Omega Prison

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

10th January 2016

Jump to read the 40 comments   /   Leave a comment or review   /   Follow the comments RSS feed

Waiting. Waiting in a cell. For what? Escape? Torture? Death!?

Perhaps it is a test.

Well, if it is, prove yourself!

Basic Details
  • Title: Omega Prison
  • Filename: hl2-sp-omega-prison.7z
  • Size : 10.7MB
  • Author: iRocket & HanDeath
  • Date Released: 10 January 2016
Gauge Users

Download directly into Gauge [10.7MB]

You MUST have MapTap/Guage installed before using this link.

Download Options

Download to your HDD [10.7MB]
You can still use it with Gauge once you have downloaded it.

Manual Installation Instructions
  • Copy the omegaprison folder into your …\Steam\SteamApps\sourcemods\ folder.
  • Restart or start Steam.
  • Omega Prison should now be listed in your Library tab.

If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.

Videos

Screenshots

WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Please note that the screenshots below were taken from a previous version. Extensive changes were made after the authors watched Phillip’s livestream.

1024 x 576

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Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!
15 recommendations, average score: 4.4 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.37 (what's that?)
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 14 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 10 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 25 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 18 Mins by JetBlueChest
Longest: 3 Hours by juanchoclo
Total Time Played: 19 Hours, 50 Mins
Categories (?)
Half-Life 2: Ep2 HL2-EP2 Mods Play
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Jump to a review
Phillip says Play It!Play It Now!Personal FavouritePlay It Now!Play It LaterPlay It LaterPlay It LaterPlay It Now!Play It LaterPlay It LaterPersonal FavouriteMaybe?Play It Now!Play It LaterPlay It Later

40 Comments

  1. PlanetPhillip
    Phillip says Play It!

    This review is based on a slow and careful playthrough of the first release and a quick cursory playthrough of the updated release.

    This was first sent to me via the SUBMIT page and that always excites me as it shows modders want their releases on RTSL.

    I livestreamed my playthrough and one of the authors managed to watch. He took my comments and created the version you can download now.

    Initially, the first level started quite well but then turned into a very amateurish section. Thankfully this has been removed. Other changes include lighting and gameplay.

    In general, this mod is quite dark and 90% of the gameplay is indoors, you only get outside for a short period of time.

    Considering this is their first release, I feel they did a very god job of creating some interesting gameplay sections, although some areas seem wasted.

    A few times I was stuck and felt that the way forward could have been made more obvious.

    I always feel that this is actually too large for a first release. I believe that people should make smaller maps and release then to get feedback and improve. Only then should something larger be made. A good example is that there is not a smooth flow between some sections and the difficulty changes significantly at random times. I am reminded of a section with Hunters in the middle of the mod that I found insanely difficult and required plenty of attempts to pass.

    Building a mod is more than simply putting separate levels together.

    That said, I had a lot of fun with this and I am sure you will too. Go play it.

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    2 Hours, 10 Minutes
    Reply
    1. UncleJohn

      Stuck in the cell. I need a get out jail free card. Where’s that walkthrough?

      Reply
    2. iRocket

      Thanks Phillip for uploading this, it is really exciting to finally see something of my own on a site like this after playing so many fantastic mods made by other people. We appreciate the PIN and we will be sure to take all things said in consideration for our future projects. We believe this is now it for this one, we’ve been working on this so long, so it would be nice to move on to some new projects after my army service ends.

      Reply
  2. asterixer

    No problems running this mod under linux. Nothing to change. Have Fun!

    Reply
  3. Anon_1419042

    Stuck in the beginning, the room where HEV suit is, I took it then I switched the lights on, returned a bit back and took a shotgun, in HEV suit room behind the glass are two zombies, I jumped on the HEV cabin and then over the fence, killed those two zombies and what next?

    Reply
    1. dougjp

      I don’t know, this is the second mod in a row I can’t seem to play, frustrating. If you jump back to the room where you got the suit, after getting grenades from the 2 zombie room, you will find blowing up/shooting/removing the bar that blocks opening the door won’t make any difference when its no longer in place, the door still doesn’t open! And how do you jump back from the zombie room? Only possible if you pre-planned and tossed a bunch of stuff in there to allow climbing. In other words, its a mess.

      Reply
    2. iRocket

      It seems this sequence is a bit confusing and can cause the player be stuck. You’re not actually supposed to get there from the HEV case, there is a small vent in the room that was blocked by crates after receiving the crowbar. That way you will get a way to proceed.

      Reply
  4. Dmitry

    I have stuck after the G-man`s speech about how good i am.. this room has no exits. Only a combain soldier behind the door in a dead end. 2 doors and the gate are closed. I can only go back to the droken bridge and (oh no!!) try to get out there up the vent shaft where these flying things came from… Answer, please.
    This mod is great,anyway!

    Reply
    1. shark

      Yeah tough one, had to noclip to find the exit. Look carefully around the room where you shot the combine, the exit is behind a loose door that came unhinged on the left. Good mod but too dark, had to use the flashlight almost all the time.

      Reply
      1. Dmitry

        Wow! Thanks a lot! Lucky I got a grenade to remove the obstacle!

        Reply
      2. HinoKomuro

        Shark, thanks for the help.

        Reply
  5. brianthesnail
    Play It Now!

    why did i miss this mod ?.. im normally checking on a daily basis for the latest uploads .. anyway “omega prison” is a class mod .. pure and simple and is challenging aswell
    the beginning was hard with the limited light and you couldnt even use your flashlight .. however when i managed to locate the hev suit it made things a bit easier …
    plenty of challenges throughout the mod and its been well constructed with loads of vents to get you around
    for some reason i allways enjoy prison mods and the Nova Prospekt chapter of hl2 is my favourite part of half life 2 for that reason …..
    overall another great mod and well worth the play it now recommendation

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    53 Minutes
    Reply
    1. iRocket

      Thanks for the PIN! We are glad to hear you liked the mod. Even though some things are very much dependant on the person playing, like combat being actually difficult or just frustrating, we look forward to creating new stuff as much as we did having this released.

      Reply
  6. UL

    Where do you go from the room with the gunship tied by its tail?? I know I can open the door for a short while, but then what?

    Reply
  7. Robolovsky
    Personal Favourite

    Wow! Loved this mod. Didn’t feel that there was much that could have been done to improve it. It had just the right amount of difficulty, enemies, health packs, weaponry etc. and I felt that the gameplay was just right. There are mentions here of it being too dark which personally I didn’t notice but then the first thing I do when playing any mod is to maximise the brightness in the Video options.

    Personally I prefer the larger, longer mods and did not find this to be too large for a first attempt. The gameplay was excellent and above all great fun which is what it’s all about. Unreservedly a Personal Favourite for me. Get it, Play it, Enjoy it!

    Reply
    1. iRocket

      Damn, surely surprised that we got an actual PF, but is a very pleasant surprise. We’re glad, that you liked this one that much. If you have any specific highlight parts to share or just discuss other things about the mod a bit more in-depth, we would love to hear your thoughts on those.

      Reply
  8. dougjp
    Play It Now!

    Having got misplaced early on, as discussed above, I have to chime in with a huge positive rating for this mod. Thanks iRocket for the help.

    I feel with some more beta testing to find the potentially game ending wrong steps, and there are a few more beyond the hopping over the fence, as discussed, this could have been a PF. The numbers and spacing of enemies was great, visual areas were attractive (I also increase brightness before starting mods as default is too dark), and some of the “puzzles” were well constructed, like the way of getting out of the 2 zombie room, and several areas where somewhat complex moving from broken beam to beam to get where I needed to go were fun.

    And a first release?? Has anyone ever done something this good right at the start? Kudos!

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour
    Reply
    1. iRocket

      I have to admit, there are some odd quirks and other things that could’ve been most likely prevented by some more testing and feedback. We kinda hurried the release, because my army service was starting the very next week and we wanted to get this done before I went. But we are super thankful for the PIN! We’re glad you liked it 🙂

      Reply
  9. Zekiran
    Play It Later

    I’ve given this a very liberal Play It Later, though I thought hard about clicking the Maybe button.

    For a ‘great’ mod, one which had numerous maps and obviously a lot of time and effort put into it, it was *far* too buggy to warrant a PIN, and much too difficult to understand what was going on or where to go, to be truly a good mod at all.

    While the maps all *looked* very good, they all had a feel of Nova Prospekt of course, they were plagued with the nonsensical placement of items or locations that seemed to be there purely for the purpose of getting in the way of the player.

    I was given too little health and ammunition for areas that I quickly ran out of both, and even though it was obvious “this is where I’ll be fighting”, those fights were rarely good. The enemies respawning and even just plain spawning anywhere made no sense at all. The final venue was the worst, unfortunately, because there were not just two spots they came from, but eventually *three*. With no indication that they’d be able to come from behind, or even any *reason* to do that, there they were, showing up whenever I tried to catch a breath from the 3 floors of shooting past the courtyard.

    There were MANY spots on most of the maps, where I:

    — had no idea where to go, because there was no signage or information, and few visual cues
    — got stuck on invisible things that either my hitbox or those of items were nudging up against and prevented me from doing anything.

    The spot with the two barred doors was especially annoying, and I only read about the ‘hidden’ grate after noclipping in frustration. I managed to easily get over and back once I reloaded and held back a number of chairs and boxes for the purpose of getting back and forth – only to find that *nothing* could open the second door? Since the hallway was blocked with a grate that couldn’t be moved or opened by a button, and you COULD easily get over the fencing to see where the other door was, there was no reason to make it so that was not the right method of getting past that area. Did I miss something in my noclip? I don’t know, didn’t matter. This happened several times with locations that had too-hidden spots that you were supposed to find at some point.

    While I’m not adverse to vent crawling, there was altogether too much of it in this mod. Doubling back over areas is good when you do it *once*, but when you have to keep trudging back and forth trying to figure out what you missed and it happened to still be blocked by a box or a pile of barrels… Not good design.

    The fighting was sporadic at best, and poorly executed overall. Too hard is an understatement, but only from the last fight – anything before then is largely avoidable if you just run like hell or have a grenade handy. I wasn’t sure why I got the crossbow, as I never had a real need to use it. It didn’t set anything off or break any boxes/items that were in my way, and as far as I can tell you couldn’t shoot anything through the small windows in the doors – since most of those doors only opened after a badly executed fight somewhere else on the map.

    Overall I wouldn’t be so nitpicky about things but in ways the maps showed a lot of promise and work put into them, only to fall very flat with bad fights and no direction at all to the player. I really have to wonder where the heck all the Combine soldiers were coming from, since I’d killed all their friends in areas before, and the rest of the locations were chock full of zombies and headcrabs that I didn’t manage to kill or had avoided. It feels like you should be able to stealth through this mod, but you simply cannot – you must fight, but you don’t really know when.

    The ‘Stuck in the fenced area’ Gman speech – I heard it once, the doors opened and as the manhacks started coming for me I immediately fell into the toxic water and died. The second time I did that? I just completely avoided the room and skirted the whole area, waited for the attack, and finished it without getting the speech.

    So… yeah, all in all this is a Maybe with some effort that nudges it up one notch but only barely.

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour
    Reply
    1. Robolovsky

      Hmm! Did we play the same game? 🙂

      Reply
      1. Zekiran

        Yes, we did, that’s the problem. I don’t go into something starry eyed, and gloss over bits that are frustrating or poorly made. What I see as ‘badly planned’ combat someone else might find ‘mildly challenging because they always play on hard’. Did you just not experience the actual bugs (such as the ‘door that will never open’ – I do consider that a *bug*, not a planned thing, because if exploration is possible, the obvious door prop *should then open* when its blockage is removed, or the tons of ‘invisible crap in the way’ when walking down corridors) and were able to figure everything out the first time?

        I’m not saying it wasn’t a ‘fun to play’ mod, but I won’t go back to it unless a lot of issues are resolved and smoothed out. The combat as I noted was practically not there for 80% of the mod, and then all dumped into one big poorly organized fight that had spawning enemies on all sides for no easily apparent reason. That’s ‘challenging’, but isn’t a well made fight. There was never a time I felt immersed in this map, because it was all there to ‘get in my way’ as a *player*, not as a *character*.

        It wasn’t unplayable, just… for its looks and the amount of effort that was obviously put into it, it had some glaring play issues that should have been resolved long before it was finalized.

        Reply
    2. iRocket

      Thanks for this, this is exactly the stuff we were hoping to get by releasing our work to the general public. I have to admit, as I said in another comment, that we kinda rushed towards the end, trying to get it released before I went to the army and it could definitely have used a lot more testing from a lot more people (one thing we would like to know, if there is a good place to get testers for this kind of stuff? Our playtesters were mainly some family and friends we had play it, so we didn’t get that much good feedback from them!).

      There is a lot of valuable info for us in here and we are glad you wanted to share 🙂 This was a big project, perhaps a bit too big for us as a first project, and there was a lot to learn. Perhaps our next thing will be more focused and this time much more polished. It seems our strength so far is creating good-looking things, but our weakness is making stuff, that actually plays well. It is a thing we will definitely look into while creating future projects and comments like yours are a very good source of feedback and information of things that went right/wrong. We also thank you for the PIL.

      Reply
  10. UncleJohn

    Fun to play, but far from being a PIN. The “trigger” to set things in motion was really annoying to figure out. I actually got stuck in a couple of places and had to reload a saved game. Also, I was “blown up” by an “exploding” crate. The physics seemed off a bit in the beginning. The perspective was off and object spatial relationships were incorrect. Some of the object placement did not make sense to the environment, i.e., a room full of collapsed stone where all three walls and the ceiling are intact. Also, soldiers spawning out of nowhere behind me is always a no-no. I had a good time playing it, but it is far from a PIN. More beta testing might have done this mode some good.

    Reply
  11. Niker107
    Play It Later

    I’ll say this: the mod is generally well-made. There are issues, as with any mod, but if you feel like you want to play around a bit in the Half-Life 2 universe again, it is worth picking up. I hope you (the authors) don’t think of the review as harsh. I will list a lot of issues I found, but also solutions to those issues. I wouldn’t write all of this if I didn’t want you (the authors) to improve and make something mind-blowing. Let’s get started.

    The concept isn’t too new: you’re a prisoner in a Combine prison facility. Something bad happens, and everything goes to hell. Headcrab cannisters crash into the complex, zombies and zombines are everywhere, along with the Combine soldiers that are trying to survive in the mayhem along with you. You find a suit and gradually upgrade your arsenal, fighting through hoards of zombies and Combines, trying to get out of the facility alive and (hopefully) well. There isn’t much else I could say. Now, let’s get to the gameplay.

    I think that the first Combine soldier encounter was a bit too big. I’m not saying that I found it too hard myself, but the difficulty curve in any map or mod should be gradual. The later fights felt easier to me than the first one, probably because I had more weapons, but also due to the first fight being in close, tight corridors, with little resources and lighting which only came from flares. This sort of battle would better be placed in the middle of the mod, rather than at the beginning. Still, the encounters are all well-paced and I had fun fighting against both zombies and Combines.

    I should say that the only times at which I had trouble being overwhelmed by enemies were in the beginning of the mod and the final battle (the screenshot speaks for itself: http://i.imgur.com/B0LWwf0.png ). I can’t remember them too well, all I can say is don’t spawn too many enemies at once. It’s not difficult – it’s annoying to the player. Whenever there is any battle in an HL2 game, if it’s supposed to be difficult, it is still well-paced. You usually get a big total amount of enemies, but they’re gradually spread out throughout approximately 5-10 minutes of fighting.

    http://i.imgur.com/9a9gXKk.png (if you make NPCs which use Scripted Sequences, make sure that the sequence is cancelled if the player comes too close. Otherwise, this happens)

    http://i.imgur.com/WlrQoBg.png (also in the same room, the button can only be pressed once, but the door closes shortly after. Make sure your doors only close after the player has come through, or stop them from closing entirely. If you have a one-use button, have the door’s reset delay set to -1)

    I like the author’s desire to play around with lighting. There were definitely quite a lot of areas where you had to use your flashlight to survive. I wouldn’t complain about dark or badly lit areas, since I feel like that is too easy to complain about. Just make sure you balance lights with darkness, and if you have a really dark room and a light somewhere in the corner or in the middle, make sure to avoid the ugly red-orange shadow blobs appearing at the border between light and darkness. That makes the level look unprofessional. When experimenting with lighting, always make sure that it looks good and realistic. Otherwise, even good scenes can appear ugly or hastily made.

    Now, I’ll just say a few issues I noticed from a mapper’s point of view and how you can solve them:

    1. Badly placed textures or issues with brushes / models

    This mod takes place in a Combine prison facility. If you want to capture that feeling, make sure to replay the Nova Prospekt chapter in HL2 and look at all the details you can find. Try to make your map feel less like a lot of cubes attached together with corridors and more like the Nova Prospekt prison, or a real-life prison facility. It also helps to clearly distinguish which parts of the map use which details and textures. For example, try not to change the texture pallet too much when working with corridors of prison cells, but use different textures for storage or control rooms.

    2. Proper player cues (super important!)

    Always make sure that your player knows what they can and cannot do. I’ll give a few examples: if you place a few explosive props – that usually means the player can use them against enemies. If you place a few explosive props and label them with an ‘Explosives’ sign, that might mean that they are more important, and the player could use them to solve a puzzle. For example, there was a point at which I had to open a blast door, and there were explosives nearby. That’s why I tried to blow it up, but it didn’t work. Then I tried blowing up the orange generator nearby. That didn’t work either. It took me a few minutes to figure out I could actually activate the generator by pressing ‘use’ on it. If you want to show a player that they can do something, put a button there, or at least a green-tinted sprite, showing that it’s usable. The map mustn’t break contuinuity (for example, some console props can be used, others cannot, so the player just wanders around pressing ‘E’ on everything to try and activate it).

    The worst thing to do is to have some blast doors openable by buttons, and others – simply by pressing ‘E’ on them. That’s not how blast doors work. It had me confused quite a few times, since there were moments when I had to open a door with a button, but when I searched for a button the next time – all I had to do is press on the door itself.

    Also, when you need a door to open after you press a button, the best way to show the player what he did and where he needs to go is to either have him look through a window infront of him, which should show the opening door, or at the least have a monitor with a camera pointing at the door. Changing the player’s viewpoint is a bad solution because it can be made more realistic without breaking the immersion simply by placing a monitor with a camera there instead.

    I was also completely lost after the first battle with Hunters. I couldn’t understand where to go, and after a lot of ‘E’ pressing on walls, I managed to find a door which opens:
    http://i.imgur.com/HdDd2uj.png
    which then leads to a room with a door identical to the one I just opened, except this one is not usable, and upon flying outside the map, it doesn’t lead anywhere:
    http://i.imgur.com/JExCYaN.jpg
    Only after running around for about 5 minutes, I noticed that there is another door, which I unlocked by pressing a button on the other side of the room, and that was the door which lead to the exit:
    http://i.imgur.com/sTz2pSv.png (there is a missed opportunity here, if you want the player to know that this is where he needs to go, you should’ve made the red light above the door turn on – that would’ve grabbed the player’s attention)

    3. Realistic-looking scenery

    I feel like the second I release the mod I’m working on, everyone will say I use too much sprites. Perhaps it’s true, but they are a powerful asset. I suggest applying them to buttons to show that the buttons are usable, as well as electricity puzzles (ie. an LED turns green when something close to it is powered).

    Also, to make Combine monitors look more realistic and pretty-looking, place sprites infront of them and add a blue light to make it seem as though the monitor is lighting up a part of the room. This is useful when the regular lights in the room are turned off, but Combine technology is still working.

    Speaking of lighting, you shouldn’t have too many white lights in your map (it’s best not to have any), but the lights shouldn’t be yellow or orange either. They should be a so-called ‘warm’ color. Imagine a white color, but just sliiightly tinted yellow. That is the color real-life lights are.
    http://i.imgur.com/RnrPxkd.png (this lamp’s color is bright yellow, but the light coming from it is white. The light should be the same color as the lamp)
    http://i.imgur.com/UFIokwP.png (now, here is a ceiling with lights, but missing lamp props)

    Conclusion

    I don’t think the mod is bad, but if you wish to make it even better (and more professional), the best thing you can do is continue making maps and improve yourself by listening to others’ opinions and mapping tips! I hope this review will help you in the future. Congratulations on making an interesting mod, I enjoyed participating in this ‘Omega’ project. I hope to see mods from you in the future.

    If you have anything to say, feel free to reply, I’ll answer as best as I can.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 45 Minutes
    Reply
    1. Niker107

      PS. Phillip, if you could, please change the 1. 2. 3. bullet points and the conclusion at the end into headings. I would do that, but the editing prompt works really badly in my browser.

      Reply
    2. Zekiran

      This is a beautiful review and feels very accurate to how I’d want to coach a mapper into better work – and as you said: you wouldn’t drop these suggestions if you didn’t think they’d be able to use them. I absolutely agree. With just a nudge here and there this mod could have been a PF.

      Reply
    3. iRocket

      A supreme review and not at all way too harsh. It was very insightful and full of good critique. Thank you for taking the time and effort of writing this to improve the work of some chumps that like making stuff with Hammer.

      There are actually some stuff you mentioned, that was different in the original version we revised after Phillip’s first playthrough of it. We toned down the difficulty a bit (it originally had quite a few more shotgunners) and I think the mistake here was too little playtesting from a complete newcomer to the mod. As a modmaker your perception gets warped as you know the spawns and all the manners of spawning and hiding places etc. It is wrong to assume that just because it’s easier for the creator, it is also easier for the other players.

      On those player cues, we had some of those as colored lightning (ie. a green glow next to a button or a door where to go). Phillip mentioned, that they were a bit non-sensical, as there were no clear light sources for them. You mentioned of being stuck in that one bit where you looked for the door, the light on top of it is actually lit red during the fighting, but after you find the button it shuts off. We originally had the door light turn green, but we removed it, because we couldn’t really find a good source for a green light. The other door you found, was a reinforcement room, that basically works as an entryway for some Combine soldiers to enter the fighting.

      On lighting, we used that trick of putting blue lights on some combine monitors, you can actually see that in the header picture of this mod. Perhaps we forgot some or just ignored them because we feared of hitting the “too many lights on surface…” errors.

      All in all, a very solid piece of information for us as mappers, and we really, really appreciate it. I believe this will be of much use for us in the future. This project is done, and I don’t really desire to work on it anymore, but for any other things that come after this, we will be sure to use all of the things we learned and put them to good use in our future projects. Thank you for the PIL, as well.

      Reply
  12. MOdPlayeR

    Stupid question, but anyway… what program U people use to make mods? Thank You!

    Reply
    1. Niker107

      The biggest thing you need to know to create a mod is how to make maps for that mod. Maps are levels of the game. When you’re playing Half-Life 2, you can tell when a map switches when it says ‘Loading’ on the screen and you enter a new level. Maps for Half-Life 2 are made in a program called the Hammer Editor, Valve’s level editor. It is included in the Source SDK program which you can find in the Steam Tools section (if you go to your library and switch to ‘tools’ instead of ‘games’).

      If you wish to start creating mods for Half-Life 2 and its episodes, the easiest way to start is to look up some beginner tutorials through Google. Just typing ‘Source SDK First Level’ or ‘Source SDK Tutorial 1’ should do. When you know how to make maps, you can then look up ‘How to make a mod in Source’ and watch that to figure out how to turn your levels into a playable modification.

      Hope this helps.

      Reply
  13. Dan Silvester
    Play It Later

    It’s not bad. Not too plain looking, quite a professional finish overall. Some of the puzzles were too far fetched in my opinion (newspaper and loose door). But I kept going so thanks for the programmer’s effort in making this.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 30 Minutes
    Reply
  14. vancanucksfan
    Play It Now!

    A pretty good mod overall. The setting and navigation are good, and I never had any real trouble figuring out where to go next. I also liked the climbing section, and wished it was longer. There were no really difficult puzzles to speak of, and the author’s placement of enemy spawning points didn’t make sense. Several times I saw enemies spawn right in front of me during combat. Also, I got stuck at the map change point between 2 doors. These are little glitches that could easily be fixed. Overall though I enjoyed it and it’s worth a download

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 15 Minutes
    Reply
  15. juanchoclo
    Play It Later

    Overall, Is good. For the most part, Its good looking, It have some mapping error here and there, But some areas look really good, It have a nice creepy atmosphere at the beginning, when you are mostly fighting zombies, And a more clean and combinish look later on, At the climax.

    It have kind of a plot, where you are being tested by the G-man, But, It goes anywhere and it just end in a cliffhanger.

    I don’t really like the way it give you weapons, for example, You can get the shotgun at the start, Just after you get the crowbar, and the Ar2 its just randomly laying in the floor, not so long after the start and how the crossbow is in a random vent, without any ammo for the entire mod.

    There are moments that are too hard, Where they trow a lot of combines at you, And sometimes with freaking hunters, I die like ten times in one of the rooms with all these combines.

    I don’t like some of the puzzle, It have the same problem that Exit have (A mod that i already review, And that i hate) half of the puzzle consist in you stacking a lot of crates to get to a vent, Now, Here is the problem with that, If somebody make mods and happen to reed this, Please, DO NOT USE WOODEN BOXES, Why?, Cause you can break them, that’s is use once in Half life, and when you don’t have weapons, At the beginning. Some other puzzles are kind of cryptic, but i didn’t get suck in any of the ones without crates.

    It have some clever use of “jump scares”, placing zombies behind boxes or walls that break. They are separated so it doesn’t became FNAF and it actually scare you, and the zombies have enough time to attack you for the seconds you are spook, Thing that normally wouldn’t happen to a experience player.

    The creator know how to add variety to a mod, But it need a little bit of polishing in the mapping and balancing. should you play it?, There are better mods out there, But hey, the mod isn’t that long (I take way longer that i should cause i’m stupid) and i have fun playing it, So yeah give it a try.

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    3 Hours
    Reply
  16. BadPeaceDK
    Play It Later

    This was an interesting one, that got some mixed feelings from me.

    The Combat

    The combat was extremely challenging, and I know this map would not be for everyone. Some of the spawns were ridiculous, especially in that yard lying up against the garage-type room with the catwalks. Tonnes of enemies were coming from both the front and the back, and it felt really hectic, but I must admit that I kind of enjoyed it. Maybe a more toned down spawn from the back, and more spawns from the sides would’ve created a better flavour, as well as more open areas in some places would have made the combat better (Fighting shotgunners in a corridor is just a matter of pulling the trigger the fastest).

    I loved the location in the large combine arena towards the end, but was completely dissapointed by the spawns. There was a fair amount of combine already spawned, and the place was a perfect spot for a gunfight so I felt like it was really satisfying fighting them between the crates and on those small islands. The transport ship should’ve come much much earlier though, as I had plenty of time to kill the already spawned combine and then camp the transport drop-off location, just shooting the soldiers as they came out (This is the reason the transport ships use machineguns in hl2), and that’s of course a game killer.

    My favourite part of this entire mod was fighting the prison guards in the dark rooms. The atmosphere and music was perfect, the space was somewhat open but with lots of cover, the spawning was plentiful but so were the supplies, and it truly stands out as the best part of the mod. More of that, please!

    The Visuals

    The visuals stand strong on their own, although a certain degree of “flatness” still plagues the mod, and it’s not truly VALVe-quality. They were satisfactory though, and the only improvement lies in the small details now.

    I’d like to say, though, that the ending was a damn dissapointment. I saw the freedom approach, and I was honestly looking really much forward to atleast seeing some ocean from a cliffside view, or similar, but instead the game white’s out, and you’re left with a flat wall with a combine symbol on it. That was pretty odd.

    The Level Design

    The level design is where the mod really suffers and pulls it down. There are so many spots where I can only progress because I’m so used to searching around for hidden-away spots of secrets and extras. But when those hidden-away parts become the main progression path, you’ve got a problem on your hands, because that means half your playerbase probably can’t even finish the map. I was very often confused as to where to go and what my goal was, (This was not a problem towards the end with the combine barrier and the turret, where I knew clearly that I had to turn it off – more of that!) and that leads to a lot of frustrating gameplay. There needs to be made more work on where the lights are, what they lead to, how the flow of the map is designed and how you design that to fit into your combat segments.

    Overall

    I believe this mod has potential for a strong Play it Now! but it needs to improve on some very vital stuff. I hope the authors keep making maps, and learn from their mistakes as well as taking with them the good stuff they have made!

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 40 Minutes
    Reply
  17. TolisXTRM

    I’m stuck. There is a part where I can’t crawl under a door that’s stuck. I can see G-Man behind it. What do I do?

    Reply
  18. Geoff Wales

    I enjoyed this mod. The criticisms are fair, though. At times it was confusing and some things felt random, but this can add a sense of realism too, if it’s not overdone. In the early part of the game it seemed like there was some deliberate misdirection as the player expects one action to directly cause another (doors, alarms, etc). Was this deliberate? Were the modders playing pranks on the player?

    I found the best way to deal with the large numbers of enemies was to hang back and pick them off one by one. I had to watch a walkthrough to get past that loose door into the vent (near the end). That arena could have used a minor boss – a dozen manhacks is a pretty lame fight. The ending could have been a bit more interesting. Most mods seem to have anti-climactic endings, though.

    Great work guys. Very enjoyable.

    Reply
  19. Steve
    Personal Favourite

    This ain’t perfect, there are times I was frustrated with silly little things that I’ve washed over. Why? Because I personally rank this as a PF. It’s absolutely brilliant and its well balanced too and I was never bored with the (yawn) expected hoard of ‘something’ which would only spoil the flow of gameplay. If this is their first attempt then I’m doubly gobsmacked and so look forward to more. TBH, I’m lost for words really because this mod is a killer. I honestly loved it and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Top marks from me!!

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    3 Hours
    Reply
  20. Count
    Maybe?

    Not a bad series of maps at all, although I wouldn’t say I was too impressed with them. You pretty much start in a prison cell with no way out. After a while the power goes out and a series of explosions can be heard. The player is knocked unconscious but wakes up some time later to see that most of the prison has been overrun with zombies. It’s never really explained how this happened and where the zombies even came from, but it did make for a pretty eerie beginning. After escaping their cell though a hole that has recently been blown through the wall the player makes their way through various levels of the facility until ultimately reaching an exit after a big finale.

    The best thing these maps had going for them was the gameplay. The fights were pretty fun and well balanced, although not that difficult ( I never died once ). However, unfortunately, the rest of the mod was rather dull. Most areas are pretty blocky and the progression from room to room almost always involved having to crawl through a hidden air duct. After about the tenth air duct I was getting a little annoyed honestly. Another gripe I had was the overuse of the rubble and destroyed wall models at the beginning. They didn’t really blend well with the surrounding walls’ textures and often didn’t fit too well into their surroundings. Another thing that bugged me was the placement of rubble models on the walls in some areas. These models are meant to be laying on the floor and looked strange on the walls.

    The office area just after you escape was also probably one of the mods weakest points. Most of the rooms are extremely flat and bare. On top of that some of them were pretty cramped and even the combine had a hard time navigating through them.

    Overall these maps are okay. They’re pretty fun gameplay-wise but aesthetically its pretty dull and flat.

    Pros

    – Good gameplay
    – Decent length
    – Eerie/atmospheric beginning

    Cons

    – repetitive layouts
    – flat uninteresting rooms
    – way to many air ducts
    – not much story, ending gives no closure or explanation other than that you escaped the prison

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    50 Minutes
    Reply
  21. Daken50
    Play It Now!

    Looks and plays great.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    30 Minutes
    Reply
  22. ArctixSnowPup
    Play It Later

    This map has a lot going for it. I definitely got lost in a few spots and I was turned around a few times, but I did manage to make it through without cheating. Note: I did use ent_fire !picker open a few times, but it turns out I never needed it anyway after I reloaded a prior save. There was a certain prop hiding something that I desperately needed to find. I felt so relieved when I finally figured it out.

    Score Sheet

    Usage of space and world brushes: 7/10
    I definitely felt like I was in a prison for most of the maps. The sequential maps did seem a bit lower in quality than I expected. Maybe it was rushed at the end?

    Visuals 7/10
    Not eye pleasing, but far from the worst I’ve ever seen. Lighting is great in some spots, poor in others. It’s a mixed bag for sure. Could use some tuning and I think this would be a great mod.

    Gameplay: 7/10
    Gameplay is rough in some spots, but solid in others. It just feels like this mod is a bit inconsistent when it comes to quality over quantity. It didn’t have to be 5 maps, but it felt like it dragged on for too long.

    Final Score: 21/30 – 70%

    Final Comments: It’s a long mod. Play it when you can. Definitely worth a play through at least once.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    59 Minutes
    Reply
  23. JetBlueChest
    Play It Later

    Most ironic prison maps full of combines:)

    https://youtu.be/d34cbZIJS8g?si=HjJKDg7_7k9HtVw5

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    18 Minutes
    Reply

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