This modification offers a multi-level side story of Gordon Freeman while en-route to City 17 via Highway 17 in the infamous buggy.
When Gordon’s buggy was taken by the Combine Dropship, some maps of combine outposts hidden in one of the buggy’s side compartments were lost. Gordon was immediately dispatched by Dr. Kleiner and Dr. Eli Vance to locate the buggy and return the missing maps.
Setting: The entire modification is set at night on a small, rocky island off the coast of City 17. Rugged terrain, abandon structures, and multiple combine outposts will make escaping this island hell more than just a walk in the park.
His plan: Gordon surrenders to the combine so he could be transported to the facility where the buggy was left for scrap. Upon his surrender, he found himself in a small prison facility on the rocky island, waiting for a visit from Dr. Wallace Breen who would read his sentence personally. A familiar face woke him from his deep sedation…
His mission: Locate the buggy and find a way to return to City 17 with the stolen maps.
- Title: Offshore
- Filename: hl2-ep2-sp-offshore.7z
- Size : 101MB
- Author: Darrow Linder
- Date Released: 23 February 2008
A PDF walkthrough is now available on PlanetPhillip.com
This is a fast paced and highly intense single-player modification for Half-Life 2.
Game Style: Lost Coast style in terms of an add-on mission
Game Time: Estimated 5-7 hours (first time through) depending on your skill level and difficulty setting
Chapters: There are 9 chapters with a total of 27 playable levels. Each chapter should take between 30 and 60 minutes to complete.
Difficulty: Very challenging — especially on Difficult mode.
System Requirements: Personally I have no problems running the mod (my system is average based on the Valve polls that have been published), but the poly count is high — there are a number of large open areas, so keep that in mind when configuring your settings before you run.
If you have a previous Beta release you need to delete the folder before you install the new one.
1. Unzip the zip file into SourceMods (a folder called Offshore should be added)
2. Restart Steam. Offshore will show up in your game list.
3. You should see the new game in the your game list. Enjoy!
All text taken from the homepage.
Click on the thumbnails below to open a large (1024×640) image. WARNING: The screenshots may contain spoilers.
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Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010
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7,039Overall
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0Today
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9Last 7 days
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18Last 30 days
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252365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 4 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 6 Hours, 29 Mins
Shortest: 3 Hours by Beretta2006
Longest: 11 Hours, 45 Mins by EXABYTE
Total Time Played: 25 Hours, 57 Mins
This release is currently not in a collection
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
I got about half way through the pre-release and a crash preventing me continuing, so I’ll give this one a go.
Do we have a list of changes?
I don’t and the homepage doesn’t list any either.
I don’t know which pre-release you were running. The crash in the middle of the game has been fixed. Most of the changes between the pre-release and the final version were a matter of polishing and detail with some small additions here and there.
I’m on my laptop now but I have the game in progress on my other computer, in reference to the game crash I had, I’m running Steam offline with all memory dedecated to the game!
I still had the game quit memory crash, but no problems at all playing, I think I’m about 1/3 thru so far,very smooth, no crashes, with my graphics maxed! Can’t wait to get to the Charger, great edition!!! 😉
I experienced the reference memory crash the first time I closed down this final version, but now I’ve actually played part way into the mod it seems to have gone away.
I stopped playing the Beta version after one niggle too many, but it’s a mark of how good Offshore is that I’ve been excited at the thought of starting all over again on the polished version. I can’t grade it yet as I haven’t finished (and that’ll take me a while seeing as Offshore is enormous) but I don’t hesitate to recommend this mod to anybody.
I just got the memory crash again, but I’m part way thru the mod! It crashes at map Islandunderground3.bsp, when you go up the stairs around the elevator shaft, kill headcrab combine, and open the double doors to the large room with the large rotating wheel! I reset my graphics lower to no avail, I tried running past the zombies, same thing, so I had to load the next map! I think this same thing was mentioned for the last version also in the same place! Other than that it’s been running good for me.
Sorry… 🙁
I tested this at least a dozen times as did a number of my testers, and we were not able to see this in the final mod. Hopefully the frequency of this problem will be small…
I’ve played this and it gets pretty boring if you play in 1 sit through although I like the propane tank prefab where if u hit the propane tank on the stand it goes flying off.
The only thing is I got tired of is, being in the the office crap/ corridores it just kept repeating and then I could predict what was around a corner or through a door, it was just plain annoying I swear it was like I was walking through a portal everytime I went through a door which was annoying.
27 playable levels-
13 levels repeating offices of HELL!!!!
It just got annoying but its pretty dam good other than that ^^
Yeah, the copy & paste areas really feels cheap. Don’t go into the same route as Halo.
Currently playing through it though (zombies!), I’ll come back later when I’ve finished it.
Hmmmmm… I still feel this mod could do with some extra work. As before, in a lot of situations I found myself stumbling through puzzles, not really understanding how or why I was solving them.
I started a new game from the chapter I had reached in the pre-release. I eventually got to a large outdoor part on the coast with a helicopter. I forgot whether I had picked up the rocket launcher in the last version and assumed I had because there was a rocket crate and no other way to kill the chopper. So I spawned a launcher and took it down, then couldn’t figure out where to go. So I sprinted across the leech-infested waters and presumably entered the base from a direction I wasn’t supposed to as enemies kept appearing in rooms I’d already explored.
I ended up killing everyone there and now nothing is happening. No idea what to do.
This mod needs more OBSERVED playtesting and greater consideration for how players will face each challenge.
Oops, forgot this:
Just a couple of corrections and clarifications on previous comments. I have no problem if people don’t like the mod, but:
1. Eight people were pretty dedicated to testing for about 400 total hours (excluding myself). About 300 changes were made from the testing.
2. Roughly 5-8% of the areas were copied / pasted, but were usually significantly modified from their original. There were about 80 prefabs used over and over (stairs, desks, prison cells, crates, cabinets, consoles, …). So maybe the comment is more in reference to props or “appearance” of some areas as opposed to the level layout itself.
3. There are not 13 office levels. Just for reference:
Prison: 6
Prison Yard: 2
Office: 5
Warehouse/Docks: 3
Beachfront: 4
Industrial: 5
Train: 1
Hotel: 1
There are multiple screenshot from every level shown above (mostly the main areas from each level) and very few of the screenshots look similar.
4. You do *not* have to wade through leech infested water anywhere in the game. 🙂
I finaly made it to chapter 9! What a workout! I only had 1 memory error crash since my last comment! Still have got the quit game error, but I’m going to run a test on my RAM chips, and on my vid card for any problems! I like the additional map/areas ya added, almost like another HL2 episode! Good one to add to my collection, despite the minor problems!! The only thing that I miss is some music to go along with the levels, that would be nice! Thanks! 🙂
well after 30 min of play, very very nice.the changes from the beta sofar are great.as for the repetitive office this seems to fit most prison/office complex models seen in real life so i’m gonna go with it.one complaint I had on the beta was the placement/kind of things,boxes,desks,stuff. now it seems more random and thing look to belong there.
Just started playing this – I don’t know how it worked for other people because it didn’t work for me in the beginning. I double-clicked the game on Steam, it said “Preparing to launch Offshore…” then I saw the initial loading screen after which it immediately went away!
I debugged the crash and found out that it was a problem with the function Q_strncpy missing from the vstdlib.dll – and after I checked the episode 2 dlls I found out that the function was actually in vstdlib_s.dll. Tried a lot of stuff until I figured it out – the server.dll and client.dll libs in the bin folder of the mod are from Mar 28 2007 – before episode 2 was released and probably linked to the older version of the source SDK. So I copied the server.dll and client.dll libraries from Steam\steamapps\my name\half-life 2 episode two\episodic\bin into Steam\steamapps\SourceMods\Offshore\bin. After that I was finally able to start the mod and I already played the first two maps – everything looking good so far. When I’ll finish it I’ll be back with a review. I just thought I should mention this problem and the fix just in case somebody else runs into it.
Hi,
Well I am quite baffled – am I playing the same mod as everyone else?!? I’ve looked at all the screenshots – both here and elsewhere – and I don’t recognise anything, except for maybe one picture.
I am on the first (?) level- named “island escape”. I’ve killed all the Combine, and I am now wandering about the harbour – and office area – wondering what the hell I am supposed to do next? How do I get to the “next level’? I’m sure I’ve been through every door, area, corridor, etc, that you can – but I’m just going around in circles.
Any clues for me?
#i6 itsonlydanny: Not sure where you are, but have you got the suit, from the room accessible from the cliff path? The room with the suit has a switch that unlocks a door (visible though a window).
Very good mod. The guy who made this knows what he’s doing and has done a good job of it.
The start however didn’t work to well because it makes you think that your a stalker, but the vort addresses you as Freeman.
oops, sorry that was ment to be for the ep2 mod Union. Very sorry.
It was…ok. Didn’t finish it, got half way trough and got bored.
Can someone PLEASE tell me how to get started in this mod? No matter which way I go, I meet up with combine who beat me up… Am I overlooking a weapon somewhere???
#21, MALICE: from the prison cell, upa few steps then turn left and left again. Sweep up the ammo as you dodge the single guard, then grab the gun off the table behind the sentry gun. The mod is v. hard to begin with but levels out soon and becomes a lot more enjoyable.
Thanks MikeS! For some reason I didn’t see the gun before… Boy I feel dumb!
I cannot have enough praise for the creator of this mod – it belongs in a class of its own. I played Minerva, Riot Act, Rock 24, C2A, Ravenholm and many others and I can say with confidence that this is clearly better than all of them.Offshore is really long – I played on normal level and it took me more than 15 hours – I like to explore the surroundings and this mod encourages that 🙂 It was longer than either of the episodes – to me it felt like about 60% of the length of HL2 itself.
The maps contain a variety of environments and enemies that I enjoyed a lot – I believe this mod achieves a perfect balance between indoor and outdoor settings and between zombies and combine fights. The indoor areas are rarely cramped and the outdoor areas are really huge with nice scenery. Some indoor areas may seem repetitive in certain places but this actually makes architectural sense.
The battles are very well balanced – if you know what you are doing. You have to pay close attention to all sounds and carefully analyze the large areas before stepping into them – if you do so you will be able to take out a lot of enemies before they are able to engage you which will make the fights a lot simpler 🙂 This is the first mod where I have used the pistol a lot – it was my long range weapon of choice and I liked this! Of course this approach isn’t always possible and at times the fight will feel similar to Coastline to Atmosphere – lots of strong enemies charging at you – but it is refreshing to know that there is a lot of ammo lying around and you can expect to find plenty health after a strong fight. The enemy placement is outstanding – they are everywhere, high and low, in front and in the back and it all makes sense – the fights are very engaging and challenging but you can still win them in the first try – I died much less while playing this mod then when playing others.
While there are very few real puzzles you will often find it hard to figure how to move forward – again pay close attention to the surroundings, move stuff around to see what’s hidden behind it, use your flashlight in dark areas and feel free to go back and check the previously locked doors. Whenever you see some weird props they are probably there for a reason 🙂 And yes at times you will have to improvise a ladder – there are nice hints to suggest this when required. There is a lot of variety and it is always challenging without becoming tedious.
There are some highlights to this mod that I’d like to mention here – things that felt really outstanding: one of them is the dark area where you have to fight zombies and zombines while wadding in chest deep water with all kinds of submerged props that are impeding your movement – it was really original and I liked it very much. Another one is the outdoor area on islandbuggy3 – I liked this a lot because the mod creator left the door open to alternative approaches – I basically played the map in reverse! 🙂 Most large outdoor areas in this mod give you a lot of freedom in the way you approach them but that particular map was truly outstanding.
There are so many other smaller things I liked about this mod – too many to mention. I appreciated the lack of cutscenes and the fact that there is no communication to create a story – this mod stays focused on the exploration/combat aspect and delivers very well in that regard – I don’t feel that a story was necessary. And I also liked the way some audio from the original HL2 has been integrated in the final map.
In conclusion my rating is:
[PlanetPhillip Note – 2 extra images removed]
Yep, 3 times – this mod is clearly the best single player mod for HL2 to date – lots of thanks to the people that contributed to it – your efforts are really appreciated!
Hi Halflings,
Totally stuck – yet again. I’m on the level called “islandlockdown2′, or “Chapter 3 Jailhouse Rock” according to Halflife.net:
http://www.halflife2.net/wiki/index.php/Offshore
I’ve ruthlessly killed everything that moves, explored every nook and cranny of the area, but I can find no way forward. Here is where I am stuck at the moment:
http://www.halflife2.net/wiki/images/9/94/Offshore3b.jpg
But – presumably – I need to get to here:
http://www.halflife2.net/wiki/images/e/e4/Offshore3c.jpg
Any idea how I do this?
cheers,
itsonlydanny
Played this again after completing the Beta release, no bugs this time and less of a frame rate drop in the outdoor areas. It’s in my top ten mods, small improvements such as some more music, voiceover and some sort of link between all the switches and what they do, I just threw every switch I came across then backtracked to find out what they had done, perhaps a number against the switch and the forcefield it operates ?. I rarely play a mod twice but I can see myself playing this again as there are many areas to explore that you don’t need to on the first pass through if you are just trying to get to the end. Excellent work
That’s the point at which I jumped over the fence 🙂 Notice those 2 supplies boxes? They are the hint – there is enough stuff around (especially those long metal sheets on the upper floor) to stack so you can get over the fence – pay close attention to the top and the base of the fence nearby the supplies boxes.
Hope this helps 🙂
Here is a portion of the walkthrough for that first level in chapter 3. Let me know if this helps…
—–
Use the junk next to the broken portion of the gate to hop the fence. Straight across the courtyard is an arched walkway. Head to the arched walkway and you’ll find a switch you can use to disable the combine shield wall.
Once disabled, head through the double doors opposite side of the combine shield wall. Go past the turret / combine on your right to the end of the hall, then make a left at the end of the next room. There should be a room with a glass room on your left.
Break through the glass and follow the room around and you’ll find a ladder. Go up the ladder into another small room. This upper level is loaded with combine, so you’ll need to be a bit defensive to make it though.
The room to the right is a dead end (one goodie). You’ll need to head left at the top of the ladder.
Follow the room around to the left and you’ll have two options — you can head into a large control-like room on your left, or out the double-doors on your right. The double-doors lead to a dead end and a few goodies.
The large room is where you need to head next. Head to the end of the room, and hop over the bars on your right.
The Beta was really good, and this polished version is even better. I experienced no crash problems, and only a few spots where the frame-rate slowed a bit.
It looks like a couple of people were bored while trying to play thru it–no doubt they prefer different things in their games, and that’s their choice. All I can say is, I couldn’t wait to see the new areas created after the Beta, and to see if the additions added anything to the gameplay. And they did–well done =D=! When can we expect to see your next effort?
the water is all “checkered” (I’m underwater in this screeshot)
http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipgs5.jpg
Also, when I pickup ammo, it only shows the amount…..for example if I pickup a pistol, it will only display a “18” on the right side of the screen.
The problem with only the number showing up is a problem that can be fixed by tweaking the text file list with the mod. I customized too much out of it.
Nobody else has reported the problem with the water so I have no advice there. There are no custom textures, models, etc. in any of the maps, so I can’t imagine why you are seeing this.
The only possibility I can fathom is that you may need to have the SDK Base installed. That may be worth a try.
-=D=- The problems I was having with the game crashing on exit and the problem with the Islandunderground map 3 crashing appear to have gone away!! “joy”. I loaded the “OrangeBox” into my backup computer, it now works great, even with all the saves from my other computer! Just finnished the last map and like I said in #13 “What a workout” thanks for a great mod!!:-)
my SDK base was already installed when I was playing the mod
I also get the water problem with pink/black checkers when under water.Bothe sdk base’s installed.
Can you post the walkthrough?Iv’e played this mod several times but it so big I keep forgeting what I’m supposed to do lol.
The walkthrough is posted at the following site: http://files.filefront.com/Offshore+Walkthroughdoc/;9754565;/fileinfo.html
I’m having the same problem with the game crashing at map Islandunderground3.bsp, at the top of the stairs around the elevator. Each time I reload, I get a bit further into the map before the same thing happens again. Which is kind of frustrating as I’ve enjoyed playing this mod so far. Also it’s worth mentioning that I didn’t get this problem on either of the two previous versions. Any ideas?
replace the 2 dll’s in the mods bin folder with the ones from half-life 2 episode two\episodic\bin
Thanx -= D =-
It seems in Island resort I missed a generator so couldn’t disable the shield.I stacked boxes and barrels and jumped over lol.
Thanks a lot, this did the trick.
Not finished yet, but I feel like can make a pretty good estimate from what I’ve got. The mod is huge! Nine chapters with several maps each and great use of episode 2’s expanded map size, makes this the largest mod I’ve played for HL 2 to date.
The maps feel pretty consistent, though there are some places that feel a bit blant (in textures and props). Most of the time the level design is great, though.
There’s loads of action and some puzzleing to do, though with the length of it all I sometimes got the “been there, done that” feeling.
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to go next or what to do next. Try making directions a bit more clear.
For example: at one point you get to a electrified flooded area. You make your way around and end up back in this room. My thought was that the only door you had yet to open in this area was now open, however you have to backtrack out of the room and to a place you could not possibly know a door had opened up.
Solution: A button to open the door and a camera that show the door and the area around it.
It’s things like these that can frustrate you during play. There was however another and greater frustration.
At one point you introduce a jumping puzzle in which you jump from a balcony of sorts to a narrow beam above the floor. This however proved difficult to achive and I eventually no_clipped up there.
Storywise there are some other faults. There is no explenation given to what you are doing in game. Apparantly you are picking up your buggy, but for the most part it seems more like a jailbreak mod. Direction, as stated above, are practicly no existent and most of the time you wonder where you are going and why you are going to there.
The story (as mentioned at the top of this page) might not be on par with Metastasis, Rock 24 or the Citizen, get a bit repetative for some and at times you might wonder what to do next, but it is a massive, action packed play through and the fights can get pretty challenging.
I have no idea what’s wrong here but this thing runs at about 5 fps for some reason. I have Episodes 1 & 2 (& nearly everything else Steam), which all run fine (Quad intel, 2 8800GT o/c, 3.5 meg visible (to XP) ram….
It’s in the sourcemods folder, no problem with that. It’s in the game list on Steam (‘my games’). I get up to 200 fps on some games & mods but this is unplayable. Any ideas?
This mod is incredible, well balanced, lots of action. Uses the HL2 universe in new and exciting ways. The final version fixes ALL of the issues of the BETA.
seriously;
Not a bad game ,have those pesky red errors all through the game,have had a couplive of crashes during the first 2 chapters though,but cannot get into chapter 3.keeps freezing up with this popup,app.error/the inst.at 0x90944f ref.memory at oxxe6ff3c0 could not be read.cannot understand why,this mach,is built for speed,3/gigs/ddr2/64oo/amd-4800×2&gfxsli 8600 card.will have to delete it if I cannot find the prob.hope some one can give me some advice,and also how to get rid of those pesky red errors.
Having trouble making the Buggy jump in the tunnel. Fast speed option (Shift Key) not working. Any ideas?
Are you sure you have episode 2 installed? The crashes are not at all expected. The red “errors” occur when you don’t have the proper assets. This happens most often when running a map (from say portal in episode 2 or vice-versa).
Not sure! The jump is definitely doable. I haven’t heard of anyone else having problems with “boost” on the buggy. You *do* need it though in order to make the jump. Does it work elsewhere in those tunnels?
Ok, I selected another key from the options list for the booster and that works.
Try what I said at the top of post #38.It fixes many issues
Thanks andy didnt`t help,error`s are still there but can get to the door before it freezes up.took out those 2 dll`s and replaced them to no avail.
On & off for the last year or so I had the same error messages in virtually every HL2 mod I tried to play, and searched high & low for an answer. My PC isn’t exactly high-spec, but disabling AVG and increasing the pagefile size, on both hard-drives, as I run Steam from my second drive, seemed to do the trick….There I go, tempting fate….Bizarrely, and contrary to more or less all the advice found, turning up the graphics settings (GeForce 6200) rather than down helped a lot too.As far as the mod goes, it is probably the most enormous one I’ve seen. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but and there had to be a “but”, and I would say the same about Coastline to Atmosphere too, there is a bit of an issue with continuity. Some of the maps simply don’t really fit in with the flow of the story, good though they undoubtedly are, and I personally think it might have been more appropriate to break it up into smaller map-packs/mods. That is only my personal opinion though & as I’m not a mapper it’s probably not worth an awful lot…..So it gets a play it now, but be aware it’s a long one!
Thank you SO much man. EXCELLENT!
Need some help. I am at the islandplant_3 map were the gunship is making my life miserable. How do I destroy it? Can’t find a rocket launcher
Finally decided to use a cheat code for the RPG problem. Finished the mod, overall a very enjoyable experience. It’s a very large mod with lots of different areas and surroundings. The puzzles are a nice touch, but at times they are a bit out of logic. The storyline sometimes eluded me, I just kept going and hoped for the best. Had no technical problems like crashes but in some areas the framerate dropped dramatically
Still in my opinion It’s one of the best HL2 mods around at this moment(and I played quite a few). I want to thank the developers for there effort!
The only reason I don’t give this the full “play it now” rating is that it was way too long, too repetitive, and there were three or possibly even four major battles that were way beyond my average playing skills…
I commented on another mod recently that it would have benefited from being broken up into several smaller chunks, I think the same about this one. To be fair though the design clearly reflects the fact that an awful lot of work & skill has gone into it. There do seem to be one or two places where you have to go through seemingly endless corridors that are the same again & again, but maybe some liked that.
The escape routes were more or less impossible to find at times, ammo was mostly in very short supply, especially when facing the hunters, and I have to say I only finished it at all because I decided to break my own rule & cheat. Sorry, but that’s the only way I could possibly have completed it, I don’t actually know what setting it was on, just the default, (so probably “easy”) so there’s absolutely no way I’m going to go back & try again.
The outdoor scenes were excellent, apart from the massive drop in framerate, to a crawl at times, even when I dropped the resolution as low as I could, which was very frustrating.
Clearly a very ambitious project and an enormous one. I do very much look forward to any more work by this modder/mapper, and hope that the next offering might be a tad smaller….
Alll in all a good shooter, but needs lots of work, i.e. bugs,for some reason you get a pause then have to hit esc and resume game,now am getting and have had these previously,(eng.error)ed_alloc. No free edits.tried several times to get the car to jump in the tunnel in no-7, but will not complete the loading seq.crashes.not a good game ,but there were some parts I did enjoy,especially the fire fights ,but as in my last post of 03/19.thiose red errors are still there .this game needs some serious fixing,not up to par with Leon`s Coastline game. I am going to delete it not worth the time to fight through the bugs. Oh by the way /this is for D .Yep re-d/loaded EP-2 from Steam. So know I have the game installed.Thanks for your help. This is for YOYO its on the pier.
I’m sorry you had these problems. There is always someone. Nobody else has reported any such problems — including the beta testers — so I hope this doesn’t deter others from trying. Apologies.
I’m having trouble with that tunnel jump too… I just tried maybe a dozen times, off both ramps, with and without turbo, and now I’m done for a while.
geekofalltrades: I had trouble with the tunnel jump, but solved it by killing most of the combine on the other side of the barrier. Not sure how they were stopping my clearing the barrier but they were! Perhaps they were wielding a big anti-buggy magnet?
Well, finished, although I never did get over that jump… I just managed to get stuck on the top of the wall, then Grav-gunned the buggy over. This is one meaty mod… it kept me occupied for probably ten hours. I played it on normal and had a difficult time with it, so if you want a challenging mod, you might try this one on hard. That said, a number of the big battles can be completed without diving right into the fray. I sat back and sniped enemies out of several of the larger areas. One thing that added to the combat was the reskinning of shotgun-wielding combine soldiers. They now have red eyes and red and gray armor. While it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense from a realistic point of view, it sure enhanced the combat; when you saw one running at you, you knew you had to take it out or eat lead.
The level design is detailed in most places, and varies pretty well throughout the mod. You can tell that a lot of time and effort went into it. It does tend to suffer from deja vu, though, as you can tell that some setpieces and even some whole areas have been copy-pasted (I believe the author admits to as much… with this much area to cover, you can hardly blame him). Most of the levels are circular, but at least two of them (“The Underground” and “Who Turned Out The Lights?”) are so massive in their circularity that they’ll completely blow your mind. Whether this is a good thing or not is for you to decide, as it does cause a few player-navigation issues. In “The Underground,” for example, flipping a particular switch will open a door in a place that you never would have expected. I ended up noclipping around that level until I figured out where I was supposed to go. Expect to do a lot of vent-crawling, too… if you can’t figure out where to go at any point, try looking around for a vent or door hidden behind physics props, because it’s a good bet that’s where you need to head. It wouldn’t be Half-Life without vent-crawling, but this was a bit excessive. Some of the goals could have been clarified, too. While they weren’t overly obscure (as I did eventually figure them out without the aid of a walkthrough), some levels, like a vast outdoor level in which three generators must be destroyed to proceed, can take some time to figure out.
Another complaint was that I never did get an RPG. There were rockets for it littered all over the place, but I never did get the launcher itself. I ended up having to use impulse 101 to get one, as it’s necessary to pass several areas. Another complaint is the inexplicable presence of the the Magnusson devices (a.k.a. “Strider Busters”) from Ep2. I had thought that they were supposed to be a new invention at the time Ep2 took place, so seeing them in a side mission of the original Half-Life 2 breaks the continuity a little bit.
If I wanted to pick a nit, I would say that it’s odd that the levels are littered with dead Cubbages. I realize that they’re meant to be generic security guards (as their jackets say “Security” on the back), but they aren’t generic security guards… they’re Colonel Odessa Cubbage. Twenty or thirty of him.
Full of exhilarating firefights, sneaking-and-creeping, and puzzle solving alike, this mod is sure to satisfy, but be ready to get stuck, because it will happen at least once.
I experience very noticeable drop in frame rate with the later large outside areas, this spoiled some encounters and sequences for me, coupled with this was a total loss on two occasions in the later stages of all screen in game data, i.e. no health, ammo or weapon readouts also no cross air in fact no on-screen date what so ever including save and load captions.
I will pay through again before posting any conclusion.
well, I had the homepage of offshore in my bookmark list (together with a few other mods), but only now had the chance to play it through. did it live up to my expectations? lets see…the good
after the first 3-4 mediocre chapters this mod begins to really shine: quite a few nice puzzles,
really good, epic battles, good use of ep2 content and vehicles, some spectacular (outdoor) scenes. on my old comp it was very choppy but I enjoyed them nontheless. this mod gotmore addictive from chapter to chapter, just as if the first chapters were practice or I dont know made by a different person?
i really enjoyed most of the bigger, more complex levels but sometimes I was lost.
good variety of enemies.
the bad
i also found the first 4 chapters quite repetitive. I know that there isnt that much variety in the original game either but the prison-office-warehouse-etc part really seemed too long.
it was also annoying the constant hunt vents at first, then I got used to it and my first thing was after cleaning an area to move everything that can hide a vent.
there were a lot of puzzles where I simply didnt know what I did to get through. sometimes it was “hit the switch and run around to see what opened’. memories of doom…
for a work of this magnitude I expected some more immersive story, some new voices or cutscenes would have been nice.the ugly
mind you, my comp is broken I played with my 5 years old comp, some of the problems may have been caused by this. and none of the problems were serious except the first one.
i had a few crashes at a point (around 3-4th chapter I think), actually then I only looked for an excuse to stop playing but when I gave it its last chance it didnt crash 8).
on two levels all objects got invisible but I kept bumping them. made some fights annoying but not very serious.
on the first level once my hud disappeared, quitting and reloading the game and my save solved this.
the sight of combine forces worked quite awkwardly: sometimes they saw and shoot at me from half a world away (eg outdoor scenes, metrocops), sometimes they didnt saw me from 30 meters.
a few times I was shot at when I saw no one around, I guess it was through objects/rocks.I can say that I dont regret playing through this mod: it may not be the bestest (‘only” among the best) but really an epic work which – if you can live with the repetitive first chapters – will challenge you to the end. its not flawless, still got from me a “PLAY IT NOW”
IVe been playin this awsome mod. But I believe I didn’t get the rocket launcher whenever I was supposed to get it. Anyway I still manage to play a good portion of the game. Now i’m almost at the end, when youre fighting the chopper in that big compound. there is no Rpg ( except the ammo for it). So am I supposed to beat the chopper to get a door open or am I just missing something??
Also on a technical side i’m trying to access my console command, I always had access to it but now it just doesn’t seem to open at all. anyone know how to set it back again?? and yes the box is checked in my advanced controls options.
If anyone could help me out it would be really appreciated.
Thank you
Wow. Ok. There are RPG’s all over the game and I am surprised how anyone could have made it this far without one. How on earth did you ever survive the buggy levels? Probably 5 or 6 other people have run into a similar situation.
Anyways, there *is* an RPG on that level — I’m not sure you can get to it if you are on the “other” side of the big fence. It’s on the second level — near the door you came out of near the shed opposite side of the door.
The RPG appears in one or two other places before this.
The first place is at the beginning of chapter “Overwhelmed” in the lockers right when the level starts.
Running with the -console option should give you access to the console.
Phillip, any reason this mod post does not have a ranking facility?
I played the game through a few weeks ago, and it took several days (6?) of playing it for a few hours at a wack after work to finish it. I’ve played it again recently, and was able to complete it more quickly. I loved: The large maps; the challenges to the HL2 way of thinking, “I can’t pile all those things up over there to get over that fence,” or, “that’s too far to jump,” or, “I don’t think I’m supposed to go in there.” …and many more surprises. Assume nothing, try anything…what a pleasure! Thanks -= D =- — nice nice work.
This mod is a delight. It’s BIG with great potential for replays. I’ve no hesitation in calling it my favourite of all time. Tremendous work, Darrow!
i am currently stuck in chapter one. after fighting in a big prison room, I got to a quiet room with a few computers and a window that has a view of a prison yard. this is after the battle with the combine and a large army of manhacks. so far its very fun and I don’t want to stop now!
If you get stuck, there is a walk through posted on my wiki page [http://www.halflife2.net/wiki/index.php/Offshore].
Good luck!
Wow this one is long! But well worth it. The puzzles are quite hard and I spent a few hours on one level not knowing where to go before I realised I had to retrace my steps just a little more than how I was.
So good especially if you want a good challenge!
Well that sure was a marathon session! Damn, this mod was long. I really enjoyed this mod, but it almost seemed like work at times! Though I consider this mod worthy of a 5-star rating, I had a few problems: choppy framerate, difficult puzzles, obscure routes, repetitive-looking areas, and very large interior spaces.
The choppy framerate was likely mostly my computer not being up to snuff. However, in most cases I’m able to run vanilla HL2 without any problems, and I can even run some of Fakefactory’s Cinematic Mods with minimal issues. This may be related to the large level sizes, but I don’t know for sure.
The puzzles and “boss-battles” were entertaining and intruiging. However, at times the solutions seemed disingenuous. I frequently needed to load a quicksave a half-dozen times in order to figure out what I needed to do, or consult the walkthrough, or both! This is partly on me, but a bit of prompting now an again in the mod wouldn’t go unappreciated. The same goes for obscure routes; sometimes (for example in the outdoors run from the striders) I couldn’t figure out what I needed to do at all until I gave up and went to the walkthrough for a pointer. In my opinion, any game should teach the player what responses are appropriate in order to progress further; the learning curve was kinda steep in Offshore, but for some that’s fine. Similarly, the story that connected the chapters and levels seemed somewhat sparse at times; I felt like I was running without much on an idea where I was going.
Part of the reason I might have gotten lost a lot was that many areas within a level looked very alike. Some parts reminded me of Wolfenstein (the original) in how it seemed I was wandering a series of identical rooms. I had to leave desks pointing where I had been in order ot figure out where I was going. Further, some rooms seemed ridiculously large. Near the end of the mod, there was this huge room with a battle going on inside; this room seemed big enough to hold the entire square including Breen’s obelisk from the beginning of HL2. While this didn’t pose a gameplay issue, it just seemed strange to me to have a room that big.
Don’t let these criticisms dissuade you from downloading this mod. It did some very interesting things with combats that I havent seen before, especially with unlimited-spawning monsters. In the Half-Life series, you never really need to run for your life. With persistence and skill, you can defeat any number of enemies, but Offshore shows how one man, even the Freeman, can’t always take on everything and hope to win. Now, I’m sure there are plenty of unlimited-spawning mods out there, but Offshore did this in a way that seemed not only plausible but frightening – the panic I felt while running through hallways trying to evade Antlions is something I’d recommend to anyone!
Masterpiece! Don’t miss it – 5 out of 5
The nature of this mod will probably make it divisive for a lot of people; it’s essentially a very long string of arenas with the occasional puzzle and pretty much no story.
If you like pure combat this mod will probably blow you away, it has some of the most well designed combat situations I’ve seen in a HL2 map, and a LOT of them too. I played on hard, it was above average in diffculty but it never felt like things were utterly impossible and I made it all the way, although I found a few areas kind of annoying (like the ones where Antlions just keep coming), and one or two could have done with a few more hints of what to be doing (I occasionally overlooked a stash or ammo crate which made a situation seem ridiculous, when it actually wasn’t that bad).
I think the length works against it in a way, due to having no story it’s likely you’ll burn out if you just run straight through as it’s as long as a relatively short retail game, although the architecture/lighting quality is surprisingly high considering the length (there’s one or two that just feel like a bunch of cut and paste rooms, but, while not up to the very best SP mods, the design is almost always at least acceptable). I actually took a break of a few months part way through before going back to it, but I don’t hold that against it too much as I treated the pack as a series of disconnected (above-average and occasionally great) combat situations to dip in and out of as I wished (I’d probably recommended pacing yourself and doing something like a chapter a day).
There are a few issues I had; the way further was very unintuitive at times to the point where I had to use noclip to work it out, as a hint, 90% of the time you are stuck the way is hidden behind an object. I had to summon myself as rocket launcher as, while a few are provided MUCH later, the early combat situations seemed to have rockets everywhere but no launcher, I assume it was there yet overly hidden, or it was somehow forgotten about entirely, either way it was dodgy design. Also, many areas gave performance problems despite being able to run 95% of levels at a solid 60+FPS, however, this may be just me as I only recall getting it after I went back to the pack after my “break”, so it could be down to Valve breaking the engine somehow rather than the pack itself (I need to do more testing of that theory though).
I give “consider it” as a neutral ranking since I consider its design so divisive; if you play HL2 mostly for combat this will likely be the second coming for you, if you play for story and/or particularily distincive visuals you’ll probably just get bored part way through. I loved it overall, but, despite enjoying most of it I still got burnt out and needed some time way from it (which happens very rarely to me).
If the author adds some story and true progression to their next pack it could be truely amazing, because they’ve already refined combat to a level above almost every other designer I’ve seen, maybe even Valve themselves when it’s at its very best.
Please check this:
http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=a0qedytjovuw3.jpg
Russian release?
This has happened before with a few mods. The bad thing is that the mod is wrapped up in an illegal, Steamless version of the game. I have seen them for ale but they are certainly available for download. There’s little, if anything, the author can do.
Man, this should get 6 stars!
Some parts better than the original game!
Plus some some unforgettable flodded areas.
cool mod !!!
Altough I didn’t cleared it out yet, I think that the mod is pretty well done, with a lot of puzzles and creative combats. There are several chapters, and each one of them has a good duration and an excellent lasting appeal. Specially liked the “underground” chapter, where a friend and I had quite a laughs with innusitated situations, like chopping zombies apart and seeing a few bugs happen (altough they have been caused propositally). All in all, the design is not an average, the map design is magnificient and 5 stars definitely…
Yeah man i’ve been talking this with my friend, hehe! ==D== don’t take it seriously man but it’s rather funny to think about that as I said the same thing to my friend about that “copy-pasted areas, man!” . Oh, and about the “reskin” of the shotgun wielding combine, it already came with ep2, so Valve did it. Also, did u noticed that the buggy has a very weirdo orange light underneath it?? I wonder what is that!
Superb. The author has done outstanding work for other games too, and this is professional quality – it’s an absolutely unmissable HL2 mod. It must have been a huge amount of work (the level of detail is stupendous) so many many thanks to the author for giving pure gaming pleasure 🙂
I can’t see any way possible of beating these overwhelming odds except with the help of God! Maybe it’s just my copy but I seem to have 50 or so Combine coming at me in the warehouse in chapter 5 or 6-I’d think this is too much for one person to take on. It would be nice to have a little rebel help here. Maybe in the next one?
Just finished this, finally and really glad it’s over. This one was a real workout and it was just not much fun for me. It did have it’s moments but they were overshadowed by long periods of boredom, confusion and just plain lack of interest. How anyone can honestly compare this to Minerva or Rock 24 is beyond me. This mod crashed so many times I lost count. I had to completely reboot my computer most times to start it up again. I noticed that just about half the technical complaints were about the crashing and most seemed to be in the same areas.
I had to resort to cheating in way too many tough spots. The firefights were just way to mismatched and the enemy was way too overpowering. The balance was way off on that. Why throw an army at one person? Makes no sense and is not realistic at all. To be fair there should never be more then 7 or 8 Combine coming at Gordon at any one particular time.
In this mod there is several instances where there is at least 20 or more Combine, PLUS hordes of spawning Antlions and zombies all at the same time or one right after another with no break in between. One man can only do so much and one of the reasons Half Life is so popular is because it is somewhat realistic. The battles are winnable and the player stands a chance. Not so in this mod. You can run for your life or try to make a stand and get the hell beat out of you. I don’t like running so I lost alot of battles until I gave in to God mode. I had to get some help from above to win.
This could be a really good mod if it was fixed up. I don’t like bad mouthing anyone’s work because I know how hard these people work on these for us and it’s greatly appreciated, so anything I say that sounds negative should be taken as just contructive criticisim. If I made this mod, and I don’t even know how, I would make these changes.
1. Shorten it-make it into 3 parts with a definete story for each. Each chapter would have a start and finish and a set goal that the player can follow pretty much on their own with no help from walkthroughs. There was several parts I had to noclip through because I could not figure out the next move. Chapter 8 lost me real good. I came out the tunnel and could not find the generator that was supposed to be right above me on the hill. Where was it? I did find the generators in the enclosed area and saw no way of shutting them off. No switch and no instructions in the walkthrough for that or the other two. Just vague directions to their locations and that was it. I ended up noclipping through to the tunnel. Same with the car jump on the sand dune. I tried to get that thing over the fence for about 30 minutes and gave up. I had it all the way back to the water and had the turbo booster on but it just would not clear the fence, so noclip won again.
2. Add some peoples voices to give it a natural, realistic sound. Also more music and sound effects would have be great. Both were really needed all through this. Get rid of the pink/black checkered water..I have never had a mod crash and freeze up as much as this did. It was happeneing about every 30 minutes, even with all settings turned down and my video driver updated. Not happeneing with other games, or very little if at all. This mod needs a patch really bad.
3. I would let only one person write the story. This seemed to have too many ideas that were clashing with each other. The “storyline” was nearly impossible to follow and made it more work to play. It took away from the fun aspect of the overall project. When a player has to constantly second guess his every move it becomes tiring and nore of a chore then a good time. The ending was abrupt and made no sense. The whole experience left me feeling defeated and beaten rather then victorious. I “won” only because by then I was living in God mode just to get through the slaughter that were the firefights. The ending SPOILER-SPOILER-SPOILER–had soo many enemies coming in from all directions, it would have taken a miracle to make it out alive. There is no possible way for one person to survive that many people and insects and zombies and that other thing that shoots the wires or whatever., it was just overkill. Maybe someone can tell me how they survived the 3.5 minutes to stay on board the train long enough to make it out of town. How could anyone make it through that without cheating?
So, that’s the stuff I’d fix. I did like this mod, but it just needs work. I’m keeping it to play again and try to make it through without cheating. Right now I don’t see how that’s possible, unless I am supposed to run away instead of fighting but then what kind of “rebel” would I be if I did that? I would say play this if you have the time, it’s very long and can be boring at times but it is nicely done in alot of areas. Take your time and play it in small doses so’s not to burn out with anger when it strts crashing. Who know’s maybe you’ll be one of the lucky few to now have this happen.
I
I finally “finished” Offshore. Even though I was on the train, it told me I missed it. I’ll have to go back and play the last battle again to see the end (if any), but that’s my problem. 🙂
Overall, it was a good mod, and while the level repetition bothered me a little bit, my big issue was the sheer volume of junk lying around in the rooms and hallways. I spent more time clearing a path thru boxes and debris than searching for ammo! I had to rely on the walktrhu three or four times to figure out what my goals were, or which switch/generator I missed the first time around. The purple check water afflicted my install as well. Maybe its a DirectX8 issue?
These gripes aside, there were more than enough outstanding scenarios in the mod, and while a few of them seemed ridiculously difficult on “normal”, nearly every level had at least one impressive or surprising design element.
Overall, this was a great effort with awesome gameplay interspersed with some confusing goals that needs just a little more polish to make it complete.
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Loved it. Brilliant and hard – even in easy!
For first timers, the walkthrough is almost a must because there are door switches very remote to the door being unlocked or make sure you activate every switch you see regardless.
In one map there is a huge area with multiple striders and hunters. It is possible to rush through but I recommend you play it. There are many ways to play it and, for me, I have never enjoyed a map so much (I played it loads of times).
Tough game play at times, got stuck in the prison. Had to use Noclip to find the “air duct” entrance ( Darrow, you hid it very well ) so far, it’s been very challenging, and there has been a problem with it-the game crashed on me after 2 hours, don’t know what that’s all about, (buggy game I guess), has anyone else experienced this ?
I have never had a crash with this game (all the way through once on “easy”). This is one of the best mods I’ve played despite some of the perceived shortcomings from other comments.
I noticed a couple of days ago that Steam felt compelled to perform some sort of automatic update in regards to this mod, and now I cannot get passed the islandunderground3 in Chapter 4 (thanks a LOT, Steam). Also, since that update, I keep hearing a strange “cracking” sound in my speakers whenever I fire the pistol. Looks like I’ll have to see if NVidia has any updates to work around the Steam update.
Other than that, Great Game!
I downloaded this one because it was the highest rated mod for Ep2. I’ve struggled through to the bit where you get the Dodge Charger but now I’m being shot at by a Combine Gunship and I never found any of the RPGs so I have no way of shooting it down. Coupled with the fact that my frame rate has once again plummeted to around 5fps I’ve decided to abandon this mod.
I never found a rocket launcher either. I just kept running and hiding until I found the way onto the next level.
Absolutely brilliant! One of the best mods and maps I’ve played yet. I agree with a couple folks up top, in that some of the solutions to the conundrums could’ve been laid out to help us find them, and more use of voiceovers and music would’ve been even better; but, overall, this is a MUST PLAY mod. I believe it took me nearly 10-12 hours overall to finish, and that’s WITH the walkthru’s help. I dislike using walkthrus, but in this case it was almost necessary, which lends credence to the “help us find the hidden stuff with some sort of hints” suggestions.Speaking of, wasn’t there a game once upon a time that would have something move (like junk falling over), or some kind of flashy light, that would point you to the “secret” and the way out?Phillip and those who didn’t find the RPG: I found it where -=D=- said it was the first time you can find it, in a locker early on. But I’m the type to move slowly, peek around corners, and when the room is cleared, dig around looking for goodies and such, so I tend to find things like the second RPG where the gunship is. However, one thing I have noticed is that one can sneak slowly and quietly, and when the gunship or strider turn away and resume their orbit, you can sneak around the peripheries of their movements, and get past them. And if they “see” you and start shooting, just hide and freeze; and they’ll lose interest and move away. Usually.
-=D=-, you and your team did an amazing job. I think this one goes into the “must have” list with Leon’s CtA, and the Minerva: Metastasis mods. If you decide to tweak it a bit, or even build a new one, let me know so I can beta test it!!
Everyone else: just friggin” DO IT. You won’t be disappointed.
If I can find the time, I’ll play this one again. Very interesting locations and situations.
Really deserving of the Mod of the Year award. Nice work!
I enjoying the game. I’m at the train station at the very end and I can’t seem to finish the game,end up getting killed or I miss the train. By the way I don’t know which “flatbed” I’m suppose to hop on? The train looks weird.
Couldn’t find the switch by the large T.V. screen? Running around like a chicken with my head cut off. lol
Guess, I’ll finish it later! When I’m less frustrated.
The “PLAY IT NOW” refers up to the last part. lol
OK,finish the game. Tried it again after a good nights sleep. It was easy!
Staggeringly good mod. I’ve never played the like (I’ve played probably over 50 HL2 mods by now). Right up there with C2A, Minerva, Rock24 etc. as one of the great all-time HL2 mods. A monumental amount of work, much appreciated!!
The fights are really well balanced, the puzzles challenging and the outdoor scenes beautifully crafted. in fights, there’s no better pacing to be found. Some maps allow you to play them upside down, sideways and backwards, which is a real creativity booster. You can play this thing a different way every time.
Hats off, -=D=-. You created a true classic.
Hi,
I am having real trouble with this mod. The gate blows off the cell, then the game saves, then I cant pick anything up or open the first door. Does anyone have any suggestions??
Just finished Offshore, absolutely superb mod. It has a little something for everyone. Inclosed frantic fighting, plus some lovely open battlegrounds. I found various different ways to finish some of the maps, which makes this very replayable.
Well done to everybody involved in this project.
Just so you know aaronbok, it was the work of one person!
Thanks for the info Phillip. I have just contacted the Offshore created and thanked him.
Hi, love the site.
Could someone fix the link to the walkthrough though, I’m stuck and I’m also stuck finding the walkthrough for this offshore mod. The link here says page not found, and the link on filefront takes me back to the main filefront page. So any help finding this wlakthrough would be great.
Ohh, and, I’m stuck near the beginning were on the way in a crate was keeping a swaying metal plate door open enough to crawl through, but now that I’m on the other side trying to get back the crate is gone and the swaying metal plate door is closed, and I can’t seem to find another way out of the offices.
Any help would be great.
Thanks
I’ve updated the link, FYI it’s too the new style PDF walkthroughs.
Hi,
Hey thanks very much for the quick followup.
I know i’ll enjoy the mod a lot more now,
Thanks again,
Yeeyoh
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An absolutely fantastic sleeping giant!Little repetitious here and there but it’s a very large mod.enjoy!!
Fantastic work and hours upon hours of gameplay, sometimes frantic, often more than interesting. Sometimes I shake my head at how fortunate we are to get to enjoy work like this.
Not all “love-in” though. If it wasn’t for the walkthrough, in 3 or 4 spots, I never would have completed the game. While some might say that’s the price you pay for a difficult complex mod and its a good reflection on the author, I disagree. I view that as a “problem” with design. Also, when difficulty for an average experienced player is such that I’m swearing AT the game in anumber of different places, something’s wrong.
However I did eventually get through it all without cheating, except the ending which turned me off – it was just so “grand finale” style.
Fantastic MOD!!!
I had some trouble getting into the vents/ducts. and had to use noclip often to get in vents/ducts.
I can not believe how big it is.
Just when you think that they are setting you up for the final battle it loads to another section.
WOW
I don’t know if anyone else has had this problem, but I am unable to see any textures or HUD displays! I can see smoke, bullet holes in walls, all that jazz, but I can’t see fire effects (I/E I shoot a barrel and I hear it light on fire, but I don’t SEE it light on fire, and I can’t see any explosion effects for the barrels either, I just hear them explode and they just turn into barrel pieces and fall apart), blood splatters when shooting and killing enemies, and I can’t see specific HUD elements such as the Flashlight’s icon in the Flashlight indicator box at the bottom/center of the screen, only the bar showing how much power is left in it when I turn it on. Also, I can’t see the usual EP2 ammo display for the current weapon I’m using, (I take out the SMG, and next to the word “ammo” in the HUD, there’s no graphic of the SMG round like there is in EP2, this also goes for all the guns). I also can’t see the ammo types I’m picking up, only the numbers with no ammo graphic next to them at all like it shows in EP2. Also one last thing, if I open up the console, there’s a bunch of red error messages. Something about not loading or finding particle system elements correctly? Is this a bug? Can it be fixed? Somebody please help me, I really REALLY want to play this mod! -D-? Any ideas? :/
I like this mod. But I had to start using showtriggers_toggle because there were places I obviously wasn’t triggering the events that would let me go to the next map. I also had to noclip a couple times because I could not figure out how to get where I was supposed to go. (I don’t know if that was lame-itude on my part, or what.) Also, it seems that if I did something “unexpected”(?), the trigger wouldn’t work, so I had to reload and figure out what I shouldn’t do.
There were two places where it completely locked up on me (twice, in each case), and I had to reboot my computer.
Aside from the bugs, which sound like they don’t happen for everyone, this is a good mod. I might like it more than CtoA, if it weren’t for the issues I had.
In spite of the issues I had previously, and in spite of having to clear stacks of crates/barrels & whatnot from doors, etc. (which got old after awhile; near the end there was a pile of desks and benches–I was pretty sure there wasn’t a vent beneath them, but I had to move everything just to make sure), this is one of my favorite mods.
Aside from the trigger issues I sometimes had, I thought the design was excellent overall (enemy variety, etc.).
Absolutely great mod! It doesn’t innovate all that much, just serving up a generous helping of solid HL2 action. I played about an hour a day for about 10 days and had a good time all the way.
It is challenging, but after every big battle there’s plenty of health and ammo around (provided you take out zombies with the grav gun). And there’s no story at all.
For me, it ran great throughout and only one time did I take the “wrong way” and not hit an important trigger. That would be the ledge “across from the helicopter’. I climbed up on boxes onto the ledge WITH the helicopter, took out all the enemies below, jumped down, took out a second wave but never triggered the gunship, thus never opening the exit door. Trapped for a do-over. Still, the do-over was not that hard.
One hint; the Hunters go down with one shot from the combine-gun alt-fire, which save a lot of trouble.
In the last weeks I have played almost all of the maps and mods for HL2, EP1 and EP2 listed on this site with above average rating, but this one is one of my top favorites. I agree 100% with eeVee’s comment. The indoor maps have very good layouts and the oudoor maps also look great!
Wow! Huge world and plenty of gameplay. Not really anything new and exciting, but lots of fun. Challenging without being too hard. Definitely play this one.
While I appreciate the effort that the devs put into making visually interesting areas… what many folks have said about this mod is true: it’s far too repetitive. And, far, far too difficult. Too many things are simply not intuitive or not visible (I had to get a tutorial for the first 5 minutes – that is NOT a good sign) (I completely bypassed an encounter by running a different direction away from an antlion guard, and had to circle back to make any of the triggers go off).
On the whole it’s “good with a taste of terrible’, rather than ‘terrible with a scattering of good” but I’d still say: reserve play on this mod for when your tolerance for being frustrated is very high. Otherwise you’ll wind up swearing at the computer more often than not.
Five words:
should have play tested more.
This was an AWESOME mod to play! Congrats to the person who put so much thought into it.
I have a few Personal Favourites and this joins Strider Mountain at the top of the list.
Great game.
OH also I loved strider mountain we agree in that buddy!
😀 That’s no buddy, she’s my wife 😀
OH sorry, I didn’t know girls also like to play HL2 as much as boys do!! thats great!
Damn Straight – girls play too!
This was one of the best mods I’ve played from here. Some issues with lag on some levels was irritating but overall a great job. Thanks for 3 afternoons of adventure.
A pretty cool mod, with the first half a little long and boring, with several sequences already seen 100 times before…
From chapter 5, it becomes more and more interesting, with several good fights, good challenges, some chilling moments, the utilisation of vehicles, and it goes like that until the end, with a final fight pretty difficult against hordes of Combine and Hunters, gasp!!!
It take at least 6 or 7 hours (at least) to complete, so it’s not as long as the Leon’s mods, but it’s still a little too long for a simple side-story about the buggy (who is seen and used only one chapter before forever losing it, oh crap…).
Overall, I take great pleasure… A pretty good story.
Astonishingly good. By far and away the best HL2 map of all time (to date).
For those playing for the 1st time I reccommend the walkthroughs because some of the door switches are very remote to the door.
I keep playing this mod and I’ll keep on playing it.
There are just so many different moves and tactics you can use that make this so replayable.
This is at least as good as the retail games. Simply amazing.
Enough said.
The acme of gaming perfection
Hours of play time, mostly fun and well crafted, but, as has been previously said, the locating of doors and vents behind filing cabinets and the like has been over-used. Some of the puzzle elements were fiendishly difficult (I even had to resort to noclipping to work out how one or two worked), but all in all a great mod.
Im not going to really go into detail here but…
The mapping is decent, lighting isn’t as good as it could be, but I’ll gloss over. My main gist is with the gameplay. Sure the shootouts are good, but there are so many problems with this mod.
Starting without weapons or suit
Difficult to know what to do
Confusing
Many areas are exact clones of another part of the map
Many areas (particularly ones with leeches blocking the way) can be easily circumnavigated at the expense of a little leech damage
Sheer failure to comprehend what makes a map play well
So sure, the detail is ok, the shootouts are nice, but the rest of it is utter garbage
This game………….. WAS AWESOME! Although, there was one bug when it says your health, suit, and everything. But it fixes if you save and reload it. THIS GAME WAS SOOO FUN(And complicated.) THAT I BLEW UP! *Takes a deep breath* Well… I finished the hole mod in 2 days. 🙁 But it was still super fun!
i started this when it first came out, it was great. I did mess up and missed the bazooka. went back got the bazooka. then the game took on a new light.
each large area was a fight, man what combat. lots of hunters.
I loved it, would recommend taking one large combat area at a time.
looking for the next installment from the developers. thanks had lots lots of fun…
I found the first few chapters very boring and repetitive. Indoor design was of pretty low quality throughout with tons of basically empty rooms with the same set of props.
However, after about two hours (the entire mod took me six) the going gets more enjoyable and there’s a considerable visual improvement especially with outdoor areas. The downside is a huge drop in fps. The two Strider beach maps are the kind of moments that’ll remain in your head for a long time despite the crappy fps I got. Too bad the stunning outdoor maps were not matched by equally impressive indoor maps.
I liked the ending, although I’d have changed the sky to something with a hint of a rising sun as you catch the train out of the island.
Great Work! Loved this mod!
JUST AWESOME! There are average mods, good mods, excellent mods, and this one, with is by now surelly a classic into the HL2 mods universe, you may think why??, well is just because this master piece combine perfect action with great maps with some logic path-pulzes and they are full of combat and fluid-dynamic game play.
Lots of explorations and well balanced maps, I also love being in the middle of a combine ambush, and the storyline doesn’t have to have lots of dialogs to explain, because explain itself, simple, just escape of that island of hell! I really felt something hard to feel with other mods: in this mod I felt like I was playing HL2 game again, this mod is pure Gordon in the flesh.
Maybe some troubles in connecting some levels can be found, but they are minimal the action you get every level just worth it, love to torn apart those striders with the magnusson device, love all those tons of explosives in the whole way…..
Just finally, the action, time play and great simple concept of this mod, made it defenetly one of my personal favourites!
I love this mod! But it gets pretty boring in the middle. Everywhere I turn there’s a Metrocop, or a Combine Soldier. Oh well, still great!
I have a simple question. According to the walkthru while on the dock, you must crash through the end of the dock down to the sand. It says to do this where the power pole is. There is a fence at that end of the dock that will not break. Is this the right spot? If not just where is this jump to be made?
One of my top 3 mods of all time Filthy McNasty. I know it well.
I think you’re just going in the opposite direction.
Have you just found the yellow Jalopy for the first time? If yes:
You drive off the end of the dock which was behind the Jalopy when you first came across it.
Drive under the dock you were on. Return to walkthrough.
If no, is there a screenshot of where you are?
Thanx for the help Jasper. I could not find the spot you were talking about. So, I decided to cheat. This move is strickly against my principles regarding playing hl mods but I had enough. I was able to move forward. But what really is giving the most problem is video. At certain points, while in an outdoor area I get video distortion and lose the video for the game. Did you have this problem also? To anyone who have experienced the video distortion pls help me out. It’s a great mod but I’m going nuts.
I thought I might play this again,, but it comes up with an engine error,
Is this a different version from the 2008 original(patched?)
if so I’ll download it again,,
I read on the steam forums it didnt need fixing,,,
The opinion on this mod is quite varied.
The only word that can describe this mod is FLOW. It has a great flow and lots of combat. Even though some of the indoor areas are a bit repetitive, it is not a chore to play compared to some indoor crawls such as Strider Mountain.
This mod reminds me of the best of the old school HL1 mods, it has quite a different feel and style compared to current HL2 mods.
The art direction and object placement is also well done, making this a visually pleasing mod to look at.
Lots of memorable set pieces in this game. Make sure you play it!!
HINT – I did not pick up the RPG early in the game and got to the part where you needed to destroy the combine flyer near the helicopter. To fix this issue do the following…..
Make sure the console is enabled by going into “Options” ” Keyboard” ” Advanced” and tick “Enable Developer Console’
While ingame press the ~ (tide) key to bring up the console window. Type “weapon_rpg” and hit enter to give you the missing RPG !!
I’ve found myself in the strangest predicament. I’m not sure when I downloaded this mod, but I have it, and can’t get it to work. I’m getting that dreaded setuparrayprops_r engine error when I try to run the game using the Orange Box (I’ve also downloaded all the other SDKs that I could find in the “tools” section on Steam).
I know this is a common error since updates and whatnot, but I can’t find any fixes. Not only that, but I find barely ANY mention of this mod anywhere else on the internet! Sure, I can find YouTube and halflife2.net references, but the author’s homepage is dead and it’s not listed on ModDB. I found that to be the strangest thing of all. What gives? I hear this is an incredibly long and involved mod, so what’s the deal here?
I couldn’t find anything relating to this problem after Googling a ton of different things, no patches, and no fixes. The one generic fix was to change the SteamAppId to 218 and add an AdditionalContentId 420, and that allowed me to boot up the game, but there are missing textures and events, rending the mod unplayable.
Has anybody else run into this? Any solutions?
Adam,
Firstly, try downloading the mod again from here, that way we can eliminate a bad download. Secondly, do all your other Episode Two mods work okay? Thirdly, according to gorpie Offshore doesn’t require any changes to work. I have to admit I haven’t checked myself but I do trust her. If I get some time, and I stress the IF, I will install it again and see what happens.
Hopefully some other PP readers will also try and help.
Let me know about point two.
Thanks for the response. Turns out I must’ve downloaded a bad mod. I saw the mod fix page, which was why I was confused. Downloaded it again from here and it’s smooth sailing. I think I initially downloaded it from strategyinformer.com when I went on a downloading spree a while back before I knew about this website. Last time I download from there!
Yes the DL from here is the only one that works. The download from moddb (or somewhere else ?) was no good.
Such a shame there is no website or page for the team who made this, A kickass action mod.
This mod is a grueling nine chapters long which is the longest mod I have played to date. I give it’s author an E for effort. Unfortunately, that is where my praise will end.
The enviroments here are the same, over and over again with not much in the way of sub-enviroments. Prison facility, dark beach, prison facility, dark beach. rinse, repeat.
The mapping is mazey and even though it is linear like a good HL2 mod should be, it isnt always clear where to go. “Pull a switch, backtrack, remember that locked door?”. A player can spend many moons in the same general area. It gives a feeling of non-advancment. Add to that the drab enviroments, and you have a recipe for bordem.
There isnt much ambience either, Lacking in both wind/background noises, and lack of periodical background music. This only serves to add to the game’s overall dullness. Over and over again I would play a chapter for 10 minutes, then skip ahead to the next chapter hoping for some relief. I got none. Sure the battles are ok, plenty of weapons/ammo and all that. And although bland, the archatecture/construction seems good. But a game is supposed to be much more than just decent battles and dull gameplay and bland enviroments. It is supposed to be about advancment, exploration, and not being bored.
Avoid!
IT WONT LEMME DOWNLOAD!!
I just tested it and it worked perfectly. Last night my host had problems and this may be the reason. Please try again.
By appearance it’s something pretty simple. But there’s an overall design to the game that’s actually really amazing. The architecture of the maps was fantastic. It was usually complex but not confusing, and had a sense of realism that was really observational.
The whole mod takes place on a single island, so it’s a relatively small space. But the entire island seems to have been converted into an enormous compound, with layers and layers of corridors, flooded basements, cavernous warehouses, and horrific prison blocs. Frequently, when you begin a map, you’ll see areas that are cut off, locked, or inaccessible. But as you progress through the level you explode open walls, turn on or off power, or find a hidden air shaft that takes you to that inaccessible area.
It’s pretty brilliant architecture. As I made my way through the surprisingly long game, I started to believe that the author really had a calculated, deliberate design for the whole thing. The author knew the layout of the whole compound, not just the areas of gameplay.
And the gameplay is excellent. The combat is seriously intense and offers plenty of opportunities for truly epic moments. The lighting, mapping, and the architecture all facilitate the combat. Cover, for you and the enemy, is placed very well but it’s also easy to walk into a killing field. The Combine are always positioned in strategic positions, and you definitely get the feeling they are in control of the island.
Some might consider the mod to be repetitive or too long. And there might be something to that. I found some of the jumping puzzles to be a bit maddening and checkpoint placement was pretty damn erratic. And I don’t think there’s much of a story. But I can’t get the mod out of my head. The gameplay was a hell of a lot of fun and satisfying. The layout is intelligent and realistic. And it’s clear the author put a lot of thought into it. So despite its minor shortcomings, and because it made such a lasting impression on me, I do believe it is one of favorite mods.
it still amazes me how guys create such amazing mods… and since most of these guys do these mods in their spare time then that makes it even more amazing
this map took me around the same time as half life episode 2 which shows how big it is … however it was a great mod to play … puzzles are good ( maybe a bit hard at times ) and the combine battles were not too frequent …
overall one of the best hl2 mods around … however one small critisism… after all that work why not do some ending credits showing who created the mod and all the other guys who helped .. just a thought
well worth my “personal favourite “
Manually
Easy
5 Hours, 40 Minutes
Coincidence! Just finished playing it again; how many times did you die in the final train station battle? Yes, an excellent mod – once you figured out that how he hides all the blasted vents, which are the only way to progress! That, an the combine battles were often overwhelming. But yes, an awesome chunk of work for one guy/team!
The download for this mod is broken/missing
This is important, because the Moddb version of this mod is broken and does not work. The Planet Phillip one was the only working one.
Fixed.
I have mixed feelings about this mod in many ways the cons out-way the pros hugely which is a real shame because this mod is full of potential.
Cons:
Lag: There are, so many NPCS, and Props that this has caused crashes, and terrible lag through-out Offshore.
Ending: When you get to the end of the mod you really don’t get that fulfilled feeling when it’s over. There was no cut-scene, no special reward, really nothing when you finish.
I know that a mod doesn’t necessarily need that to make it worth-playing, but for much larger mods it almost feels like a “Must” since the player has invested so much time into going through the mod especially one is big as Offshore.
Repetitive: Expect to fight the same enemies through-out 90% of this mod. This mod literally feels like “it’s never going to end”! That being said this mod really does require a lot of patience if you want to finish it.
Blinding Light: There is a feature in Offshore that is incredibly annoying that you will come across in later chapters. Every time an npc attacks you the screen will show a flash of light which is very intrusive, and annoying.
Too Many NPCS: I usually don’t complain about the amount of npcs, but this mod really takes it a step above. I do appreciate the level of effort, but I thought the amount of npcs always spawning was ridiculous, and this will happen through-out every level just about.
Too Much Health And Ammunition: It was almost impossible to die in this mod, but of course this depends on how well a user can play through the mod. There was copious amounts of ammunition, and health through-out almost all levels.
Pros:
Outdoors: This is one of the few mods where a large majority of the mod is actually outdoors instead of inside. It has a fairly good ratio to switching between indoors, and outdoors.
Level Design: The mapping isn’t super amazing, but still a little on the average side I would even go as far as to say some of the maps are a little above average.
Offshore Is A Huge Modification: With about 22 maps most being incredibly big expect to spend at least a week playing this mod of course this depends on how much time one has.
Doesn’t work anymore, it comes up with an error everytime I try to start it
I’m getting an error with this one 🙁
“Can’t find background image materials/console/startup_loading.vtf“
This mod was broken by Valve’s updates. Just install Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer and install the the SDK 2013 patch for “Offshore” that can be found in the web.
I didn’t know there was a patch – thank you. I’ve just googled and seen it on mod db 🙂
Let’s try it…..
Linux: You have to edit the gameinfo.txt and rename all files to lowercase, after that it works.
Without any shadow of a doubt, this is a person favourite. I genuinely loved playing (almost) every minute of this great mod which I felt was (almost) always well balanced and never OTT for someone of my skill level! In fact, I laughed when I saw the estimated game time above – I’ve spent many days playing this (on and off!) and it’s been an adventure alright. Okay, as much as i love anything half life, I’m a slow player and I love to explore everywhere… this is perhaps how I found the RPG without any issues. Just open up that cabinet, folks! 😉
The Strider scenes confused me, for a while, but it’s all about exploring and when i eventually found the ammo stack it was party time! The levels had a great design throughout but I (kinda) agree with some of the lesser-harsh comments about the samey copy/paste feel. However, overall these were great areas to play in and I was having fun fun fun!
My only gripe was the final City 17 map which felt rushed in comparison to the rest of the game. The end scenes amused me, I just hid in the ammo room until it was announced that only 10seconds remained. Hopped on the train and ducked down like the cowardly custard I am 😀
Overall, a brilliant mod and fun to play without being tiresome or frustrating. I loved the indoor and outdoor levels equally. I shall be keeping this installed on my Mac forever because I’ll deff come back to it again. 10/10 from me.
Shaking fashion, very big. On duration and complexity of passing it is comparable from original Half-Life 2. Considering that it was made by one person – it is very abruptly. In design of locations to carp there is nothing at all. It is full of logical puzzles, and it is expensive, though corridor, but is so tangled that sometimes isn’t clear where to go further. I played at the difficult level – it was awful. The opponents who aren’t killed. Also has very strongly strained abundance of hunters from whom rescue was practically not.
At fashion only one minus – very stupid intelligence at team. They in general have helped nothing to me.
For the rest my assessment 10/10. I recommend to all.
You watch passing on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCthSf0Gbo4Un3BZnJJpUJWA
Manually
Hard
11 Hours, 45 Minutes
So i never finished this mod mainly becasue of one thing, the evironments were starting to get a little old and repetetive. Otherwise the evirnomet looked decent and there was plenty of action. Personally i probably wouldnt come back to it but i could see why it would be fun for other people.
Manually
Easy
3 Hours
I’m wondering if this got updated, which isn’t obvious from the comments, and I’m playing the full version.
I know I don’t submit reviews, and am not a mapper, but a casual HL1/2/ player, and not a terribly good one at that, so these words might not be all that valid….. and, a caveat; please forgive me Darrow, I really appreciate your effort, I’m not really qualified to sound so negative!
I am fairly sure I played this ages ago, and loved it, but now, after over 8 hours of repetitive scenes, and huge, hard to navigate areas, and identical layouts, the latest version is beginning to wear thin…
I STILL haven’t managed to, quite, finish it yet, though not for the lack of trying. Combat is so unbalanced sometimes….. especially the shotgun Combine!
After having to quickload over ten times more than once, and then the machine crashing, again and again, my patience isn’t what it was……
I can see, even for a casual player, how much effort has gone into this, but surely the original version didn”t need the extension?
Play it now, if you’ve got hours and hours free…!
And a ton more patience than me!
Happy New Year one and all!
This is the best HL2 sp mod ever, there’s no doubt for me!
It has everything lots of other mods don’t:
– no bullshit intros that you cannot skip, and have to wait to end;
– no annoying NPCs that, again, you have to wait for/follow;
– no jumping from one spot to the other to reach the final spot;
– moderate air-duct usage;
– no “cool” custom weapons (I haven’t seen any successful partial/full conversion for HL2 so far);
– length that allows you to play for more than half an hour;
– no stupid puzzles that drive you nuts (like in Migga’s mods);
– solid gameplay, plentiful of ammo/health/supplies.
– no stupid “flashbacks” or “horror” scenes
In other words, there’s only nice, challenging and enjoying gameplay without all this crap that’s usually present in lots of other mods and original HL2 (story that nobody needs, tasks to perform, teenager Alyx that you want to smack on the head, but can’t, etc).
There are only two things I would point out: in the beginning the level design is very basic, so it might seem that the rest of the mod is like that (and it’s not), and the end is very disappointing, ’cause, well, the mod ends just when you feel like playing another hour or so ,`@)
I’ve replayed this mod at least 7-8 times, and I’m gonna replay it again! The best mod for HL2 ever!!!
Ummm…this mod had some Spymaps styles… but i like it
wait , Then there are some supplementary contents,
I want to revise my comments above. Although he is like spymaps,but, it`s doesn’t have a real time cutsence like spymaps
I can’t even get this to load up, I guess it’s just another broken one.
You can try this patch made to work with the Source SDK 2013 ‘upcoming’ version like the Map Labs releases: https://www.moddb.com/mods/offshore/downloads/offshore-patch-source-sdk-2013
Looks good and plays good. Only complaint is it chugs along even in 2021 computers. Ok most of the time but the area when you get the car and other open areas, it stutters like crazy.
Wow, all those comments…anyway, I can’t even get it to start, something to do with the background at start up…over my head I’m afraid…guess I won’t be playing it.
( tried the patch by the way…same error message)
I have played this for 5hours and I’m only on chapter 5 This has to be the longest mod i have ever played “that was fun” can’t wait to beat it but so far it’s super fun!
Manually
Medium
5 Hours, 32 Minutes
I beat the Mod and it’s so great: the ending was awesome with the kind of hard end fight! this Mod was made by gods
But i have no clue where the RPG was, so i sadly had to spawn it in, Go into “console command” And put in “give weapon_rpg”