Basic Details
- Title: Gateway 2: Shadows of Death
- File Name: hl1-sp-gateway-2.7z
- Original File Name: gate2.zip
- Size : 4.46Mb
- Author: Michael Hindman
- Date Released: 17 February 2001
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 5 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 5 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 22 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 18 Mins by reaction
Longest: 0 Hours, 25 Mins by Hec
Total Time Played: 1 Hours, 52 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 5 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 22 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 18 Mins by reaction
Longest: 0 Hours, 25 Mins by Hec
Total Time Played: 1 Hours, 52 Mins
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It’s not a map! It’s a mod, and right name is
“Gateway 2” – the sequel to to “The Gateway”
(or “Gateway”) by Michael Hindman. Release
date (from mod’s readme) is 02/20/2001.
Homepage: http://www.members.tripod.com/mhind26/halflife.html.
Download link: http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?file=56192 (gate2.zip, 6432 Kb).
It’s not a map! It’s a mod, and right name is
“Gateway 2” – the sequel to “The Gateway”
(or “Gateway”) by Michael Hindman. Release
date (from mod’s readme) is 02/20/2001.
Homepage: http://www.members.tripod.com/mhind26/halflife.html.
Download link: http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?file=56192 (gate2.zip, 6432 Kb).
Agree! unfortunelly the autor put more attention in models and sound, and the maps and short and a lil dull.
Exactly what Ezequielhl said. Though they were cool models, the gameplay was not fun, and the maps were very boring.
A nice my-first-map design, much work. New funny models should bring horror. Not fun for a long time but nice to see something different.
Not even the new models can make me look past the fact that the mapping in this Sequel to one of my favorite mods sucks.
Argh, that little maze type room in the beginning.. I have mazes when theres no real reason for it. Some interesting models etc, this guy has talent, but at this time he wasnt able to put that talent for good use.
Sad to give such a low score, but…
All of Michael Hindman’s Half-Life maps have some things in common: they all use new models and skins, but no new code, so the new models are just replacements for the standard HL monsters and weapons – Gateway 2: Shadow of Death continues that theme. That said, there are tricks that modelers can use when modifying the monster models to make them fresh. In this episode, the running speed of at least one of the monsters is changed, making it as fast as you. Like I said, it’s merely a trick, but it does make that particular monster seem completely new.
Gateway 2 picks up just about where the original left off. You’ve destroyed the ‘nightmare creature’ (probably using cheats) and are teleported back to your base. But now you’ve caused some sort of nasty dimensional rift and all the nightmares are causing trouble in your world. Time to kick some nightmare ass.
The main highlights of this episode (similar to the other two maps I’ve reviewed from Michael, The Haunted Lab and Medieval World) are the new models. As I said above, there is a monster replacement that can dish out a lot of damage when it connects, and it can now run as fast as you. It looks completely different than the original, though – it rather closely resembles an alien from the movie, uh, Alien. The alien’s skin could sure use some touch-up, but the model is good and the end result is a fast and pretty scary monster. Along the Alien motif, the baby headcrab has been turned into a facehugger, also from the movie series. The headcrabs are some sort of cute baby aliens, and the Gargantua is an impressive and intimidating robot that uses sounds from Robocop (ED-209, wasn’t it?).
All the weapon models are new as well, although many of them are cannibalized OpFor models. Again, without new code it is impossible to make genuine new weapons, so they are really just standard HL weapons in disguise. So even though a couple of them look pretty nifty, you’ll soon realize they’re just facelifts.
The other highlight of this pack is the combat. Although the path through the maps is strictly linear, there are quite a few bad guys intent on stopping your mission to destroy the gateway. You will be engaged in a couple of challenging battles; perhaps the most devious one occurs with the lights out. The finale is challenging too, a staple of Michael’s maps. Although the end area is poorly designed – most of the times I played through the finale, I was able to trigger the ending ‘cutscene’ with some enemies still alive, so as the cutscene was happening, they were busy tearing my frozen butt to shreds, and I couldn’t do a thing about it. Not that it really matters much (you’ll see).
But, as in the author’s other maps, the level design is poor. Not only are the maps strictly linear, but they are incredibly boring. The architecture is boxy and plain, the texturing is questionable in a lot of places, and lighting could use a lot of improvement (though the number of flashing/pulsing lights has really decreased in comparison to Michael’s other maps, thank God). And though there are 10 maps, the majority of them are pretty small. I still feel that if Michael were to team up with an experienced mapper for his next release, there is much more potential for a memorable release.
Is this pack worth it? Allow me to answer with a definitive: maybe. While the level design is a real letdown, the models are pretty well done and are a mild change of pace, at least. It’s probably worth the download if you’re really looking for more HL SP action. But it’s far from being a standout.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Tuesday, 20th March, 2001 by Unquenque.
This review was originally posted on the Ten Four Website, which is now offline. Permission has been granted to republish the full review and more details can be found on the About page.
This was better than the first release. But don’t get too excited! is still a 13 year old mod now, and well it is not the best HL1 mod you’ve ever play, so we have to keep that in mind.
I think the enhancement is notorious in map design as is not as blocky as the first one, and those models looked cool, in a very Alien movie style, but indeed are just mere replacements for the HL1 enemies, and the weaponry was a cool touch too.
Also in this part of this little saga, we can definitely see how the author intention was to make a survival-horror concept into the mod, which is quite ambitious for my liking, but yeah we can say it’s like a amateurish survival-horror mod.
Overall it got me entertained and, I guess I quite enjoyed it most of this mod, but at the end the difficulty skill is a mess and is very quite hard to finish the mod without the god cheat, so that’s also another turn down.
I guess this mod is an example of how modders can actually improve their work if they took more time to plan it and get it done with a bit more of quality.
Manually
Medium
25 Minutes
I believe I have played this modder’s work before. Though I have not played this particular release before now, the models have a somewhat eerie familiarity to them.
Sadly, the same can be said of the maps which consist of large open spaces with gameplay that rarely comes down to anything more than run and gun / push a button.
The models were interesting and I absolutely cannot fault the imagination that went into this. As a younger player, I likely would have enjoyed this a lot more. Now though, I can’t deny the low quality of the entire mod as a whole.
Manually
Hard
24 Minutes
Gateway 2 is a short, amateur horror/Aliens themed mod with plenty of custom models and sounds.
The maps are all extremely linear and badly balanced. I started playing on Hard and had to change to Easy as the enemies are too fast and too spongy.
The models are .. not good .. but they add a lot of early mod charm. As poorly as the mod sounds, looks and plays this is the sort of content I come to RTSL for. I love old mods, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and Gateway 2 also achieves this. It’s not so bad that it’s unplayable (if you play on Easy) so if you:
a) Like corny amateur mods
b) Like Aliens and/or Horror as a genre
c) Can look past faults to find the value within
If you meet at least one of these criteria you can get some enjoyment out of Gateway 2. It’s very short (18min total for my first playthrough) so why not give it a whirl?
Manually
Easy
18 Minutes
I enjoyed this one. The part with some corridors running away from aliens were nice. They have a nice ability to put the player against any corner and do not allow you to move anymore. Meanwhile you are not moving they strike with 2 pounches and if you still there they keep pounching you until you are down. Much better than the Vortgaunt from original game. They are like Mortal Combat warrior. I would like to see the alien kick the player out of the ring too as well. This mod is kind of creepy.
Manually
Hard
25 Minutes
It was more… completable? than first part but it was still weird and… zombie aliens?
Manually
Easy
20 Minutes