This was an entry for a competition at FacePunch.com.
Work your way up the mountain path and then through the caves until you reach…..well, let’s see how far you get.
- Title: Mountain Caves
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-mountain-caves.7z
- Size : 25.12MB
- Author: Chris Thürsam AKA Project-90
- Date Released: 23 August 2010
Download directly into MapTap 25.12MB]
You MUST have MapTap installed before using this link.
Download to your HDD [25.12MB]
You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.
- Copy mountaincaves.bsp into your Half-Life 2: Episode Two Maps folder.
- Launch Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Open the console and type map mountaincaves.
- Press enter/return or click the Submit button.
- Play and Enjoy.
If you require more help, please visit the Help page.
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WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010
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3,668Overall
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0Today
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2Last 7 days
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9Last 30 days
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127365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 15 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 12 Mins by JellyBeanDude27
Longest: 0 Hours, 20 Mins by Steve
Total Time Played: 0 Hours, 45 Mins
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This review contains spoilers.
When I first started the map I was worried because almost immediately I encountered an invisible wall. I hate invisible walls, they are lazy mapping devices. Anyway, the FPS slowed down quite a lot at the beginning but soon settled down. The map was atmospheric and detailed. Of course the limits of the Source engine give some of the mountain views a strange look, but ti’s still pretty good.
I enjoyed the few obstacles in my way and the combat is fine, if a little repetitive. It’s the little touches that I like. The dead Combine and rebels lying around, the nooks and crannies to wander into, the use of sounds.
There is a great underwater section, that is done really well, and also a nicely played out cave section. Emerging into the daylight you find yourself at a base that clearly looks like it’s had to defend itself from headcrabs and zombies.
The author tells me it was rushed and contains bugs, and he is right, but even as it stands I have no hesitation in recommending you play it.
I’m looking forward to more of his work.
Out of curiosity, when you mention the invisible wall, do you mean the one that keeps you from getting back to the car? I didn’t notice any other invisible walls besides that one, and I didn’t really mind since it just made sure the player didn’t accidentally wander the wrong direction. I’m more upset when there’s an invisible wall in the middle of a map.
Yes, the one to stop me getting in the car.
I’m still debating on whether I should make this a personal favorite. It certainly comes close. I’ll use Play It Now as a placeholder, as there’s no doubt that it deserves that much.
VERY atmospheric, excellent visual vistas, and the exploration aspect was its own little puzzle, like finding your way through a maze.
The only thing that could have made this better was if the ending included a gonarch attach, where you had to quickly help out the rebels before the base was destroyed by it. I can’t pin exactly what did it, probably how you only ever fight zombies and headcrabs, even though you see combine corpses scattered all over, compounded by the overall sense of seclusion, it all screamed that there should have been something big at the end.
It actually reminded my quite a bit of Dear Esther, but with just enough combat to spice things up.
I have decided against giving this a Personal Favorite, mostly on general principles. Play It Now will suffice. There are two primary reasons that it missed my PF mark:
At the beginning, the first obstacle you run into is a drawbridge that needs lowered.[spoiler]There is a battery sitting on a crate, and for some reason shooting at the crate causes the drawbridge to lower.[/spoiler]This made no sense to me at all.
The other minor issue is more of a personal quirk.[spoiler]The second collapsing bridge, the one that you are actually SUPPOSED to fall from, uses an invisible wall to keep you from getting across. I just consider this poor mapping, as it should have been just as easy to make the bridge long enough that you simply CANT jump out of the way of the collapsed section. I only had to sprint and jump to reach the other side of the bridge and run into the invisible wall, it’s not like I needed to use the bunnyhop exploit.[/spoiler]
The link to the PP server appears to be broken. No biggie as the Filefront one is working just fine, but thought I’d mention it.
Fixed, thanks.
I can’t reflect any keen enthusiasm by giving it a PIN.
It is a must play though. Many will enjoy it, I think.
It does have bugs giving the odd weirdness.
I also had some FPS lag which I could have sorted by dropping my screen resolution a step or 2. I didn’t bother as it’s just one map.
For a map made “on the rush” it’s OK. I would love to see it corrected and extended into a map pack or mod.
Atmospheric, not much hard combat.
This is odd, usually I’m the one that finds the bugs. I did notice the FPS drop, but only at the one scene[spoiler]with the cave in[/spoiler]
What were the bugs, as I can’t recall anything that caused problems for me.
After a long time of not having the time to play and only Portal mods for the most part being the only new files on the site (I got Portal when it was free, which reinforced the reason not to get it), this was a nice surprise. For me the underwater sequence was a little bit like Space Mountain at Disneyland in LA, but without the bruises left on my arm from the grip of my ex.
As for the invisible wall at the start, for me at least it was no different from starting inside a 3 wall room that has been about at least since the days of the original Doom (Ah, the memories). Any bugs were totally ignored and unnoticed, as I just wanted to play what I come to this site for, Half life 1/2/EP1/EP2 single player first person shooters.
I can’t quite bring myself to give it a PIN. I didn’t come across any bugs or irritating features other players have, and I thought the scenery and fog was well utilised. The caves were something we haven’t seen a lot of in maps. But while I enjoyed the map I was a tad underwhelmed by the experience. A few combine soldiers would have lived things up a bit.
A great “feeling” about this map, intriguing how it was designed. Definitely should have been that competition’s winner.
I enjoyed this map. The cave was great. Pity it was only one map. I would like to see more.
There’s a lot to see here and it’s fun to explore the remnants of a battle. However, I did not have my fair share of the battling and so I am disappointed overall.
A final battle would have been perfect but apparently the mapper did not think “going out with a bang” is the sort of thing maps aim to do.
At last a HL2 mod with some substances, it seems such a long time since I played any thing that one could call a pleasure to play.
I am not a great lover of enclosed cave type formats; however, Maintain Caves is well constructed with plenty of breaks from the underground world coupled with a few imaginative bridge crossing sequences.
it’s lacking Combine action but the ending could be a good lead into Part 2 with a match up of Rebel and Combine forces.
Overall well worth the download and play through.
I miss the gameplay videos.
Will you be making any more William?
I mean *Phillip*
Yes, definitely. But with so few releases recently, there hasn’t been much that has excited me.
Wow.
Seriously, this was an incredibly beautiful map, lots of fun to play. Too dark in a couple areas but I do believe that was the POINT. 😀
The vistas, environments and mood are all just superb. At first I wondered, “oh my am I in a spot that I wasn’t supposed to be?” but nooo, very well designed.
I seriously want to be able to map like this, this is just so gorgeous.
Well done all around. The fog enshrouded background, lush vegetation, ambient sounds, massacre scenes, water caves, and the ending were all top notch. The boss zombie battle was well scripted. With all the health packs laying around I was expecting an insane battle but what I got was fun with the insane missing.
The only negative items were minor; invisible wall and an over-abundance of ammo and weapons. However, the saw blades came in handy especially for one unlucky zombine.
I kinda liked this mod. Great mapping experiences, and Zombie battles, although it was a bit boring, and I’d only play this once. Cool mod though.
well worth the dload, thanks to the author for a nice map well done. I agree some combine would have added to the fun of this map as well as a “big bang” ending, but I think this map is layed out perfectly for a continuation of the theme. I would hope the author would expand on this.
Extremely pleasing map.Beautiful scenery.The fighting was a bit on the easy side.Not sure how I missed not playing it before.
As this map has reached the top 3 of the MapOTY, I had to play it, even if cave environments are really, really, not my kind.
First of all, I was amazed to see so many elements in one single map. No downloading time at all, and you have houses, moutains, great cliffs, underwater sections, many tunnels… It’s really a good utilisation of the ressources.
Then, the first part of the map is very atmospheric, the action comes more and more until one big battle in the caves. I’m a little bored of zombies, but this was still fun and well-done.
Maybe a little too easy (too many healthpacks and ammo throughout), but I’ve had some challenge overall.
The underwater tunnel sequences were cool, it was like “time warp” under water, a really cool idea.
I hoped to see a final battle with all the Resistance and the turrets against hordes of zombies, too bad there wasn’t.
Overall, it’s really wonderful mapped, with some cool elements. Worth a PIN. But not my MapOTY.
I don’t know how I missed this gem. This inventively named map has some gorgeous visuals. It’s easy to see that it’s painstakingly designed. The only thing that prevents me giving it a personal favorite is the monotony of the combat.
Wow, this map. It even rivals Wasteland Combat for atmosphere! Like WC, I felt like it could be real the entire time. The ambiance, the visuals, everything is perfect. And don’t even get me started on the visuals, they’re AMAZING. It takes place on a mountain very high up above the ground, which is an environment I love. It has a few shacks that have zombies and ammo in them. I must admit, the part where the bridge breaks made me jump a bit. When it breaks, you get to the “Caves” part of “Mountain Caves”. While it’s not quite as amazing as the mountains, I still think it’s beautiful and atmospheric. It’s also full of fast zombies. There’s an absolutely genius part where I got knocked into a stream by a fast zombie and I was dragged underwater in a current, being forcefully rushed through a small, tight claustrophobic tunnel, and for a few seconds I didn’t even know what was going on! The battles are pretty fun but they’re not the highlight of the map (that would be the visuals and atmosphere obviously). There’s a part I wasn’t particularly fond of where after you kill all the zombies in a room a rock breaks and reveals a path. I normally do not mind things like this but in a map that focuses on realism it’s out of place and silly. The ending’s also lazy, you go to a rebel base and when you walk inside it ends. Where did the character I was playing as go? Beyond that rebel shed it was just a cliff. Other than that, this map is brilliant and everyone should play it. I would not be surprised to see it in an actual Valve campaign.
Manually
Medium
12 Minutes
I have to add this to my increasing PF list!! An absolute joy to play, the foggy start leading up to the puzzle areas.. great stuff. Although I do hate the brush parts of these early areas. Either I’m a dwarf or something, it just didn’t work. Id prefer to have none of that taller grass.. anyhow, ignoring that little quibble.. I thought there was always more than enough ammo left lying around from previous battles. I love that. Plus I hated the atmosphere it creates from seeing the bodies, etc.. Brilliant stuff.
The cave scenes are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Those damn crabs jumping at me ARGGHHH!!! Plus the water scenes are superb !!!!!
The end battle was nice, nothing too difficult at all yet certainly not lame. I thought everything throughout was balanced and well done. Except the grassy areas. Yuk.
Personal Fave. Love this map and kudos to Chris for the designs.
Manually
Medium
20 Minutes
Ive got nothing to say but awesome mapping, looks pretty nice, especially with fog. Playtime is short and leaving good impression about Ur map. 10/10)
Manually
Medium
13 Minutes
Looks good. Play is ok.
I would have given it a ‘Personal Favourite’…had it been longer. It looks beautiful though. A few more and varied enemies would have been good too and I’d have liked to interact with my colleagues more at the end. Still, a fine piece of work…make more…and longer…