Trapped deep underground in the Black Mesa research facility and beset on all sides by hungry aliens, failing systems and government soldiers determined to silence everyone involved with the project.
How hard can it be?
Basic Details
- Title: Stalwart
- Filename: bm-sp-stalwart-hrdv.7z
- Size : 2.08MB
- Author: JamaicanDave
- Date Released: 17 December 2016
Gauge Users
Currently, Gauge does not operate with Black Mesa releases.
Download Options
Manual Installation Instructions
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
- Copy bm_stalwart_hardv.bsp into the …\Steam\SteamApps\common\Black Mesa\bms\maps folder
- Copy bm_stalwart_hardv.ain into the …\Steam\SteamApps\common\Black Mesa\bms\maps\graphs folder.
- Launch Black Mesa
- Open the console and type map bm_stalwart_hrdv and now press ENTER.
Important Note
This file was submitted as an unofficial entry for the Hard!Ville Mapping Challenge. It was unoffical because all entries for that challenge had to be for Ep2.
Videos
None at this time.
Screenshots
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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Reader Recommendations
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 8 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 8 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 18 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by crowbar
Longest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Ttiki
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 20 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 8 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 18 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by crowbar
Longest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Ttiki
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 20 Mins
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Jump to a review
new Black Mesa by JamaicanDave, awesome 🙂
keep it up man.
Very solid map. As usual with JamaicanDave I feel like the map’s pacing was a bit off. The map has two halves in which you do completely different things, they don’t go smoothly into each other. I feel like either there needed to be something in between to make the transition from slow and careful puzzles and exploration to big fight a bit smoother. Or throw the first half completely out and focus on the big fight.
The first half was alright, but I have some issues with it. If you open the door to the houndeyes without picking up the pistol first, you are dead. Go into the room with the bullsquid was pointless, so why bother. Fighting it from that angle through the door is weird anyway, and the Bullsquids AI had problems.
The a little bit of platforming which was alright, some exploration here and there. Everything solid. Then the big fight happens, which was good, but there are things which I didn’t like. First the fight takes too long to start, you press the elevator button (which makes no sound btw which was irritating), the music starts, and you just stand there for 10 seconds or so. Then the Vortigaunts spawn in.
The way they spawned in didn’t feel very fair though. It was always like 3 or 4 at the same time and I barely had room to breathe, to even reload let alone fill up with health at the charger. I played on hard btw. It was cool when the Soldiers came into the battle, but I was waiting in front of the elevator to finally open, but what happens? Three soldiers come out and own me.
So basically the map was good but could use a little bit more playtesting, but since it’s so short I can understand why you wouldn’t organize playtesters etc.
It was TOO short btw for my taste.
Manually
Hard
10 Minutes
This map is good and it involves little bit of parkour and such hard battle.
Parkour part took me 8 minutes and I kept falling into the water, probably because I can’t jump properly. Anyway, it’s fine and really not that hard part to do. (Which makes me start to think if this is hard at all)
Then the big fight comes in like a blast, it’s just like putting Vortigaunts everywhere, mixed with some Alien Grunts. I barely squeezed through the fight, and it is just in medium difficulty! I beat it by contact grenade boost up to the second floor and hide inside a room where one shouldn’t be able to reach through normal ways.
By far this is the few maps I’ll consider as hard one. By the way, this might can be the hardest entry in HardVille if this map can be put in it.
Manually
Medium
23 Minutes
If this was officially part of Hard!Ville, then this would have been the clear winner for me. Most of the entries seemed to be either unpolished, too hard, or frustrating, sometimes all at the same time, and while this one was definitely very hard, it didn’t feel very frustrating in comparison (the last battle being pretty short definitely helped there and I think that’s a good thing). Not only that, but the entire level was very well detailed and looked great. It doesn’t come without any flaws tho, which is why I’m only giving it a Play It Later instead of a Play It Now.
The begining was a bit weird , like crowbar said, with the two rooms with a bullsquid and houndeyes. It seemes like going into those rooms was pointless and I would have been better off ignoring them. I only managed to lose health and ammo, which only made the final battle that much more difficult. You do get some grenades from them so it’s not entirely useless.
The parkour was nice, although maybe too easy. I touched the water a few times and didn’t lose much health or suit charge, so maybe there could have been a way to make it slightly more punishing. I still enjoyed going through it despite all this.
The rest of the map was good, it was nice how the dev shows you where you are gonna end up from different angles and made me look forward to getting there.
When I arrived at the final room, it was obvious that something big was gonna happen, with all the health and suit batteries, but even then it still caught me by surprise just how big the fight was.
The biggest problems with this part were that it felt like there was no cover I could use, no safe area to stick to, and that the enemies spawned faster than I could kill them. I was fighting from the elevator door, because the military crates made it seem like that was gonna be the safest place, but more vorts would spawn before I even got to clear the last group, and suddenly they started teleporting next to me along with alien grunts.
It took me quite a few tries. Whenever I died, I tried to move to other places to see if that would make it easier, but everywhere got filled with enemies eventually. And once I managed to kill them all, the military comes from the elevator. I was standing right in front of it, facing away expecting more enemies to come from somewhere else, so it felt cheap and unfair.
Looking back on it, those grenades I mentioned earlier probably would have made it much easier, but somehow I completely forgot I had them. But anyways, when I finally completed it, I truly felt accomplished. While the fight felt unfair in many ways, I still had a lot of fun with it. It wasn’t very long and was a nice change from the earlier, mostly calm exploration. If this fight was stretched across the whole map, it definitely would have just been frustrating and wouldn’t have been fun at all (which is how I feel about some of the Hard!Ville entries), but by keeping it short, it becomes very enjoyable, even when it’s pretty difficult. Likewise, if the exploration and parkour part was all of the mod, then it would have felt boring and uninteresting.
And like I said earlier, the map was very well detailed. Judging it just with that, it definitly felt like it could have been part of the actual game rather than it’s own separate thing. It never felt blocky or unpolished, which even the best entries in Hard!Ville didn’t manage to do.
I definitely enjoied playing through this map, and could easily have been a Play It Now for me.
Manually
Medium
20 Minutes
I’ve just finish the level and it’s pretty good! The end was cool, with those waves of Vortiguan…
A bit like Left 4 Dead!
If you want some fun, download it and play it!
Only “bad” things, it’s too small, but hey, it’s very cool.
Manually
Hard
30 Minutes
Thanks for the reviews. I’ll try to comment on a few common points that were raised.
I confess Stalwart is too short and rough around the edges. To be honest I can’t map fast enough for the ville competitions, but it was fun to try.
The side rooms are all risk / reward and entirely optional. Going in might cost health and ammo, but in return the player gets one or two pickup’s which can be really useful later. Not all items are easy to see.
The battle at the end is rather unforgiving. It requires quick, accurate shooting and a lot of manoeuvring. There is a brief pause half way through to let the player mop up the first waves of vorts and restock, but overall there’s very little room for error. I will mention the raised platform gets increasingly dangerous, this is deliberate to try and herd the player away from the lift (for obvious reasons).
Bolloxed’s video on Youtube is a good example of how it should be done. I preferred the first version (sadly taken down). It showed a great contrast between getting the battle right and what happens when it goes wrong.
Man, your are an awesome moder, keep it like that!
I should say that, the idea for the side rooms is extremely clever, maybe a little bit more of stuff would be great…
It’s ok up until the last segment with a shit tone of vortigaunts and grunts, it was just too difficult even on medium difficulty. And after that it was over.
Manually
Medium
10 Minutes
Well this is a perfect Play it Later. I have always liked the add mod maps for BM, I think they’re full of fresh combat and the scenarios are just great.
In here we don’t have a big map, just one built around a central arena where the ambush action take place.
The combat is very close and hard overall is a nice 15 min combat map.
Manually
Medium
15 Minutes
In terms of pacing, Stalwart feels a bit strange. For the first few minutes of the map, you’re essentially wandering around an environment with few enemies, collecting ammunition for weapons you don’t have yet. From a visual standpoint, the environment looks good, but in terms of level design, the first part is boring, and doesn’t build up the fight at the end.
After climbing through a vent, you are introduced into an arena. The fight starts when you activate the elevator, and the way it starts out is promising. The idea of dodging multiple vortigaunt rays sounds interesting, but in practice it feels unfair. I found myself quick-saving often because I was being shot at from several different directions, and it felt like the area was lacking in terms of health pickups, so I ended up dying often. I barely escaped the fight on 4 health, so the fight ended up being annoying rather than fun.
Manually
Medium
12 Minutes
A short but nevertheless fun to play map. There’s very few puzzles involved, but as though to make up for this, the combat is all the more intense. I started playing on Normal but had to switch to Easy halfway through because I would just keep dying rather soon. Being shot at from all sides isn’t my favourite pastime, hence only “Play It Later” (plus the lack of puzzles).
The visuals are beyond doubt rather beautiful to look at and leave little to be desired. The map layout is alright as well – I’m not sure if this was Dave’s intention, but seeing the final room from three different sides through locked doors made it pretty obvious where the whole thing was heading – the sort of hints I like.
This is some solid piece of work right here and there’s no reason not to play it. Black Mesa singleplayer maps are pretty rare still, so I’m happy to see people mapping for it.
Manually
Easy
20 Minutes
Is Dolmo and Dave’s “Stalwart XT” like a revamp or an extended version of this?
Stalwart XT is both a revamped and extended version of Stalwart. I don’t think this original is playable anymore, it’s not compatible with the most recent version of Black Mesa.
“Stalwart XT is a two map collaboration between myself (JamaicanDave) and Dolmo. It is based on a small Black Mesa map called Stalwart I released on RTSL in 2016 as an unofficial entry to the Hardville mapping challenge. The original Stalwart map has been reworked and new areas added extending both the beginning and end.”
(From Stalwart XT’s description)