From the Author: “Basically the idea of Wivenhoe (which is the name of the dam that now houses some nasty cannister-launching Combine hardware) is that the player is part of a civilian uprising trying to stop the bombardment of Ravenholm. They don’t succeed, as seen in Half-Life 2. Wivenhoe is set upriver from City 17, so the gameplay doesn’t actually take place anywhere near Ravenholm.”
“The mod uses three genres: stealth, action and horror. Playtests show that the horror part actually is scary (it’s not a “blood over every wall and ragdolls everywhere” kinda scary), the stealth part requires actual thought and patience by the player (they have zero weaponry in that part) and the action is actually exciting. So I guess the gameplay part should be fine. But that’s really up to the community to decide, no?”
- Title: Wivenhoe: The Fall of Ravenhom
- File Name: wivenhoe-for-v1.rar
- Size : 24Mb
- Author: Travis Draper
- Date Released: 20 February 2006
- Download: PlanetPhillip Filecloud Server
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Wow. Great screenshots. Looking forward to this one.
I know this guy. He’s an UnrealED guru whose work made the finals in the Make Something Unreal contest. Looks like he’s got himself a mastery of Hammer now. Can’t wait to play this mod!
good!
I have a feeling this is going to be a good one!
Exellent plot!
I sent the author an email today asking for an update. Hopefully we will have some good news soon.
UPDATE:
It should be released in about a week, give or take a day or two.
It’s about time! Just too bad that my HL2 has been a bit rude lately:( I’ll see if I can play this one for five minutes without any crashes.
Great news. Hope your server can handle it, Phillip 🙂
Me Too!
Congs…!!!…planetphillip = Nº1-ONE,… 1st person games resources in the Web…Hasta La Vista…!!!
Thanks for this mod, Phillip :]
Here’s a link to the Vossey post
Your news is linked into another
French HalfLife website
HalfLifeFusion
The mod crashes right after loading the second level. :/
Thank you for this ultra fast server, Phillip. I’ll try tio post a review of sorts as soon as I play through
this artistic achievement. Well, at least I hope
it will be playable, since I have yet to find an
HL2 sp mod that pulled me inside its unique world.
Wow only available on this site?
With all the restrictions this
shit better be good.
Methinks that “w00t” is what one says at such a juncture…
just downloading wivenhoe will let you know what I think
I’ve beaten it in about 20min or so. It was actually better than I expected. I wonder if its possible to post pics on this site when discussing a mod or sp mission, or else.
I’ll make a official confirmation post and apology when I can but it seems that the file contains elements that can best be described as “Unneeded”, as such the new version would be 24Mb as a .rar file. The moment I am sure I will post the details.
Is that you, pizza man?
first off, damn it’s small
123mb and this small…
after playing dayhard, ravenholm and a few others I don’t see how such a large file size warrants such a small game
was ok while it lasted, nice and foggy inside but much hate for zombies.. i’m so tired of them
oh and btw, everything should use rar not zip
i got it down to 102mb
It looks really good and plays great, but storywise it could have been far better.
The premise is good, but other than the scrambled audio message, you don’t find any of it back in the game. And you just begin with barely any health left, but no idea what your doing there.
Also I’m pretty sick of zombies, though I found the atmosphere scary.
Really liked the sthealth in the beginning and
part where a rocket damages a building.
damn thing keeps crashing on the second map when you enter the damn dam.
the game crashes on the 2nd map for me, too. what the hell.
I found the screenshots impressive, this looked like it was going to be a good experience. However I was greatly disappointed…
Starting with 1hp? I had no idea how to get past the combine at the start, and actually had to cheat to get past it. Though a little frustrated, I kept playing.
The indoor areas were terrible, both in gameplay and visually. The final area was disappointing, also, and I had to noclip to get to the tunnel. A very short game, but I’m quite glad it ended so soon.
lol
My “Justice” single-player is only 3MB zipped, and it plays for an hour.
meh this was merely average.
Whoever thought the stealth portion would be fun
was sorely mistaken. The “action” part was pretty unfair.
You get your first gun with ~50 health and 10-15
bad guys bearing down on you. The horror part was
predictable and not very scary. The ending was decent.
Probably the best part of the entire mod.
All in all, this might be a 5 out of 10 at best. There
are simply way too many better mods out there.
Why does it show for levels in the new game menu when you can never pick the last three?
Meh.
The beginning section is terrible. Would’ve been better if you had more than 1 health so you wouldn’t die the instant you’re seen.
The other two sections were decent but it was over way too fast and there were no puzzle elements at all. There’s an awesome physics engine here, it sucks to see it not used at all.
There are also some little sloppy things which make it seem like it needed more work. I’m crawling through a vent system but it’s textured with a metal floor texture? There’s a vent texture, man! At one point it looked like the author got tired of making stairs and just decided to put ramps instead.
Cool premise and some nice setpieces but lacking in general.
Great game. Not much carrying the storyline besides the scrambled audio message playing in your right ear, but this is one of the most complete and well-made half-life 2 single player mods out there.
I especially enjoyed the stealth part in the beginning… it took a bit of trial and error to figure out where to go but once figured out, it’s actually quite easy.
The mood is nice and scary for the part within the dam with the smoke and zombies and suchm, though I think more random creepy sounds could have greatly enhanced the freak-factor.
Overall, well-made mod, but I was unable to finish it because my computer starts to get temperamental and keeps crashing in the fourth map.
A must-download, though.
I know I am gonna sound like a right noob, but how do you load the game up to begin with? becuase I have no idea
Does the rar version have any missing files, or is just as consistent as the zip?
I mean that the zip is 123 MB and the rar is 24MB
i have to agree to all the other comments that are made here, for instance the one health point in the beginning, is this a error, (that you placed the player start to high?) because I realy wouldn’t know why you otherwise would like to make it like this, or it should be the difficult factor, but than you should think of something else. it was hard to hear the message that is told in the right speaker at the beginning, also are the patrolling combines to hard to pass, this is because it’s way to dark there, even with flashlight you can’t see where you’re going. it was that some patroling guys sometimes didn’t react, even when I stood in front of them, so that’s why I could go on, but I was thinking of leaving the game to be honnist. map2, when I came out in the open, that I liked very much, very impressive, realy. 10 out of 10, nothing less!!!! but as soon when I did go inside again in map3 I didn’t liked it anymore. again much to dark, you had to stop every time to upload the flashlight, (i hate those kind of effects, a dark part is nice. 98% of a dark level is just annoing! didn’t play map 4 because my pc keeps crashing in map2 and 3, or the sound goes death and I had to start my pc manualy, when those things happen I stop, even when I realy would like to play the rest, I prefer to keep my computer safe. and I have enough power, 3 GHZ, radeon 9700 pro, etc. so that’s not it. can’t explane it otherwise as that you did make an error that causes this. it’s not that the maps are to big because I have maps in my sp-mappacks that are from the same size or even bigger and they play well. the maps are good optimazed, that I have to say, didn’t had fps problems. so i’m sorry, but like I said, I have to agree with all other comments, it’s realya shame because the maps have so much potential!!
i give it still a 7,5 out of 10!!
leon(SPY)
so cool
Man the mod was good but its way too damn short man! I mean seriously once I started getting into the groove it ended! At first when the credits started coming up I thought that was the intro and I was thikning “wow thats a badass intro” but then… it ended. Back to title screen. I was really dissapointed although the mod, I admit, was fun.
deannn unpack the mod folder in …Steam/steamapps/sourcemods folder with winrar(http://www.rarlabs.com/)
and restart steam and the game should appear in the games list. =)
In reply to comment 33 I removed the soundcache folder from the maps folder. This was over 100Mb, I read on another forum that this folder is created by HL2 when the game starts and is not needed. That’s why there is such a big difference in the file size.
I’ve extracted the .rar file using Winrar to the proper place but it will not show up in my game even when I restart steam.
You need to put the TheFallOfRavenholm folder under SteamMods.
I have done that but it wont work
Are other mods shown in the games list?
Yes, I extracted the .rar file to J:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods
I did get a couple errors when “testing” it on WinRar one of the errors said.
CRC failed in winven-for1\TheFallOfRavenholm\maps\Wivenhoe_3.bsp. The file is corrupt
rar downloads or whatever dont work for me do I need to download something to be able 2
It keeps crashing after the first load time. Multiple people
have this problem.
ROFL!!!!wivenhoe dam???? thats the damn that is the main water source for brisbane, australia…trust me I live there…lol im downloading it as we speak I hope its good and not as dry as that dam is.
OK, I don’t want to sound rude ot unhelpful but to all the people who have crashes, you are going to have to contact the author because he might be able to help you. I’m just helping with the distribution.
Kricon, can you be more specific when you say “rar downloads or whatever dont work for me”. What happens when you download and/or uncompress the file?
Jake: You live in the Damn?!
well when I click the download its says wivenhoe-v1-.rar any download that is an rar dont work when I finish downloading it says windows cannot open this file
to open this file,windows needs to know the program that created it,windows can go online to look it up automatically,or u can manually select from a list of programs on your computer.
I really liked this mod, and I was disappointed as it ended to quick. Hopefully there are sequals coming up (I wish). You’ve done a superb job in creating the mod. I can only hope to achieve something like this. Thumbs up for the game. 🙂
Kricon, as you may have realised you need an application to open it. I use .rar because it has a better compression ratio than normal .zip files.
Try:
http://www.rarlab.com/
and
http://www.7-zip.org/
They both make applications that open .rar files.
Brian, Just to clarify, I’m just helping promote and distribute the mod. I have had NO involvement with the creation.
Im having a problem with this game, first it worked but it doesn’t any more, the issues is when I changed it to 16:9 widescreen mode for that game, under video; advanced options, it just reset itself, then I started again and at the elevenoverzero.com screen, it just give me error that widescreen .vtf file is missing. so if anyone knows about this issue, and knows how to fix it plase let me know.
Well I certainly didn’t like how the opening dialogue was barely audible and lacked subtitles. I also didn’t like how after changing the res, it won’t let me back in claiming it’s missing a file. Oh, there’s also a lot of passworded files on the Zip, too.
And I thought the 1 HP start was ridiculosly dumb. I’d comment more if I could play it, but removing/reinstalling does nothing. And it did it again the second time.
It’s a shame Ein Stein, that you get so many negative comments on this huge project of yours. A while ago I also added a overall negative comment and I assume that this never nice to hear, I know this out of experience it myself with my first sp-map packs.
I know how much time it takes to make the mod so it can be released, and to cover all angles of problems, and to have checked every single little issue of it so there are no troubles at all anymore. and than, after all that time you still always will see that you have forgot to look at a particular thing what will make that a lot of negative comments are placed in the release thread like this.
That’s why I thought I will write again to say that it is still a great mod. I can see how much time it took to make and how much you can get frustrated in the working process. Therefore I wanted to thanks you again, and although many of use had some troubles with it it’s still a great achievement and we thank you for that. and hopefully you’re already working on a new project!!
leon(SPY)
So from reading these replies, seems like this mod is quite dodgy. Moving along.
I remember a few months back somebody released a “mod” and it was just a bunch of DOOM3 weapon sounds replacing HL2’s.
How cheap can you get?
That Ravenholm “MOD” was also a let down, just a bunch of dull maps and a collection of HL2 weapon models with Gordon’s hands painted white,trying to pass
off as new models, even though they’re the exact same shape as the original models
BLACK MESA: SOURCE – A TRUE MOD
Face the truth, you know it’s gonna be the ONLY descent mod for Half-Life 2.
Minerva: metastasis, my friend.
once again! SO COOL
Crashes after first area (second load screen).
Is this a video driver problem?
No I don’t live in the dam, I live in the city of brisbane. Whose main water source is wivenhoe dam…is that better.
And the game was pwnage, even thought it was very short, I would rather play something short and awsome like this than something long and buggy such as DayHard or mods like that.
LOOKS GOOD
Has anyone found a fix for the crash that occurs after the second loading screen?
Hello ME,
I’m not sure where you got the XXXXXX from. You should have a folder structure similar to this:
C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\TheFallOfRavenholm
hth
I downlaoded and extracted to steamapps then sourcemods and XXXXXX and in steam I have extracted it to all them places and restarted steam after every different place I extracted it to and still I can’t see it help me some one
I completely disagree with most of the comments made above.
The whole point of having 1hp was most likely on purpose. Probably the reason why he put water around everywhere, so that you could jump down to it,instead of making a ladder.
And plus, having 1 hp makesit sooo much funner, having to go around corners, assasinating each combine. That was great. Loved it.
The real challenge was to knock down all the turrets, that was fun.
also, there’s a bug on the map. if you go past those first 2 turrets on the right side, you can go to this little corner that seems as if you tried to map something there, but never did. cuz you can see the water and the skybox, which I doubt was on purpose.
only thing I disliked was the length. At the end, going through the tunnel, I was like “what??! credits?! NOOO!!!!”
Just played BM:Source, it rocks!
OK, I think I see the problem. When you click “winvenhoe-for-v.1” and see “TheFallOfRavenholm”, move that folder to SourceMods. Then move “winvenhoe-for-v.1” to a safe place for backup.
So your structure should be:
C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\TheFallOfRavenholm
BTW I deleted all references to your Steam username. You should NEVER let ANYBODY see it.
I don’t make any or know of any mods that increase the gore level, perhpa other readers can help “ME”.
hth
cool mod for hl2
well I extratced it to C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\ then I exit dteam and go back no it and go to games and it’s still not there and I look on C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\ and it says winvenhoe-for-v.1 then you click on that and then the fall of ravenholm comes up yuo click on that folder and you see all the files
Sorry for the double post but phillip, do you do mods like a blood mod for half life 2? So you get more blood because in HL2 there’s hardly any blood, if not do you know any commands? I would be really grateful if you could help me out on these things and oh yeah this site ROCKS.
Bloody awesome, nicely thought out little mod we have here. Amen to ZeroPain, that stealth idea was an AWESOME idea. I just kept accidently throwing that grenade as soon as I picked it up…
The only thing I have to pick, is the Fast Zombies not quite working the way they were planned to work (just a guess) and that tile wall that just suddenly stops as you go down some stairs…
I live just south of Brissie, and couldn’t imagine a better use for our good ol” damn dam in a few years. I would have like to see some more expansive skyboxes, and a bit more water here and there… such as in the dam maybe? Puddles everywhere was a very nice touch though!
Lol another problem I run it it gos loading then it freezes nad it becomes unresponsive in the task manager window
Simde Says:
Just played BM:Source, it rocks!
February 26th, 2006 at 8:38 am
Just visited their website…I don’t see it for download…what are you talking about?
To “ME”: Sounds like you are getting the same problem as many others, unfortunately I can’y help you because I didn’t build the mod. Sorry.
To “erik2125”: I thoiught the same thing but decided to ignore it. Maybe he’s a beta tester or closely related to the project.
i wanna try it but widescreen wont work something about a background widescreen vtf file missing and I cant change it back 🙁
ok ive just fiddled around and have made a fix for the widescreen problem, this is very simple so ill just tell ya how to do it, go into the \Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\TheFallOfRavenholm\materials\console dircetory
their should be 2 files, duplicate them both and add “_widescreen” after the “01” thats all there is to it 🙂
HE IS LYING BLACK MESA SOURCE IS NOT OUT YET. what a lying noob sack. 🙂
I would like a download of old half-life before 1004? To play some mods like Rebellion and Vengence(if it can be found again). Otherwise all one gets is files are outdated notices. And your precipitated into limbo, etc. Yuors, respectfully…
??? ????? ??? ?? ??? ? ??? ??????? ???? ? ? ??? ?????? ??? ???????? ?????? Mb ???????? ? ???????? ?????-?? ????? ??? ??? ??? ?????
Hello,
Sorry if I disturb for a such stupid thing, but… in Wivenhoe: The Fall of Ravenholm I arrived to a broken brigde where I find some friends, after a long battle nothing happens and I can’t go anywhere, only Antillions arrivng from the tunnel in front of the broken bridge. What did I miss?
Thnaks!!
Enrico
per ENRICO 76 corri e salta entra nel tunnel fine dell’avventura ciao incuss
“Ey Enrico, I don’t think you’re missing much… I took the time off to see the trailer before downloading this one, and there’s the bit you’re talking about in it. Lady should walk down to the big green car and say “Cover me while I blow this open” or some jazz like that. Keep her covered from all ye hostilities (I think it lasts for about 3 combine dropship assaults) and eventually she’ll make ashes of the car, and you can continue through the tunnel.
Grazie INCUSS and THANKS Rennmniscant!!
…well, I tried to jump the bridge it seems like if there’s an invisble wall.
=:\
The 3 combine dropship arrived and I killed them all… the “girl” of the team is dead; maybe this is tge trouble?!
– Thankyou everybody!!
There’s so many mixed reveiws in there… I thought it was marvellous, just not your standard generic blast-every-thing-in-sight. It challenges you to think and has some obscure paths you have to take. Marvellous. Level design has some minor tweeks I think should be made, but otherwise, this sounds great.
But when I first saw this mod, I only clicked on it for it’s name, me living near the actual real-life dam. Can we see some sort of rating system, so we’re not just randomly picking from a growing list of mods hoping we don’t get stuck with a dud?
a few things. first, look in the portfolio section on 11/0’s website, if you’re really stuck on how to get through the stealth section. it doesn’t tell you the last part, but just remember: barrels roll. 🙂
second: i’m not using widescreen, but I think i’ve figured out why the mod crashes on the 2nd map. if you quickload, like, say, shortly before the loadzone, the problem is caused by the radio message, which for some reason plays every time you reload the game. simply go to the console, type in stopsound, and continue. if it still crashes, just type in stopsound, go back to the game, wait a few seconds, and then type in stopsound again.
this bug only applies to the first map, for some reason.
i personally enjoyed this mod, and the atlantic building scene scared the crap out of me. (i’m not easily scared)
admittedly, the atlantic building interior was… half-and-half. the garage was well done; the narrow hallways could’ve been better. the same applies to the 2nd building. I saw a few other visual bugs in that one, but nothing game-destroying. however, the ladder down into the alley was totally b0rked- I had to noclip my way down because I couldn’t grab on.
this mod would do well with an update. as it stands, though, it’s very nice.
though, in my opinion, to really convey how much ravenholm got bombarded, shells should’ve kept launching one or two at a time even after the initial barrage.
This mod is very well done.
I was most impressed by the fact that it managed to REALLY scare me at times. I almost jumped out of my seat a few times, heart pounding like crazy. The original HL2 never made me do that.
Gameplay is exellent. I didn’t have patience for the sneaking though, so I cheated and spawned a crossbow – and had some great sniping moments. The action parts were well done, both fun and quite challenging. Top notch level design, lighting, effects, scripting, etc. Only bad thing was the sound quality of the radio messages. I couldn’t make out the words. The creator should have added subtitles. Otherwise a truly exellent HL2 mod. Top 10.
Thank you Phillip! I love this site!
WELL DONE !!
It was short and I cheated to pass the bridge in the last level (there seemed to be nowhere else to go – the Antlions just kept coming after all my friends & combine forces had been kia). I also had some major issues trying to climb the ladder in the third level. I guess the design was okay – especially the outdoor areas looked pretty awesome. Gameplay was a bit so so – I got frustrated at the fact that the last bridge area seemed to lead nowhere.
This is a translation, by M0rt@nius, of Hans Andreev’s original review that first appeared on City 17 and was originally published in Russian. It is re-published here with permission.
A large mod, which claims to be something good. There’s no plot, but it says on the author’s site that Wivenhoe is a dam somewhere near Ravenholm, where the bombing of this town with headcrab drop pods has started. We play as one of the citizens, who tries to save his native city. Reality, stealth and horror elements are promised to be here.
When I first started the mod, I thought that the intro would be something like in Mistake Of Pythagoras. A peaceful town and suddenly headrab drop pods start dropping from the sky. As true patriots, we, along with other citizens, are going to sign up to the national guard forces to repel the enemy attack.
When I loaded the main menu with an animated background and started the game I was thinking of it to be something interesting. However, the intro has disappointed me. The game started not in Ravenholm, but on a balcony, in a gorge near the dam. It’s unclear how did we get up there. A few steps near us there’s a crowbar lying. That’s a good thing. But there’s only 1 hp left. That’s a bad thing. In one spot the railing was broken and was inviting us to jump down.
Our goal on this level is simple. We need to crawl through the valley to the bottom of the dam undetected by the metrocops. It’s like the promised stealth element here. I could say that it’s interesting that realistic, but the three soldiers at our destination door do mess up everything. That threesome clearly sees us in sight a mile away, but doesn’t react to the dangerous explosive barrel that rolls into the fire.
After completing the valley we go up to the dam. When I finished a small squad of combine, I found an interesting device in a pole, beating the ground, which was used in HL2 to keep away the antlions. Interestingly, it is used here on its main designation! I.e. repels the antlions that climb straight from the water source! Looks like the author forgot, how does the water render the antlions.
Later, when I climbed onto the roof of a big house, I witnessed a large firing of at least a dozen of heavy weapons, which, according to the plot, fired the rockets, which were directed towards Ravenholm. By the way, I must say that this is the only reference to Ravenholm in this mod. If someone will play this mod without knowing the HL2 plot, he might think that it was just a firework.
After passing the roof, I found a way into the house, where the promised horror awaited me. I must convince that the author has made it almost scary. Like the unexpected appearance of a zombie in the darkness from behind a corner frightens and also some sounds intended to create a horror atmosphere are very interesting. But can someone tell me, why the heck there is fog inside the garage, and generally, why there are fast zombies from Ravenholm here, while the attack on Ravenholm has just started? Moreover the impression is somewhat ruined by that dark vent-crawling.
When I got out of this “horror-house” I sighed with a hope for good gameplay. After breaching the combine barricade, next to which the author thoughtfully placed an explosive barrel, I met a group of rebels and together we reached a bridge through the gorge, which I’ve seen many times earlier from the gorge and from the dam. At first glance it seemed that it’s incredibly easy to get through the strangely bent bridge, however, at the center of the bridge there was the legend of Soviet automobile construction in the “Dnieper Cossack” automobile, which was burning and prevented you from passing. One of the rebels begins to prepare the demolition of the car, while we together with others need to defend him from the hordes of antlions, which come from the tunnel at the other side of the bridge. The position is being more complicated by the combine, which are dropping off at the rear from the dropship. The only good thing is a rebel on the dam, who tries to help us by shooting the antlions with a rocket launcher.
When the car has been blown up, I gladly ran in search for new sensations into the tunnel to the visible trees at the end. However, I didn’t come to new sensations, rather to the final titles. Interestingly, the same ending was in the mod called Half-Life Chernobyl.
Conclusion: It’s unclear what this mod is all about and the main question is: What does this have to do with Ravenholm? Of course the ‘the fall of Ravenholm” theme is unexpressed.
Hi,
I am so stuck on this – I crossed the dam – can anyone tell me how to get into the building from the roof?
thanks@
craig
Hi Craig, if you are on the roof then just open the only door on the roof, this will lead you down through the building.
First of all this is a positive review, the game was fun to play and for me that’s what counts the most. I think sometimes we get too critical and forget that these authors and game teams put a load of time and effort into given us hours of free fun playing the games we love.
That said, I did enjoy the game once I convinced myself that the start was by design and not a fault. Yes starting with low health made the first level challenging but gave great satisfaction once you worked it out.
I had no problems with the middle section of the game nor did I find these levels that scary, and whilst I don’t like prolonged dark areas I thought that they were fitting and added to the game play. The final level is a good designed piece of gaming that the author should be praised for pulling-off. It took a few re-runs to get through this challenging level on the dam bridge, having to fight off attacks from both front and rear with the old missile coming in from the flank, all the time covering a team member attempting to clear a path across the bridge, great stuff.
Like a lot of HL2 custom games this one also ended too soon for me, just hope we get another chapter of Wivenhoe, however if you work through the first and last levels successfully without cheats then there is a fair duration of gameplay here. I did not experience any of the loading or running problems that some people are having, but I can not tell you why. The only points that I did not like was the poor audible level of the dialogue, also a suitable intro explaining the state of health at the start would not have gone a miss.
This mod has both an extremely difficult beginning and a tough scripted end encounter. You start with very little health and are forced to make a leap of faith. It then requires a stealthy approach to complete the opening sequence and this will tax even the most ardent of HL2 players.
The opening setting is a grand scene of a canyon and dam, with a panoramic view looking over the terrain below that beckons the player. You may gain some clues from this opening advantage point by scanning the terrain below; clues that may help pick a path to safety.
Your mission is conveyed via in-game text and only used (thankfully) as a kick start and explanation to the story’s objectives. It will take a few attempts to complete the opening scene, but it’s worth the effort for the satisfaction gained and the rest of the mod that follows.
The mod’s architecture continues with it’s impressive scale with more open surroundings, affording views overlooking both what has passed and what lies ahead. I cannot speak too highly of the way the author has designed each map, from the unusual way they are structured to merge into one complete setting, to the detail, textures and vastness which are all a treat to behold.
Away from the open environment the mod is fairly mundane in design. The dam’s office and garage complex of stairways and passageways leads to a different game mode, one of seek and find, button pushing and back tracking with a few jumpy bits. Not all the inner locations are without interest, with some steamy and mist filled areas giving an eerie feel and expectation of things that may happen.
We do not encounter much in the way of HL2 cast or hardware. Except for a few in your face Howlers, this is an all Combine affair supported by a few dropships. You do, however, get much needed help with the end sequence and without giving anything away, you will need eyes in the back of your head whilst fighting off intense waves of attacks from two directions as well as trying to preserve the help at hand.
As I mentioned before this end sequence is tough. it’s a challenge on easy mode and offers great replay value if you want to up the stakes to normal or hard level. Personally, I found it great fun and was fully immersed playing through again on god mode setting. Even though the end sequence may take more than a few attempts, you will be left wanting more. I promise it.
I had no technical issues with the mod and experienced none of the installation or crash issues as reported by some on PlanetPhillip.
Negative Point
– Limited use of HL2 cast and hardware
– Difficult opening and end sequences which may be a plus to some
– Stealth tactics needed in some areas which could be a plus to some
– Poor audible level of voice overs.
Positive Points
– Great outdoor settings
– Intense combat
– Challenging sequences
– Plenty of sight-seeing opportunities
Conclusion
The mod’s conclusion lends itself to further chapters but now after a few years since its release, I guess this is all we are getting.
The author shows a depth of talent rarely encountered and seems completely at home with the big outdoors and mapping on a vast scale. Too many authors steer clear of the big scenes, content to only give us tight, enclosed settings which after a time become boring surroundings that you long to leave behind.
It’s not just the fact that we have architecture on a grand scale, it’s also the way it has been structured to give flowing views from planned vantage points. Such that in places the whole mod comes into view showing both your progression and encounters to come. A superb piece of mapping.
This is not to say that the mod will be to everyone’s liking, but what is? The unusual start set by the author would appear, reading some of the PlanetPhillip posted views, to have put a few players off. It took me a few aborted starts before I got fully into the mod; nevertheless, I believe it’s worth the effort and is worthy of a “go play now”.
My Recommendation
I hated the intro, but the ending was fine, but I don’t know how hard it was because I got it in one sitting, never touched it again though
It’s often the case that you get through a potential tough sequence first time through only to hit endless problems with a rerun.
I do this a lot with HL1 jumps, if I dont make it first time I often need to noclip after loads of failed attemps.
I sure would like to try this one, but after several attempts at an install, I’m beginning to get the feel that I’ve gotten a buggy copy….Would like to try it, though
And I like this site…..lots of leads on promising mods…. I have lots of ideas but alas, I’m not the best developer….but great at level design……I hope to develop a few maps over then next few months, cause it gives the game great replay ability…I just wish valve would release a handbook for hammer….I just don’t have time to learn things the hard way…but I’m gonna try….
If you can’t get this mod to even show up in steam then I’d not try making maps(not trying to be rude here).I downloaded and installed and started this mod in under a couple minutes.First you can’t have a modfolder inside another folder(dunno why this one is but it doesn’t matter.People who play mods should know).If you extracted it and it says wiven-for1 then you can’t use that.Open that folder and inside will be another folder called TheFallOfRavenholm and that is the folder that goes inside the sourcemod folder.
Restart steam and it’s there.
Picked it up and played it again. Maybe it’s just me but this mod seems to have gotten buggier with age. I ran into the “never ending antlions” bug, the ladder remains broken, and while I had found a solution to the crashing on map 2 before (you have to type stopsound in the console just before you hit the mapchange) it didn’t work this time.
Mr. Draper should go back over this mod, improve and expand it a bit, because irritating stealth sequence aside (don’t get me wrong, I like a good stealth game- I spent $80 on a used copy of the Gold edition of Thief) there are some really genuinely good ideas here.
Oh, Wivenhoe. How I want to enjoy this mod. You just don’t let me.
Let me qualify that. For all of the extensive work that went into this mod, all of the neat dam architecture and eerie zombie encounters, and even an antlion defense sequence, this mod is made or broken in the very first scene. You are on a high platform with just ONE HP and a crowbar. Below you, a river, tons of Combine on patrol, and countless sentry guns lurking in the shadows.
Did I mention you only had ONE HP? ONE. You so much as sneeze and you’re dead. It’s just not fun. It is a bad idea, to put it politely.
ONE HP! I can’t get past this. And the author revels in this, putting cheesy little sentry guns in the shadows where you can’t see them. I tried, oh how I tried, but I can’t get past how insanely hamfisted this “stealth” segment is. For the record, this is not how you do a stealth segment, kids. This is why a lot of players, including myself, hate stealth gameplay. Maybe it would be better if the health you started out with scaled to fit the difficulty level. Maybe it’s 1 HP on Hard, but 30 HP on easy? It’s just too harsh as it stands.
Relax, relax… let’s put that scene behind us for a moment.
Mel points out that the author demonstrated a depth rarely seen in Half-Life 2 maps, and I would agree that the dam and its interiors are really neat locations. I enjoyed how the views from the windows gave the illusion that the individual maps were actually a cohesive whole. The zombies that infest the dam’s corridors even led me to a couple scares, mostly because they weren’t animating when I saw them at first, which caused me to do a virtual double-take, my eyes trying to confirm that… yes… that is a fast zombie… oh crap, it’s running right at me now! It’s like when you see a big spider on your wall and there’s that brief moment where your mind can’t quite process what it is, you know? At the same time, while the interiors are scary, they are sometimes scary for the wrong reasons. Specifically, it’s pitch black everywhere you go. Now, the Episodes had some pitch dark areas and those were fine, but you can’t run with this for an entire map! It gets tedious really fast and just like the hamfisted “stealth” component, this is an almost equally hamfisted “horror” part where you are constantly recharging your flashlight.
Alas, for all of the good work in the rest of the mod, that first part is just off kilter. ONE HP! It’s so harsh, so penalizing, so wrought with the painful trial-and-error gameplay we eschewed back in the 1990s… you know what? Consider It. It has some fine architecture and some genuine scares. Just be forewarned, oh so forewarned, that the beginning is a nasty piece of work.
This looks promising…but, unfortunately, I can’t play it as I have the same issues many others are having: when I move from the 1st map to the 2nd one, the game crashes. I’ve tried replaying the level, restoring from a close quicksave, etc. Nothing works. It bombs every time.
When this has been resolved and properly play tested, feel free to ping me…I’d love to actually try it out. As for now, though, I’ll move on to other more thoroughly tested mods.
I tried. I really tried to love it. It sounded so exciting.
But despite the map is really beautiful,
1) it is too short! I like “short” mods, but not like that, especially for a mod talking about “the fall of ravenholm”… Hell, in 3 seconds in the middle of the map, we see the shells launched and it is FISSION MAILED?
2) The whole beginning is beautiful… But booooring… Starting with 1 UP and then sneaking through turrets and metrocops… Well, you see, it seems also the AI is completly out “cuz when loading after my twentieth death, the Combine weren’t seeing me so I killed them all with my crow bar…
Then there is the second map with the dam, numerous combine, SO MUCH, and then turrets…
The difficulty isn’t well-balanced…
And finally, the too abrupt ending…!
Well, I really enjoyed the map, seriously. You did a great job of mapping… But, in mods, and especially in HL2, I am more looking for gameplay fun, than a “graphic demo”…
i have to agree with leon(spy) …. I cant understand why theres so many bad comments about this mod….. theres actually nothing wrong with it and its a pretty enjoyable mod to play
if I had to be critical then I would have to say its too short…. but apart from that its a impressive mod
after playing hl2 mods for many years ive noticed that even if you made the most amazing mod with zero bugs you would still get people who dont like it…. thats the way games are…. some guys like outdoor mods with lots of battle ( like me ) .. were as some like puzzles.. and then theres some who like a mixture of the lot….. mods are like anything else in life… its a personal preference
so travis shouldnt feel too disheartened when he receives negative comments about his mod….
at the end of the day “Wivenhoe: The Fall of Ravenhom” is a good mod with some excellent set peices we expect from hl2 mods….
good effort !