Drainage - Half-Life 2

Looks very interesting, I will definately download this when I get home from work!

Played n’ liked it. Really. Nice experience. All the concept inside a sewer has been made good. Final impressions are good, only with a minor flaw in the map #3 where the sewer look so big, possesing a fall that is, what, 1/2 size of the citadel. But otherwise, good map. 3/5 is the final score.

Haven’t been able to get it to install. Made two downloads to no avail.

Agree, but no dice as yet. Still fine tuning Vista, so have probably unintentionally messed something up. HL1 won’t run on my Vista, so have it on a laptop.

“map drainage1″ without the quotes

Good set of maps. Enjoyed the air boat ride.

i realy loved playing this sp-mod, or better said a sp-mappack. i try to follow what is new on HL2 sp-mod/mappack stuff, and play therefore nearly every new released one. and with most of them i think there not bad made, or even ok. but i can’t remember when it was that i realy loved a new sp mappack/mod.
biut this one i realy love, although it remembered me in some places (canals) a bit to much about playing HL2 again, i still think these maps should be played by everyone. first i like the size of the maps, to often people release mappacks/mod with a number of maps. only when you play them you find out that the maps are so small that together they would have been one nice map. these maps are as big as possible, (bigger starts to give mapping problems). and, the fps stay high, so there well optimazed. the architecture is very well done, and the fighting scenes are well balanced placed throughout the maps.

this one is worth to be played, and will give you 2 to 3 hours of fun.

thanks,

leon

worth the download and time to play!

Gameplay
The opening map starts with the player needing to run like hell from two baton bashing Combine, which leads to a plunge into the drainage system.

You find the suit early into the map, how it got into such an obscure location is anyone’s guess. The first action takes place in a admirably constructed opening with a high vaulted ceiling; the author cleverly crafted the beaming light down onto floor and the action below. Progress is made deeper into the system through a few easy but thoughtfully constructed puzzles, till you reach another opening with again high reaching ceiling. Here you find the water buggy and start a journey of exploration.

The next level is the best part of the game and you will need to go full speed to outpace some good Combine placements and hardware, great stuff that you may want to replay just for the hell of it. Having claimed down, you leave the buggy behind, shame, but you are soon engaged in heavy Combine activity re-enforced by dropships. Finally your last encounter and combat also includes some button pushing, followed by some last moment Combine resistance before entering the light and credits.

Summary
I am not aware of any storyline or objectives within the mappack but not sure this matters too much, although this maybe seen by some has one of the negative points of the mappack.

The map gives the player ample and balanced gameplay within suitably constructed sets, designed to keep your interest and wits about you, without worrying about the point to it all.

The design throughout is of a high standard if a bit limited due to being mainly situated below ground, if you like all your action topside then this may not be for you. I found it an enjoyable experience and the author deserves praise for opening up the scenery with some admirably scaled larger areas, a feature many inexperienced mappers get wrong, when they try to design large sets and action within, the two are often a miss-match of scales.

The textures throughout are fitting to the environment with the author including as much detail and content as one could realistically encounter within the context of the mods surroundings.

Through the maps you encounter headcrabs, zombies and howlers with the odd pocket of Combine, nothing too challenging but more then enough to keep your wits about you, until you meet the harder Combine encounters of the later levels.

The water buggy sequences enrich the gameplay, adding both longevity and continued interest to what would have been a difficult format to stretch to 4 levels or more.

The inclusion of a few puzzles plus the search and find elements of the map, all add to the good overall gameplay rating of the maps. The canal sequence is great fun and well worth replaying, I am not sure how original this sequence is, but it fits very nicely into the gameplay, opening up the game to include pace and action in an outside environment. Not saying any more you need to play through to find out what action.

Negative Points
- No storyline or set objectives.
- Weak ending.
- Very limited use of HL2 cast.

Positive Points
- Well constructed sets.
- Good balance of gameplay.
- Some good replayable sequences.

Conclusion
There is not a lot that could be included or improved upon, the author having stretched the drainage format to the limit, nor is there any thing noticeably new in the way of skins, weapons or incidental content. This is not a hard mod to complete, with plenty of ammo and health along the way, you can suit yourself to what level of hardness you play.

The ending is a bit sudden and leaves the player without any feeling of final achievement, so maybe this is not the end just chapter 1 and to be continued.

I hope we get more from the author, his work shows lots of promise of greater things to come.

My Recommendation

i just finished this one, very good work 9/10