You play Gordon Freeman and your objective is to chase the Gman.
Of course, he is one step ahead of you all the time, but that’s doesn’t mean you can’t catch him.
What is this “island” in the title, play and you may find out (Actually you won’t, but you might in part 2!)
Basic Details
- Title: Gman Island Part 1
- File Name: hl1-sp-gman-island-part-1.7z
- Original File Name: ja.zip
- Size : 1.20MB
- Author: Jack Amano
- Date Released: 24 July 2000
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Installation Instructions
- Copy the maps folder into your Half-Life 1/Valve folder.
- Copy titles.txt into your Half-Life 1/Valve folder. (If you already have one, just rename it)
- Launch Half-Life 1
- Open the console and type map ja1.
- Press enter/return or click the Submit button.
- Play and Enjoy.
If you require more help, please visit the Help page.
Screenshots
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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Reader Recommendations
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good map, level finishes by joining-up with the original HL game.
Nice build up at the start. Good mapping skills mixed with well designed fights and some not so easy puzzles make for an enjoyable experience. Ends with a ‘to be continued” message. That’ll be Gman Island Part 2 then. Hope it’s as good quality as this one.
I’m giving it a 4 because it has no faults apart from being too short.
Short and not so much fun, nothing i’ve never seen before.
I really enjoyed this one. Let me tell you about a little problem I had though. SPOILERS BELOW
I couldn’t open the door, in one of the rooms in the Submarine yard, that leads to the pump room. I had to noclip which was a little disappointing and frustrating. Brownie points for telling me how to do it.
Anyway, I felt the overall feel of the mod was a little blocky but I felt the general atmosphere was well portrayed.
The gameplay and action was well-balanced and I didn’t think it was too hard.
Definitely looking for to playing and posting part 2 tomorrow.
I am also curious to see if Mel replay and re-reviews this and if so, if his recommendation changes.
[spoiler]To open that door you need to break the glass on the red button in the control room. You can see it through the window.[/spoiler]
Another level with the “stop the fan” quest. Here, the fan stops at random position, so you might have to return to the switch and turn it on, then off. Thankfully, in most cases it is possible to go right through the stopped fan.
The design is not bad, but very simple. The layout is used very well, making the game longer. There are some different locations, battles, some puzzles, some scripted scenes. They are various and that’s good.
The last map is the best – its walkthrough is sudden and different from what I initially supposed.
That was fun, can’t wait for part II.
Enough action, small puzzle(s), enough ammo/health.. And this time there was no need to use noclip for that fan, heh..
The author is a Japanese guy whose mapping MO comprises of tough gameplay coupled with extensive puzzles. This one is only 3 maps; it’s the simplest mod you’ll ever see from him. (Try Gman Island 2, you’ll be at your wit’s end trying to get past the second map!) Other mods from him are Portrait of Freeman and Prize.
The puzzles are hard to crack; you really have to do alot of backtracking and observation to get past these areas. Heh, I was stumped for like 20 minutes in that sub pen only to realize the answer’s in the flippin” screenshots! It’s these kind of puzzles that I find reasonable (unlike some really unintuitive ones I can imagine in some other mods) because I’m stumped, yet it is pretty obvious when I figured it out. So then I can finally squeeze myself into that submarine and give chase to the ever-so-evil G-man. (Read: the mod actually gives the player an objective to pursue.)
The gameplay is there too. As I mentioned before, along with the puzzles comes the strong resistance from G-man’s goons. You can tell from the screens that you’ll be up against fierce confrontations with soldiers. The craftsmanship of the maps is decent enough that you won’t be reminded of certain maps from last week, but you know his mapping does get better in later mods as his mods become more extensive with custom textures and models, etc. I think you all will like it.
P.S. Heads up phillip, part 2 is 13 maps (10 more than this one) and the puzzles are that much more complicated. I think it will take about 10 mins just to get past that osprey yard in the beginning. Good luck I’m rooting for ya!
Played part 1 and 2 some years ago now…I kind of remember bits of it…but don’t feel the urge to replay, I do remember some bits were really hard (for me at least) I loved the feel, and with a little more effort it could have been a total conversion…but hey, it is what it is…
I played some HL mods few days ago and this was one of them. I seem to have already forgot it. It has some good design, nice action, but nothing mindblowing. Good fun mod, but don’t expect too much. Gman Island 2 is better, but play this one as well.
Having first checked my original and personal records, I was always going to revise my assessment. Back when first released I considered Part 1 a good 6/10, whilst Hunger16 recommended 7/10, either way sounds more like a Play It Later then a Maybe.
This mod has some very strict trigger sequences, noticeably in the helicopter pad area, I found that if you did not do sequences in a particular order you never gained access to certain areas, which did not necessary block ones progress.
I see by now Phillip has his answer to the pump room access, this also had me fooled for awhile, sneaky button placement.
Back to the mod, after a brutal start dodging the Turret guns, the mod takes on a series of twists and turns with short sharp Grunt encounters through a complex of small rooms and air ducts. The conclusion takes part in a hugely proportioned submarine pen which may have you running around in circles, that’s until you tweak the button.
it’s certainly a fun to play mod, I enjoyed a second play through after figuring out all the key issues first time through. Set designs varied from basic and boxy at the start, improving with depth of play, then to the more ambitious architecture of act 3.
The gameplay was well balances with plenty of combat inter-mingled by way of situation solving in typical HL1 fashion. With Part 2 waiting, I had a look to see what my personal comments said; “Quality game, vast improvement on Part 1”, 8/10 with Hunger16 scoring it 8.6/10, can’t wait.
Much better than most debut maps, but this is still pretty rough around the edges. The puzzles and layout are well-done, involving some backtracking. The scripting is nicely done for the most part but could use polishing.
While the layout is solid, the actual architecture is pretty bland, and I don’t think Jack really pulled off the feel of a sub bay in the last map. Enemies are a better mixture than the gruntfests we’ve seen in the 100 Days so far. Not too much variation, but there are assassins and a couple of aliens thrown in the mix.
As an experienced player, I found this a total piece of cake on medium difficulty; I think playing on hard would be a much better balance.
Note: Phillip, you might want to update the Installation Instructions – you just need to copy the ja directory to your half-life directory, restart Steam, and select it from the library.
Although this was a bit blocky, it was fun to play, but with the exception assassins, was a little too easy. What I did find a little strange is at the beginning you see Gordon in his HEV suit, but for the first few minutes you are playing without it?
I would have preferred a little more action in the submarine pen area, but maybe that’s because I’m comparing the section to DAV Sub, which was more polished. Although there wasn’t anything outstanding, I enjoyed this more than most of the releases so far and I’m looking forward to part 2.
Oh ok I played this first time when I found it on Le Phillipe Croquete PS Cosmos HL1 dedicated web page, and it was good, get to those submarines was cool and it was fill with action and classy HL1 touches so that’s my recomendation based on those memories so yep u must play this, has the quality the fun and the apropiate action to deserve it!
Mod is seriously lacking autosaves, replayed the first bits a couple of times cus I would die on Normal, or my f7 would take me waaay back and I only get 1 quick save? The first time I got in the chopper area I saw the ninjas and died but upon reloading, the trigger that made them appear broke and was stuck with 1 bad quick save so of course I blame the author. Won’t rate it cus I didn’t get a chance to finish it.. And considering that also a lot of enemies freeze when they first see me, I won’t be playing part 2.
This is easily one of the best maps in the 100SDoN so far, with a nice mix of puzzles and action.
Like I just said this has both puzzle and action and executes them near enough perfectly. It’s not easy but not hard both for actions and puzzles and there isn’t actually much more to say.
“Play It Now!”
I enjoyed this mod. It’s not the best looking mod but there was enough action at a nicely paced rate, with some puzzles thrown in, to make up for that.
The environments were quite varied throughout the mod and the transitions between the areas seemed to make sense. However, some of the areas did feel a tad bland, with wide open spaces and little to populated them.
I feel that the action and the scripted events did make up for some of the uninteresting areas. I thought that there was an interesting mix of enemies to fight through the mod but, best of all, most of the enemies were placed in areas that made them challenging to fight.
There were a couple of areas that had some strange scripting triggers in order to move to the next area. I felt a bit confused because I needed to run around a bit before the next event triggered. Once I worked out what was supposed to happen and what I was supposed to do, it all seemed to work smoothly. I guess that was another case of the mapper having a set plan of events but that sequence is not overly obvious to the player. This is the sort of thing that can only be solve through external testing.
The puzzles were fairly standard, utilising the “find the button” variety, but it did help to break up the action and pace out the mod nicely so that was well done. I think I had the opposite problem with the puzzles, compared to most, in that I found the buttons easily but I couldn’t work out where they were connected to. Maybe a few signs indicating various areas would have helped navigation a bit.
Overall, this mod isn’t too bad. It should keep you entertained if you are looking for some more action in a Black Mesa environment.
Meh.
After replaying it I realized that this map pack is much better than I remember.
Old mod with non-spectacular design but nice gameplay
(HAVEN’t played part 2 yet, but will soon!)
Pro’s:
-Well-balanced -and made gameplay
-Good combat sequences
-Some new textures, objects (submarines) right? Readme said there are new objects.. and also quite good leveldesign (yard)
-Interesting and exciting story
-Some clever puzzles
Con’s:
-Sometimes too bright (dockyard), sometimes too dark (yard)
-Some poor leveldesign areas and only indoor yet (haven’t played part 2 yet)
-Minor bugs (elevator)
-No HEV at start but understandable as being in prison
-Short playtime
The dreadfully titled G-Man Island Part 1 is a short level pack from first-time Japanese author Jack Amano. Imprisoned because you opposed the bad, bad G-Man, you need to escape your cell and follow him, presumably so you can foil his future schemes. Your following of the G-Man only consists of making your way through the three levels — there is no time pressure in your pursuit whatsoever.
Many of the typical problems with debut maps are present in G-Man Island Part 1 — lack of variety, plain architecture, and playability problems. Your chief enemy will be grunts. A couple of aliens inexplicably show up in final level, presumably to be explained in Part 2. The architecture, although plain, is well done and on the whole well textured. As I was playing it, I had just been thinking to myself how well Jack did in keeping the r_speeds down. But then I came upon the last area – a huge submarine docking complex. The r_speeds shot way up and my framerates plummeted. The entire area played extremely sluggishly.
On the good side, the design of G-Man Island Part 1 is better than in most debut maps. There are a couple of short scripted sequences that are interesting, and there are quite a few simple puzzles to solve in order to advance. Nothing too complex, but more than the average first map. There are a couple of well-designed areas, especially the outdoor section. Combat is relatively easy, except for a couple of spots where it becomes moderately challenging.
Jack promises a Part 2, so we can look forward to his next effort. G-Man Island Part 1 does have decent design in terms of gameflow and layout, but the massive slowdown in the last map and the average architecture count against this map. My advice: pass on it, unless you are really hungry for more HL SP action.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Wednesday, 23rd August, 2000 by Unquenque.
This review was originally posted on the Ten Four website, which is now offline. The full review is republished here by permission and more details can be found on the About page.
Gman Island Part 1 for Half-Life
Awesome. Just awesome. Jack Amano, you have done a great job.
The level design is quite superb even though some places felt quite blocky.
Combat is also a huge reason I love this mod. At first, I didn’t like the combat that much because I didn’t see any Xen creatures until I finished it. Yes, it’s hard, but enjoyable as hell.
Overall, this is a mod you must not miss. Definitely one of my favorite mods.
JUST PLAY IT ALREADY!!
I’d like to do a full review but it won’t let me be logged in and do so. I don’t know whether that’s my connection or the page – however I will note that for the last bunch of days (since finding this page) the images are all completely broken.
\
*edit never mind, it logged me in after I’d posted this…. *sigh*
I was on the search for some Gman-centric mods, and this one came up. I hadn’t played it before, so I gave it a shot. I … am completely unimpressed by it – but that may be because it’s likely broken.
For the most part all I saw when I tried playing it the first 3 times, was a black screen and the title of each map “ja1” “ja2” appearing, and nothing at all happening while they were ‘loading’ (?). I think I played what was there, as I went to a walkthrough video and saw basically what I played out, only without the black screens.
Without the video I would never have finished it, as there’s zero direction to the game play, no idea what to do where, and a lot to be desired if there was a ‘story’. As far as I saw there wasn’t even any prologue or information displayed, but again that might be a thing that’s broken over time.
The fights were hard but still reasonably entertaining. No lack of alt-fire on that gun which I do love. Not sure if there was a sequel though I think there was, given the title of another video I spotted.
The maps themselves, some were pretty nicely done, but they all kind of lacked… something. They felt very impersonal and not remarkably clever for the most part, though maybe that was the point.
I think that more use of existing dialog would have helped a lot, definitely on-screen instruction or information would have been much better than none. Not terrible, certainly playable, but difficult at best to figure out what to do, and not much TO do at that, given that the ‘ending’ isn’t really much either. (just 3 more JA8, 9 and 10 maps in darkness?)
Using Gauge
Medium
25 Minutes
G-Man is leaving the hangar on Submarine. It is slow like a cow in comparison of the portal he used to travel to other dimensions like Xen. I mean he lost the capability of teletransportation in this mod. Anyone can ctach G-Man even the sharks, they are waiting his arrival, and when he’s close to fish ambush all available sharks and whale are going to skink G-Man’s submarine to the bottom of the ocean like Titanic lost his cruise in the middle of the night in the middle of the Atlantic almost artic ocean.
Manually
Hard
25 Minutes