Readers' Recommendations

Releases that readers have recommended others play.

Half-Life: Echoes

for Half-Life

Return to Black Mesa in this brand new mod for the 20-year old Half-Life. You think it’s just another day at work – but of course it’s that fateful day of the resonance cascade. Run, think, and shoot your way through the Black Mesa Research Facility as you’ve never seen it before, so you may live another day!

This Half-Life mod will let you experience the Black Mesa incident from a different perspective, with some insights into mysterious events which Gordon Freeman was not present for.

13
35

Total Downloads: 9,17010th August 2018
94 Comments and 48 recommendations, most say "Personal Favourite"

Insomnia

for Half-Life 2

After waking up in a dentist’s chair in the middle of nowhere there’s only one appropriate course of action to take: escape. This is the surreal dream-world of Insomnia. Will you survive this neverending night in the face of desperate refugees from more well-ordered realms of time and space? Or will you be trapped forever in the Red Room or perhaps the winding streets of Paranoia City?

17
5

Total Downloads: 5,57824th April 2011
32 Comments and 22 recommendations, most really enjoyed it!

Bridge the Gap 2.0

for Half-Life

Those pesky HECU boys are at it again. Just look at what they’ve gone and done this time. Lowering the bridge leading to the surface elevator and then sealing off the control room. Even worse than that, this part of the facilty is crawling with Xenians and their ongoing dispute with the Black Mesa Science Team over how dead they should be doesn’t appear to be easing off at all!

Author’s Note: This map has been designed and tested with the hardest difficulty in mind and as such, plays best on Skill 3. You can set this in the console before starting the map, by simply typing skill 3

This map is a 2020 remake of the author’s Bridge the Gap, made as an unofficial Goldsource map for the BridgeVille mapping challenge from 2017!

17

Total Downloads: 1,46830th October 2020
19 Comments and 17 recommendations, most really enjoyed it!

Southernmost Combine

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Southernmost Combine is an alternate epilogue to Half-Life 2: Episode 2, in which Gordon Freeman is sent back in time to the 1980s to stop a Combine recon deployment happening in the southernmost land of the world. There are a few deviations in gameplay mechanics (more tactical and slow paced, no gravity gun, inventory) but it´s still Gordon fighting the combine and rebels helping him to achieve it. This is a small episode consisting of a varied set of locales with unique art made specifically to bring Source to the look of the South American region in the 1980s.

7
9

Total Downloads: 2,39110th August 2021
21 Comments and 16 recommendations, most say "Personal Favourite"

Third Party

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

A train engineer, vital to the resistance’s plans, has been captured.

Normally, all rebels are executed quite soon after capture.

He hasn’t been. There are also other signs of unusual activity.

Something strange is about to happen.

You have been sent in to rescue the engineer and any other resistance members being held captive.

9
6

Total Downloads: 2,97019th August 2018
18 Comments and 15 recommendations, most really enjoyed it!

Quiet Rehabilitation

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Localised on the other side of the Coast, the Combine used to run one among other abandoned sections of the block cells as an area to detain citizens who were determined to be a threat to the Combine action.

Later on, these cell blocks were left behind, including countless prisoners and citizens who tried to escape by their own through vents, old offices, maintenance facilities and sewers.

You’ll find yourself stuck in one of those old cells on another side of sector A5 at Nova Prospekt. Be sure to acquire any kind of weaponry and supplies during your escape route, because you’re not alone on this mission.

Many unauthorised and unidentified creatures are wandering around the place. Watch your corners and try not to make any huge noises, you might attract those strange things to hunt you down. Or even worse: the Combine itself.

12
2

Total Downloads: 2,49731st August 2017
24 Comments and 14 recommendations, most really enjoyed it!

G String Beta

for Half-Life 2

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

The air is foul and corporate fascism reigns in the not too distant future.

Somewhere in the North American Union you are Myo Hyori, an 18 year-old girl of Korean descent who has had enough. Oh and you can start fires- with your mind.

This makes your corporate owners very nervous…

6
7

Total Downloads: 8,41623rd December 2011
125 Comments and 13 recommendations, most say "Personal Favourite"

Bravado

While attempting to escape Black Mesa, Freeman’s tram is halted by a military lockdown at an administrative facility chiselled into the side of a canyon wall.

Freeman must restore power to the tram and, along the way, discover what happened to the scientists.

7
4

Total Downloads: 2,29531st May 2015
48 Comments and 11 recommendations, most really enjoyed it!

RunThinkShootLiveVille 2 – Map Labs #3

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

The Map Labs team keeps cranking out quality mapping challenges. This time they approached me to ask about a crossover challenge and I suggested a sequel to the namesake contest RunThinkShootLiveVille. That was a fun challenge to run and play, and some memorable maps were entered.

So for this first crossover with Map Labs, the theme was to make a map featuring the sections Run, Think, Shoot, Live – in any order.

The challenge recieved 12 entries and 2 bonus maps, here they are!

6
4

Total Downloads: 6,34014th April 2019
43 Comments and 10 recommendations, most really enjoyed it!