The Road to Abyss

for Half-Life 2

21st January 2010

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Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

You find yourself arriving at some sort of Combine facility. You are taken to a room where you are attacked. Next thing you know you wake up in a bin, presumably assumed dead.

Wasting no time, you begin to explore and you find two identical rebel twins who tell you exactly what you need to do, it’s just they tell you in Russian!

As in most mods, you don’t really need to hear what they say, just do what you do best; find and kill Combine. And so, starts your journey to Abyss!

Basic Details
  • Title: The Road To Abyss
  • File Name: hl2-sp-the-road-to-abyss.7z
  • Size : 306.13MB
  • Author: Spektre and Team
  • Date Released: 21 January 2010
Very Important Notes

This mod was created for and originally released with an illegal DVD, that was sold and contained the mod and a stand-alone version of Half-Life 2. I was notified about it and downloaded it. Andyb was able to extract the files and make it into a normal mod.

Andyb and I contacted the author and he expressed a desire to update it before release. Despite sending regular emails I haven’t heard from him in over a year and I have decided to release it now.

Download Options

Download to your HDD [306MB]

Installation Instructions
  • Copy the Abyss folder into your SourceMods folder.
  • Restart or start Steam.
  • The Road to Abyss should now be listed in your Library tab.

Please see the Technical Help section if you need help.

Screenshots

Click on the thumbnails below to open a 800 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots may contain spoilers.

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
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Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!
15 recommendations, average score: 3.6 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.64 (what's that?)
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Jump to a review
Phillip says Play It!Play It LaterThink TwiceMaybe?Play It LaterPlay It LaterPlay It LaterPlay It LaterMaybe?Maybe?Maybe?Play It Now!Play It LaterMaybe?Maybe?

78 Comments

  1. PlanetPhillip
    Phillip says Play It!

    Please read the important notes in the main post to learn more about this mod’s history. This mod contains a few interesting elements but I feel it never used them to great effect.

    To my mind this is a good example of nice levels, pretty good action and exploring sequences that is missing that special feeling. Something that makes you go WOW! after you have finished the mod. If you looked at the individual elements they were quite good but it lacked something that made it whole.

    This review contains spoilers.

    Visuals
    The mod takes palce mostly outside and I can’t help feeling a little disappointed that this isn’t a Ep2 mod, but since it was built way before the release of Ep2, that’s a silly thought. Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks stuff like that. There are a number of errors, some of them captured in the screenshots, but that doesn’t really affect the final recommendation or enjoyment.

    Gameplay
    Beside the beginning where I wasn’t sure if the twins were telling me something vital, it’s pretty clear what you should do. The mod manages to vary the action but overall it was a little on the easy side, so I recommend you play a level higher than you normally do. If you normally play on hard, then consider creating a new config file.

    There is one fantastic piece that was so wasted. You reach an area where a Combine soldier is firing a weapon at you. At first I didn’t realize that it was him, but then I understood what was happening. The first part is wasted because the author could have created a situation where the Combine uses the weapon against other enemies and you indirectly control that.

    Secondly, once you get control of the weapon you don’t really have anything to kill and that sucks big time, because this weapon rocks big time.

    Be aware that there is one area that constantly crashes and that is a building on the coast, after you have to jump into the water. There is some ammo and a couple of rebels around. Just avoid the building completely and everything should be fine.

    Just after the area mentioned above is a nice set piece with a ferry and chopper, so that’s worth looking forward to.

    Layout and Design
    There are some really nice areas, but the Combine facility at the end was only ok. I would have preferred to have stayed outdoors. I felt some areas were a little plain and under detailed but those related mainly to the city environments.

    Summary
    I can’t believe you will hate this but many won’t be as satisfied as they were hoping for, based on the file size. It’s definitely a good mod, but not quite good enough to make my favourite list, which is a shame because I was hoping to start the year with something special.

    5 Words Or Less Review
    Less quantity, more quality, please.

    Reply
  2. civanT

    Haha, did I just read about illegal modders or what? That’s very interesting 😀

    Reply
  3. Sortie

    Don’t worry, I also constantly said “This should be on the Ep2 engine!” to myself when I viewed the screenshots.

    Reply
  4. Xblah

    Can we sell mods?

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      No, which is why I would have probably released it even if the author had not given me permission. I would like to clarify that the author of the mod, wasn’t directly involved in the creation and release of the stand alone HL2 pirate version, just the creation of the mod.

      Reply
  5. AI

    I wanted to give this one a run, BUT all I get is a blank screen! I can hear the HL2 opening song but that’s it!! When I exit back to the “Steam” console a message shows up can’t find “abyss_bg_03_widescreen.vtf” my vid drivers are all up to date and all other games work fine! There’s no such file in materials/console listing! Tried twice with no luck, never ran into this before! anyone else??? 🙁

    Reply
    1. civanT

      Just rename another vtf file and paste there. This should make it work.

      Reply
      1. AI

        Tried the rename, worked! That was interesting! Thanks

        Reply
  6. Grey Acumen
    Play It Later

    This mod kinda strikes me as being similar to Sweet Half Life. It has a great number of bugs, or things that simply don’t quite act right, and one of the worst is right at the very beginning of the game, yet despite this it manages a great deal of creativity.

    I particularly enjoyed the Beach and Ocean scenes. And the scene with the stolen drop ship was particularly unique, though I think it could have been handled better.
    The most disappointing part was really the end of the game. It’s been overused as badly as the beginning scenario of “escape from jail” and doesn’t even follow immediately after the closest thing this mod has to a climax. It ends up just feeling like the author already finished the game, but had a few extra ideas he wanted to include, but then didn’t really have anywhere to go with those ideas so he went “eh, whatever, lets just end it here”

    Reply
  7. megaman951

    this would’ve been a very nice mod, if it ever gets finished and all the bugs are removed (dead combines falling through the ground, the rebels not doing anything, armored cars stuck on the ground, and the empty buildings)

    By the way, what do you need to do at the beginning ?? I got out of that metal thing, then fell throught the train (lol) wandered around and came up to a forcefield, but I can’t shut it down….had to noclip through

    Also, is there a crowbar anywhere besides the one near the end? I didn’t find one and had to spawn one with the console

    the ferry ride was fun…could’ve used a box of rockets though. I had to spawn rockets.

    Reply
    1. Grey Acumen

      It seems like something went wonky with packaging this mod. When I tried to run the PP.com version of this mod I ran into a lot of cases where combine were falling through the ground after being shot, along with their weapons. I also had an issue where an armored car that was supposed to shoot at you as well as firing rockets ended up getting stuck shooting at some rebels that had followed me and didn’t fire any rockets at all.

      Reply
      1. PlanetPhillip

        It seems like something went wonky with packaging this mod

        Nothing wrong with the packaging, this is how the mod is.

        Reply
    2. PlanetPhillip

      By the way, what do you need to do at the beginning ?? I got out of that metal thing, then fell throught the train (lol)

      Interesting. You were supposed to let it finish and drop you on the ground – check the screenshots.

      could’ve used a box of rockets though. I had to spawn rockets.

      There was a crate of rockets. it was on the main deck.

      Reply
      1. megaman951

        lol. I just started a game again, and this time I waited until the cage ride “finished”…wow, the mod has even more loose ends than I thought

        and, damn, I looked everywhere on the damn boat for rockets…never found them

        Reply
  8. Jasper
    Think Twice

    My thanks to Phillip for publishing this and thanks to andyb for turning it into a Source mod.

    Technically; I’ll leave that to the modders and suspect that they may tear it to shreds.

    As a player; my New Years resolution was to never rate less than Maybe.
    Broken. I’m not given to verbiage but this mod disappointed – extremely.
    Map 1 starts quietly and then explodes with combat. After finishing the mod I played map1 again in God mode to see if the Combine stop coming – they didn’t so must be spawning (hate that with a passion, yeuch) and there’s one more time to come later.

    After that, things went downhill for me. Phillip is right. This mod is a doddle. I could do this with a large Gin in one hand and a small gun in the other.
    Except for the most irritating puzzle ever. Easy to work out, even for me, but an absolute pain to execute.
    Then there is, for me. cheating, by the author. There you are in a perfectly good thoroughly enjoyable combat battle (and there are not many) and the screen goes white and you get whisked off to somewhere completely different. Without so much as a “by your leave’!

    I had 4 HL2.exe crashes including the one Phillip identifies (there’s a bleeding female rebel in front of the house and I found no way around the crash). The other crashes were OK after re-loading.
    Triggers, I had quite a bit of trouble finding a few triggers that caused things to happen or allowed doors to open. I gave up on one of them (door with traffic lights) and, as a last resort. noclipped out of sheer frustration – hate that too as you might miss triggers.

    If this mod had been a quarter of the size it is, but with the same combat content, it might have been a lot more fun. As it is, there is a lot of walking about over some quite considerable distances without so much as a headcrab to break the monotony. The ending in most unsatisfactory. You do not feel that anything has been achieved and there still a bit of a job to finish. The G man turns up as usual and that’s that.

    The TT is for the 2 star rating. I think we are all going to play it as there is nothing much else about at the moment (hope I’m wrong). There is a highlight though. I enjoyed the ferry ride and the battles on it.
    I shall play this again but with map 1 on easy and the rest of the mod in hard.

    Warning: A lot of the ground and sand is quicksand/quickground and objects disappear – dead enemies, weaponry, ammo, power ups etc lost forever..
    Jolly decent of the Combine to bury themselves I reckon. It leaves the place so much tidier.

    Reply
  9. MikeS

    I won’t leave a recommendation image as I gave up on the first map. Never thought I’d complain a mod is too easy, but even on hard it’s nigh on impossible to die in this one! I let a combine soldier blast me with his shotgun five times. I lost just 10 health points! Guess I’ll have to look elsewhere for my HL2 kicks tonight.

    Reply
    1. andyb

      Then create your own skill file so its harder or edit the HL2 one and place it in the cfg folder

      Reply
      1. MikeS

        I don’t know how to do that and, to be honest, I can’t be bothered to find out. If the mod was attracting rave reviews then I’d be tempted to have a go, but…I have a lot of other mods and maps to play just now. Call me lazy. 🙂

        Reply
      2. Jasper

        Now that’s a good idea andyb. It was one of Phillip’s recent challenges. I think I copied and pasted it to MS word. I’ll dig it out.

        Reply
        1. PlanetPhillip

          I suggested that in my review:
          ” If you normally play on hard, then consider creating a new config file.”

          Reply
          1. Jasper

            You did Phillip. I always like to play as the author intended in the first instance. After that fair dooos.Clean forgot about the config from your challenge.
            I think I’ll harden the Combine. I’ll not forget again.

            Reply
            1. Jasper

              Done. Softened me, hardened Combine and hardware, left Ravenholm denizens “as is’.
              Combat much improved and very enjoyable. The ferry section was particularly difficult and needed completely different tactics.
              Thanks for the reminder, glad I did it.

              Reply
  10. Da Fat Cat

    The displacements on the beach are non-solid, so the rollermines jump up and instantly fall through the beach to their watery demise 😛

    Reply
  11. tungsten

    my computer crashed twice whilts downloading the files from both filefront and planetphillip .com using rar,it completed the download after 3 attempts & I loaded the files in the usual way but when I start the game all I get is a blank screen,i have a nvidia g force 9800 gtx video card and my processor is intel quad cpu 2.93 ghz,the file is showing in my games list on steam and in the program files any ideas where I might of gone wrong

    Reply
    1. Jasper

      If you crashed during download you may have corrupt files in your temp folders. Suggest you try cleaning out your temp folders and re-downloading. It’s worth a try. It might be worth switching off Screensaver and any open files just in case.

      Reply
  12. scraps
    Maybe? - revised

    I know that Andy and Phillip spent time and effort so that we could download this (thanks) but I found this irritating for the most part. There was some combat and a nice horrorful bit, other than that not for me I’m afraid

    Reply
  13. JJ_Grant

    I must say, from the screenshots this looks like an empty mod…..not much detail at all.

    Reply
  14. Filthy McNasty

    Can’t get the action started. I found the crowbar in the house, but no doors or gates will open. I want to go to the house where the Combine is standing, but no gates will open. Help!!!

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Look for a way to go upstairs into an attic area.

      BTW, please don’t rate a map or mod, until you have finished it – I have removed your recommendation.

      Reply
  15. Bolx
    Maybe?

    Going by the images I think I have gone as far in this as possible, but maybe there is more?

    I seem to remember that when HL2 was due to come out, code was stolen from Valve’s servers and turned up in Russia in pirate versions. For a pre official release of the game, the authors of this put together a pretty good mod.

    BUT

    If they had waited and learned more, this could have been a great mod. I don’t speak Russian (I assume that is the language used), but some of the situations had no obvious solutions other than trial and error. Some previously locked doors seemed to open only after an event that the player had no idea they had triggered.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      To my knowledge this mod was only made a couple of years ago and is not related to any pre-release code. It’s just a standard stand alone pirate version, same as you can find anywhere at the moment.

      Reply
  16. Clunkfish
    Play It Later

    A strange mixture of good creativity and featureless environments. It kept me intrigued but towards the end, battling to no apparent purpose against never-ending hordes of combine, I started to hope we were approaching a finish. The finish, when it came, was rather arbitrary. Despite all that, its length, its occasional unique moments (for example the ferry ride), and several areas where you have a choice of routes, made it a solid PIL for me.

    Reply
  17. Planetary

    Crash as soon as the two guys in the attic finish talking. I blew up the scanner, they talk on the radio, jump down the ladder, hear a big crash outside, and then “hl2.exe has encountered an error, etc.”

    Reply
  18. Mel
    Play It Later - revised

    Like most of the comments here I also have mixed feelings about this one.

    For sure there is some technical issue with it, but none spoiled the playing experience for me. Whilst I don’t want to dwell too much with these issues it is, however, right to say that the mod is far from prefect and varies widely in quality, ranging from some unique and well executed sequences to seemly pointless encounters and illogical situations.

    The emptiness of some sets, both out and indoors did not detract from the overall experience for me, I think sometime we expect too much, and for a mod of this length there must be a limit to how much detail can be included.

    Whilst the combat is not difficult it is, nevertheless, well staged at times with the Combine often taking up unexpected positions, also in many encounters you are lured into believing that the action is over only to be ambushed again.

    There are some trigger issues with this mod with the most obvious being when the troop ship did not land on the ferry; I had to restart the level having been stranded in the middle of the channel.

    The authors are to be congratulated on at least attempting some very ambitious out door sets, even though at time they did not always make good use of them, it did add up to a good balance of varied environments that made the long duration of the mod bearable in the main.

    With all its faults, and it has loads, I still enjoyed large sections of this mod and will give it another play through to look for different routes and parts I am sure I missed, especially the first map where it’s not at all clear what is and is not out part of the map.

    Just to conclude, this is never going to be among any ones top five of the year, if it is, then we are in for a bad year mod wish, but apart from that it is still a very payable mod with some good highlights and worth a play through.

    It maybe said that the sum total of all the mods elements in this case does not add up to a whole success.

    Reply
  19. andyb
    Play It Later

    I found this mod to be reasonable.I’m only going to rate it because it is released.I wish the author had taken up the offer to fix the butchering the russian group did to this when they made it a standalone game.I did what I could but without the original files not much can be done.This could of been a superb mod.

    Reply
  20. SPY
    Play It Later

    it was fun to play this mod, but I still give it a Play It Later, (although I mean Play It maybe) recommendation. before I started playing this mod I read all comments here, as I usealy do. and most if not all things are allready said, that I agree with fully.

    Again is this mod too a great example of we’re the first 30% is the best part qua mapping, the further you get you clearly can see that the maker(s) did spent less time on the maps. still, the credits say that the maps are made by 5 makers, (and are tested by 6 people (?) ).
    did they all work on 1 single map, or did they work on all maps together, this can’t be seen clearly. still the first 3 maps or so are really looking good, but from there the further you get the more mapping errors you can find, and less detailed it gets.

    like I allready said before is everything allready mentioned, still, I would like to mention too that there are way to less enemies for my taste. lots of mapparts are just empty places we’re you have to run through to get to the next action.

    like Phillip said to well; less quantity and more quality.
    i like large mods, the more maps the better. but when this means that the makers start to put in less time and effort in one map, then I agree with his statement fully.

    what hasn’t been said allready is another bug that did truck me, and it was in the last map or the map before that one. we’re you (the camera) is linked to a heli or gunship and you fly around. for one second I could see a trider walking somewere but other then that moment the camera (heli or gunship) was flying all the time throug buildings and the floor.

    one other issue that I like to add is my question about that this mod is released as a stand alone game? I couldn’t find any info about this on the internet, but I believe this can be the case emidiatly.

    oeps, nearly forgot.
    the issue with that combines, models, etc are falling through the floor.
    this shows to me clearly that this mod has been made 3 years ago or so, because back then the’re was a huge steam/hammer bug that spoiled mapping big time. for a unknown reason the displacements we’re suddenly not solid anymore to entities. it took weeks before Baltic.Forever could fix this for us when we worked on our mod (SM). the fix was easy ones we knew it, you simply had to add one word to a command line in the compile window, I believe it was “-novirtalmesh”.
    seems these guys didn’t know about this fix, and with that all displacements we’re not solid. nowerdays you don’t need to add this command line anymore because you can’t map with Hl2 anymore, you can, but then you use the ep1 editor version, and for that or the ep2 hammer you don’t need to add it anymore, should you add it then it makes HL2 crash..

    Reply
    1. andyb

      The maps were made in 2006 and the mod did not have this name when the russians were done with it.I found the real name in a resource file they forgot to fully edit.I really believe this was alot better before the the russians injected thier files into all this as they had the source files to do it.

      Reply
      1. SPY

        thanks ANdyb, 2006 does explane the not solid displacements like I mentioned before. because it was indeed around 2006 that this hammer bug was released by valve (by mistake obvious).

        and it’s indeed a real shame that the work of the Russian guys made it wors.

        Reply
  21. PRstud
    Play It Later

    It was playing great, till I went up to the second floor (should be avoided as the warning). Got error and game closed, then now everytime I try to play it, I get this error “cant find bacground image materials/console/abyss_bg_5_widescreen.vtp”
    when I try again same error msg appears, only the bg_5 changes to bg_3 and so on. Anyone know how to fix this??????

    Reply
    1. andyb

      It probably saved at that time before it crashed.Use an earlier save.Also restart steam to clear cache

      Reply
      1. PRstud

        had no save before, restarted steam and still get the same error and wont start. I even deleted it, redownloaded it and still get the same message. It wont even start.

        Reply
        1. andyb

          Are you using wide screen?If yes go to the materials console folder and find background05_widescreen.vtf and background05_widescreen.vmt files.Copy them somewhere and rename them abyss_bg_5_widescreen.vtf and vmf then put them in console folder.This may work and you may need to do it for 01,02,03 etc.

          No promise it will work

          Reply
          1. PRstud

            andyb thank you very much, that did the trick. It starts fine now. I’ll try to play again and hope no more problems

            Reply

  22. Pingback: Episode #67 » Podcast17

  23. dougjp

    Got the crowbar from the two in the attic, and there is nowhere to go. I’ll try to restart the mod as I suspect some trigger didn’t happen. I wonder if triggers have to do with waiting until each person has stopped talking?

    Reply
    1. andyb

      I’m not sure if Phillip included the hint text file but you need to destroy the scanner and go back and see the guys

      Reply
  24. dougjp

    I can’t finish it, keep getting killed in the first section, so unfortunately as that means I can’t use the images, this mod will have a higher recommendation average than it would have! Best summary I can think of is a POS. I can’t remember when the last time was I disliked a mod this much!

    Reply
  25. jjawinte

    Well I’m not quite sure hoe to accurately describe this mod or the GMans purple tie. Please don’t take my comments as ranting, but I just became so frustrated playing this mod, all the while knowing it could have been sooo much more. It was if a skilled professional built 85% of it, then handed it to his 13 year old and said, ” Here. Now finish it and show me what you’ve learned.”

    Despite the obvious bugs ( which I didn’t find effected my game play at all ), I actually enjoyed some of it quite a bit ( on Hard ). At least I really tried to. I believe it ceased being enjoyable at the same moment that I got pissed about sprinting almost everywhere just to get to the next area.

    I don’t know if these Russian’s were severely claustrophobic or what, but at least 90% of this mod consisted of HUGE, wasted and empty areas. Even the hallways were massive. I was so aware of this fact that it became a constant source of distraction. Had this been presented normally, and with a hint of a story line, I would very likely have a kinder opinion overall.

    Now I do want to give credit due. Some of the areas were really quite refreshing in design and pretty well put together. I also enjoyed the musical tracks and 3 areas I can think of gave up some good combat sessions. It wasn’t much on puzzles, but did offer enough problem solving for me to enjoy. Also, I have to say that the one benefit to the wide areas was in that you were able to exercise some tactical maneuvering. Although the visuals were ” quite rough “, the atmospheres of the environments seemed to come together pretty well and it was also a pretty good sized mod.

    Placed in the right hands, this could easily have been an epic piece.

    Reply
  26. Filthy McNasty

    I”m stuck near the end of this map. I’m a little beyond screen #103 where you go into this big hall and have a big battle some Combines. There seems to be a laser under the floor here with two ramps leading out of the hall. The ramps go nowhere. Can anyone help me here?

    Reply
    1. Jasper

      Left hand ramp, time for some jumping – no not into the oceean!
      Save lots.

      Reply
  27. scraps
    Maybe?

    I finished this last night. Some not bad fighting. The ferry was quite hard I thought. After that it went down hill.
    I don’t understand the long boring nothing happening bits though.

    Reply
  28. hl2-fan

    To Phil and Andy,

    I just downloaded the file but upon reading the comments see that there seems to be a lot of bugs and crash problems in it. Is it possible for a mod developer to go through the game and fix the problems? For example with new version of “hammer” to correct that no solid effect/ Because just looking at the screen shots tells me this could be pretty good mod if fixed. If someone does work on this, I’d wait. just a thought.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      I have been waiting for over a year for the author to get back to me, so I wouldn’t hold out any hope. Perhaps the fact that I have posted it on the site may encourage him but I don’t think so. In fact, that’s the main reason I posted it, because I honestly believe it’s this or nothing. Sorry.

      Reply
    2. andyb

      We could try to fix it but only if we had the source files.Without them you have nothing,so sorry but no at this time we cant do anything although I would love to get the source files if your reading this spektre.You should still have my email as I sent you one not long ago.

      Reply
    3. hl2-fan

      Thanks for the answer. I don’t know the first thing about mod-making. “Source files” requied. I see, only original maker has them. Thats why Phil said he waited a year for the author to fix mod. Only he can do it. Because I was asking why doesn’t someone else fix bugs. Too bad, could have been cool game without all the bugs mentioned.

      Reply
      1. andyb

        Might be easier to understand if you think of a mods bsp(map file) as a rar file.It has stuff inside it but its password protected and we cant get it out.Its not that simple but it sorta is like that except the bsp isnt the file we want.

        Reply
  29. Stef

    Even if the gameplay was enjoyable and that some area were well put together it’s sad that not enough energy was put to complete it in the way it should

    2times it crashed (place mention by phillip and the tank transporter in the same place that I destroyed at the same time I move backward return to steam
    I was one time getiing backward and could come back (wood stair broken)

    some place were never finish… tiny error saw 3 to 5 times the orange basic textures

    the awful transport ship ride (this nearly gave me headake)

    sometime you don’t know what next too do

    finally the russian language that spoil for us the storyline behind…sadly

    Even if I mostly point out the negative I wont avoid it and if you have arround 2hours of free time just give it a try 😉

    Reply
  30. Stef
    Maybe?

    seems that I forgot the rating system

    Reply
  31. Count_de_Monet
    Maybe?

    Quite a good mod but the bugs drive me nuts, especially when the game crashes everytime you shoot upwards (balancing catwalks and barnacles in map2). I’ll noclip this step and go see further.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Have you finished it? If not, please wait until you finish it before adding a recommendation image – Thanks.

      Reply
  32. Filthy McNasty
    Play It Now!

    This was a difficult map to complete. There alot of mistakes in it and I had to use “noclip” to get thru it alot. It was enjoyable enough to keep me playing though. It didn’t end correctly I think. After all your weapons are taken and you confront the G-Man, it just ends. I thought there should have been a more gameplay based on the screens. For it’s gameplay content it’s worth playing and hope you don’t have any problems. I want to thank Jasper for his direction. You were a great help.

    P.S: I wish the map authors allow the use of PGDN and PGUP keys. Alot of maps don’t allow them to work. It’s would be a big help.

    Reply
  33. eeVee
    Play It Later

    There were parts of this mod that I really liked, and parts that didn’t live up to its potential.

    The “quicksand” was convenient for some of the headcrabs (saved me some ammo) and the roller mines, but losing the ammo refills was annoying.

    I thought I was stuck towards the end–after you see the captured dropship and have the subsequent battle. I stayed there fighting the ever-spawning Combine for quite awhile and was ready to noclip someplace (any place), when I finally noticed the door with the traffic light was opened.

    Worth playing, but don’t expect to be blown away.

    Reply
  34. Mel
    Maybe?

    My feelings are ditto Jasper for this one. One thing I can add is that the start is very confusion if you don’t understand Russian, but I guess I am in the minority there.

    I started to play through this mod a second time but gave up having got pissed-off with all the same issues I had with the first play through.

    A lot of work with some good design in places, however, the end product does not inspire, with a disjointed feeling to the proceedings making progress heavy work.

    Reply
  35. Phil

    I have played this before, when Phillip first published it, no problem, and wanted to play it again.
    But it will not run____ been all through the “mod won’t run” things, and changed the “gameinfo” file, and followed AndyB’s recommendation with the widescreen flies (copied and renamed all files 01 to 07.
    Even got a new download and started from scratch – still won’t run.
    If I change the steanappid back to 220 then I can hear HalfLife birdsong and background noise but with a black screen with only a cursor arrow, and have to use task manager to close it.

    Any suggestions?

    Phil

    Reply
    1. Jasper

      @ Phil. Did you do the Scenes fix as well?
      If not you need to go back to Phillip’s link at the top of the page “get mods working’
      then the link to forums.steampowered.
      The mod is listed under “Road” not ‘the” in post #3 but you need the “Additional fixes for Half-Life 2 Mods” in post #1

      Do 1 & 3. I don’t remember needing 4.
      and re-start Steam.

      Fingers crossed.

      Reply
      1. Phil

        Jasper –thanks for your prompt reply!

        Yes I did the “scenes” thing. No success.

        I’ve been at this for two days now, and it’s getting to the point where I think ” the busturd isn’t going to beat me” — you know what I mean?
        And I learn so much about things doing this! It’s how I learned about sv_cheats & noclip and godmode and such.

        For me, sometimes, getting a mod to to play is as much fun as playing the game – anybody else feel like that?
        (Phillip – is that a subject you could explore? (or maybe you already did, and I missed it – that’s more likely)

        So – I still can’t run this bl**dy mod !!! HELP!

        By the way – Phillip, was that you doing the voice for the the turrets in that Portal mod?
        Splendid. …. Magic — if it was.

        Phil

        Reply
        1. Jasper

          Phil, I have an idea. No time now but I’ll give it bash tomorrow.
          like you, I enjoy sorting out stuff like this.

          Reply
          1. Jasper

            Bother. I’ve managed to get it started with the opening background screen.
            Windowed for whatever reason. Then HL2.exe crashes straight away.

            I have noticed that there is a default.cfg which I think needs deleting.
            I’ve mucked about so much I need a fresh copy.
            I’ve also spotted a comment by andyb in a comment by PRstud 23rd Jan that might be worth a bash.
            Despite the bugs, it’s actually worth playing.
            More work needed. I’ll be back, maybe not soon 😀
            I enjoy a challenge.
            Or: andyb, help! 🙁

            Reply
  36. Hec

    I anounce shamely this mod is affected byu the steam update issue, is a pity I can’t play it propperly due to that issue, so I hope someone can fix it but I doubd it!!

    Reply
    1. hl-csd

      Hec, I too have nearly worn myself out trying to play this. The best I can do is to copy the map files into the HL2 directory, start HL2, get into the console, type map abyss_02.bsp, then hit Enter, and your off.
      (Map #1 doesn’t work where ever)
      The game works & continues through all the maps.
      Hope this helps.

      Reply
  37. PlanetPhillip

    I’ve just received this text from Carl Derr, a PP reader, on how to get this mod to work:

    After all the hours of trial and error (Mostly the latter), I finally got the mod to work and I owe it all to an accident…sort of. As I sat down to my system the other day and ran Steam, I said to myself, “I’m going to rebuild the Abyss mod from the ground up.” Maybe that will fix it.”

    First, I created a new directory Abyss — Some Changes. I started with a generic gameinfo.txt file, then copied and pasted some generic Abyss files like the background maps so I could see something on the screen…so far so good.

    The background maps all showed up ok. Then copied the rest of the map files, but the games didn’t show up at the game select panel. So, I tried to map it through the console and the system crashed.

    Created/copied the directories & files for scenes, sound, etc. using only what I considered essential, nothing exotic. Still couldn’t get the games to show up at the game select panel. My grand plan was in trouble.

    Went back to the original game file and started to delete some of the directories & files I thought could prevent the game from playing and voila! Deleting the shaders directory made the game start fairly normally. Feeling flush with victory, I experimented by adding one of the three directories (fxc) back in to the shaders directory to see which one was causing problems. I put the first two (fxc & psh) back in with no game problem, but number three (vsh), ran the program aground again.

    I felt that all these shaders files must be important, so I once again started to re-integrate them, but this time I created a new sub-directory called all under shaders, then selected every fxc file & cut them into the all directory. No problem with the game so far.

    When I repeated the same procedure for the psh files, I was asked if I wanted to replace the duplicate files…I said no to each, leaving those in their source directory, they were pretty much duplicates, anyway. When I repeated this with the vsh files a slightly different scenario showed up. When I was asked to replace, I noticed all of these files were of a different size, so I left them in place, too.

    So, now I have all different shaders files in the all directory, so I moved the lot of them into the original shaders directory, in case the game needed to find them, and relocated the ” dupes” to an unused directory elsewhere.

    So, long story short, The Road to Abyss can once again be a working mod. I left the original bin directory & files in place with no problems.
    In hindsight, my guess is that the newer 220 SteamAppId got further compromised by the duplications in the shaders files. Now if only we spoke Russian!

    The gameinfo.txt file is as follows…

    “GameInfo”
    {
    Game “The Road to Abyss”
    Title “The Road to Abyss”
    Type singleplayer_only
    “developer” ” ”
    “developer_url” ” http://www.planetphillip.com”
    FileSystem
    {
    SteamAppId 215
    ToolsAppId 211
    SearchPaths
    {
    Game |gameinfo_path|.
    Game hl2
    }
    }
    }

    The shaders directory instructions…
    1. go to the shaders directory and create a new directory called all
    2. go to the fxc directory and select every file, then select “cut”, then place these in the all directory
    3. repeat for the psh and vsh files and opt a no to replace duplicates
    4. you should now have a massive collection of files in the all directory, and a few in the psh and vsh directories
    5. as in # 2, select every file in the all directory and move them all to the shaders directory
    6. now move the fxc, psh and vsh directories to an unused directory away from sourcemods

    Now, run the game and enjoy.

    (SPOILER!) For you first-timers, since you may not speak Russian, one of the two guys on the second floor of the center building is the one that gives you a crowbar. One of his words is scanner and it’s a clue… crowbar…scanner…do the math. Without this clue being pursued, you’ll have to play map 2 through the console.
    Some of the comments from 2010 indicated a crash occurring on the second floor of a building in map 3. it’s located towards the end of the map, just before boarding the ferry. While I never found it before I did the fix, now it happens every time I try to enter the room. If you pass by the room and go to the right for the goodies and then back downstairs you’ll be fine.

    Reply
  38. Max

    uuuh, I have a big problem with this mod. I start it up, but after showing the valve intros, all it does, is show me the missing texture thingy. any solutions for that?

    Reply
    1. Sparks

      Read through all the other posts, specifically the one just above yours. If you’re feeling brave, have a go at duplicating the various efforts – although frankly, it’s probably not worth the candle.

      Unfortunately this mod’s on my ever increasing “perma-screwed by valve” list. Thanks, valve guys, nice to know you’re still doing something even if it is only destroying other people’s hard work.

      Reply
      1. Max

        yes, excuse my ignorance. just after writing and posting my comment, I read phillips, explaining the whole thing.
        i started working on rebuilding it myself and I think, it runs pretty well

        Reply
  39. bkadar

    can this still work? get failed to start game with shared content error message.

    Reply
    1. bkadar

      sparks? of sparken, ozdm?

      Reply
  40. Unknown

    The Gameinfo file needs to be changed to this in order to work correctly. One other thing you may notice when playing The Road To Abyss is the combine soldiers do not have pistols or smgs when you go through the mod.

    This is moderately easy to fix! You can either use GCF Scape to extract the pistol & smg model files from the (hl2_pak_dir) located in your Half-Life 2 folder or you can download the same models from Gamebanana.

    For those who are not aware GFC Scape is a program used to manipulate and view sprites, models or texture files that have been made using Hammer/Source Engine.

    But the world models for the pistol and smg seem to be missing. They do appear in SteamAppId 218 & SteamAppId 220, but they won’t appear using SteamAppId 215. You can’t change the SteamAppId since do to the age of the mod and current Steam updates this mod is only compatible with the earliest version of SDK and requires the SteamAppId to be 215 in order for the scenes to work properly.

    “GameInfo”
    {
    game “The Road to Abyss”
    title “The Road to Abyss”
    type singleplayer_only
    “developer ” Spektre ”
    “developer_url “http://www.runthinkshootlive.com/posts/the-road-to-abyss”

    FileSystem
    {
    SteamAppId 215
    ToolsAppId 211

    SearchPaths
    {
    Game |gameinfo_path|.
    Game hl2

    game+mod |gameinfo_path|.
    platform |gameinfo_path|.

    game_lv hl2/hl2_lv.vpk
    game+mod ep2/ep2_pak.vpk
    game+mod ep2/ep2_english.vpk
    game+mod ep2/ep1_pak.vpk
    game+mod ep2/ep1_english.vpk

    game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_misc.vpk
    game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_english.vpk

    game |all_source_engine_paths|episodic/ep1_pak.vpk
    game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_textures.vpk
    game |all_source_engine_paths|episodic/ep1_english.vpk

    game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_misc.vpk
    platform |all_source_engine_paths|platform/platform_misc.vpk
    game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_vo_english.vpk

    mod+mod_write+default_write_path |gameinfo_path|.

    game+game_write |gameinfo_path|.

    gamebin hl2/bin

    game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2
    game |all_source_engine_paths|episodic
    platform |all_source_engine_paths|platform
    }
    }
    }

    Reply
  41. Daken50
    Maybe?

    It’s ok.

    Reply

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