On your return from Xen you find that the disaster is still being hushed by the Government. The world knows something is wrong but so far only a few sightings of the strange creatures has been reported. When Xen was discovered the Government assured the world that the creatures did not have the technology to reach earth.
Of course the world didn’t know that we’d built a teleport system which was now jammed open allowing them free access to our planet. When you were working at Black Mesa you had overheard conversations about a ‘star wars’ satellite system designed to protect the earth from ET invasion. You also know that each HEV suit was fitted with a security override feature which would allow operation of the satellite defences. The only way to close the teleporter would be to find a suit and locate the satellite arming system in order to destroy the entire island where Black Mesa was located…
- Title: Two Smoking Barrels
- File Name: hl1-sp-two-smoking-barrels.7z
- Size : 2.03Mb
- Author: Martin Stephenson
- Date Released: 02 April 1999
Click on the thumbnails below to open a medium size image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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Nice little action romp. Lots of close quarter
fights. Play it on hard for maximum enjoyment
Another game I played many years ago from a retail disc sold by the book outlet shops The Works. I did not make any notes then but noted the following rankings.
Mel : 6/10
EH10: 6.8/10
H16 : 6.8/10
Excellent mod with supreme action and some puzzles.
Pro’s:
-Lot of combat
-Lot of weapons and ammo
-Some lil puzzles
-Decent level design
-A few nice scripts
-Goodies everywhere
Con’s:
-Pretty short
-Some rooms look boring, not very detailed
-No HEV at start but that’s okay here (just mentioning!)
Despite a lack of any cameo appearance by Vinnie Jones, this map is an exceptionally capable debut from Martin. While not without its problems, it’s a fine first foray into the world of mapping and one which promises much in the future editing career of this author should he decide to continue.
The unit most impressed in its earlier sections. The combat here is excellent, especially the initial confrontation in the building you enter right at the start. Claustrophobic corridors stage an excellent battle that’s set just right; if you’re going to plunge the player straight into some intense action, this is the way to do it.
Design throughout is very nice. There weren’t any really exceptional pieces of architecture anywhere but it was solid all the way. He’s also made some nice, if limited, use of some of Half-Life’s more advanced features; a brief scripted sequence very close to the end almost had me laughing out loud and was very well conceived. While Martin has performed quite adequately in the design department in some respects, it’s also here that his inexperience is manifest. R_speeds once again raise their ugly head and really spoil many areas. Entity polycounts are mainly to blame, and several battles in later levels were conducted in slow motion on a frame-by-frame basis. In the text file he says he intended the map to be playable on a “300mhz machine with Voodoo 2 or equivalent” – basically the specification of my machine yet some scenes brought my setup to its knees.
The maps generally go a little downhill in the later maps. The balance tips towards frustratingly difficult rather than satisfyingly challenging – as it is at the start – and the sluggish framerates really don’t help. It never ceases being entertaining but it did have me gritting my teeth rather more often than it should have.
This is certainly a fine achievement for a new author. If the hardware requirements were a little more realistic and if some of the later maps had been given as much attention as the earlier ones did, I’d have no hesitation in recommending it. As it is, it’s still very enjoyable if your computer can stand the pace but it still leaves quite a bit of room for improvement.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Saturday, 17th April, 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.
Both links broken here too!
Fixed.
For me this mod is RANK 2 between all the mods of 1999
The idea of his mod is very simple, he created an area where many enemies are place in close quarters. He removed the ability for too many grunts to launch a grenades but to toss a grenade which gives more chance of surviving on hard. Another idea of using shotgun is the best one because it adapts to close range environment. Besides he left tons of ammo. So you’ll never run out of ammuntition. Assassins looks like normal on Hard. He laso left plenty of health if you play CAREFUL and clearly they idea is play SLOWLY, don’t rush like a RAMBO. If you play slowly with planification you can make it on Hard. Mabe he could leave some more health kits to the area 2 and 3 would be nice. But the mod is well balanced in all 3 difficulties. But I cannot say it because people would get frustrated. And one more thing it forces you to memorize many weapon positions, ambushes. Without proper memorization, forget on playing on Hard it’s not an open area with just 3 enemies, you have to THINK AHEAD here.
So my final world. Rank 2 of all 99 mods. He worked this mod well.
Besides on Hard, The alien Grunt in Credits do not die. What a pity.
Manually
Hard
40 Minutes