ForestVille

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

15th August 2012

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ForestVille is the fourth in the 6×10 Mapping Competition series.

As the name suggests, the theme was to create a map within a forest.

There were 6 entries, ranging from “okay” to “GREAT!”.

Basic Details
  • Title: ForestVille
  • File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-6x10mc-forestville.7z.7z
  • Size : 47.3MB
  • Author: David Newel, Jason Gimba, Alastair Toft, Tony DeBasio, Benjamin Ferron and Justin Carlton
  • Date Released: 15 August 2012
Notes

The maps are listed within alphabetical order of the map name.

Don’t forget to check the readme.txt files for more information on each entry.

Included in the archive is another folder called, forestville-gridview-images, which contains 5 images you can use for the Steam Grid View. There is a readme.txt with full instructions.

Download Options

Download to your HDD [47.3MB]

Installation Instructions
  • Copy the forestville folder into your SourceMods folder.
  • Restart or start Steam.
  • ForestVille should now be listed in your Library tab.

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

Cabin Fever by David Newel

“You were sent to a safehouse in the middle of a forest in search for Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance.
What you find there is… up to you…”

This is a completely enclosed area, where you must reach the cabin and use its resources to stay alive. BE careful you don’t miss the upper rocket launcher.

Eventually, you will receive a message telling you it’s time to come home.

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Gravity Falls by Alastair Toft

Working your way through the forest, via a couple of stops, you need to turn off a Combine power generator. Of course, they won’t be happy about this, so expect some resistance!

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Lumbering Gordon by Tony DeBasio

Separated from Alyx, see graciously tells you to go on without her. Using the Handcar, Tony created for ChaseVille, you need to reach the lumberyard.

Once there, well, get the lights on and try to get the train working.

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
Station 8 by Justin Carlton

You are given text instructions on the screen, which I like s it sets the scene if you don’t have voice acting. Station 8 has gone off-air: go check it out, but be careful because Derik has a bad feeling about this!

And make sure you can come back too.

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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
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Station 25 by Jason Gimba

Come in Station 25, can you here me?”

Apparently the antlion thumpers have stopped working.

Guess who has to go outside and fix them? Yes, you!

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
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The Choice by Benjamin Ferron

In this map you have two official ways to finish it and one cheeky way. But before you go on, you should know that this level is only about one third of what was built. Unfortunately, due to a Hammer crash which screwed the autosaves and ruined most of the level, this is what we are left with.

You need to reach the road beyond the gate, but don’t rush forwards without careful consideration of your environment.

Sometimes the best way up is down!

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

Playthrough Videos

The playthrough below is provided by Custom Gamer as part of The Ville Retrospective event.
See more of his playthroughs on this site: VP: Custom Gamer.

The prize and Sponsor

This mapping competition was sponsored by EpicTimez.Com. The prize, in addition to the points, is L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition, but considering the honourable mentions, I will discuss the options with those involved.

And the winner is…

The better the entries, the harder it is to judge.

Last competition there were two winners because I felt they both did a great job in different ways. Here, the theme is more clear cut, but not the choice.

Firstly, the overall winner is Station 25 by Jason Gimba. But, he is a professional level designer and the rest are amateurs. Of course, that shouldn’t matter because a competition is a competition. His entry was perfectly balanced, very well made and great to look at.

But, because he is a pro I have decided to award to honourable mentions. They go to Station 8, for providing some great game around a good concept and Gravity Falls for making a beautiful level with some fun gameplay (although this map was started before the comp and is illegible for the winning points).

I’m sure you disagree with my choice, but I’m the judge because I provide the prizes!

Please use the poll below to vote for your winner and the comments to provide you reviews and comments.

Thanks to all who entered.

The Points

Jason, Justin and Alastair all get 5 points for entering, as does everybody and 5 points for winning (except Alistair). David gets 2 points for his rocket launcher and Tony gets 2 points for his train.

Your chance to vote


Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!
17 recommendations, average score: 4.76 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.3 (what's that?)
Total Downloads
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 13 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 13 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 37 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 2 Hours, 10 Mins by Duke
Total Time Played: 20 Hours, 59 Mins
Categories (?)
Half-Life 2: Ep2 HL2-EP2 Mods Play
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48 Comments

  1. PlanetPhillip
    Phillip says Play It!

    Overall, I thought this was a good theme and competition. I know ten days is not that long, but with some careful planning and time management great maps can still be made.

    Thanks to all the entrants for your hard work and dedication.

    The individual reviews below contain spoilers.

    Cabin Fever by David Newel

    I didn’t like this one very much. It’s quite dark and the enemies just appear out of thin air. There’s not much space to drive the jalopy and I missed the rocket launcher first time I played it.

    I am not a fan of arena type maps at the best of time and this one didn’t really add anything new or exciting.

    All in all, a mediocre entry.

    Gravity Falls by Alastair Toft

    I was very impressed when I played this map. It looks great – open spaces yet you are still controlled by the modder. The puzzles at the beginning aren’t too hard so you get a nice gentle intro.

    I was a little disappointed about dying when exploring the waterfall area. I think it should have been higher, making it clearer why I died if I jumped in.

    The tree bridge was nicely done, but I’m not sure I need the text hint, inf act, I had already dropped the tree before I even got to the top. Not a big issue, but we all like to feel we have solved the puzzle ourselves.

    The cave area was well done, but I missed the chance to kill the antlion guard and paid the price for it too.

    Once outside again, I enjoyed working out what to do, although after I shut of the power I was a little confused as to where I should go. I was assuming that the forcefield in front of the tank would be disabled, especially, since the big pipe seemed to finish right there.

    Anyway, I figured out what to do and even tried to take the Gnome home.

    All in all a very good entry, with perhaps the best looking views of all the maps.

    Lumbering Gordon by Tony DeBasio

    I had a little groan to myself when I saw the Handcar, because last time it was a bitch to sue and killed me a few times. This time it worked perfectly and got me where I needed to go.

    The level itself was a little bland and the train was by far the best part, but the competition wasn’t about modelling but level design and to be honest it was just too easy and not very exciting.

    There was only a short battle with a Strider and no other combat. Visual very nice but the gameplay was lacking.

    Station 8 by Justin Carlton

    The starting room is the thumbnail for the post because I felt it was very atmospheric.

    Justin always seems to make large levels and in the past my laptop struggled to run them, but not this time. The whole area is covered with fog, which definitely helps. Once you leave the starting room, then you are outside for pretty much the rest of the mod. You encounter a little cabin at the beginning, but after that you must explore and look for a sign.

    Working my way down to the river was fun and I felt Justin made sure it was easy to get down. Visually, he did a good job of making the area feel real and there were some nice touches. A little combat at this point might have been nice, but not a big problem.

    Once I reach the bridge, then things get really fun/tough. I did once on my way to station 8 but after that I remained alive, but only just. There was plenty of action at the top and the building was really well designed, as was the surrounding area.
    The helicopter took a LOT of hits but there is unlimited ammo, so it’s just a case of being careful and patient.

    My only gripe was removing the energy ball. I assumed I had missed a gravity gun, but I had, you don’t need one. if you figure out of to remove it, then you can send a message and use the jalopy.

    A really good entry and one I enjoyed playing.

    Station 25 by Jason Gimba

    This is beautiful, both visually and conceptually. Jason has limited his imagination to ensure he kept everything high quality. We don’t actually go into the forest but I never said we had to – so that’s fine. Being surrounded by one is enough.

    The station itself is very nicely done and the only reason I didn’t use it for the thumbnail is because it needs to be full screen to be fully appreciated.

    Having voice acting always helps and even if it’s only a few lines, like this one, it still adds to the overall feeling of professionalism.

    There’s a little twist at the end that wraps up the level nicely.

    Short but oh so sweet.

    The Choice by Benjamin Ferron

    This level definitely had potential but once you have a crash and lose a lot of work, what you end up with is never as good as it could be. I’m not a fan of offering alternative routes in games, because people just go back and play both. Unlike life where choices often are irrevocable, games don’t have that limit, so I feel time is better spent making the route better.

    Of course, that’s just a personal choice.

    The underground section is so much better than the overground route that it makes the idea of two routes silly. I manged to avoid the strider completely and got stuck down the mine too, oh well, it was still pretty fun to play.

    It could have been a really good level but this is what we have and this is what we must judge.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 35 Minutes
    Reply
  2. DeadCamper

    Ouch… mediocre is such a harsh word when talking about someone’s work, but when compared to much more stellar pieces, it’s really the nicest thing that can be said.

    Now that the contest itself is over, I feel a bit more free to speak about my entry.

    Cabin Fever

    The takeaway lessons I’ve gained from this mostly on doubt, planning, and time limits. Less than ten days is not a good time to second-guess about whether an idea will “work” when a few days have been spent in planning and prototyping.

    The initial idea I had for this was vastly different from what had resulted, and had I focused on it, I feel I could have given a better experience using the original idea. My fear was that I would never complete it in time, given the problems I was hitting while testing, but that really isn’t the point, is it?

    I won’t go into details, but the design of the house and the ‘secret” weapon upstairs are remnants of the initial approach. To add to the pain, the same problems were coming back to haunt me after a second and third desperate rework of the overall concept.

    At this point, I feel so burned out that I wouldn’t touch this map for a long time… but at least it’s done and out of the way. And that’s the point…

    Right…?

    I look forward to trying the other entries in the near future, and will give an actual review, then.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Sorry, it was the word that came to mind. One of the problems, as you mentioned, is that I have to compare it to the other entries – that’s the point of a competition.

      I think a lot of non-modders misunderstand or don’t know about my reasons for running these comps. Yes, it’s to get maps to play but also for modders to learn from the experience and it sounds like you have.
      I can’t say for sure but I agree that these comps aren’t really a time for trying something new. It’s a time for building something realistic in a strict time frame. Even if entrants don’t win, I truly hope that get something positive back from the experience.

      It’s interesting to note how many people contact me and say they will enter but never do – especially the ones that do it often – You know who you are.

      So, yes, getting stuff out the door is one of the objectives, as we can’t always wait for perfection.

      Don’t feel too bad about your map. Many people like arena-style maps but I would definitely avoid them in future, at least for my competitions. In addition, don’t make the enemies appear out of thin air, that certainly spoilt the atmosphere for me.

      My advice, for what it’s worth, is keep it simple and realistic, aim for smaller rather than bigger; quality of quantity.

      Thanks again for entering.

      Reply
    2. Ade

      Indeed, getting it done and releasing it is very important, since along the years so many modding teams have works in progress that they never release and it’s a shame (and a waste of time for everyone involved). If you release something, anything, feedback is sure to come and that might inspire you or help you learn, improve and other releases will surely follow.

      Reply
  3. Dalannar
    Play It Now!

    I think Station 8 takes it. I absolutly loved the atmosphere the map had, from the dead bodies hanging to the hunter grunts as you were climbing down the mountain.

    The only part I didn’t like was the chopper battle. It took too long in my opinion, especially when it was dropping bombs it was too high in the air and I couldn’t actually see through the fog.

    I also really liked Gravity Falls. The visuals could have been better in my opinion, mostly when it came to joining the map with the 3d skybox, you could easily see where it was joined up. But what really made it for me was the innovative puzzles. I especially liked catching fire to the gas canisters, but I think the puzzles should have been introduced better without reliying on the text. The text made it too obvious what you had to do.

    I’m hoping for a better theme next competition. The reason I didn’t actually finished my entry was because I hate working with displacements. I find it very frustrating to make something that to me looks nice, and because I’m not getting paid for this, I decided to wait for the next 6×10 and work on my own projects until then.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 20 Minutes
    Reply
  4. Duke
    Play It Now!

    Gravity Falls for me….loved exploring, just when you think there’s nothing out there…

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    2 Hours, 10 Minutes
    Reply
  5. MisterAddy

    Feeling really dumb, can’t figure out what to do with the Combine ball charger in Station 8. Any help? will post a full review later Edit: nevermind worked it out!

    Reply
  6. Greenman
    Play It Now!

    Pretty good competition, good entries. Station 25 was the winner for me.

    Cabin Fever was probably the weakest entry, I’m not keen on arena style maps anyway and this wasn’t a very good one anyway. The inclusion of the broken Alyx Gun and Grigori’s shotgun was also a little odd. The mapping itself was ok, nothing special.

    Gravity Falls was ok, I also jumped down the waterfall area, thinking the short-ish drop and soft landing would be fine but I died anyway; I think it should have been higher up. Other than that I enjoyed it, I had an area portal problem where the last area wouldn’t render until I entered it [Cave exit] but it didn’t bother me too much because it was pretty fun. Good combat, nice mapping. It could have done without the text tips though.

    Lumbering Gordon I didn’t really enjoy a lot, forgettable. There was nothing really wrong with it but it wasn’t much fun. I liked the train model though and the strider slowly destroying the area. Not bad.

    Station 8 really frustrated and irritated me; The first combine encounter was in the open where I had no cover, not a lot of fun but the real issue was the helicopter; The fog was way too overdone so I couldn’t see the helicopter, eventually I turned off the fog through the console but the helicopter flat out refused to die after taking plenty of damage so unfortunately I was unable to finish it. The visuals were ok, the starting room especially was nicely done. Weakest entry after Cabin Fever however.

    Station 25 was the winner for me, short but sweet. The visuals were great, the gameplay was fun and the combat well balanced. Not much else I can say about this, it was great.

    The Choice was alright, I only took the underground route so didn’t really experience the choice. The underground route was fine though, combat was ok; another decent entry.

    Considering the time frame they were all great entries, another good comp phillip.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 50 Minutes
    Reply
    1. Ade

      The chopper was a boss fight and the last fight of the mod anywayz, so you only had to survive a lil longer, plus you have a rocket crate.. I finished it with like 35 hp but it was worth it.

      Reply
      1. Greenman

        Ye I found the rocket crate but even after turning off the fog so I could see the chopper it just would not go down; Don’t know how many rockets I used but it was a ridiculous amount.

        Reply
        1. sneakyspeckman

          Unfortunately, by disabling the fog you inadvertently killed the experience for yourself. The choppers base health is 5600 on medium I think, likely much more on hard. The point of the battle was to create fight unlike most chopper battles in mods, which simply have you spamming rockets at the chopper. I intentionally used the fog to try to force the player to think tactically and to take their shots when there was an opportunity. I placed in some game logic to balance the length of the battle for more and less experienced players. Ironically, your constant barrage of rockets was preventing this logic from working properly and therefore you were whittling away at its health the hard way. The fight would have gone by faster if you had taken your shots while it was within your visibility range, instead of disabling the fog.

          If your curious how I coded it:
          [spoiler]You only have to actually hit it 8 times. The chopper will come in close where you are able to see it, which will allow you to score a hit (which the game will count). The chopper will then retreat, fly to a random location, and fly in to attack again, at which time you can score another counted hit on it. Hits in the meantime are not counted. After the 7th hit, it will go on a bombing run. After the 8th hit, it will go on a triple bombing run. During each bombing run it should be in your visibility range temporarily, allowing you to score a hit and potentially destroy it before it can finish its bombing run. [/spoiler]

          In retrospect, I should have modified the logic to count all hits against it. Playtesting would have easily indicated this for me, but unfortunately I literally had no one available to playtest and I was forced to release the map without any.

          Reply
          1. Greenman

            Sounds interesting, definitely hit it more than 8 times so like you said the 2nd time [No-Fog] it was being hit but not counting up the logic system. Will likely have another go on easy or medium sometime. 🙂

            Reply
          2. Ade

            Aww but you have the BetaTestersCollective!
            And yes that would’ve come up in betatesting since I had 1 successful blind shot. At first I tried to swerve the rocket long enuf til the chopper came back into visibility, which worked. 2nd time I tried that I accidentally hit it while it was in the fog haha
            What a great way to add variety and increase difficulty to something we take for granted!

            Reply
  7. MisterAddy
    Personal Favourite

    I think this was quite a successful theme because I enjoyed all the other entries!
    Firstly about my entry (Gravity Falls), thanks for all the feedback. I’m glad people liked it, especially since it was my first “proper” release and I didn’t know what to expect. With regards to the hint texts, I can see why people think they are uneccesary, but when you have very few people to test your map it is hard to know whether the puzzles are obvious enough or too obscure. The thing about the “death pit” at the waterfall, I totally agree, it is not obvious that you will die there. Finally, the skybox issue was something I spent a while trying to improve, but I couldn’t find a way to do it in time.

    Any way, enough about me!

    cabin Fever

    I don’t want to be too harsh, but I didn’t really “get” this map. I spent ages with in the car trying to figure out where my goal was, even resorting to fullbright incase I was missing a path somewhere. It took me a long time to figure out I was meant to survive. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if it was brighter and it was more clear what the objectives were.

    Lumbering Gordon

    This map had a really nice idea based around a neat setpiece of the train. The gameplay area was also very good looking and quite large so I was surprised how little of the surrounding area was actually used. The train was cool and getting it working was a cool puzzle. However I had a problem that I tried to fix it before fighting the Strider, thinking it couldn’t be killed. It was probably my fault for not checking the crates, but it was a bit confusing. All in all I enjoyed it, especially as the mapper tried something new.

    Station 8

    This map has amazing atmosphere, the thick fog making every area creepy since you never know what is up ahead. The forest is absolutely huge, especially considering the time limit of this competition. Station 8 had the feeling of being like a mini Half-Life chapter, but with a very different style to any of Valve’s own. There were a lot of cool touches like the destructible roof that is damaged by the helicopter (got to learn how to do that!) and the hanging Combine corpses, which really emphasised the scale of the location. I had only some small issues, finding it hard to see the chopper in the fog, and having the car get stuck on some of the debris (I had to spawn a Gravgun to get it free). Overall, an extremely enjoyable entry.

    Station 25

    Coincidence in the similar names? This is undoubtedly the most polished of the entries. It looks beautiful, the gameplay is tuned to perfection and we even get new voice acting. Perhaps it is stretching the definition of forest a little, but if that is my worst criticism then the modder must ahve done something right! It was short yes, but you can’t fault the experience.

    The Choice

    I cannot really criticise this entry since he had issues with the files getting lost, but I actually thought it was pretty good anyway! The mapping was high quality and the two choices were both well paced with some good gameplay. That said, I actually did them both the first time because I went along the road, ran away from the Strider and escaped through the Mines. It was fun – making me wish we would get to see the other 2 thirds that were planned!

    Like Phillip said, choosing a winner is though this time. For me it is a close call between Station 8 and Station 25, but the small issues I encoutered in the first one means that Station 25 is the best overall for me. I’m just glad I could come along for the ride!

    (wow that was a long post!)

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    2 Hours
    Reply
  8. sneakyspeckman

    I had a bit of fun with these maps, or perhaps I was in a good mood? Either way I enjoyed myself.

    Cabin Fever
    I don’t have much to say other than what has already been said. There was some atmosphere potential, but the lack of a core purpose other then to drive circles around the map made for some weaker game play, even if I did have fun humming songs while I was driving those circles.

    Gravity Falls
    Haha, pun. Anyways… It has been a while since I played a map that relied on the gravity gun as your core weapon, which was a breath of fresh air. [spoiler]I died twice due to the antlion guard. I saw what to do first thing, but since I immediately turned off my flashlight, I didn’t notice the ledge you had to use, which made me think I didn’t need to sneak and just needed to bum rush him.[/spoiler] Also, the alarm started to grind on my nerves after a while, I was very glad when it had reason to stop.

    Lumbering Gordon
    Not as much going on as the other maps, but the ambush was good and I liked the setup. Even if the premise seemed a bit silly to me, I enjoyed myself. What would White Forest need with lumber? It’s not like they were building a rocket or anything…

    Station 25
    The both of us sure do have creative titles don’t we? I concede that I was impressed with the level of polish on the map. I can see why it won.

    Station 8
    Can I review my own map? Despite what others may think, I enjoy playing it!

    The Choice
    I can say with certainty that I know just what it feels like to lose a good bit of work due to hammer/sdk crashes. What the level had was alright. I died twice from the antlion guards because I kept getting stuck on the models in the tunnels. Other than that, no problems. I’m not sure why but I enjoyed the small combine portion.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 5 Minutes
    Reply
  9. Ade

    I’m guessing the general idea is that contests bring mappers to this site, but I’m wondering about the other way around.. How many have thought of or gone into mapping because of mapping contests or, on the long run, because of the existence of this site?

    Reply
  10. JG
    Play It Now!

    I had a lot of fun with this one, both making an entry for it and playing the others. Here are my impressions of the mod. I tried to play on Medium difficulty, but had to set it to Easy on some entries.

    Cabin Fever

    You have a few moments to find ammo and guns before a zombie onslaught begins, and you need to kill some number of them before you can leave. There’s not a whole lot to this one. I can deal with an arena-style map, but my problem was that there were way too many Poison Zombies and, in turn, Poison Headcrabs. A lot of instant deaths resulted from getting poisoned and then tackled by a Fast Zombie. I wound up barricading myself in a room using a prop and picking the zombies off one-by-one. I think the author tried to discourage that by making some doors uncloseable, but hey, if it works it works.

    Gravity Falls

    Hands down my favorite map in this set. I really enjoyed all the Gravity Gun gameplay here, from chucking boulders at headcrabs to knocking down trees to create bridges. Then there’s a pretty nice gunfight to get back out. It looks good to boot, with some spectacular forest views, and it segues between a number of different gameplay environments too. The only negative, as others pointed out, is the waterfall drop. There’s a switchback in the path here that’s not highlighted very well, so you intuitively want to jump the waterfall gap. Still, kudos to you MisterAddy!

    Lumbering Gordon

    Oh man, not the handcart again. Even when it works, I have no idea if I’m doing it right. And midway through the level, after clearing the logs from the tracks, it was all glitchy moving forward.

    Anyhow, much like the author’s previous entries, I spent most of my time stumbling around not knowing what to do (“Lumbering Gordon,” ha ha). Very near the start, you get bombarded with two Hunters and for a little while, I had no idea how to fight them without guns. Eventually I realized I had to use the logs. Then, when I found the locomotive, I didn’t understand how to make it run. There’s a generator on the side of a barn and I still have no idea how it relates to the locomotive, but eventually I found I had to hold “E” over the valve wheel in the locomotive in order to power it up, which causes a Strider to show up. Overall, it looks alright, and it’s easy if you know how, but there’s not enough clarity. I applaud the designer, though, for having virtually no locked doors this time. Now let’s work on that indestructible crate thing.

    Station 8

    I really wanted to like this one because it’s probably the best use of the forest theme in this set. But the fog, while atmospheric, is simply too heavy-handed. Nowhere is this more true than the final battle. Fighting a helicopter in a foggy environment is a neat idea, but it’s not cool when it can fire at me when I can’t even see it. The helicopter really needed to drop out of the fog to attack, then go back up, move, and repeat. That said, being in the house when it was doing bombing runs was awesome, especially from an audio standpoint.

    I have a couple other points of feedback. First, the road and the jalopy are somewhat misleading. You’re speeding down the road and you reach a blocked tunnel and a small house. Is this Station 8? No. Actually, you’ve already passed the way you’re supposed to go, through a small gap in the fence. On foot. I guess the jalopy is here for a little variety, but it feels a bit pointless.

    Second, somewhere along the line I may have missed the Gravity Gun just like Phillip did. Apparently there’s another way to dislodge the energy ball, but I never found it.

    Station 25

    This was my map. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not that great with displacements. I probably laid the volumetric lighting on too thick in the warehouse. Oh, and sometimes if the Antlions are reacting to the thumper impacts, they don’t despawn! I’d like to thank Brett Kinsella for the voice acting and Brian Morgan for invaluable testing and helping to bring the difficulty back down to Earth.

    The Choice

    I liked this one. Despite the lost work, it’s still pleasing to look at and relatively clear in its goals. I enjoyed seeing the mine environment, and the view looking down from the roadway was great. I thought it was a little awkward that I had to run past the Strider, all the way back to the start to get to the rocket crate, but maybe that was compensating for some of the missing level.

    So, overall, I’d say my favorite was Gravity Falls, followed by The Choice.

    Good job everyone!

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    2 Hours
    Reply
    1. Ade

      You actually fought the Hunters in Lumbering Gordon? I just used the lil train to run since I didn’t have any weapons and from then on I just heard them in the distance. Was expecting to actually fight them on my way back, but fade to black took that away..

      Reply
      1. PlanetPhillip

        Yeah, I don’t remember fighting Hunters either.

        Reply
        1. JG

          Well, my tendency is to stand and fight unless there is some reason not to. In theory, one of the best ways to kill Hunters is to shoot physics objects at them, especially if they’ve got their flechettes stuck to the object, so I thought that was the designer’s intention.

          Reply
  11. Hec
    Play It Now!

    Well it’s recommendation time, and like the lastly Phillip’s Villes Comps. This was also another good one, is a great theme, and its the whole a nicely done Forest compilation of maps, this competition is so “woods” and “forest” that you almost can smell the pine trees scent when you play it!, I mean it, this is maybe the most atmospheric comp. that i’ve ever played after halloween ville, now lets see the particularity of each entry.

    Cabin Fever

    It was farmost…and I don’t intend to be rude or anything like that…, the most weak and un-fitted of the 6 entries, you have read the rest on this one, arena style, random spawning enemies, unclear goals, conffusive paths, and so on…, I also dislike arenas, but particularly this kind of: “kill million zombies” arenas.., I think this guy could have done it better, ofering a swarm unique horde of zombies attacking the cabain, and then CMB!!!, that could have save the entrie definitely!, I mean, maybe a good battle against 2 hunters and some combine elite overwatchs would have been better, then the jalopy is kind of pointles, as u are in an arena style map with not so much space and its kind of circular arena indeed!, I got stuck with the dam jalopy in the sorrounding trees more than twice because of the high speed and poor manouver space in the paths, then if u want a tip, the better way to kill the bunch of zombies and headcrabs is actually running over them with the jalopy.

    Gravity Falls

    I almost “LOVE” this one, cool smart and clever environmental puzzles, which adds many points in here…, nice and lovely views, a clear game-goal, and then a constructive backtrack path, with the lovely touch of a hunter battle outside the cave after u mess the cmb generators up. I say I ALMOST love this one because one simply detail almost no one has pointed out yet as I see…, “the dam house with the only entrance by the roof hole on it!!!!” took me alot to figure out how to get there, and I didn’t even now if I did it right…, I climbed to it by the rock slipery walls next to the house!!!!!!!!!!, this is kind of frustrating because actually that house is really important for the whole map!!, because u need to found vital items in there to solve the first puzzle and then the worst!!! you have to go and climb hecticly in there again to pick up rocket ammo, and all in the middle of a last hard ass battle against a gunship!!!!!!!, that was the bigest fun killer in this, I had to cheat at the end and I hated that!, now I don’t know if the house main door it was supposed to be open once u have returned but for me it was closed as a school in sunday!!!!, felt the whole house issue as a dead end to me.

    Lumbering Gordon

    Nice touches in this one!, I loved the atmosphere on it, and the totally thumbs up in this one was the hunter ambush in the middle of the train tracks, with those wood lumbers blocking ur way!!, and u have to defeat them just with ur rusty but trustly grav gun, so its cool!, and then the last strider combat was also very nice, and that hidden underground spot geting in there by that country toilet was a clever nice touch!, then the model of the train was so cool, but I would love to be actually able to enjoy more the ride on it at the end than just advance few metters on it.

    Station 8

    I voted for this one as the BEST one, first because I loved the hugeness of the whole map!!, that really impressed me a lot!, then the whole envrionment was really cool, I can actually smell the woods sorrounding me and that cold super cold fog was a super master touch in there, I also guess this would look terrific even without the fog, i’d love to try that on this map so: anyone knows how to disable de fog in the console??????? , then the combat was great!!!, so guerrilla tactics, I loved using the crosbow in order to kill the cmb soldiers, even a hunter battle in there I just loved the combat in here!, the heli battle was also cool and makes u move!, now.. what I would have loved in this map it may sound crazy, but i’d love to drive the buggy through the river to get to station 8, I even tried that getting the grav gun and pushing the buggy down the cascades, but actually dissapeared in the bottom level of the map The beggining as Phillip said is very atmospheric and is a perfect path to start your way to station 8.
    Oh and another detail I forgot on this one!!, the 3 poor ressistance memberes hanging out up on the clifs of that forest canyon!!!, god that was the greatest touch of realism in HL2 mods i’ve ever seen, I mean it!, if I were gordon sure i’d be angry and in need of revenge after to see my mates murdered like that by those cmb melefactors!!

    Station 25

    Another ressistance station in here!, so cool one, I really liked the map, and is as clear as water that this map definitely oozes quality all the way!! made by a pro. level designer, is a clear winner, but the comparissons against this entrie and the rest amateur developments are quite unfair, tough i’d say station 8 is as good one as this one just in my opinion. The shortfall on this one it was the shortness of action in here!, maybe it was perfect for an antlion combat, and to close killking the antlion moma at the end is ok, but i’d love to see some cmb combat action again maybe against versus some hunters, or elite overwatchs.

    The Choice

    I liked this one and I recommend to strongly play both paths in order to feel the whole experience in this one!, I loved the strider battle, and also the underground hazard path, I started first outside and then I return to the cabain and go under!, the hunter battle was great and well is a shame this map definitely felt uncompleted and I totally recommend the author to keep working and developing the idea, as for me, i’d love to play it with maybe 2 or more further maps, but just fixing the issue with the 2 paths to go!, I know that would mean to “start from the scratch” again but as a gamer I loved the whole concept and i’d say is worthy to work on it many months till we see a finished nice, short-medium short. Conssider it please Mr. Benjamin Ferron.

    —-

    Overall was a great comp. that u have to own in ur PP comp. collection is fun entretaining and worthy 100%, so go on and play it!

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 40 Minutes
    Reply
    1. Mazur

      Hi Hec,

      I’ll very likely pick up this idea again for my HL1 modification.
      However, I will most likely not touch Source again. On the bright side, it means you can HL1 maps from me.

      Reply
    2. MisterAddy

      Hi, just wondering what do you mean by this: “the dam house with the only entrance by the roof hole on it”

      If you are referring to the first building which gets shelled, the front door is supposed to unlock once you break the wood which is blocking it. I never had a problem with it not opening and I didn’t even know there was another way in. Could you give any more information bacause I am curious what happened.

      Reply
      1. JG

        I think Hec may be referring to the house, near the tipping funnel, where you have to go to the second floor and use the Gravity Gun to push the metal panel out of the way so you can walk onto the roof. At least, I didn’t recognize that I had to go that way the first time I visited the room. 🙂

        Reply
      2. Hec

        Yeah I am reffering to the first building, I just couldn’t open the main door to get accees to it, and if it supposed to heve a lumber blocking it didn’t appeared when I played it, I mean I think the hole in the roof of the house is caused by the hedcrab shell missile, so obviously I get inside the house the incorrect way…, anyway I think that building being so vital for the map, just shouldn’t have an outside “blocked” door…

        Reply
  12. TabMan

    I really would want to enter this competition but I had recently gotten my hands on Mass Effect 3, and If you are a ME fan you know it takes alot of your time.

    Reply
  13. Blue Lightning
    Play It Now!

    Ok, this is a good set of maps here. Im not going to rate each map, but will say the whole mod was very good, and should be played by all.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    2 Hours
    Reply
  14. dougjp
    Play It Now!

    Had some difficulties along the way, but finished them all. Thanks to all for creating these (mostly) great maps. My ratings, in order;

    Station 8 – 9/10 Clear Winner
    Gravity Falls – 8/10
    Lumbering Gordon – 7/10
    The Choice – 7/10
    Cabin Fever – 6/10
    Station 25 – 6/10 Apart from visuals, I can’t understand in the slightest how this thing won.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 30 Minutes
    Reply
  15. vancanucksfan
    Play It Now!

    A very enjoyable set of entries to play. Phillip – thanks for organizing another good contest. My rankings were as follows:

    1 – Station 8. An amazing vertical drop section which you don’t often see in maps. The visuals were really nice, although I did get tired of the fog after awhile. The combat with the helicopter was relatively easy but finding the solution to disable the force field took me awhile. Really nice work.

    2 – Gravity Falls. Really nice visuals and gravity gun puzzles as well. I was a little disappointed that jumping in the water killed me, and I didn’t understand where I was supposed to go after disabling the combine field.

    3 – Lumbering Gordon. I really liked the hand cart and the train. I am not sure what purpose the rebel soldier I found served, since he only seemed to slow me down. I didn’t find any purpose for the underground bunker since all the rooms were locked. The best part was having the train push the dead strider off the tracks! Overall pretty good

    4 – Station 25. Nice looking but very short and a little repetitive. Also, I couldn’t hear the voice speaking to me when I activated the last thumper

    5 – Cabin fever – I don’t like spawning maps in general, and this one kept churning out an endless stream of enemies. I also experienced a lot of lag on my computer playing it

    6 – The Choice. Missing textures made me think the author ran out of time to complete the map. I kind of liked the underground section, but I had no time to explore because of the ant lions constantly attacking me. The ending is also kind of weird with the black wall that you just approach

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      The missing textures is a tricky one. The author, his testers and one of my testers, all had no issues, but I and one other tester did. He says that the map only uses EP2 assets and no custom content, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

      Did you read the readme on how to remove the issue?

      The ending is related to the map crashing and the author losing 2/3 of his work.

      Reply
      1. vancanucksfan

        Ok, that fixed the texture issue for me and made the map look a lot better. It’s too bad about the author losing so much content in the crash, because I would have liked to play a larger version of this map!

        Reply
  16. Blue Lightning

    I’ll explain why I didn’t rate each map, but instead gave the whole set a “PIN” (above)…it’s because everyone else is pretty much saying it all for me. Except for Cabin Fever which oddly, I really like. I guess I must be sadistic…I love running over zombies with a car! And being arena style it was a nice change.

    All the maps were enjoyable and the authors very creative.”The Choice” was short but a lot of fun…”Station 25″ was beautiful and challenging as was “Station 8”. “Gravity Falls” was mapped well with a nice use of boulders and rocks. “Lumbering Gordon” had the train which was cool…I first thought I would be able to run into the Strider with it!

    This is a rare time that I wont rate each one. The main thing is these authors have some real talent and hopefully will be making some more maps in the future. And I’m glad Phillip has these contests. One day when I make some money I’d like to kick in to the prize booty to help get these type of projects going!

    Reply
  17. Ade
    Play It Now!

    Replayed this so I can actually write down my thoughts on it. Hope the heading tag works for me this time.

    1. Cabin Fever

    – “We can’t stop here, this is bat country” lol did he mean baD?
    – bad fps, as to be expected when so many enemies in one small place
    – amazing mounted rpg and thx Phillip for pointing it out, first time I tried to get up there I thought it was a player clip that stopped me from getting in the attic, turns out it’s just a smaller area to crouch in and I had to climb the crate from a side, but it was worth it, it’s a new mechanic and the entry should be played for this alone
    – I liked that it had multiple approaches; you can finish it with just nades by sitting near the nade crate, yet this was most boring and longest way; you can also fight them on foot with the many weapons scattered around the map (I didn’t try since I took too much damage like this); you can camp the rpg but again I think this would take too long; and last but not least, the hinted way is with the jalopy since the author gives you 2 of them and this indeed is most fun and fastest way to finish this arena map which is quite enjoyable once you get the hang of it
    – playtime: 17 minutes

    2. Gravity Falls

    – the rpg crate in the beginning is quite confusing
    – I enjoyed the outdoors and the climbing, fighting enemies with rocks at hand, building a make-shift bridge, but there’s a lot of holes in the map(ping) and I even got in one place I wasn’t supposed to: Img
    – if I didn’t kill the guard (first time through, the spike didn’t work!), it’s just stuck there and I’m forced to fight it on my way back
    – the house in the middle, after the antlions section, indeed has no doors (noticed that on my 2nd playthrough) but I don’t think it’s that important since it’s hard to notice cus you’re supposed to take the roof to continue
    – I loved the new mechanic (at least I never seen it in other mods) and yea, this entry should be played just for this; I realized what I had to do in a fair amount of time, I think it was really well implemented and how it ingeniously mirrored a real life situation, physics and logic; was a bit primordial, too, wood and fire in a cave haha
    – sad that I can’t light combine soldiers on fire with the same mechanic
    – one manhack got into a said hole in map and was now stuck behind a wall in the cave, was weird to see it but not be able to interact with it
    – I also found the alarm annoying as it didn’t stop til the mod ended
    – all in all, great visuals and enjoyable gameplay, with minor bugs
    – playtime: 17 minutes

    3. Lumbering Gordon

    – I missed the “crappers” first time through so thanks to another commenter for pointing it out (I’ve seen better in Mission: Improbable), yet once I found them and the npc I realized they don’t add much to the atmosphere
    – I could barely understand the radio speech and my goal
    – like I said in a comment, nothing forced me to fight the Hunters and I feel half the mod was lost there, as overall is kind of short and nothing amazing to it, except a new train model
    – unbreakable crates is again the sign of an author who’s releases I never enjoyed, but this one was his “best yet’
    – the custom tower in the distance was nice to look at: Img
    – 1 word review for this: meh
    – playtime: 7 minutes

    4. Station 8 🙂

    – nice idea and timing for the title to come up in-game
    – at first I didn’t know where I was supposed to go after the 1st cabin, so I drove back
    – best displacement work I’ve ever seen in a mod, most realistic also.. this mapper is now one of my favorites!
    – ur given a lambda sign so you know you need to go on foot; you follow the river like you would do in real life
    – I missed the 3 hanged bodies the 2nd time through which is a shame, I hope everyone playing this sees them; at the moment this is my new wallpaper (before it was win default for years lol) so, yea, great visuals in this entry
    – at the 2nd drop, to go down you can either jump in the water or climb to the right down a realistic “path”, which is again, wonderful work
    – power lines have look and placement like what you’d expect in real life and also add to the gameplay as you need to follow those
    – loved fighting the combine and the Hunter in the forest, at that moment I felt this best described the theme
    – amazing destroyable roof and that whole construction, or if I may, that entire area, gave me a sense of realism (again)
    – nice chopper stages and sounds
    – didn’t mind the fog at all, I found it bit unfair when I first heard the chopper but juuust for a few moments; overall I just loved it, how it added a sense of cold to the whole surrounding, very mountain like, very realistic and so atmospheric; and as I already said in a previous comment, it changed difficulty and gameplay, both when fighting the combine as well as the chopper
    – I bugged the chopper to explode forever as it got stuck in the tower the 2nd time I played it
    – nice orb puzzle, I also thought I missed a ggun but then looked around and the solution wasn’t far away
    – this is my favorite entry and one of my favorite maps for ep2, it’s quality work, bug free, very atmospheric right from scene 1, very good combat.. I just loved playing it, love everything about it, so play it, play it now!
    – playtime: 23 minutes

    5. Station 25

    – too short
    – not much to say about this, map felt kind of dry; like others said, beats me why this entry won; I felt the outdoors were bit arena like which I’m ok with but single players hate that in general;
    – lacked the actual forest feel imo and had some invisible walls
    – nice ending, I could sense the npc was genuinely worried for my safety
    – playtime: 5 minutes

    6. The Choice

    – first guard doesn’t follow, didn’t even notice it first time I played the underground; 2nd guard is also stuck in his spawn place, which is a shame as the entry is short and therefore cut even shorter
    – I enjoyed playing this as it also had different approaches just like the first entry, but here they really are different in terms of routing, weapons and enemies; so I’d like it if author doesn’t stop here..
    – should return to main menu
    – playtime: 10 minutes

    Overall a very nice theme and I feel the competition was successful as it produced amazing entries in such a short time span. Interesting and new mechanics and multiple approaches sure add replayability to a few entries. 4th one stood out for me as being on a shelf of its own and now I’m excited to see what Justin Carlton can really do if he takes his time 🙂

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 19 Minutes
    Reply
  18. zonbie
    Play It Now!

    Station 8 is the winner in my book because of the small ominous details leading up to the ambush. The ambush itself was harrowing and difficult, which was great. But it did have some problems. I was disappointed by the house because it was tough to navigate…this was due to the excessive darkness and the piles of debris.

    Station 25 was also pretty good.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    2 Hours
    Reply
  19. Gypsy_Jim
    Personal Favourite

    I can’t add an awful lot more to the reviews already posted above, but FWIW I enjoyed all of the entries, and definitely give this a PF as I will be playing it all again to see what I missed, and more simply, because I enjoyed the experience…

    However I did have a minor niggle or two, for example, in Lumbering Gordon, I abandoned the hand-car on the first play through and somehow triggered a couple of hunters, but with no where near enough ammo to protect myself, on the second play through they didn’t appear at all, even though I (thought) I was ready for them… It really is a minor issue, but given that they can be SOBs to deal with I was kind of looking forward to the fight.

    In Station 8, the foggy one, I got lost and lost again, making what was already a pretty large map seem even larger, it was well worth it to persevere though, but like Phillip I thought I too had missed the gravity gun so cheated myself one. I’m still not sure how I could have done it without, but having read most of the comments here will go and see if I can figure it out…I also got stuck behind some of the rock piles on the outskirts of the map, which meant having to resort to noclipping back into the play area, which was a shame, but didn’t really matter all that much. Overall the map was probably for me the most frustrating, and the most enjoyable at the same time, and I for one look forward to anything else by the same author. (If there are any that I’ve already missed, then please let me know!)

    I too had pink roofs & other bits indicating missing textures in The Choice, but it didn’t significantly spoil it for me, I would quite like to know if it’s something a player could fix by copying & pasting another file from somewhere in a another map/mod/game though, just out of curiosity?

    All in all though Forestville is pretty much my favorite “Ville” and will take some beating by future competitions! Brilliant work and thank you to all the mappers for their time and effort they must have put in, appreciated gents, much.

    Reply
  20. Darth_Sylph

    i can’t play this one, it starts up, but then i get this error:

    can’t find background image materials/console/startup_loading.vtf and it won’t go any farther

    Reply
    1. Zekiran

      Scroll up to the top of the page, and click PLAY. There you will find the blue Gauge link. Download and install Gauge, and then redownload any map or mod that throws that error. It’s one of the things Gauge does really well, allowing you to basically skip the stuff that’s broken. It will allow you to play.

      You will have the Gauge window up, it’ll allow you to browse for things, install and uninstall, and play specific maps/mods. So instead of trying to manually install the mod/map, Gauge does that for you. It will have a popup that asks if you would like to Fix that mod – say yes. Let it finish installing the map, and then you can click Play on Gauge to run it through there instead of your Steam library.

      Reply
      1. rumrunner

        Tried to replay these maps but the only one highlighted is the first one
        My remembering is not good but I think there was a file to change
        Any help would be appreciated.
        Thanks
        Installed with gauge

        Reply
        1. rumrunner

          Just found solution an old post on halloweenville joe freeman had same problem
          needed high speed to search.

          Phillip told him to open game folder(in this case forestville) open CFG file then open config.cfg with
          notepad change” sv_unlocked chapters to” 15 ”
          mine was set to 1

          Reply
          1. Zekiran

            Yeah I actually had that issue too on a prior competition collection. That does seem like something Gauge should address.

            Phillip! 😀

            Reply
            1. rumrunner

              Thanks for the reply
              It seems like to play hl mods and above we have to continually find issues to overcome.
              Thanks to this website and members they are doable .
              I had issues with abandon the town but will post on that page as some one else may have
              the same problem.

              Reply
            2. PlanetPhillip

              Well, we have had various discussions about this. The problem is that if we open up the chapters via Gauge we might do it when the modder doesn’t want that done. Most times the mod IS open for all chapters but in rare cases it isn’t and we can’t understand why.

              I’ll chat with Alex the coder and see if we can work on a compromise.

              Reply
              1. Darth_Sylph

                my issue is that my laptop doesn’t run Windows, and I’m running short on SSD space as it is, so I’m unable to dual-boot, so i can’t use Gauge,
                if there’s a simple way to fix this small issue, that would be appreciated,

                so does changing the config file fix it?

                Reply
            3. Darth_Sylph

              i don’t have a config.cfg file in my cfg folder, just a “chapter1.cfg” “chapter2.cfg” etc, and a “valve.rc” file

              Reply
  21. Neon Minerva
    Play It Now!

    I always like forest environments.

    Cabin Fever
    It is okay

    Spooky dark forest with a ridiculous amount of zombies! This is actually pretty cool, I like how there are caches hidden around the arena. I’m not too much of an arena fan but I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit.

    Gravity Falls
    It is great!

    This is a great map. Through a lot of the map you only have the gravity gun, and there are some easy but fun puzzles with it. Eventually, you get to a combine base, where you get to fight a lot of combine and make your way back to the start. The gunfights are very good, and I like how you can use manhacks against the hunter. I highly recommend this one!

    Lumbering Gordon
    It is okay

    Well, it’s better than the author’s previous maps. That said, there are really only two fights and they’re not very remarkable. I like the environment though, and the handcar is pretty cool.

    Station 8
    It is good

    I really like the foggy forest environment, and the atmosphere is fantastic. The main problem with this map is that it’s difficult to figure out where to go, but once you figure that out it’s quite a fun map, with some good combine fights and a helicopter fight that actually felt tense instead of tedious and exciting instead of boring. The way to solve the last puzzle is kinda silly, but it’s a good map.

    Station 25
    It is good

    It’s a fun little map. The only enemies are antlions, but it looks nice and the layout is good. I like the secrets scattered around and the custom voice acting. Not much else to say, but it’s a good map.

    The Choice
    It is great!

    This is really good! There’s some nice antlion/zombie combat and some nice combine combat, the map looks really nice visually, I like the layout and the strider battle was fun, especially if you decide to use the mines! The choices eventually wind up at the same place, and I definitely prefer one over the other, but it’s a great map and I recommend it.

    Overall

    This is great. I highly recommend playing it, especially Gravity Falls, that was my favourite of the bunch. Next up, VerticalVille.

    Reply
  22. Steve
    Play It Later
    Cabin Fever
    It is good

    Now this is a silly map but it’s far too dark and is almost like playing a Doom game in the Half Life world. It made no sense but I still loved it!! More lights and more options for different tactics too. How about a tower with a crossbow to play sniper? There’s lots of ways to take this good map and make it great.

    Gravity Falls
    It is great!

    I liked this. The name is funny plus I don’t normally click with games that rely on the Gravgun. But I did with this as it was interesting to explore with cunning puzzles. That tree fooled me for a few moments… The antlion part I completely missed and paid the price for it on the walk back. I didn’t see the point of it tbh if the spike wasn’t an effect forced at that moment. Loved the scenes that followed and I sussed the roof hopping straight away, that’s a first for me lol. The run back could have done with more health/weapons because it was hard. Especially when the Hunter turned up, I thought. The worst part of all this was the end battle which wasn’t fair and extremely hard, again, probably just for me! Overall, this map has some unique ideas which I liked and the map design throughout was always interesting. I liked it but found it all a bit of a slog and rather unbalanced at times. Tweak please! 😉

    Lumbering Gordon
    It is bad

    Sorry, I just didn’t like this one much. It looked really nice and interesting but all that for very little in the way of content. I thought it wasn’t a great idea to have Hunters appear but at the cart worked so well. I thought things could have been great here but sometimes it was too vague for me.

    Station 8
    It is great!

    Another which was too vague for little ol me at times. But eventually after wading through the growth I found my way properly and I mist say that I loved every second of it. What a great battle and the gunship part was nicely done too. Oh, the hanging bodies up high. Wow that was creepy!!! Brilliant map. One or two niggles that personally bugged me – firstly, the combine soldiers can see perfectly fine in the fog. And far too great for me. I even ran away to test this and crouched behind a log, they could see me and knew exactly were I was. But I couldn’t see them and needed to walk a ways to fix that. Picky, I know but it spoilt the realism factor somewhat from this work of art. Finally, that last puzzle. Come on!!! ARGGHHHHH!!!!

    Station 25
    It is great!

    Antlions!! I hate Antlions and many mappers often have this blighters re-spawning over and over and over and over and…. Ugh, I play a different map!! Well, this game really impressed me. Sure, there was a constant invasion but it wouldn’t have worked otherwise in this case and it all gelled together well with each activated thumper. What a rush but a fun one and I thought the shotgun/ammo was nicely balanced too. I’ve never liked Antlions but I think this has broken the mold for me and I’ve finally found one I enjoyed! I’m shocked O_o

    The Choice
    It is good

    This could have been brilliant, so easily too, but I read about the crash and am gutted. The idea of two pathways through isn’t something I like – because I’m awkward and wanna explore every inch of the adventure. So normally I’d try and backtrack to see what I’ve missed lol. The outdoor parts are nice and I liked the look and layout, even if it did feel a little too empty over the long distances. Nice weapons and I enjoyed sneakily taking out the first guards. I was kinda gutted when it finished a little later.. I wanted more!! The alternative route underground is nice also but TWO antlion guards!! Come on, I used everything I had to kill the first one and almost didn’t make it passed the second. A little overkill there imho. Plays well and perhaps a more interesting route but I’d hate to loose the other over this also. Shame data was lost, I can only imagine what it was like before…

    Reply
  23. Daken50
    Maybe?

    The maps look good but overall I found the game play forgettable.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    30 Minutes
    Reply
  24. Luke Traitor
    Play It Later

    Forestville, a good concept with a good visual for most level designs. I played this like a number of times.

    Cabin Fever by David Newell
    It is bad

    An arena where you get to fight a horde of zombies, nothing to say other than a very amateurish map.

    Gravity Falls by Alastair Toft
    It is great!

    This one is pretty decent with a good visual and level design. The combat is okay, not too hard but sometimes it is. Killing the antlion guardian is very easy to say the least.

    Lumbering Gordon by Tony DeBasio-
    It is okay

    It’s meh. The handcar is pretty broken, it hardly moves so it is faster to go on foot. Or if you’re a pro, just bhop all the way to the train. Combat is nearly non-existent other than fighting against hunters and a strider. But seriously, you can just skip the hunter fight if you don’t use the handcar.

    Station 8 by Justin Carlton

    Sorry I have no rating for this yet and the fault goes to me. I usually skip this by climbing on the rocks and go out of bounds to beat the map.

    Station 25 by Jason Gimba
    It is great!

    Very good map design and combat. Quick paced, and short but it’s not that bad. There’s nothing more to say about this, it’s just a great map.

    The Choice by Benjamin Ferron
    It is okay

    You’ve been given two choices, either you run and gun against the combines or go to the mines while avoiding antlions. Correction, there’s three actually. The third choice is that you can just climb on the rocks and skip literally almost everything in this map.

    Summary

    The setting is pretty good and most mappers did a good job making an immersive map where you are in the forest.

    Reply

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