2 for such a long time can make players/creators bored with vanilla assets (i know i did) and would change things up.

    At the very least, all that custom stuff with the twirling pistol/ghost vorts/FEAR’s Replica Combines/copyrighted movie or from other game OST/lava poison headcrabs/the white painted fast zombies/the metrocop zombies should have been either made as an addon or omitted completely.

    – The easily abused gameplay.
    I found a sniper rifle that apparently will not run out of bullets when picked up, this happens MULTIPLE times in the mod, i ended up abusing it by carrying only the sniper rifle and using it whenever i run out.

    Then there’s the part where you’re supposed to lose your weapons, since i was carrying the unlimited sniper through the part, i ended up picking the sniper and using it throughout.

    http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/12_spymap_ep30001_zps4vetivvl.jpg

    – The comic easter eggs.
    I can understand when an author tries to get his work looked at by a lot of people, but do you really think that an adult comic would be suitable for Half-Life?

    Even Valve bleeped out Barney’s curse words.

    Not to mention that some of the easter eggs are EASY as hell to find, it even felt like it’s necessary for progression at some points.

    You shouldn’t have put gnomes all over the maps and the tell everyone in game_text that “THIS MAP HAS EASTER EGGS FIND THEM” in it, it defeats the entire purpose of secret areas.

    Just tell players that the mod has easter eggs in them, and they are welcome to search for them, make them more harder to find, going out of your way back and forth to open the secret doors/switches.

    People who liked the mod then would have a reason to replay and reexplore.

    The trophy room though, now that’s an easter egg i would have like to see more of, showing off the development of the mod, your struggles and such.’

    – Too much Acid Antlions.
    At a certain part in the mod, literally nothing BUT acid antlions attack the player.
    Almost everywhere felt like there’s too many of those spitting bastards, even though they are actually more of a home protector rather than straight attacker.

    – The enemies poppin’ up during gameplay.
    The others are right, there are times where i can see enemy weapons floating in midair just before they actually spawn, might want to fix that a bit.

    – The enemies poppin’ up out of nowhere.
    Stop that. I can see them spawning. Don’t do that Afraid of Monsters spawn behind you shit.

    – The protect Alyx/Barney part.
    So i have to cover either one or the other idiot who despite having cover but doesn’t use them.
    I happen to have a lot of grenades and manage to MASSIVELY reduce both their numbers.
    And what happened? More soldiers spawn IN SIGHT and kill either one of them or BOTH of them.
    If you’re gonna make a choice like that at the least make it more significant of a fight and not too stupid as to spawn enemies if one part has less than others.

    I did manage to mod some of them out :

    http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-closure-remod

    Overall this mod is something that i would enjoy the few times playing, but resent the other times.
    host_framerate will be my companion the moment i ever feel like replaying.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    16 Hours, 42 Minutes
    Reply
  118. SPY

    Thank you for your 3 game-breaking bugs Bolloxed, with this i can work. Although, to call them game-breaking is in my opinion not true. But we may have different opinions on that, that is ok.
    About the nr 1.
    That you loose your weapons there is suposed to happen, so it is not a bug at all. A bit further down the road in the level you get the weapons again.
    nr.2;
    This part is tested by more then 6 people and no one experienced what you say you experienced, that that door didn’t open. I know the mod playes different on different settings and computers. So i don’t say it didn’t happen 5 times with you, but many people have no trouble at all there.
    nr.3;
    That ladder, well, when you just stand in front of it and press E (what is default to use ladders in Hl2) then it really works fine. Also when you just stand in front of it and jump. Many people seem to rush through games/mods and then things can sometimes not work as they should.
    So again, to call this game-breaking.
    But, thanks for your explanation,
    And ZikShadow, thank you for your detailed review, sorry you didn’t like it overall. But that is ok.

    Leon

    Reply
    1. Bolloxed

      To me.. a game breaking bug is a bug that stops people advancing in the game. Yes, many people are aware of console commands etc by this stage, and could get around them – but it has to be looked at from the perspective from the average gamer.. who just loads the game and play.

      I think I was fair with your mod in the description of my video, more than fair actually.

      I quite like the mod… I see it as a big F*&K YOU to Valve. Yes, the mod is silly and contains countless things what rip it out of the official HL universe – but, I think that’s part of the charm. Taking a lot of previous assets, some not even related to HL to show Valve what amazing stuff the community has created to highlight the popularity.

      Lets not forget that Valve f*&ked everyone over with the lack of the promised Episode 3

      Reply
  119. ZikShadow

    Found more of the on-sight spawning enemies and enemy not spawning glitch in my second playthrough.
    No cheats or tricks used.

    http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/11_spymap_ep30001_zpshzts2te0.jpg
    http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/11_spymap_ep30002_zpskbn5rfmc.jpg

    http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/11_spymap_ep30003_zps8icvkcsq.jpg
    http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q727/ZikShadow/11_spymap_ep30004_zps4olj7zbn.jpg

    Reply
  120. SPY

    Thank you very much Zikshadow, for the screens. I really am very pleased with this help because this makes it possible for me to fix this bug. Clearly i made a error here with spawning and for sure will i look in to this !! And fix it in patch 2, please do keep the screens coming so i can fix it, this really helps me very much!!

    Leon

    (As you probably already know is Zikshadow working very hard on making the Ep3 mod ‘vanilla’ so to speak. He already has made files and released them on his Moddb page, that change music, weapons, combines, textures etc back in to the original Hl2 version. I am very glad with the time and effort that he puts in to this because i know as no other how much work that is! We already have changed some pm’s about it and i am so glad that this makes it possible for the mod to still be played and have some fun by those people who dislike what this mod did in those places.

    Reply
  121. ZikShadow

    I figured i would try doing a sort-of “commentaried walkthrough” of the mod (using the Remod) where i point out the negatives, praise the good stuff, talk about the mod/personal thoughts in general, and spot some glitches or such here and there.

    Played on the “Hard” difficulty and the “Many Enemies” setting.

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAXlaB6A5c86wZBKpIkskHqxBQbPNcRaB

    Reply
  122. Jean Knapp

    Funny thing. I was watching the video and for a moment I kinda recognized the health and suit chargers. I probably haven’t done any content for Source for like 5 years. I decided to open my account in FPSB (now gamebanana, damn I’m old) and I checked. Those were the skins I made! I’m really surprised.
    It makes me proud to see my content out there. From the video the mod looked awesome. I made those skins for a mod I was making, but didn’t finish. Nice to see it got some use.
    Sorry for bad english.

    Reply
  123. SPY

    Let me thank you then again Jean Knapp, for your awesome work!

    I did use indeed many models from Gamebanana, but i always tried to get in contact with the devs of the assets, and nearly always they did give permission for me to use it.
    (Only 2 devs said no and i didn’t use there work then.) Or they already gave permission to modders to use it in advance on the download site of Gamebanana.
    Some people never did respond because they didn’t use that emailaccount anymore.
    And i have given credits and thanked all developers that i used work from, so your name should be in the very long list of devs in the end credits of the mod, (should this not be the case then i can look in to it and see who did upload it, and therefore steel it from you).

    So, i didn’t steel any assets.
    I know you don’t say i did, but i just mention this up front because quit a few people keep accusing me of doing so.
    So, many thanks again Jean!

    Leon

    Reply
  124. Hec
    Play It Now!

    Well another Leon’s release, and as always this was fantastic to play. I really like all Leon’s releases because they’re built in huge maps with lots of visual details and the most important of all, with tons of intense hardcore action, combat.

    Now, I think any HL2 mod gamer has to understand Leon’s maps are not like any other standard modding material in HL2 world. We have to understand when we play any Leon’s material we’re into Leon’s world! And here he presents to us his version of how the not concluded HL2 may end.

    For my point of view Leon has a very special style into all of his modding production. And due to that style, some people may love or hate his work. Also from my own perspective, I think his best work has been Strider Mountain, I love that one because it was set into a whole HL2 realistic mission scenario. The rest of his work has been most of all sci-fi into the HL2 plot, here I count The closure into that former category.

    That’s said. I think this work is nice because it has the whole Leon’s formula, action + hardcore combat + tons of hours of game play. Maps are typical of Leon’s style, you know his style is easily recognizable like when you see a Picaso’s canvas is just distinct. Also the ester eggs were fun to find and the comics were just great, i really like the sinister stories inside them, I’d love to ask Leon if he has that material available to enjoy in some website of his own?

    Now about the story plot, i can’t be very picky on it you know It would be just silly to focus on that. Is just a version of how HL2 itself may end, and that’s enough merit, considering not even Valve have has the guts to finish yet. I like Leon’s effort on it. Quite simple story goal, but as hell as long as (my Master’s Thesis!!! 340pp!!) so that’s just by that fact impressive! About the plot I’d love to see quite more details, I think G-Man role was totally wasted and could have been more interesting to use him instead of that Kleiner twist to the CMB side. I have to confess I didn’t like to see Kleiner as the bad guy. I also didn’t understand why if the Vortigaunts were good guys they attacked Freeman so mercilessly.

    Now I know Leon likes to make things different about the NPCS inside most of their work. But here I think he totally picked the most terrible CMB custom models available!!! And that’s my most important complaint about this mod. The coolest custom model was the CMB elite and they were quite scarce inside the mod, in comparison to the regular CMB soldier, which I hated as much as I hated the CMB prison guard model. I totally agree with the guy who said in this forum that the CMB are trans-human and not men in balaklavas!!!!! I think the mod itself would’ve been even better if Leon would have respected the original HL2 CMB models, and maybe introduced that custom CMB elite as a sort of CMB commander you know…

    Anyway I think that’s the stuff i didn’t like the most from this mod. The wrong selection of CMB models, out there in the web there are some fantastic CMB custom models that look threatening, powerful, but most of all they look like REAL HL2 world characters. So I sincerely recommend Leon that if he plans to make some other HL2 mod, (I eagerly hope he will sometime again!), please use some other custom CMB models that don’t diverge from the HL2 universe. That CMB prison guard model was gruesome!! You know he looked like a Frankenstein Police came out from some twisted Counter Strike workshop…

    The new weapons models were delightful and I truly like em! specially the new SMG, Pulse Rifle and the Sniper gun instead of that boring crossbow. I think the option of pick in between much or few enemies was the right one, and I deeply recommend to play it against many enemies as is so much more fun and challenging to fight many enemies than just some few ones.

    Also the APC model was great in this mod. I felt it realistic, and challenging at the same time, the custom Strider was great too! and The Gunship was also a great enemy, I’d love to see some different aspect of the Helicopter.

    Well I think that’s all I have to say. Personally I always have love Leon’s work as he put his soul and whole effort on it. He always make some great battles in his mods and that pure hardcore action I think is what I like the most about his mapping style.

    So if you like action I totally recommend you to play this now!

    PD: I also think the Jasper tribute dedicatory was moving, as he was loved into our HL2 gaming community.

    I also send my condolences to Leon, for the lost of his loving mother. I think he has a very talented son.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    8 Hours
    Reply
  125. SPY

    Thank you very much Hec, for you very detailed review which was so
    suportive and a pleasure to read. And thank you for your condolance.

    About what you asked or suggeted;
    – the cartoon stories, (eastereggs) shown in this mod were published before
    in european comic magazines in the years 1988/1989, called Striptuut,
    Wordt Vervolgd en Titanic. None can be found on line thought because
    this was far before internet excisted (as it is in its current state).
    Still, should you really want to have them then i can upload to somewere
    jpge files of them, just let me know.
    – About the combine models, there are indeed even better ones around on the
    net, or at least ones that look more combinish. But a lot of them have huge
    problems. I took months before i decided to use the ones that i now use,
    because i knew how important the combine models are. But a lot of them
    had animation problems, which made that they missed shooting, walking,
    or other animations. Which made that they took the T position while walked
    and or shoot. And none of those combine models developers had the will,
    the effort or the time to make them work well, and i am a leveldesigner and
    wouldn’t know were to start. In fact, i was really glad to finally find the ones
    i now use, because these worked well with all animations.

    And your comment just proves how we all have different taste, because quit
    a few people thought the weapons used in this mod were awefull. Personally
    i like them a lot, and so do you, so i am glad to hear that.

    Really nice to hear you had such a great time with it, and i am sorry but this is
    my last big (HL2) mod. I am now looking in to indie development. I don’t say
    i will never make a mod again, for sure will i look in to HL3 modding. But i
    don’t think i will spent again so many years on a free mod of this size.

    Leon

    Reply
  126. voxxx
    Personal Favourite

    Wow !
    I played through the whole mod twice before deciding to review it. Casting aside personal preferences is rather hard because we all have different things we like in mods and it may not be what others prefer.
    To me it all boils down to 2 things .. eye-candy and game-play.
    Story lines don’t mean a thing to me and most of the time I have no idea whatsoever where I’m going or why. In my case it’s the journey not the destination. Following a certain story line because it was established in the original is of no importance to me.
    I did not experience any of the bugs mentioned in some posts and if I did, they were so trivial that I didn’t notice them. I can see why Leon made a big deal of the white-outs when being hit by the white ants … there was a ton-load of them throughout the Mod.

    What I liked:

    Beautiful scenery throughout most of the maps.
    The combat was never too intense and at the same time not too easy.
    I am glad that this mod wasn’t over-run with zombies as I find them totally useless, not challenging at all and highly over done in most mods. More like a filler than real substance.
    The weapons were spot on and I absolutely LOVE that sniper rifle. It should be included in more modes. It seems that Every time I really could use it, I had the ammo needed. I am a great fan of the Sniper Elite series and I was pleasantly surprised to find the sniper rifle in this mod. I also like the fact that were no endless maze/labyrinths which I personally hate
    There are just too many things I liked to mention here so I’ll just skip right through to the things I would have had differently in my perfect world.

    Things I would have wished were different:

    I personally like maps that take place in an outdoor scenario …especially with late afternoon lighting that has that warm glow and rich colours of orange . I dislike dark interior scenes especially typical combine structures. I would have liked to see more outdoor maps in this mod and less hallways and doors.
    I would have liked to see a few more puzzles a la migga in the mod and without any clues. There are usually countless walk-throughs to be found if you get really stuck.
    I think every Half-Life 2 Mod should have the Valve sound-byte played when Freeman puts on the suit. You know that sound-byte that plays at the beginning when you launch Half-Life 2 and we see the bald guy with the faucet on the back of his head.

    SO that’s my 2 cents worth >> Leon thank you for this great piece of work and I’m looking forward to another of your mods in the near future. (you know you could make them smaller and release more of them sooner) 😉

    EDIT: I have no idea of how long it took me to play through each time so I just put 15hrs.
    Is there some way to see the actual time played ?

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    15 Hours
    Reply
  127. blue9244
    Personal Favourite

    I have read a lot of the comments and I must say, I disagree with a lot of the negativity out there. I love the new look and I think the author did a great job. This is definitely one of the best I’ve played in a long time. I hope he continues to submit such fantastic work. And for free, no less! He spent 6 years on this and received no compensation. For all the negative comments, I wonder if any of them could do even half so well! I have not completed the mod yet but I’m sure enjoying it.

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    3 Hours
    Reply
  128. SPY

    Thank you both Voxxx and Blue9244, for your compliments and for your recommandation of Personal Favorite!
    And it seems we have both the same feeling qua how we like to play mods/games.
    I to don’t mind if there is a real story, i rather play something without one then have a story pushed in to my face. To me it is also all about the road up to the end, and not the end itself. Although a great ending can be a real great way to close a game or mod.

    So, thank you again. Your recommandation will push the overall recommandation up quit a lot.

    Leon

    Reply
  129. Vylad

    It goes to my valve screen then crashes to desktop

    Reply
    1. SPY

      Thanks for downloading this mod Vylad, to make it work you need to follow the install instructions. Meaning, you need to set your SDK 2016 SP to ‘upcoming beta mode’.
      Please check the install video above at this page, it explains it all very well.

      Have fun playing,

      Leon

      Reply
  130. Vonnor

    So far the Closure is usual half-life game play. I don’t know why other guns and guys from the Fear series are in it. So far I like it.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Hi Vonnor, just to let you know that I have removed the MetaReview data and the recommendation image. Those should only be used when you have finished playing the mod.

      Reply
  131. Balimbanana

    Is v2.0 that is on the ModDB page going to be on here as well?

    Reply
  132. SPY

    Yes, i assume Phillip will place it as soon as he has time to do so.
    The changes are small between the previous version 1.1 and 2.0,
    but they are enough i think to be installed, specially with map 8.

    Leon

    Reply
  133. Executed
    Avoid It!

    I got very far into this mod. And I would say that is a monumental achievement because I hated every second of it. The story, the level design and the random crazy, wacky custom content taken from all kinds of places.
    The only thing I find impressive is the lenght of this “thing”.

    Pros:

    *Impressive lenght! I can’t possibly understand how he can have the will-power to make something like this!

    *Ordinary Half-Life 2 gameplay which is always great.

    Cons:

    *The maps are bad. Very bad. They might be okay in the beginning but they get very repetitive after a while. Something’s are also out of place, like a cabin in the middle of a city consisting only of apertment buildings.

    *The cutscenes in this mod just ruin the flow and are badly made.

    *The story is also weird. But I also find it hard to follow the story sometimes.

    It might just be me not understanding Leon’s unique style but I hate it.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    13 Hours, 37 Minutes
    Reply
  134. SPY

    Sorry you didn’t like it Executed, but that is ok.
    I do think its rather funny though that you did like the
    early maps better as the later ones because most of
    the times this is just the other way around. But as i said,
    that is ok.

    It has been said many times before, for some reason
    people seem to love my work or hate it. And as long as
    more then half of the people love it i am very satisfide.

    All in all i would like to thank you for playing,
    Leon

    Reply
  135. Fearthechevy

    Been playing now for 4 hours and I love this mod thanks leon for taking the time to make such a great game my wife and I loves it. Keep up the good work thanks again for your hard work leon.

    Reply
  136. Zooloo
    Personal Favourite

    I’ll do a quick review of this, I can see that a lot has been written about this mod. I spent quite some time reading through the reviews and comments and I’m shocked, offended and puzzled by the negativity this generated. I’m also not surprised, it’s Leon after all.

    I enjoyed the mod thoroughly. Why? Who the hell knows really. I appreciated the length, design, combat and weapons. The mod was pretty tough at times and I died many times. I also killed enemies…and a lot of them! For a free mod, and almost 8 hours of gameplay, I was impressed. It had it’s “oh gawd!” moments, and the staircases were crazy steep, and the cutscenes were a bit “meh” but none of that took away from the thrill of playing a solid, free HL2 Mod of epic proportions!

    Well done Leon! You rule dude, in a crazy, weird way!

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    8 Hours
    Reply
  137. SPY

    Thank you Fearthechevy and Zooloo!
    It is always a real pleasure when people give such compliments, because after all, a modder creates ofcourse in the hope that people like what he makes. And about the negativity in some of the comments Fearthechevy, i have to say after a few months now, that i am also very surpriced about them. Specially about the strenght that some people used in there negativity. Felt like i had dishonered there God or something, no really…

    But after all, its ok. As long as my mods are give a number above everidge then i am already pleased. Really. Many years, in fact it was here on PP (called back then) ago i already learned that it is simply impossible to make something that is liked by everyone. What i loved by some is hated by others, and the other way around.

    I am very surpriced though Fearthechevy, about your 8 hour gameplay time. I thought people would at least need 20(+) hours to complete it. When i tested the mod in the end myself, just to check things, i did need at least 13 hours. And that was while i knew exactly what to expect and were to go. So i did run through most levels. And still i did need 13+ hours.
    But, please don’t get me wrong. When you say you did need 8 hours then i believe you, really.
    I am already very pleased that i was able to give you 8 hours of such game please!
    thanks again for the review,

    Leon

    Reply
  138. rikersbeard

    Still playing through this epic mod after a break for some mapping challenge mods.
    I grow more and more impressed with the sheer amount of work that went into this.
    Gordon’s APC drive through the driving snow on the way to the dock area was a great moment and it seemed like I had been playing a movie! Yeah, I love the cut scenes; it brings a human quality lacking in 99% of mods and Gordon’s “Whoo-hoo!” was a laugh!
    Suddenly, after some hard battling, I find myself in a Star Trek inspired horticultural station complete with trekkie manuals! Then those ‘Trek shuttles again and finally photon torpedoes!
    This mod just keeps getting more interesting. That goes for those creepy snow tunnels and outrageous use of sound and music to induce fear! Now green flashes too as the ‘lum-lums’, (Vorts) appear and hurt!
    I will write a proper review when I finish it. I was just so impressed with the detail in the agricultural deck.
    Seems I have lost the plot of the manga due to infrequent play sessions…

    Reply
  139. rikersbeard

    Just finished this; easily the most enthralling and epic HL2 mod I have ever played. I never thought Minerva Metastatis would be topped, but for me this did it! Loved the in game humour and the last manga strip, only five rings :D!
    Thank you Leon for such a gift to a simple game player.

    Reply
  140. rikersbeard
    Personal Favourite

    The Closure is a difficult mod to review because it is so full and so huge in scope and story, including the final destination of the infamous Borealis in the Artic! There is space travel and a rather radical re-entry for Freeman!
    Starting out high above the Earth you choose more or less enemies and then it’s standard Gordo Freeman RTSL until that house in the woods, with a sneakily hidden air duct grill! From here you come across your first weapon slow-zoom film shot! Kind of arty and I liked them. Added a film experience to the mod.
    A mine maze, full of those new red-visor combine led to a challenging and very well crafted cavern ascent. Under fire of course in or out of the water!
    The new lens flare manhacks were quite distracting at first but looked impressive in numbers coming at one and I soon learned to like them as they became easier to terminate!
    Some old fashioned find-the-key-card to open the gate got me running from a familiar office area! A bell alarm nearly had my trousers soaked! Should have checked my volume before playing!
    The tunnels of acid-antlions and other niceties was a major challenge and I amazed myself actually surviving with only a death or two, maybe three! I was sure I checked less, not more enemies! Outside is no fun but impressively scripted action, including those Conner walking shots!
    You are then sent by Dr. Magnussan to find Dr. Kleiner whose is going to blow up the Borealis, which is bad and he nuts!
    Then you drive into a pretty intense firefight with a combine gunship and two rocket firing APCs! Here you find the wonderful sniper rifle; I did after I died facing the hunter and soldiers in my crashed car!
    Finding the way out hidden behind a shipping container was no fun with another rocket APC and soldiers near the gas sign left me with barely any health! Loved the hunter scare, new pants please! More scares in the “Return” corridor. Nice to see these textures being used again.
    But antlions, antlions and fast headcrabs and, oh another hunter and more antlions spoilt the nostalgia! Then I’m in a tunnel full of them, agh! But the next “Return” styled room took the biscuit and cake! Lay off with the antlions Leon! To be far I think there may have been a few too many.
    I got seriously stuck in that room but eventually found the tiny exit, mean very mean! But I got a bath and a gnome, Easter already!
    Are the acid antlions less toxic in this mod? I faced many before and nearly always died. If so thank you!
    Ammo and health are well supplied so far and even a mouseman like me can hold my own in this mod given the huge number of combatants! Kind of reminds me of “Strider Mountain”.
    Now offices and poison antlions and a load screeching leading me to fear something terrible! Instead I got a nice easy robot puzzle and another gnome and manga strip with boobs! Not you’re run of the mill mod from Leon!
    Got a high dive into the water and back down below, up a stair with red lightsabres and then to a huge hall filled with antlion guardians. I did curse Leon’s name for such injustice! Luckily that helpful cross appeared and I saw the light, the light path arrowed. I was planning to do something very foolish!
    I watched the two striders take out my foes in this wonderful little action sequence before removing my new friends with the RPG! More antlions followed and then soldiers.
    Seriously impressed by the animated bridge that followed, but not the acid antlion! Grumble… grumble. But stairs too, nice!
    The next section of elevated and animated walkways had me take a wrong path and I had to ‘noclip’ missing the section through the antlion tunnel past the burning car. I had no grav gun and I missed most of this map!
    Next up was a poison headcrab beast and a trip into the wires and cables. Always liked the way this looks and can prove a little tricky at time. Nice details here though and nice scares within those combine ducts.
    The lab said no weapons and I realised it was that time in every mod where you become naked! Don’t do it Gordo, my weapons!
    Naked scares followed with some nice white ghoulish fast zombie models and a hunter that had me screaming WTF! Then the museum!!
    A nice touch and very informative but the unarmed combat that followed was quite scary but use of the laser fence overcame the horrors. But more was to come and showing the player a room full of weapons they could not reach was cruel!
    The advisor was a shock then followed by a room full of zombine, ha, ha!
    Cruel humour is a feature of this amazing mod.
    The battery puzzle was a nice little addition. Very retro but fun but the scary sounds kept you nervous!
    The musical crescendo hails the arrival of the mad Dr Kliener from below. Very theatrical! But opening the way through a wall with a rocket engine was inspired and even more fun. Good sound and a choice weapon for an unarmed man!
    With the armament store now open and the way ahead wet, it was back to real combat. Love those water sections.
    In the next climbing section I found a mounted gun and nearly hit all those red flaring manhacks! Looked very nice in the dim surroundings. The sniper rifle commanded this area, and I had no clitches with it. (Played orig. vers.). Again that cross icon saved me when I was completely lost as to the way ahead.
    The lava factory map was epic in its long and arduous combat but enough health and ammo was supplied, for me anyway!
    Oh I love those theatrics with Dr Kliener, well I like cut scenes. They do add a little nice story telling and you do get to see Gordo purposely striding into danger!
    The following large cavernous map is a total warzone and I was really wondering if I could make it without cheating?
    Well I just made it and was rewarded with seeing Gordo strut down a long stony passage while I caught my breath.
    The lab section was a killing maze but I did see two mini striders in cases. Pets for the kids?
    Caught a nice scene with antlions taking down a combine carrier. Again with the antlions and those acidic green balls. Agh!
    A spiral stair leads to a wonderful vista, a peaceful moment? Seagulls and then deep space lead to Dr. Magnussan telling you a ride is coming and you’re on your way to the Borealis! A poignant scene shows a sad Alyx off her food and suffering from her father’s recent death. (See story, cut scenes are needed!).
    Following a long walking, elevator-riding and walking cut scene we take a train to the town, antlion town! WTF! You are buzzed by a very and I mean very low MD-11…
    This is an insane firefighting map, which left me mentally drained by the time the hanger was reached and became quiet as I restocked and eventually found the way out.
    Violence still ensued below as Barney picked me up in a “Return” travel pod. Boy that was a sucky town! Landed up north in the dark and snow. Another cut scene showed this place was infested with combine until my new pilot hit a strider and we crashed! No weapons again… But very quickly rearmed thanks to a trusty wrench, not a crowbar but honestly who is so anal that it would bother them in a mod?
    Combat in the dark and snow with the hidden sound of hunters all around, now that’s scary! At one point I fell through a fence onto the snow below, not nice when I wanted to scope the area first. Nice use of trees and lights and those illuminated combine visors show up nicely.
    The strider battle was too easy as the high vantage point had too much cover and a box of rockets. The return of the antlions and their guardian was not funny out in the snow! This was a detailed and hard map to fight and a sniper had me pinned for some time, before I sneaked around him. So much detail, shame I was almost too busy to notice.
    Those rocket APCs are so challenging and those soldiers never give a break. Even on easy and supposedly less enemies this is proving so tough for an old player like me. But I have killed so many and must go on!
    I watch Gordo sneak an APC for a long joyride in the snow feeling slightly miffed. I would have loved to have that quiet ride after all my struggles! Gordon said “Woohoo” I hope no one is upset by this!
    What follows is a well-crafted artic base with many cabins to explore and get shot at from along with a hunter that appears with dramatic music and dies in cingraphic slow motion! The snow is a nice touch along with the wind howls to give the player a chill. I like how the path ahead is often via a window, which is also handy to take out a rocket firing APC.
    The winterised Vorts make an appearance via some flashy transport effects and I foolishly started a generator and freed the strider. I died twice before I got my combat strategy correct! Up a difficult ladder, took four attempts to stick on it, I reached a platform with a rocket box and switch. The thumper off, an antlion guardian appeared with attendant antlions. They died, as I stayed high and safe with minimal health!
    The haunted ice caves were scary but at least halfway you were offered HEV and Medical replenishment as my health meter flashed!
    The watery caves were nice and chilly with musical scares and flying ghoulish white fast zombies. So nice that the water is not instant death as in some mods!
    Hydroponics on the “Enterprise” set followed and I was very impressed, but the fighting was still intense, oh boy!
    “What the headcrab!” I said as they fell from the ceiling. I like the riot paramilitary enemy npcs, a little variety is nice and I could appreciate the effort that had gone into this map. Glad to see things from failed mods being used to good effect.
    Some ducting, a well-used HL stable well executed in this mod leads to a hunter just asking to be done in and photon torpedoes, yes really! But a little crane work first.
    I got lost here after all the shooting and it seemed I would have to noclip up after I had emptied the photon torpedo rack, but that friendly cross appeared and I saw the way.
    A nice pipe work climb ensues, nicely retro followed by the arrival of building destroying vorts. Impressive but they were a pushover!
    The hairs on my nape stiffened as I saw the bow of the infamous Borealis in the snow, this is epic. Although I have been onboard playing another mod a long while ago!
    Entering it with the eerie music was a real buzz and that time dilation effect near those glowing red tubes was a nice touch, but the “Portal” turret was not so cute!
    A black & white movie showed Breen and the G-man, was that the device?
    I so love those “Enterprise” corridors; it makes this mod look so professional and the flared lights look really at home here. A real shame that mod never grew to fruition.
    There even seemed to be a sort of ‘Jeffries tube’.
    Dr Kliener tells you his nutty plan and off he runs again! They always seem to just get away, maniacal villains!
    It’s back into “Return” territory, as the hunt for Kliener gets serious with a large room full of hunters, with back up of course! Like the small turbo lifts and familiar “Enterprise” sound effects.
    Some big nasties are launched as I watch before nipping down a service tunnel, not unusual for this mod.
    A huge shaft is descended under fire as something tech travels upwards. Then an “Enterprise” door leads you below two glowing German crosses! Who was their contractor?
    Suddenly a siren sounds as a seriously big door opens slowly leading to an encounter with Breen and the G-man in a nice phase-shifted effect. Gordo is then psychedelically transported into deep space, near Mars I guess, and onto a well-designed starship. The flotilla looks very impressive.
    Gordon’s ‘Trek-like transport leaves him facing the new six-red-eyed combine troopers but he escapes as per usual! The radical re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere over the city is very unique as is HEV suit repair via standing in electrified water!
    The shotgun is really loud but satisfying to use, especially as it was zombie time again!
    It was snowing in the city and a good maze of a fight with the odd internal forays. Running towards those portal spheres lead to more trouble when they vanished.
    The mod got very “Twin Peaks” in stile as an apartment scene had you as the gunman under weird lighting and slow motion…
    Outside under fire the sound of launched rockets indicated another intense firefight for survival and another missed portal! The third I did not miss cue weird portal travel images.
    I use a new weapon in my unarmed state; the portal turret, both fixed and hand held as those new soldiers showed up! The great advantage with this weapon is its constant fire even when you put it down to fetch another. Portal turrets as allies!
    Dr Kliener has Breen in Dr, Pholx’s medbay. Wait that’s not how that works!
    I’m not impressed with Gordo’s stunt double, stair falls are a skill, where did they get this guy?
    Liked the red hued quantum singularity room, well that’s what I thought it was. Was this area finished? It had the look of a malfunctioning holodec!
    Nice to see “Enterprise” space suits and a working airlock, so nostalgic. Guess the outer door would be locked but the reverse would have been funny!
    That Kliener is gonna get it after all his taunting. The hetzer is coming!
    Another advantage of the lens flare is the location of buttons, makes them hard to miss.
    I had five goes at stopping Dr. Kliener before I got it right with the grav gun and then the episode ending revelation, Daddy! Well that explains their glasses… wait. Can I hear the sound of incensed fingers on illuminated keyboards?
    They teleport the whole ship to the Artic? It’s an impressive little movie scene and you see the G-man working with the Artic Vorts and his equal opportunities employment in operation as one of the Vorts appears to have no legs!
    That big shaft, visited again offers scant cover as you fight to the surface. Sniping targets against a starry sky is very rewarding.
    Back outside you can look down that shaft from above, impressive modelling, both down there and the scintillating sky!
    Three rocket-firing APC’s arrive to ruin my day or night! Left with almost no health I fought into a hut to be attacked by three fast zombies with ‘6’ for health!
    The backdrop to the fighting is so impressive, impressive as much as the action is frenetic! I have never fought so well in HL! I can run rings around hunters but a sniper quickly brought me down!
    I cheated here by accident. With near zero health I went the long way around and managed to get behind the sniper along a fence and wall, a glitch? I entered a cabin with floating guns so, remembering this from a previous map, Leon’s again I think, I shot them and the soldiers appeared.
    Two more floaters were killed along with an invisible obstruction, it screamed as I shot at it and a hunter fell dead! I carried on as normal after that.
    The crashing collapse near the ship was where I encountered an issue; a small jump from window to window took me many frustrating attempts before I got through.
    Then the movie, as friends arrive to take that power transporter away. Epic cinema. Love Gordo leaning against and then driving off in the mini with the English flag on top. As the G-man watched them leave I was expecting the credits to roll on an amazing mod, but there was more! They take it to Aperture Laboratories and Gordo drives off with reckless speed, alas not in the mini!
    He crashes and I’m weapon less and attacked by a combine chopper with guns and mine, joke right? And now an insanely deep hole dive!
    I recognised the next underground section from a previous map, which I hated due to my constant death from poisonous antlions! It was the same but the venom seemed less damaging this time? The next area only had one guardian this time, so less enemies had some effect!
    Sunshine, nature and Alyx in a temple setting vaguely familiar and not so! And then a room full of zombies for fun as Alyx runs off. Loved the big silo trap door and climb out, but then I lost Barney, not Barney. I wanted to see Gordon on his knees arms aloft crying “Why?”
    I’m beginning to loath that rocket launching sound! Went into another familiar brick building by the small canal before joining the rebels for a huge combine bust up!
    The rebels were in a sorry state but hey my mini was there and Alyx!
    Phillip does “Radio Rebel”!
    Pan away music and the end.

    Conclusion.
    A masterpiece and a worthy end to the Half Life story. A mod that for me stands easily between “G-String” and “Minerva Metastasis”. “Strider Mountain” too but you cannot be sandwiched between three slices!

    Pros.
    Too many to list! But the lens flare, “Enterprise” corridors and sets, amazing use of sound and music and, finally that gorgeous Artic sky are noteworthy.
    Also I’m not scared of hunters anymore!

    Cons.
    Those numerous antlions especially those poisonous ones, so, so many!
    And those rocket-firing APCs, even the snipers were less troublesome!
    These are more niggles than cons I guess!
    I would like to see the credits run after the Artic movie has finished and the finale part of the mod, from the car crash, to follow ending with Phillip’s radio piece. The end. Just a suggestion and not a critique.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    14 Hours, 37 Minutes
    Reply
  141. Gman Butler 85

    Episode 3: The Closure is awesome; the Gordon Freeman model, the redefined Combine Ranks and the storyline itself that depicts what may have happened after events in EP2. Playing HARD difficulty, installed manually, and playing this now. site made me fill in all fields I put 2 hours but taking longer.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      site made me fill in all fields I put 2 hours but taking longer.

      No it didn’t. You choose to add them. You can just as easily add a review or comment with either the Recommendation Image or the Meta Review Data. I have removed both for you.

      Reply
  142. SPY

    WOW rikersbeard!!!
    Thank you so much for your very detailed review, it was a huge pleasure to read it all.
    I guess we all have our enemies in HL2 that we don’t like. Personaly i am no hl2 zombie fan, they are no challange at all, just enoying, (to me). Personaly i love the antlions, specially the white acid ones. Sorry that they are not your favorite enemies, and your not alone in this. Quit a few people said they thought those acid ones were way to hard.

    Reading your review it seemed to me that you are exactly one of those persons who like what i like in games. And your right about having played that one level before, with the acid ants in those underground caves at the end of the mod. Because this mod did start after i had made 2 levels for the RTSL mapping contest called “Roopttop ville”. So you have seen/played that level there before, which was about 6 years ago. Funny how we remember levels, even after so long.

    I am also very glad that you didn’t experience a new bug, all lipsync in this mod has gone. I have seen (in video’s) and read this on forums. This has to do with a new update of some sort i imagine. Because i am 100% sure that when the mod was released this wasn’t the case at all. Took me months and months of work to get it all working.
    SO frustrating!!!
    (Valve ruins a mod, ……. a g a i n !!! )

    But, seems you didn’t experience this, otherwise i think you would have told me so.
    SO thank you again, am so glad you did like it and thanks again for the review!

    Leon

    Reply
    1. rikersbeard

      Thank you for the mod!
      I never suffered any sound issues or graphical ones and I downloaded and played the first version on my Win7 PC – cut scene of me sitting at my PC bench to be added- He he.

      Rich

      Reply
      1. rikersbeard

        Been replaying some of the different chapters and have found no sound synchronisation problems on my vers.1 download from here.

        Reply
  143. congaman59
    Play It Now!

    I finished the Mod yesterday. I really enjoyed it. I thought a few of the cut scenes were unnecessary.Life ones that go from one door to another? I did get lost a few times but the direction mode kicked in and got me back on track. I did have a little problem picking out the Combine guys in the darker settings, a little more light on them or a lighter colored uni might be better. I liked most of the music. Which is unusual for meas I’m an older game player. I liked the surprise at the end! NO SPOILERS HERE! I appreciate the work that went in to this story and coding. I hope Leon is commercially successful if that is where he wants to go. It’s nice to have your love become your job. You never have to work a day in your life.
    I also appreciate the fact that this was FREE! All the whiners who complained about “this and that” in the mod, IT WAS FREE!!!! If you think it was no good learn to code and do better!
    Leon if you do more I hope to have the privilege to play that as well. Thank you!

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    8 Hours
    Reply
  144. SPY

    Thanks for clearing that up Rikersbeard.
    I spoke to soon when i said that all lipsync has been destroyed by yet another Valve update,
    (although this probably will happen in the near future, because it has been the case severel times in the past.)

    Seems, till now, that only a small hand full of people experience problems with the lipsync and NPC spoken sounds. So it is not the mod or a update that is causing this very rare error. All i can think of is a software problem in the form of having to many mods installed in your sourcemods folder. Because this has led to problems in the past with other mods and games in generel. Seems some mods conflict each other.

    So, when you have the error of NPC’s not talking, then please remove most mods to another folder, (out of your sourcemods folder).

    Leon

    Reply
    1. SPY

      Thank you very much Congaman! Am glad you liked it so much!

      About what you said, that you would like to play more of my work.
      I have made a long list of sp-mods and mappacks over the last 15 years,
      (as can be seen in the “museum” part of this mod, were a long list can be
      found hanging on a wall.)

      Leon

      Reply
  145. Darth_Sylph

    gets about halfway through downloading, then stops, and says i lost connection, which is impossible, i’ve got over 70mbs on the download, and 10 on the upload, it couldn’t have lost connection

    Reply
  146. Gypsy_Jim

    I’ve read about 2/3rds of the comments above to see if anyone else has the issue I seem to have got…..

    I’m enjoying what I’ve played so far, an hour or two every now and then when I get chance, and have in the last couple of days ended up in the snow-zone…but, and this is my issue, “God mode” seems to have randomly turned itself on.

    I thought it was a minor blip, until the first hunter, when my health simply didn’t move, even if it attacked me without my firing back. I tried sv_cheats 0 then -1 and turned god off and on then off again, but so far I have come to the point where I really do want to play on, but it feels wrong, at least on a 1st play through to be in “god mode”….

    Can anyone please suggest another way to turn it off, it’s not like I want to “hurt” but I do want to play the game as it was meant….??

    Thank you!

    Reply
  147. bkadar

    i’ve lost the hud after cut scenes but after restarting things seemed ok. not much father along than you in the game, might be steam improving things ?

    Reply
  148. SPY

    For some odd reason the player experience can change.
    It seems that on some computers the lipsync doesn’t work anymore, but this is probably a rare event. Just a few people commented about this. Problem is that i can’t reproduce this error myself because when i play all scene files they work 100% fine.

    About the God mode described by Gypsy_Jim above.
    This is REALLY strange, because it was a very old bug which i fixed about 2 years ago before release. AFter that no one experienced it anymore, till now you seem to have it.

    The exact problem has to do with the sniper rifle model. When you go in to a levelchange with the sniper rifle in your hand, then this causes that God mode error. But, as i said, i fixed it. So it really is a full mistery to me why you now have it. I am very sorry for you. All i can say is that you need to start the mod from map 1 again, because ones this god mode error is active it corrupts ALL save files. Even starting a level manually through console doesn’t fix it. Only starting the mod from scratch does, and make sure you ONLY go in to a levelchange WIHTOUT the sniper rifle in your hand.
    But as i said, this was fixed long ago, so you shouldn’t have this error to begin with.
    Sorry,

    Leon

    Reply
    1. Gypsy_Jim

      Thanks for the advice, I’d already gone back to level 8 so thought I’d play-through up to the snowy scenes again before replying. Level 8 was the oldest save file I could find on it.. I’ve happily played again from there, and was careful not to be carrying the sniper rifle while moving around too much between battles, just in case I came up to a loading/change-level scene, so definitely didn’t have it when I got to the flight this time….

      Second time around I was carrying the pulse rifle.

      When the shuttle crashed I lost the HUD, and couldn’t switch between weapons, until I’d killed at least three of the soldiers, the first I had to batter with the wrench as I couldn’t access anything else… Then the HUD mysteriously reappeared and I got my weapon-switching back….and, sadly God mode again.

      I know I didn’t take your advice and go right back to the very start, but as level 8 onwards seemed just fine, I thought I’d carry on, especially as it has taken me like forever to get there…..

      While I could just play on in “God mode” you do kind of lose the will to bother as it really doesn’t matter what tactic you use if you know you’re not going to die…..One day I might just make the effort and restart from level one, but sorry, I am so far behind on everything else that has been posted on here, that it could be some time.

      While obviously I can’t review it, and don’t usually review things anyway, I will make the observation that I have loved it so far, and can’t believe that Valve haven’t been battering down your door with job offers….I appreciate that there is little obvious story, but that is the only minor weakness as far as I can see. If you ever do patch it, so that retards like me can play it, then I’ll look forward to the day.

      The sheer scale and imagination that has gone into this, as well as the entirely professional design and execution is simply staggering. I love all the reskins, though I have no idea if they’re all yours or not, it doesn’t matter to me either way, the whole thing (well, as far as I got) is amazing.

      Thanks for taking the time to offer your advice on it, that was very appreciated.

      Reply
  149. brianthesnail
    Personal Favourite

    Well that was something else … when leon makes a mod he makes it big,and allthough some people dont like leons style of mods i love them and this is up there with his other releases
    it took me a while to get used to the cut scenes and they do help the story along … and i also spent time reading the comic wall ( if thats what i shall call it ) …
    if i had to be critical of anything its just the music … with the amount of work thats gone into the closure i would of created my own music for the game using something such as cubase ( or even going into the studio for the day and laying down some tracks ) … the call of duty music was ok but was in leons previous mods and sort of spoilt it imho
    but overall another masterpeice from leon and well done to him especially considering the stuff he,s had to deal with over the last few years ( so well done mate )
    last question for leon .. when are you starting your next mod ? lol !
    good stuff mate

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    7 Hours, 55 Minutes
    Reply
  150. crowbar

    whatever people think of this mod, 10.000 total downloads on RTSL alone is pretty amazing.

    Reply
    1. brianthesnail

      yes,totally agree crowbar.. whatever people think of leons mods theres no doubt he,s one of the best in the community and his years of mapping/modding has brought him loads of respect
      for the average gamer and guys new to hl2 ( if there is any ) “the closure” will impress … its only hardcore modders who will critisize the game and even i was critical of the music which was carried over from the “final project” .. if new music was used then this would be amazing
      however i can understand were other guys are coming from … leons mods are massive and sometimes can be repetetive.. and many textures can look out of place .. but if like me you are a fan of leons mods then you tend to overlook these things and just enjoy the game
      finally i wish leon would of used the name “the closure” instead of hl2 ep3… this caused many to have high expectations were as the closure would of received different responses

      Reply
      1. crowbar

        yeah but imagine he wouldn’t do all this weird stuff in his mods. Use consistent assets, no useless cutscenes, and have a solid and consistent presentation, with playtested levels and such. Then his mods could be incredible.

        but thats just my opinion.

        Reply
        1. PlanetPhillip

          Not just your opinion, but mine too.

          Reply
  151. SPY

    Gypsy_Jim, i understand that you don’t feel like starting all over again.
    I have thought again about it and it really keeps amazing me that you have this issue because as i said before/ Its a very old bug which was fixed long ago and you are the only one who experiences it. How can that be?! But, you experience it and it is a very nasty bug that corrupts everything.
    When you want then i could sent you a save file from my onw, so you can still play on from there. But, when you don’t want to anynore then that is ok. Pleas email me when you want it.

    And you guys are right, should i follow the right way in professional modding (consistent assets, no useless cutscenes, and have a solid and consistent presentation, with playtested levels and such.)
    The my work would be much better. But, doing those things start to feel more like actual boring work. Making my mods as they are already is for about 70% fun and 30% very dull, super frustrating work.
    The most important part for me is that modding is all about fun, (for me and ofcourse the players). Its all done in free time without getting payed as you know. I know before the release that there are many things wrong still with a mod, but there playeble and good enough. Should i have done all those things then at least it would have taken me another year of daily hard work to release it, and that was just not worth it to me.

    About what i will be doing next.
    Well, ofcourse am i looking in to indie dev. But that is a bit like modding, years of long days hard work, without getting really payed because the change that a first indie game will make real money is not realistic. I am looking also in to making a cartoon movie with the Toon Boom program, and making another cartoon book. So you see there is lots to do and so little time, lol.

    But, a large scale mod like i was doing. I am afraid those days are over.
    It is simply to much work, for to many years.
    But, never say never. I am really looking forward to Hl3 and i really have a feeling that that will not take more then a year from now. And for sure that i then will start modding again,….
    simply can’t help myself it seems.
    Thanks guys!

    Leon

    Reply
    1. Gypsy_Jim

      Thanks Leon. Don’t worry about me, I decided to carry on even with “god mode” which I have now decided is more of a “buddha mode” as, even though the numbers on the HUD don’t change, sometimes I can “use” chargers & health stations,….Weird.

      Even after all these years, I don’t think I could have got through many of the battles without dying, they’re just a bit too hard-core for my style of play. I am blown away by the sheer scale of it all though, I love exploring, and spend way more time looking around than I bet the average player does….

      I STILL haven’t quite finished it yet, but will almost certainly go right back to the beginning at some point and try it again.

      Thanks again, sir you are a legend.

      Reply
    2. rikersbeard

      Boring repetition is a common FPS feature but your style, Leon manages to hide that feature. Closure felt like some sort of epic story and finishes Gordon’s tale nicely, so stick with your unique style, it’s loved and loathed by everyone!
      You do get a reaction… a Rogue modder? 😀

      Reply
  152. Steve
    Play It Now!

    I think I’m obviously late here going off the huge number of comments above! but what a discussion! 🙂 Looks like this is a real marmite mod but I am in the LOVE IT camp, I’m happy to say.

    I did not come to this mod thinking / expecting of EP3 but I treated it like any other and wanted to see what presented itself. I loved it – it’s huge, adventurous and a lotta fun! Sometimes it doesn’t seem to flow but meh I didn’t care too much because I was busy playing and enjoying the atmosphere.

    The entire adventure from start to finish isn’t technically accurate but as gameplay action goes, i found it to be brilliant. I had tons of fun. However, I did notice lots of silly bugs (playing on Mac – okay PC guys don’t flame me!). There was once when a doorway that was partially blocked because of a floating gun. Very odd! I also noticed silly mapping issues which, even to me as a none mapper, seemed daft. Pointless dead ends, backtracking, etc…

    What I did NOT like at all has been mentioned by all, I think. The cutscenes. Totally unnecessary and not needed. I also didn’t care for the music too. Finally, the weapons seemed not quite right somehow, I just cannot place my finger on it? Loved the look but not sound, perhaps Im so used to ep2? Dunno… Strangely the FOV was automatically set waaaaay too low as a default.

    Otherwise, this is one mega huge and fun mod. I really enjoyed this, bugs ‘n all! ;^)

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    12 Hours
    Reply
    1. Gypsy_Jim

      I had the floating gun thing a few times too, but realised straight away that they were actually being held by combine. If you shoot “where their bodies should be” then they do actually appear and die…. I have absolutely nothing to say about this as I have no idea why….

      Reply
  153. SPY

    Seems to be true indeed, that my work “…is loved and loathed by everyone!”
    and,
    “…a Rogue modder?”
    That is quit a honor to me, thank you!

    I still am not sure myself what it is that people see in my work, and that it seems to be a own style. Because i, as far as i can judge my own work, am a normal fps mapper / modder.
    Maybe this comes more to light when i map/mod with HL2 as when i worked with other fp shooters as the COD, Sof2, MoHaa and other shooters.

    About the flowting guns, in level 8 there was a possibility to walk through the map in such a way that you bypassed a trigger which made the flowing guns possible high on the mountain road.
    Thing is, and that is rather strange for a game. But when a combine isn’t triggered / spawned yet you will not see him, but you will see his flowting gun. That is also why you see it spawn when you still kill it, what also should not be possible. This has nothing to do with the mod but all with how the Source engine and coding work. Don’t know why Valve made it like that. But it is fixed now, with the first and second patch, (when you play the mod version 2.0 you don’t need patching!)

    Why you did find a door blocked by a flowting gun Steve is a mistery to me, because that is the first time i hear about this one. Maybe it is caused by you playing the mod on a Mac, although i wouldn’t know about that.

    Many thanks guys, for you compliments and reviews,
    as always do i read them with great interest!

    Leon

    Reply
  154. Darth_Sylph
    Maybe?

    soooooo………yeah, i saw a lot of crap about people not liking the custom models Leon used, so i bypassed that issue entirely, and used my own, xD

    anyways, aside from the horrendous cutscenes, the beginning aint bad, i even understood why you go to the ‘space station’ thing, tho i think it was kinda unnecessary.

    second, (was there a first? lol) the OBSCENE amount of Star Trek textures and models used…..a Phase Cannon from Enterprise? really? LCARS panels used to open doors? an entire section of hallway ripped straight from Star Trek Online? (least that’s what it looked like)
    Music from both Star Wars and Star Trek….
    i might’ve been ok with the occasional; Star Trek texture or model being used, but you literally used ENTIRE ROOMS that came straight from Star Trek Enterprise, the Mess Hall, the Captain’s Mess, massive sections of corridor, that’s just lazy

    the horrible Combine Soldier models (the prison Guard models were cool, the regular soldier models, not so much) that i couldn’t replace without the game crashing instantly….not so thrilled about that

    i WAS thrilled when i suddenly found myself inside White Forest Base,
    and equally disappointed when very little happens in there, and you instantly leave.

    also disappointed how you go from White Forest, out in the middle of nowhere, into what appears to be a suburban neighborhood, in all of 30 seconds and an elevator ride…

    after fighting my way through a metric caption of Antlions in some random research facility, i found myself in what appeared to be Roman Catacombs…..wtf? that came outta nowhere….

    I thought the section with all the moving rooms was cool, how you could (sorta) rearrange the layout of the cavern, it could have been done better, maybe with more choices, but it was pretty decent

    the museum was pretty nifty, though i could’ve done without being completely disarmed…

    and the hospital right next to the museum? what’s with that, seems completely random

    then, the rocket launch area, yeah, it’s a bit hard to find the three parts, but giving the player a giant orange arrow to follow….? wynaut (heeheehee) just tell the player where the parts are right off the bat?

    a recurring theme throughout the mod, is the absurd abundance of ammo and medical supplies,

    the gunfight in the hanger was REALLY fun, if a bit frustrating at times, easily my favorite part of the game so far

    but then a Citizen comes outta nowhere with a hovercraft? huh? then proceeds to crash it into a Strider at glacially slow speeds….

    the music during the gunship duel was pretty friggin epic, i’m not gonna lie,

    so, compared to earlier segments of the mod, the Arctic was done VERY well, loved the particle effects, the level design, enemy placement, etc, only thing that could’ve made it better, was less customs sfx for the Striders, and no random cutscenes

    of course then you completely leave the Borealis, which i thought was the main goal of the mod, and go to some weird-ass place, and get teleported aboard a J-Class Freighter, even MORE Star Trek Enterprise Models, i’m starting to wonder why i don’t have a Phaser, instead of a Pulse rifle…

    then just as it’s starting to get pretty epic (some of those arctic battles were pretty damn awesome) Gordon’s in the forest, and drives over a landmine…? huh?

    conclusion!

    this could have easily earned a “Play It Now” IF the following things had bee done:
    1) flesh out the story, it felt like i only got about 1/3 of the whole story throughout the mod, even WITH the cutscenes (which oftentimes felt pointless and unneeded). tbh, i got more of the story at the end with Phillips ‘radio broadcast’ than i did throughout the entire mod
    2) less completely random models, as cool as it was to fight the Combine in the corridors of the Starship Enterprise, well, that’s what it felt like. it felt like less of a HL2 game, and more like Star Trek, with assault rifles
    3) if you’re gonna do cutscenes, do them right, not to mention, Kleiner used the exact same lines at least 3 times, that’s rather lazy
    4) a proper ending, the way it ended, with Gordon crawling through a conestoga wagon, then walking over to Magnusson and Alyx, was disappointing,

    in all, i’ll give it 5/10, Strider Mountain was actually a bit more well done, imo
    bottom line,
    if you enjoy really intense gunfights, that sometimes make no sense, you’ll enjoy this

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    12 Hours
    Reply
  155. Stefan

    How i stopped dr Kleiner ?? 31_SPYmapEP3 .

    Reply
    1. Darth_Sylph

      I spawned myself a 357 and shot him in the head, lol

      Reply
  156. denizen50
    Personal Favourite

    Despite a few minor shortcomings, I LOVED this ‘mission pack’.
    I’m a huge fan of immersive gameplay, been through every single HL2 mod a few times, and then some. This one offers so much level variety! It’s been quite a while since I’ve felt this immersed playing a game, let alone a mod. Sure it’s HL2 so it’s somewhat older graphics, but these levels make up for it by having an exceptionally ambitious design. Long, large, deep and wide! Very futuristic and awe-inspiring. In some places I thought I recognized the atmosphere in Gstring mod, and even Cryostasis. The ammo crates make it much easier of course but that’s one less thing to worry about. The level designers seemed to go out of their way to stop you from using unusual exploration and approaches, but there were some workarounds wiich made these strategies all the more rewarding. The levels could use some polish in some places but they more than make up for it with the sheer variety and quality where it matters. My first run was on hard with ‘normal’ amount of enemies but after it turned out too easy I started over and chose ‘many enemies’, which on hard was quite a challenge. I often entered new areas expecting the worst, unbalanced nightmare of enemy overwhelm, but every time it turned out fair and/or feasible. The tension was well balanced with more relaxed areas. Loved the enemy placement. The weapon redesigns were very satisfactory. Nice sound effeccts as well. Although some locked doors do make a strange noise.
    My congrats to all the team for a really nice piece of mod.
    Oh and I hated the cutscenes as well… Horrible!
    In a nutshell, I think this mod could, with some polish, be among the best ever made, especially if you choose hard, play like your life depended on it, and ‘immersion’ is your thing.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    12 Hours
    Reply
    1. denizen50

      ADDENDUM:
      Been through the entire mod a second time. One of the things that still strikes me the most, is that despite being extremely challenging at times (hard+ many enemies), it still manages to remain very feasible.

      Oh and one more important thing –
      before playing, I *DELETED* the COD music from the mod, along with lots of other music tracks (!!). Almost none of the music fit the plot imho… This made it so much better, with so much more tension!

      Reply
  157. SPY

    Sorry i haven’t been commenting here for a month or so but do know that i keep reading all comments!

    I am very pleased to see that this latest mod of mine keeps being downloaded with around 50 to 60 a day (here on RTSL). Which makes it 15000 in total here, the overall total amount will be around 25000 now, (all servers together). In 2016 this is great. Back in the days, when Hl2 was still new mods did get much higher download counts. My CtoA mod was downloaded around 350.000+ times that i know of, and i know this mod will never get such numbers. The HL2 community is much to small these days for that. This is also the main reason why i stopped HL2 modding/mapping.
    I am also very pleased to see that people finally start to review the mod for what it is, and not for not being a official Valve ep3 game.
    And, that the mod overall is welcomed very well. In the first weeks it was mainly the hard core HL community which overwelmed me with very bad respons. But it seems that that group now has played it, or not. And that it is time for the ‘other’ gamers, and they give in general a very positive review. Ofcourse are there always parts that are disliked, but that is just normal. For many years i have learned that that it is simply impossible to make a mod which is liked by everyone.

    A download side of things is that as always Valve keeps updating and already have quit a few nasty bugs found there way in to this mod. Glad to say that these bugs are only experienced by some, which makes it impossible for me to fix them. But, till now these updates haven’t broken the mod. But, we all know this day WILL come !!!! Knowing Valve this is just a matter of time.

    Thank you all for your reviews and comments, as i said before, i really do keep track of comments and love to read them, positive or not. And to those who didn’t like this mod, or my mods in general i can only say i am sorry. I mod what i personally would love to play,
    greetings,

    Leon

    Reply
  158. SPY

    I am very pleased to see that Ep3 is still downloaded about 60 times a day (on RTSL) which makes the total download now around 90.000. I know it says 18.800 above when i write this, but please realise that the counter started at zero again when version 2.0 was uploaded here. The same with the amounts on Moddb and other download sites.
    So the actual number is probably even much higher.

    But, that is not actually what i wanted to talk about, i get a bit of track.
    It is still not fully sure but maybe, maybe i will have a small surprice just before the end of the year, in december. Still not sure, but, maybe….

    Leon

    Reply
  159. SPY

    I just watched your 7th part of the playthrough twitch stream of my ep3.
    And i don’t know why i even bother because i said it so many times, here on
    RTSL and many other sites. I didn’t STEEL anything for the mod.
    Still, you open your video with saying that i did steel a lot of things for this mod.
    Like models, textures, music, etc.
    Why would you say this i wonder, because you know it is not true.
    For sure not for the models, textures, effects, etc. Because i asked each and
    every person who made those things if i may use them, and they all gave
    permission. Also do i credit some of them right at the start of the mod, and for
    sure i did credit ALL of them at the end. So, when did i steel them then?
    The music is something else, i did use indeed original music for it, but which mod
    doesn’t. And i don’t get payed 1 euro for the mod as you well know, so i don’t
    benefit from it at all other then being able to put great music in the mod, so
    people can enjoy it, again, for free.

    Maybe you think i react to strongly but it really hurts my feelings when these
    things are said. Even more so when you say them, on a channel.
    This while you know this isn’t true.
    All i want to do is make mods, map, and give people joy.

    Leon
    (i will mail this comment also to you should you miss it here.)

    Reply
  160. Vonnor
    Play It Now!

    I have been waiting a decade for a half-life game with a number 3 attached to the title. This is the closest thing I’ll probably get this decade. Half-life 2 ep 3 the Closure is for me my closure to the series. For now. The game play is usual half-life. For some reason there are some new textures. The combine don’t look like combine. The weapons are almost completely different. And the turrets now look like the Portal turrets. Other than that the game gives us what we asked for for so long. Our closure to this series. I give it 5 stars. Good game play. Great set pieces. And gives us a proper ending to this epic story. In a fan’s perspective. It’s probably the closest thing we will ever get to half-life having a 3.

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    20 Hours
    Reply
  161. Tex Arcana
    Personal Favourite

    I tried logging in, but I suspect my account has been deleted (sorry, Philip, but being a truck driver makes it difficult to spend even a little bit of time on sites like this).

    BUT, I’m not here to whine about that; I’m here to review The Closure.

    Simply put: Leon strikes again! And with yet another MASSIVE mod that we all know took years to complete. Leon, thanks again for all your hard work, you’ve given thousands of us something new and different to play, that’s still within the HL2 universe.

    As for the mod itself: HOLY FVCKING A$$CRACKERS! THAT’S A BIG BITCH! Y’all better bring TIME when y’all play this. And there are plenty of times when the Combine have you pinned down hard, with no escape evident, you’ll drive yourself crazy (or to a walkthru) looking for the exit. And, as usual, Leon excels at strong difficult levels.

    Yes, some of the cutscenes were utterly superfluous: Gordon walking two feet to the next trigger point is just too much. The longer ones worked well to advance the story, especially the ones with Dr. Kleiner, as we slowly realize he’s gone wacko.

    As for the music: I was fine with all of it, it felt *right* for the mood he was trying to get at those points.

    The unusual textures and level designs were mostly neat, even including (or in spite of) the Star Trek-ish-ness of some of them. Obviously, Leon’s a fan of ST, so it’s not surprising to see them in there, but the *why* could be espoused more clearly within the story.

    Of course, sometimes he goes so far off course, it feels like the story just took a wrong turn; but he rights it quickly enough. And the story itself keeps you going, looking for either the next section or the closure, and being surprised yet again by his twists.

    I call this a Personal Favorite; and I recommend it as a Play It Now.

    Reply
  162. SPY

    Thank you both Vonnor and Tex Arcana, for the nice compliments and high ratings you give this latest mod of mine. It is always a pleasure to read such comments because after all, it did take indeed a insane amount of time and effort to make it.
    So, thank you very much for your review!
    greetings,

    Leon

    Reply
  163. shaboo
    Maybe?

    Man, do I hate these pointless, unnecessary cutscenes: “Gordon standing around”, “Gordon opening a door”, “Gordon opening a First Aid Box”, … – just awful. And what’s the point of these soft porn easter eggs?

    It’s business as usual in Leon’s house: It’s obvious that a lot of work and time went into this mod, and some of the maps are actually nicely designed, but unfortunately it often feels like one big mess, randomly composed of all kinds of models, textures and sounds Leon was able to find while roaming around the internet.

    This mod is too long and its gameplay too monotonous, making it a perfect example of “quantity over quality”. During these ten to 15 hours riddles are reduced to finding some hidden vent or pushing some button or lever, which is something you’re quickly getting tired of. Combat is equally void of creativity, most of the time simply flooding you with hordes of enemies. This and the fact that Leon’s mods refuse to come up with any meaningful use of the Gravity Gun, clearly demonstrate that he has played too much Call Of Duty and Medal Of Honor. This mod ‘s gameplay never feels like HL2, but more like some ordinary, generic WWII shooter in an alternative universe – including a weird plot and some pretty terrible English.

    As someone else already said, The Closure offers a couple of really neat settings and scenarios that if cut down to a tight 3-5 hour mod would make this an absolutely solid PIL or even PIN.

    As it is (with around 15 hours to play), play it, if you have too much free time on your hands, but don’t expect a masterpiece.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    14 Hours, 40 Minutes
    Reply
  164. SPY

    Thanks Shaboo, for your detailed comment.
    It’s true, i am a real fan of fpshooters as COD (only the first 2 COD’s that is!!), FEAR, Mohaa, etc.
    And i am actually glad that this can be seen back in this last mod of mine. Why then use HL2 (and episodes) as a game / engine to mod with, well, simply because i really liked Hammer and how HL2’s gameplay looked and felt. Personally i never liked the gravgun that is why i don’t use it in my mods, same as puzzels, never liked them.
    About this last mod being clearly a case of quantity over quality, there i really have to disagree with you. That could be said of my earlier mods, but not about this one i think. That i used many textures and models from star trek etc has only to do with that it was simply impossible for me to find other models. I have asked at least 6 to 7 times over the many years the modding community to help me with this but no one ever helped out. And to make yet another mod with only HL2 assets was really no option for me. After having used and played with them for nearly a decade they start to bore me. So i really needed new assets, and this was all i could find. I do agree, they hardly fit. But to me that is not such a big issue and i am glad to say that a lot of people think the same way.
    So i really did my very best to make this a quality over quantity mod and i personally do think i did succeed quit well in that.
    After all, thanks for playing.

    Leon

    Reply
  165. combinestrider17
    Think Twice - revised

    The phrase “less is more” comes to mind with this mod. It’s got some great bits such as the three APCs rolling over your head or the first sighing of the Borealis, but the majority of the mod is unpolished with many nonsensical design choices. Large rooms that feel empty Or unfitting. The engagements are solid and well designed, but fighting combine is only so much fun in uninteresting locations. A shorter dev cycle with a simpler idea would’ve greatly helped. Another large criticism I have is the lack of care for the Half Life universe or it’s story. Regardless of the creator’s goals, when you throw the Half Life name in front of your mod you hold it to a certain standard. It’s a franchise loved by many and if you expect it to be liked by those fans you have to respect the source material, whether your creation is official or not. The last point I want to bring up is the non vanilla assets used. Most of them are very high quality and they look great. But they need to have purpose.”Because I was bored of the vanilla assets” is not a good reason to use new ones that are blatantly out of place. Design choices need to have purpose, and if they’re done right the player won’t even notice them. It’ll just feel right to the player. I won’t go into detail about the cutscenes or the “easter eggs” as it’s been criticised to death but for the sake of completeness they were unnesecary and unfitting.

    Tl;dr some great moments outweighed by a lot of bad, and a mod that would be much better were it not part of the Half Life universe.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    12 Hours
    Reply
  166. combinestrider17
    Think Twice

    The phrase “less is more” comes to mind with this mod. It’s got some great bits such as the three APCs rolling over your head or the first sighing of the Borealis, but the majority of the mod is unpolished with many nonsensical design choices. Large rooms that feel empty Or unfitting. The engagements are solid and well designed, but fighting combine is only so much fun in uninteresting locations. A shorter dev cycle with a simpler idea would’ve greatly helped. Another large criticism I have is the lack of care for the Half Life universe or it’s story. Regardless of the creator’s goals, when you throw the Half Life name in front of your mod you hold it to a certain standard. It’s a franchise loved by many and if you expect it to be liked by those fans you have to respect the source material, whether your creation is official or not. The last point I want to bring up is the non vanilla assets used. Most of them are very high quality and they look great. But they need to have purpose.”Because I was bored of the vanilla assets” is not a good reason to use new ones that are blatantly out of place. Design choices need to have purpose, and if they’re done right the player won’t even notice them. It’ll just feel right to the player. I won’t go into detail about the cut-scenes or the “easter eggs” as it’s been criticized to death but for the sake of completeness they were unnecessary and unfitting.

    Tl;dr some great moments outweighed by a lot of bad, and a mod that would be much better were it not part of the Half Life universe.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    15 Hours
    Reply
  167. Ttiki
    Play It Later
    Story:

    Normally, this is the continuation of the Half-life story. However, it is not really the continuation of the story. I look more like a Hollywood action movie. The story is pretty simple, go to the north, to find Dr.Kleiner and the Borealis! Why Dr.Kleiner? Well, he tried to destroy the Borealis… Yes, Dr.Kleiner, try something…
    Ho and, Gordon should be sad, he lost an old friend from Black Mesa! Sometimes, it looks more like he already forget about him!

    Level Design

    The level design is really strange. It’s not that bad, but, at some moments, it’s like a Newbie mapping. Some wooden door, in a house, in the middle of nowhere are sliding. The secret lab of White Forest is in the middle of a town, in the mountain…
    This has no sense!

    Voice Acting:

    Not the best, but pretty good! And BTW, try to make customs choreographed scene, when characters ar saying something, don’t simply take the view control, and make a little cinematic and avoiding the character! It’s not that hard, I promise, and it would be more cool than too much cinematic like a movie! First, it’s a video game!

    Animation

    …
    How to say that… They are cool but give no sense to the Half-life universe…

    Models:

    Again, the models are cool and good, but some give no sense to the half life universe!

    Difficulty:

    The difficulty selection is strange! You are strangely teleported to a spaceship around the hearth, and then hologram appear with bad explications, and you choose how many enemies you want in each level… And every time you change from levels to other levels, a little text tell you your choose! BTW this mod is really easy, I was on normal with “many enemies” selected, and it’s was easy!

    Conclusion:

    I won’t called this mod Episode 3 because at this point it’s like click bait…
    But, if we forget about the half-life universe, and we take another story that has nothing to do with half-life! It would be a good mod!

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    14 Hours, 30 Minutes
    Reply
  168. SPY

    Wow, haven’t been here for quit a while and thought i just check in to see how things are going. And i have to say, am amazed to see that even now after what is it, 1,5 years or so after the last update still around 30 to 60 people are downloading this mod each day!
    Which brings the counter to 39.900 today, for the last updated version. Which bring the total far above 100.000 by now. As i said many times before was i afraid that not many people would play mods anymore for HL(2). But, this is clearly not the case!
    Very glad all the work was not infane,

    Leon

    Reply
    1. Chris

      Hi Leon thanks for this mod,I am having problems not being able to get into some of the air ducks or if I do get into them I cant return back through them.I break the bars down but it just will not let me get into them.

      Reply
      1. SPY

        Sorry Chris, that you have this problem. I am just not sure which aird ducks you mean and in which map. Maybe you can show a screenshot of it, and mail it to me (because i am not daily or even weekly here).
        Or you can watch one of the many walkthrough video’s on youtube, those are not made by myself but do show exactly were you need to go to. Just google this mods title on youtube and you find at least a handfull of walkthroughs. But again, you may always contact me also.
        Sorry again,

        Leon

        Reply
  169. Torf

    When I return from the difficulty range, my pistol and graviton are gone. Without Graviton, however, the game can not be played through.

    Reply
  170. Duke

    Don’t know how I managed to miss this one…but playing it now…maybe I was actually working or away or something, but anyway, loving it…most fun I’ve had for months. I didn’t like all the negativity over it, it’s a good mod. I know the tech freaks are ripping it apart but it’s just a game so I say well done mate.

    Reply
  171. SPY

    Sorry for my late reaction Torf, but it can be played through. At some placed the weapons and gravgun are indeed taken away from the player but you get them back lateron. And you can play indeed on, its only harder but that is just the point. At one point you find manhacks trying to kill you, and combines accross the water. There you need to use the turrets to kill them all, ones at the other side of the water you get weapons back.

    Always check walkthrough video’s on youtube when your stuck. There are tons of people who made walkthrough video’s for this mod, even now after so many years, (amazing).

    And Duke, glad you liked the mod so much. I am quit amazed that even after 2+years the mod still gets daily so many downloads. Some people like the mod others don’t. There had been said a lot about it. I guess it all comes down to how you play it. When you expect a Valve like ep3 then you will be disapointed. Do you expect a mod just made by one enthousiastic mapper, then you will be quit amazed i hope by what he tried to do in his free time. That is all, its a mod and nothing more, one with a fansy title, but ok, that is it. So, glad you liked it so much. Am mapping with Fa Cry 5, Broforce and Dying Light these days. Have released many maps for these games now.

    greetings to you all here on Planet Phillip!

    Leon

    Reply

  172. Pingback: LinuxGameCast Weekly EP184 – This Week In “F*ck Linux” – LinuxGameCast

  173. asterixer

    Hey Leon,

    After 1,5 Years i Downloaded the complete Version of 2.0. to replay your mod on a new Linux System.

    Im not able to play it under Linux because i have no enemys. They are shooting but you cannot see them.
    An old Version from my Backup of 1.1 is working fine….
    Maybe some Models are missing? The first Combine Zombie is pink/black.

    asterix

    Reply
    1. SPY

      Hello Asterixer,
      and thank you for wanting to play Ep3 The CLosure again. Sorry to hear that models are missing. I am very sure that they are not missing in the mod. When i updated the mod to version 2.0 i only did make a few very small map changes, nothing else. So i am very sure that it has something to do on your end. What it is i really wouldn’t know. About 57.000 people played this last version (2.0) and not one did comment on missing models and for sure that at least some would have done so when it was the mod that caused this error. It is by now impossible to download the older version (1.0) because here on RTSL and on Moddb they are not available anymore. Still, should you really want the old version then i could look for it on my hard disks, i am quit sure i still will have it somewere laying around. Please do contact me on my email because i only look here ones a month or so. My email is leonbrinkmann AT hotmail DOT com.
      Sorry for all the inconveniences!

      Leon

      Reply
  174. Repus
    Avoid It!

    Well, I don’t know how, but the authors managed to look graphics worse. Everything is very weak and immature in this mod: the music, detailization, textures, sounds. One word would describe this mod the best way: primitive. The sound from the weapons is horrible, just horrible. Overall the impression is that if I installed some average game from the 90’s.
    So, my advice: don’t waste your traffic downloading and time installing and playing: simply skip it and move to the next download.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    20 Minutes
    Reply
  175. Danube300

    Half-Life 2: Episode 3: The Closure managed to get closer to being Half Life 3 itself, but with some modifications to the lore. Despite the fact that everyone is angry with the cutscenes (I’m also kind of angry with those cutscenes, but… what can I do?), I liked several chapters of this mod and the story didn’t feel too forced. However, it had things I didn’t like.

    So, here goes everything that I liked and I didn’t like about this mod:

    THINGS THAT I LIKED

    -Some cutscenes were actually informative. It didn’t show Gordon opening a door.

    -The reskins, despite being from other mods, are actually kind of refreshing.

    -Dr. Kleiner’s kind of betrayal was shocking.

    -Some areas of the game just… blew my mind. For example, that airport in Chapter 18 was amazing!

    THINGS THAT I DIDN’T LIKE

    -Some cutscenes were actually useless. I don’t care about Gordon opening a door. Others were explicit cutscenes.

    -The lore was modified: Kleiner wanted to preserve the Borealis for further research while Eli wanted to destroy the Borealis to prevent another incident.

    -Despite that the reskins are refreshing, they don’t sit well with other pieces of Combine technology.

    -The voice acting is kinda… primitive

    Over all, the mod deserves a 8.2/10.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    4 Hours
    Reply
  176. Danube300

    EDIT: I forgot the rating.

    Half-Life 2: Episode 3: The Closure managed to get closer to being Half Life 3 itself, but with some modifications to the lore. Despite the fact that everyone is angry with the cutscenes (I’m also kind of angry with those cutscenes, but… what can I do?), I liked several chapters of this mod and the story didn’t feel too forced. However, it had things I didn’t like.

    So, here goes everything that I liked and I didn’t like about this mod:

    THINGS THAT I LIKED

    -Some cutscenes were actually informative. It didn’t show Gordon opening a door.

    -The reskins, despite being from other mods, are actually kind of refreshing.

    -Dr. Kleiner’s kind of betrayal was shocking.

    -Some areas of the game just… blew my mind. For example, that airport in Chapter 18 was amazing!

    THINGS THAT I DIDN’T LIKE

    -Some cutscenes were actually useless. I don’t care about Gordon opening a door. Others were explicit cutscenes.

    -The lore was modified: Kleiner wanted to preserve the Borealis for further research while Eli wanted to destroy the Borealis to prevent another incident.

    -Despite that the reskins are refreshing, they don’t sit well with other pieces of Combine technology.

    -The voice acting is kinda… primitive

    Over all, the mod deserves a 8.2/10.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    4 Hours
    Reply
  177. Danube300

    I think that’s it!

    Half-Life 2: Episode 3: The Closure managed to get closer to being Half Life 3 itself, but with some modifications to the lore. Despite the fact that everyone is angry with the cutscenes (I’m also kind of angry with those cutscenes, but… what can I do?), I liked several chapters of this mod and the story didn’t feel too forced. However, it had things I didn’t like.

    So, here goes everything that I liked and I didn’t like about this mod:

    THINGS THAT I LIKED

    -Some cutscenes were actually informative. It didn’t show Gordon opening a door.

    -The reskins, despite being from other mods, are actually kind of refreshing.

    -Dr. Kleiner’s kind of betrayal was shocking.

    -Some areas of the game just… blew my mind. For example, that airport in Chapter 18 was amazing!

    THINGS THAT I DIDN’T LIKE

    -Some cutscenes were actually useless. I don’t care about Gordon opening a door. Others were explicit cutscenes.

    -The lore was modified: Kleiner wanted to preserve the Borealis for further research while Eli wanted to destroy the Borealis to prevent another incident.

    -Despite that the reskins are refreshing, they don’t sit well with other pieces of Combine technology.

    -The voice acting is kinda… primitive

    Over all, the mod deserves a 8.2/10.

    Reply
  178. Danube300

    Dangit…

    Reply
  179. Daken50
    Maybe?

    Lots of cut scenes. At the worst possible spots. And after the cut scene you are not exactly where you were. You are moved right into the sh1t. They kill the flow of the mod. After a while I just became uninterested. Just as you get into it… cut scene. Did I mention the cut scenes.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    1 Hour
    Reply
  180. MonkeWay
    Avoid It!

    I have to say this is not worth it at all. (I don’t remember my time that well so some things may be off) You start off with an atrocious title screen, which is just a powerpoint slideshow and then the trailer for the half-life episodes. The first thing you see is a cutscene with a very poorly textured Eli grave. Then you have a garage for some reason and drive the Muscle Car to Alyx’s house. Magnusson (who has a terrible voice actor) is at the door waiting you speak to him he says he#s worried about Alyx and you go out. This cutscene is already taking way too long but you meet up with rebels and run through caves (still a cutscene) until you enter a mine cart. It crashed, Gordon says Holy Sh*t in the male citizen voice and FINALLY you can control the player. You pick up the gravity gun and a glock, which is cool, although there is an infinite ammo crate right next to it for no reason whatsoever. Then there’s metrocops, which are just some counter strike models for marines or smth and pick up their flash grenades which work as real grenades. The suit charger looks so ugly and has the words hev on for some reason, although this is a Combine suit charger and the health stations, although not as bad, still look 100x worse than the original. About 10 seconds of walking later the game suddenly stops to show another cutscene where all you see is a train carrying combine soldiers off in the distance. And after that you seem to enter a weird sci-fi looking think, inside of a mine, which teleports you to a space ship which then has another terrible voice ask you what difficulty you want to set the game. I can’t be bothered to explain the rest so here’s the problems:

    Random Cutscenes for no reason (which seems to be half the game)
    Horrible Voice Acting
    Poor new Models and Textures which replace things that doesn’t make sense to replace
    Other Models are from other games like Counter Strike or Left 4 Dead
    Doesn’t make any sense in the real world or Half-Life world
    Has large open spaces where you do nothing but fight enemies connected by hallways
    AND GORDON FREEMAN HAS A VOICE

    Most of the game is watching cutscenes and exchanging shots with combine.
    This was not fun for what I have played and I don’t want to play any more. I’ve seen what it’s like from there on and nothing changes, if not getting worse

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 40 Minutes
    Reply
  181. Filthy McNasty

    Excellent…On of the best mods I’ve ever played.

    Reply
  182. Captain Crap
    Think Twice - revised

    This mod pulls so many red flags. I know the mappers admitted that this was obviously fanmade but for god sake, keep it faithful to Half-Life 2 standards.

    Let’s start off with level design. It’s completely random and inconsistent. I have no idea where I’m going because of how random the designs are. Hear this, first I’m in some kind of an antlion cave and the next door, I end up in the USS Enterprise corridor. Yes, I recognized it immediately as soon as I walked in (I’ve watched Star Trek for years so I know what their designs look like.) Speaking of assets for level designs, it seems the mapper just find random ones from Garry’s Mod and just put them in this mod.

    The combat is very easy even on hard difficulty because of how generous the game gives you with amount of health and armor. They scatter all throughout the maps. Out of all 35 maps, I’ve only died like 4 times but all 3 of them were caused by hazards, not by enemies.

    The story is an insult to the lore. Pretty obvious that you must get to the Borealis but man… I feel bad for what the devs did to Alyx. Does she really deserve to suffer like that? Some major characters die as well but they have no impact to the story as well.

    Miscellaneous, the music is definitely Medal of Honor. Why are you using that music instead of Half-Life 2 music? We’re not in WWII or something. The voice acting is terrible. You should probably go to drama school first before you go for voice acting. Lastly is some technical issue in the near end. After destroying the Borealis, for some reason, the gravity is still screwed up. I’ve been able to skip most of the combat because of low gravity. You didn’t bother fixing that?

    Summary: A for effort, but the rest are E-. However the game is still playable, and beatable in fact. But you might not enjoy this because it’s not even close to a Half-Life 2 gameplay. Think of it like you’re playing Medal of Honor of course.

    Reply
    1. Captain Crap

      In addition: Cutscenes somehow become annoying as well because some of them prevents me from fighting off enemies. How am I supposed to defend myself while the cutscene is playing? I know I get invincibility during cutscenes but once it ends, all enemies swarm in. Easter eggs, why put a gnome in the map and say, “Hey, there is an easter egg in this map. Find it.” It kinda defeats the purpose of easter eggs. And don’t even bother finding them because they’re just a bunch of random comic book strips, it gets boring after finding a third easter egg.

      Reply
  183. utefs
    Avoid It!

    I played this mod years ago and didn’t think it was very good.

    I just replayed it and realized I was far to generous the first time.

    Reply
  184. Luke Traitor
    Avoid It!

    Change my mind. Avoid it cause it’s not worth playing it.

    Reply

Reply without including a Recommendation and MetaReview Data

Recommendation System

You must be registered and logged in to use the Recommendation System.
Why not register now? It's free and easy. If you are already registered then please login.

Comment Formatting Guide

Well formatted comments are much easier to read. Please copy and paste the HTML Tags to use in your comment

  • HEADER: <div class="fix"></div><div class="sbe3">TEXT HERE</div>
  • BOLD: <strong>TEXT HERE</strong>
  • ITALIC: <em>TEXT HERE</em>
  • SPOILER: <span class="spoiler">TEXT HERE</span>