I’ve been playing and streaming the Classic of the Month maps for over a year and a half already, hard to believe.
I’ve definitely played some that are probably stretching the “classic” designation. But I’ve played a few others that are definitely worthy of the “Classic” name – so much so that I’ve decided to add them to the Hall of Fame.
So without further ado, here are the new inductees into the RunThinkShootLive Hall of Fame:
Kevin Lockitt’s Deliverance is a challenging map pack set in Black Mesa. And I mean challenging – it starts off with a direct assault on a bunch of grunts with a mounted gun and a tank, and doesn’t get much easier after that. It’s a fun but tough romp that took me about an hour and a half to play through. It even has multiple endings, and a familiar location or two!
Chris Spain is probably better-known for his series of “rats” maps for Half-Life deathmatch and Counter-Strike, but his outstanding single player map pack is Edge of Darkness. Another mod that clocks in at about an hour to 90 minutes, it’s a polished and varied map pack complete with clever mission briefing at the beginning and a surprising challenge at the end. Definitely a must-play in my book.
Dave Johnston is of course better known as the creator of the most popular Counter-Strike maps ever, de_dust and de_dust2. But ETC, his first single-player release, is a pretty solid pack of maps in its own right that took me about 45 minutes to get through. And it’s probably the first recorded use of a mustachioed Barney.
Prolific single-player mapper Mr. White brought us The Xeno Project in 1999. It’s a Xen-based map pack, but not the Xen some of us have come to hate – Xen is being terraformed and there’s no low gravity and no jumping puzzles. Clocking in at about an hour, it also nicely sets up the sequel.
So, that’s about it! What do you think? Were there ones I missed? Are there Half-Life 2 mods that you think should be added? Let me know in the comments!
Nice to see the Hall of Fame getting an update, and with four absolutely necessary additions.
I was looking at the Hall of Fame the other week and wondered whether it needs revamping.
Half Life mapping is becoming increasingly rare and the community could be considered niche – not unsurprising given the age of the games. I’m not sure if anything, no matter how gob smackingly great, will get enough recommendations to be added to the Hall of Fame.
Plus there’s definitely a few entries of, let’s say, questionable quality.
That’s just my loosely coherent thoughts.
It’s not a matter of number of recommendations, but a matter of quality, experience, and overall reception by players.
Huh, for some reason I thought the Hall of Fame required x number of recommendations with a high average. Must be brain fail on my part 🙂
maybe a project , to keep them and others working in the steamer pipe.
Out of these there are only two that I have played (and finished) – Deliverance and Edge of Darkness. I don’t quite remember how the former was but the latter’s opening was amazing. The level of detail is surprising.
How come I didn’t know de_dust’s creator was the maker of ETC, huh?
My only time trying The Xeno Project was through the ModDB download which I couldn’t make to work (doubt it was broken; more like I lacked something). Haven’t bothered to look for it here at the time since I had a lot of other works to navigate but I’ll definitely do so now.
Thank you Don, your interest into this site is worth noting.
Nice work on the overhaul of the hall of fame mods though I feel some classics in the hl1 category are yet still missing.
Be if Half-Life Visitors with it’s incredible length and good mapping or a map pack like Bootleg Squadrog for Opfor which gave us real innovative squad action even though it was short. Not forgetting Blackops or Todesangst, Hazardous course. Basically anything that was innovative by new assets length and game play..
Anyway Good work. 🙂
Good suggestions – my plan is to add maps I play as part of Classic of the Month to the Hall of Fame if they are deserving. Definitely a couple of the ones you mentioned are good candidates.
Edge of Darkness is one of my favorite map-packs for any HL game. Almost Valve’s quality right there, and level design rocks, detalization is just fantastic.