What Lies Beneath

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

2nd September 2014

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

You have been sent to check out a distress signal.

It appears to be coming from a log cabin in the woods.

Once inside, investigate carefully and follow any instructions given to you by Kleiner.

Be careful, it could be a trap or worse.

Basic Details
  • Title: What Lies Beneath
  • File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-what-lies-beneath.7z
  • Size : 14.80MB
  • Author: Jose Abalos
  • Date Released: 15 January 2014
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Download directly into MapTap [14.80MB]

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Download Options

Download to your HDD [14.80MB]

You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.

Manual Installation Instructions
  • Copy the Abalos_MLRTM.bsp file into your C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\ep2\maps folder.
  • Launch Episode Two
  • Open the console and type map Abalos_MLRTM.bsp and press ENTER.

If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.

Videos

The playthrough/walkthrough below is provided by PlanetPhillip. See more of my playthroughs on this site: VP: PlanetPhillip.

Screenshots

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All sizes are the same screenshots, just in different resolutions.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.

1024 x 576

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
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
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

1366 x 768

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
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
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

1600 x 900

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
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
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!
9 recommendations, average score: 2.89 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.77 (what's that?)
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 8 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 4 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 16 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 8 Mins by Ade
Longest: 0 Hours, 25 Mins by PlanetPhillip
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 10 Mins
Categories (?)
Half-Life 2: Ep2 HL2-Ep2 Maps Play
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Phillip says MaybeMaybe?Play It LaterThink TwicePlay It LaterThink TwicePlay It LaterThink TwiceThink Twice

15 Comments

  1. PlanetPhillip
    Phillip says Maybe

    I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy this. Firstly, finding the key was a pain in the headcrab. I mean, there wasn’t even a real key to look for. I just “found” it when I pick something else up.

    Secondly, and SPOILER ALERT, I felt the huge numbers of zombies was just silly. From nowhere they can from the woods and the whole thing felt silly.

    The idea of exploding zombies was interesting, but how about having a fuel cannister strapped to them – yes, that might have taken a lot more work, but otherwise it’s just “silly” again.

    I keep coming back to that word. Maps and mods can be used to explore ideas that we perhaps couldn’t or wouldn’t put into games but I feel this needed more planning and thought.

    I say MAYBE if you enjoy Arena-type maps.

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    25 Minutes
    Reply
  2. TolisXTRM
    Maybe?

    Another mediocre map.

    This map had a very similar feeling to the mod Zombie Cleanup. If you remember it, you’ll find the exploding crossbow effect to be in this map too. I mean, it’s not some modified version of it, no, it’s the SAME exact crossbow effect. This instantly makes the map unoriginal.

    Now, the biggest problem with it, like Zombie Cleanup, is that it’s VERY repetitive. Killing zombies is fun, but only to a limit. It wasn’t fun at all, and that house is not even for an arena kind of map. Also, having a key and a password system was totally useless since the map is combat-oriented.

    Play this at your own cause.

    P.S. I REALLY hope the maps improve.

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      P.S. I REALLY hope the maps improve.

      Tomorrow’s map seems better. Fingers crossed.

      Reply
  3. brianthesnail
    Play It Later

    not a bad map … looked promising at the start and then “zombies” … why is it that every single hl2 map has to include zombies … even some maps that are based on other planets include zombies …
    dont get me wrong … in the right map they work well but lets have a map that does not include zombies ….
    as i stated the beginning looked promising .. some nice music and i enjoyed looking for the key which took me a few minutes … and then once i entered the code then all hell broke loose ….. and thats pretty much how it was until the map finished .. non stop zombie bashing
    ive given it a play it later as the map itself was well made … however the zombies ruined it for me ….. still well done jose …. !

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    17 Minutes
    Reply
  4. JG
    Think Twice

    I just realized it must be Guildhall season again. Or perhaps it was back in January. Either way, here’s yet another mediocre map, which tends to be par for the course (no pun intended).

    This map is clearly going after a survival horror theme at the start. We have a snow lodge where it seems like a massacre took place. Generic “music box” ambiance is meant to set the mood, but it’s such a cliche. No more than a couple minutes in and we already commit a venial sin of modern game design – “Go and find a key.”

    UGH. I don’t get it! We have all these new designers who pride themselves on wanting to bring fresh new ideas to the industry, and yet so many still resort to the old “Find the key” gimmick. Did no professor tell the author to find a more creative solution? Alas, this is a rant for another time.

    So, we find the key – and I use that verb loosely because what it really means is you press Use while looking at a corpse – and open a door to the basement. Much like the familiar setting of Resident Evil, there is a lab and a new experiment down here – an Explosive Zombie. Only you don’t know that at the start. You’ll run up and crowbar it and wonder why you instantly died.

    That reminds me – such an unusual weapon selection in this map. You have a Crowbar, Magnum and Crossbow. It sounds like the basis for a CombinationVille entry. There’s no additional ammo for the Magnum, so you’re going to be using the Crossbow in all of its slow reloading glory against Fast Zombies. Apparently, the author made you want to think about every shot you took by making ammo scarce. We’ll see the fallacy in that thinking in a moment.

    Anyhow, you use the console to begin transmitting data to Kleiner, as indicated by an upload percentage on the screen. From out of nowhere, countless Zombies arrive. Intermixed with these are Fast Zombies and new Exploding Zombies which have a massive blast radius of death. The game grinds to a halt whenever one of these is destroyed because it usually takes out 10-20 Zombies (and possibly you) with it. Kleiner says to go back to the car and leave, but a contrived “update stalled” occurs midway through which forces you back into the basement to restart it.

    There are many issues with the Zombie chase. They don’t “instill a sense of panic,” they are just obnoxious, especially when the weapons were hand-picked for maximum annoyance. Coming back to the fallacy, how do you expect the player to be thoughtful and deliberate with their shots when you’re swarming them with dozens of Zombies at once? If you want the player to be smart about their weapons, you need to be thoughtful about your enemy placement in return. You can’t say “Here’s 100 randomly placed Zombies. Have fun.” That’s lazy. It runs contrary to the exploratory nature at the start of the level.

    The Zombies also have a nasty tendency to corner you or block the path with sheer numbers. The stairway between the basement and lodge is a cluster. There’s no strategy to it because the Zombies keep descending the stairs. I just ran up the handrail and took the hits. Again, that’s a flaw in the enemy placement. If a player deems that it’s better to take the hit than to stand and fight, you’ve done something wrong. And again, I have to come back to how the Explosive Zombie blast radius is far too difficult to gauge. Why risk it? Just take the normal Zombie hit and move on. This could have been an interesting mechanic, but the risk of killing yourself in the process is much too high.

    You reach the car and the level fades out. It might have been nice to plow through the Zombies with the car, but whatever. I’m glad it’s over.

    This level is not without some interesting ideas, but it’s not executed very well. And rather than try to iterate on the gameplay, the author took a more-is-more approach. Not enough tension? Let’s throw another 20 Zombies on the problem. That’ll fix it.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    10 Minutes
    Reply
    1. Ade

      I think the player’s decision to take a hit and run by em simply comes from playing too many mods with slow enemies, in particular: slow zombies, poisonous zombies and zombines. It’s (really) hard to make those enemies a real threat to old timers.

      Reply
  5. Zekiran
    Play It Later

    Pretty much what everyone else has already observed is correct for me: the map itself I think was quite nice, I might swipe it for use in gmod for my own private wanderings. That and the Gman appearance (… which was quite odd, and what happened to him? nooooo! fast zombie noise!) were effectively the best parts of this mod.

    Until you turn God mode on.

    And then, get the crowbar out and start hitting zombies. I mean, that’s basically what fun there is in this with never-ending zombie spawns, and … why was there ammuntion for guns you don’t get? No idea. Confusing at best.

    So… god mode it is, b’blam b-boom.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    15 Minutes
    Reply
    1. JG

      If you’re talking about the SMG ammo bins, they actually dispense crossbow ammo. This is a valid setting, but Valve never created a skin for that version of the crate, so it defaults to the picture of an SMG. That’s why you often see a crossbow bolt, um, bolted to the front of the container in Miigga’s maps, for example. 🙂

      Reply
      1. Zekiran

        Ahhhhh! Okay I had no idea. Interesting. Maybe that should be something that the PP community should rally and make a resource 😀

        Reply
  6. Jose Abalos

    Hi!
    I’m Jose Abalos, the developer of this map.

    First of all, I want to thank you for giving this map a chance and for featuring it in your livestream. Honestly, it’s kind of surreal that a map that you placed a long time ago (+1 year now) suddenly gets played, so even if you didn’t like it, the fact that it is being played is an honor to me.

    With that said, I realize I made many mistakes in communicating goals to the player, more specifically in finding the key to the locked room in the soldier’s body (yeah, that was it). What for one person might be obvious, for another might not, and in this case it is not your fault, but mine: looking back, I would word it to something like “Maybe one of the soldiers has the key” or something like that, so the players would inspect the soldier himself.

    As for the combat scenario itself, I’m sorry you couldn’t like it, I really do. My goal was to have a siege scenario where you had to constantly move and you had to make every bullet count, like the cabin siege in “Resident Evil 4”, which is why I did the combination between regular zombies, fast zombies and the explosive ones. As such, there had to be plenty of zombies, although I agree that there too many.
    Looking back, I would also lower the difficulty of the scenario, since it is VERY easy to die. In fact, I noted that as one of the things that went wrong with the map in its postmortem. There is a fine line between challenging and frustrating, and unfortunately I believe I erred on the frustrating side of things by placing way too many zombies.

    In short, although I’m a bit bummed that you didn’t enjoy the map (because, well, we always hope people enjoy playing them), I’m also thankful that you gave it a chance and that you let me know about it.

    Have a great day, man! 🙂

    Reply
    1. JG

      You’d be surprised how often past work comes back. Once it’s there, it’s pretty much there forever. It’s a weird feeling to see people mention work I did some 15 years ago.

      I think one of the reasons you ran into problems with the zombie count stems from the relatively open layout and the way HL2 Zombies behave. Because they are sluggish enemies, any individual Zombie can’t get very far before the player has already moved on. That’s why it’s best to use chokepoints, such as doorways, as well as leverage their only “ranged” attack, which is throwing stuff at the player. You might argue that the stairway functions as a chokepoint, but it’s a very long one which really doesn’t have a strategy for dealing with it.

      For example – consider when you’re making your way out of the basement and you find yourself in the fireplace room. What if there was a doorway at the entrance to this room and when you climb out of the basement, you hear and see Zombies bash down the door and THEN start marching into the room. The player can catch their breath, but the Zombies are more threatening now because we have to kill a few of them to get through the narrow doorway.

      I feel your strategic desire of wanting the player to carefully choose their targets and conserve ammo is contradictory to the number of enemies. If I kill a Zombie, I know the one next to it will take its place, so why bother killing at all? There comes a point where the fight-or-flight response occurs.

      Another suggestion, with the Exploding Zombies, would be to not have them explode right away. The Exploders in Dead Island are a great example of that. They don’t engage you directly, but as you enter their damage radius, they get more and more agitated until they eventually explode. This has the added bonus of communicating to the player where that radius is – it’s the point where the Exploder starts reacting to your presence.

      Obviously, something like that would have been a bit complicated to do with entities alone, but a “get back” timer and sound effect before the explosion could have helped.

      Every release is a learning experience. No one expects you to go and revisit your map a year after the fact – but it’s just a feather that you put in your cap for when you encounter a similar scenario down the road. 🙂

      Reply
  7. Ade
    Think Twice

    Spoiler alert.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwdqfPL7xMk
    I felt the music in the mod was really out of place and really loud despite being half way down the volume slider so I snd_restarted. Indeed the ammo crates could’ve been modded like Miigga did, they were confusing and I felt I missed an smg somewhere at first.
    The mapping itself is mediocre, I mean it’s just an enclosed cabin with random stuff in it like the statue of a horse in the corner? and somehow still felt under detailed. Plus low fps once tons of enemies spawned.
    Pixel hunting that entire place for a key did not sound like fun to me, even though I did realize it was supposed to be on a body, it could’ve been on any of the dead bodies since zombies were once human. And the code is randomly given in a text on screen, nice touch. All the important info is lazily placed in text lines on screen. Well the author did try to use a cutscene to explain the fact that the smokey zombies would explode when killed, but from the reviews and playthroughs, no one understood that warning except Phillip, and we certainly aren’t explained why they’re exploding on impact. As you can see from my playthrough, upon seeing so many zombies spawn after the fact, I couldn’t know if there would be an infinite amount so I chose to run past all of them instead of hacking them one by one. I mean I love a full arena with zombies and headcrabs and me waving nothing but a crowbar at them, like the beginning of the Exit mod, but that was a visible case of non infinite spawning enemies. Here, I just couldn’t be bothered. So for the rest of the map I just found a neat spot where they couldn’t get me, cus experience taught me this is the best way to avoid enemies that can walk/run and not jump or shoot. And that’s where I said to myself that the mod failed, cus I finished the map by killing 0 enemies and not even knowing about the new ‘mechanic’.
    The ending also confused me, cus another term for the vehicle was used. I did not enjoy this at all, I can only recommend this for some that want to play em all.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    8 Minutes
    Reply
  8. halflife2lover95
    Play It Later

    I actually enjoyed this map! It had nice aesthetics and decent gameplay. The zombies’ breaking through the windows was awesome! That added a nice touch to the onslaught. The only thing that could have been added to this map was perhaps a combine ambush after all the zombies were defeated. Otherwise, great job!

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    15 Minutes
    Reply
  9. Hec
    Think Twice

    Gosh! This was one I didn’t enjoyed at all. The whole feeling is to me like if this map was one of those low polished maps sometimes we play for HL1.

    In here basically we explore the log cabin, we retrieve a key which I also have no idea how in the heck I get it, and active a number in the canteen code pad. Then for no reason we have a million zombies, and some red exploding zombies that come to get you, also is very stupid to have just 2 weapons to fight those zombies, that honestly feels like ruin the life of the player.

    And finally I just can say in HL2 modding, and also in many games mods, SPAWNING ENEMMIES RIGHT IN FRONT THE PLAYER’S EYES is just the BIGGEST SIN THAT CAN EXIST!!!! Please don’t do that!!! Because it just throw the minimum quality modding and mapping standards right into the garbage can; In this mod I just saw more than 10 zombies spawning in front of me and that just sucks.

    I just can say think twice, or if you love to battle silly HL2 zombies this one is for you.

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    20 Minutes
    Reply
  10. dougjp
    Think Twice

    I also didn’t enjoy it at all. There’s a certain kind of annoying map where endless spawning enemies are used but this one is worse than average.

    Installed:
    Using Gauge
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    20 Minutes
    Reply

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