Three Rooms – Map Labs Test Tube #20

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

3rd September 2024

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One Room, Bone Room, Two Rooms.

Following a proven pattern (not including the Half-Life: Alyx One Room challenge), Map Labs has unpredictably expanded to Three Rooms with this Test Tube competition! The entrants were technically limited to three rooms, but there’s also some trickery at work in some of the maps here. Enjoy the 21 entries!

As always, if you’re interested in learning more about Map Labs and maybe even participate in their upcoming challenges, visit the Map Labs Discord.

Basic Details
  • Title: Three Rooms
  • Filename: sdk-2013-sp-mlc-threerooms.7z
  • Size : 1.06 GB
  • Author: ArctixSnowPup, Alivebyte, gregg, ArdentParagon, BTheM, Salamancer, AtomicspeedFT, Redzombie18, Miru, Spring, sitkinator, Klems, Waugh101, maplefoxo, 1UpD, Sylenth, NTN9, Radial, shoes, King Sans on Steam, friedmn, Legoyann
  • Date Released: 8 August 2024
  • Related: One Room
  • Related: Halloween Horror 3: Bone Room
  • Related: Two Rooms

Download Options

Download to your HD [1.06 GB]

Manual Installation Instructions
  • Make sure you have the Upcoming branch of the Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer installed in Steam and run at least once. (Properties – Betas – select upcoming from the dropdown list).
  • Copy the threerooms, mapbase_shared, mapbase_hl2, and mapbase_episodic folders into your SourceMods folder.
  • Restart or start Steam.
  • Three Rooms should now be listed in your Library tab.

Reviewing

If you decide to use the Per-Map Opinion Images, feel free to use the file below as a template:

Three-Rooms-Review-Template.txt

Entries

Listed as they are displayed in the mod itself:

Dome 454 by ArctixSnowPup
Trade Station by Alivebyte & gregg
Katabasis by ArdentParagon
Big World by BTheM
First Response by Salamancer
Batrachomyomachy by AtomicspeedFT
Night on the Job by Redzombie18 (bonus map)
Three Times by Miru
Risen from Trash by Spring
Electrical Matters by sitkinator
The Temple 2 by Klems
Fright Rail by Waugh101
The Cave Dweller by maplefoxo
Distress Signal by 1UpD
triplepuzzle. by Sylenth
a little something by NTN9
Hazard Pay by Radial
The Omnipresent Gaze of the Transhuman Arm of the Combine Overwatch by shoes
Wash and Repeat by King Sans on Steam
Creier by friedmn
expedition by Legoyann

Screenshots

WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Each map has 5 screenshots. Thanks to ArctixSnowPup for providing the screenshots!

1600 x 900

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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
Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!
3 recommendations, average score: 4 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0 (what's that?)
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 2 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 2 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 3 Hours, 30 Mins
Shortest: 1 Hours by dougjp
Longest: 6 Hours by calembredaine
Total Time Played: 7 Hours
Categories (?)
Half-Life 2: Ep2 HL2-EP2 Mods Mapbase Play SDK 2013
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Unplayed Labs
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Play It LaterPlay It LaterPlay It Later

3 Comments

  1. Luke Traitor
    Play It Later

    I kinda forgot most of these entries. I will have to replay them again for a full review. All I can say is some are good, and some are bad.

    Reply
  2. dougjp
    Play It Later

    I thought this was one of the more enjoyable Test Tubes.

    There were fully 8 exceptional maps, of which I rated Batrachomyomachy and The Omnipresent Gaze of the Transhuman Arm of the Combine Overwatch as perfect “10’s”, ie; PFs, and Dome 454, Big World, Electric Matter, Fright Rail and Distress Signal as 9/10, ie; close to PFs.

    The overall PIL rating was because I found 8 of them to be duds. Nevertheless, there is a lot of great play time here which is especially appreciated with the lack of other mapping action.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Easy
    Playtime:
    1 Hour
    Reply
  3. calembredaine
    Play It Later

    Had this review abandoned for a while on my hard drive as I could not complete the whole map pack fast enough. Posting it now, better late than sorry.

    What I’ll do here is describe the trends I observed. Regardless of how much I say or how critical I might sound, whether it’s particularly good or bad is up to you. Personally I had my fun on all maps (even the one I could not finish).

    Generalities:
    -A majority of combat oriented maps, plus a few completely narrative/exploration-focused.
    -Lot of fairly polished/detailed entries overall. Comparatively, Two rooms could have several entries with simpler look.
    -A lot of maps set their rooms separately, if not linearly in progression. That’s unlike the “room in another room” trend I saw in some two room maps.

    No.1 Dome 454

    Boxes you in some dome-shaped infrastructures, surrounded by enemies.

    Visually looks polished. I particularly liked the skybox.
    Combat is characterized mostly by the verticality and islands of cover given by the hexagonal platforms.

    No.2 Trade Station

    Narrative map devoid of combat.
    As it says at the very start, it branches out from previous maps seen in previous map labs.

    I’ll sum it up as such:
    -There is some basic lore and plot going on.
    -Voice acting is not very emotional (several of them are TTS).
    -Writing is mostly “to the point” exposition.
    -Visually, the map mostly reuses assets from HL2.
    -Gameplay-wise, you move around and sometimes have choices of dialogues. I don’t think you can “lose” regardless of the reply you pick.

    No.3 Katabasis

    Prison escape through some industrial complex, with alien wildlife living nearby. Got to say: the blatantly poor conception of that cell block was funny.

    Visually polished, though some walls have some strange shining paintjob. Seems like a minor bug.

    Main gameplay peculiarities are the generous use of houndeyes, first as the main threat in enclosed environment and thirdly in fights against soldiers. Second fight is a more conventional indoor firefight with enough cover and circulability, though the cops quickly set themselves quickly to disable flanks.

    No.4 Big World

    Some navigation-focused map. Also features a bit of combat, but it’s very elementary.
    Visually simple, but okay enough for the main attraction of the map, which is size.
    You move a fair bit around, pressing buttons here and there, with sometimes nasty hazards spawned out of thin air.

    No.5 First Response

    A “Counterterrorist operation” style of map.

    Visually polished. Features a custom screen pre- and post-mission, plus radio communications as the situation evolves. You don’t have a lot of equipment, but the pistol fits the theme. The bad guys were made to shout a fair bit, too.

    Gameplay-wise, I died and retried my way through with quicksaves. Hurdles are:
    -The huge amount of tripmines to manage. I like the threat, but feel the movespeed is too fast for this kind of setting. Default movespeed, while not “fast” for a 90s shooter, is still running speed, which differs from a more cautious playstyle. Holding Crouch/walk key full time is indeed possible, though not the most convenient compared to learning by heart.
    -The enemies are rebels with untweaked stats: instant reactions, high accuracy including even on the move, surpassing by far hl2’s combine soldiers ironically enough. They can also see through the smokescreen they set themselves. I did note however they are downed in a few shots, which is appreciated.
    -I could also add it’s weird to be alone, with a mere pistol against so many dudes and a dying hostage, but I can leave it to suspension of disbelief.

    No.6 Batrachomyomachy

    Combat map where you fight combines in some industrial area.
    Visually polished, with a lot of details.
    Gameplay-wise, it’s good, typical indoor firefight with multiple entryways for the enemies, who come in waves of squads. Cover is plentiful, as well as explosive props. You’re also given a pretty potent pistol instead of the usual usp match, which complements the revolver to finish off enemies.

    No.7 Night on the Job

    Narration map. You’re a detective sent to investigate a crime scene.
    Besides the polished visuals, so felt the voice acting and writing.
    I’m not sure what to say about the clues. I was too lazy to fill the form, sorry. Still, I wish the best for this experiment.

    No.8 Three Times

    Some simplistic looking combat map, with a few fights: boxed in with houndeyes, squad fight with rebels and combines. I also note the end is heavy toilet humor.

    No.9 Risen from Trash

    As the title says, you wake up in a giant dumpster. Rest is fighting.
    Visually polished enough for my little eyes, though you’ll have “out of HL2”-ish stuff popping out.
    Gameplay-wise, I found the fights very intense, and enjoyably so. First room is a fight in the dumpster against poison zombies. Second room is a three way fight with zombies and a lot of soldiers, with lot of props and weapons to shoot.
    Third room features a custom robot boss to destroy, alongside two gunships.
    I’ll mention there is a static cannon you can use to deal a larger amount of damage than even rockets. I did not notice it until after the fight, which made the process slower than it should have.

    No.10 Electrical Matters

    A map about fixing some current in a building, and skirmishing with bad guys in the process.

    Visually polished at least on the accessible parts, though it has a few oversights like a desk placed the wrong way.

    Its map design is a typical structure executed well: one pretty chill puzzle part, followed by more hectic combat.
    Puzzle-wise, you do some pretty silly form of maintenance, though it still makes enough sense from a “video game logic”.
    Combat-wise, it has the essential elements for a good fights like the other entries: cover here and there but enough space to maneuver.
    Meanwhile, I cleared the map easily for the following reasons:
    -You are given ample amount of strong firepower for a relatively limited opposing force.
    -The layout is very predictable for an observant player. You could easily tell the fight would be limited to outside. This makes the building a strong safe spot, and even a mean to catch the AI completely off guard when they spawn.
    -About half of the fighting force is very restrained in its movement. If you hug the building, the soldiers on the roof can drop grenades on you at best, and are unable to cover their wall rappeling comrades. The hunter on the rock can not move further and is thus a sitting duck; you can safely dispatch the soldiers from outside, then just as safely whittle down the synth’s health.

    No.11 The Temple 2

    A driving (sailing?) oriented level. You take control of a ship and move through some mysterious world.

    Visually, the ship has a fairly uncluttered inside. Outside emphasizes more on scale than detail.
    As the title implies, it is a sequel, however I did not feel left out of the loop despite not playing the first map.
    You have a sidekick to assist you. Its writing and actions inspired me sympathy, but its voice not so much (you get it once you hear it). Else it’s just the two of you in a pretty vast, eerie place.
    Gameplay-wise, it’s a simple adventure game. The ship controls smoothly, with a lot inertia especially on the tide, though I didn’t crash when trying to bump on a wall. It’s fairly demanding maintenance-wise, particularly the refueling process. Still, nothing too difficult to do.

    No.12 Freight stall

    An indoor map in an infested area.
    Visually polished. Not much to say here.
    The main trait of the combat is the absence of firearms. You have a melee, the gravity gun and some grenades. However, you’re given enough space to dodge even the fast zombies (well I admit my job was made easier because I preemptively blocked some entry ways with props).
    It also features a bit of parkour to either complete the map or access supplies.

    No.13 Cave dweller

    The one map I could not finish (yet).

    From what I could tell:
    It’s an exploration kind of map, where you must use some clunky drone (a grounded drone, not the flying kind) to scan a cave.
    Map looks polished, including your rusty hardware. The guy giving the instructions has this unmotivated vibe. You get pretty well you’re not a prestigious theoretical physicist this time.

    Gameplay is unconventional by hl2 maps standards, and clearly demands more patience than usual:
    -Your actions are mostly through writing commands on a computer console.
    -Minor but pretty symbolic element: turning on the drone itself takes a while. I don’t mean “hold the use key for 30 seconds” but rather “hold the use key several times”, because the poor thing is scripted to need a few tries.
    -You have no camera feed, only a rudimentary one picture “scan” as a visual sensor (well, I guess it is supposed to be visual). Essentially, you’re piloting the drone blindly.
    -Controlling the drone is a barely automated process. To properly locate it remotely, you get its coordinates and read a paper map (set your texture quality to high in the options, you’ll need it). To move it, you input the duration of a movement instead of a distance, meaning you should learn the speed, then do a bit of computing to figure out for how long you should move.
    -The drone does not seem capable of turning on the spot. I conclude you must also account for the turning radius.
    -You cannot save in this map. If your play sessions have to be pretty short, you’ll play it several times just to finish it fast enough.

    Overall a pretty slow-paced experience just from what I have played. If you’re not used to this kind of gameplay, you’ll take some time figuring things out.

    No.14 Distress signal

    A defense/maintenance combat map where you’re alone on a resistance ship.

    Visually, the interior is decent and the outside is barren, but open. Clearly it focuses on the essential of the experience. You can quickly understand where things are. Instructions are written on boards, resources are are accessed at key points.

    Gameplay-wise you have to keep an engine and an automatic gun system running with batteries. Enemies will shoot some spots on your boat, damaging the batteries. The boat’s guns are very powerful, but they have dead angles; in such cases, you still have firearms to swiftly dispatch intruders. The map feels intense as a lot of combine forces are sent after you, but it is not too hard. If you do struggle: always focus on the batteries to keep the guns shooting.

    No.15 triplepuzzle.

    A puzzle/joke map. Look is simple but not too ugly. If you can’t find the right allergen: Look under the table.

    No.16 a little something

    A purely visual maps for a short stroll. You enter your sweet, pixelated flat and feel the comfiness I suppose.

    No. 17 Hazard play

    A management map set, I assume, in an era after complete liberation from the Combine.

    Visually polished. You also have some boss talking to you. Felt a little like Cave Johnson from Portal, but a little less goofy.

    Gameplay-wise, you have different stuff to throw at the right places. You also have some hazards to deal with. When I read the board, I was pretty scared, but there is a tutorial session and it does the job. If you’re into that kind of gameplay, the essential is there.
    Note I encountered a nasty bug where the red and black pneumatics suddenly had invisible walls, preventing me from sending anything. It’s still possible to finish the level but you have to throw packages at the wrong bins on purpose 🙁
    If you die too much to irradiated rubbish: punt it as quickly you pick it up to not receive damage. The margin of time is short, but it’s doable and not too bothersome.

    No. 18 The Omnipresent Gaze of the Transhuman Arm of the Combine Overwatch

    A combat map where you try to escape some Combine complex.

    Visually looks good. Weapons models were also edited a little, just so you get that the weapons have been tuned. The architecture is also fairly uncommon, with traversal literally revolving around a bridge.

    Besides the incredibly long name, I remark the mapper really tried to go for a balanced challenge:
    -Everything deals more damage to enemies, but also to you.
    -Clip size and ammo cap are all reduced.
    -You are limited to two firearms, but always get all possibilities lying around before and during the fight.
    -The map design reflects the Combine soldiers trying to kill you intelligently. Concretely, each arena is a clearly set ambush. This stands out from the usual map designs, which lean more into the “we just happened to be on the player’s path” or “holy cow player pressed a button, converge towards their position”.
    -Physics puzzles are a little trickier. You’ll have more of these “accurately throw a prop or grenade to push what you want within reach”, which you seldom saw in the vanilla games. It does become inconsistent sometimes, as I believe RNG plays in hl2 grenade bounces.

    Note arena difficulty is a little backward: first one felt you had the least amount of breathing room, second gave you more as well as the revolver which is OP, third literally gave you a corridor as a safe room to pick off soldiers.

    Last note: traversal takes a while and has some big downtimes. The bridge is slow, and you sometimes have to do whole 180s to reach the next place.

    No.19 Wash and Repeat

    A combat map where you defend an energy plant and also clean some toilets with your stunstick. Yes, that’s the idea.

    Visually very simple and not very “realistic”, with random stuff spawning (you can even easily kill some of them before the map triggers them). It’s more of a comedic map.

    Combat is not too hard if you manage your resources. It does have a handful of nasty traps, so quicksaves for your convenience.
    Note the plant and the toilets are in different buildings. As you clean toilets, enemies spawn outside to attack the plant. You’re alerted when the plant is attacked, but out of precaution you should check it out for every 15 toilets destroyed.

    No.20 Creier

    A puzzle/narrative map. You wake up in a closed room with a TTS voice talking to you.

    Visuals have simple map geometry (it’s basic cubic rooms), but the furniture around and the setting make up for it.
    If you struggle like I did on the first puzzle: each colour on the painting represents a category of prop you must count. The amount of prop is a number to type on the keypad.

    No.21 expedition

    A defense/maintenance map where you’re aboard some massive research truck.

    Visually, the focus is on the inside, filled with mechanics, research equipment and supplies in case anything goes awry. Outside is the white cold arctic desert, which you’ll not venture into.

    Gameplay-wise, it’s a matter of fixing a few scripted malfunctions from the truck, while fending off aliens. Your opposition is not the smartest or all that varied: infinite headcrab/zombie rush of the same type until you fix your truck. Not too hard, as you are given plenty of resources to deal with the encounters.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Hard
    Playtime:
    6 Hours
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