The Combine prison train on which you were travelling crashes.
You are lucky enough to survive and be missed by the initial Combine search.
Can you reach the research station located near the crash site?
If you do, will you regret it?
Basic Details
- Title: Other-Life Hatch-18 Chapter 1 Forgotten Passenger
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-hatch-18.7z
- Size : 220.43MB
- Author: AASC
- Date Released: 30 August 2012
Notes
This file includes the English Language patch.
Download Options
Installation Instructions
- Copy the hatch-18 folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Other-Life Hatch-18 should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
Videos
The playthrough below is provided by Custom Gamer. See more of his playthroughs on this site: VP: Custom Gamer
The playthrough below is provided by Podcast 17 Let’s Play. See more of the playthroughs on this site: VP: Podcast 17
Screenshots
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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Reader Recommendations
Total Downloads
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4,297Overall
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2Today
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5Last 7 days
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14Last 30 days
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100365 days
Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 15 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 15 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 18 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 2 Hours, 5 Mins by rikersbeard
Total Time Played: 19 Hours, 27 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 15 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 1 Hours, 18 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 2 Hours, 5 Mins by rikersbeard
Total Time Played: 19 Hours, 27 Mins
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Jump to a review
There’s little doubt this could be a fantastic mod and the atmosphere and general design is excellent, but it has some serious flaws which totally spoiled the experience for me.
The first one is the message system. It’s implementation is very well done, but boy does it interrupt the gameplay flow. You are held in place sometimes for what seems like a boring lecture.
Voice acting would have worked so much better. In addition, doors close and open in an obvious attempt to keep you in one place.
The next issue is the type of puzzles. It’s just stupid locked doors and keys. Seriously, that’s 15 years old. Not only that but the keys are highlighted when you get near them.
Seems to me the author found a way to do something via code and then included it too much – it’s a common modding mistake. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should do it often.
So, after all that did I enjoy it? No, not really. It felt like hard work not fun playing through this.
Take away the message system and puzzles and you have a very solid piece of work.
Do I recommend you play it, heck yes. Just be aware that you will spend more time running around looking for stuff than actual “playing”.
More style than gameplay substance!
Manually
Easy
1 Hour, 30 Minutes
I hate spoilers, so when I read about this mod, I was really keen & deliberately didn’t read up on it. I avoided the screenshots & Philip’s review to get the maximum out of the story line.
Boy, was that a mistake! The titles were exciting (because they were new, after all – a new, shiny mod!) but then I saw it was Russian & bleak depression set in. But surely, this time it’ll be different! Won’t it..? Well, no.
Unfortunately, this is another “along for the ride” mod. That’s to say, the experience is just like sitting in one of those cheesy Ghost Train carriages at a really seedy, tatty funfair. Why, you ask? Because you have no control of what’s going to happen; it’s all plainly scripted. You know a sad, plastic skeleton is going to wobble feebly at you, a broken klaxen will rattle a bit, a pneumatic Dracula will click, hiss & half-work and there’s absolutely NOTHING YOU CAN DO except sit there on the filthy, stained seat, rattling along helplessly until FINALLY, you bump through the sagging doors & escape to FREEDOM! That’s how it’ll be; all the way through.
Why is it so frustrating? Because it promises so much; it could be SO GOOD! The new models & textures, the exciting new settings, all those fun useable-looking props (which are neither, by the way), but in reality, the only “battle” you have playing this, is “How much s*** can you endure?” No, really. Be prepared to rage, shout, pummel your once-beloved PC – make sure the kids are out of earshot, or you’ll probably be completing their vocabulary education in ways you will regret later. I’m talking about proper rage, here – seriously, if a mod makes me sooooo angry that I actually want to physically assault the author, then they’ve either failed hugely, or maybe succeeded? Who knows.
Anyway, unless you’re an extreme masochist, it’s unlikely you’ll enjoy this – new or not. Phillip’s points are waaay understated – the INCREDIBLY TEDIOUS message system is like the ancient Chinese water torture, it will drive you properly MAD. The corny ‘locked/do this here’ with the ‘you’re clearly stupid – have a huge pointer/border’ mechanism will make you CRAZY. The fact that you’ve found the object (clearly) but the author won’t let you pick it up until AFTER you’ve gone forward half the map, been punished with another 10mins of INCREDIBLY BORING ‘messages” (during which you are firmly nailed to the spot – not able to move AN INCH) and then BACKTRACKED all the way to the object you’ve been trying to pick up for the last 10min (only to find that it now has a huge “Hey, stupid! It’s HERE!” border around it) will further increase your rage & totally destroy any possibility of immersion. And then, there’s the insults! You’re forced, by inescapable scripting, to do something you know will end badly (e.g. that collapsing ladder/stair in the headcrab field) and then it has the AUDACITY to taunt you with insults! “Hey, that was really stupid, you’re a really bad player! What stupid thing will you do next?” Aaaghh! Kill!! Kill!!!
The big clue was there at the beginning when you have to stumble around in the dark seemingly forever, trying to find something that was invisible (& therefore intangible to the player) only to emerge, naked & unarmed into the firing line of a troop of heavily armed combine & several hunters, only being able to walk slowly away as they all shoot you to ribbons! Trust me, that’s how it continues. Not to mention the extra punishment of dismal optimization – just when you think you can take a little bit more, it grinds down to a pitiful slideshow. Oh, and so many more…
Well, it beat me. My tolerance for pain was just too low – maybe I am a weak player. Congratulations, Author – you have created a mod so totally frustrating and unplayable that I couldn’t manage to force myself through more than a quarter of the first chapter. Well done, Sir, I take my hat off to you – in the battle for ultimate dissatisfaction, you reign supreme.
VOTE – “Think Twice”.
For all its faults, this is one of the most engrossing source mods I have ever played.
There is a particular scene in this mod (no spoilers!) that will be stuck in my brain for a very, very long time. it was absolutely masterful in its execution.
The faults are fairly numerous however, Phillip already picked them out, the dialogue text is the most obnoxious by far. While the story is interesting and for the most part well written, the presentation through these text sequences really kills it at times. Hopefully they will improve this area for Chapter 2!
I would say that if you enjoyed the S.T.A.L.K.E.R titles, the Penumbra game series by Frictional Games, and to an extent the LOST tv series, then this mod will be pretty special for you.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 10 Minutes
were is the key
If you mean the one on the ground floor, it’s near the axe on the wall.
i am stuck at the left can not fine the key and when I jump back to the room I die
I think that’s the end of this episode buddy…
So far my one word review would be: frustrating. The level design alternates from insultingly obvious(glowing keys and fetch quests) to stupidly obscure within minutes. Still, it seems like it has potential and the graphics are great.
What do you do at the part where you are told to wait in a room for the guy to contact you? I stood around in there for ages!
He eventually contacts you.
There are a lot of cool moments in this mod. Crawling through long grass in the darkness, hoping the Hunters don’t spot you, whilst on the look out for heacrabs hidden in the undergrowth. Or exploring this lost complex with a rich backstory. The atmosphere is intense, and the cryptic introduction sets up a great mystery. Add in the new music, messages sent over radio and good-looking level design, and this should be a personal favourite.
But there are so many uneccesary problems with it. Like I mentioned earlier, there are some bizarre design decisions which make some things blindingly obvious, whilst others are hidden away and confusing. For example, the mod gives a terrible first impression; in the first piece of actual gameplay we have to find a trapdoor in the floor of a pitch-black train, and then somehow crawl through the darkness in the right direction. I had to use mat_fullbright just to work out what was going on. And the “text messages” which we recieve merely serve to frustrate the player, as they are often unable to move or trapped behind magically unlocking doors until the messages are removed. They aren’t fast either. Would a “skip” button have been too much to ask?
I konw you might consider my rating harsh, but I can’t recommend people play it when the mod is too frustrating in places to enjoy it overall. Sorry.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 15 Minutes
After the interesting Cube mod (basically Portal without portals in HL2 with Cube (the movie) and Fringe elements), those Russians launched the second offensive of their Other-Life universe.
So far it’s like their first mod : great ambiance, some memorable parts, and puzzles, puzzles, puzzles.
As it is only One chapter, I’ll give it PIL… But play it at least for that cool introduction.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 30 Minutes
I get out of the train with ammo but no gun, and get swarmed by a hunter + enemies, and die. Is that it? Who would make a mod like that and think they did something? Boggles the mind. Wow what fun, NOT.
Okay… did you try turning to your right after the floodlights turn on?
Because your expected to flee from that engagement, there’s a spot between the train cars that should be fairly easy to see.
This situation in games has always interested me. We, and I include myself in that pronoun, have become accustomed be being the saviour of the world and not having any weapons is very strange for us, yet we don’t behave accordingly. I’m not suggesting you just stood your ground and hoped the bullets would bounch off your chest but we need to be reminded we can be very easily killed and sometimes we just have to run like hell until it’s time to fight.
That said, I didn’t like this part of the mod either and think I must have been really lucky, as the first time I played it I found the entrance to the facility.
I can’t get this one to run, it’s in the SourceMods folder and shows up in the library tab, however when I try to run it, it drops back to the the Steam library tab before it gets to the game menu!!!
Additionally when I try to load the maps through the EP2 console it comes up with:
CModelLoader::Map_IsValid: No such map ‘maps/h18_traincrash01.bsp’
map load failed: h18_traincrash01 not found or invalid
Any ideas ??
Thanks in advance.
Look in the SourceMods folder for Hatch-18 and check within there that the maps folder exists and within that are two maps: h18_traincrash01.bsp and h18_traincrash02.bsp
Sounds like you have a corrupt file.
Since nobody else has so far posted any issues, it might just be you. You could try re-downloading the file and installing it again.
It seems I had installed it correctly the first time, but I downloaded and installed it again and still the same problem. The culprit was an application I have used for years “RocketDock”!. I’ve had the problem before but I’ve only just now sussed it out.
So far I’ve reached the garage with the Lorry/Truck and I’m getting very bored, I hope it gets better!!
I am not a man of many words, but I’ll try to say as much as I can to make it a proper review.
First of all, I like the scripted text sequences, there were almost no grammar errors whatsoever and the messages stayed long enough for being read properly.
Second thing: The environment. The design was very nice, although the plants made it a bit hard to see the floor properly, but still, good job on that.
Last but not least: The atmosphere. Running around in an old war-science laboratory with 29 floors below and the fact, that there weren’t any working lights to be excepted anytime soon, and long, half-lighted tunnels made a very disturbing and unsettling atmosphere. Even though there wasn’t real horror, the atmosphere was making up for it.
One thing, that wasn’t handled that good, was the ending.
(ATTENTION: SPOILERS)
You step on the pipe in the elevator shaft, it breaks, you fall, everything turns red, and then, end. I’m missing something like, “To be continued” there…
All in all, a nicely designed and experiencable mod.
Manually
Easy
1 Hour, 5 Minutes
A potentially good mod let down by a very irritating/infuriating message system and in one place a terminally BORING wait to continue!
Looks-wise this promised to be something above average but gameplay was almost nothing to write home about. What really killed this mod for me however was the aforementioned message system, I spent more time waiting to continue than actually playing. If it had a close button for the messages it would allowed the game to flow rather than the stop/start that the game was.
It also was annoying to have to use the keys in order, after I got into the open, after the garage, I found a set of keys but could not pick them up, I backtracked through the garage and found a door I’d missed. I opened it and when I got back to the keys outside, they were highlighted??
Going by the screen-shots I assume I finished the game. I really want to give this a TT but with a little more thought from the author it could be so much better.
This mod had great promise but ended up being really disappointing. The loss of control while you waited for slow, numerous messages was very frustrating. I had to noclip past one area to get around a pile of junk. The puzzles were basic and very dumb. I found a set of keys but couldn’t grab them. The mod forced me to find the lock which told me I needed keys. Then I could go back to the keys and grab them. The highlighting of the puzzles and solutions was so basic that they were unenjoyable.
What was with the ending? Did the author just give up at some point and not actually finish? I didn’t even know it was the ending until I noclipped around and figured out I wasn’t supposed to get through the door anyway.
Play if you must, but be prepared to be frustrated
Manually
Easy
1 Hour
Thanks guys. I assume there is no ending really, just falling after getting and trying the wrong key, and attempting to go back the second time.
I agree with the other comments, its too frustrating, needlessly. So much promise, to think how good it could have been because the author has talent.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 15 Minutes
I can’t get off the train; I duck under the door go down the dark hall, take off the floor hatch cover. I can’t go through the hatch. What to do?
still looking for some help, how to get off the train.
I did not find any switches, no lights. Only the trap door hatch in the floor.
I draggerd that hach cover a long wasy off and went back to try and get through the opening but no good .
What to do please
thank you
Yeah, sorry, I did mean to reply. Yes, get off the train was a bitch. Basically, once you fall through the hatch in the floor, just keep moving around. There is a way out but I only found it by accident, so I can’t tell you which way to go. I think it’s back the way you came. So, as I say, fall through the hatch and go backwards. Good luck!
I think you not only have to drag the first hatch and drop through onto the outside ground, but then you have to repeat this with the next (above you) and get back into the train before pressing a button and then getting out through a side door, or something similar…. Then all hell breaks loose, especially as you have no suit, no weapons, and absolutely no idea where to go. It was only a random chance that I found my way to the bunker thing that is the way forward in this map.
I have yet to complete this, though it does seem familiar…so won’t even attempt to review it here, except to say that it’s very good in some ways, and blooming frustrating in so many others…..
Nice atmosphere and scripted sequences but it’s plagued with broken English, long tedious sections with overly long text messages that either lock you inside a small room or glue you to the ground unable to move and a ending so ludicrous you wonder if the map broke or something.
Yeah, no… I expected something more refined honestly. To sum it up with one word… tediousness. But at least it looked good, that’s something.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 20 Minutes
This is looking very impressive. Last time I downloaded this mod and played it, I was shocked by the run from the train while under attack and defenceless, just making the bunker entrance in time to shut the door! The interior was detailed but unfinished and the helping ” find-squares” were not there and I can tell those people moaning about them, that it made it very difficult to get to the final double doors without “You Tube” help! Now I’ll try the latest version.
Now I have finally got round to finishing it I can’t really disagree with many of the comments above. There was a lot of promise, some nicely designed areas, but the message system drove me nuts, to put it mildly. If it had run and allowed you to keep on playing as normal in the meantime, that would have more or less been acceptable, after all mods like Minerva managed to deliver messages without holding you up for ages while you read them…. But to sit and twiddle your thumbs waiting for the imaginary slower readers to catch up got boring very quickly.
I only realised I’d got to the end by being so maddeningly frustrated by the final bit that I’d come back here to see what others since had made of it…..
Such a shame, it could have been so much more of a rounded experience, but as I’ve said before, it’s hard to criticise someone for having a go at something I have no idea how to even begin, so fair play for the effort…
The opening scene made me think I’d played this from somewhere else, but I had totally forgotten the anguish to come, or wouldn’t have bothered repeating the experience…
Manually
Easy
1 Hour, 40 Minutes
I don’t know how long it took so I’m guessing. There were a lot of interesting things going on with this mod. It was visually interesting and kept the dark theme throughout to duration.
I was not very impressed whit the waiting around for text and at one point you waited so long that in the Podcast17 lets play had the for sight to tidy up the room before being released back to the game play, they should have given some reward for the wait, like some gun play or a play of head crabs to stick to theme or a massive explosion or a cave in. (or something.)
The end of the episode did not give me any feeling of wanting to continue on to another episode. Why would I ……I’m Dead at the end of the thing. Mannnnnnnnnn! I need more than that.
How about door is locked, the end. ..Not you’re dead the end….
Technically good — visually interesting — good premise — but it could use some fixing in the way the story is blocked out.
I’ll wait for more episodes to come out to get a clearer picture. It falls short as a single experience but I think it would make a good episodic adventure.
:-{=
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 10 Minutes
I just report the broken download broken link Phillip.
Working now.
Yeah thanks Phillip, i’ve dwnloaded and completed this mod.
Ok. This is not a normal single mod, this release itself is a part of a bigger project called Other Life, which the first major release was the “Cube” mod which it is not available in PP.com, so look in mod DB.
The whole plot and story concatenate themselves as this project progress, so having that in mind. That’s maybe the main strength of this whole project, but also can be a great weak point. I mean, this release and the Cube release, were both very very inmersive, with a powerful murky environment so this is more an exploration mod like in a 80 percent against the rest 20 of combat and confrontation.
The story telling in this mod it seems to be the main goal all the way, that as many have noticed is a turn down for the gameplay, sometimes this mod feels as a gallery of exploring areas with all the child seek keys and keycards puzzeling dynamics.
All the way I enjoyed the mod, but I found it so lame at the end, I mean, so cut off, the end is a major disappointment with even no: To be continued… advice or so. If the developers are planning to release this project that way because of the ammount of eppisodes they plan, then that’s a bad strategy. If they release them to check the feedback of us the gamers, then better they will have to pay attention because they have to improve their gameplay interaction. I’d preffer more challenges involving combat instead of tons of search keys exploration!!!
I close my recomm. just saying this whole other life project is a really cool initiative from the eastern moders that is well welcomed, at least by me as a gamer I always have liked creativity and originality in the mods so I really like there are actually some people working on expand the rich and great universe of Half Life and all its possibilities.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 7 Minutes
Mirroring above complaints: Yes, highlighted quest items are obnoxious. Yes, the slow-scrolling text messages will make you want to rip your arm from its socket and whack yourself over the head with it. Yes, waiting in that one room for five solid minutes only to then have to sit through another five solid minutes of annoying text messages almost caused me to split my desk in two with my own forehead. Yes, the ending was inconclusive and annoying.
That said, I tend to class this type of mod separately from others. This mod has got atmosphere, and it’s got it in droves. It’s also absolutely gorgeous; the maps are some of the most detailed you’ll see in the Source engine.
If you go into this mod expecting to be told a story (admittedly, a story told in broken English with obnoxiously slow text messages) rather than to play an FPS, then you’ll probably enjoy yourself. Otherwise, think twice.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Mod started great, butmy main menu was a purple checkerboard!
The prisoner transfer area looked very impressive with those arrows telling you who was in control. Phillips’s images told me I should have looked up for even more details!
The train escape was very difficult, but I was lucky to have played the earlier version and knew about the up’n’under trapdoor sequence. Getting out from the train was almost impossible, just heading for vague lights and I really felt the fear as the hunter’s howled at my back.
Liked the new bunker work and the impressive new hole through the ceiling, but some dripping rain would have made it perfect.
Now the radio chat was a tad annoying and I was rooted to the spot and still there afterwards! I had to activate cheats and noclip off that spot! The rest was brilliant design and detail, with some added creepiness to keep you on your toes.
The key finding did not bother me as I have done it in with and without highlights and found the latter better, but a subtler hudcolour would be better.
The courtyard was very dark and superbly detailed, with great sound as I scurried around in the bushes. I could have done without the headcrabs as they are just annoying bullet wasters! The hunter was very scary, but I had pegged it a few times from the huts barred window and it died in short order by my boots!
The first version had ended there so the rest was gravy and good gravy at that!
The second bunker was more detailed and creepier than the first and I was really enjoying it when I fell down the lift shaft and it ended in what felt like a game crash.
A walkthrough showed that that was indeed the finale step.
Massive atmosphere from the oppressive prison, the frantic escape, the creepy exploration, the five-minute spooky pause in the storeroom, the jungle trek, the fight and the final bunker’s rather abrupt end. A truly great mod marred by its insistence that Gordo’s weapon is an arrow! 😀
Anyway I’m off for a replay and a noclip looksee!
PS. Great use of sound to push the games already excellent atmosphere!
Manually
Easy
2 Hours, 5 Minutes
In my replay I stacked all the supply crates in a circle below the opening in the ceiling with some gas canisters and jerry cans. I had seen a grenade fall down this hole from my first play through and was eager to see what my reward would be.
The radio’s stationary snare really got my goat the second time and I experienced what others had felt about it!
The grenade fell again and I saw the big explosion and went to collect my one grenade. All that effort for nowt!
So I impulse 101,d and went out guns blazing for a look around. I was still very impressed, but a flamethrower for those headcrabs would have been nice!
It all seemed to be one impressive map!
Night sounds seemed a trifle loud, but I have only the UK countryside to compare.
All in all, I want more please!!..
PS. Loved those creepy shadows on the wall. I wonder what caused them?
I really like the menu of this mod. And of course “node graph” at the beginning of every map, what can you do?
Ahaha nice custom toilet. The music is nice and atmospheric all throughout. The intro about alternate universes could be skipped imo, as most mods do exactly this, namely presenting an alternative, what could’ve happened instead of the original story (while of course others stay cannon and present happenings before, during or after the original happenings).
It’s annoying to be given ammo but no weapons! The detailing in the hatch is lovely and this caught my eye http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/685967544794582066/976E9F4B352E3097C689DA51E1126D59F4439942/ But I can’t stand standing still while reading the text; could be a bug as I couldn’t move even after the text was over. I was only stuck when the text was indoor I think, outdoors as soon as the messages were gone I could move again.
At first I couldn’t find any doors to open to get to the 2nd floor of the hatch, so I thought I had to stack some ammo crates since I couldn’t break any, turns out: invisible wall blocking me! Some other bug I found, don’t know if because of the Steampipe update, but when I had to find a pipe (that was immovable first time I saw it) I just couldn’t get out of the room, invis wall blocking me, then I went noclip and some random nade exploded on ground floor. I went down for the pipe and picked up some random nade but still no other weapons..
I found the headcrabs in the tall grass very challenging, specially it being dark outside and all. As I’m in a small rebel base/stash area, the picture shows the description of an smg, yet I’m given a pistol.. I pick an smg up later on from a dead combine, thank God.
Now there’s something you don’t see every day: a hunter fighting a fast zombie!
As I’m waiting for a sign from Murphy, a lot more random bottles fall from the ceiling, some brick started sliding on the floor aaand the props just jumped all of a sudden. The text after that tries to base this on some scientific experiments having been conducted in that area, but no specifics are given – how convenient – and we’re left with actually more questions than answers.
Finally I find a crowbar! and a shotgun, sadly I don’t get to use them… What an abrupt fall (that doesn’t kill this time) and ending..
Overall it’s worth a play, the mapping is neat given the level of detail, custom stuff and even architectural greebling, tho from a layout pov nothing stood out. In places the invisible walls could’ve been avoided with just prolonging some fence or bars that cover the unreachable area. It seems like the mod makes a good prelude for something bigger.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 20 Minutes
crashes before it even gets to the main menu…help?
Every time a communication would come through (screen text) I would get stuck. I had to noclip out every time I received a text. After the fifth text I stopped.
Manually
Easy
30 Minutes