Leon’s Mappack 1 - Half-Life 2

great levels design, great industrial ambiency, great playability - very good work

Brilliant stuff. Essential map!

This mappack is excellent, try it out. It reminds me to the “Coastline To Atmosphere” mod from Leon. But these maps don`t have very large areas, but that is not necessary. Often it is more interesting to fight in smaller spaces. These maps are full of details and there is a lot of work to do for the player. They have the content that i love most in FPS: action, enough weapons, hard fights with much of enemies. It rocks.

Hehe …nevermind.

The maps are very intricate and interesting. I found them quite contrived and unrealistic in general, though. For example, you enter a vent, and…there is a ladder there? There were lots of lighting issues as well, such as a room with inexplicably-bright windows.

There was one spot in the map where I was able to jump on top of a building, and be totally stuck–unable to get back, and jumping to the ground would have killed the character. (While up there, I was also able to see spots in the map I wasn’t supposed to–undeveloped areas. The paper-thin building looked cool though!)

One thing that bothered me was the doors and vents that had a “lip” on the bottom. This prevents you from simply walking or crawling through–you have to jump as well. At the very end, there is a vent that I had to enter by simultaneously crouching, jumping, and moving forward.

Like another commentator, I also got stuck because I didn’t realize the Use button (which isn’t necessarily the Space bar) was required to open a “vent”. I spent about two hours trying to get out of there before coming here and discovering the secret!

I know these complaints make it sound like I hated these maps, but I didn’t. They were great fun to play, and very interesting. My comments are to be taken as well-intentioned constructive criticism.

Review
The story, what there is of it, is essentially find and close down the City 17 power plant.

This is a 4 part mappack containing intense Combine engagements from beginning to end, so if you like your gameplay filled with Combine shootouts then you will play through these maps a few times. There are the odd howlers and headcrabs with one Gunship putting in an appearance, but this is very much a similar scenario throughout of lurking Combine at every turn and ambush at every advantage point, often with support from attacking scanners.

I played through the mappack on easy setting having at first been frequently killed on normal mode. There’s plenty of ammo and health such that you won’t stay low for long, plus plenty of stores to be found with a little exploring. It’s not a hard mappack and whilst you will not get lost or stuck, I however, found a couple of encounters that needed a second play through against some tough and well in-placed Combine.

The whole action takes place within City 17 environments of mainly apartment blocks and industrial complexes, with mostly corridors and rooms which need to be cleared out with every step of advancement. The best and hardest of the firefights take place at rooftop level with complex layouts of stairwells, gantries and rooftop platforms. This layout adds much to the gameplay in the way of navigating from rooftop to rooftop under constant fire, with in-game messages dictating your next objective as you go.

The set designs are very well compiled being similar to the themes of the original game. Textures are varied with some transition from room to room being surprisingly changeable, going from distressed look, to brick-wall architecture and Citadel structure without much logic in the changes. Some of the action is squeezed within corridors and small rooms with the layout on the tight side making maneuvering difficult. Also, the incidental furnishings are a strange mix of distressed furniture coupled with some very classy, but out of place walnut cabinets. I may be getting picky again. The rooftop layouts are among the best designs that the mappack has to offer, apart from the admirably constructed and orchestrated escaped, amidst destruction of the final scene.

I encountered no technical issues with the mappack with this being about the 3rd time of playing through. Although a few level changes were a bit jumpy, the transition of playing thread was smooth and constant through all levels.

Negatives
- Similar gameplay throughout
- Limited use of HL2 cast & hardware
- Weak story

Positives
- Action packed
- Great rooftop layouts and design
- Good flow throughout

Conclusion
The author shows a preference for action packed gameplay with a reliance on short and sharp Combine encounters normally interlaced with attacking scanners, a limited use of alien foe and only a smudge of puzzling solving. In many respects it’s a similar mix of ’Coastline to Atmosphere’ which is the author’s major achievement to date following on from this, his first HL2 offering. But here the environmental background and use of Combine hardware are much restricted in comparison, but then the size and content of the mappack are smaller then Leon’s mod ‘C to A’.

We also experience other likeness in gameplay with comparison to Coastline to Atmosphere with long periods of play set within tight and restricted surroundings, little opportunity to wander and explore with the use of invisible boundaries, pointless use of an in-game message system, but with a similar wonderfully orchestrated ending piece, and a love for scanner attacks.

The author is a master of taking an environmental setting depicted very similar to the original Hl2 setting then building action packed play upon its foundation. This is what Leon does the best, resulting in an enjoyable fast and frantic encounter with a high fun factor.

My Recommendation

Leon and Team,

Firstly yes there were a few probs thoughout the maps and you do notice them now and then but generally that is only if you perposely looking for them although there were one or 2 that stood out.
But the main gaming and challenge of the mod is great, I found all maps to fun challenging and some had a puzzel solving feel them, I did get frustrated when I could not get past certain points but with a little non logical but lateral thinking I completed your mod without a walk though or cheat.
It took me a min to work out that Gordon did not have his suit on but was welcome it gave the game a realistic feel to it as if were the Combine and I caught Gordon that would be the very next thing I would take off him after his wepons and grv gun.
All in all Leon and Team you did a great job almost as good as Half-Life 2 and Ep 1 and I give you 8.7 out 10 keep up the good work.
Would like to see more work of this caliber from you all.

P.S I loved the chance to shoot Breen and specialy G-Man been to blow that sod away from the first time I saw him in Half-Life lol

Dark Czar

Have you enabled the console through the options menu?

It was enough to play the first map to understand that Leon is an exceptional mapper on par or even better than Valve’s mappers. And everything got better on the following maps!

This is a medium sized mod - 4 large maps - with excellent gameplay and is a lot of fun overall. Highly recommended!

Simply brilliant! This could quite easily have been part of the original game it’s that good.

There were several parts where I knew which way I had to go, but turned back because I knew that there was more to see. These maps are a delight to those like me who must explore every dark corner, every possible place where there might be something worthwhile, or just to admire the view.

The design was 99% flawless, and I loved the fact that you could see some of the locations in the distance that you knew you’d get to eventually, but had no idea how! If I didn’t get to those locations in the course of playing, I would have gone back to find a way! I particularly enjoyed the rooftop scenario, that was excellent.

The gameplay was just exactly what I like. It was not forced along at a fast pace allowing me as much time as I wanted to explore each area extensively. The enemies in each area were well chosen and well placed, and indeed, the amount of enemies seemed just right - not too few to make the action boring, and not too many to make it impossible to progress through each section.

Lastly, I think that the ending was perhaps the best I’ve seen in any map or mod so far.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing, and will be looking for more of Leon’s work. Well Done! 10/10