This modification offers a multi-level side story of Gordon Freeman while en-route to City 17 via Highway 17 in the infamous buggy.
When Gordon’s buggy was taken by the Combine Dropship, some maps of combine outposts hidden in one of the buggy’s side compartments were lost. Gordon was immediately dispatched by Dr. Kleiner and Dr. Eli Vance to locate the buggy and return the missing maps.
Setting: The entire modification is set at night on a small, rocky island off the coast of City 17. Rugged terrain, abandon structures, and multiple combine outposts will make escaping this island hell more than just a walk in the park.
His plan: Gordon surrenders to the combine so he could be transported to the facility where the buggy was left for scrap. Upon his surrender, he found himself in a small prison facility on the rocky island, waiting for a visit from Dr. Wallace Breen who would read his sentence personally. A familiar face woke him from his deep sedation…
His mission: Locate the buggy and find a way to return to City 17 with the stolen maps.
A PDF walkthrough is now available on PlanetPhillip.com
This is a fast paced and highly intense single-player modification for Half-Life 2.
Game Style: Lost Coast style in terms of an add-on mission
Game Time: Estimated 5-7 hours (first time through) depending on your skill level and difficulty setting
Chapters: There are 9 chapters with a total of 27 playable levels. Each chapter should take between 30 and 60 minutes to complete.
Difficulty: Very challenging — especially on Difficult mode.
System Requirements: Personally I have no problems running the mod (my system is average based on the Valve polls that have been published), but the poly count is high — there are a number of large open areas, so keep that in mind when configuring your settings before you run.
If you have a previous Beta release you need to delete the folder before you install the new one.
1. Unzip the zip file into SourceMods (a folder called Offshore should be added)
2. Restart Steam. Offshore will show up in your game list.
3. You should see the new game in the your game list. Enjoy!
All text taken from the homepage.
Click on the thumbnails below to open a large (1024×640) image. WARNING: The screenshots may contain spoilers.
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Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010
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518Overall
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95365 days
This mod is NOT suitable for use with MapTap
23rd February 2008
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[...] Offshore [...]
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[...] Sur PlanetPhillip Laisser un commentaire | [...]
23rd February 2008
I got about half way through the pre-release and a crash preventing me continuing, so I’ll give this one a go.
Do we have a list of changes?
23rd February 2008
I don’t and the homepage doesn’t list any either.
23rd February 2008
I don’t know which pre-release you were running. The crash in the middle of the game has been fixed. Most of the changes between the pre-release and the final version were a matter of polishing and detail with some small additions here and there.
23rd February 2008
I’m on my laptop now but I have the game in progress on my other computer, in reference to the game crash I had, I’m running Steam offline with all memory dedecated to the game!
I still had the game quit memory crash, but no problems at all playing, I think I’m about 1/3 thru so far,very smooth, no crashes, with my graphics maxed! Can’t wait to get to the Charger, great edition!!!
23rd February 2008
I experienced the reference memory crash the first time I closed down this final version, but now I’ve actually played part way into the mod it seems to have gone away.
I stopped playing the Beta version after one niggle too many, but it’s a mark of how good Offshore is that I’ve been excited at the thought of starting all over again on the polished version. I can’t grade it yet as I haven’t finished (and that’ll take me a while seeing as Offshore is enormous) but I don’t hesitate to recommend this mod to anybody.
24th February 2008
I just got the memory crash again, but I’m part way thru the mod! It crashes at map Islandunderground3.bsp, when you go up the stairs around the elevator shaft, kill headcrab combine, and open the double doors to the large room with the large rotating wheel! I reset my graphics lower to no avail, I tried running past the zombies, same thing, so I had to load the next map! I think this same thing was mentioned for the last version also in the same place! Other than that it’s been running good for me.
24th February 2008
Sorry…
I tested this at least a dozen times as did a number of my testers, and we were not able to see this in the final mod. Hopefully the frequency of this problem will be small…
24th February 2008
I’ve played this and it gets pretty boring if you play in 1 sit through although i like the propane tank prefab where if u hit the propane tank on the stand it goes flying off.
The only thing is i got tired of is, being in the the office crap/ corridores it just kept repeating and then i could predict what was around a corner or through a door, it was just plain annoying i swear it was like i was walking through a portal everytime i went through a door which was annoying.
27 playable levels-
13 levels repeating offices of HELL!!!!
It just got annoying but its pretty dam good other than that ^^
24th February 2008
Yeah, the copy & paste areas really feels cheap. Don’t go into the same route as Halo.
Currently playing through it though (zombies!), I’ll come back later when I’ve finished it.
24th February 2008
Hmmmmm… I still feel this mod could do with some extra work. As before, in a lot of situations I found myself stumbling through puzzles, not really understanding how or why I was solving them.
I started a new game from the chapter I had reached in the pre-release. I eventually got to a large outdoor part on the coast with a helicopter. I forgot whether I had picked up the rocket launcher in the last version and assumed I had because there was a rocket crate and no other way to kill the chopper. So I spawned a launcher and took it down, then couldn’t figure out where to go. So I sprinted across the leech-infested waters and presumably entered the base from a direction I wasn’t supposed to as enemies kept appearing in rooms I’d already explored.
I ended up killing everyone there and now nothing is happening. No idea what to do.
This mod needs more OBSERVED playtesting and greater consideration for how players will face each challenge.
24th February 2008
Oops, forgot this:
25th February 2008
Just a couple of corrections and clarifications on previous comments. I have no problem if people don’t like the mod, but:
1. Eight people were pretty dedicated to testing for about 400 total hours (excluding myself). About 300 changes were made from the testing.
2. Roughly 5-8% of the areas were copied / pasted, but were usually significantly modified from their original. There were about 80 prefabs used over and over (stairs, desks, prison cells, crates, cabinets, consoles, …). So maybe the comment is more in reference to props or ‘appearance’ of some areas as opposed to the level layout itself.
3. There are not 13 office levels. Just for reference:
Prison: 6
Prison Yard: 2
Office: 5
Warehouse/Docks: 3
Beachfront: 4
Industrial: 5
Train: 1
Hotel: 1
There are multiple screenshot from every level shown above (mostly the main areas from each level) and very few of the screenshots look similar.
4. You do *not* have to wade through leech infested water anywhere in the game.
25th February 2008
I finaly made it to chapter 9! What a workout! I only had 1 memory error crash since my last comment! Still have got the quit game error, but I’m going to run a test on my RAM chips, and on my vid card for any problems! I like the additional map/areas ya added, almost like another HL2 episode! Good one to add to my collection, despite the minor problems!! The only thing that I miss is some music to go along with the levels, that would be nice! Thanks!
26th February 2008
well after 30 min of play, very very nice.the changes from the beta sofar are great.as for the repetitive office this seems to fit most prison/office complex models seen in real life so i’m gonna go with it.one complaint i had on the beta was the placement/kind of things,boxes,desks,stuff. now it seems more random and thing look to belong there.
28th February 2008
Just started playing this – I don’t know how it worked for other people because it didn’t work for me in the beginning. I double-clicked the game on Steam, it said “Preparing to launch Offshore…” then I saw the initial loading screen after which it immediately went away!
I debugged the crash and found out that it was a problem with the function Q_strncpy missing from the vstdlib.dll – and after I checked the episode 2 dlls I found out that the function was actually in vstdlib_s.dll. Tried a lot of stuff until I figured it out – the server.dll and client.dll libs in the bin folder of the mod are from Mar 28 2007 – before episode 2 was released and probably linked to the older version of the source SDK. So I copied the server.dll and client.dll libraries from Steam\steamapps\my name\half-life 2 episode two\episodic\bin into Steam\steamapps\SourceMods\Offshore\bin. After that I was finally able to start the mod and I already played the first two maps – everything looking good so far. When I’ll finish it I’ll be back with a review. I just thought I should mention this problem and the fix just in case somebody else runs into it.
28th February 2008
Hi,
Well I am quite baffled – am I playing the same mod as everyone else?!? I’ve looked at all the screenshots – both here and elsewhere – and I don’t recognise anything, except for maybe one picture.
I am on the first (?) level- named “island escape”. I’ve killed all the Combine, and I am now wandering about the harbour – and office area – wondering what the hell I am supposed to do next? How do I get to the ‘next level’? I’m sure I’ve been through every door, area, corridor, etc, that you can – but I’m just going around in circles.
Any clues for me?
28th February 2008
#i6 itsonlydanny: Not sure where you are, but have you got the suit, from the room accessible from the cliff path? The room with the suit has a switch that unlocks a door (visible though a window).
29th February 2008
Very good mod. The guy who made this knows what he’s doing and has done a good job of it.
The start however didn’t work to well because it makes you think that your a stalker, but the vort addresses you as Freeman.
29th February 2008
oops, sorry that was ment to be for the ep2 mod Union. Very sorry.
29th February 2008
It was…ok. Didn’t finish it, got half way trough and got bored.
29th February 2008
Can someone PLEASE tell me how to get started in this mod? No matter which way I go, I meet up with combine who beat me up… Am I overlooking a weapon somewhere???
29th February 2008
#21, MALICE: from the prison cell, upa few steps then turn left and left again. Sweep up the ammo as you dodge the single guard, then grab the gun off the table behind the sentry gun. The mod is v. hard to begin with but levels out soon and becomes a lot more enjoyable.
29th February 2008
Thanks MikeS! For some reason I didn’t see the gun before… Boy I feel dumb!
4th March 2008
I cannot have enough praise for the creator of this mod – it belongs in a class of its own. I played Minerva, Riot Act, Rock 24, C2A, Ravenholm and many others and I can say with confidence that this is clearly better than all of them.Offshore is really long – I played on normal level and it took me more than 15 hours – I like to explore the surroundings and this mod encourages that
It was longer than either of the episodes – to me it felt like about 60% of the length of HL2 itself.
The maps contain a variety of environments and enemies that I enjoyed a lot – I believe this mod achieves a perfect balance between indoor and outdoor settings and between zombies and combine fights. The indoor areas are rarely cramped and the outdoor areas are really huge with nice scenery. Some indoor areas may seem repetitive in certain places but this actually makes architectural sense.
The battles are very well balanced – if you know what you are doing. You have to pay close attention to all sounds and carefully analyze the large areas before stepping into them – if you do so you will be able to take out a lot of enemies before they are able to engage you which will make the fights a lot simpler
This is the first mod where I have used the pistol a lot – it was my long range weapon of choice and I liked this! Of course this approach isn’t always possible and at times the fight will feel similar to Coastline to Atmosphere – lots of strong enemies charging at you – but it is refreshing to know that there is a lot of ammo lying around and you can expect to find plenty health after a strong fight. The enemy placement is outstanding – they are everywhere, high and low, in front and in the back and it all makes sense – the fights are very engaging and challenging but you can still win them in the first try – I died much less while playing this mod then when playing others.
While there are very few real puzzles you will often find it hard to figure how to move forward – again pay close attention to the surroundings, move stuff around to see what’s hidden behind it, use your flashlight in dark areas and feel free to go back and check the previously locked doors. Whenever you see some weird props they are probably there for a reason
And yes at times you will have to improvise a ladder – there are nice hints to suggest this when required. There is a lot of variety and it is always challenging without becoming tedious.
There are some highlights to this mod that I’d like to mention here – things that felt really outstanding: one of them is the dark area where you have to fight zombies and zombines while wadding in chest deep water with all kinds of submerged props that are impeding your movement – it was really original and I liked it very much. Another one is the outdoor area on islandbuggy3 – I liked this a lot because the mod creator left the door open to alternative approaches – I basically played the map in reverse!
Most large outdoor areas in this mod give you a lot of freedom in the way you approach them but that particular map was truly outstanding.
There are so many other smaller things I liked about this mod – too many to mention. I appreciated the lack of cutscenes and the fact that there is no communication to create a story – this mod stays focused on the exploration/combat aspect and delivers very well in that regard – I don’t feel that a story was necessary. And I also liked the way some audio from the original HL2 has been integrated in the final map.
In conclusion my rating is:
[PlanetPhillip Note - 2 extra images removed]
Yep, 3 times – this mod is clearly the best single player mod for HL2 to date – lots of thanks to the people that contributed to it – your efforts are really appreciated!
4th March 2008
Hi Halflings,
Totally stuck – yet again. I’m on the level called ‘islandlockdown2′, or ‘Chapter 3 Jailhouse Rock’ according to Halflife.net:
http://www.halflife2.net/wiki/index.php/Offshore
I’ve ruthlessly killed everything that moves, explored every nook and cranny of the area, but I can find no way forward. Here is where I am stuck at the moment:
http://www.halflife2.net/wiki/images/9/94/Offshore3b.jpg
But – presumably – I need to get to here:
http://www.halflife2.net/wiki/images/e/e4/Offshore3c.jpg
Any idea how I do this?
cheers,
itsonlydanny
4th March 2008
Played this again after completing the Beta release, no bugs this time and less of a frame rate drop in the outdoor areas. It’s in my top ten mods, small improvements such as some more music, voiceover and some sort of link between all the switches and what they do, I just threw every switch I came across then backtracked to find out what they had done, perhaps a number against the switch and the forcefield it operates ?. I rarely play a mod twice but I can see myself playing this again as there are many areas to explore that you don’t need to on the first pass through if you are just trying to get to the end. Excellent work
4th March 2008
That’s the point at which I jumped over the fence
Notice those 2 supplies boxes? They are the hint – there is enough stuff around (especially those long metal sheets on the upper floor) to stack so you can get over the fence – pay close attention to the top and the base of the fence nearby the supplies boxes.
Hope this helps
4th March 2008
Here is a portion of the walkthrough for that first level in chapter 3. Let me know if this helps…
—–
Use the junk next to the broken portion of the gate to hop the fence. Straight across the courtyard is an arched walkway. Head to the arched walkway and you’ll find a switch you can use to disable the combine shield wall.
Once disabled, head through the double doors opposite side of the combine shield wall. Go past the turret / combine on your right to the end of the hall, then make a left at the end of the next room. There should be a room with a glass room on your left.
Break through the glass and follow the room around and you’ll find a ladder. Go up the ladder into another small room. This upper level is loaded with combine, so you’ll need to be a bit defensive to make it though.
The room to the right is a dead end (one goodie). You’ll need to head left at the top of the ladder.
Follow the room around to the left and you’ll have two options – you can head into a large control-like room on your left, or out the double-doors on your right. The double-doors lead to a dead end and a few goodies.
The large room is where you need to head next. Head to the end of the room, and hop over the bars on your right.
4th March 2008
The Beta was really good, and this polished version is even better. I experienced no crash problems, and only a few spots where the frame-rate slowed a bit.
It looks like a couple of people were bored while trying to play thru it–no doubt they prefer different things in their games, and that’s their choice. All I can say is, I couldn’t wait to see the new areas created after the Beta, and to see if the additions added anything to the gameplay. And they did–well done =D=! When can we expect to see your next effort?
5th March 2008
the water is all “checkered” (I’m underwater in this screeshot)
http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipgs5.jpg
Also, when I pickup ammo, it only shows the amount…..for example if I pickup a pistol, it will only display a “18″ on the right side of the screen.
5th March 2008
The problem with only the number showing up is a problem that can be fixed by tweaking the text file list with the mod. I customized too much out of it.
Nobody else has reported the problem with the water so I have no advice there. There are no custom textures, models, etc. in any of the maps, so I can’t imagine why you are seeing this.
The only possibility I can fathom is that you may need to have the SDK Base installed. That may be worth a try.
6th March 2008
-=D=- The problems I was having with the game crashing on exit and the problem with the Islandunderground map 3 crashing appear to have gone away!! “joy”. I loaded the “OrangeBox” into my backup computer, it now works great, even with all the saves from my other computer! Just finnished the last map and like I said in #13 “What a workout” thanks for a great mod!!:-)
6th March 2008
my SDK base was already installed when I was playing the mod
6th March 2008
I also get the water problem with pink/black checkers when under water.Bothe sdk base’s installed.
8th March 2008
Can you post the walkthrough?Iv’e played this mod several times but it so big I keep forgeting what I’m supposed to do lol.
8th March 2008
The walkthrough is posted at the following site: http://files.filefront.com/Offshore+Walkthroughdoc/;9754565;/fileinfo.html
9th March 2008
I’m having the same problem with the game crashing at map Islandunderground3.bsp, at the top of the stairs around the elevator. Each time I reload, I get a bit further into the map before the same thing happens again. Which is kind of frustrating as I’ve enjoyed playing this mod so far. Also it’s worth mentioning that I didn’t get this problem on either of the two previous versions. Any ideas?
9th March 2008
replace the 2 dll’s in the mods bin folder with the ones from half-life 2 episode two\episodic\bin
Thanx -= D =-
It seems in Island resort I missed a generator so couldn’t disable the shield.I stacked boxes and barrels and jumped over lol.
9th March 2008
Thanks a lot, this did the trick.
11th March 2008
Not finished yet, but I feel like can make a pretty good estimate from what I’ve got. The mod is huge! Nine chapters with several maps each and great use of episode 2′s expanded map size, makes this the largest mod I’ve played for HL 2 to date.
The maps feel pretty consistent, though there are some places that feel a bit blant (in textures and props). Most of the time the level design is great, though.
There’s loads of action and some puzzleing to do, though with the length of it all I sometimes got the “been there, done that” feeling.
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to go next or what to do next. Try making directions a bit more clear.
For example: at one point you get to a electrified flooded area. You make your way around and end up back in this room. My thought was that the only door you had yet to open in this area was now open, however you have to backtrack out of the room and to a place you could not possibly know a door had opened up.
Solution: A button to open the door and a camera that show the door and the area around it.
It’s things like these that can frustrate you during play. There was however another and greater frustration.
At one point you introduce a jumping puzzle in which you jump from a balcony of sorts to a narrow beam above the floor. This however proved difficult to achive and I eventually no_clipped up there.
Storywise there are some other faults. There is no explenation given to what you are doing in game. Apparantly you are picking up your buggy, but for the most part it seems more like a jailbreak mod. Direction, as stated above, are practicly no existent and most of the time you wonder where you are going and why you are going to there.
The story (as mentioned at the top of this page) might not be on par with Metastasis, Rock 24 or the Citizen, get a bit repetative for some and at times you might wonder what to do next, but it is a massive, action packed play through and the fights can get pretty challenging.
14th March 2008
I have no idea what’s wrong here but this thing runs at about 5 fps for some reason. I have Episodes 1 & 2 (& nearly everything else Steam), which all run fine (Quad intel, 2 8800GT o/c, 3.5 meg visible (to XP) ram….
It’s in the sourcemods folder, no problem with that. It’s in the game list on Steam (‘my games’). I get up to 200 fps on some games & mods but this is unplayable. Any ideas?
17th March 2008
This mod is incredible, well balanced, lots of action. Uses the HL2 universe in new and exciting ways. The final version fixes ALL of the issues of the BETA.
seriously;
18th March 2008
Not a bad game ,have those pesky red errors all through the game,have had a couplive of crashes during the first 2 chapters though,but cannot get into chapter 3.keeps freezing up with this popup,app.error/the inst.at 0x90944f ref.memory at oxxe6ff3c0 could not be read.cannot understand why,this mach,is built for speed,3/gigs/ddr2/64oo/amd-4800×2&gfxsli 8600 card.will have to delete it if i cannot find the prob.hope some one can give me some advice,and also how to get rid of those pesky red errors.
18th March 2008
Having trouble making the Buggy jump in the tunnel. Fast speed option (Shift Key) not working. Any ideas?
18th March 2008
Are you sure you have episode 2 installed? The crashes are not at all expected. The red ‘errors’ occur when you don’t have the proper assets. This happens most often when running a map (from say portal in episode 2 or vice-versa).
18th March 2008
Not sure! The jump is definitely doable. I haven’t heard of anyone else having problems with ‘boost’ on the buggy. You *do* need it though in order to make the jump. Does it work elsewhere in those tunnels?
18th March 2008
Ok, I selected another key from the options list for the booster and that works.
19th March 2008
Try what I said at the top of post #38.It fixes many issues
19th March 2008
Thanks andy didnt`t help,error`s are still there but can get to the door before it freezes up.took out those 2 dll`s and replaced them to no avail.
19th March 2008
On & off for the last year or so I had the same error messages in virtually every HL2 mod I tried to play, and searched high & low for an answer. My PC isn’t exactly high-spec, but disabling AVG and increasing the pagefile size, on both hard-drives, as I run Steam from my second drive, seemed to do the trick….There I go, tempting fate….Bizarrely, and contrary to more or less all the advice found, turning up the graphics settings (GeForce 6200) rather than down helped a lot too.As far as the mod goes, it is probably the most enormous one I’ve seen. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but and there had to be a “but”, and I would say the same about Coastline to Atmosphere too, there is a bit of an issue with continuity. Some of the maps simply don’t really fit in with the flow of the story, good though they undoubtedly are, and I personally think it might have been more appropriate to break it up into smaller map-packs/mods. That is only my personal opinion though & as I’m not a mapper it’s probably not worth an awful lot…..So it gets a play it now, but be aware it’s a long one!