Gordon returns to Black Mesa and, just as you expected, something goes wrong.
All hell breaks loose and it’s up to you to fix it.
Fortunately, fellow scientists manage to find a way to send instruction text to your HEV faceplate.
Basic Details
- Title: Hazardous Materials
- File Name: hl1-sp-hazardous-materials-ep1.7z
- Size : 104MB
- Author: D. Wengenroth
- Date Released: 07 December 2011
PlanetPhillip Download Servers
Installation Instructions
- Copy the hazardous_materials folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Hazardous Materials should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical 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
Total Downloads
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4,020Overall
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1Today
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3Last 7 days
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12Last 30 days
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103365 days
Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 3 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 57 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 50 Mins by Stef
Longest: 1 Hours by Tudor Ionel
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 50 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 57 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 50 Mins by Stef
Longest: 1 Hours by Tudor Ionel
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 50 Mins
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Well, it’s always nice to have something new to play. That is until you load the tutorial map and find yourself in a heavy metal concert! Why do mappers include such inappropriate music? It just doesn’t fit the game. Anyway, the tutorial is a waste of time and may give you a negative imprtession of the mod to follow – avoid it. The first 4 screenshots are from the tutorial level.
Now, the mod itself was fun to play and had some nice areas, but there were parts that felt too empty and always as if I were just travelling to the next action packed section. Sure, that’s how these mods work, but I shouldn’t feel it.
Some areas were just large boxes and others right-angled tunnels – typical first mod issues.
Overall, I enjoyed playing it, but never really got too excited and sometimes the text was distracting. Play this on one difficulty higher than you normally would to have a challenge.
It’s certainly not bad for a first mod and I look forwrad to episode 2.
I concur with phillip. There isn’t anything bad about this mod; it’s fun, but there isn’t anything cool or impressive about the mod as a whole.
Agreed it’s a great mod.. Maybe not the most intense mod out there but still a lot of fun to play.
Some nice scripts here and there & clever monster placement + a little story rounding it up nicely.
Have fun.
Some of the mapping was a bit blocky but most was pretty good. Worth the 104 mb (Seriously???) download.
It’s a nice little mod with some good visuals and ideas. I got stuck in a map transition once and the ending was a little underwhelming, but overall it was enjoyable
If this is a first mod for the author I have to say well done, as I suspect it is actually the first one he was happy to release rather than earlier learning maps or mods!
Judging the mod as it stands, whilst it doesn’t have a wow factor, for a first release it is certainly better than some other first releases. I have to say that for the most part I stumbled my way through or that’s how it felt, as there was little allusion that there may be alternate routes and the on screen messages were really not necessary to the games completion.
As for looks, it was quite like BM but not 100% and the combat could have been a bit harder i.e. more enemies. The ending however was a little disappointing unless that’s where you start in part 2.
Overall it had the two main factors I look for:
It was fun and I enjoyed it.
I totally agree to Philip once more, but where’s the hazard course? lol
I only seen the lil empty square, nowhere to go O.o
Anyway, this mod is nice for short playing, has lot of similarities to “Alternate Way part 1”,
yes I played both today and both are just average with some rare lil precious content.
Playtime is not that long, but you always know what to do and / or where to go, you can’t get stuck.
Some areas are detailed while others are just boring, or “random”, for example the river outside..
Nonetheless I missed some more action instead of turning on things or running long ways.
Average mod, but worth playing.
Keep running around. Eventually, I hole in the ground appears in one of the corners.
The hazard course is just a placeholder. I’m realy surprised that anyone ever play it. o_0
I will fix this with Episode 2 😉
Thank you for the great reviews. The “blocky” leveldesign is history in EP2 😉
Too impatient, ya read that KAEPS?? ;P
edit: Für eventuelle kreative Ideen steh ich gern zur Verfügung hehe
edit2:
I want to add that I very much liked the indoor architecture / layout / design, especially tunnels, buildings EXCEPT canal 😛
Ok so here we have nice maps, cool basic story and acceptable combat scenarios all over the place, so is a nice medium lenght mod.
I liked the interesting mysterious g-man sightings, and those were quite good planed.
In the bad points I agree about the music, a heavy metal super hardcore stuff is just not quite appropiate for a hl1 mod, i’d love to hear something electronic or anything different from that heavy metal concert definitely!
Also I liked the text titles on the screen, and the recorded voices on the military radios, so is a nice mod, u have to play for HL1, and i’m also awating the 2nd episode to be played soon.
Although never over challenging the mod has its moments with one or two well staged shoot outs.
I found that my interest was well kept up be some interesting textured and illuminated passageways and sets, some designed to give a real sense of descending has you dig deeper into the complex.
There is not much here to puzzle the mind, the way ahead is always fairly straight forward although some triggers were a bit vague. Overall a mixture of fresh and well established environments and settings that promised more then it delivered, but the path is well set for part 2.
Well worth the download and play through.
Although it’s certainly not awful, there are a lot of shortcomings in this Black Mesa themed pack. It’s pretty basic and could really use a tune-up – but what’s there is a good start. But ugh the lack of autosaves is a pain in the ass.
Overall Black Mesa is decently done here, with a mix of inside and outside. But what’s missing is the sense of grandness, a sense that you’re in a humongous research facility. It plays overall pretty easy, I would ramp up your normal difficulty if you play this one. I came across a couple minor bugs – some level changes might get you stuck in walls. And when I came up to the tank aimed toward a door it was supposed to shoot open when you press a button, I skipped the button and was able to “use” the tank like it was a train car (like at the end of the HL Hazard Course) and send it on its merry way, passing right through the door like a ghost.
A couple of simple mapping fixes can sort out most of these bugs. Often scenery will disappear in the distance – which is a straightforward map setting. Some of the grating and fencing glow bright in the dark – again, this is just an incorrect setting in Hammer.
Then there are nonsensical things here and there, like the ubiquitous crates that are too big for their placement, a fenced off area right at the spawn with no door or gate to get in, an invisible wall to stop your movement, and train tracks that lead to black walls instead of nicely faded out tunnels. Some crates are breakable and some are not. Some radios you can use and some you can not. Yes, we see these things in other maps but it’s no excuse and ultimately kind of sloppy.
The architecture is boxy and mostly passable, although another detailing pass would be great to help with the squarish feel of everything. Lighting could really be improved too, I don’t think the author took much advantage of texture lighting, which in the HL engine looks the most natural. Some lighting is pretty ugly and often you have weird shadows.
I did like the minor use of sequences to give the feeling of life to Black Mesa – it’s always better than everything seeming to just wait until you show up. The Gman appearances are also nice touches, as was the crashed Osprey.
Overall it’s a middle-of-the-road Black Mesa pack. Unfortunately the file size is terribly inflated with unnecessary files and huge sound files that could be compressed for use in Steam.
i am on map 11 I think, the room with the laser and the vent open. I can jump on the vent. it makes the ladder sound. but it will not let me in. I pushed another box over but can not run and jump into the vent. any ideas. help me obe one knobie your my only hope. snicker.
Yeah, this was a problem for me too. It’s clear you should be able to get in there, I think the mapper just made the ladder end too high. I noclipped so I could move forward a couple feet into the vent.
thanks, I hate to load the cheats, but if its a mapper issue than cheat I shall. off to the mod.
Entering the vent is also possible without noclip.. A crouch jump should do the trick. But yep sometimes it is a little tricky.
Also I think a “maybe” rating is a bit harch as it was his first mod for hl and most of the things you counted as bugs are just cosmetics. The gameplay itself still runs smooth & nice.
Never the less a good review that you wrote. It should help him to improve his mod as he will eventually release an updated version of it along with Episode2 as far as I know.
good little mod. if they release the second part it will be a great little mod. give it a try.
In my opinion, the only one interesting map in this mod is penultimate map. At least, we have some original architecture and fighting experience there. Most other maps are too small and have a simplified level design without attractive details. So you just pass through them without worthy gameplay. Play it, but don’t expect too much fun from it.
:O
Black Mesa will always close to my heart so any mod which takes part in some other section of the facility will always be high on my list of favourites. Only the first part of what is likely to become a much larger title, Hazardous Materials Episode 1 is good, but there are just a couple of issues which kept it from becoming great.
Firstly, the vague plot lacks continuity between rooms. At the start of the mod I was informed that some pumps needed to be activated and that some tanks were at risk of rupturing or something or other, the military were hitting the surface with artillery and sending in attack choppers, and scientists were voicing their desires to get the Hell out of dodge. Then in the next room, a scientist buys a can of coke, while another casually types away at a computer.
Second, some consistency and logic could be applied to some of the areas. I found a few doors in walls or cliff faces which seemingly lead to nowhere, nothing but air on the other side.
Finally, the use of music in the mod. Not everyone likes heavy metal and I’m certain less people like it in Half-Life’s compressed WAV format. Out of place and really annoying.
However, like I said, the mod is enjoyable overall and playing it on Hard difficulty will certainly offer a challenge. It is also worth noting that the author is aware of a lot of the issues already and is amending them with the hope of including an updated version with the future release of Episode 2.
Just a quick kind of update note. This mod have been enhanced and a new episode was added, search for it on Mod DB.
I am sorry for the harsh comments but this would be a good mod if the following problems would be fixed:
I don’t think the training was necesary as it is too basic and doesn’t introduce new gameplay elements.
The game starts way too fast, the player feels misplaced even though the level design is fine and resembles the black mesa complex.
There is no story.
It isn’t completely linear, although you are forced to go one way in the end you can explore your surroundings and find alternate routes – unfortunately there is no sense of purpose to the game – this could work in the gameplay’s favour if you had a clear objective to complete.
There are some things that kill the immersion.
Levels feel cramped and out of scale sometimes, a common mistake with goldsrc maps. Some rooms have doors block you or are just plain annoying. In level8 I got stuck after loading the map in the tunnel.
Close to the beginning there’s a section where you have to use a radio box to fire a tank’s cannon (which could use some clever hinting like sound or lighting other than backtracking after being blocked by the silo door). The tank just rolls sideways and has no sound. It dissapears as soon as the next map loads.
Speaking of hinting, after a nice grunt firefight outdoors you go into a building. Upstairs is a computer room that stays silent until you enter it. The only source of noise is the big mainframe computer which opens a door if you press use on it. It looks generic and could be confusing for new players. Perhaps better lighting or a blinking light, an obvious button on the prefab would make more sense.
The big weapons are being given to the player pretty early on. This makes difficulty scaling quite bad if you take in consideration the lack of health and ammo supplies.
I didn’t bother opening every single crate in the game, they take too many hits and they aren’t consistent like in the base game (HL1) where only certain crates drop items and others are just decorative or rarely drop something useful. Most likely this is the reason I ran out of ammo very close to the beginning of the game.
Graphically the levels are OK. There are some issues with lightmap scale where the flashlight cone is unevenly smaller on some brush faces.
On level10 there’s an obvious leak just after loading it.
There are sections where you can’t progress because you’re blocked by invisible brushes, I would have preffered something more subtle like debris or some other obstacle to attract my attention that I cannot go in that direction.
Some levels have very dark areas sometimes containing grunts with grenade launchers in them.
Voice acting is terrible and it’s existence is unexplained (do you have a radio on the HEV suit? I did not expect someone talking to me suddenly).
Music is coming from one isolated source in the map instead of using Play Everywhere flag.
Sounds and music aren’t top notch quality and are probably the reason the pack is so unnecessarily big.
Overall it wasn’t much fun and gets repetitive quick. Props for open areas and non linear paths but the lack of clear mission objectives ruins it.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
This is great!
Good mod overall and pretty balanced,
heltkit: taek, +15 hP, yeos, ready to fight in close range 45 soldiers and few aliens. use your +15 hp carefully cuz you won’t see it again for almost 15 minutes.
Manually
Easy
1 Hour
omgod
Had a mixed feeling with this one, gameplay was well balance and there was no issue with the progression and only on issue with entering a vent that needed me to noclip 🙁
Regrading design it increase with progression but was, for the first half, quite boxy and mixed with lots of hallsways
I hade no issue with health or combat it was for me correctly balanced
certainly recommand you to give it a try because it was resonably fun…will try the second chapter
Manually
Medium
50 Minutes