Idol Hunt - Half-Life

Ouch.

Sexists!

I was just picking Fluffy. If you men had larger breasts, you’d use them too … even to deflect bullets.

I just played it and definitely found the theme very well done (with excellent use of redone versions of the redone Tomb Raider textures, or something like that).

Combat was pretty generic, but some of the sequences were nice (making water flow to water wheels and the crystal puzzle mentioned earlier).

I don’t get a couple of the complaints earlier, there was only one part where I had to take fall damage (near the start) other than that I had no problems whatsoever with falls (or jumps). Also, while there are confined areas there were still plenty of more spacious rooms.

It’s definitely more of a theme and atmosphere pack than a gameplay and story one though.

Wow! my prayer has been heard! Vilcamba as a full mini-episode!

From what I have read, I think Kasperg has fallen in a very well known syndrome called: [evil-voice-over]MAPPER PROUD[/evil-voice-over]

Which consists in a proffesional mapper who intentionally tries to make his map as difficult and frustrating as it could get just for the sake of his kick-*** mapping skills, and even if that wasn’t the intention at all, Iike to think so.

Anyway! I’m gonna play this, and think I’m playing the South-American version of Someplace else (hey! no one can complain about enemy positioning there, is Xen after all!).

Thanks for the comments!

I’ve heard people saying the gameplay is too easy and others say it’s too hard. I guess there are good players, and less experienced ones I’ve had no trouble dodging the gargs and taking no damage, so it’s possible to do. Other people have said there are too many items, while some protest about the lack of them etc. In the end, it all comes down to your combat approach. Sorry Fluffy, seems you gotta practice more!

This was in fact mainly about the architecture. There are enough big and outdoor areas to dismiss “claustrophobic” as a valid interpretation.
I’m more of a deathmatch mapper and architecture student in real life, so singleplayer monster + item placement are not my strong point.
(and afro-dude, thanks for considering me a proffesional mapper, something which I have never said I was. Proud mapper? Maybe when it comes to some of my Source stuff…)

P.S.
If you think this minimod is bad, don’t worry. You didn’t pay me anything to play it, so no harm done

My ability in combat doesn’t seem to be the problem here, rather being my reluctance to change headfirst into a garg while being in a small room.

I don’t protest the amount of items. I protest the places you *put* them. I went into the last battle (With the Gs and the Vs and the shiny things) with only 30 units of health. After rising in undeath a couple of times, I ended up repetitively spamming the room with grenades and shotgun shells.

My three points still stand. The mod requires people to do things against their own common sense (Jumping from a painful height, jumping over a painful distance when theres something that seems to tell you that theres a switch somewhere, not to mention the whole “Run headfirst into the garg” thing). The mod has little or no storytelling besides the intro, and the mod has no hints or directions.

I’ll tell more on the third one. During the last battle, after finally being able to defeat the evildoers using a combination of lead and explosives, I spontaniously died for little to no reason at all. Then it happened again. Only the third time did I realize that I was suffering from the executive headcut. It was frustrating me to no end, and I had to calm myself with a nice round of Punch the Baby before I could continue. Suddenly “Oh, so *thats* what you have to do. Doy! I am so stupid!”. Cue crappy ending.

The map did do one thing great, and that was causing me to imagine myself wearing a skimpy adventurer’s outfit, with large breasts and a large ponytail single-handedly massacring the world’s animal population with a pair of handguns with infinite ammunition. The textures and architecture is beautiful, and even makes most source maps look like ****.

Funny but it seems the general consensus is that it was too easy. There is only ONE jump in which you forcefully take some damage in the whole seven maps. Unless you jumped everywhere witout looking >> poor gaming skills.

As I said in the readme, it would be possible to increase the puzzle difficulty, but not without falling into ridiculous or illogical events like what happens in Tomb Raider (like a random lever opening a very remote door just for the heck of it).

Idol Hunt doesn’t need an elaborate story because it is not a mod. It is a map-pack (inspired by a single map) made in three months which you can complete in 25 minutes (can you tell the difference?). Not even retail games have a great story arch in random 25 minute segments…

You’re not complaining about the minimod itself, you’re complaining about how it didn’t cover your personal expectations. Read map descriptions carefully to avoid it in the future! At least you like the architecture, and that’s where the focus was.

If you were playing with a “look for errors” mode on, all I can say is that any negative opinions about it only prove you wasted your time playing. I hugely enjoyed making it, and I’m glad most people liked it.

P.S. I’ll upload a youtube video walktthrough of how to defeat the gargs.

Kasperg Said:

any negative opinions about it

With this I don’t mean it’s bug free or perfect in any way. But I usually speak about the positive things I see in maps, specially if the mapper in question has put at least some effort into his work. Constructive criticism is always useful (even though in this case I won’t make any more HLSP maps) but anything else is like drinking poison and expecting your opponent to die

P.S. There was some sort of story. Gman steals an artifact, you try to escape and end up meeting him again just as he’s about to complete his own quest.

Our Lord and Savior Fluffy The Hamster Said:

Funny but it seems the general consensus is that it was too easy. There is only ONE jump in which you forcefully take some damage in the whole seven maps. Unless you jumped everywhere witout looking >> poor gaming skills.

I don’t give a poo about the fact that I took damage. I give a poo about the fact that I spent 5 minutes looking around because my common sense told me not to make a jump capable of dislocating my ankles!

Our Lord and Savior Fluffy The Hamster Said:

it would be possible to increase the puzzle difficulty, but not without falling into ridiculous or illogical events like what happens in Tomb Raider

Or you could, say, make it more complicated but add hints? Like, say, everyone else does?

Our Lord and Savior Fluffy The Hamster Said:

Idol Hunt doesn’t need an elaborate story because it is not a mod. It is a map-pack (inspired by a single map) made in three months which you can complete in 25 minutes (can you tell the difference?). Not even retail games have a great story arch in random 25 minute segments…

What, just because it lasts 25 minutes means you can slack on the storytelling? If the storytelling was there, I would praise it. It isn’t, and therefore, makes this mod feel like an aimless trunch through a dungeon full of nameless monsters for no reason. Just because you are too lazy to write a story, doesn’t mean you should skip it.

Our Lord and Savior Fluffy The Hamster Said:

You’re not complaining about the minimod itself, you’re complaining about how it didn’t cover your personal expectations. Read map descriptions carefully to avoid it in the future! At least you like the architecture, and that’s where the focus was.

I am a player. I review the mod as a player. Therefore, all the faults I list are ones a player (atleast one like me) would dislike. I dislike the lack of story, and therefore, people like me shouldn’t play this mod because they might be disenchanted at the fact that it has barely a followable story. Thus, if you want to include the demographic of Fluffy, then you would have to address those faults.

Our Lord and Savior Fluffy The Hamster Said:

With this I don’t mean it’s bug free or perfect in any way. But I usually speak about the positive things I see in maps, specially if the mapper in question has put at least some effort into his work. Constructive criticism is always useful (even though in this case I won’t make any more HLSP maps) but anything else is like drinking poison and expecting your opponent to die

I passed constructive criticism. I said the architecture was superb and the textures were superb. I told you to work on your storytelling, guide the player somewhat more and to work on your enemy placement.

Our Lord and Savior Fluffy The Hamster Said:

P.S. There was some sort of story. Gman steals an artifact, you try to escape and end up meeting him again just as he’s about to complete his own quest.

Here’s the story I got so far (cleverly avoiding spoilers, of course). You go in to investigate why people are dead. A camp. Looks abandoned. They were working on some kind of idol. Dead bodies. Suddenly we’re killing aliens and marines. Die, die, die. Whoa, shiny thing. GMan. Shiny thing floating upwards. More killing. Die, die, die (for four maps). Whoa, GMan. Dude, shiny thing! Teleport.. GMan invincible. ****, aliens, aliens. Big crystal. Boom. Ultimate power! WINNAR!

There are several questions I have for the map. What were the dead people doing there? Why am I being attacked by aliens that I won’t meet until the resonance cascade? Why am I fighting marines? Who shot JFK? Why am I chasing a 2D idol? Why does GMan want a giant crystal? Why are there alien markings on the wall? Are the ruins and aliens connected? How many scientists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Ect. ect.

But whatever. Reviewers exist to criticise. I’d rather have been a map maker, but i r 2 stoped.

About the Garg if you run arround the columns and activate all locks without crossing the columns Garg won’t appear.

BTW i’m stuck just after you activate the center door just after those three color beam you get down by a broken ladder and need to activate a bridge…it’s certainly too obvious so i didn’t detect what to do…

Like most of your work Kasperg i like it really much and i don’t complain about something…just estonished that with you quality of mapping (and coding) you’re not making a huge project for HL 1 or 2?

Yeah, sorry about that jump, Stef. There’s an autosave right before it, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. (I didn’t do any coding by the way! Everything is mapping, textures and some complicated entity setups.)

@LoneWolf65: I planned on showing the clock at the end of the minimod to show players how long they took. Unfortunately, the entities didn’t carry through the maps they way I wanted and I ditched the idea. You weren’t supposed to be armed at that stage! lol

@Fluffy: Seems reasonable. It’s just that your comments seem to imply I tried to make a compelling story but failed, which is far from the truth. People don’t criticise normal cookies because of not having chocolate chips! And I never said this map had chocolate chips, so I don’t know why you dissapointed was so great in that sense…

Ok. So you open a box of regular cookies and you’re annoyed that they don’t have chocolate chips?
Something I’ve never understood about reviewers is when they talk about the things that are not there and/or were never advertised:
-Idol Hunt has crappy or non-existing modern buildings.
-Lack of custom models.
-No use of vehicles.
-No boss fight against Nihilanth.
-No custom music.
-Only three bullsquids in 7 maps.
I could go on like that for ages…

When I review maps I only talk about what’s there and how it could be easily improved. Not about what could have hypothetically been there without giving any tips whatsoever. That’s the EASY way to criticize.
But that’s just my opinion

So, in other words, maps like Half-life:Uplink have “a story” because a scientist tells you to activate a satellite signal via a wav file? That makes “interactive fiction” for you?

Then this minimod has a story too. The one you make while playing through the maps. The one you imagine when you see Gman taking away the idol. The one you think about when you see the devotion-like paintings in the gargantua doors. The character you play is just as lost as you are and asking himself the same questions.

I’m always mapping, and end up getting tired of what I’m doing pretty easily. Vilcabamba was short as hell, Sandscroll was anticlimatic. My Star Trek minimod was abandoned…
I’d rather not do a story than do a bad one just to please fans of “fiction”. As you said, you can play Final Fantasy instead.
You don’t have to expect anything from my maps since they are not for sale. They’re just something offered to you for your enjoyment. If you don’t like it, then I’m really sorry. The problem stays with you

Comment removed by PlanetPhillip.

Fine with me. All I was saying is that people confuse “being a lazy mapper” with “having different priorities”, as the website in my name sort of proves

Is there a chance you could remove the part of “*First bug. If you die in the first level, the intro message shows up again…etc” from the map description? That one was fixed in the current version.

Kasperg, please don’t be discouraged from continuing to visit PP for all that it has to offer. Phillip puts so much hard work into his site and I’m sure was thrilled to add your minimod for all of our enjoyment.

I, for one, really enjoyed it as I’m sure other’s will too. It’s a shame that you won’t be doing anymore HLSP maps!

Don’t remove that comment. I put it in to end this argument. I fold. I retreat. Kasperg is the winner. I am the loser. That is how it goes.

Kasperg has every right to defend his work. I have every right to defend my reviewing. Don’t put the fault on me just because you hate me, Alyria. We both came out of this in benefit. I gave Kasperg advice on what he can do to improve his map. I learnt not to put so much emphasis on storyline.

I really like it Kasperg, great job man and mostly a great moment of gaming for me!!! and this is both or aim have plasure creating or playing!

Hope you come with other things in the future

Cheers

Kasperg Said:

For such a short mod it’s very empty in content

I would’ve never guessed a short mod would have less content than a longer one, wow.
By the way, the description says it’s a minimod, not a mod. No game content has been modified at all besides the splash screen!

Ok Phillip I take you point and bend to your better judgement. However you did say ‘explain what you were trying to say’

Sorry Phillip but I dont think it was I sarcastic comment, it certainly was not intended to be one, just a comment of surprise that the author had not seen the point I was making in my short review. I will attempt to explain in more detail.

Surely it must be more demanding on the author ability to create a balance of gameplay and content within, relative to the duration the game. One of the keys to the success of games such as C to A is the author’s wonderful ability to feed the player challenging content throughout. I was disappoint with this mini-mod, it did not take the opportunity to exploit possible situation offered by the good set designs, I kept ‘E-ing’ the panel images thinking this was a good opportunity to open a secret area, or lead to a new level or just explore. The jump referred too, could have been handle better with the inclusion of an alternative route by way of a triggered passageway or hidden stairway. The near end boss scene was out of place with a poor choice of foe, almost any other choice of combat in the setting would have worked better. The author did not take the opportunity to feed the player content and situations that his set design potentially offered.

Mel.

I think the last observation about the final boss is valid. I was so tired of the theme it’s actually a miracle there’s a recognizable ending, as poor and dull as it is.

The gameplay is limited, because both my time and singplayer mapping experience were also limited.
It’s not like this minimod was advertised for a year as the greatest breakthrough in HL history. It’s an expansion of a short map which in turn was a tribute to Tomb Raider. I might have done a poor job in parts of this map pack, but I can see that myself. I’m sorry I couldn’t do any better.

The Abandoned Workshops Syndicated Review

Gameplay:
Expanding on the release of Kasperg’s Vilcabamba a short series of maps follow with the former include as the first level, making the once short and sudden ending map to a small, yet enjoyable episode. Starting off in the already released level, Vilcabamba, working as an introduction things become very similar throughout each of the other parts doing simple tasks such as pulling some levers or jumping gaps. The action in this one is again moderate and nothing really poses much of a threat except for those Gargantuas. Although there isn’t anything outstanding in this release, it is still an enjoyable set of maps lengthening the story and keeping a steady flow, implementing some interesting elements making the location seem more mysterious.

Design:
Following a similar stucture to Vilcabamba in the other maps, the theme is continue on using similar texture and lighting techniques, with a few outside locations to change the tone of mood. Constructions are tidy and keep things simple in a good sense but the design eventually gets repetitive and lacks variety during the last two maps. Elements such as leaves growing on the side of the brick and rocks emphasis the age of these ruins and add a bit of colour in some places where a mix of yellows and greys are used.

Conclusion:
Enjoyable gameplay within well structured ruins, good design but lacks some form of variety in the last two maps.

Rating: 78%

Copyright:
This review was written by Ryan “Quakis” Rouse and first appeared on The Abandoned Workshops and is republished by express permission.

sadly i am learing to cope with the end. sniffle sniffle. fun mod.