A Resistance listening post suddenly goes off-air and you are sent in to find out what happened to the original support crew and get the station back online. Your journey begins as a rowing boat coasts towards the landing point. Who knows what you will encounter, both on the way up to the tower and on your way down.
- Title: Mission Improbable
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-mission-improbable.rar
- Size : 17.8Mb
- Author: Magnar Jenssen
- Date Released: 05 July 2009
Linking directly to the PlanetPhillip Direct Download will not work, please link to this page. Thank you.
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- Copy the mimp folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Mission Improbable should now be listed in your Games tab.
Please Note: Panoramic images only are available in full screen mode. You can either open one by click the image link above or by saving it to your computer and then opening it.
How to use: Once the image is open and your cursor is on the image, press and hold your left mouse button and move around the image. Use your mouse wheel to scroll in and out of the panoramic image.
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 800 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots may contain spoilers.
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PlanetPhillip (2298)
andyb (1013)
Mel (801)
Goddess Alyria (424)
Stef (391)
Jasper (322)
AI (311)
piledriver (311)
Kasperg (278)
Grey Acumen (255)
06 July 2009 at 3:34 pm
OH BOY! Mods like these come along once or twice a year. Not only is it beautiful but it’s also great to play.
Visuals
A picture is worth a thousand words. You don’t need me to tell you that it looks fantastic. I am sure the mappers who post here appreciate how great it looks and how much work probably went into it.
I especially liked the views from the tower, they looked natural, not like most high views in Source.
Gameplay
There’s a variety of enemies but each seem perfectly placed. I dion’t remember any puzzles, so expect some exploring and shooting. Oh, wait. There is one small puzzles which is quite easy – find a switch type thing. Thankfully there’s no serious jumping required, so don’t worry about that.
Layout/Design
It’s a pretty much linear, up to the top and back down again. I don’t have a problem with that sort of layout because I don’t like too many choices in my gameplay. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s a straight line either. The author has used plenty of changing paths to avoid feeling like you go straight to your objective.
The way down not only changes but also goes further than the start point. It’s one of the few maps that I may replay just to explore. In fact it’s more of the beta tester in me that wants to get to places without cheating that I shouldn’t. Like getting the crossbow too early.
Some Issues
It’s not prefect but even Minerva had dead soldiers dropping through the sand. In this case ther’s a couple of visual issues and I encountered an invisible floor.
One issue I noticed was visible in image 24. You can see a squad of Combine waiting for you. I shot one with my crossbow and they all starting running towards me. I presume that I would have triggered them sooner or later anyway,.
Summary
This is up there with the best of them and I hope the author releases and updated version, just to make sure it’s as close to perfect as possible. I can only dream that one day I will make a mod as good as this. In fact, it’s mods like this that make me want to learn to map!
Beautiful, exciting, well-designed and immersive!
06 July 2009 at 3:39 pm
Thanks to everyone who sent me details of this mod, fortunately I had already been in contact with the author.
06 July 2009 at 5:27 pm
and all this in 17.8 bytes (or bits)?
06 July 2009 at 5:32 pm
Fixed.
06 July 2009 at 5:52 pm
Perfection! There is nothing I can say. If someone told me that was from Valve and missing level for EP2, I would believe him.
06 July 2009 at 6:57 pm
Indeed, this was extremely good. Very professional level design, and quite pretty. And fun. Most impressive mod I’ve seen in a long time. The only thing I miss in mods like this is some semblance of a story, or some sense of purpose to what I’m doing, to what’s going on.
06 July 2009 at 7:34 pm
Yes, storywise this mod does not offer much. But it is so good that I can easily overlook to lack of a proper story and I usually consider the story as a very important part of a mod.
06 July 2009 at 7:35 pm
(whoops, excuse me, I guess there is a bit of a story there, I just missed it. It didn’t really matter much though.)
06 July 2009 at 8:05 pm
Marvellous, Brilliant, Fantastic.
Encore. Encore. Encore – PLEASE!
06 July 2009 at 9:26 pm
Panoramic image added.
07 July 2009 at 12:33 am
Top notch effort! Great reuse of a smallish, beautifully built map, with plenty of nooks and crannies for combat. Bravo!
07 July 2009 at 1:51 am
Apart from the goofy title, Mission Improbable is one of the greatest SP mods I’ve had the pleasure of playing.
It’s clear to me that the designer has mastered the look and feel of Half-Life 2. As civanT said, it feels like a lost chapter. You have your surreal yet plausible shoreline setting, a story that shows rather than tells, and a logical use of enemies. The pacing is spot-on, starting off slow and exploratory with zombies and building to a feverish pitch with the Combine as you make your escape.
I especially enjoyed the little details. The chairs set at each viewpoint. The way the cradle at the top of the lighthouse falls apart. The swaying pots and pans in the kitchen. The guy in the basement who screams for your help, and then finding out what becomes of him. There’s a lot of ambient storytelling that we rarely see in user-made mods. You feel this place had a function and resistance members had lived there. There is an indescribable “weight” to the location.
The whole level is juxtaposed in a way that affords epic views both previewing where you will go as well as how far you’ve come. Despite these views, on par with something you’d see in Lost Coast, the framerate stays remarkably solid even in heavy combat. The designer did an excellent job optimizing this.
If I have a criticism, it’s that I felt the part when you’re trapped on the elevated cart was unfair. I took a ton of damage right there. The gunship behind me, the manhacks above me, and the Combine in front of me. I could have done without the manhacks, letting the player essentially crouch their way through that scenario.
Still, you’d be hard pressed to do better than this mod. It wipes the floor with mods many times its length and proves, once and again, that it’s all about quality over quantity.
07 July 2009 at 1:57 am
I will keep this very short.
VERY WELL DONE.
this is a must play.
Thank you and keep up the good work.
07 July 2009 at 2:43 am
Now it makes more sense. I’ve seen the developer’s website and he is a professional in level design. Boy, isn’t it obvious
07 July 2009 at 3:23 am
Really enjoyed this map. Everything was gorgeous. I only encountered one problem and that’s toward the end, before the helicopter fight, the combines run up the hill toward you as you’re going down, it autosaved and I only had a few seconds to kill them, get away, or die. I finally managed to make it back up the steps without dying, but I had to retry it about 10 times.Other than that small complaint, the map was excellent. Can’t wait for parts 2 and 3!
07 July 2009 at 10:40 am
Looks gorgeous, and it has a Lost Coast vibe because of the setting and the feeling that this could have been in one of Valve’s original releases… I would have given it a personal favourite recommendation had the journey to the top being more challenging. I was getting bored of clobbering zombies with a crowbar. Zombies are only fun if you have the gravity gun and plenty of objects to throw at them. If I was supposed to have the gravity gun I missed it. Anyway, the journey down was much better!
07 July 2009 at 12:14 pm
Easily one of the top 5 mods I’ve ever played.
Great use of space, lighting, and visual cues were all executed flawlessly. Intelligent use of zombies (not just chucking them in a room and handing the player a shotgun). These zombies pop out of interesting areas, they provided a bit of a challenge and they were fun to play thanks to confined spaces and surprising appearances.
The pacing was superb too: a slow, eerie ascent followed by a frantic escape. Great execution of revisiting the same areas but in a new scenario. I especially liked that the ladder was lowered to make the upstairs of that little building accessible.
I found that if you manage to hit the gunship with all 3 rockets it will leave you alone until you get down to the beach. It makes the descent a lot easier.
As Kyouryuu said, Magnar has done an excellent job at optimising this map as I encountered no slowdown until the very end.
My only gripe with the visuals was the final area. It just seemed to be lacking in detail compared to the rest of the map, but still above average compared to most other mods. Also the cliffs surrounding the tunnel that you exit through were… unfinished? Just a big square block. Definitely needs rounding off as it looks hideous! However I can forgive this as a simple mistake as the rest of the mod looked better than some HL2 maps.
Definitely a 5/5 map. Play it now!
07 July 2009 at 2:13 pm
This map (I will not call it “mod” since it really doesn’t modify or add any substancial new content) showcases some of the best Ep2 level design I’ve seen since “Eye of the Storm”. The setting is coherent and uses the available content of the HL2 expansion with efficiency. The direction is flawless, the sense of progress moves it along nicely with good pacing, and the combat is both well structured and chanllenging.
The use of HDR and the semi-destruction feel of Half-life 2 is probably what gives this a very proffesional look.
If I had to voice any dislikes (besides that it was over for me in 14 minutes 23 seconds) with this map knowing what the premise was and what elements it was going to be constructed with, is that it is a “demo”, just like for example Kyouryuu’s Powerstation 17. What I mean by demo, is that the map showcases a lot of different enemies and weapons that in the standard game are usually spread out and presented over the course of a lot more maps and situations. Filling this single map with such variety of combat (both in enemy types and weapons to use against them) is praise-worthy but at the same time an illusion similar to film trailers which condense only the best parts of the movie into a short segment which oozes quality.
Of course it all depends on what the player really likes to experience. I’m not really the most frantic player around, so those in-your-face non-stop approaches to gameplay are not my kind of bag and I prefer each area, enemy or friendly encounter to be more meaningful and rewarding.
Since it doesn’t get much better than this with short maps and people DO love short maps, I can’t say anything besides “Play it now!”
07 July 2009 at 3:47 pm
What it does is superb in every department, not much else to say really. If you’re not playing this you are REALLY missing out on something.
07 July 2009 at 4:37 pm
I don’t know what to say! This map is amazingly fun and well designed. I even think it’s better then Minerva: Metastatis.
07 July 2009 at 7:15 pm
I guess everyone likes Lighthouses; certainly they make both a wonderful backdrop as well as a great internal setting to case such an adventure, just wished the lighthouse windows had not been boarded up, it would have made a scenic affect with light flooding in with changing views across the sea, shoreline and hills beyond. However you can’t have everything and maybe such affects would have included too much work for the author. Maybe just a few windows un-boarded would work.
I spent the early part of the mod just scanning around taking in as much as possible the scenic and detail design, I will leave the technical evaluation to others who know better, to me the whole mod, (and by the way as a player this to me was a mod) was faultless in design and layout with an air of quality obvious for all to see and experience.
If we look a bit deeper into the gameplay I don’t think it scores a perfect 10, certainly the zombies are in your face and it was interesting how some would back-off after the first shot to regroup having then pick-up something to throw at you. I have not noticed this back-off behavior before, but maybe I just have not been that observant or has the author given us a new NPC piece of script?
The Combine encounters are fast and furies, pressing home their attacks with aggression taking the fight straight into your face, here I felt that three was just a lack of imagination and the mod relied on much the same pattern when it come to the Combine.
While there is not much in the way of puzzles, if any, it’s was worth wandering around places and exploring just to see how detailed and complete the mod was designed, also the author rewards such exploration not only with great attention to detail but with goodies also.
This mod should appeal to everyone, if ever a mod can, it does not seem to have any of the common so called dislikes, that are expressed by gamers and mappers, even the duration sits neatly between the short and long mod lovers.
07 July 2009 at 7:19 pm
I was just looking at panaromic image and recoginized that hut on top of lighthouse is so cool. I love it. It is very creative.
07 July 2009 at 7:37 pm
How can I add anything to the mountains of praise already piled on this Mod/Map?If I have to have a minor gripe it could only be the fact that I was gagging for more when I ran into the final credits…………A lovely piece of work, going to play it again now…!
07 July 2009 at 10:47 pm
It looks like it is only the first map, in a series of three…
You will likely get more !
07 July 2009 at 10:42 pm
There is a problem with this mod… It’s too short!!!!
08 July 2009 at 1:03 am
Well, with all the comments above, what’s there to add ….
I had a pretty tough day at work today, I was exhausted, after dinner I visited PP and read about this, not wasting any more time, I immediately started downloading and started playing .
I’m a happier person now!!
The eye for detail (never saw a little birdcage in a tree before in a mod) . the beautiful surroundings, good layout of enemies (allthough the fights might have been a little harder for me)
Not 100% perfect , there were some crates that floated in the air and some more minor details like the beercan’s that went through the barbecue when you picked them up, but who cares!
This was fantastic to play and there are two maps yet to come, stay focussed on this one PP!!
08 July 2009 at 4:15 am
Entirely too short!
08 July 2009 at 4:45 am
Wow! Simply one of the best of the best. This is a real piece of art. The mod is is just as beautiful as Minerva if not more so. The author and all who made this deserve alot of credit. This shows what is possible with these mods when the right people take their time to create a masterpiece.
The whole game flowed perfectly. I did get in a hurry at the start and tried going over the bridge before going up to the lighthouse. I tried jumping over as there is no board across the ravine until you go to the lighthouse first. So, if you come from the house and have not gone to the top of the lighhouse, don’t try crossing the ravine yet. It won’t work.
The firefight in the house was so great, I thought I was playing COD. Taking on the zombies as well as the Combine at the same time is a great challenge. I did get lazy and went to God mode for help taking out the airships, but I’m sure it could be done without it.
I really liked this and think it’s one of the best so far this year. I really hope the authors keep them coming and keep the fantastic artwork in all they do. This one stands tall against most others and it’s a must-play for any Half Lifers.
08 July 2009 at 12:59 pm
Beautiful! A first for outboard motor? (You have to turn around in boat to see it) Any map that invokes my fear of heights impresses me with its realism. Thanks Author!
08 July 2009 at 6:54 pm
Loved it!
08 July 2009 at 9:32 pm
After playing it for a second time, this time on hard, This Mod/Map is a work of art, not only in the work that has gone into it. For such a short Mod/Map the author has not taken the lazy route on the installation of the Mod/Map. Many of the mods on this site require the console to run them (most notably the mods from SMU students). When I download a Mod/Map I much prefer it to run from the Steam games menu than to Faff about typing in console commands. I’m not a modder, but if I wanted my Mod/Map to be taken seriously the console launch is the least likely launch method I’d use. OK, rant over and back to the praise.Over the years I’ve played Mods/Maps for HL/OPFOR/Blue Shift/HL2 etc, etc and although this Mod/Map is excruciatingly short its GREAT
08 July 2009 at 10:24 pm
It’s much harder to do a real mod instead of a simple map for the game, that’s why. It requires more work than just mapping.
And not all maps are worth a mod…
09 July 2009 at 9:17 am
Most excellent mod! I agree with everybody, it was too short. Great visuals. The only thing that was missing were the hunters, striders and poison zombies.
09 July 2009 at 10:39 am
Fantastic mod! This is realy VERY GOOD modification.
09 July 2009 at 1:45 pm
This is one of the best mods so far for Half Life 2.
The look is marvellous and all buildings are very realistic, if this place would exist in reality, I would sell my soul to obtain it!
The fights are slow at the beginning but advance pretty fast and consist out of some clever ideas. E.g. in the cellar, you see that that fast zombie lying on the floor, looking like dead, and catched in an electric circuit. As soon as you turn the electricity off, you go back and the zombie dissappeared, just to attack you from the side some seconds later!
Also very awesome is how many gameplay the level designer was able to put in one map, other people would have need 3 maps for that! Strangly enough even the performance is great and never gets any problems with the environment.
The weapons are clever set and you play through the whole arsenal. The secrets are at funny places like under the balcony.
If I would need to complain about anything, I would have said that the story came too short, you only know that the lighthouse was a base some time ago but you have no idea what you are doing here.
You have to play this! Believe me, you won’t be dissappointed (as long as you like beautiful levels with interesting environments)
Can’t wait for the next level!
09 July 2009 at 7:26 pm
I’ve just replayed this again and noticed a couple of new things. Firstly is the pans hanging in the kitchen, when you come down the stairs and the Combine soldiers enter a good position is just on the corner of the stairs.
This point puts the pans in the direct line of fire, it’s pretty cool seeing them spin around. Obviously the author put them there on purpose.
The next thing is the view point, with the yellow magnifying binoculars. Not only did I completely miss this the first time but I noticed that they can be used once and gives the player a view of the Jalopy.
Going back to my point earlier about seeing the Combine waiting in image 24, I used a rocket launcher to try and kill them. It was pretty fun becasue almost as soon as you shoot the rocket they spread out like a star.
I am sure there a plenty of other things I missed but I just wanted to mention those.
I emailed the author a few days ago with a request for an audio interview but I presume he has been recieving plenty of emails and maybe even job offers. Here’s hoping. If you ahev any questions you want me to ask him, please email them to me, in case he agrees.
10 July 2009 at 1:57 am
Not like Phillip to re-play a mod, but agree this one has a lot to see. Reading through the above posts there’s a lot I missed, so will replay again tonight.
Regarding the questions to the author, only the obvious one ‘are we getting more’?
Which brings me to another question, if the author did release part 2 in time for 2009 HOF, do you now consider this a different entry?
11 July 2009 at 4:28 am
I liked this mod. It was a breath of fresh air in terms of level design. However, a well-designed level does not a great mod make. In terms of pacing, this mod is somewhat strange. The first half of the game is fairly slow with just normal zombies. The addition of fast zombies after you turn off the electricity had some weird placement of enemies. A fast zombie seemed to spawn secretly from the place I had been a few seconds ago. The enemies in this mod seemed fond of walking in a straight line toward you, but this seemed to them just a function of them spawning behind choke points. Now the only thing that really bothered me is the press-button-spawn-enemy style of the Combine’s arrival. It seems unlikely they were waiting with their dropships over the hill waiting for you to turn the listening post back on. But whatever, I guess I should be used to it by now.
As for story in this mod, it’s almost non-existent. All of my favorite mods were great because of the stories. I feel this game could have benefited from an actual storyline. It seems these days Gordon is relegated to performing menial tasks. But I guess I should be used to this as well. I feel if this game had some sort of non-trivial story and maybe another map, it could be way better. However, I’d recommend it if you like HL2 style gameplay.
11 July 2009 at 8:01 am
Opinions do vary..
12 July 2009 at 2:52 pm
Very well executed map! A bit short, but a lot effort was put into the professional looking level-design!
13 July 2009 at 7:54 am
short, enjoyable and well made.
13 July 2009 at 2:21 pm
Hmmm this is everything a quick, 1-map singleplayer mod should be. There is hardly any truly new content (is there any at all?) or meaningful story. But accepting that, the level design is pretty much flawless. A little too much zombie-bashing in the first half, it got repetitive, but it was OK. The story mainly revolved around throwing a switch (an “important” switch) yet really, for a map set strictly in the Gordon/HL2 universe, I didn’t miss anything. Give me well-paced action and I’m happy.
Some of the fights are a little claustrophobic (lots of narrow passages) and too obviously scripted yet fun nevertheless. I loved seeing combine soldiers using cover effectively.
Works more in terms of craftsmanship than through new content or originality, but a really, really good map. Ignoring poetic text-messages, this is Minerva-quality.
16 July 2009 at 2:38 pm
Awesome job, impressive level design, scary moments. Really enjoyed this one. I really wouldn’t mind next, let’s say “episode,” of this! Keep up the good work!
17 July 2009 at 1:18 pm
Not only beautiful and perfect, but also in a memorable setting compared to the hundreds of prison or city maps. I guess this is the best map I played for HL2 yet, up to par with Lost Coast or any other original Valve map!
23 July 2009 at 6:39 pm
As has been said, an absolutely gorgeous map, comparable to Union in its “compressed-nugget-of-goodness” gameplay model, and comparable to Penetration (remember Penetration?) in visuals.
25 July 2009 at 1:19 am
I was utterly amazed at the detailed creative thought and level design that the author put in to this mod. I haven’t played a good mod like this one since Eye of the Storm. Fantastic job !
03 August 2009 at 6:13 am
ok, I give up, how do I turn off the damn electricity? I’m really frustrated, maybe is a stupid question but please help!
03 August 2009 at 9:38 am
go down into the basement and look around for some shelves, then get to the top of the shelves and crawl through a space in the wall. Watch out for the zombies. your answer is in that area.
03 August 2009 at 4:13 pm
wow, I tried that in the wrong way, thank you philip, finally I beat that part lol I’m discovering your page, is great.
Sorry I was so frustrated I didn’t thank the author, thanks dude, so far so good your mod :p
13 August 2009 at 9:51 pm
Really fun and visually appealing mod
This same guy made a tf2 map called arena_offblast that was included in a recent update!
19 August 2009 at 2:14 am
Wow!
This map reminds me of HL 2 : The lost coast, though this one is better!
It really is a beautiful map, clearly made by professionals, with great gameplay and huge outdoor environments – wich I personaly like the most.
I hope there is more like this to come!
Good work!
11 September 2009 at 3:04 am
Can’t think of anything new to say. Just stunning. The best part for me was the physical appearance and design, not the gameplay.
10 October 2009 at 12:41 am
A nice little modification, both visually and gameplay wise. If you like Half-Life 2, you will like this. Some really good highlight moments and the backtracking is done in a way that makes it fun.
Like most people noticed already – it’s too short. But from what I understand it’s just one of many maps. Which makes little sense to me, releasing it this way. And this is probably the only reason why not to recommend it, yet, for people to play. I, myself, would rather have the whole package and not get the modification in small pieces. There is a break in the immersion, lowering the experience.
There are some minor issues. I had a autosave presenting me face-to-face with a combine. Not a nice way to get back in the game. Hehe. Also, on my way back I found it a lot harder. Maybe I used my weapons poorly or didn’t find the existing health packs, but for me it was hard when the backtracking started. The bridge scenario could have been portrayed better, I tried and failed.. I almost knew this would happen, but I also saw that I would make the jump and the bridge didn’t look THAT unstable. I was wrong. So for the upcoming version of the map I would suggest making the bridge animate or increase the gap. One last thing, doors that close themselves? It must be a optimization thing, otherwise, let the player open and close them. And I couldn’t close the door in the final encounter with the combines. I really wanted to, hehe.
As you can see, there are mostly minor issues. This is pure quality and if this modification was released as a full release I would most likely rate it highest possible score and recommend everyone to play it.
I will wait for all maps to be released, so I can play it over again and enjoy the whole adventure. Good job Magnar Jenssen, keep it up!
29 November 2009 at 12:48 pm
This mod is awesome , one of couple best mods i’ve ever played
29 November 2009 at 1:08 pm
Why isn’t it one of your Personal Favourites then?
16 December 2009 at 3:07 pm
Finally got around to playing this and it is AWESOME! The design is flawless in so many respects, though I cannot really be bothered listing all the great things, the list would be too large.
One thing that really stood out was the use of music! Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! I wish more single player mods were of this calibre.
p.s I registered this just to post this comment!