You are a scientist called Gordon Freeman, following a convey with some high-tech weapons to a secret base called “Black Mesa Research Facility”.
The convey got ambushed by a group of revolutionaries.
The way back is blocked.
Forward is the only possibility, as is fighting for your survival.
Basic Details
- Title: Road of Destiny
- Filename: hl1-sp-road-of-destiny.7z
- Original Filename: rod.zip
- Size : 1.65Mb
- Author: Tanis Lee
- Date Released: 23 March 1999
MapTap Users
Download directly into MapTap [1.65MB]
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Download Options
Download to your HDD [1.65MB]
You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.
Manual Installation Instructions
- Copy the maps and gfx folders into your …\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\valve\ folder.
- Launch Half-Life
- Open the console and type map rod01 and press ENTER.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
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WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 6 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 18 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 11 Mins by monster_urby
Longest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Hec
Total Time Played: 1 Hours, 47 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 18 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 11 Mins by monster_urby
Longest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Hec
Total Time Played: 1 Hours, 47 Mins
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Played ok being a bit creepy in parts with too many dark sequence for my liking, Gameplay lacked variety.
This one is actually very nice in design it also comes with a custom sky. But unfortunately it is much much to short. But it’s still great fun for like 3 or 4 minutes.
An old being-yet-again-Gordon Freeman mod, meaning typical story, but different gameplay.
You start desoriented at some place of chaos, destruction and cluelessness.
So grab your HEV suit, search for a weapon and get rid of the incoming soldiers!
I played it twice to see if something changes at the end, or I forgot something but there wasn’t any.
P.S. It’s more than 3-4 minutes of gameplay, about 5-20 depending on your skills
Pro’s:
-Quite good design with a new sky (Quake II) but some minor flaws
-Plenty of action, weapons (such as Gauss, Magnum, Rocket Launcher, Hivehand) and ammo
-A few puzzles
-A few scripts
-Good balancing
-Good atmospher(ic sound)
-Secret area (Magnum)
Con’s:
-Sometimes just poor, basic design, not very detailed
-Bugs (doors sometimes doesn’t open –> getting stuck, sometimes no mapchange)
-Unfortunately short playtime
-Taking damage at grabbing HEV suit, also one time non-avoidable falling damage
-Usual story
Tanis is, almost inevitably, another new author and with his first release he brings us 4 maps [and a brief end one] to play with. After spending quite a while actually getting the hold of the thing and downloading it, I was unpleasantly surprised by the beginning which certainly didn’t warm me to the prospect of four whole levels like this. The problem? R_speeds, the bane of every mapper’s life.
To give Tanis his dues, he does acknowledge this problem in the accompanying text file. However, I’m not sure whether this is really better than simply being ignorant of the flaw; if he realised they were so bad, perhaps he should have tried a little harder to do something about it. R_speeds rocket to well over a thousand for a large portion of the first level which is totally unacceptable. Now bear in mind that id, Valve and anyone else using a Quake engine derivative advise mappers to keep r_speeds down somewhere around 400 in areas that will experience some combat – even lower if it’s heavy. Now imagine those figures being up around 1200 in a section where there are plenty of grunts running around. Those of you with older or less powerful hardware will probably want to start this unit on the second map, put it that way.
Once past this first hurdle and on to the second maps, the frame rate improves a lot and you can actually enjoy the hard work Tanis has put in. Obviously this isn’t the best looking map you’ll find but he has done quite well. Although it looks a bit messy in some places – and there are numerous, extremely obvious mistakes with the texturing – the overall appearance isn’t too bad. Nothing especially impressive yet neat and not unattractive at times.
The gameplay is similarly average, though it did need quite a bit more work. Even ignoring the first map whose hardware requirements cripple the unit, there are quite a few flaws in it. Enemy placement isn’t too great, despite a few nice surprises squeezed in here and there. It’s not consistently poor but there are just a few too many grunts that can be taken down without them even registering your presence for it to be satisfactory.
There aren’t really any set-pieces to speak off in the unit either, which would have perhaps uplifted the fairly pedestrian gameplay. There is one sequence about halfway through but it was just too staged and static to be effective. I don’t think this is really so important anyway, though, since the start and the finish of Road of Destiny spoil any better qualities. Inbetween, it’s not all that bad, but the beginning [for the reason I mentioned] and the end [for just not really working very well at all] are the real problems. It’s a shame because he’s demonstrated some good imagination here and there; unfortunately, the implementation has let him down.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Sunday, 14th March, 1999 by Morgan.
This review was originally posted on the Ten Four Website, which is now offline. Permission has been granted to republish the full review and more details can be found on the About page.
I’m pretty sure you are going to have trouble with this because some of the level changes didn’t work for me and I had to try a few times. I couldn’t get the last level to load properly and loaded it manually, although that’s not too much of an issue as it’s just a scene.
The first fight and one other in the middle a quite nice but the rest lacks planning. Some sections are visually quite nice and others just bland.
All in all, no more than a MAYBE from me.
Using Gauge
Medium
13 Minutes
For 1999, this must have been pretty nice.
This mappack doesn’t really deserve a Maybe?, but more of a PIL for me. Sure, the architecture was out of place sometimes, there was no crowbar until the 4th map I think and the combat is a bit stupid. Well, I will agree that those are issues, but overall, I enjoyed playing it, and that’s what matters. Also, if you have trouble with the maps not loading properly, just save and reload or go in another map and it will work.
Overall, not bad but not the best either.
Well, it’s … very short. And pretty brutal. It’s definitely an interesting spin on things from one angle, but there’s no evidence of the ‘story’ within the actual mod – unless of course, there was any dialog found from the Barney or the Scientists. Who of course died long before I could do anything to save them. I have no idea how any of the screenshots above could have them safe 🙂
The fights were difficult at the start but then kind of impossible by the end, since health was nonexistent until you get past a certain point. By that time I’d god-moded because I had 6 hp left. I usually determine myself to switch off god-mode when I’ve found health and HEV power – which didn’t happen, again, until *after* the drop that killed me because apparently vents can’t be shimmied down.
Close quarters fighting in basically all cases, still kind of fun. Though I don’t think I’d have been able to get through the whole thing without having turned off damage. I didn’t really even know you could open the cargo crates until I backtracked looking for the crowbar (which.. again, only appears much too late to be of any use). I felt it a bit odd to use that ‘special weapon’ on the vent grills, because nothing else worked.
Manually
Medium
20 Minutes
Now this is a hell of a blast from the past. I’m pretty positive that this is the first custom map I ever played for HL1. I believe it came on a PCGamer UK CD-Rom back when such a thing existed. 😛
Might have to fire this up tonight and see how it holds up.
I have a certain degree of respect for this little map pack as it was released so soon after Half-Life came out. Mainly because the only option for mapping back then was WorldCraft 2.1 which left much to be desired in terms of functionality. It is one of, if not THE first custom map series I ever played.
That said, it has not aged well and the environments definitely look and feel dated. The majority of the props on show are prefabs that came with Worldcraft, but some are custom made and the scaling is off most of the time.
That said, the gameplay is pretty fun, even today. The combat is intensely challenging in places and the player is certainly rewarded for exploration as well. Some of the level translations are a little off in some places, the new maps popping in more details which make the process anything but seamless.
A classic in a way, I recommend that you play it at some point.
Using Gauge
Medium
11 Minutes
Well, first I have to say I quite enjoyed this piece of work, and I had no troubles loading the maps or in maps transitions, that’s maybe because I used Map Tap and was ok with the mod itself.
I quite liked this mod, because reminded me to some first HL1 mods, you know, set into the BM Facility at the time of the mayhem events. I also think this mod have some areas which fitted perfectly into the Black Mesa Concept so they’re huge and with some very nice battles in it.
Now I really have to warn you about this mod have some pretty difficult parts like a room full of spawning Vortigaunts, or very difficult Garg section, so once you reach those parts, you have to plan your strategy carefully.
Possibly the only part i dislike from this mod was the ending. You know, it was very in the line of “you die anyway” so I consider that could’ve been changed, but all in all was a nice mod though it was difficult I have some enjoy time with it.
Using Gauge
Medium
30 Minutes
I had a great time with Road of Destiny (RoD) from the start to the end.
It starts off strong with a couple of Barneys helping you clear a path to the installation. They are surprisingly handy here and there’s enough room for them to move around effectively.
There are a few set pieces like this throughout RoD with notable examples being grunts fighting alien slaves who are teleporting in and the final grunts vs Garg fight. The teleporting monsters often don’t have any particle effects and just pop into existence mid-air in front of you but it’s not a huge deal.
The maps follow the Valve style of progression – turning wheels and hitting buttons then backtracking to go through the newly opened door. This also leads to a particularly satisfying scene where you can leave some steam on and a handful of grunts walk into it and get gibbed.
There are a few minor technical issues, most notably a couple of lights being set way too bright but again, this is minor.
I had a blast with RoD and you probably will too.
Manually
Medium
18 Minutes
Gargantua boss is the best. It is distracted. He only sees marines I like that. That’s his just destroy the marine while I am watching all the movie in the bunker behind that window. I feel really happy when all marines are wiped out of the area. Imagine if I have to fight them myself. They would deplete my armor and health to ashes and Gargantua absorbed all the damage for me. He’s even my best friend in the battlefield. I would like to have him as a pet so he can clear the path for me. And I just follow him and see him in action while those marines are pissed out of his presence. I need to hire G-Man and ask him the following question: How on Earth Should I summon Gargantua so he fight to my side lol?? Answer me G-Man, please, I need a pet. So I can play all mods on insane difficulty.
Manually
Hard
15 Minutes